> o c -bo^ . x^^ -^^ % \>< ,.0' N <' "^ .xV-' v^^ ■*:. * -) s o ' .^" .^. a\ * ,•' .0> * '/- •^.< '^Cr >^ % ^i 1. ^.' M oo^ xO°^. ^^^ .V' ^-^ '^t.. \- ^^ -* 'r, aV cP„ * .■^•" •*bo^ sj5 -n*.. •i' y A ,\'" r 'i' .0- o * ^^ -^c^. -^V % ^'., ^> 0^ ^^*"A ''c ", -f. > <^'' l"- ^<^' ■< •^."'«-^'<^ -•*;■-<... -^^ « ■> Z o O. ,0^ V^^* '^ v'\- ^°^. .0 450. 452, 453, 458, 466, 479, 490, 505, 506, 507 Aurora, 123, 132, 173, 184, 297, 314, 387, 389, 411 Austin, Wm,, 185 B. Babcock, Ct. R., 406, 408, 440, 443, 447 Bar of the county, 342, 432 Barker, Zenas, 130, 172, 265 Barker, G. P., 401, 410, 433 Barton, J. L., 308, 405 Bass, L. K., . . 504, 505, 506 Battles, skirmishes, etc., 27, 54, 55, 62, 213, 217, 230, 234, 238, 245 to 250, 281, 286, 469, 471, 474, 481, 482, 486, 491, 493, 495, 499, 500 Beaver, the ship, 58, 186 Bemis, J., 112, 130,152,208, 229 Bemis, Mrs., 255 Bennett, D. S., 505 Big Sky, 86 Big Tree road 113 Bird, W. A., 324, 430 Black Joe, 84 Black Rock, 55, 103, 178, 182, 213 to 220, 234 to 238, 246 to 250, 308, 316, 331, 341, 351, 424, 446 Boies, Wm 299 Boston, 119, 121, 131, 142, 175, 190, 229, 306, 316, 359 to 362, 389 Boundaries of the county, 9 Brant, Joseph, 61, 75, 76 Brant, town of, 376, 424 Breboeuf and Chaumonot, 25 Brown, Gen. J., 268 to 278, 289 Bull, Capt. J. , 23s, 236, 247 Burnt Ship bay, 53 Buffalo (see Black Rock), 83, 98 to 100, 114, 125, 147, 152, 162, 170, 181, 193, 250 to 264, 268, 279, 292 to 296, 300, 306, 314, 322, 333, .341, 346, 350, 357, 363, to 375, 3S8, 434, 447 Buffalo Convention, 437 to 439 Buffalo creek, 15, 63, 69, 75 Buffalo Creek reservation, 93, 100, 376, 422, 428 Buffaloes, 1 7, 25, 69 Buffum, Richard, 186, 332 C. Canal, Erie, 301, 311, 322, 353, 357, 370 to 372, 375, 400, 434 Captain David, 72 Catholics, 24, 25, 49, 386 Cary, Richard, 131, 174 Gary, Truman, 174, 306, 345, 422 Cary, Calvin, 259 Cat, nation of the (see Erie nation). Cattaraugus creek, 14, 64 Cattaraugus reservation, 93, 376 Cayuga creek, 15, 193 Cayuga Creek settlement, 173, 357 Cazenove creek, 15 CheektOAvaga, 172, 423 Chippewa, battle of, 270 to 276 Champlin, Commodore, 240 Chapin, Dr. C, 116, 160, 200, 213, 216, 227, 239, 241 to 243, 245 to 254, 257, 332, 419 Cholera, 398 Churches and church buildings, 142, 145, 177, 180, 184, 299, 317, 333, 380, 394, 399, 400, 401, 403 Clarke, A. S., 132, 145, 161, 170, 205, 293, 300, 315 Clark, James, 173, 192, 337, 361 Clans of the Iroquois, 3° to 33 INDEX. Clarence, 9S, loi, 106, iii, iiS, 125, 133, 146, 154, 181, 183, 292, 35t'. 400 Cocliian, SanuK'l, 174 Colden, 1S6, 383, 389 (.'oloyiovc, H. 11., 332, 430 Collins (see Loili and Clowaiula), 142, 175, 188, 334, 389, 446 Colviii, Mrs , 122 Concord (see Springvillc), 143, 187, 1S9, 299, 334, 389 Congressmen, 179, 182, 224. 207, -93. 3"^". 315. io'^' 354. 35^S 377. 384, 388, 397, 401, 410, 422, 430, 439, 441. 447. 449. 45°. 453, 45^"^. 47^"^, 5^3, 505, 506 Colby, John 311 10 313 Conjockoly, I'hilip, 117 Cornplantcr, 81, 85, 88 Conucil on liullalo creek, 70 to 82 County and City Hall, 512 Court-houses, 170, 300, 512 Cronk, James, 315, 327, 332 D. D'Aubrey's expedition, 51 to 53 Devil's Hole, 54 Devil's Kannod, lOb Dudley, Maj. \V. C, 182, 246, 249 Dutch, the 2-?, 38 E. East Hamburg, 118, 122, 131, 14-, 153, '73, 1^5, 191, ^9^, 441 Eaton, RuUis, 187,189,307, 319 Ebenezer Society, 442, 454 Eddy, David,. .. 122, 201, 204, 207, 332 Eden, 175, 190, 201, 262, 299, 305, 5i3> 354 Ellicott, Joseph, 97 to 109, 115, 108, 349 Ellicott, Benjamin, 102, 300 Elnia, 376, 429, 454 Emmons, Dr. C, 350, 42O, 430 Ennnons, Wales 319 Eni^iish dominion, 54 to 59 Episodes (other than battles), 40 to 44, 71 to 73, 70 to 82, 85 to 88, 145 to 150, 221 to 223, 25010 265, 311 to 313, 327 to 329, 346 to 349, 359 U) S^^S, 3^5 i^ 37°, 37o to 373, 3!^', 395. 397 to 399, 405 to 409, 413 to 420, 427 to 439, 442 to 444 Erie, old town of, 120, 129, 154 Erie, new town of, ". 350, 394 Erie, Eort, 56, 228, 269, 279, 281 to 289 Erie nation, 19, 20 to 28 I7t), 209, 318, 00^, jjo, ji*^, o54 Evans, 123, 141, F. Fair, first, ,•••,•• ii~ Farmer's Brother, 54, 79, 84, 89, 165, 232 to 236, 239, 279 to 281 Fences, 1 39 Fenno, Moses, Fiildler's Green, Fillmore. C.lezen,i77, 294, 317, 327, Fillmore, Millard, 355, 384, 385, 3=^7, 394, 397. 401, 410, 422, 420, 430, 430, 439 to 441, 447, 450, l'"it/i;crald, l.oiil lulwaul, 71, Forty-ninth N. Y. Vols., 464, 472, 480, 491 to Forward, Oliver, .... 180, 207, 323, C. Gazette, Buffalo, 194 to 206, 223, 265, Chanson, John, 466, 478, Genesee county, 109, 152 to Geology, Germans, 385, 394, 412, 427, 442 to 444, 454, 405, Germans, (Bennsylvania,) German Young Glen's Association, 427. Gilbert Family, O4 to Ciowanda (see Lodi), Grand Island, 14, 211, 324, 327 to 329^ 360, 402, Granger, E.,n7, 127, 170, 178, 200, 210, 233, Gillett, J 147, Lireenbacks, origin of, 4O7 to Grillin, the, 40 to 42, GritYui's Mills, 311, II. Hall, N. K., 387, 421, 431, 432, 440, Hamburg, 119, 141, 185, 201, 209, 261, 298, 389, 441, 1 larris' Hill, 146, Hard Times, the, 1 lastings, (."hauncey, Hatchets, Norman,. . , 22, Hatch, I. T., 397, Haven, S. G.,..43i, 432, 441, 447, lleacock, R. B., ...193, 31O, 332, Hennepin, Father, 40 to Hitchcock, Alex 172, 332, Hodge. \Vm., 130, 194, 253, Holland, 145. 175, 189, 229, 298, 311 to 313, Holland Company, 84, 95, 107, 152, 170, 358, 378, Holland Purchase, 97 to 108, Holmes' Hill, Holt's execution Hopkins, Gen. T. S., 102, 125, 170, 182, 245, 294, I lorse bedstead, 1 lorn bree/e, 179, 1 ioysinglon, J Hull, Capt. \Vm....i49, 150, 235, Humphrey, A 145, 229, Humphrey, Fort, Humphrey, j. M.,. ..450, 490, 503, 183 299 460 73 494 345 314 506 154 12 5" 125 510 66 441 447 245 149 409 »iJ5 339 511 478 205 411 350 28 450 449 374 42 424 263 389 411 152 144 393 '35 317 352 251 323 229 505 INDEX. 5 Iluslving bee, 163 1. Indians (see Iroquois, Senecas, Kahfiualis, Jllries, etc.) Indian land-sales, 74 to 82, 95, 377, 422, 428 Iroquois, 19, 26, 30 to 40, 42, 60 lo 94, 163 to 169, 210, 231 to 239, 245, 262 J- Jesuits, 24, 49 Johnson, Dr. K., 180, 205, 293, 357, 3^5, 39^. 39« Johnson, Mrs., 256 Johnson, G. W., 3^7 Jolinson, Sir William, 49 to 59 Johnson, C. and (J., .119, I2I Johnston, Capt. Wni 64, 78, 90, 150 K. Kahquahs, 18,20,2510 28 Kinney, D. C, I18 Kirkland, Rev. S., 78, 83 L. Lancaster, 98, 118, 125, 172, 317, 357, 399, 401 Lafayette, 364 La Salle, 39 to 44 Landon, J., 147,149, 1 71 Le Couteulx, L. S., 125, 170 Limestone letlge, 12, 426 Lodi, 374, 380, 441 Logging bee 138 Love, John, 359 to 362 Love, T. C, 383, 385, 401, 431 Lovejoy, Mrs 255 to 257 Lundy's Lane, 276 to 278 M. Marilla, 376, 386, 429, 448 Mamie alVairs, 40, 57, 296, 301, 307, 317, 35', 400 Marriages, 198, 209 Marshall, Dr. J. E., 293, 384, 398 Mather, David, 147 Maybee, Sylvanus, lOO, 134, 15 1 Mayors of liuffalo, 396, 421, 425, 442, 446, 507 McClure, Gen. G., 241 to 244, 259 Medical College, 435 Mechanical Society, 201 Medical Society, 200 Mobljing a hotel, 222 Monroe, President, ^oH Moral Society, the, 295 Mcjrgan's al)(luction 377 Moseley, W. A., 412, 430, 51 1 Murders, 294, 326, 359, 393 N. Natural characteristics, 12 to 17 Neuter Nation (see Kahquahs). New Anisterilam (see IJuffalo). Newark, burning of, 242 Newspapers, etc., 194, 224, 293, 314, 3^3. 34, 439, 44°, 447, 44«, 449, 450, 452, 453, 458, 406, 478, 490, 504, 505, 506, 507 Old King, 64, 81 One Hundredth N. Y. Vols., 465, 473 to 470, 481 to 485, 494 to 497 One Hundred and Sixteenth N. Y. Vols., ... 477, 485 to 489, 498 to 502 Ontario county, 83, 109 Osborn, Mrs 145 P. Palmer, John, 100, 109 Patriot War, 4i3 to 420 I'eacock, Wm II4 Perry, Commodore, . . . .226, 239, 242 Peter Gimlet, 164 Phelps, Oliver, 74, 7^, ^2 Pioneering, .... 134 to 140, 15G to 162 Pluiid), Ralph, 374 Pluni|jiiig-mills, 136 Pomeroy, R. M ., 221, 264 Porter, Gen. P. B.,179, 182, 217, 219, 221, 227, 233 to 239, 241, 267, 283, 285 to 289, 292, 324, 341, 379, 383 Potter, IL Ji., 193, 323, 332, 30 1, 3^3, 367, 3«4, 385 Pratt, Samuel 127, 147, 1O3, 213 Powell, Capt., 64, 05, 84, 85 Proctor, Col., 85 to 88 <^- Queen Charlotte, the, 209 R. Ransom, Asa, 91, loi, 106, 133, 146, 151, 170, 204, 227, 315 Ransom, Harry B. 102, 416 Rathlnin, lienj., 407 to 409 Rel)elli(jn, beginning of, 459 Red Jacket, 80, 85 to 89, 167, 210, 231, 239, 269, 271, 275, 276, 292, 303, 324, 347 to 349, 3O2, 304, 376, 382, 390 392 Recorder's Court, 426, 450 Reed, Israel, 258 Reese, David, 116, 169, 295 Relics, 28, 124, 185 Revolution, the, 60 to 67 Rice, Elihu, 189, 205, 268, 316 Richmond, Gen. F., 175, 2O7, 299, 301, 31O, 346 INDEX. Root, John, 170, 265, 742 Russell, W. C...... ^ 207 S. Sagoyewatha (see Red Jacket). Salisbury, Aaron, 1 76, 209, 426 Sardinia, 175, 189, 265, 290, 332, c; • , , „ 334, 350- 389 bcajaquada creek, 15, 83, 100, 247, 281 bchools, etc., 142, 143, 148, 173, 389, 399, 421, 435 bcott, Gen. Winfield, . ..267 to 278, 416 Settlement, 10410 194 Senators, State, 205, 330, 374, 385, 401, 412, 430, 436, 440, 447, 448, ■ e ^^5°' ^5^4,f 53> 4bb, 490, 505, 506, 507 Senecas, The, 19, 45, 47, 49, 52, 54 to 94, no, 163 to 169, 210, 231 to 239, 245, 260, 262, 269 to .276, 279 303, 309, 324, 376, 422. 428 shooting Niagara, ^88 Silver Greys, .■.";;;■ 208 Six Nations (see Iroquois). Slaves in Erie county, 3 -.q Smith, Daniel, 131, 'ijV j^. Smith, Richard, 185, 300 Smith's Mills, (Aurora), 176 299 Smith's Mills, (Hamburg), 185, 298, Smyth, Gen. A., 216 to 221' 225 Southvvick, Geo., i<^7 Spaukling, E. G., '.'.■.'.467 to 469 Speculation, 400, 403, 405 to 408 Spencer, " Father," 290, 299, 310 Springs, stoned up, 29 Springville, 143, 187, 299, 319, 331; 389 Spy, Indian, 279 State reservation, 73,99, 377 Staunton, Adjutant, ... .235 to 238 Stephens, Phineas, 143, 208, 224 Stephens' Mills, 24I Storrs, Juba, 170! 182 bugar-making, j^9 Superior Court and judges, 450, 507 Supervisors, iii, 129, 146, 172, I75> ^77, 193. 201, 226, 267, 293, 300, 306, 314, 323, 330, 345, 354, 35^, 374, 375, 37«, 3^i, 3^^, 3«8, 394, 402, 410, 412, 421, 424, 431, 441, 442, 456, 467, 479, 490, 504, 507 Supreme Court justices, 435, 43b, ^ 448, 507 Taylor, Jacob, 142, 17c Tenth New York Cavalry, 466 Thayers, the three, 359 to 36^, Timber, original, 15 Tomahawk, anecdote of, 144 Tommy Jimmy, 303, 346 to 349 Tonawanda, 171, 183, 211, 246, Tonawanda creek, .....' . ..'. . ' j. Tonawanda reservation,93, 376,422, 428 Topography, ^j- Town meeting, first, nj Tracy, A. H., 293, 315, 330, 354^ Tvnil- T ^- ^^^' ^'^'^' 3^5, 401, 412 1 lails, Indian, jqj Transit, West, ' .' ' qq Treat, Oren, ,U Trowbridge, Dr. J., 201, 227, 412 Jucker, Samuel, ,^7, 340 1 upper, Samuel, .... 130, 170, 204, 307 Turkey John, ^20 Twenty-first New York Vols. 462, 469 to 472, 480 Vandeventer, P.,...:i„, 129, ,45 ,7, Volunteers, 221, 228, 285 to 289, ^^^ 459 to 503 Walden, E., 147, 170, 203, 250, Tir , 257, 258, 357, 361 Wales, 144, 174, 184, 297, 314, 330, 363, 389, 393 ^^'alk-in- the- Water, ^A/•ar for the Union, .459 "to Warner, D. S 3it>, 351 503 •297, 389 warofi8i2, ::::2or^^ W arren, Jabez, j , . 12 ^ Warren, Gen.Wm., 132, 143, 151, 170, 182, 205 to 249, 261, 267' ,,r . 285, 294, 298, 315 \\arren, Asa,... 268, 305,316,354, 4,^ Well and sweep,. . . ^ry White Woman, the, ...■.'■. '. '. '. ". ' 60 ^,q c White's Corners,.... ' ^^^ Wiedrich's Battery,.. 465, 478, 485; 497 Wilber, Steplien 788 Wilkeson, Samuel, 250, 264, 293, W, hams, Jonas, .... 133, 204, 227, 267 Wilhamsville, 102. 107, 125, 133 ^x/-tr' /7'' '^^' -^^' ^92, 296, 386, 426 Willink,i2o,i29,i46,i54,,8i,297, 313 ,\\'»»/y' Cornelius, 83, 88, 92 \\ ood, James, 184, 192, 363, 431 ,\\"."\C^e"- W.J., ..279, 418 \v right s Corners, 142, 208 7^7 Wright's Mills, ..... ^ ' ^ ' lil v. •* Wing King, 85, 167, 237, 29c V oung Men's Association, .... 403 inf H ■ « ^T ^°' ''"'^ '^■^^' '"^'""^ °f ^^58. On same page, read rrjn instead of 1859. On page 54, read .ySj, instead of 1863. On page ,30 read Zt' • decreasing, and that a hundred and fifty years earlier nearl\' the whole of the tract in question was an open prairie. WILD vVNIMALS — THE BUFFALO. 1 7 This chapter may fitly be closed by a ^dancc at the animals which ori^n'nally inhabited the county of I'>ie, though possibly they ought to be described in the next one, under the head of " occupants." The deer strayed in great numbers through the forest and darted across the prairies. In the thickest retreats the gray wolf made his lair. The black bear often rolled his unwieldly form beneath the nut-bearing trees, and occasionally the wild scream of the panther, fiercest of American beasts, startled the Indian hunter into even more than his usual vigilance. The hedgehog and the raccoon were common, and squirrels of vari- ous kinds leaped gaily on the trees. To include the whole ani- mal kingdom, here the wild turkey and the partridge oft furnished food for the family of the red hunter, pigeons in enormous quan- tities yearly made their home within our boundaries, numerous smaller birds fluttered among the trees, the eagle occasionally swept overhead from his eyrie by the great cataract, and, besides some harmless varieties of reptiles, thousands of deadly rattle- snakes hissed and writhed among the rocks in the northern por- tion of the county. Of all these there is no question. But there has been much dispute whether the lordliest of American beasts ever honored with his presence the localities which bear his name ; whether the buffalo ever drank from the waters of Buffalo creek, or rested on the site of Buffalo city. The question will be dis- cussed some chapters further on ; at present I will only say that judging from the prairie-like nature of a portion of the ground, from the fact that the animal in question certainly roamed over territory but a little way west of us, from the accounts of early travelers, from relics which have been discovered, and from the name which I believe the Indians bestowed on the principal stream of this vicinity, I have little doubt that the county- of Erie was, in 1620, at least occasionally visited by the pride of the western plains, the unwieldly but majestic buffalo. For buffalo, not "bison," is now his true name, and by it he will invariably be called in this volume. If his name was ever bison, it has been changed by the sovereign people of America, (all names may be changed by the law-making power,) and it is but hopeless pedantry to attempt to revive that appellation. 1 8 THE NEUTER NATION. CHAPTER III. OCCUPANTS, NEIGHBORS, ETC. Early Missionaries. — The Neuter Nation. — The Eries. — The Hurons. — The Iroquois. Former Occu prints. — Fortifications. — Weapons. — Inferences. — The French in Canada. — The Puritans in New England. — The Dutch in New York. As was said in the beginning, it was about the year 1620 that the first knowledge of this region began to reach the ears of Europeans. In that year three French CathoHc missionaries caine to instruct the Indians Hving in Canada, northwestward of this locaHty. It does not appear that they visited the shores of the Niagara, but they obtained some information regarding the dwellers there, and that knowledge was eked out by the hardy French hunters and trappers who explored the shores of the great lakes in search of furs, preceding even the devoted missionaries of the Catholic faith. At that time the county of Erie was in the possession of a tribe of Indians whom the French called the Neuter Nation. Their Indian name was sometimes given as the Kahquahs and sometimes as the Attiwondaronks. The former is the one by which they are generally known. The French called them the Neuter Nation because they lived at peace with the fierce tribes which dwelt on either side of them. They were reported by their first European visitors to number twelve thousand souls. . This, however, was doubtless a very great exaggeration, as that number was greater than was to be found among all the six nations of the Iroquois in the day of their greatest glory. It is a universal habit to exaggerate the numbers of barbarians, who cover much ground and make a large show in comparison with their real strength. They were undoubtedly, however, a large and powerful nation, as size and power were estimated among Indian tribes. Their villages lay on both sides of the Niagara, chiefly the western. There was also a Kahquah village near the mouth of Eighteen- Mile creek, and perhaps one or two others on the south shore of Lake Erie. It NATION OF THE CAT. 1 9 The greater part, however, of that shore was occupied by the tribe from which the lake derives its name, the Eries. These were termed by the French the " Nation of the Cat," whence many have inferred that "Erie" means cat; the further inference being- that the city of Buffalo is situated at the foot of Cat lake, and that this is the Centennial History of the County of Cat. The old accounts, however, rather tend to show that the name of " Cat " was applied by the French to both the tribe and the lake on their own responsibility, on account of the many wild- cats and panthers found in that locality. " Erie " may possibly mean wild-cat or panther, but I believe there is no authentic ac- count of a separate Indian nation calling themselves by the name of an animal. Northwest of the Neuter Nation dwelt the Algonquins or Hurons, reaching to the shores of the great lake which bears their name, while to the eastward was the home of those power- ful confederates whose fame has extended throughout the world, whose civil polity has been the wonder of sages, whose warlike achievements have compelled the admiration of soldiers, whose eloquence has thrilled the hearts of the most cultivated hearers, the brave, sagacious and far-dreaded Iroquois. They then consisted of but five nations, and their " Long House," as they themselves termed their confederacy, extended from east, to west, through all the rich central portion of the present State of New York. The Mohawks were in the fertile valley of the Mohawk river ; the Oneidas, the most peaceful of the confeder- ates, were beside the lake, the name of which still keeps their memory green ; then as now the territory of the Onondagas was the gathering place of leaders, though State conventions have taken the place of the council fires which once blazed near the site of Syracuse ; the Cayugas kept guard over the beauti- ful lake which now bears their name, while westward from Seneca lake ranged the fierce, untamable Sonnonthouans, better known as Senecas, the warriors par excellence of the confederacy. Their villages reached westward to within thirty or forty miles of the Niagara, or to the vicinity of the present village of Batavia. Deadly war prevailed between the Iroquois and the Hurons, and the hostility between the former and the Eries was scarcely 20 EARLY OCCUPANTS. less fervent. Betwixt these contending foemen the peaceful Kahquahs long maintained their neutrality, and the warriors of the East, of the Northwest and of the Southwest suppressed their hatred for the time, as they met by the council fires of these aboriginal peace-makers. When first discovered, Erie county was the land of quiet, while tempests raged around. Like other Indian tribes, the Kahquahs guarded against sur- prise by placing their villages a short distance back from any navigable water ; in this case, from the Niagara river and Lake Erie. One of those villages was named Onguiaahra, after the mighty torrent which they designated by that name — a name which has since been shortened into Niagara. In dress, food and customs, the Kahquahs do not appear to have differed much from the other savages around them ; wear- ing the same scanty covering of skins, living principally on meat killed in the chase, but raising patches of Indian corn, beans and gourds. Such were the inhabitants of Erie county, and such their sur- roundings, at the beginning of its history. As for the still earlier occupants of the county, I shall dilate very little upon them, for there is really very little from which one can draw a reasonable inference. The Iroquois and the Hurons had been in New York and Canada for at least twenty years before the opening of this history, and probably for a hun- dred years more. Their earliest European visitors heard no story of their having recently migrated from other lands, and they certainly would have heard it had any such fact existed. The Kahquahs must also have been for a goodly time in this locality, or they could not have acquired the influence necessary to maintain their neutrality between such fierce neighbors. All or any of these tribes might have been on the ground they occupied in 1620 any time from a hundred to a thousand years, for all that can be learned from any reliable source. Much has been written of mounds, fortifications, bones, relics, etc., usually supposed to have belonged to some half-civilized people of gigantic size, who lived here before the Indians, but there is very little evidence to justify the supposition. It is true that numerous earthworks, evidently intended for fortifications, have been found in Erie county, as in other parts EARTHWORKS AND PALISADES. 21 of Western New York, enclosing from two to ten acres each, and covered with forest trees, the concentric circles of which indicate an age of from two hundred to five hundred years, with other evidences of a still earlier growth. Some of these will be mentioned in describing the settlement of the various towns. They prove with reasonable certainty that there were human inhabitants here several hundred years ago, and that they found it necessary thus to defend themselves against their enemies, but it does not prove that they were of an essentially different race from the Indians who were discovered here by the earliest Europeans. It has been suggested that the Indians never built breast- works, and that these fortifications were beyond their patience and skill. But they certainly did build palisades, frequently re- quiring much labor and ingenuity. When the French first came to Montreal, they discovered an Indian town of fifty huts, which was encompassed by three lines of palisades some tliirty feet high, with one well-secured entrance. On the inside was a ram- part of timber, ascended by ladders, and supplied with heaps of stones ready to cast at an enemy. Certainly, those who had the necessary patience, skill and in- dustry to build such a work as that were quite capable of build- ing intrenchments of earth. In fact, one of the largest fortresses of Western New York, known as Fort Hill, in the town of Le Roy, Genesee county, contained, when first discovered, great piles of round stones, evidently intended for use against assail- ants, and showing about the same progress in the art of war as was evinced by the palisade-builders. True, the Iroquois, when first discovered, did not build forts of earth, but it is much more likely that they had abandoned them in the course of improvement for the more convenient palisade, than that a whole race of half-civilized men had disappeared from the country, leaving no other trace than these earthworks. Considering the light weapons then in vogue, the palisade was an improvement on the earthwork, offering equal resistance to missiles and much greater resistance to escalade. Men are apt to display a superfluity of wisdom in dealing with such problems, and to reject simple explanations merely because they are simple. The Indians were here when the 22 THE FRENCH IN CANADA. country was discovered, and so were the earthworks, and I be- heve the former constructed the latter. It has been claimed that human bones of gigantic size have been discovered, but when the evidence is sifted, and the con- stant tendency to exaggerate is taken into account, there will be found no reason to believe that they were relics of any other race than the American Indians. The numerous small axes or hatchets which have been found throughout Western New York were unquestionably of French origin, and so, too, doubtless, were the few other utensils of metal w'hich have been discovered in this vicinity. On the whole, we may safely conclude that, while it is by no means impossible that some race altogether different from the Indians existed here before them, there is no good evidence that such was the case, and the strong probabilities are that if there was any such race it w^as inferior rather than superior to the people discovered here by the Europeans. The relations of this section of country to the European pow- ers was of a very indefinite description. James the First was on the throne of England, and Louis the Thirteenth was on that of France, with the great Richelieu as his prime minister. In 1534, nearly a century before the opening of this history, and only forty-two years after the discovery of America, the French explorer, George Cartier, had sailed up the St. Law- rence to Montreal, and taken possession of all the country round about on behalf of King Francis the First, by the name of New France. He made some attempts at colonization, but in 1543 they were all abandoned, and for more than half a century the disturbed condition of France prevented further progress in America. In 1603, the celebrated French mariner, Samuel Champlain, led an expedition to Quebec, made a permanent settlement there, and in fact founded the colony of Canada. From Que- bec and Montreal, which was soon after founded, communica- tion was comparatively easy along the course of the St. Law- rence and Lake Ontario, and even up Lake Erie after a por- tage around the Falls. Thus it was that the French fur-traders and missionaries reached the borders of Erie county far in ad- vance of any other explorers. THE ENGLISH AND DUTCH. 23 In 1606, King James had granted to an association of English- men called the Plymouth Company the territory of New Eng- land, but no permanent settlement was made until the 9th day of November, 1620, when from the historic Mayflower the Pil- grim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock. The English settle- ments were expecfed to stretch westward to the Pacific or Great South Sea, and patents were granted to accommodate this lib- eral expansion. In 1609, the English navigator, Henry Hudson, while in the employ of the Dutch, had discovered the river which bears his name, and since then the latter people had established fortified trading posts at its mouth and at Albany, and had opened a commerce in furs. They, too, made an indefinite claim of- ter- ritory westward. It will be understood that in speaking of "the Dutch " I do not refer to the Germans, sometimes mistakenly called by that name, but to the real Dutch, or people of Holland. All European nations at this time recognized tiie right of dis- covery as constituting a valid title to lands occupied only by scattered barbarians, but there were wide differences as to its ap- plication, and as to the amount of surrounding country which each discoverer could claim on belialf of his sovereign. Thus at the end of 1620 there were three distinct streams of emigration, with three attendant claims of sovereignty, converg- ing toward the county of Erie. Let but the French at Mon- treal, the English in Massachusetts, and the Dutch on the Hud- son all continue the work of colonization, following the great natural channels, and all would ultimately meet at the foot of Lake Erie. For the time being the French had the best opportunity and the Dutch the next, while the English were apparently third in the race. 24 FRENCH TRADERS AND MISSIONARIES. CHAPTER IV. FROM 1620 TO 1655. The French Traders. — Dutch Progress. — The Jesuits. — De la Roche Daillon. — The Company of a Hundred Partners. — Capture and Restoration of New France. — Chaumonot and Breboeuf. — Hunting Buffalo.— Destruction of the Kahquahs and Eries. — Seneca Tradition. — French Account. — Norman Hatchets. — Stoned-up Springs. For the first twenty years little occurred directly afiecting the history of Erie county, though events were constantly happening which aided in shaping its destinies. We learn from casual re- marks of Catholic writers that the French traders traversed all this region in their search for furs, and even urged their light bat- teaux still farther up the lakes. In 1623, permanent Dutch emigration, as distinguished from mere fur-trading expeditions, first began upon the Hudson. The colony was named New Netherlands, and the first governor was sent thither by the Batavian Republic. In 1625, a few Jesuits arrived on the banks of the St. Law- rence, the advance guard of a host of representatives of that remarkable order, which was in time to crowd out almost all other Catholic missionaries from Canada and the whole lake re- gion, and substantially monopolize the ground themselves. In 1626, Father De la Roche Daillon, a Recollect missionary, visited the Neuter Nation, and passed the winter preaching the gospel among them. In 1627, Cardinal Richelieu organized the company of New France, otherwise known as the Company of a Hundred Part- ners. The three chief objects of this association were to extend the fur trade, to convert the Indians to Christianity, and to dis- cover a new route to China by way of the great lakes of North America. The company actually succeeded in extending the fur trade, but not in going to China by way of Lake Erie, and not to any great extent in converting the Indians. By the terms of their charter they were to transport six thou- THE JESUITS. 25 sand emigrants to Canada and to furnish them with an ample supply of both priests and artisans. Champlain was made gov- ernor. His first two years' experience was bitter in the extreme. The British men-of-war captured his supplies by sea, the Iro- quois warriors tomahawked his hunters by land, and in 1629 an English fl,eet sailed up the St. Lawrence and captured Quebec. Soon afterward, however, peace was concluded, New France was restored to King Louis and Champlain resumed his guber- natorial powers. In 1628, Charles the First, of England, granted a charter for- the government of the province of Massachusetts Bay. It in- cluded the territory between latitude 40°2' and 44° 15' north, ex- tending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, making a colony a hun- dred and fifty-four miles wide and four thousand miles long. The county of Erie was included within its limits, as was the rest of Western New York. The Jesuit missionaries, fired with unbounded zeal and unsur- passed valor, traversed the wilderness, holding up the cross be- fore the bewildered pagans. They naturally had much better success with the Hurons than with the Iroquois, whom Cham- plain had foolishly attacked on one of his earliest expeditions to America, and who afterwards remained the almost unvarying enemies of the French. The Jesuits soon had flourishing stations as far west as Lake Huron. One of these was St. Marie, near the eastern extrem- ity of that lake, and it was from St. Marie that Fathers Br^- boeuf and Chaumonot set forth in November, 1840, to visit the Neuter Nation. They returned the next spring, having visited eighteen Kahquah villages, but having met with very little en- couragement among them. They reported the Neuter Indians to be stronger and finer-looking than other savages with whom they were acquainted. In 1641, Father L'Allemant wrote to the Jesuit provincial in France, describing the expedition of Breboeuf and Chaumonot,. and one of his expressions goes far to settle the question whether the buff"alo ever inhabited this part of the country. He says of the Neuter Nation, repeating the information just ob- tained from the two missionaries : " They are much employed in hunting deer, buffalo, wild-cats, wolves, beaver and other 3 26 DESTRUCTION OF KAHQUAHS AND ERIES. animals." There is no mention, however, of the missionaries crossing the Niagara, and they probably did not, but the pres- ence of buffalo in the Canadian peninsula increases the likeli- hood of their sometimes visiting the banks of Buffalo creek. Up to this time the Kahquahs had succeeded in maintaining their neutrality between the fierce belligerents on either side, though the Jesuit missionaries reported them as being more friendly to the Iroquois than to the Hurons. What cause of quarrel, if any, arose between the peaceful possessors of Erie county and their whilom friends, the powerful confederates to the eastward, is entirely unknown, but sometime during the next fifteen years the Iroquois fell upon both the Kahquahs and the Eries and exterminated them, as nations, from the face of the earth. The precise years in which these events occurred are uncer- tain, nor is it known whether the Kahquahs or the Eries first felt the deadly anger of the Five Nations. French accounts favor the view that the Neuter Nation were first destroyed, while ac- cording to Seneca tradition the Kahquahs still dwelt here when the Iroquois annihilated the Eries. That tradition runs some- what as follows : The Eries had been jealous of the Iroquois from the time the latter formed their confederacy. About the time under consideration the Eries challenged their rivals to a grand game of ball, a hundred men on a side, for a heavy stake of furs and wampum. For two successive years the challenge was declined, but when it was again repeated it was accepted by the confed- erates, and their chosen hundred met their opponents near the site of the city of Buffalo. They defeated the Eries in ball playing, and then the latter proposed a foot-race between ten of the fleetest young men on each side. Again the Iroquois were victorious. Then the Kah- quahs, who resided near Eighteen-Mile creek, invited the contest- ants to their home. While there the chief of the Eries pro- posed a wrestling match between ten champions on each side, the victor in each match to have the privilege of knocking out his adversary's brains with his tomahawk. This challenge, too, was accepted, though, as the veracious Iroquois historians assert, with no intention of claiming the forfeit if successful. LAST OF THE ERIE NATION. 27 In the first bout the Iroquois champion threw his antagonist, but decHned to play the part of executioner. The chief of the Eries, infuriated by his champion's defeat, himself struck the unfortunate wrestler dead, as he lay supine where the victor had flung him. Another and another of the Eries was in the same way conquered by the Iroquois, and in the same way dis- patched by his wrathful chief By this time the Eries were in a state of terrific excitement, and the leader of the confederates, fearing an outbreak, ordered his followers to take up their march toward home, which they did with no further collision. But the jealousy and hatred of the Eries was still more in- flamed by defeat, and they soon laid a plan to surprise, and if possible destroy, the Iroquois. A Seneca woman, who had mar- ried among the Eries but was then a widow, fled to her own people and gave notice of the attack. Runners were at once sent out, and all the Iroquois were assembled and led forth to meet the invaders. The two bodies met near Honeoye Lake, half-way between Canandaigua and the Genesee. After a terrible conflict the Eries were totally defeated, the flying remnants pursued to their homes by the victorious confederates, and the whole na- tion almost completely destroyed. It was five months before the Iroquois warriors returned from the deadly pursuit. Afterwards a powerful party of the descendants of the Eries came from the far west to attack the Iroquois, but were utterly defeated and slain to a man, near the site of Buffalo, their bodies burned, and the ashes buried in a mound, lately visible, near the old Indian church, on the Buffalo Creek reservation. Such is the tradition. It is a very nice story — for the Iro- quois. It shows that their opponents were the aggressors throughout, that the young men of the Five Nations were inva- riably victorious in the athletic games, and that nothing but self-preservation induced them to destroy their enemies. Nothing, of course, can be learned from such a story regard- ing the merits of the war. It tends to show, however, that the final battle between the combatants was fought near the terri- tory of the Senecas, and that some at least of the Kahquahs were still living at the mouth of Eighteen-Mile creek at the time of the destruction of the Eries. 28 NORMAN HATCHETS. On the other hand, scattered French accounts go to show that the Kahquahs were destroyed first; that they joined the Iroquois in warfare against the Hurons, but were unable to avert their own fate ; that coUisions occurred between them and their allies of the Five Nations in 1647, and that open war broke out in 1650, resulting in the speedy destruction of the Kahquahs. Also that the Iroquois then swooped down upon the Eries, and exter- minated them, about the year 1653. Some accounts make the destruction of the Neuter Nation as early as 1642. Amid these conflicting statements it is only certain that some time between 1640 and 1655 the fierce confederates of Central New York "put out the fires" of the" Kahquahs and the Eries. It is said that a few of the former tribe were absorbed into the community of their conquerors, and it is quite likely that some of both nations escaped to the westward, and, wandering there, inspired the tribes of that region with their own fear and hatred of the terrible Iroquois. It is highly probable that the numerous iron hatchets which have been picked up in various parts of the county belonged to the unfortunate Kahquahs. They are undoubtedly of French manufacture, and similar instruments are used in Normandy to this day. Hundreds of them have been found in the valley of Cazenove creek and on the adjacent hills, a mile or two south of East Aurora village. Many more have been found in Hamburg, Boston and other parts of the county. They are all made on substantially the same pattern, the blade being three or four inches wide on the edge, running back and narrowing slightly for about six inches, when the eye is formed by beating the bit out thin, rolling it over and welding it. Each is marked with the same device, namely, three small circles something less than an inch in diameter, each divided into four compartments, like a wheel with four spokes. The Kahquahs were the only Indians who resided in Erie county while the French controlled the trade of this region, as the Senecas did not come here, at least in any numbers, until after the American Revolution. These hatchets would be con- venient articles to trade for furs, and were doubtless used for that purpose. It is hardly probable that the Indians would have thrown away such valuable instruments in the numbers STONED-UP SPRINGS. 29 which have since been found, except from compulsion, and the disaster which befell the Kahquahs at the hands of the Iroquois readily accounts for the abandonment of these weapons. Some copper instruments have also been found, doubtless of similar origin, and, what is harder to account for, several stoned- up springs., Mr. John S. Wilson informs me that some thirty years ago he pushed over a partly rotten tree, over a foot in diam- eter, on his farm two miles south of East Aurora, and directly under it found a spring, well stoned up. There is no reliable ac- count of Indians doing such work as that, and it is a fair suppo- sition that it was done by some of the early French mission- aries or traders. 30 IROQUOIS POWER. CHAPTER V. THE IROQUOIS. Their System of Clans. — Its Importance. — Its Probable Origin. — The Grand Coun- cil. — Sachems and War-chiefs.— Method of Descent. — Choice of Sachems. — Religion. — Natural Attributes. — Family Relations. From the time of the destruction of the unfortunate Kah- quahs down to the time the Iroquois sold to the Holland Land Company, those confederates were by right of conquest the ac- tual possessors of the territory composing the present county of Erie, and a few years before making that sale the largest na- tion of the confederacy made their principal residence within the county. Within its borders, too, are still to be seen the largest united body of their descendants. For all these two hundred and twenty-five years the Iroquois have been closely identified with the history of Erie county, and the beginning of this community of record forms a proper point at which to introduce an account of the interior structure of that remarkable confederacy, at which we have before taken but an outside glance. It should be said here that the name " Iroquois " was never applied by the confederates to themselves. It was first used by the French, and, though said to have been formed from two In- dian words, its meaning is veiled in obscurity. The men of the Five Nations called themselves " Hedonosaunee," which means literally, "They form a cabin;" describing in this expressive manner the close union existing among them. The Indian name just quoted is more liberally and more commonly ren- dered, "The People of the Long House;" which is more fully descriptive of the confederacy, though not quite so accurate a translation. The central and unique characteristic of the Iroquois league was not the mere fact of five separate tribes being confederated together; for such unions have been frequent among civilized and half-civilized peoples, though little known among the sav- THE SYSTEM OF CLANS. 3 1 ages of America. The feature that distinguished the People of the Long House from all the world beside, and which at the same time bound together all these ferocious warriors as with a living chain, was the system of clans, extending through all the different tribes. Although this clan-system has been treated of in many works, there are, doubtless, thousands of readers who have often heard of the warlike success and outward greatness of the Iroquois confederacy, but are unacquainted with the inner league which was its distinguishing characteristic, and without which it would in all probability have met, at an early day, with the fate of numerous similar alliances. The word " clan " has been adopted as the most convenient one to designate the peculiar artificial families about to be de- scribed, but the Iroquois clan was widely different from the Scottish one, all the members of which owed undivided allegi- ance to a single chief, for whom they were ready to fight against all the world. Yet " clan " is a much better word than " tribe," which is sometimes used, as that is the designation ordinarily applied to a separate Indian nation. The people of the Iroquois confederacy were divided into eight clans, or families, the names of which were as follows : Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron and Hawk. Accounts differ, some declaring that every clan extended through all the tribes, and others that only the Wolf, Bear and Turtle clans did so, the rest being restricted to a lesser number of tribes. It is certain, however, that each tribe, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas or Senecas, contained a part of the three clans named, and of several of the others. Each clan formed a large artificial family, modeled on the natural family. All the members of the clan, no matter how widely separated among the tribes, were considered as brothers and sisters to each other, and were forbidden to intermarry. This prohibition, too, was strictly enforced by public opinion. All the clan being thus taught from earliest infancy that they belonged to the same family, a bond of the strongest kind was created throughout the confederacy. The Oneida of the Wolf clan had no sooner appeared among the Cayugas, than those of the same clan claimed him as their special guest, and admitted 32 ORIGIN OF CLANS. him to the most confidential intimacy. The Senecas of the Turtle clan might wander to the country of the Mohawks, at the farthest extremity of the Long House, and he had a claim upon his brother Turtles which they would not dream of repudiating. Thus the whole confederacy was linked together. If at any time there appeared a tendency toward conflict between the different tribes, it was instantly checked by the thought that, if persisted in, the hand of the Heron must be lifted against his brother Heron ; the hatchet of the Bear might be buried in the brain of his kinsman Bear. And so potent was the feeling that for at least two hundred years, and until the power of the league was broken by overwhelming outside force, there was no serious dissension between the tribes of the Iroquois. It is quite probable that this system of clans was an entirely artificial but most skillful device, and was the work of some soli- tary forest-statesman, the predominant genius of his age. It has little of the appearance of a gradual growth, as will be seen by noticing some of the circumstances. The names of the different nations of the confederacy, like those of other Indian tribes, have no uniformity of meaning, and were evidently adopted from time to time, as other names are adopted, from natural fitness. None of them were taken from any animal, 'and the adoption of the names ©f animals was never customary, so far as separate tribes of Indians were concerned. But the names of the clans are all taken from the animal creation — four beasts, three birds and a reptile ; and this uniformity at once suggests that they were all applied at the same time. The uniqueness of the clan-system, too, tends to show that it was an artificial invention, expressly intended to prevent dissension among the confederates. Nothing like it has ever grown up among any other people in the world. The Scotch, as has been said, had their clans, but these were merely the natural development of the original families. Al- though the members of each clan were all supposed to be more or less related, yet, instead of marriage being forbidden within their own limits, they rarely married outside of them. All the loyalty of the people was concentrated on their chief, and, in- stead of being bonds of union, so far as the nation at large was concerned, they were nurseries of faction. "THE ROMANS OF THE NEW WORLD." 33 The Romans had their gens, but these, too, were merely nat- ural families increased by adoption, and, like the Scottish clans, instead of binding together dissevered sections, they served under the control of aspiring leaders as seed-plots of dissension and even of civil war. If one can imagine the Roman gens ex- tending through all the nations of the Grecian confederacy, he will have an idea of the Iroquois system, and had such been the fact it is more than probable that that confederacy would have survived the era of its actual downfall. Iroquois tradition ascribes the founding of the league to an Onondaga chieftain narned Tadodahoh. Such traditions, however, are of very little value. A person of that name may or may not have founded the confederacy. He may have been the originator of the clan-system, which appears much more like the work of a single genius than does the league of tribes. This latter is most likely to have begun with two or three weak tribes, and to have increased in the natural manner by the addi- tion of others. Whether the Hedonosaunee were originally superior in valor and eloquence to their neighbors cannot now be ascertained. Probably not. But their talent for practical statesmanship gave them the advantage in war, and success made them self-confi- dent and fearless. The business of the league was necessarily transacted in a congress of sachems, and this fostered oratorical powers, until at length the Iroquois were famous among a hun- dred rival nations for wisdom, courage and eloquence, and were justly denominated by Volney, "The Romans of the New World." Aside from the clan-system just described, which was entirely unique, the Iroquois league had some resemblance to the great American Union which succeeded and overwhelmed it. The central authority was supreme on questions of peace and war, and on all others relating to the general welfare of the confeder- acy, while the tribes, like the States, reserved to themselves the management of their ordinary affairs. In peace all power was confided to " sachems ; " in war, to "chiefs." The sachems of each tribe acted as its rulers in the few matters which required the exercise of civil authority. These same rulers also met in congress to direct the affairs 34 SACHEMS AND WAR-CHIEFS. of the confederacy. There were fifty in all, of whom the Mo- hawks had nine, the Oneidas nine, the Onondagas fourteen, the Cayugas ten, and the Senecas eight. These numbers, however, did not give proportionate power in the congress of the league, for all the nations were equal there. There was in each tribe the same number of war-chiefs as sa- chems, and these had absolute authority in time of war. When a council assembled, each sachem had a war-chief standing be- hind him to execute his orders. But in a war party the war- chief commanded and the sachem took his place in the ranks. This was the system in its simplicity. Some time after the arrival of the Europeans they seem to have fallen into the habit of electing chiefs — not war-chiefs — as counselors to the sachems, who in time acquired equality of power with them, and were considered as their equals by the whites in the making of treaties. It is difficult to learn the truth regarding a political and so- cial system which was not preserved by any written record. As near, however, as can be ascertained, the Onondagas had a cer- tain preeminence in the councils of the league, at least to the extent of always furnishing a grand sachem, whose authority, however, was of a very shadowy description. It is not certain that he even presided in the congress of sachems. That con- gress, however, always met at the council-fire of the Onondagas. This was the natural result of their central position, the Mo- hawks and Oneidas being to the east of them, the Cayugas and Senecas to the west. The Senecas were unquestionably the most powerful of all the tribes, and, as they were located at the western extremity of the confederacy, they had to bear the brunt of war when it was assailed by its most formidable foes, who dwelt in that quarter. It would naturally follow that the principal war-chief of the league should be of the Seneca Nation, and such is said to have been the case, though over this, too, hangs a shade of doubt. As among many other savage tribes, the right of heirship was in the female line. A man's heirs were his brother (that is to say, his mother's son) and his sister's son ; never his own son, nor his brother's son. The few articles which constituted an Indian's personal property, even his bow and tomahawk, never METHOD OF DESCENT. 35 descended to the son of him who had wielded them. Titles, so far as they were hereditary at all, followed the same law of descent. The child also followed the clan and tribe of the mother. The object was evidently to secure greater certainty that the heir would be of the blood of his deceased kinsman. It is not supposed to require near as wise a boy to know his mother as his father. The result of the application of this rule to the Iroquois sys- tem of clans was that if a particular sachemship or chieftaincy was once established in a certain clan of a certain tribe, in that clan and tribe it was expected to remain forever. Exactly how it was filled when it became vacant is a matter of some doubt, but as near as can be learned it was done by the warriors of the clan, and then the person so chosen was " raised up " by the congress of sachems. If, for instance, a sachemship belonging to the Wolf clan of the Seneca tribe became vacant, it could only be filled by some one of the Wolf clan of the Seneca tribe. A clan-council was called, and as a general rule the heir of the deceased was chosen to his place ; to wit, one of his brothers, or one of his sister's sons, or even some more distant relative on the mother's side. But there was no positive law, and the warriors might discard all these and elect some one entirely unconnected with the deceased. A grand council of the confederacy was then called, at which the new sachem was formally " raised up," or as we should say, " inaugurated " in his office. While there was no unchangeable custom compelling the clan- council to select one of the heirs of the deceased as his succes- sor, yet the tendency was so strong in that direction that an infant was frequently selected, a guardian being appointed to perform the functions of the office till the youth should reach the proper age to do so. Notwithstanding the modified system of hereditary power in vogue, the constitution of every tribe was essentially republican. Warriors, old men, and even women, attended the council, and made their influence felt. Neither in the government of the confederacy nor of the tribes was there any such thing as tyr- anny over the people, though there was plenty of tyranny by the league over conquered nations. 36 RELIGION AND MORALS. In fact there was very little government of any kind, and very little need of any. There were substantially no property inter- ests to guard, all land being in common, and each man's per- sonal property being limited to a bow, a tomahawk and a few deer skins. Liquor had not yet lent its disturbing influence, and few quarrels were to be traced to the influence of woman, for the American Indian is singularly free from the warmer pas- sions. His principal vice is an easily-aroused and unlimited hatred, but the tribes were so small and enemies so convenient, that there was no difficulty in gratifying this feeling outside his own nation. The consequence was that the war-parties of the Iroquois were continually shedding the blood of their foes, but there was very little quarreling at home. They do not appear to have had any class especially set apart for religious services, and their religious creed was limited to a somewhat vague belief in the existence of a " Great Spirit," and several inferior but very potent evil spirits. They had a few simple ceremonies, consisting largely of dances, one called the " green corn dance," performed at the time indicated by its name, and others at other seasons of the year. From a very early date their most important religious ceremony has been the " burning of the white dog," when an unfortunate canine of the requisite color is sacrificed by one of the chiefs. To this day the pagans among them still perform this rite. Aside from their political wisdom, and the valor and eloquence developed by it, the Iroquois were not greatly different from the other Indians of North America. In common with their fellow- savages they have been termed "fast friends and bitter enemies." They were a great deal stronger enemies than friends. Revenge was the ruling passion of their nature, and cruelty was their abiding characteristic. Revenge and cruelty are the worst at- tributes of human nature, and it is idle to talk of the goodness of men who roasted their captives at the stake. All Indians were faithful to their own tribes, and the Iroquois were faithful to their confederacy, but outside these limits their friendship could not be counted on, and treachery was always to be appre- hended in dealing with them. In their family relations they were not harsh to their children, and not wantonly so to their wives, but the men were invariably FAMILY RELATIONS. 37 indolent, and all labor was contemptuously abandoned to the weaker sex. They were not an amorous race, but could hardly be called a moral one. They were in that respect merely apa- thetic. Their passions rarely led them into adultery, and mer- cenary prostitution was entirely unknown, but they were not sensitive ou the question of purity, and readily permitted their maidens to form the most fleeting alliances with distinguished visitors. Polygamy, too, was practiced, though in what might be called moderation. Chiefs and eminent warriors usually had two or three wives ; rarely more. They could be divorced at will by their lords, but the latter seldom availed themselves of their privilege. These latter characteristics the Iroquois had in common with the other Indians of North America, but their wonderful politico- social league and their extraordinary success in war were the especial attributes of the People of the Long House, for a hun- dred and thirty years the masters, and for more than two cen- turies the occupants, of the county of Erie. 38 THE IROQUOIS TRIUMPHANT. CHAPTER VI. FROM 1655 TO 1679. The Iroquois triumphant. — Obliteration of Dutch Power. — French Progress. — La Salle visits the Senecas. — Greenhalph's Estimates. — La Salle on the Niagara. — Building of the Griffin. — It enters Lake Erie. — La Salle's Subsequent Ca- reer. — The Prospect in 1679. From the time of the destruction of the Kahquahs and Eries the Iroquois lords of Erie county went forth conquering and to conquer. This was probably the day of their greatest glory. Stimulated but not yet crushed by contact with the white man, they stayed the progress of the French into their territories, they negotiated on equal terms with the Dutch and English, and, having supplied themselves with the terrible arms of the pale- faces, they smote with direst vengeance whomsoever of their own race were so unfortunate as to provoke their wrath. On the Susquehanna, on the Allegany, on the Ohio, even to the Mississippi in the west and the Savannah in the south, the Iroquois bore their conquering arms, filling with terror the dwell- ers alike on the plains of Illinois and in the glades of Carolina. They strode over the bones of the slaughtered Kahquahs to new conquests on the great lakes beyond, even to the foaming cas- cades of Michillimacinac, and the shores of the mighty Supe- rior. They inflicted such terrible defeat upon the Hurons, des- pite the alliance of the latter with, the French, that many of the conquered nation sought safety on the frozen borders of Hud- son's Bay. In short, they triumphed on every side, save only where the white man came, and even the white man was for a time held at bay by these fierce confederates. Of the three rivals, the French and Dutch opened a great fur- trade with the Indians, while the New Englanders devoted them- selves principally to agriculture. In 1664, the English conquered New Amsterdam, and in 1670 their conquest was made perma- nent. Thus the three competitors for empire were reduced to two. The Dutch Lepidus of the triumvirate was gotten rid of, FRENCH PROGRESS. 39 and henceforth the contest was to be between the Anglo-Saxon Octavius and the GaHic Antony. Charles the Second, then King of England, granted the con- quered province to his brother James, Duke of York, from whom it was called New York, This grant comprised all the lands along the Hudson, with an indefinite amount westward, thus overlapping the previous grant of James the First to the Ply- mouth Company, and the boundaries of Massachusetts by the charter of Charles the First, and laying the foundation for a con- flict of jurisdiction which was afterwards to have important effects on the destinies of Western New York. The French, if poor farmers, were indefatigable fur-traders and missionaries ; but their priests and fur-buyers mostly pur- sued a route north of this locality, for here the fierce Senecas guarded the shores of the Niagara, and they like all the rest of the Iroquois were ever unfriendly, if not actively hostile, to the French. By 1665, trading-posts had been established at Mich- illimacinac. Green Bay, Chicago and St. Joseph, but the route past the falls of Niagara was seldom traversed, and then only by the most adventurous of the French traders, the most devoted of the Catholic missionaries. But a new era was approaching. Louis the Fourteenth was king of France, and his great minister, Colbert, was anxious to extend the power of his royal master over the unknown regions of North America. In 1669, La Salle, whose name was soon to be indissolubly united to the annals of Erie county, visited the Senecas with only two companions, finding their four princi- pal villages from ten to twenty miles southerly from Rochester, scattered over portions of the present counties of Monroe, Livingston and Ontario. In 1673, the missionaries Marquette and Joliet pushed on ' beyond the farthest French posts, and erected the emblem of Christian salvation on the shore of the Father of Waters. In 1677, Wentworth Greenhalph, an Englishman, visited all the Five Nations, finding the same four towns of the Senecas described by the companions of La Salle. Greenhalph made very minute observations, counting the houses of the Indians, and reported the Mohawks as having three hundred warriors, the Oneidas two hundred, the Onondagas three hundred and 40 LA SALLE OX THE NL\GARA. fifty, the Cayugas three hundred, and the Senecas a thousand. It will be seen that the Senecas, the guardians of the western door of the Long House, numbered, according to Greenhalph's computation, nearly as many as all the other tribes of the con- federacy combined, and other accounts show that he was not far from correct. In the month of January, 1679, there arrived at the mouth of the Niagara Robert Cavalier de La Salle, a Frenchman of good family, thirty-five years of age, and one of the most gal- lant, devoted and adventurous of all the bold explorers who under many difterent banners opened the new world to the knowledge of the old. Leaving his native Rouen at the age of twenty-two, he had ever since been leading a life of adventure in America, having in 1669, as already mentioned, penetrated almost alone to the strongholds of the Senecas. In 1678, he had received from King Louis a commission to discover the western part of New France. He was authorized to build such forts as might be necessary, but at his own expense, being granted certain privileges in return, the principal of which appears to have been the right to trade in buftalo skins. The same year he had made some preparations, and in the fall had sent the Sieur de La Motte and Father Hennepin (the priest and historian of his expedition) in advance, to the mouth of the Niagara. La Motte soon returned. As soon as La Salle arrived, he went two leagues above the Falls, built a rude dock, and laid the keel of a vessel with which to navigate the upper lakes. Strangely enough Hennepin does not state on which bank of the Niagara this dock was situated, but it is deemed certain by those who have examined the ques- tion, especially by O. H. Marshall, Esq., the best authority in the count}- on matters of early local history, that it was on the east side, at the mouth of Cayuga creek, in Niagara county, and in accordance with that view the little village which has been laid out there has received the appellation of " La Salle." Hennepin distinctly mentions a small village of Senecas situated at the mouth of the Niagara, and it is plain from his whole narrative that the Iroquois were in possession of the entire country along the river, and watched the movement with unceasing jealousy. LA SALLE AND HIS COMRADES. 41 The work was carried on through the winter, two Indians of the Wolf clan of the Senecas being employed to hunt deer for the French party, and in the spring the vessel was launched, " after having," in the words of Father Hennepin, " been blessed according to the rites of our Church of Rome." The new ship was named- " Le Griffon " (The Griffin) in compliment to the Count de Frontenac, minister of the French colonies, whose coat of arms was ornamented with representations of that mythical beast. For several months the Griffin remained in the Niagara,, between the place where it was built and the rapids at the head of the river. Meanwhile Father Hennepin returned to Fort Frontenac (now Kingston) and obtained two priestly assistants,, and La Salle superintended the removal of the armament and stores from below the Falls. When all was ready the attempt was made, and several times repeated, to ascend the rapids above Black Rock, but without success. At length, on the seventh day of August, 1679, a favorable wind sprung up from the northeast, all the Griffin's sails were set, and again it approached the troublesome rapids. It was a dimunitive vessel compared with the leviathans of the deep which now navigate these inland seas, but was a mar- vel in view of the difficulties under which it had been built. It was of sixty tons burthen, completely furnished with anchors and other equipments, and armed with seven small cannon, all of which had been transported by hand around the cataract. There were thirty-four men on board the Griffin, all French- men with a single exception. There was the intrepid La Salle, a blue-eyed, fair-faced, ring- leted cavalier, a man fitted to grace the salons of Paris, yet now eagerly pressing forward to dare the hardships of unknown seas and savage lands. A born leader of men, a heroic subduer of nature, the gallant Frenchman for a brief time passes along the border of our county, and then disappears in the western wilds where he was eventually to find a grave. There was Tonti, the solitary alien amid that Gallic band, exiled by revolution from his native Italy, who had been chosen by La Salle as second in command, and who justified the choice by his unswerving courage and devoted loyalty. There, too, was 42 THE GRIFFIN ENTERS LAKE ERIE. Father Hennepin, the earhest historian of these regions, one of the most zealous of all the zealous band of Catholic priests who, at that period, undauntedly bore the cross amid the fiercest pa- gans in America. Attired in priestly robes, having with him his movable chapel, and attended by his two coadjutors. Father Hen- nepin was ready at any time to perform the rites of his Church, or to share the severest hardships of his comrades. As the little vessel approached the rapids a dozen stalwart sailors were sent ashore with a tow-line, and aided with all their strength the breeze which blew from the north. Meanwhile a crowd of Iroquois warriors had assembled on the shore, together with many captives whom they had brought from the distant prairies of the West. These watched eagerly the efforts of the pale-faces, with half-admiring and half-jealous eyes. Those efforts were soon successful. By the aid of sails and tow-line the Griffin surmounted the rapids, all the crew went on board, and the pioneer vessel of these waters swept out on to the bosom of Lake Erie. As it did so the priests led in sing- ing a joyous Te Daiin, all the cannon and arquebuses were fired in a grand salute, and even the stoical sons of the forest, watch- ing from the shore, gave evidence of their admiration by repeated cries of " Gannoron ! Gannoron ! " Wonderful ! Wonderful ! This was the beginning of the commerce of the upper lakes, and like many another first venture it resulted only in disaster to its projectors, though the harbinger of unbounded success by others. The Griffin went to Green Bay, where La Salle and Hennepin left it, started on its return with a cargo of furs, and was never heard of more. It is supposed that it sank in a storm and that all on board perished. La Salle was not afterwards identified with the history of Erie county, but his chivalric achievements and tragic fate have still such power to stir the pulse and enlist the feelings that one can hardly refrain from a brief mention of his subsequent career. After the Griffin had sailed. La Salle and Hennepin went in canoes to the head of Lake Michigan. Thence, after building a trading-post and waiting many weary months for the return of his vessel, he went with thirty followers to Lake Peoria on the Illinois, where he built a fort and gave it the expressive name of " Creve Cceur" — Broken Heart. But notwithstanding this LA SALLE S SUBSEQUENT CAREER. 43 expression of despair his courage was far from exhausted, and, after sending Hennepin to explore the Mississippi, he with three comrades performed the remarkable feat of returning to Fort Frontenac on foot, depending on their guns for support. From Fort Frontenac he returned to Creve Coeur, the garri- son of which had in the meantime been driven away by the In- dians. Again the indomitable La Salle gathered his followers, and in the fore part of 1682 descended the Mississippi to the sea, being the first European to explore any considerable portion of that mighty stream. He took possession of the country in the name of King Louis the Fourteenth, and called it Louisiana. Returning to France he astonished and gratified the court with the story of his discoveries, and in 1684 was furnished with a fleet and several hundred men to colonize the new domain. Then every thing went wrong. The fleet, through the blunders of its naval commander, went to Matagorda bay, in Texas. The store-ship was wrecked, the fleet returned. La Salle failed in an attempt to find the mouth of the Mississippi, his colony dwin- dled away through desertion and death to forty men, and at length he started with sixteen of these, on foot, to return to Can- ada for assistance. Even in this little band there were those that hated him, (possibly he was a man of somewhat imperious na- ture,) and ere he had reached the Sabine he was murdered by two of his followers, and left unburied upon the prairie. A lofty, if somewhat haughtj/ spirit, France knows him as the man who added Louisiana and Texas to her empire, the Missis- sippi Valley reveres him as the first explorer of its great river, but by the citizens of this county he will best be remembered as the pioneer navigator of Lake Erie, The adventurous Frenchman doubtless supposed, when he steered the Griffin into that vast inland sea, that he was opening it solely to French commerce, and was preparing its shores for French occupancy. He had ample reason for the supposition. Communication with the French in Lower Canada was much easier than with the Anglo-Dutch province on the Hudson, and thus far the opportunities of the former had been diligently im- proved. Had La Salle then climbed the bluff which overlooks the transformation of the mighty Erie into the rushing Niagara, 44 THE PROSPECT IN 1 679. and attempted to foretell the destiny of lake and land for the next two centuries, he Avould without doubt, and with good reason, have mentally given the dominion of both land and lake to the sovereigns of France. He would have seen in his mind's eye the plains that extended eastward dotted with the cottages of French peasants, while here and there among them towered the proud mansions of their baronial masters. He would have imagined the lake white with the sails of hundreds of vessels flying the flag of Gallic kings, and bearing the products of their subjects from still remoter regions, and he would perchance have pictured at his feet a splendid city, reproducing the tall gables of Rouen and the elegant facades of Paris, its streets gay with the vivacious language of France, its cross-capped churches shel- tering only the stately ceremonies of Rome. But a far different destiny was in store for our county, due partly to the chances of war, and partly to the subtle character- istics of race, which make of the Gaul a good explorer but a bad colonizer, while the Anglo-Saxon is ever readv to identifv himself with the land to which he may roam. FRENCH ASCENDENCY. 45 CHAPTER VII. FRENCH DOMINION. A Slight Ascendency. — De Nonville's Assault. — Origin of Fort Niagara. — La Hon- tan's E.Kpedition. — The Peace of Ryswick. — Queen Anne's War. — The Iro- quois Neutral. — The Tuscaroras. — ^Joncaire. — -Fort Niagara Rebuilt. — French Power Increasing. — Successive Wars. — The Line of Posts. — The Final Struggle. — The Expedition of D'Aubrey. — The Result. — The Surrender of Canada. For the next forty-five years after the adventures of La Salle, the French maintained a general but not very substantial ascen- dency in this region. Their voyageurs traded and their mis- sionaries labored here, and their soldiers sometimes made incur- sions, but they had no permanent fortress this side of Fort Frontenac (Kingston) and they were constantly in danger from their enemies, the Hedonosaunee. In 1687, the Marquis de Nonville, governor of New France, arrived at Irondiquoit bay, a few miles east of Rochester, with nearly two thousand Frenchmen and some five hundred Indian allies, and marched at once against the Seneca villages, situated as has been stated in the vicinity of Victor and Avon. The Senecas attacked him on his way, and were defeated, as well they might be, considering that the largest estimate gives them but eight hundred warriors, the rest of the confederates not hav- ing arrived. The Senecas burned their villages and fled to the Cayugas. De Nonville destroyed their stores of corn and retired, after going through the form of taking possession of the country. The supplies thus destroyed were immediately replenished by the other confederates, and De Nonville accomplished little ex- cept still further to enrage the Iroquois. The Senecas, however, determined to seek a home less accessible from the waters of Lake Ontario, and accordingly located their principal villages at Geneva, and on the Genesee above Avon. De Nonville then sailed to the mouth of the Niagara, where 46 ORIGIN OF FORT NIAGARA. he erected a small fort on the east side of the river. This was the origin of Fort Niagara, one of the most celebrated strong- holds in America, and which, though a while abandoned, was afterwards for a long time considered the key of Western New York. From the new fortress De Nonville sent the Baron La Hon- tan, with a small detachment of French, to escort the Indian allies to their western homes. They made the necessary port- age around the Falls, rowed up the Niagara to Buffalo, and thence coasted along the northern shore of the lake in their canoes. All along up the river they were closely watched by the enraged Iroquois, but were too strong and too vigilant to permit an attack. Ere long the governor returned to Montreal, leaving a small garrison at Fort Niagara. These suffered so severely from sick- ness that the fort was soon abandoned, and it does not appear to have been again occupied for nearly forty years. In fact, at this period the fortunes of France in North America were brought very low. The Iroquois ravaged a part of the island of Montreal, compelled the abandonment of Forts Frontenac and Niagara, and alone proved almost sufficient to overthrow the French dominion in Canada. The English revolution of 1688, by which James the Second was driven from the throne, was speedily followed by open war with France. In 1689, the Count de Frontenac, the same ener- getic old peer who had encouraged La Salle in his brilliant dis- coveries, and whose name was for a while borne by Lake Ontario, was sent out as governor of New France. This vigorous but cruel leader partially retrieved the desperate condition of the French colony. He, too, invaded the Iroquois, but accom- plished no more than De Nonville. The war continued with varying fortunes until 1697, the Five Nations being all that while the friends of the English, and most of the time engaged in active hostilities against the French. Their authority over the whole west bank of the Niagara, and far up the south side of Lake Erie, was unbroken, save when a detachment of French troops was actually marching along the shore. At the treaty of Ryswick in 1797, while the ownership of THE IROQUOIS NEUTRAL. 47 other lands was definitely conceded to France and England respectively, that of Western New York was left undecided. The English claimed sovereignty over all the lands of the Five Nations, the French with equal energy asserted the authority of King Louis, while the Hedonosaunee themselves, whenever they heard of the controversy, repudiated alike the pretensions of Yonnondio and Corlear, as they denominated the governors respectively of Canada and New York. So far as Erie county was concerned, they could base their claim on the good old plea that they had killed all its previous occupants, and as neither the English nor French had succeeded in killing the Iroquois, the title of the latter still held good. In legal language they were " in possession," and " adverse posses- sion " at that. Scarcely had the echoes of battle died away after the peace of Ryswick, when, in 1702, the rival nations plunged into the long conflict known as " Queen Anne's War." But by this time the Iroquois had grown wiser, and prudently maintained their neutrality, commanding the respect of both French and English. The former were wary of again provoking the powerful con- federates, and the government of the colony of New York was very willing that the Five Nations should remain neutral, as they thus furnished a shield against French and Indian attacks for the whole frontier of the colony. But, meanwhile, through all the western country the French extended their influence. Detroit was founded in 1701. Other posts were established far and wide. Nothwithstanding their alliance with the Hurons and other foes of the Iroquois, and notwithstanding the enmity aroused by the invasions of Cham- plain, De Nonville and Frontenac, such was the subtle skill of the French that they rapidly acquired a strong influence among the western tribes of the confederacy, especially the Senecas. Even the wonderful socio-political system of the Hedonosaunee weakened under the influence of European intrigue, and v/hile the Eastern Iroquois, though preserving their neutrality, were friendly to the English, the Senecas. and perhaps the Cayugas, were almost ready to take up arms for the French. About 17 1 2, an important event occurred in the history of the Hedonosaunee. The Five Nations became the Six Nations. 48 THE TUSCARORAS. The Tuscaroras, a powerful tribe of North Carolina, had become involved in a war with the whites, originating as usual in a dis- pute about land. The colonists being aided by several other tribes, the Tuscaroras were soon defeated, many of them killed, and many others captured and sold as slaves. The greater part of the remainder fled northward to the Iroquois, who immedi- ately adopted them as one of the tribes of the confederacy, assigning them a seat near the Oneidas. The readiness of those haughty warriors to extend the valuable shelter of the Long House over a band of fleeing exiles is probably due to the fact that they had been the allies of the Iroquois against other South- ern Indians, which would also account for the eagerness of the latter to join the whites in the overthrow of the Tuscaroras. Not long after this, one Chabert Joncaire, a Frenchman who had been captured in youth by the Senecas, who had been adopted into their tribe and had married a Seneca wife, but who had been released at the treaty of peace, was employed by the French authorities to promote their influence among the Iro- quois. Pleading his claims as an adopted child of the nation, he was allowed by the Seneca chiefs to build a cabin on the site of Lewiston, which soon became a center of French influence. All the efforts of the English were impotent either to dislodge him or to obtain a similar privilege for any of their own people. "Joncaire is a child of the nation," was the sole reply vouch- safed to every complaint. Though Fort Niagara was for the time abandoned, and no regular fort was built at Lewiston, yet Joncaire's trading-post embraced a considerable group of cabins, and at least a part of the time a detachment of French soldiers was stationed there. Thus the active Gauls kept up communi- cation with their posts in the West, and maintained at least a slight ascendency over the territory which is the subject of this history. About 1725, they began rebuilding Fort Niagara, on the site where De Nonville had erected his fortress. They did so with- out opposition, though it seems strange that they could so easily have allayed the jealousy of the Six Nations. It may be pre- sumed, however, that the very fact of the French being such poor colonizers worked to their advantage in establishing a cer- tain kind of influence among the Indians. THE INCREASE OF FRENCH POWER. 49 Few of them being desirous of engaging in agriculture, they made httle effort to obtain land, while the English were con- stantly arousing the jealousy of the natives by obtaining enor- mous grants from some of the chiefs, often doubtless by very dubious methods. Moreover, the French have always possessed a peculiar facility for assimilating with savage and half-civilized races, and thus gaining an influence over them. Wliatever the cause, the power of the French constantly in- creased among the Senecas. Fort Niagara was their stronghold, and Erie county with the rest of Western New York was, for over thirty years, to a very great extent under their control. The influence of Joncaire was maintained and increased by his sons, Chabert and Clauzonne Joncaire, all through the second quarter of 'the eighteenth century. In the war between England and France, begun in 1744 and closed by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle in 1748, the Six Nations generally maintained their neutrality, though the Mohawks gave some aid to the English. During the eight years of nominal peace which succeeded that treaty, both nations were making constant efforts to extend their dominion beyond their frontier settle- ments, the French with the more success. To Niagara, Detroit and other posts they added Presque Isle, (now Erie,) Venango, and finally Fort Du Quesne on the site of Pittsburg; designing to establish a line of forts from the lakes to the Ohio, and thence down that river to the Mississippi. Frequent detachments of troops passed through along this line. Their course was up the Niagara to Buffalo, thence either by batteaux up the lake, or on foot along the shore, to Erie, and thence to Venango and Du Quesne. Gaily dressed French offi- cers sped backward and forward, attended by the feathered war- riors of their allied tribes, and not unfrequently by the Senecas. Dark-gowned Jesuits hastened to and fro, everywhere receiving the respect of the red men, even when their creed was rejected, and using all their art to magnify the power of both Rome and France. It is possible that the whole Iroquois confederacy would have been induced to become active partisans of the French, had it not been for one man, the skillful English superintendent of In- dian affairs, soon to be known as Sir William Johnson. He, 50 THE FINAL STRUGGLE. having in 1734 been sent to America as the agent of his uncle, a great landholder in the valley of the Mohawk, had gained almost unbounded influence over the Mohawks by integrity in dealing and native shrewdness, combined with a certain coarse- ness of nature which readily affiliated with them. He had made his power felt throughout the whole confederacy, and had been intrusted by the British government with the management of its relations with the Six Nations. In 1756, after two years of open hostilities in America, and several important conflicts, war was again declared between England and France, being their last great struggle for suprem- acy in the new world. The ferment in the wilderness grew more earnest. More frequently sped the gay officers and soldiers of King Louis from Quebec, and Frontenac,and Niagara, now in bat- teaux, now on foot, along the western border of our county ; stay- ing perchance to hold a council with the Seneca sachems, then hurrying forward to strengthen the feeble line of posts on which so much depended. In this war the Mohawks were persuaded by Sir William Johnson to take the field in favor of the English. But the Senecas were friendly to the French, and were only re- strained from taking up arms for them by unwillingness to fight their Iroquois brethren, who were allies of the English. At first the French were everywhere victorious. Braddock, almost at the gates of Fort Du Quesne, was slain, and his army cut in pieces, by a force utterly contemptible in comparison with his own. Montcalm captured Oswego. The French line up the lakes and across to the Ohio was stronger than ever. But in 1858 William Pitt became prime minister, and then England flung herself in deadly earnest into the contest. That year Fort Du Quesne was captured by an English and provincial army, its garrison having retreated. Northward, Fort Frontenac was seized by Col. Bradstreet, and other victories prepared the way for the grand success of 1859. The cordon was broken, but Fort Niagara still held out for France, still the messengers ran backward and forward, to and from Presque Isle and Venango, still the Senecas strongly declared their friendship for Yon- nondio and Yonnondio's royal master. In 1759, yet heavier blows were struck. Wolfe assailed Que- bec, the strongest of all the French strongholds. Almost at the EXPEDITION OF D'AUBREY. 51 same time Gen. Prideaux, with two thousand British and provin- cials, accompanied by Sir William Johnson with one thousand of his faithful Iroquois, sailed up Lake Ontario and laid siege to Fort Niagara. Defended by only six hundred men, its cap- ture was certain unless relief could be obtained. Its commander was not idle. Once again along the Niagara, and' up Lake Erie, and away through the forest, sped his lithe, red- skinned messengers to summon the sons and the allies of France. D'Aubrey, at Venango, heard the call and responded with his most zealous endeavors. Gathering all the troops he could from far and near, stripping bare with desperate energy the little French posts of the West, and mustering every red man he could persuade to follow his banners, he set forth to relieve Niagara. Thus it was that about the 20th of July, 1759, while the Eng- lish army was still camped around the walls of Quebec, while Wolfe and Montcalm were approaching that common grave to which the path of glory was so soon to lead them, a stirring scene took place on the western borders of our county. The largest European force which had yet been seen in this region at any one time came coasting down the lake from Presque Isle, past the mouth of the Cattaraugus, and along the shores of Brant, and Evans, and Hamburg, to the mouth of the limpid Buffalo. Fifty or sixty batteaux bore near a thousand French- men on their mission of relief, while a long line of canoes were freighted with four hundred of the dusky warriors of the West. A motley yet gallant band it Avas which then hastened along our shores, on the desperate service of sustaining the failing for- tunes of France. Gay young officers from the court of the Grand Monarque sat side by side with sunburned trappers, whose feet had trodden every mountain and prairie from the St. Law- rence to the Mississippi. Veterans who had won laurels under the marshals of France were comrades of those who knew no other foe than the Iroquois and the Delawares. One boat was filled with soldiers trained to obey with unques- tioning fidelity every word of their leaders ; another contained only wild savages, who scarce acknowledged any other law than . their own fierce will. Here flashed swords and bayonets and brave attire, there appeared the dark rifles and buckskin gar- 52 EXPEDITION OF D'aUBREY. ments of the hardy hunters, while, still further on, the tomahawks and scalping-knives and naked bodies of Ottawa and Huron braves glistened in the July sun. There were some, too, among the younger men, who might fairly have taken their places in either batteau or canoe ; whose features bore unmistakable evidence of the commingling of diverse races ; who might perchance have justly claimed kindred with barons and chevaliers then resplendent in the salons of Paris, but who had drawn their infant nourishment from the breasts of dusky mothers, as they rested from hoeing corn on the banks of the Ohio. History has preserved but a slight record of this last struggle of the French for dominion in these regions, but it has rescued from oblivion the names of D'Aubrey, the commander, and De Lignery, his second ; of Monsieur Marini, the leader of the In- dians ; and of the captains De Villie, Repentini, Martini and Basonc. They were by no means despondent. The command contained many of the same men, both white and red, who had slaughtered the unlucky battalions of Braddock only two years before, and they might well hope that some similar turn of fortune would yet give them another victory over the foes of France. The Seneca warriors, snuffing the battle from their homes on the Genesee and beyond, were roaming restlessly through Erie and Niagara counties, and along the shores of the river, uncer- tain how to act, more friendly to the French than the English, and yet unwilling to engage in conflict with their brethren of the Six Nations. Hardly pausing to communicate with these doubtful friends, D'Aubrey led his flotilla past the pleasant groves whose place is now occupied by a great commercial emporium, hurried by the tall bluff now crowned by the battlements of Fort Porter, dashed down the rapids, swept on in his eager course untroubled by the piers of any International bridge, startled the deer from their lairs on the banks of Grand Island, and only halted on reaching the shores of Navy Island. Being then beyond the borders of Erie county, I can give the remainder of his expedition but the briefest mention. After staying at Navy Island a da}' or two to communicate with the END OF FRENCH POWER. 53 fort, he passed over to the mainland and confidently marched forward to battle. But Sir William Johnson, who had succeeded to the command on the death of Prideaux, was not the kind of man likely to meet the fate of Braddock. Apprised of the approach of the French, he retained men enough before the fort to prevent an outbreak of the garrison, and stationed the rest in an advantageous position on the east side of the Niagara, just below the whirlpool. After a battle an hour long the French were utterly routed, several hundred being slain on the field, and a large part of the remainder being captured, including the wounded D'Aubrey. On the receipt of these disastrous news the garrison at once surrendered. The control of the Niagara river, which had been in the hands of the French for over a hundred years, passed into those of the English. For a little while the French held posses- sion of their fort at Schlosser, and even repulsed an English force sent against it. Becoming satisfied, however, that they could not withstand their powerful foe, they determined to destroy their two armed vessels, laden with military stores. They accordingly took them into an arm of the river, separating Buck- horn from Grand Island, at the very northwesternmost limit of Erie county, burned them to the water's edge, and sunk the hulls. The remains of these hulls, nearly covered with mud and sand, are still, or were lately, to be seen in the shallow water where they sank, and the name of "Burnt Ship Bay" perpetuates the naval sacrifice of the defeated Gauls. Soon the life-bought victory of Wolfe gave Quebec to the triumphant Britons. Still the French clung to their colonies with desperate but failing grasp, and it was not until September, 1760, that the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the governor general of Canada, surrendered Montreal, and with it Detroit, Venango, and all the other posts within his jurisdiction. This surrender was ratified by the treaty of peace between England and France in February, 1763, which ceded Canada to the former power. The struggle was over. The English Octavius had defeated the Gallic Antony. Forever destroyed was the prospect of a French peasantry inhabiting the plains of Erie county, of baron- ial castles crowning its vine-clad heights, of a gay French city overlooking the mighty lake and the renowned river. 54 THE SENEGAS HOSTILE. CHAPTER VIII. ENGLISH DOMINION. Pontiac's League. — The Senecas Hostile. — The Devil's Hole. — Battle near Buffalo. — Treaty at Niagara. — Bradstreet's Expedition. — Israel Putnam. — Lake Com- merce. — Wreck of the Beaver. — Tryon County. Notwithstanding the disappearance of the French soldiers, the western tribes still remembered them with affection, and were still disposed to wage war upon the English. The cele- brated Pontiac united nearly all these tribes in a league against the red-coats, immediately after the advent of the latter, and as no such confederation had been formed against the French, during all their long years of possession, his action must be as- signed to some cause other than mere hatred of all civilized intruders. I / In May, ^863, the league surprised nine out of twelve English posts, and massacred their garrisons. Detroit, Pittsburg and Niagara alone escaped surprise, and each successfully resisted a siege, in which branch of war, indeed, the Indians were almost certain to fail. There is no positive evidence, but there is little doubt that the Senecas were involved in Pontiac's league, and were active in the attack on Fort Niagara. They had been un- willing to fight their brethren of the Long House, under Sir William Johnson, but had no scruples about killing the English when left alone, as was soon made terribly manifest. In the September following occurred the awful tragedy of the Devil's Hole, when a band of Senecas, of whom Honayewus, afterwards celebrated as Farmer's Brother, was one, and Corn- planter probably another, ambushed a train of English army- wagons, with an escort of soldiers, the whole numbering ninety- six men, three and a half miles below the Falls, and massacred every man with four exceptions. A few weeks later, on the 19th of October, 1763, there occurred the first hostile conflict in Erie county of which there is any record, in which white men took part. It is said to have been A BATTLE NEAR BUFFALO. 55 at the " east end of Lake Erie," but was probably on the river just below the lake, as there would be no chance for ambushing boats on the lake shore. Six hundred British soldiers, under one Major Wilkins, were on their way in boats to reinforce their comrades in Detroit. As they approached the lake, a hundred and sixty of them, who were half a mile astern of the others, were suddenly fired on by a band of Senecas, ensconced in a thicket on the river shore, probably on the site of Black Rock. Though even the British estimated the enemy at only sixty, yet so close was their aim that thirteen men were killed and wounded at the first fire. The captain in command of the nearest boats immediately ordered fifty men ashore, and attacked the Indians. The latter fell back a short distance, but rallied, and when the British pursued them they maintained their ground so well that three more men were killed on the spot, and twelve others badly wounded, including two commissioned officers. Meanwhile, under the protection of other soldiers, who formed on the beach, the boats made their way into the lake, and were joined by the men who had taken part in the fight. It does not appear that the Indians suffered near as heavily as the English. This was the last serious attack by the Senecas upon the En- glish. Becoming at length convinced that the French had really yielded, and that Pontiac's scheme had failed as to its main pur- pose, they sullenly agreed to abandon Yonnondio, and be at peace with Corlear. In April, 1764, Sir William Johnson concluded peace with eight chiefs of the Senecas, at Johnson's Hall. At that time, among other agreements, they formally conveyed to the king of Eng- land a tract fourteen miles by four, for a carrying place around Niagara Falls, lying on both sides of the river from Schlosser to Lake Ontario. This was the origin of the policy of reserv- ing a strip of land along the river, which was afterwards carried out by the United States and the State of New York. This treaty was to be more fully ratified at a council to be held at Fort Niagara in the summer of 1764. Events in the West, where Pontiac still maintained active but unavailing hos- tility to the British, as well as the massacres previously per- petrated by the Senecas, determined the English commander- 56 bradstreet's expedition. in-chief to send a force up the lakes able to overcome all opposition. Accordingly, in the summer of 1764, Gen. Bradstreet, an able officer, with twelve hundred British and Americans, came by water to Fort Niagara, accompanied by the indefatigable Sir William Johnson and a body of his Iroquois warriors. A grand council of friendly Indians was held at the fort, among whom Sir William exercised -his customary skill, and satisfactory trea- ties were made with them. But the Senecas, though repeatedly promising attendance in answer to the baronet's messages, still held aloof, and. were said to be meditating a renewal of the war. At length Gen. Brad- street ordered their immediate attendance, under penalty of the destruction of their settlements. They came, ratified the treaty, and thenceforward adhered to it pretty faithfully, not- withstanding the peremptory manner in which it was obtained. In the meantime a fort had been erected on the site of Fort Erie, the first ever built there. In August Bradstreet's army, increased to nearly three thou- sand men, among whom were three, hundred Senecas, (who seem to have been taken along partly as hostages,) came up the river to the site of Buffalo. Thence they proceeded up the south side of the lake, for the purpose of bringing the western Indians to terms, a task which was successfully accomplished without bloodshed. From the somewhat indefinite accounts which have come down to us, it is evident that the journey was made in open boats, rigged with sails, in which, when the wind was favor- able, excellent speed was made. Bradstreet's force, like D' Aubrey's, was a somewhat motley one. There were stalwart, red-coated regulars, who, when they marched, did so as one man ; hardy New England militia, whose dress and discipline and military maneuvers were but a poor imitation of the regulars, yet who had faced the legions of France on many a well-fought field ; rude hunters of the border, to whom all dis- cipline was irksome ; faithful Indian allies from the Mohawk valley, trained to admiration of the English by Sir William Johnson ; and finally the three hundred scowling Senecas, their hands red from the massacre of the Devil's Hole, and almost ready to stain them again with English blood. EARLY LAKE COMMERCE. 57 Of the British and Americans, who then in closest friendship and under the same banners passed along the western border of Erie county, there were not a few who in twelve years more were destined to seek each others lives on the blood-stained battle- fields of the Revolution. Among them was one whose name was a tower of s.trength to the patriots of America, whose voice ral- lied the faltering soldiers of Bunker Hill, and whose fame has come down to us surrounded by a peculiar halo of adventurous valor. This was Israel Putnam, then a loyal soldier of King George, and lieutenant colonel of the Connecticut battalion. For a ^vhile, however, there was peace, not only between Eng- land and France, but between the Indians and the colonists. The Iroquois, though the seeds of dissension had been sown among them, were still a powerful confederacy, and their war- parties occasionally made incursions among the western Indians, striding over the plains of Erie county as they went, and return- ing by the same route with their scalps and prisoners. Hither, too, came detachments of red-coated Britons, coming up the Niagara, usually landing at Fort Erie, where a post was all the while maintained, and going thence in open boats to De- troit, Mackinaw, and other western forts. It was not absolutely necessary to come this way to reach Pittsburgh, since the British base of supplies was not, like that of the French, confined to the St. Lawrence, but included Pennsylvania and Virginia. Along the borders of Erie county, too, went all the commerce of the upper lakes, consisting of supplies for the military posts, goods to trade with the Indians, and the furs received in return. The trade was carried on almost entirely in open boats, pro- pelled by oars, with the occasional aid of a temporary sail. In good weather tolerable progress could be made, but woe to any of these frail craft which might be overtaken by a storm. The New York Gazette, in February, 1770, informed its read- ers that several boats had been lost in crossing Lake Erie, and that the distress of the crews was so great that they were obliged to keep two human bodies found on the north shore, so as to kill for food the ravens and eagles which came to feed on the corpses. This remarkable narrative of what may be called sec- ond-hand cannibalism, gives a startling picture of the hardships at that time attending commercial operations on Lake Erie. 5 58 WRECK OF THE BEAVER. Other boats were mentioned at the same thne as frozen up or lost, but nothing is said as to sail-vessels. There were, however, at least two or three English trading vessels on Lake Erie before the Revolution, and probably one or two armed vessels belonging to the British government. One of the former, called the Beaver, is known to have been lost in a storm, and is believed by the best authorities to have been wrecked near the mouth of Eight- een-Mile creek, and to have furnished the relics found in that vicinity by early settlers, which by some have been attributed to the ill-fated Griffin. The Senecas made frequent complaints of depredations com- mitted by whites on some of their number, who had villages on the head waters of the Susquehanna and Ohio. " Cressap's war," in which the celebrated Logan was an actor, contributed to render them uneasy, but they did not break out in open hos- tilities. They, like the rest of the Six Nations, had by this time learned to place implicit confidence in Sir William John- son, and made all their complaints through him. He did his best to redress their grievances, and also sought to have them withdraw their villages from those isolated localities to their chief seats in New York, so they would be more com- pletely under his jurisdiction and protection. Ere this could be accomplished, however, all men's attention was drawn to certain mutterings in the political sky, low at first, but growing more and more angry, until at length there burst upon the country that long and desolating storm known as the Revolutionary war. Before speaking of that it may be proper to remark that, mu- nicipally considered, all the western part of the colony of New York was nominally a part of Albany county up to 1772, though really all authority was divided between the Seneca chiefs and the officers of the nearest British garrisons. In that year a new county was formed, embracing all that part of the colony west of the Delaware river, and of a line running north- eastward from the head of that stream through the present county of Schoharie, then northward along the east line of Montgom- ery, Fulton and Hamilton counties, and continuing in a straight line to Canada. It was named Tryon, in honor of William Tryon, then the royal governor of New York. Guy Johnson, APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION. 59 Sir William's nephew and son-in-law, was the earliest "first judge " of the common pleas, with the afterward celebrated John Butler as one of his associates. As the danger of hostilities increased, the Johnsons showed themselves more and more clearly on behalf of the King. Sir William said little and seemed greatly disturbed by the gather- ing troubles. There is little doubt, however, that, had he lived, he would have used his power in behalf of his royal master. But in 1774 he suddenly died. Much of his influence over the Six Nations descended to his son, Sir John Johnson, and his nephew. Col. Guy Johnson. The latter became his successor in the office of superintendent of Indian affairs. 6o THE HOSTILE H^OQUOIS. CHAPTER IX. THE REVOLUTION. Four Iroquois Tribes hostile. — The Oswego Treaty.- — Scalps. — Brant. — Guienguah- toh. — Wyoming. — Cherry Valley. — Sullivan's Expedition. — Senecas settle in Erie County. — Gilbert Family. — Peace. In 1775 the storm burst. The Revolution began. The new superintendent persuaded the Mohawks to remove westward with him, and made good his influence over all of the Six Na- tions except the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, though it was near two years from the breaking out of the war before they com- mitted any serious hostilities. John Butler, however, estab- lished himself at Fort Niagara, and organized a regiment of tories known as Butler's Rangers, and he and the Johnsons used all their influence to induce. the Indians to attack the Americans. The Senecas held off for awhile, but the prospect of both blood and pay was too much for them to withstand, and in 1777 they, in common with the Cayugas, Onondagas and Mohawks, made a treaty with the British at Oswego, agreeing to serve the king throughout the war. Mary Jemison, the celebrated "White Woman," then living among the Senecas on the Genesee, de- clares that at that treaty the British agents, after giving the In- dians numerous presents, " promised a bounty on every scalp that should be brought in." The question whether a price was actually paid or promised for scalps has been widely debated. There is not sufficient evi- dence to prove that it was done, and the probabilities are that it was not. Mary Jemison was usually considered truthful, and had good means of knowing- what the Indians understood on the subject, but the latter were very ready to understand that they would be paid for taking scalps. An incident on the American side, which will be narrated in the account of the war of 18 1 2, will illustrate this propensity of the savages. As formerly the Senecas, though favorable to the French, hesitated about attacking their brethren of the Long House, so THE SENEGAS AT WYOMING. 6 1 now the Oneidas, who were friendly to the Americans, did not go out to battle against the other Iroquois, but remained neutral throughout the contest. The league of the Hedonosaunee was weakened but not destroyed. From the autumn of 1777 forward, the Senecas, Cayugas, On- ondagas and Mohawks were active in the British interest. Fort Niagara again became, as it had been during the French war, the. key of all this region, and to it the Iroquois constantly looked for support and guidance. Their raids kept the whole frontier for hundreds of miles in a state of terror, and were at- tended by the usual horrors of savage warfare. Whether a bounty was paid for scalps or not, the Indians were certainly employed to assail the inhabitants with constant marauding parties, notwithstanding their well-known and invet- erate habit of slaughtering men, women and children whenever opportunity offered, or at least whenever the freak happened to take them. In fact they were good for very little else, their de- sultory method of warfare making them almost entirely useless in assisting the regular operations of an army. The most active and the most celebrated of the Iroquois chiefs in the Revolution was Joseph Brant, or Thayendenegea, a Mohawk who had received a moderate English education under the patronage of Sir William Johnson. He was most frequently intrusted with the command of detached parties by the British officers, but it does not appear that he had authority over all the tribes, and it is almost certain that the haughty Senecas, the most powerful tribe of the confederacy, to whom by ancient law belonged both the principal war-chiefs of the league, would not and did not submit to the control of a Mohawk. Three of the chiefs of the Senecas in that conflict are well* known — " Farmer's Brother," " Cornplanter," and " Governor Blacksnake " ; but who was their chief-in-chief, if I may be allowed to coin the expression, is not certain. I do not myself think there was any, but am of the opinion that the leader of each expedition received his orders directly from the English officers. W. L. Stone, author of the life of Brant, says that at the battle of Wyoming, in 1778, the leader of the Senecas, who formed the main part of the Indian force on that occasion, was 02 SULLIVAN S EXPEDITION. Guiengwahtoh, supposed to be same as Guiyahgwahdoh, " the smoke-bearer." That was the official title of the Seneca after- wards known as " Young King," he being a kind of hereditary ambassador, the bearer of the smoking brand from the great council-fire of the confederacy to light that of the Senecas. He was too young to have been at Wyoming, but his predeces- sor in office, (probabl}' his maternal uncle,) might have been there. Brant was certainly not present. I have called that affair the "battle" instead of the "massacre" of Wyoming, as it is usually termed. The facts seem to be that no quarter was given during the conflict, and that after the Americans were routed the tories and Senecas pursued, and killed -all they could, but that those who reached the fort and afterwards surrendered were not harmed, nor were any of the non-combatants. The whole valley, however, was devastated, and the houses burned. At Cherry Valley, the same year, the Senecas were present in force, together with a body of Mohawks, under Brant, and of tories, under Capt. Walter Butler, son of Col. John Butler, and there then was an undoubted massacre. Nearly thirty women and children were killed, besides many men surprised helpless in their homes. These events, and other similar ones on a smaller scale, in- duced congress and General Washington to set on foot an expe- dition in the spring of 1779, which, though carried on outside the bounds of Erie county, had a very strong influence on that county's subsequent history. I refer to the celebrated expedi- tion of General Sullivan against the Six Nations. Having marched up the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, where •he was joined by a brigade under General James Clinton, (father of De Witt Clinton,) Sullivan, with a total force of some four thousand men, moved up the Chemung to the site of Elmira. There Col. Butler, with a small body of Indians and tories, variously estimated at from six hundred to fifteen hundred men, had thrown up intrenchments, and a battle was fought. Butler was speedily defeated, retired with considerable loss, and made no further opposition. Sullivan advanced and destroyed all the Seneca villages on the Genesee and about Geneva, burning wigwams and cabins, SENEGAS IN ERIE COUNTY. 63 cutting down orchards, cutting up growing corn, and utterly de- vastating tlie country. The Senecas fled in great dismay to Fort Niagara. The Onondaga villages had in the meantime been destroyed by another force, but it is plain that the Senecas were the ones who were chiefly feared, and against whom the vengeance of the Americans was chiefly directed. After thor- oughly laying waste their country, the Americans returned to the East. Sullivan's expedition substantially destroyed the league which bound the Six Nations together. Its form remained, but it had lost its binding power. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras were encouraged to increase their separation from the other confeder- ates. Those tribes whose possessions had been destroyed were thrown into more complete subservience to the British power, thereby weakening their inter-tribal relations, and the spirits of the Senecas, the most powerful and warlike of them all, were much broken by this disaster. It was a more serious matter than had been the destruction of their villages in earlier times. They had adopted a more permanent mode of existence. They had learned to depend more on agriculture and less on the chase. They had not only corn-fields, but gardens, orchards, and sometimes comfortable houses. In fact they had adopted many of the customs of civil- ized life, though without relinquishing their primitive pleasures, such as tomakawking prisoners and scalping the dead. They fled en masse to Fort Niagara, and during the winter of 1779-80, which was one of extraordinary severity, were scantily sustained by rations which the British authorities with difficulty procured. As spring approached the English made earnest eftbrts to reduce the expense, by persuading the Indians to make new settlements and plant crops. The red men were naturally anxious to keep as far as practicable from the dreaded foes who had inflicted such heavy punishment the year before, and were unwilling to risk their families again at their ancient seats. At this time a considerable body of the Senecas, with proba- bly some Cayugas and Onondagas, came up from Niagara and established themselves near Buffalo creek, about four miles above its mouth. This was, so far as known, the first permanent settlement of the Senecas in Erie county. They had probably 64 LIEUTENANT JOHNSTON. had huts here to use while hunting" and fishing, but no regular villages. In fact this settlement of the Senecas, in the spring of 1780, was probably the first permanent occupation of the county, since the destruction of the Neuter Nation a hundred and thirty-five years before. The same spring another band located themselves at the mouth of the Cattaraugus. Those who settled on Buffalo creek were under the leadership of Siangarochti, or Sayengaraghta, an aged but influential chief, sometimes called Old King, and said to be the head sachem of the Senecas. They brought with them two or more more mem- bers of the Gilbert family, quakers who had been captured on the borders of Pennsylvania, a month or two previous. After the war the family published a narrative of their captivity, which gives much valuable information regarding this period of our histor)'. Immediately on their arrival, the squaws began to clear the ground and prepare it for corn, while the men built some log- huts and then went out hunting. That summer the family of Siangarochti alone raised seventy-five bushels of corn. In the beginning of the winter of 1780-81, two British otili- cers, Capt. Powell and Lieutenant Johnson, or Johnston, came to the settlement on Buffalo creek, and remained until toward spring. They were probably sent by the British authorities at Fort Niagara, to aid in putting the new settlement on a solid foundation. Possibly they were also doing some fur-trading on their own account. They made strenuous etibrts to obtain the release of Rebecca and Benjamin, two of the younger mem- bers of the Gilbert famih-, but the Indians were unwilling to give them up. Captain Powell had married Jane Moore, a girl who, with her mother and others of the family, had been captured at Cherry Valley. The " Lieutenant Johnson " who accompanied him to Buffalo creek was most likely his half-brother, who afterwards located at Buffalo, and was known to the early settlers as Cap- tain William Johnston. There seems to have been no ground whatever for the supposition which has been entertained by some that he was the half-breed son of Sir William Johnson. All the circumstances show that he was not. THE GILBERT FAMILY. 65 Lieutenant Johnston, who was probably an officer in Butler's Rangers, was said by Mrs. Jemison to have robbed Jane Moore of a rinij at Clierry Valley, which he afterwards used to marry the lady he had despoiled. As Jane Moore married Captain Powell instead of Lieutenant Johnston, this romantic story has been entirely discredited ; but since it has been ascertained that Johnston was a half-brother of Powell, it is easy to see how Mrs. Jemison might have confounded the two, and that John- ston might really have furnished the "confiscated" ring for his brother's wedding instead of his own. Captain (afterwards Col- onel) Powell is frequently and honorably mentioned in several accounts, as doing everything in his power to ameliorate the con- dition of the captives among the Indians. It must have been about this time that Johnston took unto himself a Seneca wife; for his son, John Johnston, was a young man when Buffalo was laid out in 1803, Elizabeth Peart, wife of Thomas Peart, son of th^ elder Mrs. Gilbert by a former husband, was another of the Gilbert family captives who was brought to Buff*alo creek. She had been adopted by a Seneca family, but that did not induce much kindness on their part, for they allowed her child, less than a year old, to be taken from her, and adopted by another family, living near Fort Niagara. She was permitted to keep it awhile after its " adoption," but when they went to the fort for provis- ions, they took her and her infant along, and compelled her to give it up. Near the close of the winter of 1 780-81, they were again compelled to go to Fort Niagara for provisions, and there she found her child, which had been bought by a white family from the Indians who had adopted it. By many artifices, and by the connivance of Captain Powell, she finally escaped to Montreal with her husband and children. Others of the Gilbert family still remained in captivity. Thomas Peart, brother of Benjamin, obtained his liberty in the spring of 1 78 1, and was allowed to go to Buffalo creek with Capt. Powell, who was sent to distribute provisions, hoes, and other implements, among the Indians. At the distribution, the chiefs of every band came for shares, each having as many sticks as there were persons in his band, in order to insure a fair division. 66 PEACE. That spring, still another body of Indians came to Buffalo creek, having with them Abner and Elizabeth Gilbert, the two youngest children of the family. But this band settled some distance from the main body, and the children were not allowed to visit each other. In July of that year, the family in which Abner Gilbert was went to " Butlersburg." a little village opposite Fort Niagara, named after Colonel Butler. The colonel negotiated with the woman who was the head of the family for Abner, and she agreed to give him up on receiving some presents. But he was only to be delivered after twenty days' time. She took him back to Buffalo creek, but finally returned with him before the stip- ulated day, and the}' were sent to Montreal by the first ship. Meanwhile, the war had gone forward with varying fortunes. Guy Johnson and Col. Butler kept the Indians at work as busily as possible, marauding upon the frontier, but they had been so thoroughly broken up that they were unable to produce such devastation as at Wyoming and Cherry Valley. In October, 1781. Cornwallis surrendered, and thenceforth there were no more active hostilities. Rebecca Gilbert and Benjamin Gilbert, Jr., were released the next year. This appears to have been managed by Col. Butler, who. to give him his due, always seemed willing to befriend the captives, though constantly sending out his savages to make new ones. Not until the arrangements were all made did the Indians inform Rebecca of her approaching freedom. With joyful heart she prepared for the journey, making bread and doing other needful work for her captors. Then, by canoe and on foot, she and her brother were taken to Niagara, and, after a conference, the last two of the ill-fated Gilbert family were released from captivity in June, 1782. In the fall of 1783, peace was formally declared between Great Britain and the revolted colonies, henceforth to be ac- knowledged by all men as the United States of America. By the treaty the boundary line was established along the center of Lake Ontario, Niagara River and Lake Erie. Al- thousfh the forts held bv the British on the American side of the line were not given up for many years afterwards, and though they thus retained a strong influence over the Indians located LENGTH OF I':NGLISH DOMINION. 6/ on this side, yet the legal title was admitted to be in the United States. Thus the unquestioned English authority over the ter- ritory of Erie county lasted only from the treaty with France, in 1763, to that with the United States in 1783, a little over twenty years. 6S TREATY OF FORT STAXWIX. CHAPTER X. FROM 1783 TO 1788. Treatment of the Six Nations. — The Tre.ity of Fort Stanwix. — The Western Bound- ary. — Origin of the Name of Buffalo. — Miss Powell's Visit. — "Captain David." — Claims of New York and Massachusetts. — How Settled. — Sale to Phelps and Gorham. — The Land Rings. — A Council Called. No provision whatever was made in the treaty of peace for the Indian alhes of Great Britain. The EngHsh authorities, however, offered theni land in Canada, but all except the Mo- hawks preferred to remain in New York. The United States treated them with unexampled modera- tion. Although the Iroquois had twice violated their pledges, and without prov^ocation had plunged into the war against the colonies, they were readily admited to the benefits of peace, and were even recognized as the owners of all the land over which they had ranged before the Revolution. The property line, as it was called, previously drawn between the whites and Indians, ran along the eastern border of Broome and Chenango counties, and thence northwestward to a point seven miles west of Rome. In October, 1784, a treaty was made at Fort Stanwix (Rome) between three commissioners of the United States and the sachems of the Six Nations. The Marquis de la Fayette was present and made a speech, though not one of the commissioners. It is almost certain, however, that Red Jacket, then a young man, who afterwards claimed to have been there, did not really take any part in the council. Brant was not present, though he had been active in a council with Governor Clinton, only a short time before. Cornplanter spoke on behalf of the Senecas, but Sayengeraghta or " Old King," was recognized as the principal Seneca sachem. The eastern boundary of the Indian lands does not seem to have been in dispute, but the United States wanted to extin- guish whatever claim the Six Nations might have to the west- ern territory, and also to keep open the right of way around the AN OLD BOUNDARY. 69 Falls, which Sir William Johnson had obtained for the British. It was accordingly agreed that the western line of their lands should begin on lake Ontario, four miles east of the Niagara, running thence southerly, in a direction always four miles east of t4ie carrying path, to the mouth of Tehoseroron (or Buffalo) creek, on Lake Erie ; thence south to the north boundary of the State of Pennsylvania; "thence west to the end of said north boundary ; thence south along the west boundary of the State to the river Ohio." This agreement (if it is correctly given above, and I think it is) would have left the whole of Chautauqua county and a large part of Erie and Cattaraugus west of the line. It could hardly be called a treaty, as the Indians only agreed to it because they thought they were obliged to, and afterwards made so much com- plaint that its provisions were somewhat modified. The treaty of Fort Stanwix was the first public document containing the name of Buffalo creek, as applied to the stream which empties at the foot of Lake Erie. The narratiye of the Gilbert family published just after the war was the first appear- ance of the name in writing or printing. This is a proper time, therefore, to consider a question which has been often debated, viz., whether the original Indian name was " Buffalo" creek. This almost of necessity involves the further question whether the buffalo ever ranged on its banks; for it is not to be presumed that the Indians would, in the first place, have adopted that name unless such had been the case. It is conceded that the Seneca name for the locality at the mouth of the creek was "To-se-o-way," otherwise rendered De- dyo-syo-oh, meaning "the place of basswoods." Te-ho-se-ro-ron is supposed to be the same word in the Mohawk dialect. It is therefore believed by some that the interpreter made a mistake in calling the stream "Buffalo creek " in the treaty of Fort Stan- wix, and that the Senecas afterwards adopted the name, calling the creek "Tick-e-ack-gou" or Buffalo. In the second chapter the writer briefly indicated his reasons for believing that the buffalo once visited, at least occasionally, the shores of Buffalo creek. The first fact to be considered is the unquestioned existence in Erie county of open plains of considerable extent, only seventy-five years ago. As they were JO THE BUFFALO QUESTION. then growing up with small timber, the presumption is that they were much larger previously, and old accounts coincide with the presumption. Numerous early travelers and later hunters mention the ex- istence of the buffalo in this vicinity or not far away. The strongest instance, is the account of Chaumonot and Brebceuf, referred to in the sixth chapter, which declares that the Neuter Nation, who occupied this very county of Erie, were in the habit of hunting the buffalo, together with other animals. Mr. Ketchum, in his history of "Buffalo and the Senecas," says that all the oldest Senecas in 1820 declared that buffalo bones had been found within their recollection at the salt licks, near Sulphur Springs. The same author produces evidence that white men had killed buffaloes within the last hundred and twenty years, not only in Ohio but in Western Pennsylvania. Albert Gallatin, who was a surveyor in Western Virginia in 1784, declared, in a paper published by the American Ethnolo- gical Society, that they were at that time abundant in the Ke- nawha valley, and that he had for eight months lived principally on their flesh. This is positive proof, and the Kenawha valley is only three hundred miles from here, and only one hundred miles further west, and in as well wooded a country as this. Mr. Gallatin adds authentic evidence of their having previously penetrated west of the Alleganies. The narrative of the Gilbert family is very strong evidence that from the first the Senecas applied the name of Buffalo to the stream in question. Although the book was not published until after the war, yet the knowledge then given to the public was acquired in 1780, '81 and '^2. At least six of the Gilberts and Pearts were among the Senecas on Buffalo creek. Some of them were captives for over two years, and must have ac- quired considerable knowledge of the language. It is utterly out of the question that they could all have been mistaken as to the name of the stream on which they lived, which must have been constantly referred to by all the Senecas in talking about their people domiciled there, as well as by the scores of British officers and soldiers with whom the Gilberts came in contact. If, then, the Neuter Nation hunted buffaloes in Canada in 1640, if thev were killed bv the whites in Ohio and Pennsvlvania MISS I'owKLLs \isrr. 71 within the last century and a quarter, if Albert Gallatin found them abundant on the Kenawha in 1784, if the old Senecas of 1820 declared they had found his bones at the salt lick, and if the Indians called the stream on which they settled in 1780 "Buffalo" creek, there can be no reasonable doubt that they knew what they were about, and did so because that name came down from former times, when the monarch of the western prai- rie strayed over the plains of the county of Erie. The same year of the Fort Stanwix treaty (1784) the name of Tryon county, of which Erie was nominally a part, was changed to Montgomery, in honor of the slain hero of Quebec. In May, 1785, Miss Powell, probably a sister of the Captain Powell before mentioned, visited an Indian council on Buffalo creek, and has left an interesting description, which I find in Mr. Ketchum's valuable repertory. After admiring the Falls, of which she writes in glowing terms, her party went in boats to Fort Erie. Thence they crossed to this side. She was accom- panied by Mrs. Powell (Jane Moore), and by several British officers. One of her companions, (who had also been an officer, though I am not certain that he was then one,) was a young Irish no- bleman, whose name was soon to be raised to a mournful prom- inence, and whose fruitless valor and tragic fate are still the theme of ballad and story among the people of his native land. This was Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who manifested a great fond- ness for visiting among the Indians, and who found an especial charm in the society of Brant. Before the council assembled, Miss Powell noticed several chiefs, gravely seated on the ground, preparing for it by painting their faces before small looking-glasses, which they held in their left hands. She declares there were two hundred chiefs present as delegates of the Six Nations, which, as there were not over two thousand warriors in all, was a very liberal allowance of officers. The chief of each tribe formed a circle in the shade of a tree, while their appointed speaker stood with his back against it. Then the old women came, one by one, with great solemnity, and seated themselves behind the men. Miss Powell noted, with evident approval, that " on the banks of Lake Erie a woman 72 "CAPTAIN DAVID." becomes respectable as she grows old;" and added that, though the ladies kept silent, nothing was decided without their appro- bation. Their fair visitor was wonderfully taken with the manly ap- pearance of the Iroquois warriors, and declared that "our beaux look quite insignificant beside them." She was especially pleased with one who was called " Captain David," of whom she gave a very full account. Indians wearing the old clothes of white men are common enough now, but a full-fledged Iroquois beau of the last century was an altogether different personage, and I will therefore transcribe the substance of the lady's glowing de- scription. She declared that the Prince of Wales did not bow with more grace than " Captain David." He spoke English with propriety. His person was tall and fine as it was possible to imagine ; his features handsome and regular, with a countenance of much softness ; his complexion not disagreeably dark, and, said Miss P., " I really believe he washes his face ; " the proof being that she saw no signs of paint forward of his ears. His hair was shaved off, except a little on top of his head, which, with his ears, was painted a glowing red. Around his head was a fillet of silver, from which two strips of black velvet, covered with silver beads and brooches, hung over the left tem- ple. A " fox-tail feather " in his scalp lock, and a black one be- hind each ear, waved and nodded as he walked, while a pair of immense silver ear-rings hung down to his shoulders. He wore a calico shirt, the neck and shoulders thickly covered with silver brooches, the sleeves confined above the elbows with broad silver bracelets, engraved with the arms of England, while . four smaller ones adorned his wrists. Around his waist was a dark scarf, lined with scarlet, which hung to his feet, while his costume was completed by neatly fitting blue cloth leggins, fast- ened with an ornamental garter below the knee. Such was the most conspicuous gentleman of Erie county ninety-one years ago, and Miss Powell enthusiastically declared that ■' Captain David made the finest appearance I ever saw in my life." Now and then some fair English maiden has been so smitten with the appearance of a native American warrior as to become CONFLICTING CLAIMS. J I his bride, anei make her residence within his wigwam. Miss. Powell, however, was not quite so much charmed by Captain David as that, since she returned to Fort Erie that evening on her way to Detroit, leaving Lord Edward Fitzgerald and others to be entertained that night by the dancing of their dusky friends. As was stated in Chapter VIII, the colonies of Massachu- setts and New York had charters under which they could both claim not only all Central and Western New York, but a strip of land running through to the Pacific ocean, or at least to the Mississippi. About the close of the Revolution, however, both Massachusetts and New York ceded to the United States all claim to the territory west of a line drawn south from the west- ern extremity of Lake Ontario, being the present western bound- ary of Chautauqua county. After divers negotiations regarding the rest of the disputed territory, commissioners from the two States interested met at Hartford, in December, 1786, to endeavor to harmonize their claims. It was then and there agreed that Massachusetts should yield all claim to the land east of the present east line of On- tario and Steuben counties. Also that west of that li-ne New York should have the political jurisdiction and sovereignty, while Massachusetts should have the title, or fee-simple, of the land, subject to the Indian right of occupancy. That is to say, the Indians could hold the land as long as they pleased, but were only allowed to sell to the State of Mas-, sachusetts or her assigns. This title, thus encumbered, was called the preemption right, literally the right of first purchas- ing. New York, however, reserved a tract a mile wide, along the eastern shore of the Niagara, from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. As, by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, the lands of the Six Nations only came within four miles of the river, and did not extend west of a line running due south from the mouth of Buffalo creek, it is probable that the L^nited States had since released the tract in New York west of that line to the Indians, in response to their numerous complaints. While these events were transpirin'g a combination (a " ring " it would now be called) was formed by prominent men in New York and Canada, to get control of the Indian lands in this 6 ;4 LAND RINGS. State. Two companies were organized, " The New York and Genesee Land Company," of which one John Livingston was the manager, and the " Niagara Genesee Company," composed principally of Canadians, with Col. John Butler at the head. With him were associated Samuel Street, of Chippewa, Captain Powell, the friend of the captives, William Johnston, afterwards of Buffalo, and Benjamin Barton, of New Jersey. As the State constitution forbade the sale of Indian lands to individuals, these companies, working together, sought to evade it by a lease. So great was the influence of Butler and his friends that in 1787 the Six Nations, or some chiefs claiming to act for them, gave the New York and Genesee Company a lease of all their lands (except some small reservations) for nine hun- dred and ninety-nine years. The consideration was to be twenty thousand dollars, and an annual rental of two thousand. The next winter the lessees applied to the legislature for a re- cognition of their lease, but the intent to evade the law was too plain ; the petition was promptly rejected and the lease declared void. ]\Lany of the chiefs, whether truly or not, declared this lease to have been made without authority. We may note, as con- firming: what has been said of the influence of the female sex among these savages, that in a letter sent by several chiefs from Buttalo creek, in the spring of 1788, they say the lease is void, "since not one sachem nor principal woman had given their consent." The lease having been declared void, the lessees next pro- posed to procure a conveyance by the Indians of all their lands to the State, provided the State would reimburse Livingston and his associates for all their expenses, and convey to them Jialf the land. This specimen of "cheek" can hardh' be exceeded even in these progressive days, considering that, by this propo- sition, Livingston, Butler and company would have got some four or five million acres of the finest land in America as a free gift. However, the proposition was promptly rejected. In 1788 Massachusetts sold all her land in New York, about si.x million acres, to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, act- ing on behalf of themselves and others, for one million dollars, in three equal annual installments, the purchasers being at lib- A COUNCIL CALLED. 75 erty to pay in certain stocks of that State, then worth about twenty cents on the dollar. The purchase was subject of course to the Indian right of oc- cupancy. Phelps, the active man of the firm, made an arrange- ment with Livingston, who agreed, doubtless for a consideration, to help him negotiate a treaty with the Indians. But mean- while there was a disagreement between Livingston's and But- ler's companies, and when Phelps arrived at Geneva, where a council was to have been held, he learned that Butler and Brant had assembled the Indians at Buffalo creek, and had persuaded them not to meet with either Livingston or Phelps. Finding that Butler and his friends had the most influence over the savages, Phelps went to Niagara, came to a satisfactory ar- rangement with them, and then procured the calling of a coun- cil at Buffalo creek. It assembled on the fifth of July. The proceedings were very quiet and harmonious, for Butler and Brant made every- thing move smoothly. There was little dispute, little excite- ment, and none of those impassioned bursts of eloquence for which Indian orators have become famous ; yet the noted men present at that council make it one of the most remarka- ble assemblages ever convened in the county of Erie. A sepa- rate chapter will therefore be devoted to it and them. ^6 THAYENDENEGEA. CHAPTER XI. THE COUNCIL. Brant. — Butler. — Kirklrxnd. — Phelps. — Farmer's Brother. — Red Jcicket. — Cornplant- er. — The Mill-seat. — The Bargain. — Butlei^'s Pay. By far the most celebrated personage present in the council on Buffalo creek in July, 1788, was the Mohawk chieftain, called in his native tongue Thayendenegea, but denominated Joseph when he was taken under the patronage of Sir William Johnson, and known to fame throughout England and America by the name of Brant. A tall, spare, sinewy man of forty-five, with an intelligent but sinister countenance, gorgeously appar- eled in a dress which was a cross between that of a British offi- cer and of an Indian dandy, his gaudy blanket thrown back from his shoulders to display his gold epaulets, and his mili- tary coat eked out by the blue breech-cloth and leggins of the savage, the vain but keen-witted Mohawk doubtless enjoyed himself as the observed of all observers, but at the same time kept a sharp lookout for the main chance ; having acquired a < decidedly civilized relish for land and money. Brant has acquired a terrible reputation as a bold and blood- thirsty leader of savages, but it would appear as if both his vices and his virtues were of the civilized — or semi-civilized — stamp. He had a mind which took easily to the instruction of the white man — though his education was only mediocre — and before the Revolution he had become a kind of private secretary to Col. Guy Johnson ; a position that to a thorough-going In- dian would have been irksome in the extreme. Even the Mo- hawks did not then look up to him as a great warrior, and on the outbreak of hostilities chose as their chief his nephew, Peter Johnson, son of Sir William by Brant's sister Molly. But the British found Brant the most intelligent of the In- dians, and by using him they could most easily insure coopera- tion in their own plans. They therefore intrusted him with nu- COLONEL BUTLER. "JJ meroLis expeditions, and the Mohawks readily yielded to his authority. So, too, perhaps, did some of the Cayugas and On- ondagas, but the evidence is strong that the Senecas never obeyed him. After the war, however, he was looked up to by all the Indians, on account of his influence with the British officials. In the matter of cruelty, too, though perhaps not a very hu- mane man according to our standard, he was much less savage than most of his countrymen, and there is abundant evidence of his having many times saved unfortunate prisoners from torture or death. Albeit there is also evidence of his having taken some lives needlessly, but never of his inflicting torture. As he grew older he affected more and more the style of an English country gentleman, at his hospitable residences at Brant- ford and Burlington Bay, and finally died, in 1807, in the odor of sanctity, a member of the Episcopal church and a translator of the Scriptures into the Mohawk dialect ! Another active participant in the council, with a reputation scarcely less extensive or less sinister, was Col. John Butler, the leader of " Butler's Rangers," the commander at the far-famed " Massacre of Wyoming," the terror of ten thousand families, the loyal gentleman of British records, the " infamous Butler " of border history. In this case, as in many others, probably the devil was not so black as he has been painted, but he was a good deal of a devil after all. The " Massacre of Wyoming," as I have said, is per- haps hardly entitled to that name. But Colonel Butler was the most active agent in sending and leading the savages against the frontier, knowing that it was impossible at times to restrain them from the most horrible outrages. Again and again they mur- dered individuals and families in cold blood ; again and again they dragged women and children from their homes hundreds of miles through the snows of winter, often slaughtering those too feeble to travel ; and again and again John Butler, the great military authority of all this region, sent or led them to a repe- tition of similar scenes — and they were good for little else— easily satisfying his conscience by sometimes procuring the re- lease of a prisoner. A native of Connecticut, a man of education and intelligence, yS SAMUEL KIRKLAXD. once a judge of the county of Tryon, then a bold, active and relentless partisan commander, cheering on his rangers and Sen- ecas at Wyoming, sword in hand, without his uniform and with a red 'kerchief tied around his head, Butler was in 1788 an agreeable appearing gentleman of fifty-five or sixty, stout and red-faced, in cocked hat and laced coat, with unbounded influ- ence over the Indians, and determined to use it so as to make a eood thine for himself out of the lands of \\'estern New York. There, too, was the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the agent of Mas- sachusetts, a man of noble character and varied experience. Twenty-three years before, then a young man just graduated from college, he had devoted himself to the missionary cause among the Indians, going at first among these same Senecas, and making many friends, though meeting with some very dis- heartening adventures. Then he had taken up his home with the Oneidas and labored among them with some intermissions nearly forty years, ever receiving their most earnest aftection and respect. It had been largely owing to his influence that that tribe had remained neutral during the revolution. Congress had employed him in various patriotic services throughout that struggle, and during Sullivan's campaign he had served as bri- gade chaplain. Fourteen years after the events we are now relating, he gained a new title to public gratitude by becoming the founder of Hamilton College, (though it then received only the modest title of Hamilton Oneida Academy,) giving it a liberal endowment out of lands granted him by the State for his services. On this occasion he acted not only as agent for ^Massachusetts but as one of the interpreters, there being three others, one of whom was William Johnston. This is the first positive appear- ance of one who was afterwards to exercise a powerful influence over the future of Buffalo — who was, in fact, to decide whether there should be any city of Buffalo or not. There is, however, little doubt that he was identical with the "Lieutenant Johnson," heretofore mentioned, who visited the Senecas in 1780, and also with the Lieutenant Johnson whom Mrs. Jemison mentions as taking part in the Cherry Valley raid. Shrewd, persistent, enterprising, a tj'pical business man of the day was Oliver Phelps, a Connecticut Yankee by birth, a FARMER S BROTHER. 79 son of the Bay State by adoption, a New Yorker by subsequent residence. He had been an active and influential participant in the Revolution, and was now, as the agent of an association of Massachusetts speculators, negotiating for the purchase of a principality. Removing soon after to Canandaigua, and super- intending there the sale of the vast domain which he and his associates had purchased, he was to the day of his death looked up to with profound respect by the residents of "Phelps and Gorham's Purchase." But his keenness in a bargain is well illus- trated by a transaction at this very council, narrated a little further on. Among the Indian owners of the land the most eminent was Honayewus, who had for several years been recognized as prin- cipal war-chief of the Senecas, and who had lately received the name of "Farmer's Brother" from the lips of Washington. The latter, anxious to make agriculture respectable among the Indi- ans, declared himself a farmer in conversation with Honayewus, and also saluted him as his brother. The chieftain, proud of the attention paid him by the great hero of the pale-faces, readily accepted the title of "Farmer's Brother," and ere long was uni- versally known by that name among the whites. A strong, stalwart warrior, of gigantic frame and magnificent proportions, straight as an arrow, though nearly sixty years old, plainly attired in full Indian costume, with eagle eye, frank, open countenance, commanding port and dignified demeanor, Honayewus was, more than Brant, or Red Jacket, or Cornplant- er, the beaii, ideal of an Iroquois chief. Though an eloquent orator, second only to Red Jacket in all the Six Nations, he \\as preeminently a warrior, and as such had been followed by the Senecas through many a carnival of blood. It is to be pre- sumed, too, that he had had his share in scenes of cruelty, for, though a peaceable man in peace, he was a savage like his brethren, and, like a savage, he waged war to the knife. Thirty years before he had been one of the leaders in the ter- rible tragedy of the Devil's Hole, when nearly a hundred Eng- lish soldiers were ambushed and slain, and flung down into the darksome gorge. He had borne his part in many a border foray throughout the Revolution, had led the fierce charge of the Sen- ecas when they turned the scale of battle at Wyoming, and had So RED JACKET. perhaps been an actor in the more dreadful scenes of Cherry Valley. Now he had become the friend of peace, the foe of in- temperance, the conservator of order ; and wherever a Seneca village was found, on the banks of the Buffalo or the Cattarau- gus, of the Genesee or the Allegany, the presence of Farmer's Brother was greeted, the name of Honayewus was heard, with the respect due to valor, wisdom and integrity. There, too, was the more celebrated but less respected leader, who had lately been made a chief by the honorable name of Sagoyewatha, "The Keeper Awake," (literally, "he keeps them awake" — a tribute to his oratorical powers which many a con- gressman might envy,) but who was generally known among the whites by the ridiculous appellation which he transmitted to his descendants, the far-famed Red Jacket. He, too, had been an actor in the border wars, but had gained no laurels in them. Brant and Cornplanter both hated him, de- claring him to be both a coward and a traitor. They were accustomed to tell of the time when he made a glowing speech, urging the Senecas to battle, but, while the conflict was going on, was discovered cutting up the cow of another Indian, which he had killed. He was at that time frequently called "The Cow-Killer," and that name was inserted in two or three public documents, being afterwards crossed out and "Red Jacket" substituted. The treason with which he was charged seems to have con- sisted in making various efforts for peace, during Sullivan's campaign, without the sanction of the war-chiefs. At one time he is said to have clandestinely sent a runner to the American camp, inviting a flag of truce. Brant heard of the proceeding, and had the unlucky messenger intercepted and killed. Proba- bly some of the stories regarding his timidity and treachery are false, but there are a good many of them, and they all point the same way. Notwithstanding all this, such was the charm of his eloquence, of which the Iroquois were always great admirers, and such the clearness of his intellect, that he was rapidly gaining in influence, and had been made a chief ; that is, as I understand it, a civil chief, or counselor of the sachems. At the beginning of the Revolution he was a youth of about CORNPLANTER. 8 1 twenty. The British officers had been attracted by his intelli- gence, and had frequently employed him as a messenger, for which he was as well qualified by his fleetness of foot as by his shrewdness of mind. They had compensated him by a succes- sion of red jackets, in which he took great pride, and from which he derived his name. Slender of form and subtle of face, clad in the most gorgeous of Indian raiment, Sagoyewatha doubtless attracted the atten- tion of the whites, but he had little opportunity to display his powers, for Brant and the omnipotent Butler had got everything arranged in the most satisfactory manner. There, too, was Captain John O'Bail, or Abeel, more widely known as Cornplanter. Half white by blood, but thoroughly Indian by nature, he had been one of the bravest and most suc- cessful chiefs of the Senecas during the war, but was now under a cloud among his people, because of his assent to the treaty of Fort Stanwix. He is said by Mrs. Jemison to have captured his own father, the old white trader, John Abeel, in one of his raids, but to have released him after taking him a few miles. Farmer's Brother and Red Jacket both lived on Buffalo creek, but Cornplanter's residence was on the Allegany, in Pennsylva- nia, where a band of Senecas looked up to him as their leader. Sayengeraghta, "Old King," or "Old Smoke," as he was vari- ously termed, was, if living, still the principal civil sachem of the Senecas, but his mildness and modesty prevented his taking a prominent part among so many great warriors and orators. Besides all these there was a host of inferior chiefs, whose rank gave them a right to take part in the council, while close by were the other warriors of the tribes, painted and plumed, who had no vote in the proceedings, but who, in the democratic system of the Six Nations, might have a potent influence if they chose to exercise it. A number of British officers from Forts Niagara and Erie added splendor to the scene, and last, not least, was a row of old squaws, mothers in Israel, seated in modest silence behind the chiefs, but prepared if need be to express an authoritative opinion on the merits of the case — a right which would have been recognized by all. Such was the varied scene, and such the actors in it, on the banks of Buffalo creek, a little over eighty-seven years ago. 82 A LARGE MILL-SEAT. The council, as I have said, was very harmonious. The Indi- ans were wilhng to sell a part of their land, and apparently were not very particular about the price. The only dispute was whether the west line of the territory sold should be along the Genesee river or, as Phelps desired, some distance this side. The Indians insisted that the Great Spirit had fixed on that stream as the boundary between them and the whites. After several days discussion, Phelps suggested that he wanted to build some mills at the falls of the Genesee, (now Rochester,) which would be very convenient for Indians as well as whites. Would his red brethren let him have a mill-seat, and land enough for convenience around it. Oh, yes, certainly, mills would be a fine thing, and their white brother should have a mill-seat. How much land did he want for that purpose ? After due deliberation Phelps replied that he thought a strip about twelve miles wide, extending from Avon to the mouth of the river, twenty-eight miles, \\'ould be about right ! The Indians thought that would be a pretty large mill-seat, but as they supposed the Yankees knew best what was necessary for the purpose they let him have the land. As it contained something over 200,000 acres it was probably the largest mill- seat ever known. From Avon south, the west line of the purchase was to run along the Genesee to the mouth of the Caneseraga, and thence due south to the Pennsylvania line. This was "Phelps and Gor- ham's Purchase." It included about 2,600,000 acres, and the price was left by the complaisant aborigines to Col. Butler, Joseph Brant and Elisha Lee, Mr. Kirkland's assistant. They fixed the price at five thousand dollars in hand, and five hun- dred dollars annually, forever. This was about equal to twelve thousand dollars in cash, or half a cent an acre. Two weeks later we find Col. Butler calling on Mr. Phelps b}' letter for a conveyance of twenty thousand acres of the land, in accordance with a previous arrangement. Phelps duly trans- ferred the land to the persons designated by Butler. Consider- ing that the colonel had been one of the referees to fix the price, this transfer looks as if some of the Indian operations of that era would not bear investigating any better than those of later date. THE FIRST WHTTE RESIDENT. CHAPTER XII. FROM 1788 TO 1797. " Skendyoughwatti. " — First White Resident. — A Son of Africa. — The Holland Pur- chase. — Proctor's Visit. — British Influence. — Woman's Rights. — Final Fail- ure. — The Indians Insolent. — Wayne's Victory. — Johnston, Middaugh and Lane. — The Forts Surrendered. — Asa Ransom. — The Mother's Strategy. — First White Child. — The Indians Sell Out. — Reservations. Mr. Kirkland made another journey to Buffalo creek the next fall, seeking to pacify those Indians who were discontented re- garding the sale just made by the Senecas, and also about those made by other tribes to the State of lands farther east. He mentions seeking the aid of the second man of influence among the Senecas on Buffalo creek, "Skendyoughwatti." This fearful-looking name I understand to be the same as that called " Conjockety " by the early settlers, and which their descendants have transmuted into Scajaquada. In returning, Kirkland says he lodged at "the Governor's vil- lage," on the Genesee, and adds : " The Governess had set out for Niagara near a week before. I had not her aid in the coun- cil." This " Governess " is mentioned in other accounts, and seems to have been a very important personage, but who she was, or what her functions, is among the mysteries of local history. In 1789 the county of Ontario was erected from Montgomery, {to which name that of Tryon county has been changed,) in- cluding the whole of the Massachusetts land, or substantially all west of Seneca Lake ; a territory now comprising thirteen counties and two parts of counties. About this time, certainly before 1791, and probably in 1789, the first white man took up his permanent residence in Erie county. This was Cornelius Winne, or Winney, a Hudson river Dutchman, who established a little log store for trading with the Indians on the site of Buffalo, at the foot of the hill which old residents still remember as existing at the Mansion House. This was four miles from the main Seneca village, but there were 84 THE HOLLAND PURCHASE. scattered huts all the way down the creek to Farmer's Point, where Farmer's Brother hved. Captain Powell had an interest in Winney's store. I call Winney the first resident, for though William Johnston had spent much time among the Senecas, as a kind of British agent, and had taken a Seneca wife, there is no evidence that he had made his permanent abode among them. Almost as soon as the earliest white man — possibly preceding him — the irrepressible African made his advent in our county ; for in 1792 I find "Black Joe," alias Joseph Hodge, established as an Indian trader on Cattaraugus creek, and from the way in which he is mentioned I infer that he had already been there a considerable time. Meanwhile the adoption of the Federal Constitution had caused a great rise in Massachusetts stocks, so that Phelps and Gorham were unable to make the payments they had agreed on. After much negotiation, Massachusetts released them from their contract as to all the land except that to which they had extinguished the Indian title, to wit, " Phelps and Gorham's Purchase." Of that the State gave them a deed in full. Massachusetts at once sold the released land in five tracts to Robert Morris, the merchant prince of Philadelphia, and the celebrated financier of the Revolution. The easternmost of these tracts Mr. Morris sold out in small parcels. The remaining four constituted the "Holland Purchase." Mr. Morris sold it by four conveyances (not corresponding, however, to the four given by Massachusetts) made in 1792 and '93, to several Americans who held it in trust for a number of Hollanders, who being aliens could not hold it in their own name. As they did not begin the settlement of the county until sexeral }'ears later, it is unneces- sary to say more of them here. In 1 79 1 there was great uneasinesss among the Indians, even in this vicinity, and in the West they were constantly committing depredations. The British still held all the forts on the Ameri- can side of the boundary line, in open violation of the treaty of peace, alleging that the Americans had also failed to comply with its provisions. To what extent they encouraged the In- dians to hostilities is not known, but in view of the protecto- rate which they openly assumed over the savages, and which the proctor's visit. 85 latter acknowledged, it cannot well be doubted that the English influence was hostile to the United States. In April, 1791, Col. Thomas Proctor, a commissioner ap- pointed by the War Department, came from Philadelphia to Cornplanter's villages on the Allegany, thence, accompanied by that chief and many of his warriors, to the Cattaraugus settle- ment, and then down the beach of the lake to Buffalo creek. Horatio Jones, the celebrated captive and interpreter, was also of the party. Proctor's object M'as to persuade the Senecas to use their influence to stop the hostilities of the western Indians, (against whom Gen. St. Clair was then preparing to move,) and to that end to send a delegation of chiefs along with him on a mission to the Miamis. His journal is published by Ketchum, and gives much information regarding the condition of affairs in Erie county in 179 1. He found the English influence very strong, the Indians ob- taining supplies not only of clothing but of provisions from Forts Erie and Niagara. On the commissioner's arrival "Young King," who could not have been over twenty-two or three years old, met him, apparelled in the full uniform of a British colonel, red, with blue facings and gold epaulets. The Senecas were also in possession of a two-pound swivel, which they fired in honor of the occasion, the gunner wisely standing inside the council house while he touched it off with a long pole passed be- tween the logs. The charge was so heavy that it upset the gun and its carriage. At this time Red Jacket had risen to a high position, being mentioned by Proctor as " the great speaker, and a prince of the Turtle tribe." In fact, however, he belonged to the Wolf clan. On Proctor's stating his object in the council. Red Jacket ques- tioned his authority. This, as the colonel was informed by a ■ French trader, was the result of the insinuations of Butler and Brant, who had been there a \\'eek before and had advised the Indians not to send a delegation to the Miamis. Proctor offered to present his credentials to any one in whom they had confi- dence, and they at once sent for the commandant at Fort Erie. The latter sent back Capt. Powell, who seems to have acted as a kind of guardian to the Indians during the proceedings. These were very deliberate, and were adjourned from day to day. 86 DINING WITH BIG SKY. Red Jacket was the spokesman of the Indians, and declared their determination to move the council to Niagara, insisting on the commissioner's accompanying them the next day as far as Capt. Powell's house below Fort Erie. Proctor peremptorily de- clined. Then Red Jacket and Farmer's Brother addressed the council by turns, the result being that a runner was at once sent to Niagara to summon Col. Butler to the council. After two or three days delay Butler came to Winney's store-house, and re- quested the sachems and head men to meet him there, but said nothing about Proctor. While waiting, the commissioner dined with "Big Sky," head chief of the Onondagas, whose "castle" he describes as being three miles east from "Buffalo" meaning from the Seneca vil- lage. . There were twenty-eight good cabins near it, and the inhabitants were well clothed, especially the women, some of whom, according to Col. P., were richly dressed, "with silken Stroud" and silver trappings worth not less than thirty pounds ($150) per suit ! It seems, too, that they had advanced so far in civilization that the ladies were invited to the feast of the warri- ors, which consisted principally of young pigeons boiled and stewed. These were served up in hanks of six, tied around the necks with deer's sinews, and were ornamented with pin feathers. However, the colonel made a good meal. On the 4th of May the Indians repaired to the store-house to hold council with Butler. The latter invited Proctor to dine with him and his officers, including Capts. Powell and Johnston. They talked Indian fluently, and advised the chiefs not to go with the commissioner then, but to wait for Brant, who had gone west. Red Jacket and Young King appear to have been work- ing for Proctor. The latter at length resented the interference of the British and insisted on a speedy answer from the Indi- ans. Every paper delivered to the chiefs was handed over to Butler, who went back to Fort Erie next day. On the 6th of May, Ambassador Red Jacket announced that there would be no council, as the honorable councilors were going out to hunt pigeons. Proctor makes special mention of the immense number of pigeons found — over a hundred nests on a tree, with a pair of pigeons in each. On the 7th a private council was held, at which land was woman's rights. ^y assigned to Indians of other tribes who had fled from the Shaw- nees and Miamis. "Capt. Smoke" and the Delawares under his charge were assigned to Cattaraugus, where their descendants dwell at the present day. Several Missisauga families had plant- ing-grounds given them near the village of Buffalo creek. On the iith, Proctor declares there was a universal drunk; "Cornplanter and some of the elder women excepted," from which the natural inference is that the young women indulged with the rest. Finally, on the 15th of May, the elders of the women repaired to the commissioner's hut, and declared that they had taken the matter into consideration, and that they should be listened too, for, said they: "We are the owners of this land, and it is ours;" adding, as an excellent reason for the claim, "for it is we that plant it." They then requested Colonel Proctor to listen to a formal address from "the women's speaker," they having ap- pointed Red Jacket for that purpose. The alarm-gun was fired, and the chiefs came together, the elder women being seated near them. Red Jacket arose, and after many florid preliminaries, announced that the women had decided that the sachems and warriors must help the commis- sioner, and that a number of them would accompany him to the West. Col. Proctor was overjoyed at this happy exemplification of woman's rights, and seems to have thought there would be no further difficulty. He forthwith dispatched a letter by the trusty hands of Horatio Jones to Col. Gordon, the commandant at Niagara — who was located opposite the fort of that name — asking that himself and the Indians might take passage on some British merchant-vessel running up Lake Erie, since the chiefs refused to go in an open boat. (It is worth no- ticing that even so late as 1791, Proctor spoke of Jones' crossing the " St. Lawrence " instead of the Niagara.) Gordon, in the usual spirit of English officials on the frontier at that time, refused the permission, and so the whole scheme fell through. It was just what was to have been expected, though Proctor does not seem to have expected it, and it is very likely the whole thing was well understood between the British and Indians. 88 PLENTY OF SPIRITS. While it was supposed that Red Jacket and others would go with Proctor, that worthy had several requests to make. Firstl}-, the colonel was informed that his friends expected something to drink, as they were going to have a dance before leaving their women. This the commissioner responded to with a present of " eight gallons of the best spirits." Then Red Jacket remarked that his house needed a floor, and Proctor offered to have one made. Then he preferred a claim for a special allowance of rum for his wife and mother, and in fact — well — he wanted a little rum himself So the colonel provided a gallon for the great orator and his wife and mother. Young King was not less importunate, but Cornplanterwas modest and dignified, as became a veteran warrior. But the worthy commissioner made due provision for them all. The projected expedition having thus fallen through. Young King made a farewell speech, being aided by " Fish Carrier." a Cayuga chief, whose "keen gravity" put Proctor in mind of a Roman senator, and who seems to have been a man of great importance, though never putting himself forward as a speech- maker. The Indians must have had a pretty good time during Proc- tor's stay, as his liquor bill at Cornelius W'inney's was over a hundred and thirty dollars. A very curious item in the commissioner's diary is this : " Gave a white prisoner that lived with said W'inney nine pounds four and a half pence." Who he was, or to whom he could have been prisoner, is a mystery, since the Indians certainly held no prisoners at that time, and Cornelius, the Dutch trader, could hardly have captured a white man, though the law would have allowed him to own a black one. All this counciling having come to naught, Col. Proctor set out for Pittsburg on the 21st of 'SIrv, having spent nearh* a month in the ver}' highest society of Erie county. A little later, the successive defeats of Harmer and St. Clair, b\' the western Indians, aroused all the worst passions of the Iroquois. Their manners toward the Americans became inso- lent in the extreme, and it is positively asserted that some of their warriors united with the hostile bands. There is little doubt that another severe disaster would have disposed a large WAYNE'S VICTORY. . 89 part of them to rise in arms, and take revenije for the unforgot- ten though well-merited punishment inflicted by Sullivan. Yet they kept up negotiations with the United States ; in fact nothing delighted the chiefs more than holding councils, making treaties, and performing diplomatic pilgrimages. They felt that at such times they were indeed "big Indians." In 1792, Red Jacket and Farmer's Brother were two of fifty chiefs who visited the seat of government, then at Philadelphia. The former then claimed to be in favor of civilization, and it was at this time that Washington gave him the celebrated medal which he afterwards wore on all great occasions. It was of sil- ver, oval in form, about seven inches long by five wide, and rep- resented a Avhitc man in a general's uniform, presenting the pipe of peace to an Indian scantily attired in palm leaves. The latter has flung clown his tomahawk, which lies at his feet. Be- hind them is shown a house, a field, and a man ploughing. A characteristic anecdote is told of Red Jacket, by his biog- rapher, regarding one of these visits. On his arrival at the seat of government, Gen. Knox, then Secretary of War, presented the distinguished Seneca ^^•ith the full uniform of a military offi- cer, with cocked hat and all equipments complete. Red Jacket requested the bearer to tell Knox that he could not well wear military clothes, he being a civil sachem, not a war chief. If any such present was to be made him, he would prefer a suit of civilian's clothes, but would keep the first gift till the other was sent. In due time a handsome suit of citizen's clothes was brought to his lodging. The unsophisticated savage accepted it, and then remarked to the bearer that in time of war the sa- chems went out on the war-path with the rest, and he would keep the military suit for such an occasion. And keep it he did. In 1794, Mad Anthony Wayne went out to Ohio. He did not allow himself to be surprised, and \\hen he met the hordes of the Northwest he struck them down with canister and bayonet, until, they thought the angel of death himself was on their track. Said Joshua Fairbanks, of Lewiston, to a Miami Indian who had fled from that terrible onslaught : " What made you run away .'' " With gestures corresponding to his words, and endeavoring to represent the effect of the can- non, he replied : 90 JOHNSTON, MIDDAUGH AND LANE. " Pop, pop, pop — boo, WOO, WOO — wliish, whish — boo, woo — kill twenty Indians one time — no good, by dam." The Senecas had runners stationed near the scene of conflict, and when they brought back the news of the tremendous pun- ishment inflicted on their western friends, all the Iroquois in Western New York resolved to be "good Indians;" and from that time forth they transgressed only by occasional ebullitions of passion or drunkenness. In September of that year (1794), another treaty was made at Canandaigua, by which the United States agreed to give the New York Iroquois $10,000 worth of goods, and an annuity of $4,000 annually in clothing, domestic animals, etc. It was also fully agreed that the Senecas should have all the land in New York west of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, except the reser- vation a mile wide along the Niagara. This council at Canandaigua was the last one at which the United States treated with the Iroquois as a confederacy. Wil- liam Johnston, so often mentioned before, came there, and was discovered haranguing some of the chiefs. It was believed that he was acting in behalf of the British, to prevent a treaty, and Col. Pickering, the United States commissioner, compelled ■ him to leave. About this time, or a little earlier, Johnston took up his per- manent residence in a block-house which he built near Winney's store, at the mouth of Buffalo creek. His Indian friends gave him two square miles of land in the heart of the present city of Buffalo. His title would doubtless have been considered void in the courts of the pale-faces, but so long as the Senecas should retain their land Johnston would be allowed to use his magnifi- cent domain at will. About the same time as Johnston, perhaps a little later, one Martin Middaugh, a Hudson river Dutchman, though re- cently from Canada, and his son-in-law, Ezekiel Lane, were allowed by Johnston to build a log house on his land, near his own residence. Middaugh was a cooper, and perhaps made some barrels for the Indians, but both he and Lane seem to have been dependents of Johnston. There had begun to be considerable travel through Erie county. There was emigration to Canada, which was rapidly THE FIRST TAVERN. 9 1 settling" up, and also to Ohio, which was open for purchase. There were no roads but Indian trails, but some way or other people managed to flounder through. In 1794 or '95 the first tavern was opened in the county. In the latter year there came hither a French duke, bearing the ancient and stately name of De La Rochefoucauld Liaincourt, probably driyen from France by the revolution-, who was desir- ous of seeing the red man in his native wilds. On his way to the Seneca village he and his companions passed the night at " Lake Erie," the name applied to the cluster of log houses on Johnston's land. When men spoke of " Buffalo," they referred to the village of the Senecas. There was then something in the shape of an inn, but if the landlord " kept tavern " he kept nothing else; "for," says the duke in his travels, " there was literally nothing in the house, neither furniture, rum, candles, nor milk." The absence of rum was certainly astonishing. Milk was at length procured " from the neighbors," and rum and candles from across the river. The name of this frugal pioneer landlord is supposed to have been Skinner, as a man of that name certainly kept there only a little later. On the 4th of July, 1796, Fort Niagara and the other posts so long withheld were surrendered by the British to the United States. This strengthened the impression made on the Indians by Wayne's victory, and confirmed them in the disposition to cultivate friendly relations with the Americans. In that year, too, the little settlement of "Lake Erie" was in- creased by the arrival from Geneva of Mr. Asa Ransom, a reso- lute and intelligent young man, a silversmith by trade, who built a log house near the site of the liberty pole, established him- self there with his delicate young wife and infant daughter, and went to work making silver brooches, ear-rings, and other orna- ments in which the soul of the red man and the red man's wife so greatly delighted. This was the first family that brought into Erie county the habits and refinements of civilized life. At this time, the few settlers who wanted to get corn ground were obliged to take it over the river, and down to Niagara, forty miles distant. On one occasion, some little time after the arri- val of Mr. Ransom, he and all the other men of the settlement, 92 THE MOTHERS STRATEGY. (three or four in number,) had gone to Canada to mill, except Cornelius Winney and Black Joe, who had left the Cattaraugus Indians and was living with Winney. While they were gone several Indians came to Ransom's house and demanded "rum," about the onlv English word the\- knew. Mrs. Ransom told them she had none, but they insisted she had. On her con- tinued refusal one of them suddenly seized her only child, a little girl of two years old, which was toddling about the floor. and with uplifted tomahawk threatened its life. Probably this was onh' done to scare, but the mother did not understand such a jest. Though frightened beyond measure she had sufficient pres- ence of mind to try strategy on the evil-minded crew. She im- mediately promised them rum, (partly by words and partly by signs,) if they would allow her to go up stairs to get it. The}' assented, but insisted on retaining her infant as a hostage for the appearance of the stimulant. Taking her niece, a girl of twelve, Mrs. Ransom went up- stairs into the low chamber of their log house, and immediately fastened the door behind her. Then snatching a pair of sheets from the bed she hastily knotted them together, and with this improvised rope she lowered the girl to the ground, directing her to hasten at once to Mr. Winney, whose influence was sup- posed to be sufficient to pacify the angry savages. Then with wildly-beating heart the mother waited, fearing every moment lest she should hear the screams of her child, sac- rificed in a sudden freak of barbaric rage. Ere long the In- dians were heard beating on the door with their tomahawks, but it was a stout one, and before it could be broken down Winney arrived. By some means he managed to control them, and in- duced them to withdraw. But to the end of her life the mother never told the tale, without betraying by her faltering voice and paling cheek how deeply she had felt the terrors of that day. The infant heroine of this exciting scene bore the dramatic name of Portia, but was afterwards better known as ^Irs. Chris- topher M, Harve}\ In the fall of 1797 the "Lake Erie" settlement received an- other addition b}- the arrival of a daughter in the Ransom fami- THE INDIANS SELL OUT. 93 ly, being the first white child born in Erie county, so far as known, and the first in New York west of the Genesee river, outside of Fort Niagara. Some twenty-two years Later this Httle stranger became Mrs. Frederick B. Merrill. I mentioned some pages back the sale by Robert Morris to certain Holland gentlemen, (through their American friends,) of nearly all the land west of the Genesee ; the seller agreeing to extinguish the Indian title. It was not until 1797 that this could be accomplished. In September of that year a council was held at Geneseo, at which Morris bought the whole of the remaining Seneca lands in New York, except eleven reservations of v^arious sizes, comprising in all about three hundred and thir- ty-eight square miles. Of these the Buffalo creek reservation, the largest of all, lay wholly in Erie county. By the terms of the treaty it was to contain a hundred and thirty square miles, lying on both sides of Buffalo creek, about seven miles wide from north to south, and extending eastward from Lake Erie. The Cattaraugus reservation was to contain forty-two square miles* on both sides of Cattaraugus creek near its mouth, beii-\g in the present coun- ties of Erie, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua. As finally surveyed about thirty-four square miles were in Erie county. The Tonawanda reservation was to contain ' seventy square miles, lying on both sides of Tonawanda creek, beginning "about twenty-five miles" from its mouth, and running east "about seven miles wide." Of this, as surveyed, some fifteen square miles were in Erie county. The other reservations, which were all small, were entirely outside of the county. As will have been seen, the amounts reserved were all definite, but the precise lines were left to be located afterwards, in order not to crowd an}' of the Indian villages. The tract bought, aside from the reservations, contained about three million three hundred thousand acres, for which Morris paid ten thousand dollars, or less than a third of a cent per acre. Considering the complaints which Indians are all the time making about the loss of their lands, it certainly seems strange that they should throw them away by the million acres for a merely nominal price, as they have usually done. The sale to Phelps and Gorham was not so excesssively strange because it 94 FOLLY OF THE l^L•iA^^. involved no change in their mode of life. They still had \-ast huntinir CTOunds west of the Genesee. But that to Morris at once destroyed all hope of li\ing by the chase, and necessitated their adopting to a considerable extent the habits of the white man. They appear to have forgotten all about the Great Spirit's fixing the Genesee as their eastern boundarj*. Yet they showed no inclination to demand white men's prices for their land. Certainly sudi men as Red Jacket and Farmers Brother, who had \-isited the eastern cities and had seen tlie wealth of the whites, must have known that a third of a cent per acre was a verj- poor price to pay for land. True, we may suppose the\- were bought, (which would accord with Red Jacket's character.) but one would imagine that in the democratic Iroquois system, the warriors of the tribe could easily have prevented a sale, and in \-iew of their reiterated complaints over the Fort Stanw^ix treaty and the sale to Phelps and Gorham, it is strange they did not do so. Thev must ha\"e wanted whiskv ver\- badlv. THE HOLLAND COMPANY. 95 CHAPTER XIII. PREPARING FOR SETTLEMENT. The Holland Comjx^ny. — Three Sets of Pioprietors, — Their System of Surveys. — The State Reservation. — The West Transit. — The Foun«.ler of Budalo. — The First Road, — Indian Trails. — New Amsteiviam. — Hotel at Clarence. — A Youi^ StrangCT. — Ellicoit made Agent. — First Wlieat. Much has been wTitten and more has been said about tlie Holland Company." \\"lien people wished to be especially precise tliey called it the "Holland Land Company."" It has been praised and denounced, blessed and cursed, besought for favors and assailed for refusal, almost as much as any institution :i America, Not onlj- in common speech, in newspapers and in books, but in formal legal documents it has been ag^in and ..gain described as the '"Holland Company" or the "Holland L.^nd Company," according to tlie fancy of the writer. Yet tliere never was an\- such tiling as the Holland Company r the Holland Land Companj-. Certain merdiants and others of tlie dtj- of Amsterdam placed funds in tlie hands of friends who were citizens of Amer- ■ca, to purdiase several tracts of land in the United States, which, being aliens, the Hollanders could not hold in tlieir own name at tliat time. One of these tracts, comprising what was afterwards known as the Holland Purchase, was bought from Robert Morris as has before been mentioned. From their names, I should infer that most of those who made the purchase for the Hollanders were themselves of Holland birth, but had been naturalized in tlie United States. In the forepart of 179S the legislature of New York author- ized those aliens to hold land within the State, and in tlie latter part of that year the American trustees conveyed tlie Holland Purchase to the real owTiers. It was transferred, however, to two sets of proprietors, and one of these sets was soon divided into two, making three in all. Each set held its tract as "joint tenants," that is. the sur\-ivors took the whole ; the shares could 96 THREE SETS OF PROPRIETORS. not be the subject of will nor sale, and did not pass by inher- « itance, except in case of the last survivor. But there was no incorporation and no legal company. All deeds were made in the name of the individual proprietors. The three sets of owners appointed the same general and local agents, who in their behalf carried out one system in dealing with the settlers, though apportioning the expenses among the three sets according to their respective interests, and paying to each the avails of their own lands. At the first transfer by the trustees the whole tract, except 300,000 acres, was conveyed to Wilhem Willink, Nicholas Van Staphorst, Pieter Van Eeghen, Hendrick VoUenhoven, and Rut- ger Jan Schimmelpenninck. The 300,000 acres were conveyed to Wilhem Willink, Jan Willink, Wilhem Willink, Jr., and Jan Willink.* Jr. Two years later the five proprietors of the main tract transferred the title of about a million acres so that it was vested in the original five and also in Wilhem Willink, Jr., Jan Wiilink, Jr., Jan Gabriel Van Staphorst, Roelif Van Staphorst, Jr., Cornelius VoUenhoven and Hendrick Seye. Pieter Stad- nitzki, was also made a partner, though in some unknown manner. In the hands of these three sets of owners the titles remained during the most active period of settlement, onh- as men died their shares passed to the survivors, and their names were drop- ped out of the deeds. Some twenty years later new proprie- tors were brought in, but the three sets remained as before. It will be observed that Wilhem Willink was the head of each of the three sets, and as he outlived nearly all the rest his name was the first in everv deed. The same proprietors, or a portion of them, also held large bodies of land in Central New York and in Pennsylvania, all managed by the same general agent at Philadelphia. For convenience, however, all these owners will be described throughout this work b\- the name to which everv one in Erie count}- is accustomed, that of the " Holland Company," and their tract in \\'estern New York will be considered as distinct- ivelv the " Holland Purchase," though there were other bodies of land equally well entitled to the name. The first general agent of the company was Theophilus Caze- nove, a Hollander sent out from Europe for the purpose. Pre- SURVEYING. 97 vious to the extinguishment of the Indian title to the Company's lands in New York, Cazenove had employed Joseph Ellicott to survey their tract in Pennsylvania. He was a younger brother of Andrew A. Ellicott, then surveyor-general of the United States, and had assisted him in laving out the citv of Washington. As soon as the treaty was made with the Indians, in the fall of 1797. Mr. Cazenove employed the same efficient person to survev the new tract. That same autumn he and Augustus Porter, the surveyor employed by Robert Morris, in order to as- certain the number of acres in the Purchase, took the necessary assistance, began at the northeast corner, traversed the northern bounds along Lake Ontario to the Niagara, thence up the river to Lake Erie, and thence along the lake shore to the western boundary of the State. No sooner had the keen eye of Joseph Ellicott rested on the location at the mouth of Buftalo creek than he made up his mind that that was a most important position, and he ever after showed his belief by his acts. The next spring, (1798,) the grand surveying campaign began, with Ellicott as general-in-chief. He himself ran the east line of the Purchase, usually called the East Transit. Eleven other sur\^eyors, each with his corps of axemen, chain men, etc.. went to work at different points, running the lines of ranges, town- ships and reservations. All through the Purchase the deer were startled from their hiding-places, the wolves were driven growling from their lairs, by bands of men with compasses and theodolites, chains and flags, while the red occupants looked sullenly on at the rapid parceling out of their broad and fair domain. The survey system adopted by the Holland Company was substantially the same as that previously followed on Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, and was not greatly difierent from that now in use by the L'^nited States all over the West. The tract was first divided into ranges six' miles wide, running from Penn- sj-lvania to Lake Ontario, and numbered from east to west- These were subdivided into townships six miles square, num- bered from south to north. The original intention was to divide ever}' complete township into sixteen sections, each a mile and a half square; subdividing gS THE SURVEY SVSTExM. these into lots, each three quarters of a mile long and one quar- ter wide, every one containing just a hundred and twenty acres. This plan, however, was soon abandoned as inconvenient and complicated, and the townships were divided into lots three fourths of a mile square, containing three hundred and sixty acres each. These were sold off in parcels to suit purchasers. It was a common but not invariable rule to divide them into " thirds " of a hundred and twenty acres each. Twenty-four townships had already been surveyed when the first plan was abandoned, three of which were in Erie county, being the present town of Lancaster and the southern part of Newstead and Clarence. Both sj'stems differ from that of the United States, in that by the latter each township is divided into sections a mile square, and these into quarter-sections of a hundred and thirty acres each. It will be understood that various causes, such as the exist- ence of lakes and rivers, the use of large streams as boundaries, the great fickleness of the magnetic needle, the interposition of reservation lines, etc., frequently caused a variation from the normal number of square miles in a township, or of acres in a lot. The surveys went briskly forward. Ellicott, after running the east line of the Purchase, stayed at " Buffalo Creek " the greater part of the season, directing operations. By this name I refer to the cluster of cabins at the mouth of the creek, previously called " Lake Erie " ; for on the opening of surveys that appel- lation was dropped, and the name "Buffalo Creek" was speedily transferred thither from the Seneca village to which it had be- fore pertained. In the fall Seth Pease ran the line of the State reservation along the Niagara river, or the " streights of Niagara," as that stream was then frequently termed. There was some difficulty in determining its boundaries at the southern end, as the lake gradually narrowed so it was hard to tell where it ended and the river began. It was at length agreed between the State author- ities and the company that the river should be considered to commence where the water was a mile wide. From the point on the eastern bank opposite this mile width THE STATE RESERVATION. 99 of water, a boundary was drawn, consisting of numerous short lines, amounting substantially to the arc of a circle with a mile radius, giving to the State all the land within a mile of the river, whether east from its eastern bank or south from its head. The boundar}^ in question, since known as the " mile line," began at the foot of Genesee street, as afterwards laid out, crossed Church street ^ little west of Genesee, crossed Niagara street a (ew rods northwest of Mohawk, continued on the arc above described to the intersection of North and Pennsylvania streets, and thence ran northward, always keeping a mile from the river, to Lake Ontario. Beside the East Transit, another standard meridian was run , as a base of operations in the western part of the Purchase, and I called the West Transit. It was the line between the sixth and ' seventh ranges, and is now the boundary between Clarence, Lancaster, Elma, Aurora and Colden on the east, and Am- herst, Cheektowaga, West Seneca, East Hamburg and Boston . on the west. j A portion of the 300,000 acres conveyed to the four Willinks, ' as before mentioned, lay in a strip nearly a mile and a half wide, (113 chains, 68 links,) just west of the West Transit, extending • from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario. The rest of the land be- I longing to that set of proprietors was in the southeast corner of the Purchase. * All that part of Erie county west of the West Transit (except ■ the preemption right to the reservations), was included in the j conveyance of a million acres to the larger set of proprietors, I while that part east of the Transit was retained by the five orig- j inal owners. The transit, however, was not the line between I the two sets throughout the whole Purchase. The city of Buffalo was founded by Joseph Ellicott. He not ' only selected the site and laid out the town, but it was only j through his good judgment and special exertions that there was I any town there. All through the summer and fall of 1798, though only the su- perintendent of surveys, and in no way responsible for the future prosperity of the Purchase, he labored zealously to get room for a city at the foot of Lake Erie. He saw that the State reser- vation would come down within a short distance of the cluster lOO THE FOUNDER OF BUFFALO. of cabins which he meant should be the nucleus of a great com- mercial emporium. He saw, too, that if the Buffalo Creek res- ervation, (which by the treaty with Morris was to be seven miles wide, lying on both sides of the creek), should be surveyed with straight lines, it would run square against the State reservation, and cut off the Holland Company entirely from the foot of the lake. The Indians were not particular about having the land at the mouth of the creek for themselves, but they had granted two square miles to their friend Johnston, and, though they could give no title, they could insist on the Avhole being included in their reserve, unless an arrangement should be made with him. They had also given him, substantially, a life-lease of a mill- seat and certain timbered lands on Scajaquada creek, six miles from the mouth of the Buffalo. Ellicott made frequent attempts to arrange matters with John- ston, but thought him somewhat extravagant in his demands. In a letter to Cazenove, dated at Buffalo Creek, Sept. 28, 1798, Ellicott says : " I have always considered this place one of the keys to the company's lands." Three times in two pages he speaks of it as "the favorite spot." At length he succeeded in making a compromise with John- ston, by which the latter agreed to use his influence to have the Indians leave the town-site out of the reservation, on condition that the company should deed to him the mill-site, a mile square of land adjoining it, and forty-five and a half acres in the town, including his improvements. Johnston's influence was sufficient. So, instead of the north boundary of the Buffalo Creek reser- vation being extended due west, along the line of William street, striking the State reservation near Fourth street, as would otherwise have been the case, it turned, just east of what is now known as " East Buffalo," and ran southwest to the creek, and thence to the lake. It is now for nearly two miles the boundary between the first and fifth wards. About this time Sylvanus Maybee came to Buffalo as an In- dian trader, and Mr. John Palmer took the place of Skinner as innkeeper. The previous winter the legislature had authorized the laying out of a State road from Conewagus (Avon) to Buffalo Creek, and INDIAN TRAIL. 10 1 another to Lewiston. The Company subscribed five thousand dollars for cutting them out. The first wagon-track opened in Erie county was made under the direction of Mr. Ellicott, who, in the spring of 1798, employed men to improve the Indian trail from the East Transit to Buffalo. This trail ran from the east, even from the valley of the Hud- son, crossing the Genesee at Avon, running through Batavia, and down the north side of Tonawanda creek, crossing into Erie county at the Tonawanda Indian village. Thence it ran over the site of Akron, through Clarence Hollow and Williams- ville, to Cold Spring, and thence following nearly the line of Main street to the creek. A branch turned off, running not far from North street to Black Rock, where both Indians and whites were in the habit of crossing to Canada. Another branch diverged at Clarence, struck Cayuga creek near Lancaster, and ran down it to the Seneca village. Another principal trail ran from Little Beard's Town, on the Genesee, entered Erie county near the southeast corner of the present town of Alden, struck the reservation at the southwest corner of that town, and ran thence westerly to the Seneca village. Besides, there were trails up the Cazenove and Eighteen-Mile creeks, and between the Bufi'alo and Cataraugus villages. In 1799 little was done except to push forward the surveys. It was determined that the city to be built on the ground se- cured by Mr. Ellicott should be called "New Amsterdam," and he began to date his letters at that address. In that year the company offered several lots, about ten miles apart, on the road from the East Transit to Buffalo, to any proper men who would build and keep open taverns upon them. The lots were not donated, but were to be sold at the company's lowest price, on long time and without interest. In Erie county this offer was accepted by Asa Ransom, the Buffalo silversmith, who located himself at what is now Clar- ence Hollow. This was the first settlement in Erie county made white-man fashion, that is, with a white man's view of obtaining legal title to the land. All previous settlement had been mere- ly on sufferance of the Indians. 102 THE YOUNG STRANGER. One of the first strangers who appHed for entertainment at the new hotel was a young gentleman afterwards known as Colonel Harry B. Ransom. He arrived in November, 1799, and was in all probability the first white male child born in Erie county. In this year a contract was granted evidently by special favor, to Benjamin Ellicott (brother of Joseph) and John Thomson, two of the surveyors, for three hundred acres in township 12, range 7, (Amherst,) which was not yet subdivided into lots. There is some discrepancy in the description as recorded, but I am satisfied that the contract covered the site of Williamsville, and the water-power there. The price was two dollars per acre. The same year Timothy S. Hopkins, afterwards well known as Gen. Hopkins, came into the county and took charge of Johnston's saw-mill, the only one in the county, where he worked during the season. Notwithstanding the absence of regular set- tlers, the numerous camps of surveyors made "brisk times," and any one who was willing to work could get good wages and prompt pay. Theophilus Cazenove, the general agent of the company, re- turned to Europe in 1799. His name, given by Mr. Ellicott to one of the largest streams in Erie county, remains as a perpetual reminiscence of his connection with the Holland Purchase. His place as agent was supplied by Paul Busti, a native of Italy, who until his death, twenty-four years later, faithfully discharged the duties of that position. The next year the laying ofi" of the Purchase into townships was completed, and a number of townships were subdivided into lots. Mr. Ellicott was appointed local agent for the sale of the land. While in the East, this season, he issued handbills headed "Holland Company West Geneseo lands," apprising the public that they would soon be for sale, and stating that they were situated adjacent to "Lakes Erie and Ontario and the streights of Niagara." Mr. Ransom raised some crops this year, and T. S. Hop- kins and Otis Ingalls cleared a piece of land two miles east, (in the edge of Newstead,) and raised wheat upon it ; the first on the Holland Purchase. When it was ready for grinding, Mr. THE FIRST WHEAT. IO3 H. was obliged to take it to Street's mill at Chippewa, forty miles. He went with three yoke of cattle by way of Black Rock, the whole population of which then consisted of an Irish- man named O'Niel, who kept the ferry. The ferriage each way was two dollars and a half, and the trip must have taken at least fpur days. 104 PINE GROVE. CHAPTER XIV. BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT. The Office at Pine Grove.— A Hard Problem.— The First Purchase.— Dubious Records.— An Aboriginal Engineer.— A Growing Family.— A Proposed School House.— A Venerable Mansion.— Chapin's Project.— The First Magistrate. At length all was ready. In January, 1801, Mr. Ellicott re- turned from the East, staid a few days at "New Amsterdam," and then located his office at "Ransomville," or "Pine Grove." Sometimes he used one appellation in dating his letters, some- times the other, apparently in doubt as to which was the more euphonious. He could hardly have anticipated that both these well-rounded names would finally be exchanged for "Clarence Hollow." Several townships were ready for sale on the Pur- chase, at least one of which was in Erie county. This was township twelve, range six, comprising the south part of the present town of Clarence. Though township twelve, range five, (Newstead,) lay directly east, no sales are recorded as made in it till the latter part of the year. Very slowly, at first, the settlement went forward. The land was offered at $2.75 per acre, ten per cent. down. But precisely there — on the ten per cent. — was the sticking-point. Men with even a small amount of money were unwilling to undertake the task of clearing up the forests, or even the "oak openings," of the Holland Purchase. Those who wished to buy had no money. In a letter -to Mr. Busti, dated Feb. 17, 1801, Mr. Ellicott says: "If some mode could be devised to grant land to actual settlers, who cannot pay in advance, and at the same time not destroy that part of the plan which requires some advance, I am convinced the most salutary results would follow." A rather difficult task, to dispense with the advance and yet retain the plan which required an advance. Mr. Ellicott does not solve the problem, but he seems to have been authorized to set aside the FIRST PURCHASE. 105 plan, for the time, for we soon find him selHng without receiving the ten per cent, in advance. It may be doubted whether it would not have been better, both for the company and the settlers, if the general agent had insisted on the original system. Settlement would have been slower at first, but it must have come ere long and it would have had a firmer foundation. If a man cannot raise thirty or forty dollars to make a first payment on a farm, it is very doubtful whether he will make the whole amount off from the land. Many did, but many failed. There was, however, competition in every direction. There were large tracts yet unsold in the eastern and central parts of the State. "New Connecticut," now known as the Western Re- serve, in Ohio, was in market at low rates, the same was the case with Presque Isle, (Erie,) and in Canada the British govern- ment was granting lands at sixpence per acre. The Ohio lands appear to have been a favorite with many. On the 26th of February, Mr. Ellicott notes in his diary that over forty people — men, women and children — lodged at Ran- som's the night before, moving principally to New Connecticut and Presque Isle. Still sales went forward, especially in the present county of Genesee, next to the older settlements on Phelps and Gor- ham's Purchase. Some emigrants had previously come to this section for the purpose of settling on the Holland Purchase, but finding the land not in market had temporarily located in Can- ada, while awaiting the completion of the surveys. Some of these now returned and others came in from the East. The first record of any person's purchasing a piece of land in Erie county in the regular course of settlement, and aside from the special grants before mentioned, is that of Christopher Sad- dler, who took a contract, or "article," on the 12th of March, 1 801, for 234 acres on lots i and 2, section 6, town 12, range 6 ; being about a mile east of Clarence Hollow. And here I may say that there is no certain record of the coming of the first settlers to the various towns. The books of the Holland Company only show when men agreed to pur- chase land, not when they actually settled. After a short time an arrangement was made by which land 8 106 AN ABORIGINAL ENGINEER. was " booked " to men who appeared to be reliable, for a dollar payment on each piece, when it would be kept for them a year before they were required to make their first payment and take an article. It soon became common for speculative persons to invest a little money in that way, in the hope of selling at a profit. Sometimes, too, men came from the East, looked up land and purchased in good* faith, but did not occupy it for a }-ear or two later. Once in a while, too, though this was more rare, a man located in the county without bu}-ing land. Consequently the records of the Holland Company are very unreliable as to dates in regard to individuals. Moreover, I have obtained my information from certified copies of the com- pany's books on file in Erie county clerk's ofiice. These difter widely from the list of purchasers given in " Turner's Holland Purchase," also purporting to be copied from the company's books. Still, by comparing the two, and by eking them out with the recollections of old residents, I think I can give a tolerably clear idea of the general progress of settlement. Besides Mr. Saddler, among those who took lands in Clarence in 1801 were John Haines, Levi Felton anci Timothy S. Hop- kins. Of these Mr. Hopkins wks, as before stated, already a resident, and Mr. Felton probably became one that year. The road along the old Indian trail, from Batavia to ButTalo, was not satisfactory to Mr. Ellicott. So in March he made an arrangement with an Indian whom he called " White Seneca," but whom that Indian's son called " White Chief," to lay out and mark with his hatchet a new one on dryer land. He agreed to give ten dollars, and eight dollars for locating a road in a similar manner from Eleven-Mile creek, (Williamsville,) via the "mouth of the Tonnawanta" to "Old Fort Slosher." White Chief began on the 21st day of March, and on the 26th reported the completion of the survey of the first road. On the 28th Mr. Ellicott inspected a part of it, and appears to have been well pleased with the way in which the aboriginal engineer had followed the ridges and avoided the wet land. In June another youthful stranger came to the Ransom hotel, in the person of Asa Ransom, Jr., the second white male born in the county, who still survives, an opulent and well-known resident of Grand Island. Mr. Ransom, senior, announced the PROPOSED SCHOOL HOUSE. 107 addition in a note to Mr. Ellicott, which the author of the His- tory of the Holland Purchase mistakenly supposes to refer to the birth of Harry B. Ransom, who was a year and a half older. Thus, as faras known, Mr. and Mrs. Asa Ransom made all three of the first contributions to the white population of Erie county. However, there were some older children at the little settle- ment which the Holland Company had named " New Amster- dam," but which the inhabitants insisted on calling " Buffalo." Though there were but very few families, and the village was not yet surveyed so that lots could be bought, yet the people felt a laudable desire for educational privileges, and in August Joseph R. Palmer, brother of the tavern-keeper, applied to Mr. Ellicott on behalf of the inhabitants for the privilege of erecting a school-house on the company's land. He said the New York Missionary Society offered to furnish a school-master clear of expense, except boarding, and urged an immediate answer on the ground that the inhabitants had the timber " ready to hew out." Timber "ready to hew out " was a very common article on the Holland Purchase at that time, and its possession did not argue much of an advance in the construction of a builciing. It shows how little root the company's name of " New Am- sterdam " took among the people that, although Mr. Richards was asking a favor of the company's agent, yet he dated his letter at " BuffLilo." Mr. Ellicott went thither a few days later, and laid off a lot for school purposes. No deed was given, however, and it does not appear that any school-house was built for several years after. Part of the time the log house formerly occupied by Middaugh was used as a school house. In the summer of 1801, the surveyor, John Thompson, put up a saw-mill at what is now Williamsville. He does not, however, seem to have done much with it, and perhaps did not get it into operation. If he did, it was soon abandoned. The same year he built a block-house for a dwellijig. It was afterwards clap- boarded, and a larger frame structure erected beside it, of which it formed the wing. The whole is still standing, a venerable brown edifice, known as the " Evans house," and the wing is un- questionably the oldest building in Erie county. io8 chapin's project. Only just three quarters of a century since it was built, and yet, in this county of more than two hundred thousand inhabi- tants, it seems a very marvel of antiquity. In the autumn of this year Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, a physician some thirty years old, then residing in Oneida county, came to Buffalo, and was so well pleased with the location that, on his return, he got forty substantial citizens to associate themselves with him, for the purpose of buying the whole township at the mouth of Buffalo creek. As Ellicott, however, had already fixed on that as " the favorite spot " for building a city, the am- bitious project of Dr. Chapin was promptly rejected. By November, 1801, township 12, range 5, (Newstead,) was ready for sale, and on the third of that ^nonth Asa Chapman made the first contract for land in that town, covering lot 10, in section 8, at $2.75 per acre. If he settled there he remained but a short time, as not long after he was living near Buffalo. The same month, Peter Vandeventer took four lots in sec- tions Eight and Nine, on which he settled almost immediately afterwards, and which was long known as the "Old Vandeventer Place." Timothy Jayne was another purchaser in Newstead that year. Otis Ingalls was already there, and probably Orlando Hopkins and David Cully came that year, though one account postpones their purchases till 1802. The last month of 1801 witnessed the first appointment of a white official of any description, resident within the present county of Erie. In that month the pioneer silversmith, tavern- keeper and father, Asa Ran.som, was commissioned a justice of the peace by Governor George Clinton, the necessary document being transmitted by De Witt Clinton, nephew and private sec- retary of the governor. FORMATION OF GENESEIi COUNTY. IO9 CHAPTER XV. 1802 AND 1803. Formation of Genesee County. — An Exciting Scene. — Red Jacket's Plea. — First Town Meeting. — Primitive Balloting. — The Big Tree Road. — Buffalo Sur- veyed. — Original Street Names. — Ellicott's Grand Design. — Dr. Chapin. — Erastus Granger.— Conjockety's Exploit. — The Pioneer of the South Towns. — A Hard Trip. — Snow Shoes. Up to this time Ontario county had retained its original boundaries, including all that part of the State west of Seneca lake, except that Steuben county had been taken off. The Holland Purchase was a part of the town of Northampton. In the spring of 1802, Mr. Ellicott, by earnest personal solici- tation at Albany, procured the passage of an act creating the county of Genesee, comprising the whole of the State west of the river of that name and of a line running south from the " Great Forks." By the same act Northampton was divided into four towns, one of which, Batavia, consisted of the whole Holland Purchase and the State reservation along the Niagara. The county seat was established at Batavia, where Mr. lilli- cott had already laid out a village site, and whither he trans- ferred his head-quarters that same spring. The new county was not to be organized by the appointment of officers until the next year. In July an event occurred in Buffalo, which probably shook the nerves of its people more than any other occurrence before the war of 1812. John Palmer, the innkeeper, was sitting on a bench in front of his house one evening, in company with one William Ward and another man, when a young Seneca warrior, called by the whites " Stiff-armed George," approached, and en- deavored to stab Palmer. It is said that no provocation was given, but perhaps there had been some previous difficulty be- tween them. Failing to injure Palmer, who evaded the attack, the infuri- ated savage turned upon Ward, and stabbed him in the neck, I 10 EXCITING EVENTS. though not fatally. An alarm was raised, the whites hurried to the spot, and at length secured the assassin, but not until he had inflicted three wounds on one of their number, named John Hewitt, killing him almost instantly. The Indian himself was also wounded. Different and contradictory statements have been published regarding this affair, but the culprit was probably sent off that night to Fort Niagara, and taken in charge by Major Moses Porter, who was then in command. The next day fifty or sixty warriors appeared in Buffalo, armed and painted, threatening if "Stiff-armed George" was executed to put all the whites to death. Finding where some of his blood had been spilled in securing him. they held a grand pow-wow over it, howling fierceh', brandishing their weapons, and frightening half out of their wits all but the boldest of the settlers. So great was the dismav that it is said some left the settle- ment, though where they could go for safety it would be diffi- cult to say. Benjamin Barton, Jr., then sheriff of Ontario coun- t}-, (Genesee not being organized,) was in the vicinity or arrived soon afterwards. He proposed to serve a criminal precept on the Indian and take him to Canandaigua jail. This his breth- ren fiercely opposed. They said that the young warrior was drunk when the offense was committed, and should not, therefore, be punished as if he had been sober. Even this the whites de- nied, claiming that he was entirelv sober when he committed the crime, though of course it would make no difference in law. Finally Barton and some of the chiefs went to Fort Niagara to consult with Major Porter. Arriving there they still persisted that their brother should not be taken like a thief to Canandai- gua jail, and probably Barton was not desirous of the job of escorting him through the wilderness. They pledged their words as chiefs that he should appear at Canandaigua for trial on the appointed da}', and the stor}' is that on these pledges he was allowed to depart, and that he ap- peared punctually on the day set. Certain it is that he was duh' tried at the Canandaigua Oyer and Terminer, the next Februarx'. Red Jacket addressed the jury through an interpreter, plead- ing the drunkenness of the culprit as an excuse, and descanting PROGRESS IN CLARENXK. I I I eloquently on the many murders of Indians by white men, for which no punishment had ever been meted out. Nevertheless, "Stiff-armed George" was convicted. He was, however, par- doned on condition of his leaving the State, by Gov. Clinton, who probably thought it would be better to wait till the country was more thickly settled before beginning to hang Indians, if it could possibly be avoided. During 1802, emigration began to come in quite freely. The list of land-owners in what is now Clarence was increased by the names of Gardner Spooner, Abraham Shopc, John Warren, Frederick Buck, John Gardner, Resolved G. Wheeler, William Updegraff, Edward Carney and Elias Ransom. Most of these located permanently in that town, among them Abraham Shope, a Pennsylvania German, who had been waiting in Canada a year or two for the Holland Purchase to be opened for sale. His son Abraham, then three years old, who still survives in a remarka- bly robust old age, says, he can barely remember of living in a tent in the woods that summer, before the family moved into the log house which his father had erected. The same year land in township Twelve, range Five,(Newstead,; was charged to John Hill, Samuel Hill, William Dcshay and others, most of whom soon became permanent residents. All the persons thus far named settled either on or close to the old "Buffalo road," laid out by "White Chief," which was the only line of communication with the outside world. Peter Vandeventer this year built him a log cabin, cleared up half an acre of land, ("just enough" as another old settler said "to keep the trees from falling on his house,") and opened a tavern, the first in Newstead. At that little log tavern, on the first day of March, 1803, oc- curred the first town-meeting on the Holland Purchase. Al- though it was a hundred miles to the farthest corner of the town of Batavia, yet the settlements were almost all on or near the "Buffalo road," the farthest being at New Amsterdam, twen- ty-two miles west, and at the East Transit, twenty-four miles east. Vandeventer's was evidently selected as a central location. A very interesting account of this, the first political transac- tion in Erie county, was furnished to the Buffalo Historical Society by the late Amzi Wright, of Attica, who was present. 112 A rRIMITIVE WAY OF VOTING. There was a general turn-out of voters, apparently stimulated b}' rivalry between the eastern and western parts of the town. The little tavern was soon overrun, and the polls were opened out of doors b\' Enos Kellogg, one of the commissioners to or- ganize the town. He announced that Peter Vandeventer, the landlord, and Jotham Bemis, of Batavia village, were candidates for supervisor. The worthy commissioner then proceeded to take the vote by a method which, though it amounted to a "division of the house," was in some of its details quite peculiar. He placed the two candidates side by side in the middle of the road, facing southward, Vandeventer on the right and Bemis on the left. "Now," said he, "all you that are in favor of Peter Vandeven- ter for supervisor of the town of Batavia take your places in line on his right, and }'ou that are in favor of Jotham Bemis take your places on his left." The voters obeyed Mr. Kellogg's directions, Bemis' line stretching out along the road to Batavia, and Vandeventer's toward Buffalo. The commissioner then counted them, finding seventy-four on Vandeventer's right, and sevent}- on Bemis' left. Peter Vandeventer was then declared duly elected. A primitive method truly, but there was a poor chance for fraudulent voting. The men from east of Vandeventer's, who were considered as Batavians, then gathered in one cluster, and those from the west, who passed as Buffalonians, in another, and counted up the absentees. As in those times everybody knew ever}-body else within ten miles of him, this was not difficult. It was found that but four were absent, Batavia wa}', and but five from the Buffalo crowd. So the whole number of voters on the Holland Purchase on the ist day of March, 1803, ^^'^s one hundred and fifty-three, of whom a hundred and forty-four were present at town-meeting. Certainh- a most creditable exhibition of attention to political duty. There were probably two or^hree voters in the vicinity of Fort Niagara who did not attend, but these, although in the town of Batavia, were not on the Holland Purchase. The other officers were afterwards elected by the uplifted hand. The following is the complete list : Supervisor, Peter Vandeventer ; Town Clerk, David Cully ; THE BIG TREE ROAD. II3 Assessors, Enos Kellogg, Asa Ransom, Alexander Rea, Isaac Sutherland, and Suffrcnus (or Sylvanus) Maybee ; Overseers of the Poor, David Cully and Benjamin Porter ; Collector, Abel Rowe ; Constables, John Mudge, Levi Felton, Rufus Hart, Abel Rowe, Seymour Kellogg and Hugh Howell ; Overseers of High- ways, (pathmasters,) Martin Middaugh, Timothy S. Hopkins, Orlando Hopkins, Benjamin Morgan, Rufus Hart, Lovell Churchill, Jabez Warren, William Blackman, Samuel Clark. Gideon Dunham, Jonathan Willard, Thomas Layton, Hugh Howell, Benjamin Porter, and William Walsworth. Of these Vandeventer, Cully, Ransom, Maybee, Felton, Timo- thy and Orlando Hopkins, and Middaugh, and perhaps others, were residents of Erie county. At this town-meeting, as at most others in Western New- York at that time, one of the most important subjects which claimed the attention of the sovereigns was the wolf-question. An ordinance was passed offering a bounty of five dollars for wolf-scalps, "whelps half price," while half a dollar each was the reward for slaughtered foxes and wild cats. The first State election on the Holland Purchase was also held at Vandeventer's in April following, (in which month elec- tions were then held,) and in that short time the increase of population had been such that a hundred and eighty-nine votes were cast for member of assembly. In June, 1803, Jabez Warren, by contract with Ellicott, sur- veyed the "Middle road" from near Geneseo to Lake Erie. After- wards, during the same summer, he cut it out. It ran nearly due west over hill and dale, keeping a mile south of the south line of the reservation, occasionally diverging a little in case of some extraordinary obstacle. It was called the "Middle road" by the company, but as it started from the Big Tree reservation — that is, the one belong- ing to the band of Indians of w^iich "Big Tree" was chief — it was almost universally called the " Big Tree road " by the in- habitants. Mr. Warren received $2.50 per mile for surveying it, and $10.00 for cutting it out. The latter seems astonishingly cheap, but " cutting out " a road on the Holland Purchase meant merely cutting away the underbrush and small trees from a I 14 BUFFALO SURVEYED. space a rod wide, leaving the large trees standing, making a track barely passable for a wagon. This year, too, the first ship was built in the county by Ameri- cans. It was the schooner " Contractor," built by a compan}- having the contracts for supplying the western military posts, under the superintendence of Captain W^illiam Lee, who sailed the schooner for six years. In this year the village of New Amsterdam was surveyed, (though not completed ready for sale,) by William Peacock. It gives a most vivid idea of what remarkable changes may occur in a single life to learn that the man who did that work in 1803, who ran the very first street-line in the city of Buffalo, is still liv- ing. F^rom a very early period Mr. Peacock has been a citizen of Chautauqua county, of which he has been a judge, and now re- sides at Mayville, at the age of ninety-six. His life completely spans the space between the forest and the emporium. As laid out, the village extended on the west to the State reservation before described ; north to an east and west line nearly coincident with Virginia street, and east to a north and south line running along or very close to the present Jefferson street. Near the creek the reservation was for a short distance the southeast boundary of the village. About an eighth of this tract was cut up into " inner lots," generally about four rods and a half wide, intended for commer- cial purposes, while the rest were divided into " outer lots " of several acres each, suited for suburban residences. The inner-lot tract was bounded west and southwest by the State reservation and the Terrace, south by Little Buffalo creek, (now Hamburg street canal,) east by Ellicott street, (except where outer lot 104 came to Main street,) and north by Chip- pewa street. In these descriptions I have used the present names of streets in order to give a clearer idea of the localities. Originally, how- ever, the names were almost all different. Ellicott determined to compliment his employers of the Holland Company to the best of his ability, and also the Iroquois preoccupants of the land. Main street, as far up as Church, was called Willink avenue, while above Church it was Van Staphorst avenue. Niagara STREET NAMES. II5 Street was Schimmelpenninck avenue, Erie street Vollenhoven avenue, Court street Cazenove avenue. Church street Stadnitzki avenue, and Genesee street Rusti avenue. Signer Paul Busti, ElHcott's immediate superior, and his predecessor, Theophilus Cazenove, were both doubly honored, as, in addition to their re- spective avenues, the Terrace above Erie street was called Busti terrace, and below it Cazenove terrace. (Ellicott also pro- posed to call the village of Batavia " Bustiville," but the general agent himself forbade this as "too ferocious.") The Indians were as amply honored as the Hollanders, though in their case the designations were taken from tribes in- stead of individuals. What is now Ellicott street was then Oneida street. Washington street was Onondaga, Pearl was Cayuga, Franklin was Tuscarora, while Morgan street rejoiced in the terrible designation of Missisauga. Delaware, Huron, Mohawk, Eagle, Swan and Seneca streets received their present names, but Exchange was then called Crow street, in honor of John Crow, who had taken the place of John Palmer as the only hotel-keeper. His tavern, part log and and part frame, was just east of the site of the Mansion House. In its numerous diagonal streets, all radiating from a common point, Buffalo bears a strong resemblance to Washington, which Ellicott had helped his brother to survey, and it is to be pre- sumed the later plan was adopted from the former one, whether originating with Joseph Ellicott or his brother Andrew. North Division and South Division streets had no existence in the original plan. Between Swan and Eagle, fronting on Main and running back about a mile, was "Outer Lot 104," contain- ing one hundred acres. This Mr. Ellicott reserved for himself He evidently intended to be the principal personage in the city he was designing. Neither Onondaga nor Oneida street was allowed to cro.ss the sacred soil of Lot 104, though both were laid out north of it, and Oneida south. Even the grand W^illink-Van Staphorst ave- nue deviated from its course for the benefit of Lot 104. At the intersection of Stadnitzki avenue, the great central street de- scribed a small semi-circle, with a radius of several rods, curving to the westward over the open ground before "the churches," leaving Lot 104 with something like a bay-window on its front. ii6 ellicott's grand design. Here Mr. Ellicott intended to erect a palatial residence, in the center of the city he had founded, with broad vistas open- ing before it in exery possible direction. Up Van Staphorst avenue to the suburban hillside on the north, up Schimmelpenninck avenue to the elegant residences which were to cluster around Niagara square, along Stadnitzki avenue to the State reservation, down W'illink avenue to the harbor, and especially down Vollenhoven avenue to the lake, the eye of the magnate of New Amsterdam was to roam at will, seeing everywhere the prosperity of the city which owed its ex- istence to his sagacity. If a somewhat selfish, it was certainly a magnificent conception. It is said, also, to have been his declared intention, after occu- pying it during his life, to devise the whole to the city for a per- manent park and museum. The circumstances which prevented the realization of this idea will be mentioned in due time. David Reese, a blacksmith long well known by the early res- idents, came to Buffalo in 1803, and John Despar, a French baker, about the same time. A much more important acquisition was Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, who, though he had failed in his attempt to become the princi- pal owner of Buffalo, manifested his faith in the location, in 1803, by moving thither with his family. Being unable to obtain a house, he took them o\er the river, where they remained two years before one was secured. Meanwhile the doctor prac- ticed on both sides, being, so far as known, the first physician who did practice in Erie county. For twelve vears no man exercised a greater influence in the village of Buffalo than Dr. Chapin ; perhaps none as great. He was of that type which naturalh" succeeds in a new country ; bold, resolute and energetic to the last degree, generous and free-hearted with his fellows, but often reckless alike of the con- ventionalities of society and of the consequences of his acts. Self-confident and self-willed, he was always sure he was right, and was consequentl)' always ready to go ahead. Like most men of that stamp, he had many warm friends and some bitter enemies, but through all the vicissitudes of his career he re- tained the confidence of a majority of his neighbors and acquaintances. CHAPIN AND GRANGER. 11/ On his arrival in Buffalo he was a robust, broad-shouldered man of thirty, recently married, overflowing with physical and mental vigor. In his politics, as in everything else, he was a violent partisan, and his Federalism was of the most rampant description. Another important arrival of that year was an equally decided if not so violent a Democrat — or Republican, for the anti-federal of that day was called by both names. This was Erastus Gran- ger, a young widower from New England, and a cousin of Gid- eon Granger, then postmaster-general under President Jefferson. He was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs, and soon afterwards postmaster, and appears to have been intrusted with the management of the politics of this section on behalf of the administration. Though New Amsterdam was not yet ready for sale, the ad- joining land in that township was, and among the purchasers in it I find the names of Cyrenius Chapin, William Desha, Samuel Tupper, Joseph Wells and James S. Young. The prices ranged from $3.50 to $5.00 per acre. At this period a Major Perry had made an opening at the point where Main street crosses Scajaquada (or Conjockety) creek. Near its mouth was the Indian family of Conjockety. An anecdote related to me by Mr. William Hodge shows that, whatever jests may be passed upon the " noble red man," he certainly does sometimes display great coolness and courage. On arising one winter morning. Major Perry found that one of his hogs had been killed, and either eaten or carried off. Seeing the snow around well marked with panther^e tracks, he of course concluded that one of those animals had been the de- stroyer. He sent for Philip Conjockety, whom I suppose to have been a son of old " Skendyoughwatti," mentioned by Mr. Kirkland. Conjockety came and took the trail. For awhile he supposed that there was but one animal, so clo.sely did the footsteps follow each other, but at length he saw where two panthers had gone, one on each side of a tree. This rather startled him, but he concluded to go forward. Shortly afterwards he came upon one of the marauders, seated among the topmost branches of a tree, eating a piece of the captured hog. Lifting his rifle, Conjockety shot the anfmal dead. Il8 CONJOCKKTV'S EXPLOIT. The other was not then in sight, but the Indian instantly re- loaded and stepped cautiously forward. In a moment more he was confronted by the angry beast, on the point of springing upon him. Again taking rapid aim, he fired as the panther was in the very act of leaping, and the next instant the slain animal fell at the feet of the intrepid hunter. " Ugh ! " exclaimed Conjockety, as he recounted the tale, " some scare me ! " Of course the Indian told his own stor}-, but he had the two panthers to show for it. In township 12, range 7, (Amherst.) sales were made that fall to Samuel Kelsy, Henry Lake, Benjamin Gardner, William Lewis and others, the price being put as high as $3.25 and $3.50 per acre. Settlements commenced immediately after- wards. This year too, I find the names of Samuel Beard, William Chapin, Asahel Powers, Jacob Durham and Samuel Edsall, re- corded as purchasers in Newstead, and of Andrew Dummett, Julius Keyes, Lemuel Harding, Jacob Shope, Zerah Ensign and others in Clarence. All these settlements were in the townships through which the "Buffalo road" ran. But the hardy pioneers soon bore far- ther south in their search for land. In November, 1803, Alan- son Eggleston became the first purchaser in township Eleven, range Six (now Lancaster). There the land was put down to $2 per acre. Amos Woodward and William Sheldon also bought in Lancaster that month. All these were north of the Buffalo Creek reservation, which cut the present county of Erie completely in twain. Several townships, however, were surveyed south of the reservation that year, and in the fall adventurous land-hunters found theia' way into the valley of Eighteen-Alile creek. On the 3d of October, Didymus C. Kiiine\" purchased part of lot Thirty-three, township Nine, range Seven, being now the south- west corner lot of the town of East Hamburg. He immediate- 1>- built him a cabin, and lived there with his family during the winter, being unquestionably the earliest pioneer of all Erie county, south of the reservation. Records and recollections agree on this point. A BEGINNING IN THE SOUTH TOWNS. II9 Cotton Fletcher, who had surveyed the southern townships, purchased land in the same township as Kinney, but did not locate there till later ; neither did John Cummings, who took up the mill-site-a mile and a half below Water Valley. In November, 1803, too, Charles and Oliver Johnson, two brothers, made a purchase in the present town of Boston, near the village -of Boston Center. Samuel Eaton bought farther down the creek. The price was $2.25 per acre. Charles, with his family, lived with Kinney through the winter, and moved on to his own place the next spring. The Indians were frequently a resource of the early settlers who ran short of food. Charles Johnson, while at Kinney's, went to the Seneca village and bought six bushels of corn. He had snow-shoes for locomotion and a hand-sled for transporta- tion. As a load of three hundred and forty pounds sank the sled too far into the deep snow, he slung part of it on his back, and thus weighted and freighted he trudged through the forest to his home. The snow-shoe was an important institution of that era. It consisted of a light, wooden frame, about two and a half feet long and fifteen inches wide, with bars across it, the intervening spaces being filled with tightly stretched green hide.- With a pair of such articles strapped to his feet, the hunter or traveler strode defiantly over the deepest drifts, into which, without their support, he would have sunk to his waist at every step. Strange as it may seem, too, old hunters declare that these forest gun- boats did not seriously impede locomotion, and that the accus- tomed wearer could travel from three to four miles an hour with- t)ut difficulty. Kinney and Johnson with their families, in that solitary cabin in the valley of the Eighteen-Mile, were the only residents of Erie county south of the reservation in the winter of 1803-4. 120 WILLINK AND ERIE. CHAPTER XVI. 1804 AND 1805. Division of 15alavia. — Willink. — Erie. — Settlement of Boston. — An Ancient Fort. — Ezei"o ten miles through the forest to lead in the funeral ceremonies over the body of Mrs. Albro, wife of one of the only two set- tlers at Springville. There was no minister anywhere in that part of the country, and all that could be done to give Christian burial to the departed was to send for sympathising neighbors ten or twelve miles distant, and ask the good deacon to repeat a prayer and read a sermon over her inanimate form. Mr. Albro went away after the death of his wife, leaving Stone alone. In October, however, Mr. Samuel Cochran came, made a small clearing, put up a log house and went after his family. In November, John Russell, afterwards long and well known as Deacon Russell, brought his family to the same locality. In the forepart of the winter Cochran returned with his wife and infant child. The only route to Springville from the East, then, was first to Buffalo, then up the beach to the Titus stand, then up the Eighteen-Mile to the farthest settlements in its val- ley, and then across the ridge. The last part of the way Coch- ran followed blazed trees, and some of the time had to cut his own road. The three families of Stone, Russell and Cochran were all there were in that vicinity in the winter of 1808-9. Stone left in the summer of 1809, but Albro returned. James Vaughan and Samuel Cooper bought near there in 1809, and soon became permanent residents, and several other settlers came in. COLLINS, SARDINIA AND HOLLAND. 1/5 Jacob Taylor, as chief of the Quaker mission, built a saw-mill at TayloPs Hollow, in Collins, and a grist-mill also about 1809. Perhaps it was this that induced Abraham Tucker and others, with their families, to settle near there in that year. Tucker lo- cated in the edge of North Collins, where he built him a cabin, covered it with bark and remained with his family. Stephen Sisson came the same year. Sylvanus Hussey, Isaac Hatha- way and Thomas Bills purchased land the same year, and some of them were probably among the companions of Tucker, Settlements were made close to the line between North Collins and Collins ; perhaps some in the latter town. In that year, too, George Richmond, with his sons, George and Frederick, located himself three miles east of Springville, near the .southeast corner of the present town of Sardinia, where he soon opened a tavern. That same year young Frederick Richmond taught the first school in the present town of Boston. The same summer, (1809,) Ezra Nott settled between what is now called Rice's Corners and Colegrove's Corners, becoming the pioneer of all the eastern part of Sardinia. He was a nephew of Jabez Warren, and in company with his cousins, Asa and Sumner Warren, built and burned the first brush-heap in that township — a fact to which, when he had become a general and a prominent citizen, he often referred with the pride of a true pioneer. Emigration began to roll into the future town of Holland. Ezekiel Colby settled in the valley, and soon after came Jona- than Colby, who still survives, being well-known as " Old Col- onel Colby." Nathan Colby located on the north part of Ver- mont Hill, and about the same time Jacob Farrington settled on the south part, east of the site of Holland village, where there was not as yet a single house — another instance of the curious readiness of many of the first comers to neglect the valleys for the hill-tops. Going westward we find the Boston people at length rejoicing in a grist-mill, erected this year by Joseph Yaw. According to Gen. Warren's recollection, Mr. Yaw was elected supervisor of Willink in both 1808 and 1809. The Willink records were burned with those of Aurora in 1831, so it is not certain. The first settlement in the present town of Eden was made 176 AURORA, CLARENCE, ETC. this }'ear. Elisha Welch and Deacon Samuel Tubbs located at what is now known as Eden Valley, but which for a long time bore the less romantic appellation of Tubbs' Hollow. In this year, too, Aaron Salisbury and William Cash made the first permanent settlement in the present town of Evans, west of Harvey's tavern at the mouth of the Eighteen-Mile. Salis- bury was a young, unmarried man. Cash had several sons, since well known in the town. His brother David Cash, Nathaniel Leigh, John Barker, Anderson Tyler, Seth and Martin Sprague and others came not long after, and all settled near the lake shore, \\here the only road ran. Besides Samuel Calkins, David Rowley and others, Timoth)- and Oren Treat settled in Aurora in 1809. Oren Treat, then nearlv twent^'-two vears old, located himself on a farm a little east of Grififin's iNIills, where he has ever since resided. It is only this year that he has given up its active superintendence, though almost eighty-nine years of age. He informs me that Humphrey Smith built a grist-mill at what is now called Griffin's Mills in 1809, though it was not finished till the next year. Like most of the pioneer mills, it was of a \"ery primitive con- struction, the bolt being at first turned by hand. In Welles there was a considerable increase of the population ; Peleg" Havens, Welcome Moore and Isaac Reed being among the new comers. There was a large immigration into the north part of the county this year. Isaac Denio, John Millerman and Benjamin Ballou were among those who settled in the present town of Newstead. Archibald S. Clarke was again elected to the as- sembly. Most of those who came into Clarence still located them- selves in the southern part of the township, but Matthias Van- tine moved into the wilderness four miles north of Harris Hill. His son, David Vantine, then a youth of fifteen, now a sturd}- old man of eighty-two, says there was not a family north of the limestone ledge when his father settled there. A little further north was what was then called the Tonawanda swamp. A young man of twenty-one, since well known as Colonel Bea- man, located three miles north of Clarence Hollow that same summer. For sixty-seven years he has remained on the same GLEZEN FILLMORE. IJJ farm. When I conversed with him in 1875, he said that at the time he came there was not a house on the north, through to the vicinity of Lockport. Another of the new comers into Clarence was destined to wield a strong influence throughout not only Erie county but Western New York. I refer to the Rev. Glezen Fillmore. He was then a bright, pleasant, yet earnest youth of nineteen, with the well-known, strong, Fillmore features, and stalwart Fillmore frame. Having been licensed in March, 1809, as a Methodist ex- horter, the youthful champion of the cross immediately set forth from his home in Oneida county, on foot, with knapsack on his back, traveling two hundred miles through the snow and mud of early spring, to begin his labors in the wilderness of the Hol- land Purchase. Arriving in the neighborhood where his uncle Calvin resided, he at once went to work. His first preaching was at the house of David Hamlin. A man named Maltby and his wife were the only listeners except Hamlin's family, but the young ex- horter bravely went through with the entire services, including class-meeting. It is to be presumed that he felt rewarded when, in after years, he learned that four of Maltby's sons had become Methodist ministers. Young Fillmore procured land, and throughout his life made his home, at Clarence Hollow, though spending many years at a distance, on whatever service might be allotted to him. In the fall of 1809 he returned to Oneida county, married Miss Lavina Atwell, and brought her back to his frontier home. Mrs. Fillmore, in later years widely known as " Aunt Vina," shared her husband's toils, and when I saw her a year since, at the age of eighty-eight, her form was still unbent and her eye undinnned, and she would easily have passed for seventy. She stated that there was already a Methodist society at Clarence Hollow when she came, probably organized the summer before. Samuel Hill, Jr., was elected supervisor of Clarence for the year 1809. As near as I can learn it was in that year, though possibly a little later, that Otis R. Ingalls opened the first store in the present town of Clarence, at Ransomville, now Clarence Hollow. 178 ORIGIN OF "BLACK ROCK." Meanwhile the httle village at the mouth of Buffalo creek- kept creeping along toward its destined greatness. Fortunately we have the means of ascertaining its exact position in 1809. In October, Erastus Granger, who had lately been appointed collector of customs for the new district of Buffalo Creek, wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury, protesting against the proposed removal of the custom-house to Black Rock. Comparing the grandeur of Buffalo with the insignificance of Black Rock, he declared that the former had a population of no less than forty- three families, besides unmarried men engaged in business, and that the court-house and jail were " nearly completed." The same letter contributes largely to settle a question which has been raised as to the origin of the name " Black Rock." It is generally attributed to a large, flat, dark-colored rock lying at the base of the bluff, where the boats used to land. Some have supposed, however, that it was derived from Bird Island, which was also a dark rock situated a short distance out in the river, and much farther up. A remark made by President Dwight of Yale College, in his journal of travels in this vicinity, in 1804, shows that he then supposed Bird Island to be the original " Black Rock." But Judge Granger had resided at Buffalo ever since 1803, and he had evidently no such idea. In the letter just men- tioned, he says that Porter, Barton & Co. have built a store "on the Rock," and adds that besides Frederick Miller's temporary house under the bank, where a ferry-house and tavern are kept, one white family and two black families comprise the popula- tion. He goes on to say that lake vessels lie at the head of the rapids "a little below a reef called Bird Island, one mile from Black Rock and one and three fourths miles from Buffalo." It is quite plain that Judge G. looked on the original Rock as being at the foot of the rapids, and the ideas of a per- manent resident since 1803 are certainly entitled to far more weieht than those of a mere traveler. Some other circum- stances have been adduced in favor of Bird Island as the origi- nal Black Rock, but they are, I think, decidedly overbalanced by the testimony in favor of the " rock " on shore. For the time being the port of entry remained at Buffalo. In his letter, Mr. Granger stated that a motion looking toward (t THE HORN BREEZE. 179 removal had been made in Congress by Peter B. Porter. This gentleman had been elected to Congress the year before, from the westernmost district of New York, and was as yet a resident of Canandaigua. His elder brother, Augustus Porter, the new first-judge of Niagara county, Benjamin Barton, Jr., and himself, had formed a partnership under the name of Porter, Barton & Co., and were the principal forwarders of eastern goods to the West. Their route was by way of Oneida lake, Oswego and Ontario, to Lewiston ; thence by land-carriage around the Falls and by vessel up Lake Erie. Of the few sail-vessels then run- ning on Lake Erie, owned on the American side, probably more than half were owned by Porter, Barton & Co. Their ships had the same difficulty in ascending the rapids that had beset the Griffin a hundred and thirty years before. To overcome it they provided a number of yoke of oxen to drag vessels up the rapids. The sailors dubbed these auxilia- ries the " Horn Breeze." Porter, Barton & Co., joined with others, had also bought a tract of eight hundred acres, extending from Scajaquada creek south to near Breckenridge street. South of that was a lot of a hundred acres given by the State for a ferry, and still farther on was South Black Rock, where the State authorities intended to lay out a village extending to the " mile line " on the west side of Buffalo. As to Buffalo creek, all agree that it was worthless for a har- bor, on account of the bar at the mouth. All sail vessels stopped at Black Rock, and only a few open boats came into the creek. It was in 1809 that the authorities, who must have been the highway commissioners of Clarence, straightened the main avenue of Buffalo, cutting off Ellicott's "bay window" in front of outer lot 104. The great power that he exercised throughout the Holland Purchase makes it seem strange that they should have done so, but the facts are not disputed. Professor P2vans says that he had begun to gather material for a grand mansion in the semi-circle, and that when the street was straightened he gave up the idea, and afterwards lost much of his interest in Buffalo. The stones he had gathered were used to help build the jail. Lot 104 was never subdivided or sold until after his l8o THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. death. About the time of the straightening, too, the names of " WilHnk avenue" and "Van Staphorst avenue" seem to have been thrown aside by general consent, and the whole was called IMain street. The original names, however, of the other streets and avenues were retained for many years afterwards. It was not till the last of 1809 that a church was formed in Buffalo. Mrs. Fox agrees with Mrs. Mather, mentioned by Turner, that the first meetings were held in the court-house. It was formed by a union of Congregationalists and Presbyterians, under the direction of Rev. Thaddeus Osgood. Amos Callen- der, who came shortly after, became a leading member of the church. One account makes the organization still later, but I think the above is correct. There was still no minister except an occasional missionary. Among the new comers was another of the "big men " who b>- strength of brain and will, and almost of arm, fairlv lifted Buf- falo over the shoals of adverse fortune. Tall, broad-shouldered, fair-faced and stout-hearted, young Dr. Ebenezer Johnson en- tered on the practice of his profession with unbounded zeal and energy in the fall of 1809, and for nearly thirty years scarcely any man exercised a stronger influence in the village and city of his adoption. Another arri\al was that of Oliver Forward, a brother-in-law of Judge Granger, who became deputy collector of customs and assistant postmaster, and who long exercised a powerful influence in Buffalo. TOWN OF "BUFFALOE." l8l CHAPTER XXII. JUST BEFORE THE WAR. Town of "Buflaloe." — New Militia Regiments. — Buffalo Business. — Peter B. Porter — Tonawanda. — Store at Williamsville. — Clarence. — Settlement of Alden. — James Wood. — A Wolfish .Salute. — An Aged Couple. — Colden. — Richard Buffum. — Spring\ille. — Tucker's Table. — A Crowded Cabin. — Turner Aldrich. — The " Hill Difficulty." — Sardinia. — A Resolute Woman. — Boston and Eden. — Unlucky Sheep. — Evans. — Bears and Hedge-hogs. — A Store too soon. — Crossing the Reservation. — A Mill-race as a Fish Trap. — Buffalo Firms. — H. B. Potter. — The Buffalo Gazette. — Feminine Names. — Old-Time Books. — An Erudite Captain. — " Buffalo-e." — The L'nbom Reporter. — In- flation of the Marriage List — Divers Advertisements. — "A Delinquent and a Villain." — Morals and Lotteries. — The Two Chapins. — A Medical Melee. — A Federal Committee. — Division of Willink. — Hamburg, Eden and Con- cord. — Approach of War. — Militia Officers. — An Indian Council. — A Vessel Captured. — The War Begun. This chapter relates principally to the years 1810 and 181 1, but will be extended to the beginning of the war, in June, 181 2. In the first-named year the United States census was taken, and the population of Niagara county was found to be 6,132. Of these just about two thirds were in the present county of Erie. In that year, too, the name "Buffalo," or "Buffaloe," was first legally applied to a definite tract of territory. On the lOth day of Februar}', a law was passed erecting the town of "Buffaloe," comprising all that part of Clarence west of the West Transit. In other words, it comprised the present city of Buffalo, the towns of Grand Island, Tonawanda, Amherst and Cheektowaga, and the north part of West Seneca ; being about eighteen miles long north and south, and from eight to sixteen miles wide east and west. Another event considered of much importance in those days was the formation of new militia regiments. The men subject to military duty in Buffalo and Clarence were con- stituted a regiment, under Lieut. Col. Asa Chapman, then living near Buffalo. Samuel Hill, Jr., of Xewstead, was one of his majors. The men of Willink formed another regiment, and l82 I'KTKR U. rORlKR. yoiui^" M.ijor W aricii was proinotcil to liiHitoiiant-colonol coin- niatuliui;". llis majors wxmv William L'. niullo\-. of l-Aans, ami Honjamin \\'halc\ . who was or hail been a resident of HosliMi. riieie was also a leLiiment in (."amhria. and one in Chantauqua countv. and the whole was under the eommand of Briijadicr- General limoth)- S. Hopkins, The meivantile business of HulValo bei^an [o increase. Juba Storrs. having; abandoned the law, tormed a partnership with Honjan\in (."ar\l and Samuel Tratt. Jr.. under the funi name of Juba Storrs iS: Co.. which took hiL;h rank in the little commer- cial world of Hutfalo. in iSio, the Junior member, Mr. Pratt. was appoitUed sherilT. and Mr. Storrs himself, county clerk, h^.li Hart and Isaac Hax is also erected and opened stores about that time. Another new settler, afterwards quite noted, was Ralph l*omero\-, who bci^an the erection ot" a hotel on the northeast corner of Main and Seneca streets. .\sa L oltrin. a physician, and Jv^hn Mullett. a tailor, came abciut the same time. Dr. IXmiel Chapin, who was there then, and perhaps came earlier, was a ph\-sician of some note, and was the principal rival of his namesake. Or. C>renius Chapin. The two w ere usually at bitter tend. The most intluential new comer in the county, howexer. was Peter Iv Porter, who. at"ter being reelected to Coui^ress in the spring of i8ic\ removed from Canandaigua to Black Rock. He was then thirty-seven years old, unmarried, a hand.^^ome, portly gentleman of the old school, of smooth address, fluent speech, and dignified demeanor. .\t Canandaigua he had practiced at the bar. but after his re- moval he devoted himself to his commercial fortunes as a mem- ber of the tirn\ of Porter. Parton i.^ Co., s,i\e w hen attending to his political duties. Mr. Porter was the tirst citizen of Krie county who exercised a w ide political intiuence. A few lots were sold at Plack Rock in iSio, and one or two small stores put up, but there were still very tew residents. rhe same year the Holland Company (that is, the several in- dividuals commonly so-called) sold their preemption right in all the Indian reservations on the Purchase to David A. Ogden. He was acting in behalf of other parties, joined w ith himself, in TIIK NORTfl fOWSH. 183 the speculation, and the owners were j^enerally called the Oj^dcn Company. The whole amount of territory was about 196,000 acres, and the purchase price $98,000. I'hat is to say, Ogden and his friends gave fifty cents an acre for the sole n'j^ht of buy- ing out the Indians whenever they should wish to sell. There was still very little improvement in the north part of Tonawanda, Robert Simpson settled about a mile from Tona- wanda village. His son, John Simpson, then a boy, .says that Garret Van .Slyke was then keeping tavern on the north side of the creek, but on this side there was nothing but fore.st, A guard-house was built on this side on the approach of war. Henry Anguish lived a mile up the river. The only road to Huffalo was along the beach. Another one had been under- brushed out but was not u.sed. It was about i8io that Isaac F. Bowman opened a little store at VVilliamsville, the first in the present town of Amherst, and probably the third in the county, oyt of Huffalo. The .same year Benjamin Bowman bought the .saw-mill on Kleven-Mile creek, four miles above Williamsville, (in the northwest corner of Lancaster,) and .soon after built another, and the place has ever since retained the name of Bowman's Mills, or Bow- mansville. The lowlands of township 13, range 7, being the north part of Amherst, had not even had a purchaser until 18 10, when Adam Vollmer bought two lots at $3.00 per acre. The same was the ca.se in township 13, range 6, forming the north part of Clarence, where John Stranahan purcha.sed at $2.75. At the town-meeting this year .Samuel Hill, Jr., was re- elected supervisor of Clarence, which by the erection of " Buf- faloe" had been reduced to a territory only eighteen miles long and twelve miles wide. It was al.so voted "that every path- master's yard should be a lawful pound," and that a bounty of $5.00 each should again be offered for wolves and panthers. Elder John Le Suer and Elder Salmon Bell were both minis- ters resident in the old, town of Clarence before the war, the former being quite noted throughout the northern part of the county. .\To.ses Fenna, who moved into the present town of Aldcn in l84 A WOLFISH SALUTE. the spring of 1810, is usually considered there as the first settler of that town, though Zophar Beach, Samuel Huntington and James C. Rowan had previously purchased land on its western edge, and it is quite likely some of them had settled there. It is certain, howev^er, that Fenno was the beginner of im- provement in the vicinity of Alden village, and raised the first crops there, in the year mentioned. The same year came Joseph Freeman, afterwards known as Judge Freeman, William Snow and Arunah Hibbard. It was in 1801 that the present town of Wales attained to the dignity of a framed house. It was built by Jacob Turner, and his daughter, Mrs. Judge Paine, informs me that it is still stand- ing upon the farm of Isaac W. Gail, Esq. One of the new settlers in Wales in 18 10 was James Wood, then a youth of twenty, who, after a long and most active career, passed away a few months since. He informed me last year that when, in 1810, he began making a clearing on the flats just below the village of "Wood's Hollow," which derived its name from him, there Avas not a house south of him in the town- ship, k^ There was no road, but on the west side of the creek w-as a well-beaten Indian trail. In fact the wolves were about his only neighbors, and much closer than he liked. Having brought a heifer and five or six sheep from Aurora, the \-oung pioneer secured them in a pen, close to his cabin. Hearing the wolves howl at night, he went out, when he found them closing in all around him, and could hear their jaws go "snap, snap," in the darkness of the forest. Calling his dog to his aid, he managed to beat a retreat to his cabin, but he always vividly remembered the snapping of the wolves' jaws around him. Fortunately they Avere unable to get into the sheep-pen. Emigration was brisk all through the county, and log houses were continually rising by the wayside, but incidents of special interest were less common in the older settlements than among the first emigrants. Among the new comers in Aurora this year were Jonathan Bowen, Asa Palmer and Rowland Letson. The first church was organized in town by the Baptists. It had sixteen members. In East Hamburg, besides Stephen Kester, Elisha Clark and LAKE SHORE RELICS. 1 85 others, William Austin, then a young man of twenty-four, set- tled with his wife in the Smith (or Newton) neighborhood, and both are still living in the town. This is the only instance that I remember of a man and woman married before the war of 18 1 2 boch of whom still survive, though there may be others. Mr. Austin remembers that there was a town-meeting at John Green's tavern, (afterwards kept by George B. Green,) when he first came, on the subject of dividing the town of Willink, and that some of the voters said they came thirty miles to attend it. By this time (1811) the locality of East Hamburg village be- gan to be known as " Potter's Corners," from two or three prom- inent men of that name who had settled there. By this time, too, that energetic mill-builder under difficulties, Daniel Smith, had, in company with his brother Richard, got him up a regular grist-mill, near where Long's mill now stands, at Hamburg village, which then began to be known by the name of Smith's Mills. Among the settlers in the vicinity was Moses Dart, a still surviving citizen. About this time, perhaps earlier, the Messrs. Ingersoll lo- cated on the lake shore, in Hamburg, just below the mouth of the Eighteen-Mile. Shortly after their arrival they discovered on the summit of the high bank seven or eight hundred pounds of wrought iron, apparently taken off from a vessel. It was much eaten with rust, and there were trees growing from it ten to twelve inches in diameter. A few years before, as related by David Eddy, a fine anchor had been found imbedded in sand on the Hamburg lake shore. Ten or twelve years later two cannon were discovered on the beach near where the iron was found. The late James W. Peters, of East Evans, in a communication to the Buffalo Com- mercial Advertiser, reproduced in Turner's "Holland Purchase," stated that he saw them immediately after their discovery, and cleaned away enough of the rust to lay bare a number of letters on the breech of one of them. He stated that the word or words thus exposed were declared to be French ; he did not say by whom, nor what they were. From these data. Turner and others have inferred that the Griffin was wrecked at the mouth of Eighteen-Mile creek ; that such of the crew as escaped intrenched themseh'es there to resist 13 l86 SETTLEMENT OF GOLDEN. the Indians, but were finally overpowered and slain. It is much more probable, however, that the Griffin sank amid the storms of the upper lakes, especially as La Salle and his three companions came back on foot not far from Lake Erie, doubtless making constant inquiries of the Indians as to any wrecked vessel. Mr. O. H. Marshall is very decidedly of the opinion that the evidences of shipwreck found on the lake shore were due to the loss of the Beaver, which occurred near that locality about 1765, and furnished an essay supporting this view to the Buffalo His- torical Society, which has unfortunately been lost. The size of the trees growing over the irons confirms Mr. Marshall's theory, which is in all probability correct. It is not seriously invalidated by the French words (if they were French,) on the cannon, as many English mottoes (such as " Dim ct vton droit," " Hoiii soit qui mal y pciisc" etc.,) are of French origin. Dr. John March and Silas Este settled near Eden Valley in 1810, and Morris INIarch, son of the former, informs me that there were just four families in town when they came. When the two families came, in March, they had to draw their wagons by hand on the ice across the Eighteen-Mile at Water Valley, where a saw-mill was about to be erected. Up to this time no settlement had been made in the present town of Golden, but in 18 10 Richard Buffum became its pioneer. He Avas a Rhode Islander of some property, and being desirous of emigrating westward he was requested by a number of his neighbors to go into an entirely new district and purchase a place where he could build mills, when they would settle around him. Accordingly he came to the Holland Purchase, and located on the site of Golden village. His son, Thomas Buffum, then seven years old, informs me that his father cut his own road six or eight miles, and then built him a log house forty feet long ! This is the largest log dwelling of which I have heard in all my researches, and is entitled to special mention. The same fall he put up a saw-mill. Various causes prevented the coming of the neighbors he had calculated on, and for a good while Mr. Buf- fum was very much isolated. The first year no one came ex- cept men whom he had hired. As, however, he had eleven children, he was probably not very lonesome. tucker's table. 187 There, was considerable emigration into Concord in 1810. One of the first comers was William Smith, whose son, Calvin C, then seven years old, names (besides Albro, Cochran and Russell) Jedediah Cleveland, Elijah Dunham, Mr. Person and Jacob Drake as residents when he came. Rufus Eaton, long an influential citizen, came that summer, and Jonathan Townsend purchased, and probably settled, in the locality which has since been known as Townsend Hill. Josiah Fay, Benjamin C. Fos- ter, Seneca Baker, Philip Van Horn, Luther Curtis and others came about the same time into various parts of Concord. There were early friends of education at Springville. Mr. .Smith says that Anna Richmond taught the first school in the summer of 18 10, with only fourteen scholars, just north of the site of the village, in a log barn, in which a floor had been put made of bass wood puncheons. In February, 18 10, Samuel Tucker, brother of Abram, the pioneer in North Collins of the previous year, moved into that town, following the Indian trail by way of Water Valley and Eden Center. It was the first team that passed over that trail. His provisions consisted principally of a barrel of flour and a barrel of pork ; these he rolled down some of the steepest hills, as he could manage them better by hand than on the sled. He settled a mile and a half south of North Collins village (Kerr's Corners). There he built a log house ; that was a mat- ter of course, but a piece of his furniture was entirely unique. Having no table he left a stump, nicely .squared off, standing in the middle of his house, and this was the family table. His first wheat for seed was only procured by trading off a log- chain, and it was two years before the light shone through a glass window on his peculiar table. Enos Southwick came with his family the same year, and Abram Tucker admitted them to the shelter of his hospitable mansion. In that little bark-covered cabin, was born in August, 1 8 10, George Tucker, the first white child in the towns of Col- lins and North Collins, and in September following, George Southwick, the second native of the same district. If there had been a stump in that house it would have been rather crowded. For these last facts I am indebted to Mr. George Southwick, of Gowanda, who ought to know as to their correctness. l88 "Tin: lllLL DIFFICULTY." Among other settlers before the war, in North ColHns, were Henry Tucker, Benjamin Leggett, Levi Woodward, Stephen White, Stephen Twining, Gideon Lapham, Noah Tripp, Abra- ham Gifford, Orrin Brayman, Jonathan Southwick, Hugh Mc- Millan, and Lill}- Staftbrd. P^or most of these names I am in- debted to Humphrey Smith, Esq., of North Collins, though not arriving himself till just after the war, learned who were there before, and whose extraordinary memory has been of much assistance to me. In the spring or summer of 1810, Turner Aldrich and his family came up the Cattaraugus creek from the lake beach, and let their wagons down the "breakers" into the Gowanda flats by means of ropts hitched to the hind axle and payed out from around trees. They located on the site of Gowanda, and were the first family in Collins, except those near Taylor's Hollow. In the spring of that same year, however, Stephen Wilber, Stephen Peters and Joshua Falmerton came in, built a cabin and went to keeping bachelor's hall about a mile west of the site of Collins Center, where they had all bought lands. In the fall Wilber went back to Cayuga county. In March, 181 1, he returned with his family, accompanied by t|uite a colony, consisting of Allen King and wife, Luke Cran- dall and wife, Arnold King, John King, and Henry Palmerton. The Crandalls had come from Vermont, and when they started for the Holland Purchase Mrs. C.'s father, in accordance with olden custom, presented her with a bottle of rum. directing her not to uncork it until they reached "The Hill Difficulty;" re- ferring to Pilgrim's Progress. The}- came into Collins from the east and at what is now known as Woodward's Hollow they had to chain the sleds to trees to get down safely. At the foot of the ascent on the other side I\Irs. Crandall said : "Here is 'The Hill Difiiculty,' let us drink," and opened her bottle, presenting it first to Mrs. Wilber. Any one who has been at that place will appreciate her remark. After their an-ival Mr. Wilber improvised a vehicle by falling a small tree, using the body for a tongue and the branches for runners. This was the only carriage that could be navigated among the numerous fallen trees. Men used to fasten a bag of corn to the cross-piece, and spend three da}-s going to Yaw's CONCORD AND SARDINIA. 1 89 mill in Boston. When there was not time for this they would use one of the stump-mortars, or "plumpin^-mills," before described. During the period before the war, besides those mentioned, there were purchases and probably settlements made by Seth Blossom, George Morris, T^than Howard, Abraham Lapham, Ira Lapham, and Silas Howard. Smith Bartlettcame but a little later. Samuel Burgess, Harry Sears and others bought near Spring- ville in 181 1, while Benjamin Fay located at Townsend Hill. In fact immiigrants into Concord became so numerous that Rufus Eaton thought it necessary to build a saw-mill in i8ri or 1812. New settlers were also numerous in Sardinia in 181 1 and the beginning of 1812. Among them were Horace Rider, Henry Godfrey, Randall Walker, Benjamin Wilson, Daniel Hall, Giles Briggs, John Cook, Henry Bowen, Smithfield Ballard and Francis Easton. Elihu Rice also moved there at that period, and according to his son's recollection brought a small stock of goods, which he sold in his log dwelling-house. This was quite a common way of improvising a store in those days. Ezra Nott, the first pioneer of the town, married just before the war, and brought in his bride, who survives in a pleasant old age at Sardinia village. She says they went to housekeeping in a cabin "with no doors and very little floor." Sumner Warren, a younger brother of William, also located in town before the war, and built a saw-mill on Mill brook, near the mouth. Mrs. Nott relates how his mother came to visit him, on horseback, from Aurora. There was no road south of the Humphrey settlement in Holland. Threading her way among the gulfs south of Holland village, she emerged on the level land of Sardinia. But, having occupied more time than she intended, night came upon her and she was unable to determine her course. Finding it useless to attempt farther progress, she tied her horse to a sapling, took off the saddle, and coolly laid down and waited till morning. The wolves occasionally howled in the distance, but were either not numerous enough or not hungry to venture near. How much she slept I cannot say. 190 HOLLAND, COLDEN, ETC. Among- the new settlers in Holland at this time was Joseph Cooper, who located on the farm where his son Samuel, then a boy, still resides. At that time the latter says there was no road farther south than his father's place. A Baptist church was organized in Boston in 181 1. Mr. Tru- man Gary states that Rev. Cyrus Andrews, a Baptist minister, came there the same year and preached ten years. Doubtless, however, he officiated in other places also, for I do not think there was a church in the county able to support a settled minis- ter. Clark Carr, also a Baptist minister, settled near the Concord line before the war, and preached much of the time throughout his life. John Twining, Lemuel Parmely, and Dorastus and Edward Hatch were among the new comers to Boston. The last named person, then twent}'-two years old, still survives, being the earliest settler in Boston who was twenty -one years old when he came. Richard Sweet and one or two others joined Buffum's little colony in Colden. There was also considerable emigration to Eden that year, Among the new settlers were Levi Bunting, Samuel Webster. Joseph Thorne, James Paxon, John Welch, Josiah Gail and James Pound. Another was John Hill, who located at Eden Center, where he was the first settler and where three of his sons, still reside. They inform me that their father brought a flock of a dozen or two sheep all the way from Otsego county. On arriving at Tubbs' Hollow, the night before reaching their destination, the wolves got among the sheep and killed every one with a single exception ; the one that wore the bell. It did not follow from the extent of the slaughter that there were many animals engaged in it. A single wolf has been known to kill six or eight sheep out of a flock in the same raid; merely sucking the blood of each and then leaving it to chase the others. Numerous settlers, too, sought the handsome level lands of Evans. James Ayer located on the lake shore in 181 1, where his son now resides. The latter informs me that when they came Gideon Dudley was at Evans Center, David Corbin and Timothy Dustin near there, and a Mr. Pike near the stream now called Pike creek. A Mr. Palmer was then keeping tavern BEARS AND HEDGEHOGS. I9I at the niouth of the Eighteen-Mile. Hezekiah Dibble also came before the war, becomin<( an influential citizen. Among the new conners in Hamburg were Ira Fisk, Horoman Salisbury, Henry Clark, Shubael Sherman and Ebenezer Inger- soll, while in East Hamburg there were Pardon Pierce, James Paxson, Joseph Hawkins and others. Dr. William Warriner was a phyKician in Hamburg at this time, and Obadiah Baker had a grist-mill on Smoke's creek, near Potter's Corners. Early in the spring of 18 12 Daniel Sumner made the first settlement on Chestnut Ridge, locating just south of the farm now occu- pied by his step-son, S. V. R. Graves, Esq., then a small boy. Here, as elsewhere, the bears and wolves were abundant, and one or two anecdotes related by Mr. G. show the extreme af- fection of the former for pork. On one occasion a bear came close to the house, seized a shote weighing a hundred pounds, and made off with it. Coming to a seven-rail fence, the apparently clumsy animal .scrambled over it, bearing the porker in her mouth .something as a cat does a kitten, and leaving no trace behind save the marks of her claws on the top rail. Another bear attacked an old sow in a shanty close to the residence of Amos Colvin, in the Newton neighborhood. The old man ran out and found the two animals under a work-bench, and no amount of beating could make the bear let go her hold. Having some powder, but no ball nor .shot, Colvin broke off a piece of the bail of a kettle, loaded his gun with it, and actually killed the stubborn invader with this primitive ammunition. Another animal, which has disappeared since then, was the hedgehog. This black and " fretful " little animal was then common, especially among the chestnuts of that region, and many an unsophisticated young dog has returned home sore and bleeding from the wounds inflicted by his apparently insignifi- cant antagonist. Although the casting of their quills is a fable, yet they could really use them with great efficiency as simple defensive weapons, and experienced canines usually declined the unequal contest. By the spring of 181 1 the town.ship now called Aurora had increased in population (including among the new comers of that year the Staffords, who settled " Stafl"ordshire," Moses Thomp- 192 AURORA, WALES, ETC. son, Russell Uarlini;-, Amos Undcrhill and others,) so that it was thought it might support a store. Accordingly John Ad- ams and Daniel Hascall purchased a little stock of goods in Buftalo, put up a counter in the log house belonging to one of them, near what is now Blakeley's Corners, and indulged in the dignit}' of merchandising for about six months, and then sus- pended. The}- were evidently ahead of their age. Dr. John Watson was the first medical practitioner in Aurora. His younger brother, Ira G., also located there just before the war. They were the only ph}-sicians in the whole southeast part of the county. Though there were no '' settled " ministers, yet Elder Samuel Gail, then liv^ing in Aurora, and licensed by the INIethodist Church, frequently preached in houses or barns, or under the canopy of heaven, according to circumstances. The occasional preaching then begun b\- the youthful minister was continued for nearl}- sixty }-ears, until " Elder Gail '" was one of the best- known men in the south part of Erie count}'. Wales began to increase more rapidly than before; Varnum, Kenyon, Eli Weed, Jr., Nathan Mann and others being among the newcomers of 18 11, and in the succeeding winter young James Wood taught the first school in town. Isaac Hall also came that year, locating at what has since been known as "Hall's Hollow," or "Wales Center," where he soon built a saw-mill and grist-mill, the first in Whales, and also opened a tavern. His son, P. M. Hall, mentions Alvun Burt, Benjamin Earl and others, as in town when he came. Up to this time inhabitants of the " Cayuga Creek " settle- ment had been obliged to patronize the grist-mill at Clarence Hollow, or the one at Aurora. Water sometimes failed at the former, and the road to the latter was difficult to travel or even to discover. Mr. Clark, to whom I am indebted for so man}- reminiscences of those times, savs that his father and two others once started on horseback for Stephens' Mill, with se\-en bushels of grain in all, designing to follow the " Ransom road," since called the " Girdled road," which crossed the reservation, striking the Big- Tree road about a quarter o{ a mile west of the site of Aurora Academy. They were unable to keep the track, however, and BUFFALO BUSINESS. 193 after many wanderings struck the road from Aurora to Buffalo, which they mistakenly followed toward the latter place till they reached the Indian village. The " Ransom road " was evidently a very blind guide. Such troubles came to an end in 1811, when Ahaz Allen built a gri.st-mill at what is now Lancaster village. Its dam was the first on Cayuga creek, and after the race was shut, the first night, nine hundred and fifty-five fish — suckers, mullet, mus- calonge, etc. — were caught in it. The supervisor of Clarence for i8n was Samuel Hill, Jr., and in 181 2 James Cronk, both residing in the present territory of Xewstead. Tonawanda could not boast of a tavern until 181 1, when one was opened by Henry Anguish. Buffalo gained several important accessions to its busine.ss and social circles, during the period under consideration. Grosvenor & Heacock established themselves as merchants on Main street. The senior member of the firm was Abel M. Grosvenor, a portly and pleasant middle-aged gentleman, who died during the war. The junior partner, Reuben B. Heacock, long one of the best-known citizens of Buffalo, was then a tall, slender young man of twenty-two, with keen features and Roman nose, manifesting his intense energy in every movement as he strode through the streets of the nascent emporium. Messrs. Stocking & Bull, in 181 1, built the first hat-factory in Buffalo, on Onondaga (Washington) street, near the corner of Swan. Mr. Stocking devoted himself with especial earnestness to the support of public worship and Sunday-schools, seconding the efforts of Deacon Callender and Gen. Elijah Holt, the latter of whom came about the same time. Charles Town.send and George Coit, two young men of Con- necticut, also came to Buffalo at this time, and establi.shed the long-celebrated firm of Townsend & Coit. They were reputed wealthy when they came, (.something very unusual for Buffalo- nians of that era,) and it is asserted that they brought with them, via Oswego and Lewiston, twenty tons of goods. Heman B. Potter was a young lawyer who began, in 181 1, a legal career which continued in Buffalo for nearly half a century. A man of medium size, regular features and calm demeanor. 194 "THE BRICK TAVERN OX THE HILL. Mr. Potter was less self-assertive than the majority of successful pioneers, yet he remained so long in active life that he was, more than any other one man, the connecting link between the forest- shaded hamlet and the swarming metropolis. In i8ii William Hodge built a large brick hotel where is now the corner of Main and Utica streets. It was nearly if not quite the first of that material in the county, and was soon widely known as the "brick tavern on the hill." Mr. H. had also be- come the proprietor of the first nurser\- in the county, and had first started the manufacture of fanning-mills. It is a good illustration of pioneer energy that, in order to learn how to make the screens, Mr. Hodge went on foot to a place near Utica, paid a man to teach him the desired secret, and then re- turned on foot to Buffalo to put it in use. In the forepart of this year the President, being authorized by Congress, located the port of entry for the district of Buffalo Creek at Black Rock, from the first of April to the first of De- cember in each year, and at "Buftaloe" the rest of the time. It is difficult to see why the office should have been moved twice a year merely to make " Buftaloe " a port of entry during the four months when there were no entries. The year iSii was also marked by the establishment of Mr. Jabez B. Hyde as the first school-teacher among the Senecas. He was sent by the New York Missionary Society. A minister of the gospel was sent at the same time, but was rejected by the chiefs, while the teacher was invited to remain. But the most important event in the eye of the historian was the establishment of the first newspaper in Erie county, the Buffalo Gazette ; the initial number of which was issued on the third day of October, 1811, by Messrs Smith H. and Hezekiah A. Salisbury. The former was the editor. For the time previous to its appearance the student of local history must depend on the memory of a few aged persons, eked out by a very small number of scattering records. But, fortunately, a tolerably complete file of the Gazette has been preserved through all the vicissitudes of sixty-five years, and is now in the possession of the Young Men's Association of Buf- falo. By carefully studying its columns, especially the adver- tisements, one can form a very fair idea of the progress of the THE FIRST NEWSPAPER. 195 county. The first number has been stolen from the files ; the second, dated October loth, 1811, remains, the earliest specimen of Erie county journalism. A rou^h-looking little sheet was this pioneer newspaper of Erie county, printed on coarse, brownish paper, each of the four pages being about twelve inches by twenty. Its price was $2.50 per year if left weekly at doors ; $2.00 if taken at the office or .sent by mail. The price seems large for a sheet of those dimensions, but the advertising rates were certainly low enough. A " square " was inserted three weeks for $1.00, and twenty-five cents was charged for each subsequent insertion. There must have been a large mail business done in tliis vicinity, or a very slow delivery ; as the first number of the Gazette contained an advertisement of a hundred and fifty- seven letters remaining in the post-office at Buffalo Creek. Five of them were directed to women, whose names I give as speci- mens of the feminine nomenclature of that day: Susan Daven- port, Sarah Goosbeck, Susannah McConnel, Nancy Tuck, Lu- cinda Olmsted. Not one ending in "ie!" With their printing office the Salisburys carried on the first Buffalo book-store, and kept a catalogue of their books con- stantly displayed in their paper. It may give an idea of the literary taste of that era to observe that one of those lists con- tains the names of seventeen books on law, fourteen on medicine, fifty-four on religious subjects, fifty-four on history, poetry and philosophy, and only eleven novels ! One of the first numbers chronicles the arrival of the schooner Salina, Daniel Robbins master, with a cargo of " Furr " esti- mated at a hundred and fifty thousand dollars — an estimate which I fear did not hold out. " Furr " was the invariable spell- ing of the covering of the beaver and otter, while a wieldcr of the needle was sometimes denominated a " tailor," and some- times a " taylor." Militia affairs evidently received considerable attention, as the only advertisement of blanks was one of "Sergeants' Warrants, Captains' Orders to Sergeants, Notices to Warn Men to Parade," &c., &c. Captains were numerous, and were not always blessed with high scholastic acquirements, as is shown by the following 196 BUFFALO VS. BUFFALO-E. communication from one gallant chieftain to another, which somehow found its way into the Gazette, minus the names: Willink, November the 10, 181 1. "Capt . Sir this day Mr. inform mee that he was not able to do militerry duty, and wish you not to fleet a fine on him ef I had a non his sttuation i shod not returned him this is from yr. frend. . Capt. "Willink," gives but a slight idea of the locality, as the whole south part of the count}' was still called by that name. Municipal towns were so large that survey townships were frequently used for description. Thus Daniel Wood advertised a watch left at his house "in the 6th Town, 8th Range ;" that is in the present town of Collins. Buffalo, which had originally been spelled by every one with a final " e," had latterly, in accordance with the growing distaste for superfluous letters, been frequently used without it, but the older form was still common. Editor Salisbur}' set himself to complete the reformation, always omitting the " e " himself, and ridiculing its use by others. He declared that it made a word of four syllables, " Buf-fa-lo-e." Said he : " Buf, there's your Buf ; fa, there's your Bufifa; lo, there's your Buffalo ; e, there's your Buffalo-e." In the Gazette of the 29th of December. 181 1, he published a report of a supposed lawsuit in the " Court of People's Bench of Buffalo-e," in which " Ety Mol O Gist " was plaintiff, and " General Opinion " was defendant. The following is an extract from the proceedings : " This was an action brought before the court for the purloin- ing the fifth letter of the alphabet, and clapping it on the end of the name Buffalo. . . . The plaintiff now proceeded, after some pertinent remarks to the court, in which he pointed out the enormity of the offense of General Opinion, to call his witnesses. Several dictionaries were brought forth and exam- ined, who testified, from Dr. Johnson down to Noah Webster, that there was no such character as " e " in the town of Buffalo. " General Use, who was subpcenaed by both parties, was qual- ified. He said he did not hesitate to state to the court that he had been in the constant practice of dating his notes, receipts, and memoranda with " Buftaloe," but that since the establish- ment of a public paper he should accommodate it to his con- science to cut it short and dock oft" the final ' e.' " * * * SCARCITY OF LOCAL ITEMS. 1 97 The editor's efforts accelerated the popular tendency, and the "e" was soon generally abandoned, though for many years a few conservative gentlemen continued to date their letters at " Buffaloe." In one of the first numbers of the Gazette was an advertise- ment stating that the new sloop " Friends' Goodwill, of Black Rock," would carry passengers to Detroit for twelve dollars each, and goods for a dollar and a half a barrel. It should be stated that the only way in which any idea of the condition of the village or county can be gained from the Gazette is by examining the advertisements ; for it is very plain that the local reporter was then an unknown functionary, and the voice of the interviewer was never heard in the land. Number after number of the Gazette appeared without a sin- gle local item. Except during the war, such items were exces- sively rare through all the first years of Buffalo journalism, and even when events of decided importance forced recognition they were dismissed with the briefest possible notice. Editorials, also, were extremely rare, though not so much so as locals. Nor, although the paper was small, could the paucity of edi- torial and local matter be attributed chiefly to that cause ; for considerable space was devoted to distant, and especially to foreign, news, and unimportant proclamations of European po- tentates were frequently published entire, while not a word was to be seen about anything occurring within two hundred miles of Buffalo. It is plain that both the reporter who knows everything and the editor who has an opinion about everything remained long undeveloped on the shores of Lake Erie. In one respect, however, the publishers showed a praiseworthy desire to furnish their readers, especially of the fairer sex, with interesting intelligence ; under the proper head there were always several notices of marriage. But as a week frequently passed without a wedding in the vicinity, the columns of the exchanges were apparently ransacked for hymeneal intelligence. The Gazette of December 17, 1811, contains notices of one marriage in Ontario county, one in Oneida county, two in Connecticut and one in Montreal. 198 ABUNDANCE OF MARRIAGE NOTICES. The selection was usually induced by some peculiarity in name or age, but instead of noticing it among the news items or com- icalities, the oddity was transferred to the regular hymeneal list of Niagara county. Readers in those days might do without their daily murder, but marriages they must have. On one occasion they were amply supplied without resorting to Connecticut or Montreal. The Gazette of Dec. 11, 18 11, records the marriage "on Wednesday evening last," in the town of Willink. of Mr. Edward Paine to Miss Phebe Turner, of Mr. Levi Blake to Miss Polly Sanford, and of Mr. Thomas Holmes to Miss Martha Sanford. Failures in business seem to have been quite common in pro- portion to the amount done ; as one paper contains three, and another four notices for insolvent debtors to show cause why they should not be declared bankrupts. Yet it is plain that business was generally flourishing. There were no advertisements for work, but many for workmen. In the course of a few weeks in the fall of 1811, Tallmadge & Mul- lett advertised for two or three journeymen tailors, John Tower for a journeyman shoemaker, Daniel Lewis for a "Taylor's" ap- prentice and a journeyman "Tailor," Stocking & Bull for three or four journeymen hatters, and Leech & Keep for two or three journeymen blacksmiths, at their shop at Cold Spring, "two miles from the village of Buffalo." Certainly there would have been no bankruptcies had all creditors adopted the generous policy of Lyman Parsons, who . advertised his earthenware at Cold Spring, and added : " He requests all those indebted to him, and whose promises have become due, to make payment or fresh promises !" No modern doctor of finance could have been more liberal. The Patent Medicine Man was already an established insti- tution, and M. Daley advertised several unfailing panaceas, their value being attested by certificates as ample, (and as truthful,) as those of the present day. Among the merchants everybody dealt in everything. Na- thaniel Sill & Co. dispensed " fish and cider " at Black Rock. Peter H. Colt, at the same place, dealt in "whisky, gin, bufi'alo- robes and feathers." Townsend & Coit advertised "linseed oil and new goods " in Buffalo. AN OFFICIAL IRREGULARITY. 1 99 The original name adopted by the Holland Company had not yet been utterly discarded. Notice was given that the "Ecclesi- astical Society" would meet "at the school-house in the village of New Amsterdam," and Grosvenor & Heacock advertised goods "at their store in the village of New Amsterdam." Even in those good old times, officials were sometimes guilty of " irregulai'ities," and one of the few local items in the Ga- zette, under the head, "A delinquent and a villain," gave notice that Joseph Alward, who wore the double honors of constable of Willink and carrier of news, had "cleared out for Canada," taking two horses, eight or ten watches and other property. A news-carrier was an important functionary; he was the sole reli- ance of most of the inhabitants for papers and letters — there being but one post-office in the county out of Buftalo, and none south of the reservation. The next week after the disappear- ance of the " delinquent and villain," David Leroy gave notice that he had taken Alward's route, but he soon gave it up for lack of business. Another notice informed the people that a carrier named Paul Drinkwater had judiciously selected one route down the river and another up the lake. A. S. Clarke, postmaster at Clarence, (his store it will be re- membered was. in the present town of Newstead,) advertised seven letters detained at his office for Clarence, and fifty for Willink. These latter had to be sent from fifteen to fifty miles by private conveyance. There was still no regular preaching of the gospel in the county. Some steps were taken to that end, but nothing ac- complished before the war. In regard to religion and morality, Buffalo seems to have had a very bad reputation abroad — even worse then it deserved. The Gazette published a letter from a clergyman to " a gentle- man in this village," saying : " Erom what I had heard, I supposed that the people in gen- eral were so given to dissipation and vice that the preachers of Christianity would find few or no ears to hear : but most agree- ably disappointed was I to find my audiences not only respecta- ble in point of numbers, but solemn, decent, devout and which seemed gladly to hear the word." Notwithstanding this readiness to hear the word, some things. 200 THE WAR OF SCALPELS. such as lotteries, were tolerated, which would now be looked on with general disfavor. A memorial was presented to the legis- lature, signed by many of the principal citizens of Niagara county, asking for $15,000 to build a road from the Genesee river to Buffalo, the State to be reimbursed by a lottery. The project was warmly endorsed by the Gazette. At the present day we should at least have morality enough to call the scheme a gift-enterprise. It does not appear to have been adopted. The difficulty of deciding when "doctors disagree," has long been a favorite theme of philosophers, but it was more than usually great at the time and in the locality under considera- tion. The two Chapins, Daniel and Cyrenius, were the leaders of two factions, whose warfare was, as usual, made all the more intense by the small number of the contestants. In November, 181 1, there appeared a call for a meeting of the Medical Society of Niagara County, signed by Asa Coltrin, (part- ner of Dr. Cyrenius,) as secretary. The last of December, Dr. Daniel Chapin also gave notice of the meeting of the Medical Society of Niagara County. In the next number of the Gazette Dr. Cyrenius came to the front with a notice that Dr. Daniel's call was irregular, and that the Medical Society of Niagara County //^^(t' met in November and adjourned to February first. Then Dr. Daniel's society assembled, and its chief made a speech which sounds like a modern statesman's triumphant ex- posure of the wickedness of his political opponents. The rival association was described as making a contemptible display of depravity and weakness, exhibited only to be pitied and de- spised, and as being " a mutilated, ill-starred brat, scotched with the characterestic marks of its empirical accoucheur!" By and by Dr. Cyrenius issued an address, not quite so viru- lent, but denouncing the other society as a humbug. He did not state the number of physicians in Niagara county at that time, but said that three years before (1809) there were sixteen. In 1812 there were probably about two dozen in the present counties of Erie and Niagara, two thirds of them being in the territory of the former. But they had a big enough war for five hundred. Finally the Danielites sued the Cyreniusites for taking a let- ter from the post-office directed to "The Medical Society of Ni- THE MECHANICAL SOCIETY. 20I agara County," and just before the declaration of war the suit was decided in favor of the defendants. Then Dr. Josiah Trow- bridge, secretary of the victorious faction, issued a bulletin of triumph in the Gazette, but the din of scalpels was soon extin- guished in the more terrible conflict rapidly hastening to an outbreak. The Free Masons already had an organization in the village, and Western Star lodge gave notice that it would install its officers on the loth of March, 1812. The first of the many societies organized in Erie county by artisans was called the Mechanical Society, and was formed by the master mechanics of Buffalo on the 26th of March. Joseph Bull (hatter) was elected president, Henry M. Camp- bell (also a hatter) and John Mullctt (tailor), vice-presidents ; with Robert Kaene, Asa Stanard, David Reese (blacksmith), Daniel Lewis (tailor), and Samuel Edsall (tanner), as standing committee. This Mr. Edsall advertised his tannery and shoe shop as " on the Black Rock road, near the village of Buffalo." Considering that it stood at the corner of Niagara and Mohawk streets, it would undoubtedly now be considered as tolerably near Buffalo. On the 20th day of March, 18 12, the gigantic town of Wil- link was seriously reduced by a law erecting the towns of Ham- burg, Eden and Concord. Hamburg contained the present towns of Hamburg and East Hamburg. Eden was composed of what is now Boston, Eden, Evans, and part of Brant, and Concord comprised the whole tract afterwards divided into Sar- dinia, Concord, Collins and North Collins — leaving Willink only twelve miles square, embracing Aurora, Wales, Holland and Colden. Besides, Willink and Hamburg nominally extended to the middle of the Buffalo reservation, and Collins covered that part of the Cattaraugus reservation situated in Niagara county. The records of both Hamburg and Eden have been preserved to this day. In the former town the people first met on the 7th of April, 1812, at the house of Jacob Wright. The following officers were elected : David Eddy, supervisor ; Samuel Hawkins, town clerk ; Isaac Chandler, Richard Smith and Nel. Whitticer, assessors ; Abner 14 202 THREE NEW TOWNS. Wilson, constable and collector ; Nathan Clark and Thomas Fish, overseers of the poor; James Browning, John Green and Amasa Smith, commissioners of highways ; Daniel Smith, Gil- bert Wright and Benjamin Henshaw, constables ; Jotham Bemis and Abner Amsdell, pound-masters. At the same meeting it was voted that last year's supervisor (of Willink) should "discharge our poor debt" by paying the poor-masters the sum of five dollars. As a specimen of cheap work, performed for the people, I have noted that, for making a map of the division of the town, Cotton Fletcher was voted the sum of one dollar. The meeting adjourned till the next day when, with the new supervisor acting as "moderator," the people voted "that hogs should remain as the statute law directs." Also that five dollars per head should be paid for w^olves and panthers. The record shows that there were twenty-one road districts at the organ- ization of the town. It does not appear that Eden was organized until the next year. For convenience, however, that organization is given here. Joseph Yaw was "moderator" of the meeting. John C. Twining was elected supervisor ; John March, town clerk ; Amos Smith, David Corbin and John Hill, assessors ; Charles John- son, Calvin Doolittle, and Richard Berry, Jr., commissioners of highways; Lemuel Parmalee, collector; John Conant and Silas Este, constables ; John W^elch and Asa Cary, poor-masters. There were thirteen road districts. It is said that John Hill selected the name of Eden for the new town, on account of the paradisaical look which the country around Eden Center bore to his eye. For some unknown rea- son it was almost universally spelled "Edon" for many years, not only in writing, but when printed in the Gazette. The records of Concord having been burned, its early organ- ization cannot be given. During all this time there was a constant and increasing fer- ment regarding war and politics. The growing dissatisfaction of the government and a majority of the people of the United States with the government of Great Britain, on account of her disregard of neutral rights in the contest with Napoleon, had at length reached the verge of war, and the denunciations of that A FEDERAL COMMITTEE. 203 power in Congress, in State legislatures, in the press and in pub- lic meetings were constantly becoming more bitter. While this was the sentiment of the ruling party (that is the Democratic or Republican, for it went by both names,) the Federalists, who constituted a large and influential minority, opposed a war with England, asked for further negotiation, and met the Democratic denunciations of that country with still more bitter attacks on Napoleon, whom they accused the Republicans of favoring. In February, Congress passed a law to organize an army of twenty-five thousand men. Shortly after, Daniel D. Tompkins, the republican governor of New York, made a speech to the legislature, advising that the State prepare for the coming contest. This county up to that time had been decidedly Federal. Ebenezer Walden was the Federal member of assembly for the counties of Niagara, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua. In April, Abel M. Grosvenor was nominated for the assembly by a meeting of the Federalists, or as they termed themselves "Fed- eral Republicans." At the same meeting a large committee was appointed, and, as it is to be presumed that the men selected were somewhat influential members of their party in that day, I transcribe a list of those residing in the present county of Erie : Town of Buffalo — Nathaniel Sill, Joshua Gillett, Benjamin Caryl, James Beard, Oilman Folsom, Wm. B. Grant, John Rus- sell, Daniel Lewis, Rowland Cotton, David Reese, Elisha Ensign, S. H. Salisbury, Ransom Harmon, Frederick House, Guy J. Atkins, Samuel Lasuer, John Duer, John Watkins, R. Grosvenor Wheeler, Fred. Buck, Henry Anguish, Nehemiah Seeley, Henry Doney, Solomon Eldridge and Holden Allen. Clarence — Henry Johnson, Asa Fields, James Powers, James S. Youngs, William Baker, Archibald Black, John Stranahan, Josiah Wheeler, G. Stranahan, Benjamin O. Bivins, John Peck and Jonathan Barrett. Willink — Abel Fuller, Ebenezer Holmes, John McKeen, San- ford G. Colvin, Levi Blake, Ephraim Woodruff, Daniel Haskell, Samuel Mcrriam, Dr. John Watson and John Gaylord, Jr. Hamburg — Seth Abbott, Joseph Browning, William Coltrin, Ebenezer Goodrich, Cotton Fletcher, John Green, Samuel Ab- bott, Benjamin Enos, Pardon Pierce. 204 A REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE. Eden — Charles Johnson, Luther Hibbard, Dorastus Hatch, Dr. John March, Job Palmer, Samuel Tubbs. Concord — Joseph Hanchett, Solomon Fields, Samuel Cooper, Stephen Lapham, Gideon Lapham, Gideon Parsons, William S. Sweet. As a companion to the Federal committee, I insert here the names of the members of a similar one composed of Demo- cratic Republicans, though not appointed till a year or so later. They were Nathaniel Henshaw^ Ebenezer Johnson, Pliny A. Field, William Best, Louis Le Couteulx and John Sample of Buffalo ; Otis R. Hopkins, Samuel Hill, Jr., Daniel Rawson, James Baldwin, Daniel McCleary, Oliver. Standard and Moses Fenno, of Clarence ; David Eddy, Richard Smith, Samuel Haw- kins, Giles Sage, William Warriner, Joseph Albert and Zenas Smith, of Hamburg; Elias Osborn, Israel Phelps, Jr., Daniel Thurston, Jr., William Warren, James M. Stevens, John Car- penter and Joshua Henshaw, of VVillink ; vChristopher Stone, Benjamin Tubbs, Gideon Dudley, Amos Smith and Joseph Thorn, of Eden ; and Rufus Eaton, Frederick Richmond, Allen King, Benjamin Gardner and Isaac Knox, of Concord. Jonas Williams, the founder of Williamsville, was the Repub- lican candidate for the assembly. About the same time Asa Ransom was again appointed sheriff; Joseph Landon, Henry Brothers and Samuel Hill, Jr., coroners ; Samuel Tupper and David Eddy, judges and justices; and P^lias Osborne, then of Willink, justice of the peace. , Shortly afterwards, Samuel Tupper, of Buffalo, was appointed first judge in place of Judge Porter, resigned. Already there were fears of Indian assault. It was reported that a body of British and Indians were assembled at Newark, to make a descent on the people on this side. A public meet- ine was held at Cook's tavern, in Buffalo, at which the state- ment was declared untrue. Early in May a lieutenant of the United States army adver- tised for recruits at Buffalo, offering those who enlisted for five years a hundred and sixty acres of land, three months' extra pay, and a bounty of sixteen dollars. The amount of bounty will not appear extravagant to modern readers. Election was held on the 12th of May, and the approach of MILITIA OFFICERS. 205 war had evidently caused a great change in the strength of the two parties. The votes for member of assembly show at once the ascendency suddenly gained by the Democrats, and the comparative population of the several towns. For Grosvenor, , Federal, Willink gave 71 votes, Hamburg 47, Eden 41, Concord 33, Clarence 72, Buffalo 123 ; total, 387. For Williams, Repub- lican, Willink gave 114, Hamburg 110, Eden 46, Concord 50, Clarence 177, Buffalo 112 ; total, 609. Archibald S. Clarke was elected State senator, being the first citizen of Erie county to hold that office, as he had been the first assemblyman and first surrogate. The congressmen chosen for this district were both outside of Niagara county. The militia were being prepared for war, at least to the ex- tent of being amply provided with officers. In Lt.-Col. Chap- man's regiment. Dr. Ebenezer Johnson was appointed " sur- geon's mate," (assistant surgeon he would now be called ;) Abiel Gardner and Ezekiel Sheldon, lieutenants ; Oziel Smith, pay- master; John Hersey and Samuel Edsall, ensigns. In Lt.-Col. Warren's regiment, Adoniram Eldridge, Charles Johnson, John Coon, Daniel Ha.skill, Benjamin Gardner and John Russell were appointed captains ; Innis B. Palmer, Isaac Phelps, Timothy Fuller, Benjamin I. Clough, Gideon Person, Jr., Frederick Richmond and Varnum Kenyon, lieutenants ; William Warriner, surgeon; Stephen Kinney, paymaster; Elihu Rice, Samuel Cochrane, Benjamin Douglass, Lyman Blackmar and Oliver Blezeo, ensigns. Scarcely a day passed that rumors of Indian outrages did not startle the inhabitants of Niagara county, who looked with anx- ious eyes on the half-tamed Iroquois in their midst, many of whom had once bathed their hands in American blood. The rumors were all false, but the terror they inspired was none the less real. Congress passed an act calling out a hundred thousand mili- tia, (thirteen thousand five hundred of whom were from New York,) and the news was followed quickly by an order detailing two hundred and forty men from Hopkins' brigade, for imme- diate service. On the 17th of May, Col. Swift, of Ontario county, arrived at Buffalo to assume command on the frontier. On the 1 8th, the first detachment of militia marched through 206 PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. that village on their way to Lewiston. They were from the south towns, and were commanded by Major Benj. Whaley. On the 26th, Superintendent Granger, with the interpreters Jones and Parrish, held a council with the chiefs of the Six Na- tions in the United States. Mr. Granger did not seek to enlist their services, such not being the policy of the government, but urged them to remain neutral. To this they agreed, but said they would send a delegation to consult their brethren in Canada. Meanwhile, the declaration of war was under earnest discus- sion in Congress. On the 23d of June, Col. Swift, whose headquarters were at Black Rock, was in command of six hundred militia, besides which there was a small garrison of regulars at Fort Niagara. There was no artillery, except at the fort. The preparations for war on the other side were somewhat better, there being six or seven hundred British regulars along the Niagara, and a hundred pieces of artillery. The excitement grew more intense every hour. Reckless men on either shore fired across the river " for fun," their shots were returned, and the seething materials almost sprang into flame by spontane- ous combustion. The morning of the 26th of June came. A small vessel, loaded with salt, which had just left Black Rock, was noticed entering Lake Erie by some of the citizens of Buffalo, and presently a British armed vessel from Ft. Erie was seen making its way toward the American ship. The latter was soon over- taken and boarded, and then both vessels turned their prows toward the British stronghold. There could be but one explanation of this — the vessel was captured — and the news of war spread with lightning-like rapid- ity among the inhabitants of the little frontier village. All doubt was dispelled a few hours later by an express-rider from the East, bearing the President's proclamation of war. The Can- adians had received the earliest news by reason of John Jacob Astor's sending a fast express to Oueenston, twelve hours ahead of the government riders, to warn his agents there. The War of 181 2 had begun. CONFUSION AND DISMAY. 20/ CHAPTER XXIII. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1812. Confusion. — Flight. — Tlie School-mistress and the Officer. — "Silver Greys." — The "Queen Charlotte."— Salisbury's Battle. — " The Charlotte Taken."— Fear of Indians. — Red Jacket's Logic. — Iroquois Declaration of War. — Capture of Two British Vessels. — The First Victim of War. — Black Rock Bombarded. — A Late Breakfast. — The Queenston Failure. — Smyth's Proclamation. — A Gallant Vanguard. — A Vacillating General. — Invasion Relinquished. — An Erie County Duel. — A Riot among the Soldiers. — Political Matters. — Quiet. t The news of the declaration of war was disseminated with almost telegraphic rapidity, flying off from the main roads pur- sued by the express-riders, and speeding from one scattered settlement to another throughout Western New York. Dire was the confusion created. In almost every locality divers counsels prevailed. Some were organizing as militia or volunteers ; others, alarmed by the reports of instant invasion and by the ever horrible tale of Indian massacre, made a hasty retreat with their families toward the Genesee. Sometimes the fleeing citizens were met by emigrants who were pressing for- ward to make new homes in the wilderness, unchecked by the dangers of the day. So great was the dismay that Mr. Ellicott issued an address to the settlers on the Holland Purchase, assuring them that the lines were well guarded and the country safe from invasion. The alarm is said to have been equally great on the other side, and the flight from the lines perhaps greater, as there were more people there to flee. By the fourth of July three thousand American militia were assembled on the Niagara frontier, General William Wadsworth being in command. This looked like efficient action, and ere long the men who remained at home were working as steadily as usual, many families who had fled returned, and affairs re- sumed their ordinary course, save where along the Niagara, the 2o8 SCHOOL-xMISTRESS AND OFFICER. raw recruits marched, and countermarched, and panted for the chance to distinguish themselves which came to them all too soon. At first, men of all classes and conditions were generally will- ing to turn out. Occasionally, however, one was found, even wearing the epaulet of an officer, who trembled at the bare idea of exchanging his cozy log house for the unknown terrors of the tented field. It is related of a wide-awake Springville school-mistress that she determined to have a little amusement at the expense of a boastful militia officer, who, not having been detailed for service, was loud in professing his anxiety for the joys of battle. Borrowing a suit of uniform from a relative, she attired her- self in it, partly concealed her face, went to the house of her victim, and announced herself as an aide-de-camp sent by the commanding general to call him instantly to the field. The sudden summons, coming when he had thought himself secure, utterly overcame his nerves, and he pleaded piteously for exemp- tion from the dread decree. But in vain ; he was ordered to prepare himself immediately, and it was only after he had al- most gone on his knees to the stern official that the latter dis- closed himself, or herself, and left the frightened official to muse on the deceitfulness of appearances. Besides the ordinary militia, several companies were organ- ized, composed of men too old to be called on for military duty. They were commonly called "Silver Greys." One such com- pany was formed in Willink, of which Phineas Stephens was captain, Ephraim Woodruff lieutenant and Oliver Pattengill ensign. Another was organized in Hamburg under Captain Jotham Bemis. Immediately on learning of the declaration of war, General Isaac Brock, commander-in-chief of the British forces in Upper Canada, and acting governor, took personal command on the Niagara frontier, and gave his attention to its defenses. Fort Erie was strengthened and a redoubt several rods long was erected opposite the residence of Congressman Porter, now the foot of Breckenridge street. Earthworks were also thrown up at Chippewa, Queenston and other points. The American side was similarly strengthened. SALISBURY S BATTLE. 209 There was constant watchfulness for spies on both sides of the hne, and many arrests were made. The superiority of the British on the lake was a source of constant annoyance to the people on this side. At the begin- ning of the war there was not a single armed American vessel afloat, while the British had three — the Queen Charlotte, of twenty-two guns, the Hunter, of twelve guns, and a small schooner lately built. The Queen Charlotte, in particular, kept the people of Ham- burg and Evans in constant alarm. Riding off the shore, her boats would be sent to land to seize on whatever could be found, especially in the way of eatables and live stock. At one time a party landed "-on the coast of Evans, near the farm of Aaron Salisbury, and began their work of plunder. Most of the men of the settlement were absent. Young Salis- bury seized his musket, overtook the marauders as they were going to their boats and opened fire on them from the woods.. They returned it, but without effect on either side. They then embarked on their vessel, which sailed northward. Knowing that the mouth of the Eighteen-Mile was a convenient landing place, Salisbury hurried thither through the woods. When he arrived they had just landed. He again opened a rapid fire from the friendly forest, and the foe thinking the whole country was rising against them, soon retreated to their boats and vessel, without doing any further harm. Mrs. Root, of Evans Center, then the eight-year old daughter of Anderson Taylor, informs me that these incursions from the Charlotte were quite frequent that first summer, and that the men of the scattered settlements were often taken on board as prisoners, kept a few days and then liberated. When the men were absent in the militia, some of the women did not take off their clothes for weeks together ; keeping themselves always ready for instant flight. It must have been, then, with feelings of decided gratification that Erie county people read the head-line in large capitals, of a notice in the Gazette, entitled, "The Charlotte Taken." But the ensuing lines, though pleasant enough, only announced the marriage in Hamburg, by "Hon. D. Eddy, Esq.," of Mr. Ja- rcd Canfield, "a sergeant in Captain McClure's volunteer com- 210 HOLDING A COUNCIL. pany," to Miss Charlotte King, daughter of Mr. N. King, of Concord. As has been said, the most intense anxiety was felt by the Americans regarding the Indians on both sides of the line. The British, in accordance with their ancient policy, made imme- diate arrangements on the outbreak of war to enlist the Mo- hawks, and other Canadian Indians, in their service. These sent emissaries to the Six Nations in New York, to persuade them to engage on the same side. The settlers on the Holland Purchase, and especially in the county of Niagara, were not only alarmed at the prospect of invasion by savage enemies, but also lest the Senecas and others on this side should allow their ancient animosities to be rekindled, and break out into open rebellion. It must be confessed the danger was not slight, for there was good ground for believing that some at least of the Seneca warriors had been engaged against the United States at the battle of Tippecanoe, only the year before. Mr. Granger was active in averting the danger, and on the 6th of July he convened a council of the Six Nations in the United States, on the Buffalo reservation. It was opened, as a matter of course, by Red Jacket, and Mr. G. in a long speech set forth the cause of the war from the American point of view, urging the Indians to have nothing to do with the quarrels of the whites, but to remain quietly at home during the war. He said, however, that he was aware that many of their young braves were anxious to engage in the fight, and if they must do so, he preferred it should be on the side of the United States. If, therefore, they were determined to see something of the war, perhaps a hundred and fifty or two hundred of their warriors would be accepted by the government. At the next meeting of the council Red Jacket replied, de- claring in favor of neutrality, saying that he hoped no warriors would be accepted by the government without permission of the great council, and asking leave to make another effort to per- suade the Mohawks to abandon the war-path. This was granted, and a deputation of five chiefs, with considerable difficulty, ob- tained permission from General Brock to visit their Mohawk brethren. The effort, however, was useless, as the Canadian In- dians were fully determined not to bury the hatchet. RED jacket's logic. 211 The neutrality of the Senecas, Cayugas, etc., continued for only a brief time. In fact, the excitement of war was so infec- tious, not only to the "young braves," but to many of those who considered themselves the cautious guardians of their people, that they were quite willing to seize the first excuse for number- ing themselves among the combatants. In this same month of July a rumor got afloat that the British had taken possession of Grand Island, which was under the jurisdiction of the United States, but the title of which was in the Senecas. It has generally been supposed that this rumor was entirely without foundation, but Mr. John Simpson, of Ton- awanda, informs me differently. He states that several hun- dred Indians appeared on the shores of Grand Island, opposite Tonawanda. There were then sixteen soldiers in the guard- house there. They had been notified of the approach of the Indians, and all the citizens around had been called in. These were furnished with the extra uniforms of the soldiers, to increase the apparent number. They were also, after being paraded, marched into view with all their coats turned wrong side out, giving at that distance the appearance of a new corps with different uniforms. The enemy made no attempt to cross. Red Jacket convoked a council, and asked permission of Superintendent Granger to drive away the in- truders, using the following shrewd logic in support of his re- quest. Said he : " Our property is taken possession of by the British and their Indian friends. It is necessary now for us to take up the busi- ness, defend our property and drive the enemy from it. If we sit still upon our seats and take no means of redress, the British, according to the custom of you white people, will hold it by conquest. And should you conquer the Canadas you will hold it on the same principles ; because you will have taken it from the British." Permission being granted, another council was held shortly after, at which a formal declaration of war was adopted, and re- duced to writing by the interpreter. As this was probably the first — perhaps the only — declaration of war ever published by an Indian nation or confederacy in writing, and as its language was commendably brief, it is transcribed entire, as follows : "We, the chiefs and counselors of the Six Nations of Indians, 212 MILITIA MOVEMENTS. residing in the State of New York, do hereby proclaim to all the war-chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations that war is de- clared on our part against the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. Therefore, we command and advise all the war-chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations to call forth immediately the warriors under them, and put them in motion to protect their rights and liberties." Notwithstanding this declaration, however, no Indians, (at least no considerable number of them,) took the field on our side that year. It was soon ascertained that the occupation of Grand Island was not permanent, and there were many of the older chiefs, with Red Jacket at their head, who were really de- sirous that their people should remain neutral. But more potent, probably, than the restraining voice of their sachems, were the quick-coming disasters to the Ameri<;an arms. The militia kept marching to the frontier. There was no lack of numbers, nor of apparent enthusiasm. They were all anx- ious to capture Canada the next day after their arrival. But they were utterly ignorant of actual war, and the first touch of reality chilled them to the marrow. They were not called out en masse, nor were specified regi- ments ordered to the field. Details were made of the number required from each brigade, and these were collected by details from the different regiments and companies. Temporary com- panies and regiments were thus formed, to endure only through the few weeks of active service. Of course officers and men were unused to each other, the organization was unfamiliar to both, and the efficiency of the command was in the very lowest state. Lt.-Col. Chapman, commander of the Buffalo and Clarence regiment, moved away about the beginning of the war, and no one was appointed in his place until after its close. Major Samuel Hill, Jr., was the senior officer. Most of the Buffalo- nians seem to have formed themselves into independent com- panies, and Hill's command was left so small that whenever the militia was called out en masse it was joined with Warren's regiment. Gen. Amos Hall, of Ontario county, major general of this division of the State militia, was in command on the frontier, for a short time, succeeding Gen. Wadsworth. On the nth of FACTIOUS PROCEEDINGS. 213 July he was superseded by Major General Stephen Van Rens- selaer, also of the militia, but a man of some experience in act- ual war. He established his headquarters and assembled his principal force at Lewiston. During the lull which succeeded the first excitement, one of the founders of Buffalo, Captain Samuel Pratt, passed away from life, in August, 181 2. On the 27th of that month an extra Gazette announced the surrender by Gen. Hull of Detroit and his whole army, to an inferior force of British and Indians. Terrible was the disappointment of the people, as well it might be, over that disgraceful affair, and dire were the fulminations of the press. But denunciation was all too late, and public attention in this vicinity was soon turned toward events nearer home. The fires of faction burned as fiercely then as in any later days. There was bitter opposition to the war among the Federals of many States, opposition which hardly confined itself to legiti- mate discussion; — while on the Democratic side mob violence, reaching even to murder, was sometimes resorted to to silence the malcontents. In September a convention was held at Albany, which de- nounced the war, and shortly afterwards a meeting of the friends of " Peace, Liberty and Commerce " was called at " Pomeroy's long hall," in Buffalo, for the same purpose. Dr. Cyrenius Cliapin, however, though an ardent Federalist, had entered with great zeal into all measures looking toward vigorous work on this frontier, and was by general consent given the lead so far as the citizens of Buffalo were concerned. On the 8th of October, a detachment of sailors arrived on the frontier from New York, and were placed under the command of Lieut. Jesse D. Elliott, stationed at Black Rock. Their march had been hastened by a dispatch from Lieut. E., who had conceived a bold plan for cutting out two British armed vessels which had just come down the lake, and were lying at anchor near Fort Erie. One was the brig Detroit, of six guns, lately captured from the United States, and generally called by its former name, the Adams ; the other was the schooner Cale- donia, of two guns. This was the first hostile enterprise which took place in, or started from, Erie county, during the war of 1812. 214 A GALLANT EXPLOIT. The seamen on their arrival were found almost without wea- pons, but Generals Smyth and Hall, of the regulars and militia, furnished some arms, and the former detailed fifty men under Captain Towson, to accompany the expedition. Dr. Chapin and a few other Buffalo volunteers also entered into the scheme. About one o'clock on the morning of the 9th of October, three boats put out from the American shore, with their prows directed toward Fort Erie. The first contained fifty men under Lieut. Elliott in person, the second forty-seven under Sailing- Master Watts, while the third was manned by six Buffalonians under Dr. Chapin. The boats moved stealthily across the river, and the darkness of the night favored the project. Arriving at the side of their prey, the three crews boarded both vessels almost at the same time. The men on board the latter made a vigorous resistance, and a sharp but brief conflict ensued, in which two of the assail- ants were killed and five wounded. In ten minutes, however, the enemy was overpowered, the cables cut, and the vessels on their way down the river. The Caledonia was brought to an- chor near Black Rock, but the Adams was carried by the cur- rent on the west side of Squaw Island, and ran aground. The prisoners taken by the Americans in this gallant achieve- ment numbered seventy-one officers and men, part of whom, however, were Canadian voyageurs. Besides these the captors released about forty American prisoners, captured at the River Raisin and on their way to Quebec. As the two vessels passed Black Rock a heavy cannonade was opened from the Canadian shore, and returned from the ships. After the Adams ran aground the fire was so heavy that the vessel was abandoned, the men safely reaching the shore. Shortly afterwards the enemy took possession of it, but were in turn soon driven away by the firing from island and mainland. Believing it would be impracticable to keep possession of it, the Americans set it on fire and burned it to the water's edge. The first shot from the British batteries instantly killed Major William Howe Cuyler, of Palmyra, principal aide-de- camp of General Hall, as he was galloping with orders along the river road, between four and five o'clock in the morning. His death was the first one caused by the war within the present A LATE BREAKFAST. 21 5 county of Erie, and, as he was a highly connected and highly esteemed young officer, his sudden taking off caused a profound sensation. It was felt that war had really come. Some three hundred shots were fired from the British batteries, several of which passed through buildings at Black Rock. In fact Black Rock must have been a very unpleasant place of residence throughout the war. Inmates of its houses were often startled by a cannon ball crashing through the roof, and not in- frequently a breakfast or dinner was suddenly interrupted by one of these unwelcome messengers, Mrs. Benjamin Bidwell relates, in some reminiscences furnished to the Historical ^Society, that she and her husband, driven by the cannonade from their own residence that morning, were going to her sister's where there was a cellar in which they pro- posed to take refuge, when a cannon ball passed near them, knocking down by its wind a little girl she was leading. They then fled to the woods, where they found several other families. Having obtained some provisions Mrs. B. was cooking breakfast late in the forenoon, by an improvised fire in the forest, when another cannon ball struck the fire and scattered the breakfast in every direction. Again they fled, and being determined this time to get out of range, they made their toilsome way through the woods to Cold Spring. ' There Mrs. Bidwell cooked a break- fast which was eaten by the family at four o'clock in the afternoon. If the people of this vicinity were slightly cheered by the achievement of Lt. Elliott and his command, they were at once cast down again by the news of the defeat of Gen. Van Rens- selaer at Oueenston, where a few hundred gallant men, who had crossed the Niagara, were left to be slaughtered and captured through the cowardice of an ample force which stood on the American shore unheeding all appeals to aid their comrades. The news reached Buffalo on the 13th of October, accom- panied with notice of a week's armistice. The Americans were engaged in getting the guns out of the hulk of the Adams. The commander at Ft. Erie required them to desist on account of the armistice, but the Americans insisted that, as the Adams had already been brought on their side of the line, they had a right to move her guns wherever they pleased, so long as they made no attack on the British. The latter opened fire on the 2l6 GEN. SMYTH TAKES COMMAND. troops aboard the hulk, but did no damage, and at night the ever-enterprising Chapin went on board with a party and brought away a 12-pounder, as did also Lt. Watts afterwards. Col. Solomon Van Rensselaer, (nephew of the general,) who had gallantly led the column which stormed the heights of Oueenston, and had been severely wounded on that occasion, was brought to Landon's hotel at Buffalo, where he lay, slowly recovering, for four weeks. When he was sufficiently recovered he left for Albany, a salute being fired in his honor by several volunteer companies and by " Chapin's Independent Buffalo Matross," which I presume to have been some kind of an artil- lery company organized by the indefatigable doctor, whose zeal and activity were unquestionable whatever might sometimes be thought of his judgment. Gen. Van Rensselaer being relieved from duty, Brigadier- General Alexander Smyth, of the regular army, who had been on the lines a short time as inspector-general, was assigned to the command of the Niagara frontier immediately after the con- clusion of the armistice. Gen. Smyth was a Virginian, who in 1808 had abandoned his profession and resigned a seat in the legislature of his State to accept a colonelcy in the army, and who had lately been promoted to a brigadiership. Immediately on taking command he began concentrating troops at Buffalo and Black Rock, preparatory to an invasion of Canada. Thus far he certainly showed better judgment than his predecessors, as it was a much more feasible project to land an army on the gentle slopes below Fort Erie than to scale the precipitous heic^hts of Oueenston. He also had scows constructed to transport the artillery, and collected boats for the infantry. Eight or nine hundred regulars were got together under Col. Moses Porter, Col. Winder, Lieut.- Col. Boerstler and other officers. On the 1 2th of November Gen. Smyth issued a flaming address from his "Camp near Buffalo" to the men of New York, calling for their services, and declaring that in a few days the troops under his command would plant the American standard in Canada. Said he : " They will conquer or they will die." On the 17th he sent forth a still more bombastic proclama- tion, closing with the pompous call, "Come on, my heroes!" PREPARING TO CROSS. 217 A considerable force came to Buffalo. A brigade of militia, nearly two thousand strong, arrived from Pennsylvania. Three or four hundred New York volunteers reported themselves, in- cluding the two companies of "Silver Greys" before mentioned. Peter B. Porter, who then, or shortly after, was appointed quar- termaster-general of the State militia, was assigned to the com- mand of these New York volunteers, and was ever after known as General Porter. Under him was Col. Swift, of Ontario county. Smyth deemed that the time had come to "conquer le. On the 27th of November the general commanding issued orders to cross the river the next day. There were then over four thousand men at and nfear Black Rock, but as a large por- tion of them were militia, it is not exactly certain how many he could have counted on for a movement into the enemy's coun- try. He, however, admitted that there were seventeen hundred, including the regulars and the twelve-months' volunteers, who were ready, and Gen. Porter claimed that nearly the whole force was available. There were boats sufficient to carry at least three thousand men. A little after midnight the next morning detachments were sent across the river, one under Lt.-Col. Boerstler, and the other under Capt. King, with whom was Lt. Angus of the navy and fifty or sixty seamen. The first named force was intended to capture a guard and destroy a bridge about five miles below Fort Erie, while King and Angus were to take and spike the enemy's cannon opposite Black Rock. Boerstler returned with- out accomplishing anything of consequence, but the force under King and Angus behaved with great gallantry, and materially smoothed the way for those who should have followed. They landed at three in the morning. Angus, with his sailors and a few soldiers, attacked and dispersed a force of the enemy stationed at what was called " the red house," spiking two field-pieces and throwing them into the river. Nine out of the twelve naval officers engaged, and twenty-two of the men, were killed or wounded in this brilliant little feat. The sailors and some of the soldiers then returned, bringing a number of prisoners, but through some blunder no boats were left to bring over Capt. King, who with sixty men remained behind. 15 2l8 SMYTH'S VACILLATION. King and his men then attacked and captured two batteries, spiked their guns, and took thirty-four prisoners. Having found two boats, capable of hokling about sixty men, the gallant cap- tain sent over his prisoners, half his men, and all his officers, remaining behind himself with thirty men. He doubtless ex- pected Smyth's whole army in an hour or two, and thought he could take care of himself until that time. Soon after the return of these detachments. Col. Winder, mis- takenly supposing that Boerstler was cut off, crossed the river with two hundred and fifty men to rescue him. He reached the opposite shore a considerable distance down the river, where he was attacked at the water's edge by a body of infantry and a piece of artillery, and compelled to return with the loss of six men killed and nineteen wounded. Boerstler's command re- turned without loss. The general embarkation then commenced, but went on very slowly. About one o'clock in the afternoon the regulars, the twelve-month's volunteers and a body of militia, the whole mak- ing a force variously estimated at from fourteen hundred to two thousand men, were in boats at the navy yard, at the mouth of Scajaquada creek. " Then," says Smyth in his account of the affair, with ludi- crous solemnity, " the troops moved up the stream to Black Rock without loss." This tremendous feat having been accom- plished, the general, (still following his own account,) ordered them to disembark and dine ! And then he called a council of war to see whether he had better cross the river ! It is not sur- prising that, with such a commander, several of the officers con- sulted were opposed to making the attempt. It was at length decided to postpone the invasion a day or two, until more boats could be made ready. Late in the afternoon the troops were ordered to their quarters. Of course they were disgusted with such a ridiculous failure, and demoralization spread rapidly on all sides. Gen. Smyth at the time did not pretend that the most vigilant observation could discover more than five hundred men on the opposite shore. They \Vere draw^n up in line about half a mile from the water's edge. Meanwhile the gallant Capt. King was left to his fate, and was taken prisoner with all his men. COMPLETE FAILURE. 219 The next day was spent in preparation. On Sunday, the 30th, the troops were ordered to be ready to embark at nine o'clock the following morning. By this time the enemy had remounted his guns, so that it would have been very difficult to cross above Squaw Island. On the shore .below it were stationed his infantry and some artillery, every man havnng been obtained that possibly could be from the surrounding country. The current there was rapid and the banks abrupt. General Porter objected to attempting a landing there, and made another proposition. He advocated postponing the expe- dition till Monday night, when the troops should embark in the darkness, and should put off an hour and a half before daylight. They could then pass the enemy in the dark, and land about five miles below the navy yard, where the stream and the banks were favorable. These views were seconded by Colonel Winder and adopted by General Smyth, his intention being to assault Chippewa, and if successful march through Oueenston to Fort George. Then it was found that the quarter-master had not rations enough for two thousand five hundred men for four days ! Nevertheless the embarkation commenced at three o'clock, on the morning of Tuesday, the first of December. Again some fifteen hundred men were placed in boats. It was arranged that General Porter was to lead the van and direct the landing, on account of his knowledge of the river and the farther shore. He was attended in the leading boat by Majors Chapin and McComb, Captain Mills, Adjutant Chase, Quarter-master Chap- lin, and some twenty-five volunteers from Buffalo, under Lieut. Haynes. But the embarkation of the regulars was greatly delayed, and daylight appeared before the flotilla was under way. Then the redoubtable Smyth called another council of war, composed of four regular officers, to decide whether Canada should be invaded that season ! They unanimously decided it should not. So the troops were again ordered ashore, the militia and most of the volunteers sent home, and the regulars put into winter quarters. The breaking up of the command was attended by scenes of the wildest confusion — four thousand men firing off their guns, 220 A DISGUSTED PUBLIC. cursing General Smyth, their officers, the service and everything connected with their mihtary experience. The disgust of the pubHc was equally great. Smyth became the object of universal derision. His bombastic addresses were republished in doggerel rhyme, and the press teemed with de- nunciation and ridicule of the pompous Virginian. Men unacquainted with military matters frequently cast blame on unsuccessful generals, which the facts if fully known would not justify ; but in this case General Smyth's own state- ment, published a few days after his failure, proves beyond doubt that he was either demoralized by sheer cowardice, or else that his mind was vacillating to a degree which utterly unfitted him for military command. The mere fact of his twice waiting till his men were in boats for the purpose of invading Canada, before calling a council of war to decide whether Canada should be invaded, showed him to be entirely deficient in the qualifi- cations of a general. There can be little doubt that if the forces had promptly crossed, and been resolutely led, on the morning of the 28th of November, they would have effected a landing, and for the time at least could have held the opposite shore. The enterprise of Captain King and Lieut. Angus had been well planned and gal- lantly executed, giving substantially a clear field to the Ameri- can army. Whether if they had crossed they could have effected any lasting results at that season, is a matter of more doubt. Gen. Porter published a card in the Buffalo Gazette of De- cember 8th, in which he plumply charged Gen. Smyth with cowardice, declaring that the regular officers decided against crossing because of the demoralized condition of their com- mander. According to the opinions then in vogue it was im- possible under such circumstances for Smyth to avoid sending a challenge, and he did so immediately. Gen. Porter accepted, and selected Lt. Angus as his second, while Col. Winder acted on behalf of Gen. Smyth. It seems curious to think of a duel having been fought within the borders of law-abiding Erie, but such was nevertheless the fact. On the afternoon of the 14th the two generals, with their friends and surgeons, met at " Dayton's tavern," below Black AN ERIE COUNTY DUEL. 221 Rock, and crossed to the head of Grand Island, in accordance with previous arrangements. Arriving at the ground selected, one shot was fired by each of the principals, according to the official statement of the seconds, " in as intrepid and firm a manner as possible," but without effect. Col. Winder then rep- resented that Gen. Porter must now be satisfied that the charge of cowardice was unfounded, and after divers explanations that charge was retracted. Then Gen. Smyth withdrew sundry un- complimentary expressions which he had used regarding Porter, and then "the hand of reconciliation was extended and re- ceived," and all the gentlemen returned to Buffalo. It does not appear that there was any great desire for blood on either side. Soon afterwards Gen. Porter published a statement of the facts concerning the embarkation which came within his know- ledge, but without indulging in any animadversions. Doctor (or Major) Chapin was more furious than Porter, and also came out in a statement, bitterly denunciatory of Smyth. In January, after Smyth had left the frontier, he published still another statement, but he could not alter the ugly facts of the case. The account heretofore given is deduced from a careful comparison of the various publications just mentioned, and of the official reports of subordinate officers. As near as I can ascertain it was just after the wretched failure of Smyth that a serious outbreak occurred in Buffalo, threatening at one time to involve citizens and soldiers in a wide-spread scene of bloodshed. All through the war there was more or less ill-feeling between the citizens and the soldiers, especially the volunteers and mili- tia from other localities. The troops claimed that they were ill- treated by those whom they came especially to defend; the citi- zens declared that the armed men made unreasonable and extortionate demands. The feeling was probably intensified by the fact that many of the leading citizens of Buffalo were Fed- erals, whom it was easy to represent as disloyal. Among the troops gathered by Smyth were six companies called " Federal Volunteers," under Lieut. -Col. F. McClurc, in- cluding two or three companies of " Irish Greens" from Albany and New York, and one of " Baltimore Blues " from that city. Ralph M. Pomeroy, who kept the hotel at the corner of Main 222 MOBBING A HOTEL. and Seneca streets, was an athletic, resolute man, and rather rough-spoken. There had been difificulties between him and some of the soldiers before. At the time in question a dispute occurred between Pomeroy and the captain of an Albany com- pany, which is said to have originated in a demand made by the officer or his men for food and liquor. The captain drew his sword and drove the hotel-keeper down stairs. Pomeroy swore he wished the British would kill the whole infernal crowd of them. The few soldiers present left for camp, and in a short time an armed mob of " Baltimore Blues " and " Irish Greens " came down Main street. The guests, including several army officers, were at dinner, when the assailants commenced operations by throwing an axe through a window, directly upon the table. The diners sprang up, the mob rushed in, drove them out, and began the destruction of everything that could be laid hold of. Provisions were devoured, liquors drank, windows smashed, and chairs and tables broken in pieces. Among the guests was Colonel McClure, the battalion com- mander of these very men, but he was powerless to control them. He went to the stable, mounted his horse and rode through the house, ordering them to disperse, but produced no effect. Then he ordered out the companies from Carlisle and Gettysburg under his command, and marched them down in front of the hotel, but these, though taking no part in the riot themselves, would do nothing to quell it. Pomeroy concealed himself in his barn. His wife's sister-in- law, who was confined to her bed, was obliged to be carried upon it to a neighbor's house. The rioters grew more and more furious. Beds were piled up in the second story, and set fire to, and a conflagration was only averted by the courage of " Hank Johnson," a white compan- ion of the Cattaraugus Indians, who ascended a ladder on the outside, and, although it was snatched from under him by the rioters, managed to clamber through the window and throw the burning articles into the street. Seeing Mr. Abel P. Grosvenor, a large man somewhat resem- bling Pomeroy, passing along the street, the mob raised the cry, " Kill the damned tory," chased him down Main street until he QUELLING THE MOB. 223 fell, and were apparently about to put their threat in execution, when they learned it was not Pomeroy. Others proposed to tear down the " Federal printing office," as they called the Buf- falo Gazette, and everything betokened a general carnival of destruction. Before, however, the riot spread any further, Colonel Moses Porter, of the United States artillery, a veteran of thirty-six years service, interposed. His men were probably encamped at Flint Hill, north of Scajaquada creek. When he learned what was going on, he ordered out a detachment of artillery with a six-pound gun, and hastened down Main street. Halting just above the hotel he brought his gun to bear on it, and then sent a lieutenant and a platoon of men with drawn swords to clear the house. The order was vigorously carried out, and it is to be presumed that some resistance was made, as swords and pistols were freely used, and several of the mob killed and wounded. They were soon driven out, many jumping from the chamber windows, and some being severely cut as they clung to the window-sills, by the swords of the artillerists. The rest hastened to their encampment to seek their comrades, swearing vengeance against Porter and his men. The veteran stationed his cannon at the junction of Main and Niagara streets, to await their coming, and for awhile it looked as if there might be a pitched battle in the streets of Buffalo. No attack was made, however, and order was at length restored. It indicates the kind of discipline in force that the rioters were in no way punished, except by the severe handling they received from Porter. Pomeroy went to the Seneca village and remained some days, and then closed his hotel for the winter. That the proprietors of the Gazette considered themselves in a very delicate and dangerous position is shown by the fact that that journal does not contain one word, directly, about this important transaction. The only time it is spoken of in the paper is in an advertise- ment published December 15th, signed by Pomeroy, in which he declares that he shall close his hotel " in consequence of transactions too well known to need mentioning." An epidemic, the nature of which was unknown, prevailed that winter on the frontier, carrying off many, both soldiers and 224 ELECTIONS, ETC. citizens. Dr. Chapin and a Dr. Wilson called a meeting of physicians to endeavor to counteract it. It did not much abate till the last of January, 1813. Mr. Grosvenor only escaped the raging mob to die a few weeks later, in the East, of disease contracted here. Major Phineas Stephens, the commander of the Willink " Silver Greys," was another victim ; he died at Black Rock, and was taken to Willink and buried with military honors. In the middle of December an election was held for members of Congress. The Republicans (Democrats) renominated Gen. Porter, but he declined, and Messrs. Bates and Loomis were voted for by them in this congressional district. The Federal- ists supported Messrs. Howell and Hopkins, who were elected. The latter received sixty-one votes in the town of Buffalo, thirty- six in Hamburg, forty-one in Clarence, and thirty-seven in " Edon." The Republican candidates received thirty-four in Buffalo, eighty-one in Hamburg, ninety-two in Clarence, and fourteen in Eden. It was a light vote, but it will be seen that Buffalo and Eden were decidedly Federal, while Hamburg and Clarence were as decidedly Republican. Says the next Gazette: "We understand" that no election was held in Willink and Concord. Their understanding was correct, but it is remarkable not only that no election was held, but also that a newspaper at the county-seat should not have been fully informed as to whether there was one or not. Tompkins, who was personally popular, was elected governor by the Democrats, but the disasters of the summer, under a Democratic administration, had so aided the Federals that nine- teen out of the twenty-seven congressmen chosen in this State, and the majority of the assembly, belonged to the latter party. The State senate, however, was largely Democratic. In the na- tion at large, Madison was reelected President by a decided ma- jority over De Witt Clinton, who had been a Democrat, but was an independent opposition candidate. He received the Federal vote, but declared himself in favor of a more vigorous prosecu- tion of the war. There can be little doubt but that if that energetic leader had become President instead of the plausible but inefficient Madi- son, the war would not have been the wretched, milk-and-water QUIET ON THE NIAGARA, 225 afifair that it was. One side or the other would have been soundly whipped. On the 22d of December the immortal Smyth resigned his command to Col. Moses Porter, and retired to Virginia on leave of absence. Before his leave expired Congress legislated him out of office, and the country received no further benefit from his military genius. For several months after the election, there was general quiet on this part of the frontier, relieved only by occasional "statements" on the part of some of the heroes of the latest and most re- markable invasion of Canada. 226 THE YOUNG COMMODORE. CHAPTER XXIV. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1813. The Young Commodore. — Officers and Committeemen. — Hunters Caught. — Canada Invaded. — Transition Period of our Military System. — Surrender at Beaver Dams. — Chapin's Exploit. — Indians Enrolled. — Farmer's Brother and the Ma- rauders. — A Raid and its Repulse. — Skirmishing at Fort George. — Perry's Vic- tory. — A Patriotic Digression. — More Skirmishing. — Burning of Newark. — McClure Runs Away. — Fort Niagara Captured. — Danger Impending. Early in March, while all was still quiet among the land forces, a young man of twenty-six, with curling locks, bold, handsome features and gallant bearing, wearing the uniform of a captain in the United States navy, arrived at Buffalo from the East, and after a brief stay went forward to Erie. His brilliant yet man- ly appearance was well calculated to make a favorable impres- sion, yet to many thoughtful men he seemed too young, and possibly too gay, for the arduous and responsible position to which he had been appointed. But a few months were to demon- strate that for once the government had made an admirable se- lection, for the youthful stranger was Oliver Hazard Perry, then on his way to superintend the fitting out of a naval armament at Erie. During the winter the government had purchased a number of merchant vessels, for the purpose of converting them into men-of-war, and the construction of several new ones had been begun. Erie, from its comparatively secure harbor, had been wisely selected as the naval headquarters. Five vessels, how- ever, were fitted out in Scajaquada creek, and for several months Perry flitted back and forth between the two places, urging on the work with all the energy of his nature. Though hardly to be called a part of the "campaign," there are a few items that can be more easily introduced here than elsewhere. The supervisors for 1813 were Elijah Holt of Buf- falo, James Cronk of Clarence, Elias Osborn of Willink, Sam- THE CAMPAIGN OPENED. 22/ uel Abbott of Hamburg, and John C. Twining of Eden ; Concord unknown. For a short time the ever-active Dr. Chapin officiated as sheriff, but in the spring he was superseded by Asa Ransom, who had twice before held the office. The change was perhaps caused by the doctor's acceptance of a commission from the governor as heutenant-colonel by brevet. Under that com- mission he subsequently acted, but in very much the same independent fashion as before. Amos Callender was appointed surrogate. Jonas Williams was reelected to the assembly by the Republicans. Up td April the war was apparently frozen up. Early in that month the Buffalonians were sharply reminded that they must be careful where they strayed. Lieutenant Dudley, of the navy, Dr. Trowbridge, Mr. Frederick B. Merrill and three seamen, while hunting on Strawberry Island, were discovered from the Canadian shore, a squad of men was sent across, and all were captured. The two civilians were released, but the lieutenant and his men were of course retained. Ere long soldiers began to arrive on the frontier, besides those who had remained during the winter. On the 17th of April, Major-General Lewis and Brigadier-General Boyd arrived in Buffalo to assume command according to their respective ranks. General Dearborn took command on the whole northern frontier. The British force on the other side of the Niagara was very weak. The campaign in the north was commenced by an expedition from Sacket's Harbor, under Gen. Dearborn and Commodore Chauncey, by which York (now Toronto) was captured by a dashing attack, the gallant General Pike being killed by the explosion of the enemy's magazine. This triumph prevented the sending of reenforcements to the British forts on the Niag- ara, and when our fleet appeared off Fort George, about the 25th of May, it was immediately evacuated. The Americans under Gen. Lewis crossed and occupied it. Gen. Porter acted as volunteer aid-de-camp to Gen. Lewis, and the Buffalo Gazette takes pains to state that "Dr. C. Chapin, of this village, was in the vanguard." The British retreated toward the head of Lake Ontario. 228 A TRANSITION TERIOD. The same day the commandant at Fort Erie, who held that post with a body of miHtia, received orders under which he kept up a heavy cannonade on Black Rock until the following morn- ing, when he bursted his guns, blew up his magazines, destroyed his stores and dismissed his men. All the other public stores, barracks and magazines, from Chippewa to Point Abino, were hkewise destroyed, Lt.-Col. Preston, the commandant at Black Rock, immediately crossed and took possession. So, at length, the Americans had obtained possession of the Canadian side of the Niagara, and it would seem that it need not have been difficult to retain it. But the blundering of the government, the weakness of commanders, and the general apatliy of the people during a great part of that war were alike astonishing. The greatest difficulty was that of obtaining a permanent force. In fact a great part of the disasters of the war of 1812 were attributable to a cause which I have never yet seen fully set forth. The whole militar)- system of the country was in a transition state. During the revolution, the sole military reliance of the nation was on the regular "Continental " army. But thirty years of free government had made Americans extremely unwilling to sub- ject themselves to the menial position and supposed despotic discipline of the regular service. On the other hand, the sys- tem of organizing volunteers which has since been found so effective was then in its infancy. Frequent attempts were made in that direction, but they were generally managed by the State authorities, the discipline was of the most lax description, and the terms of service were exces- sively short. In Smyth's command, as we have seen, were a few " Federal volunteers," enlisted for twelve months, but they were composed of six independent companies, from different States, temporarily aggregated in a battallion. There was not a single organization corresponding to the present definition oC a volunteer regiment — a body of intelligent freemen, enlisted for a long term of service, officered b)- the State authorities, but otherwise controlled entirely by those of the nation, and subject to the same rules as the regulars, though modified in their application by the character of the force. FORT HUMPHREY. 229 As a general rule, if a volunteer of 1812 stayed on the line three months, he thought he had done something wonderful. Moreover, there were at first almost no officers. Those who had fought in the Revolution were generally too old for active service, and West Point had not yet furnished a body of men whose thorough instruction supplies to a great extent the lack of ex- perience. A little knowledge of the history of the war of 181 2 ought to satisfy the most frantic reformer of the overwhelming necessity of maintaining the National Military Academy in the most efficient condition. Add to these causes of weakness a timid, vacillating Presi- dent, and a possible unwillingness of the then dominant South to strengthen the North by the acquisition of Canada, and there are sufficient reasons for the feebleness characterizing the prose- cution of the war of 18 12. Yet many rude efforts were made to provide against possible disaster. It was in 181 3, as I am informed, that the inhabitants on the upper part of Cazenove creek, most of them living in the present town of Holland, combined and built a stockade of con- siderable magnitude on the farm of Arthur Humphrey. Logs were cut nearly fifteen feet long, hewn on two sides so as to fit closely together, and set side by side two or three feet in the earth, leaving some twelve feet above ground. About an acre was thus inclosed, and the walls being loop-holed for rifles the inhabitants hoped to defy any Indian assailants, or even white men unprovided with artillery. The stockade was commonly called " Fort Humphrey," and long after peace had returned, long after the primitive fortress had disappeared from sight, the Humphrey place was known for miles around as "the Fort Farm." About the same time, or perhaps the year before. Captain Bemis' barn in Hamburg was surrounded by a similar stockade, twelve feet high. There was also a block-house built in that vicinity. Joseph Palmer's barn in Boston was likewise stock- aded, and there may have been other such fortifications in the county of which I have not happened to hear. Decidedly the most active partisan commander on the Niag- ara frontier was Col. Chapin, though there may be some doubts as to the usefulness of his efforts, so irregular and desultory 230 CIIAPIN S EXPLOIT. were they. In June he organized a company of mounted rifle- men, for the purpose of clearing the country along the other side of the river of scattered bands of foes. They proceeded to Fort George, and on the 23d of June a force started up the river from that point. It consisted of four or five hundred regular infantry, twenty regular dragoons, and Chapin's company of forty-four mounted riflemen, the whole under Lt.-Col. Boerstler. On the 24th, when nine miles west of Oueenston, at a place called Beaver Dams, it was attacked by a force of British and Indians. After some skirmishing and marching, accompanied with slight loss, the assailants sent a flag to Col. Boerstler, and on the mere statement of the bearer that the British regular force was double the Americans, besides seven hundred Indians, that officer surrendered his whole command. Chapin and his Erie coimty volunteers were sent to the head of Lake Ontario, (now Hamilton,) whence the colonel, two offi- cers and twenty-six privates were ordered to Kingston, by water, under guard of a lieutenant and fifteen men. They were all in two boats ; one containing the British lieutenant and thirteen men and the three American officers — the second filled with the other twenty-six prisoners, a British sergeant and one sol- dier. Before starting, the colonel managed to arrange with his men a signal for changing the programme. When about twenty miles out on Lake Ontario, Col. Chapin gave the signal and his men ran their boat alongside of the one he was in. The British lieutenant ordered them to drop back, and Chapin or- dered them on board. The former attempted to draw his sword, when the colonel, a large, powerful man, sei/.ed him by the neck and flung him on his back. Two of the soldiers drew their bay- onets, but he seized one in each hand, and at the same time his men swarmed into the boat and wrested their arms from the guard, who were unable, in their contracted quarters, to fire a shot or use a bayonet. The victors then headed for Fort George, where, after rowing nearly all night, they arrived a little before daylight and turned over their late guard to the commandant as prisoners. It was a gallant little exploit, and effectually refutes the charge of cow- ardice which some have brought against Colonel Chapin. THE SIX NATIONS TURN OUT. 23 1 The British men-of-war still commanded the lake, thou^fh Perry's fleet was fast preparing to dispute their supremacy. About the 15th of June the five vessels which had been fitted up in Scajaquada creek stole out of Black Rock, and joined Ferry at Erie. While one of these ships lay at anchor in the Niagara, just before leaving, a boat which was crossing the river ran afoul of her cable and was upset, and Mr. Gamaliel St. John, his eldest son, and three soldiers who were with them, were drowned. The Queen Charlotte and other British vessels this year, as last, hovered along the lake shore and occasionally sent a boat's crew ashore to depredate on the inhabitants of Hamburg and Evans. One day we read of their chasing a boat into the mouth of the Cattaraugus ; at another time a boat's crew landed and plundered Ingersoll's tavern at the mouth of Eighteen-Mile creek. Up to the present period, no Indians had been taken into the service of the United States. In the spring General Lewis in- vited the warriors of the Six Nations to come to his camp, and three or four hundred of them did come, under the lead of the veteran Farmer's Brother. On their arrival they were requested to take no part for the time, but to send a deputation to the Mohawks to induce them to withdraw from the British service, in which case the Senecas and their associates were also to return. Many appeared disappointed on finding they were not to fight, but were merely to be used to keep others from fighting, though this was the policy that Red Jacket favored throughout. But the Mohawks and other British Indians showed no disposi- tion to withdraw from the field, and as we have seen took a prominent part in the capture of Colonels Boerstler and Chapin. In the early part of July, too, a skirmish took place near Fort George, in which an American lieutenant and ten men were captured, who were never heard of more, and were sup- posed to have been slain by the savages. ,Then, at length, Gen. Boyd accepted the services of the war- riors of the Six Nations. Those then enrolled numbered four hundred, and there were never over five hundred and fifty in the service. 232 THE CHIEF AND THE MARAUDERS. It is difficult to say who was their leader. One account says it was Farmer's Brother, and another designates Henry O'Bail (the Young Cornplanter) as holding that position. Still another will have it that Young King was their principal war-chief, while Captain Pollard undoubtedly acted as such the next year, at the battle of Chippewa. The truth seems to have been that the designation of general- issimo, like most Indian arrangements, was decidedly indefinite. There was a considerable number of undoubted war-chiefs, but no one who was unquestionably entitled to the principal com- mand. Farmer's Brother was generally recognized, both by In- dians and whites, as the greatest of the war-chiefs, and was allowed a kind of primacy among them, but he was very old, and I cannot gather that he held any definite rank above the rest. Leaders for active service seem to have been chosen from time to time, either by actual election or by general consent. When they first turned out, a large body of them under Farm- er's Brother camped in the woods just west of Buffalo, near the cabin of a Mr. Aigin, who lived half-way between Main street and the foot of Prospect Hill. His son, James Aigin, then a boy, who has furnished many reminiscences of those times to the Historical Society, says that one night several Indians came to his father's house and endeavored to force an entrance. There were two or three well-armed men, who held the intruders at bay. Presently they got on the roof and began to take it off. Aigin put his son out of the window, and bade him run and notify Farmer's Brother. The boy found the chieftain wrapped in sleep among his braves. He laid his hand on the old warrior, who bounded up like a youth of twenty. On being informed of the difficulty, he hastily proceeded to Aigin's cabin. No sooner did the marauders dimly see that gigantic form striding toward them amid the trees, than every men of them at once took to his heels. The chieftain assured the family of his protection, and for the remainder of the night he lay beside their cabin fire. Not long after this it would seem that the Indians all returned home. Meanwhile General Dearborn had withdrawn all the regular soldiers from Buffalo and Black Rock, leaving a large amount of public stores entirely undefended. Being advised, however, of AN EXCITING EPISODE. 233 the danger of a raid, he ordered ten artillerists to be stationed at the block-house at Black Rock, and called for five hundred mili- tia from the neighboring counties. Between a hundred and fifty and two hundred of these arrived at the threatened point early in Jul}^ and were stationed at the warehouses at Black Rock, being under the command of Major Parmenio Adams, of Gene- see county. They had three pieces of field artillery, and near by was a battery of four heavy guns. Nearly a hundred recruits for the regular infanfry and dragoons, on their way to Dearborn's headquarters, under the command of Captain Cummings, were ordered to stop at Buffalo ; Judge Granger was directed to en- gage as many Seneca warriors as he could, and General Porter, who was then staying at his residence at Black Rock, was re- quested to take command of the whole. The episode about to be narrated is one of the most exciting in the annals of this county. Except the burning of Buffalo, no other affair of so much importance took place within the limits of- the county during the war of 1812 ; and it was, on the whole, .decidedly creditable to the American arms ; yet it is almost. utterly unknown to our citizens, and is rarely mentioned in the annals of that era. Other events of greater magnitude distracted public attention at the time, and the burning of Buf- falo, a few months later, obliterated from the minds of men all memory of less terrible transactions. There is a brief mention of it in Ketchum's " Buffalo and' the Senecas," but the only extended account I have seen is in Stone's " Life of Red Jacket." The following narrative is de- rived from a careful examination of that account, (which was furnished by Gen. Porter,) of the original description in the Buf- falo Gazette, of a letter from Judge Granger, published by Ketchum, and of personal reminiscences furnished to the His- torical Society by Benjamin Hodge, Daniel Brayman, James Aigin and Mrs. Jane Bid well. By the loth of July Judge Granger had received such positive information of an immediate attack, accompanied by special threats against himself, that he invited some Indians to come to his house, north of the Scajaquada. Thirty-seven of them ar- rived at eleven o'clock that (Saturday) night, under the lead of Farmer's Brother. As they were not all armed, and as the judge 16 234 ^ SUDDEN ATTACK. was confident that the enemy would be over the next day, he sent to the village and got a full supply of arms and ammuni- tion for his braves that same night. The British headquarters were at Lundy's Lane, close by the Falls, where their expedition was fitted out. The commander was Lieutenant-Colonel Bishop, a brave and enterprising officer, the same to whom Colonels Boerstler and Chapin had surren- dered at Beaver Dams. He had under him a part of the 41st regiment of the British army, and a detachment of Canadian militia commanded by Col. Clark. They took boat at Chippewa on the night of the loth, and, after rowing against the current in the darkness several hours, landed just after daylight a mile below the mouth of the Sca- jaquada. Forming his men, Col. Bishop led them rapidly up the river bank. There was a single sentinel at the Scajaquada bridge, but on the sudden appearance of the red-coats he flung away his musket, dodged into the woods and took a bee-line, as near as he could calculate, for Williamsville. A few men were asleep in the block-house, but the British column swept silently by without disturbing them, and quickly approached the encamp- ment of Major Adams. His men must have been aroused a little before the enemy reached them, for they all made their escape, but they attempted no resistance and fled without even spiking the cannon in their charge. A detachment of the invad- ers went to the house of Gen. Porter, who had barely time to escape, fleeing without his arms, and some say with only a single garment. At first he attempted to reach Major Adams' encamp- ment, but finding this impossible he turned toward Buffalo. Thus far the affair had been after the usual pattern of oper- ations in the early part of that war, and highly discreditable to the Americans. The victors supposed all resistance at an end. Some of them were set to work burning the block-house and barracks, others spiked the heavy guns in the battery and took away the field-pieces, and others went through the village cap- turing and taking across the river four or five principal citizens, while the officers, so secure did they feel, ordered breakfast at General Porter's. At the same time considerable reinforcements of provincial militia crossed the river in boats, to share the fruits of the easy victory. THE AMERICANS RALLY. 235 But a storm was gathering. When the mihtia first began its retreat a messenger was sent to Buffalo, on whose arrival Capt. Cummings mustered his recruits and marched toward the scene of action. On his way he met General Porter, who ordered him to proceed to a piece of open ground not far from the site of the reservoir,. and await reinforcements. Taking a horse, sword, and other equipments from one of Cummings' dragoons, the general galloped down to the village, where he found everything in confusion, the women and chil- dren in a state of terror, and the men in the streets with arms in their hands, but doubtful whether to fight or flee. Being as- sured that there was a chance of success, forty or fifty of them formed ranks under Captain Bull, the commander of the Buffalo volunteer company, and marched to join Cummings. Of the retreating militia some had fled into the woods and never stopped till they reached home ; but about a hundred had been kept together by Lieutenant Phineas Staunton, the adju- tant of the battalion, a resolute young officer, who was allowed to assume entire command by his major. The supineness of the latter is excused by General Porter on the ground of ill health. Staunton and his men, who had retreated up the beach, left it and took post near the Buffalo road. Meanwhile Major King, of the regular army, who was acci- dentally at Black Rock, on seeing the sudden retreat of the militia hurried through the woods to Judge Granger's, whence the alarm was speedily carried to the scattered inhabitants of " Buffalo Plains." Farmer's Brother at once gathered his war- riors and made them a little speech, telling them that they must now go and fight the red-coats ; that their country was invaded ; that they had a common interest with the people of the United States, and that they must show their friendship for their Am- erican brethren by deeds, not words. The octogenarian chieftain then led his little band to join his friend Conashustah, (the Indian name of General Porter). Volunteers, too, came hurrying to the village from the Plains and Cold Spring, until about thirty were gathered, who were placed under the command of Captain William Hull, of the militia. General Porter now felt able to cope with the enemy. Bringing together his forces, numbering but about three hundred 236 rREPARING FOR ACTION. all told, at the open ground before mentioned, he made his dis- positions for an attack. As the foe held a strong position at Major Adams' encampment, Porter determined to attack him on three sides at once, to prevent the destructive use of artillery on a column massed in front. The regulars and Captain Bull's Buffalo volunteers formed the centre. The Genesee militia, under Staunton, were on the left, nearest the river, while Captain Hull's men were directed to co- operate with the Indians, who had gathered in the woods on the right front. Farmer's Brother prepared for action, and his braves followed ; each dusky warrior stripping to the skin, all save his breech clout and a plaited cord around the waist, (called a ma- turnip.) which sustained his powder horn, tomahawk and knife, and which could be used to bind prisoners if any were taken. Then, grasping their rifles, the stalwart Senecas quickly ranged themselves in line, with their chiefs a few yards in front. At eight o'clock the signal for attack was given. Just as the three detachments moved forward, however, Major King arrived on the ground and claimed the command of the regulars from Captain Cummings. A slight delay ensued ere the command was transferred, and then the major did not fully understand the general's orders. Consequently the central detachment was de- tained a few moments, and meanwhile the militia, gallantly led on by Staunton and ashamed of their recent flight, dashed for- ward against the enemy. A fight of some fifteen or twenty minutes ensued, in which the militia stood up against the British regulars without flinch- ing, though three of their men were killed and five wounded, no slight loss out of a hundred in so short a time. The right flank of the Americans came up, the Indians raised the war- whoop and opened fire, and it has often been found that the capacity of these painted warriors for inspiring fear is much greater than the actual injury they inflict. Col. Bishop, who had obtained a mount on this side, was severely though not fatally wounded, and fell from his horse. His men became demoral- ized, and when the regulars appeared in front the enemy fled toward the water's edge with great precipitation, before Major King's command had time to take part in the fight. The whole American force then pressed forward together, the CONFLICT AND VICTORY. 237 Indians making the forest resound with savage yells. The chief, Young King, and another warrior were wounded. Part of the British wounded were carried off, but part were left on the field. A sergeant, shot in the leg, lay under the bank, near the pres- ent residence of L. F. Allen, on Niagara street. A Seneca war- rior jumped down and stopped to load his rifle a short distance from him. The sergeant sat up and snapped his musket at him, but it missed fire. Without waiting to finish loading, the In- dian sprang upon his enemy, snatched away his gun, and at one blow knocked out his brains, at the same time breaking the musket short off at the breech. At the Black Rock landing the British rallied, but on the ap- proach of the Americans, hastily retreated into some boats which they found there, leaving fifteen prisoners in the hands of their pursuers. Many were killed and wounded after enter- ing the boats, but the chief loss fell on the last one. It con- tained sixty men and most of the officers, including Colonel Bishop, who, notwithstanding his wound, had insisted on re- maining to the last. The whole American force came up to the bank and opened fire on this boat, inflicting terrible injury. Two or three Indians even sprang into the water, seized the boat by the gunwale and endeavored to direct it ashore, but were compelled to desist by the fire of their friends in the rear. Captain Saunders, of the British Forty-first, was severely wounded at the water's edge and left a prisoner. Colonel Bishop was pierced with several bullets, receiving wounds of which he soon died, and several other officers were killed or wounded. Presently the men dropped their oars and made signals of sur- render. The firing ceased and the boat dropped down the river, followed along the bank by some of the Americans, who or- dered the occupants to come ashore, which they declared them- selves willing to do, but so disabled they could not. Meanwhile, however, our Indians had begun stripping the dead and prisoners. They seized on Captain Saunders' sword, belt and epaulets, and perhaps some of his garments. The men in the boat thought, or claimed they thought, that the war- riors were tomahawking and scalping him. Either actually be- lieving this or using it as an excuse, they would not come ashore in accordance with their surrender, but, after dropping down to 2^8 THE enemy's LOSS. the head of Squaw Island, suddenly seized their oars and by desperate exertions got under its shelter, though not without again suffering severely from the bullets of the Americans. In fact, however, Captain Saunders, though badly wounded by balls, bore no mark of tomahawk or knife, and, after being carefully tended for several weeks at General Porter's residence, finally recovered and was for more than thirty years a British pensioner. The enemy left eight killed and seven wounded on the field, besides a number carried into the boats and a still larger num- ber hit after the embarkation. They were said at the time to have acknowledged a total loss in killed, wounded and prisoners of nearly a hundred. The Americans lost none but those al- ready mentioned, who all, except the two Indians, belonged to that same body of militia that had fled so ingloriously in the early morning. They were in the front of the fray throughout, and gallantly retrieved their tarnished reputation. Their good conduct was doubtless due largely to the example of Adjutant Staunton, whom major and captains allowed to take full com- mand, who also distinguished himself on several other occasions in the war of 1812, and whose soldierly qualities were trans- mitted to his son, Phineas Staunton, the gallant first lieutenant- colonel of the lOOth New York volunteers in the war for the Union. All the accounts speak in high terms of the conduct of the Seneca warriors. They fought well and were not especiall}- sav^age. They stripped their dead enemies, however, of every rag of clothing, and young Aigin, who went upon the field after the fight, relates having seen the whole eight bodies lying together, thus stark and white, in the forest. Although the numbers engaged in this affair were not large, it was a quite exciting conflict for Erie county, and is of im- portance as showing the value of one or two resolute officers in rallying and inspiriting a body of raw troops, utterly demoralized by less efficient leadership. General Dearborn had resigned the command of the northern frontier juSt before this event, and a little after it General Wil- kinson added another to the long list of occupants of that un- fortunate position. Colonel Chapin having returned, General Porter and he SKIRMISH AT FORT GEORGE. 239 gathered up another body of vokmteers, and went down to Fort George, taking a hundred or so Indians with them. "Being," ac- cording to General Boyd's report, "very impatient to engage the enemy," that officer kindly got up an expedition to accommodate them. A plan was concerted to cut off one of the enemy's pickets on the morning of the 17th of August. Chapin was sent out west from Fort George for the purpose, with about three hundred volunteers and Indians, supported by two hundred regulars under Major Cummings. Porter volun- teered in the affair and probably commanded the whole, though the report does not definitely say so. A heavy rain retarded their progress, so the picket was not captured, but a fight ensued in which the volunteers and Indians captured sixteen prisoners, and killed a considerable number of the enemy who were left on the field ; one account says seventy-five, but this is doubtful. The principal chiefs who took part in this affair were Farmer's Brother, Red Jacket, Little Billy, Captain Pollard, Black Snake, Hank Johnson (the white man). Silver Heels, Captain Half- town, Major Henry O'Bail (Young Cornplanter), and Captain Cold (an Onondaga chief), who was wounded. Chapin and his volunteers, and most of the Indians, continued to operate in the vicinity of F"ort George until the seventh of September, when they returned to Buffalo. A few days later came news of a battle which, though fought a hundred and fifty miles away, has always been contemplated with feelings of especial interest and sympathy by the people of Erie county, since it decided the supremacy of the great lake from which that county is named, whose waters wash its shores and whose commerce passes along its borders. I refer of course to " Perry's Victory." Glad were the hearts of our people and great were their rejoicings, when they learned that after a desperate contest the gallant Perry, with a force inferior both in men and guns, had captured or destroyed the whole British fleet. In Buffalo the ever-prominent Chapin fired a rousing salute, and at night every window in the village was a blaze of light. Among those who took a prominent part in that victory was a young ofiicer, a cousin of Perry, then a sailing-master in com- mand of the Scorpion, afterwards a well-known and highly- 240 A PATRIOTIC DIGRESSION. respected citizen of Buffalo, Commodore Stephen Champlin. From his ship were fired the first and the hist shots in the battle of Lake Erie. And here I will venture on a digression inspired by the con- templation of the dazzling victory won by that boyish New England commodore on the lOth of September, 1813. What subtle influence is it which makes the American sailor akvays a hero } The most devoted patriot cannot pretend but that our generals and soldiers have frequently failed in their duty, and their conduct has sometimes been positively disgraceful. We have had scores of able generals and hundreds of thousands of val- iant soldiers, but we have had enough who were neither able nor valiant to give a decided check to our national egotism. The war of 1812, especially, shows numerous instances of folly, or cowardice, or both, on the part of our land-forces and their com- manders, flagrant enough to make an American, even at this late day, overflow with anger and shame. But the annals of the American navy are one long and bril- liant record of heroism, with hardly a solitary blemish. Our sailors have been defeated, for victory is not always in mortal power to compass, but their defeats have been scarcely less glorious than their victories. Paul Jones compelling the surren- der of a British man-of-war after his own decks had been swept almost clear of men ; Preble triumphing over the pirates of the Mediterranean ; Decatur, and Hull, and Stewart, and Bain- bridge, bringing down the haughty flag of St. George on the Atlantic ; Lawrence, defeated and dying, whispering with his latest breath, "Don't give up the ship;" Perry, passing in a fra- gile boat amid a storm of shot to a fresh vessel, and snatching victory from the grasp of defeat ; McDonough annihilating the foe on Lake Champlain ; Morris going down to a watery grave with the Cumberland; Worden matching his little Monitor against the mighty Merrimac ; Winslow sinking the Alabama with his terrible broadsides ; old P'arragut at the mast-head dashing past the flaming forts of Mobile Bay ; young Cushing, bravest of all the brave, blowing up the Albemarle and his own ship with his own hand; from first to last, from highest to low- est, from oldest to youngest, in victory or defeat, American ad- mirals, commodores, captains, lieutenants, sailors, middies, cabin- FOURTEEN-DAY SOLDIERS. 24 1 boys, with hardly a solitary exception, have ever borne themselves so as to fill their countrymen with glowing enthusiasm, and com- pel the admiration of their bitterest foes. Immediately succeeding Perry's victory came that of Harri- son over Proctor, and the death of Tecumseh. It being sup- posed that the upper peninsula was pretty well cleared of foes, Gen. Wilkinson's forces were nearly all withdrawn to the lower end of Lake Ontario. Just before he left, a correspondence took place, which shows how little comprehension even the most public-spirited men had of the needs of the military service. Porter, Chapin and Col. Joseph McClure wrote to Wilkinson from Black Rock, stating that in expectation of a decisive movement they had repaired to Fort George, with five hundred men — militia, volunteers and In- dians. " Most of us," said the writers, " remained there twelve or fourteen days, but our hopes not being realized, the men con- tinually dispersed and went home." The three gentlemen then offered to raise a thousand or twelve hundred men, either to aid Wilkinson in a sally from Fort George, or, on being furnished with a battery of artillery, "to invade the enemy's country," with a view to dispersing his forces before Wilkinson should withdraw. The most disastrous experience had not yet convinced our ablest men of the impossibility of making an effective aggres- sive movement with a crowd of undisciplined, ungoverned men, who would leave camp if they could not have a fight in fourteen days. Wilkinson forwarded the proposition to the Secretary of War, who did not accept it. The force left behind by Wilkinson was under the command of Gen. George McClure, of Steuben county, a brigadier-gene- ral of the New York militia, who made his headquarters at Fort George, and immediately issued several flaming proclamations. On the 6th of October, Col. Chapin, with one of those heter- ogeneous collections of men so common at that time, had an all-day skirmish Vv'ith some British outposts, near Fort George. He claimed to have killed eighteen of the enemy, while but three of his own men were slain. Doubtful. He had with him "Crosby's and Sackrider's companies" of militia, a few other men and some Indians. 242 MCLURE AND CHAPIN. On the 24th of October, Harrison and Perry, with their vic- torious army and fleet, came down the lake to Buffalo. The little town was aglow to do honor to the heroes, and on the 25th a dinner was given to the two commanders at " Pomeroy's Eagle," which had been refitted and reopened a short time be- fore. At the head of the committee of arrangements, composed of the principal citizens, was the ubiquitous Chapin. At the dinner Porter presided, with Chapin, Townsend and Trowbridge, as vice-presidents. The next day Harrison and his army crossed the river and went down to Fort George, and thence in a short time to Sachet's Harbor. Gen. McClure was thus left with about a thousand militia, two hundred and fifty Indians, and sixty regulars. The terms of the militia were fast expiring, and they would not stay a day beyond them. Another draft was accordingly ordered, about the middle of November, of six hundred men from Hopkins' brigade, under Lt.-Col. Warren. These marched to Ft. George and remained nearly a month. On the 7th of December, Gen. McClure sent out an expedi- tion along the south shore of Lake Ontario. Lt.-Col. Chapin was in command of the advance. He afterwards declared that McClure had not only left him unsupported, but had expressed his desire that Chapin should be captured. A very bitter feel- ing had certainly grown up between them, and it is evident that Chapin had a peculiar faculty for getting into trouble. He is- sued as many statements as any of the generals, and denounced without stint those whom he did not admire. When the term of Warren's regiment of militia was about to expire, McClure determined to abandon Fort George. In this he was unquestionably justifiable, as his remaining force would have been entirely inadequate to defend it. But he at the same time took a step cruel in itself, and fraught with woe to the Am- erican frontier. He ordered the burning of the flourishing vil- lage of Newark, situated close to the fort, and containing about a hundred and fifty houses. The inhabitants were turned out into the snow, and the torch applied to every building in the place. McClure claimed that he acted under orders from the Secre- tary of War, but he produced no such orders, and it appears that M CLURE S FLIGHT. 243 there were none, except that the general was authorized to burn Newark if necessary to defend the fort. As he had already de- cided to abandon the fort, of course these orders did not apply. Chapin and the general had another bitter quarrel, the former roundly denouncing the destruction of the village. Soon after, Chapin resigned his command. McClure rhoved the remnant of his force across the river, closely pressed by the enraged British. Leaving Fort Niagara defended by a hundred and fifty regulars, he called two hundred others from Canandaigua to Buffalo. On the morning of December 19th, f^ort Niagara was sur- prised and captured by a small British force, through the crim- inal negligence of its commander, who was at his residence four miles away. McClure was not to blame for the transaction, but nevertheless he, more than any other one man, was responsible for the burning of Buffalo, and the devastation of the whole fron- tier. He needlessly destroyed Newark, which of course pro- voked retaliation, and then ran away. As soon as Niagara was captured he took his two hundred regulars and retreated to Ba- tavia, against the earnest protest of the citizens of Buffalo. Had they remained as a nucleus for the gathering militia, the result might have been entirely different. Affidavits were afterwards published, showing that McClure said in his anger that he hoped Buffalo would be burned ; that he would remain and defend it provided the citizens would catch "that damned rascal, Chapin," and deliver him bound into his (McClure's) hands. Several of his staff officers, also, were proven to have indulged in similar disgraceful language in his presence, unrebuked ; expressing their entire willingness that the village should be burned. In a properly disciplined army General McClure would have been shot. Before leaving Buffalo McClure called out the men of Gen- esee, Niagara and Chautauqua counties en masse, and on arriv- ing at Batavia, on the 22d of December, he turned over the command to Major General Hall, the commander of this divi- sion of militia. That officer, who manifested no lack of zeal, sent forward all the troops he could raise, and proceeded to Buf- falo himself on the 25th, leaving McClure to organize and for- ward reinforcements. Hall, however, assumed no command 344 COMING EVENTS. ov^cr the regulars, and there seems to have been a bitterness of feehng on the part of their officers which would, perhaps, in the demoralized state of affairs, have made it impracticable for him to do so. The events of the following week form so important a portion of the history of Erie county that they will be made the subject of a separate chapter. NUMBER OF TROOPS. 245 CHAPTER XXV. SWORD AND FIRE. Number of Troops. — The Enemy's Approach. — Movements in Defense. — Chapin's Wrath. — Attack and Repulse. — Another with same Result. — Blakeslie's Ad- vance. — Battle of Black Rock. — The Retreat. — The Flight. — Wilkeson and Walden. — Universal Confusion. — The Chapin Girls. — A Side-saddle Express. The Pratts' .Silver. — "The Indians! the Indians!" — ^Job Hoysington. — Alfred Hodge. — William Hodge. — Attempt at Defense. — Chapin's Negotiation.— Mrs. St. John.—" Prisoners to the Squaws."— A Guard Obtained.— The Vil- lage in Flames. — Mrs. Dr. Johnson's Sleigh-load. — Murder of Mrs. Lovejoy. — The Enemy Retire. — The Slain. — Israel Reed. — Calvin Cary. — McClure to Blame.— The Flight in the Country. — The Buffalo Road.— The Big Tree Road. — Successive Vacancies. — Exaggerated Reports. — Return of the Brit- ish. — More Burning. — Hodge's Tavern. — Keep and Tottman. — The Scene at Reese's. — Rebuilding. — Harris Hill. — Relief On the 27th of December General Hall reviewed the forces at Buffalo and Black Rock, which were thus described in his report : At Buffalo there were a hundred and twenty-nine mounted volunteers under Lieutenant-Colonel Seymour Broughton, of Ontario county ; four hundred and thirty-three Ontario county volunteers under Lieutenant-Colonel Blakeslie ; a hundred and thirty-six " Buffalo militia " under Lieutenant-Colonel Chapin ; ninety-seven Canadian voluntters under Lieutenant-Colonel Mallory ; and three hundred and eighty-two Genesee county militia under Major Adams. At Black Rock, under Brigadier-General Hopkins, were three hundred and eighty-two effective men in the corps of Lieuten- ant-Colonels Warren and Churchill ; thirty-seven mounted men under Captain Ransom ; eighty-three Indians under " Lieuten- ant-Colonel Granger," and one piece of field artillery, with twen- ty-five men, under Lieutenant Secley. The aggregate force at both places on the 27th, according to the report, was seventeen hundred and eleven. Colonel Churchill, above mentioned, com- manded a detachment from Genesee county. The remainder of the main body at Black Rock, under Colonel Warren, was 246 THE ENEiMY AT TONAWANDA. composed of his own regiment from the south towns of Erie county, and Major Hill's detachment from Clarence, still tem- porarily consolidated with it. The Buffalo militia, which prop- erly belonged in Hill's regiment, seem to hav^e acted indepen- dently under Chapin, at least around Buffalo. About this time, a body of the enemy came up the river from Fort Niagara as far as Tonawanda, or farther, burning everything along the river shore. At Tonawanda they burned the guard house, and what few dwellings there were in the vicinity with one exception. In that a Mrs. Francis was sick up stairs, and remained while every one else fled to the woods. Three separate companies came along and applied the torch, and three times the woman crawled out of bed and extinguished the flames. On the 27th Gen. Hall received information which made him certain that the enemy intended ' to cross. The 28th passed quietly away. On the 29th there arrived a. regiment of Chau- tauqua county militia, under Lieutenant-Colonel McMahan, numbering about three hundred men, bringing the aggregate force to a trifle over two thousand. Besides Seeley's field-piece there were seven other cannon at the two villages, but none of them mounted on carriages. Sev^- eral of them were in a battery at the top of the hill overlooking Black Rock, and with them was Major Dudley, with a part of Warren's regiment. The rest, with Churchill's detachment, were in the village of Black Rock. As near as I can estimate from the official report and Gen. Warren's statement, Dudley had about a hundred men, Warren a hundred and fifty, and Churchill also a hundred and fifty. Capt. John G. Camp was quartermaster-general of the whole force. Patrols were constantly kept out. The excitement among the people was of course intense, yet few believed that an attack would be successful, looking on the two thousand defenders now assembled, and remembering that three hundred men had driven back a considerable body of assailants the summer before. Near midnight of the 29th a detachment of the enemy landed a little below Scajaquada creek. Immediately afterwards a horse- patrol discovered them, was fired on, and retreated. The news was at once carried to Colonels Warren and Churchill, at Black THE BRITISH CROSS THE NIAGARA. 247 Rock, and then to Gen. Hall, at Buffalo. The latter ordered out his men, but, fearing that the enemy's movement was a feint, and that he would land in force above Buffalo and march down, he did not at first send any considerable force down the river. Meanwhile, Gen. Hopkins being absent in Clarence on busi- ness, the two colonels at Black Rock turned out their men and consulted as to what should be done. Though Warren was the senior in rank he seems not to have been formally invested with the command at Black Rock, another evidence of the loose way in which everything was done. However, the two officers agreed that they would endeavor to reach Scajaquada creek before the invaders, and hold it against them. Warren's regiment being ready first, he set out in advance. After marching about half-way he sent two scouts ahead. In a short time he heard firing at the creek, and as they did not re- turn he naturally concluded they were killed or taken. In fact, both were taken. Presently Capt. Millard, (afterwards Gen. Millard, of Lockport,) aide to Gen. Hall, galloped past, also in search of information. He, too, was saluted with a shower of bullets at the bridge, and captured. Warren halted till Churchill came up, when they agreed that, as the enemy had evidently got possession of the Scajaquada bridge, and of what was called the " Sailors' Battery," situated there, it would be impracticable to dislodge him in the darkness. They determined to take position at a small run, a little way be- low the village of Black Rock, and there oppose the further ad- vance of the British. Thither they accordingly returned, placed their single piece of artillery in the road, with a regiment on each side, and awaited developments. The enemy did not advance, but in the course of an hour or so Colonel Chapin arrived with a body of mounted men. His force is not described as mounted in Hall's report, but he must have obtained horses for at least a part of Captain Bull's com- pany. General Warren is positive that the force with which Chapin came to Black Rock was mounted, and Bull was cer- tainly present in the reconnoissance which followed. The irascible doctor furiously damned the two colonels and their men for not having driven away the British, and delivered General Hall's order that they should immediately make an at- 248 HORSEMEN STAMPEDED. tack. They replied with equal anger, and declared themselves as ready as he to meet the British. Chapin then led the way with his mounted men, in "column of twos ;" Warren followed with his battalion, and then Churchill with his. The men under Chapin and Bull advanced nearly to Scaja- quada creek, without receiving any warning of the whereabouts of the enemy. All was silent as death. Suddenly from the darkness flashed a volley of musketry, almost in the faces of the head of the column. Undisciplined cavalry are notoriously the poorest of all troops, and Chapin's men probably acted pre- cisely as any other mounted militia would have done, if led in column, in the darkness, against an unknown force of hostile in- fantry. They instantly broke and fled, rushing back through the ranks of Warren's footmen, who became utterly demoralized by the onslaught without receiving a shot. As the horsemen stampeded through them, they broke up, some scattering into the woods and some retreating toward Buffalo. Finding him- self without men, Warren retired to the main battery, to endea- vor to rally some of the fugitives. Churchill, with at least a part of his men, remained below the village. When General Hall received news of this failure, he ordered Major Adams with his Genesee militia, and Chapin with such force as he could rally, to march against the enemy. This movement was equally futile ; in fact it is doubtful if the force got within reach of the enemy's guns. The general then ordered Colonel Blakeslie, with his Ontario county militia, to advance to the attack. This sending of suc- cessive small detachments to assail an unknown force in the darkness, instead of concentrating his forces in some good de- fensive position, shows clearly enough that General Hall had little idea of the proper course to be taken, but he seems to have labored zealously according to the best light he had. On the departure of Blakeslie, Hall gathered his remaining forces, of which McMahan's Chautauqua regiment constituted the main part, and took the hill road (Niagara street) for Black Rock. As he approached that village the day began to dawn, and he discovered the enemy's boats crossing the river in the direction of General Porter's house. A smaller number were crossing farther up, opposite the main battery. THE BATTLE OF BLACK ROCK. 249 Blakeslie's command was ordered to meet the approaching force at the water's edge. That force consisted of the Royal Scots under Colonel Gordon, and was estimated at four hun- dred men. The invasion was under the general superintendence of Lieutenant-General Drummond, but the troops were under the immediate command of Major-General Riall. The artillery in battery fired on them as they advanced, and Blakeslie's men opened fire when they landed. They returned it, and a battery on the other side sent shells and balls over their heads among the Americans. For half an hour the forest and riverside reechoed with the thunder of artillery and ceaseless rattle of small arms. All accounts agree that Blakeslie's men did the most of the fighting, and sustained the attack of the Royal Scots with considerable firmness. Had all the regiments been kept' together and met the enemy at his landing, the result might have been far different. A portion of the Chautauqua county regiment took part in the fight, and Colonel Warren, having rallied a part of his com- mand at the battery, moved them down to the left of Blakeslie's regiment. Major Dudley was killed during the combat, and probably at this point. Besides the regiments just named, there were squads and single individuals in the fight from all the dif- ferent organizations. Regiments and companies had to a great extent dissolved, and the men who had not run away fought "on their own hook." Meanwhile the hostile force at Scajaquada creek, consisting of regulars and Indians, moved up the river, easily dispersing Churchill's meagre force, and marched against Blakeslie's right. It is not believed there Avere then over six hundred men in our ranks, and these, thus assailed on two sides, were entirely unable to maintain their ground. Large numbers were already scatter- ing through the woods toward home, when Gen. Hall ordered a retreat, hoping to make another stand at the edge of Buffalo. This, as might be supposed, was utterly hopeless ; once the men got to running, there were few that thought of anything else. In a few moments all were in utter rout. A part hurried toward Buffalo, others rushed along the " Guide-board road " (North street) to Hodge's tavern, and thence took the Wil- liamsville road, while many fled through the woods without - 17 250 THE AMERICANS DEFEATED. regard to roads of any kind. If the officers made any attempt to rally their men, they were entirely unsuccessful, and there was nothing for them to do but join in the general retreat. A few men kept fighting till the last, but they too were soon obliged to retire. The first meeting of two gentlemen, both sub- sequently presiding judges of the Erie County Common Pleas, was at the battle of Black Rock. Samuel Wilkeson, then in the ranks of the Chautauqua county regiment, was loading and discharging his musket as rapidly as possible, when he noticed a small, quiet man near by, who, he said, was firing faster than he was. Presently the stranger looked around and exclaimed : " Why, we are all alone ! " Wilkeson also cast his eyes about him, and sure enough all but a very few were rapidly retreating. The person whose acquaintance he thus made was Ebenezer Walden. Meanwhile, in Buffalo the women and children remained in a feeling of comparative security ; believing that the foe would surely be beaten back, as he had been before. Many, however, had packed up their scanty stores in preparation for a flight if necessary, and all had been anxiously listening to the fateful sounds of battle. All the while scattering fugitives were con- stantly rushing through the village, and striking out for Wil- liamsville, Willink or Hamburg. Then the noise of battle ceased, and the scattering runaways increased to a crowd. The Bufifalonians of Hull's and Bull's companies came hurrying up to take care of their families. They declared that the Americans were whipped, that the Brit- ish were marching on the town, and most terrible of all that the Indians, the Indians, the INDIANS were coming. Then all was confusion and dismay. Teams were at a pre- mium. Horses, oxen, sleighs, sleds, wagons, carts — nearly every- thing that had feet, wheels or runners — were pressed into service. Some loaded up furniture, some contented themselves with sav- ing their scanty store of silver ware and siniilar valuables ; most took care to secure some provisions and bedding, threw them promiscuously into whatever vehicle they could obtain, and started. Children were half smothered with feather beds, babies alternated with loaves of bread. Many, who neither had nor could obtain teams, set forth on foot. Men, women and children INCIDENTS OF FLIGHT. 25 I by the score were seen hastening through the light snow and half frozen mud, in the bitter morning air, up Main street or out Seneca, or toward " Pratt's Ferry." Dr. Chapin, on leaving for the field in the morning, told his two girls, one eleven and the other nine years old, that they must take care of themselves, directing them to go to his farm in Hamburg, ten miles distant. Their only protector was Hiram Pratt, then a member of the doctor's family and but thirteen years old. The girls and their young knight set out through the snow, and on passing the Pratt homestead Hiram per- suaded his sister Mary, eleven years old, to accompany them. At Smoke's creek they were overtaken by a wagon containing the Pratt family, and Mary was taken on board. Nothing, how- ever, could induce Hiram or the Chapin girls to accept of such assistance. They had started to do the heroic, and were bound to go through with it. And go through with it they did, mak- ing the whole ten miles on foot through the snow ; an amazing feat for two girls of that age. Capt. Hull, as has been mentioned, was a silversmith. His family gathered his small stock into a pillow case, and looked about for some means of transportation. Presently came a man on horseback, astride a side-saddle. He readily consented to take charge of their valuables, and fastened the pillow-case to the horn of his saddle. He rode off, and they saw no more of man, side-saddle nor spoons. The family of Samuel Pratt, Jr., were equally unfortunate with their silver. They had packed it up ready to carry away, but when they got into the wagon they forgot it. After going a little way, a girl whom Mrs. P. was bringing up, a kind of white Topsy, mentioned the loss and proposed to go back after it. This Mrs. Pratt forbade, but in a short time the girl slid quietly out of the hind end of the wagon and scampered back. She was never heard of by them again. Whether she confis- cated the silver and emigrated to Canada with the returning in- vaders, or fell beneath the tomahawk of the savage and per- ished in some burning building, none ever knew. Confusion was every moment worse confounded. "The In- dians, the Indians !" was on every tongue. A crowd of teams and footmen — and footwomen too — were hurrying up Main 252 CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED. street, when suddenly the head of the column stopped and surged back on the rear. " The Indians" was the cry from the front ; " they are coming up the Guide-board road ; they are out at Hodge's." Back down Main street rolled the tide. Horses were urged to their utmost speed ; people on foot did their best to keep up, and even the oxen, under the persistent application of the lash, broke into an unwilliiig gallop, stumbling along, shaking their horns and wondering what strange frenzy had seized upon the people. Turning up Seneca street the crowd sped onward, some going straight to the Indian village, and thence across the reservation to Willink, others making for Pratt's ferry, and thence up the beach to Hamburg. The ferryman, James Johnson, then a young man of nineteen, now a venerable citizen of East Ham- burg, set several loads across, and then began to think it was time to leave, himself. He was a Vermonter, only a few weeks in this part of the country, and found his experience extremely discouraging. There was good reason for the sudden retreat of the Main street fugitives. While the main body of the enemy marched down Niagara street, the Indians on the left flank pressed up the "Guide-board road." Here it was that Job Hoysington, a resolute volunteer, said to his comrades, with whom he was re- treating, that he would have one more shot at the red-skins, and in spite of remonstrance waited for that purpose. He doubtless got-a shot at them, for, when the snow went off in the spring, his rifle was found empty by his side ; but they got a shot at him, too, as was testified by a bullet through his brain, the work of which was completed by the tomahawk and scalping knife. His wife waited long for her husband's return, at their residence at the corner of Main and Utica streets, and finally set out on foot, with her children. She was soon overtaken by two cavalrymen, who took two of the little ones on their horses. For a long time she did not hear of them, but at length discov- ered them, one in Clarence and one in Genesee county. It was on the Guide-board road, too, that Alfred Hodge, flee- ing from the pursuing savages, and finding himself unable to outstrip them, jumped over the fence, where a turn in the road ALFRED AND WILLIAM HODGE. 253 among the thick bushes hid him for a moment from their view, near the crossing of Delaware street, and flung himself down behind a log, across which he laid his cocked musket, determined to sell his life as dearly as possible, if discovered. The Indians came up, and two of them stood in the road but a short dis- tance from him, looking in every direction for the fugitive, but luckily the bushes and the log secured him from their eyes. His scalp must have felt somewhat loose at that time. At one time they stood in range, so he thought that he could disable them both at one shot, but before he could take aim they changed their position. These and other Indians in the vicinity fired several shots at the crowd of fugitives rushing up Main street, and are knowm to have wounded one if not more at that time. It was doubtless these shots that sent the frightened throng down Main street at double speed. But the fugitives exaggerated a little in saying that the savages had reached " Hodge's," for they soon fell back and closed in on the main body, giving Mr. Alfred Hodge a chance to hurry forward to his residence. William Hodge, Sr., brother of Alfred, and proprietor of the " brick tavern on the hill," had rejected the idea that the Amer- icans would be defeated, till the last moment, but when he saw the crowds of militiamen hurrying past he began to think it was time for him to move, and directed his hired man to hitch up the oxen, his only team, while he made some hasty arrange- ments in the house. He waited and waited, but no team ap- peared. The man had concluded that an ox-express wasu too slow for him, had put his own legs into rapid requisition, and was never heard of more. Unwilling to keep his family longer, Mr. H. persuaded the driver of an army baggage-wagon to halt a few minutes, flung in some bedding and provisions, lifted in his family and sent them forward. Then, determined to save all he could, he yoked up his cattle, piled into the cart as much household stuff as it would hold, and followed at a slower pace. It is probable that none of the enemy went that far up Main street that day, for when Mr. Hodge returned, the next day, not even the liquor in the cellar was disturbed. As he started his oxen up Main street the smoke was already rising from the burning village. 254 ClIAPIN'S NKl'.OTIATIONS. I'^or. incaiuvhilc, events had coinc crowding thick and fast in the lower part of the town. As the enem\' approached, some twenty or thirt\- men, apparent!)' without any organization, manned an old twelve-pounder mounted on a pair of truck - wheels, at the junction of Main and Niagara streets. Soon the foe was seen emerging from the forest, on the latter street, less than a quarter of a mile away — a long column of disciplined soldiers, marching shoulder to shoulder, the rising sun bathing them in its golden light and tipping their bayonets with lu-e. Colonel Chapin by general consent exercised whatever author- it)- an)- one could exercise, which was ver)- little. Two or three shots were fired from the old twelve-pounder, and then it was dismounted. Chapin then went forward with a white handker- chief tied to his cane, as a tlag of truce, asked a halt, which w-as granted, and began a parle)-. It was probably about this time that the Indians were called in from the Guide-board road. One account has it that Chapin succeeded in arranging some kind of a capitulation ; but this must be rejected, for. in a state- ment published b)^ himself shortly after, he on!)' speaks of " attempting a negotiation," claiming that while this was going on the people had a chance to escape ; which was probably true. Just about the time the cannon was dismounted some of our retreating soldiers had reached Pomero\-'s stand, at the corner of Main and Seneca streets. Half famished after the fatigues of the night, they besought Pomeroy for something to eat. He told them there was plenty of bread in the kitchen and tho)- rushed in, provided themselves, and pursued their re- treat, each with a piece o( bread in one hantl and his musket in the other. Presentl)- the)- heard a cr)- from those ahead, " Run, bo)-s, run!" Looking northward thev saw- a long line of Indians, with red bands on their heads, coming in single file at a rapid "jog-trot" down Washington street. It is needless to say that the injunction, "Run, bo)-s," was strictly obeyed. The warriors, how-ever, never swerved to the right nor the left, but kept on dow-n to the Little Buffalo. Doubtless they had orders to sur- round the town. A few citizens remained to try to save their property ; among them Messrs. Walden, Pomeroy, Cook and Kaene. But their THOSE WHO STAYKIJ. 255 success was less than tliat of one woman. Nearly opposite the site of the Tifft House stood the new hotel built by Gamaliel St. John, whose death by drowning, a few months before, has been narrated. The widow had leased the hotel, though it was not yet occupied by the lessee, and had moved into a small house just north of it, near the corner of Main and Mohawk streets, also belonging to her husband's estate. Directly oppo- site was the residence of Asaph S. Bemis, who had married one of Mrs. St. John's daughters, who still survives, and from whom much of this sketch is derived. Close by Mr. Bemis' was the house occupied by Joshua Love- joy. Mr. Lovcjoy was absent. On the approach of the enemy Mrs L. sent her young son, the late Henry Lovejoy, away across the fields to the woods, but remained at home herself, apparently reckless as to what might happen. Mrs. St. John, a very resolute woman, had been unwilling to believe the enemy would reach town, and had made no prepara- tion for leaving. Mr. Bemis, who had been sick, determined to take his wife out of the way, and hitched up his team for that purpose. His mother-in-law requested him to take her younger children, six in number, with him, while she and her two oldest daughters remained to pack up her things. He did so, the ar- rangement being that he should take them out a mile or two, and return for the three women and the trunks. But before this ar- rangement could be carried out the enemy were in town. The Indians came to Main street first, a considerable time be- fore the tfoops, which were drawn up near the corner of Morgan, Mohawk and Niagara streets, where Samuel Edsall had his tan- nery. The savages had apparently full license to do what they pleased in the way of plundering, though some British officers 'went ahead and had the casks of liquor stove in, to prevent their red allies from getting entirely beyond control. Eight or ten Indians came yelling directly toward Mrs. St. John's house. She waved her table cloth as a flag of truce, but they burst in, and immediately began ransacking the trunks, which stood ready packed for removal. There were four squaws in the company, and they, almost the first thing, po.s.sessed them- selves of the looking-glass, and .stood grinning and jabbering at the red faces reflected there, with childish delight. Presently 256 INDIANS AT MRS. ST. JOHN'S. the ladies noticed that there was one Indian who took no part in the pknidering, and they soon discovered that he could talk a little Eni^lish. " What will be done with us ? " they anxiously inquired. " We no hurt you," he replied. " You be prisoner to the squaws. Perhaps they take you to the colonel." "Yes, yes," exclaimed the ladies, "take us to the colonel." He spoke to the squaws, and they set forth with their "prison- ers " down Mohawk to the corner of Niagara, where the troops were drawn up, and where the ladies were taken before a British officer, probably Col. Elliott, the commander of the Indians. Mrs. St. John told him her condition — a widow, her husband and eldest son taken from her by a sad calamity, a large family of small children dependent upon her — and implored his protection. "Well," said the colonel, "what can I do for you; shall I take you to Canada ? " "No, indeed," replied Mrs. S., "but save my house; don't let it be burned or plundereci." After a moment's hesitation he assented, and ordered two sol- diers- of the Royal Scots regiment to accompany the ladies home, and see that no farther harm was done. They did so, ordered the Indians away, and remained on guard until the British left in the afternoon. Soon after their return they saw Mrs. Lovejoy contending with an Indian about a shawl, he pulling at one end and she at the other. One of -the St. John'girls ran out into the road, call- ing to her for heaven's sake to let the Indian have it, and come over to their hous<2 where they had a guard. Mrs. L. rejected the offer, and continue'd th'e altercation with the savage. Presently flames burst forth from the houses in the main part of the village, near the corner of Main and Seneca streets. A' lieutenant with a squad of men went from house to house, ap- plying the torch. Dr. Johnson being absent, engaged in. his -duties as surgeon, Mrs. Johnson waited until her house was set on fire before she attempted to flee. She had a horse and sleigh but no wagon, and there was little sleighing. She harnessed the horse to the sleigh, put in the latter a feather bed, a. looking-glass, and her infant daughter Mary, (now Mrs. Dr. Lord,) and set out for Wil- MURDER OF xMRS. LOVEJOY. 257 liamsville, leading the horse. About this time, near ten o'clock, Lieutenant Riddle, of the United States regular army, with some forty convalescents from the Williamsville hospital, and a six-pounder gun, came marching down Main street to drive out the enemy ! Mr. Walden went to meet him, convinced him of the hopelessness of such a course, and persuaded him to retire- rather than -needlessly exasperate the foe and his savage allies. A little later a regiment in brilliant uniform came at a rapid gait up Mohawk street, and wheeled down Main. "Ah!" exclaimed one of the guard at Mrs. St. John's, proudly, " see our Royal Scots." But the ladies, though they could not but notice the stalwart forms and splendid marching order of the soldiers, could not sympathize with the pride of their comrade. A little later they were all attracted to the windows by another altercation across the road. The same or another band of Indians were again en- deavoring to plunder Mrs. Lovejby's house, and she was deter- mined to resist them. They saw her standing in the doorway barring the ingress of an angry savage. One account is that she had an axe, but this is not certain. Suddenly there was' the flash of a knife, and, pierced to the heart, the woman fell on the threshold she had defended. She was dragged into the yard, and lay there for hours, her blood crimsoning the snow, and her long black hair trailing on the ground, for in this instance the savages forebore to scalp their victim. Meanwhile the burning went on. The flames rapidly de- voured the frail, wooden tenements of which the embryo city was then chiefly composed. Dr. Chapin's and Judge-Walden's houses were spared on that day, and the burners respected the little dwelling before which lay the corpse of Mrs. Lovejoy. Both Chapin and Walden, however, were taken prisoners, and the former was detained in Canada over a year. Mr. Walden, who was less noted, managed to escape by quietly walking away from his captors, as if- nothing was the matter, and strll re- mained about the village. The large hotel of Mrs. St. John was set on fire by a squad of men, but, when they retired, the girls carried buckets of water and extinguished the flames. By three o'clock in the afternoon all of the lately flourishing 2$S TlIK SLAIN. village of Buffalo, save some six or eight structures, was smoul- dering in ashes. What few houses there were at Black Rock were likewise destroyed, and the enemy then retired across the river. After they left, Mr. Walden and the St. John girls car- ried Mrs. Lovejo)''s corpse back into her house, and laid it on the bed. The foe took with them about ninety prisoners, of whom eleven were wounded. Forty of the ninety were from Blakes- lie's regiment. Besides these, a considerable number of Ameri- can wounded were able to escape — probably fifty or sixty. Fort}' or fifty were killed. Most of these lay on the field of battle, but some were scattered through the upper part of the village. They were stripped of their clothing, and la)' all ghastl)' and white on the snow. On nuxst of them the tomahawk and scalping-knife had supplemented the work of the bullet. Among the slain the ofiicer of highest rank was Lieut. -Col. Boughton, of Avon. In iM'ie county, reckoning according to the present division of towns, the killed were Job Hoysington, John Roop, Samuel Holmes, John Trisket, James Nesbit, Rob- ert Franklin (colored), and Mr. Myers, of Buffalo; Robert Hil- land, Adam Lawfer, of Black Rock; Jacob Vantine, Jr., of Clarence; Moses Fenno, of Alden; Israel Reed, of Aurora; Newman Baker, Parley Moffat and \Vm. Cheeseman, of Ham- burg and ICast Hamburg; Major Wm. C. Dudley, and probably Peter Hoffman, of Evans ; and Calvin Cary, of Boston. Moses Fenno was the earliest pioneer of Alden. Israel Reed was a middle-aged man, afflicted with asthma. He was on guard duty when the alarm sounded, but persuaded another to take his place, went forward to the fight and remained to the last. He then retreated, in company with the late Col. Emory, of Aurora. Pursued by the Indians, his asthmatic difficulty retarded his flight. For awhile Emory accommodated his pace to that of his comrade, but at length Reed declared he could go no further, sat down on a log and bade Emory go on. The latter did so. Reed was afterwards found where Emory left him, lying beside the log, his loaded musket by his side, show- ing that he had made no resistance, but with a bullet through his breast, his skull cloven by the relentless tomahawk, and his scalp removed by the vengeful knife. TIIK BRITISH STRENGTH. 259 Calvin Gary, the oldest son of the pioneer, Deacon Richard Gary, though only twenty-one years of age, was a man of gigan- tic stature and herculean strength, weighing nearly three hun- dred pounds. Pursued by three Indians, he shot one dead, killed another with his clubbed musket, but was shot, toma- hawked and scalped by the third. His broken musket, which was found by his side and testified to his valor, is still preserved by his kindred. All the heavy guns of course fell into the hands of the enemy, as well as a considerable quantity of public stores. A few small vessels, lying near Black Rock, were also captured. The force by which all this injury was accomplished, accord- ing to the British official report, consisted of about a thousand men, detached from the Royal Scots regiment, the Eighth (or King's) regiment, the Forty-first, the Eighty-ninth, and the One Hundredth, besides from one to two hundred Indians. The en- emy suffered a loss of about thirty men killed and sixty wounded. Only two of his officers were wounded, and none killed. That a thou.sand veteran soldiers .should whip two thousand raw militia is not really very strange, yet there have been times when militia, acting on the defensive, have done much better than that. The repulse of three or four hundred invaders the previous summer, by a force of militia and recruits hardly their equal in number, shows what may be done under favorable cir- cumstances and resolute leadership. General Hall, on reaching Williamsville, rallied two or three hundred of the fugitives, and collected reinforcements as rapidly as possible. There was, however, no further conflict with the enemy. Throughout this dismal epoch, the general seems to have acted with all po.ssible devotion and energy, and to have failed only through the defection of his men and his own igno- rance of the military art. He did the best that in him lay. Gen. McClure, on the other hand, did the worst that in him lay, and when he retired to his home was justly followed by the hatred and contempt of thousands. The destruction of the Ni- agara frontier is chargeable chiefly to the cruelty and cowardice of George McClure. The news of the disaster fled fast and far. The chief avenue 260 SCENES IN THE COUNTRY. of escape was up the Main street road to Williamsville and Ba- tavia. Next to that was the road up the beach to Hamburg. This was still the usual route, for teams, to all that part of the county south of the Buffalo reservation. On this occasion, however, many went on foot or horseback to the Indian village, and thence through the woods to the Big Tree road. During all that day (the 30th) the road through Williamsville and Clarence was crowded with a hurrying and heterogeneous multitude — bands of militiamen, families in sleighs, women driv- ing ox-sleds, men in wagons, cavalrymen on horseback, women on foot, bearing infants in their arms and attended by crying children — ^all animated by a single thought, to escape from the foe, and especially from the dreaded Indians. On the Big Tree road the scene was still more diversified, for in addition to the mixed multitude which poured along the northern route, was the whole body of Indians from the Buffalo reservation. The author of the history of the Holland Pur- chase, then a youth residing in Sheldon, Wyoming county, gives a vivid picture of the scene from personal recollection. " An ox-sled would come along bearing wounded soldiers, whose companions had perhaps pressed the slow team into their service ; another with the family of a settler, a few household goods that had been hustled upon it, and one, two or three wear- ied females from Buffalo, who had begged the privilege of a ride and the rest that it afforded ; then a remnant of some dispersed corps of militia, hugging as booty, as spoils of the vanquished, the arms they had neglected to use ; then squads and families of Indians, on foot and on ponies, the squaw with her papoose upon her back, and a bevy of juvenile Senecas in her train; and all this is but a stinted programme of the scene that was pre- sented. Bread, meats and drinks soon vanished from the log -taverns on the routes, and fleeing settlers divided their scanty stores with the almost famished that came from the frontiers." Numerous incidents, pathetic, tragic, and sometimes comic, occurred in this universal hegira. The news flew, apparently on the wings of the wind, and as it flew people hitched up their horse or ox teams and fled eastward, long before all the fugitives from the western part of the county had arrived. Again and again it happened that a party of tired travelers from Buffalo SEPARATION OF FAMILIES. 26 1 or vicinity would at nightfall find a deserted house, with plenty of furniture and provisions, somewhere in Aurora, or Wales, or Newstead, and would go to keeping house in it. The owners had perhaps gone on, another day's journey, and had found near Batavia or Warsaw another abandoned residence, whose late oc- cupants had determined to put the Genesee river between them and the foe. . Everybody wanted to get one stage farther cast. Selfishess was the prevailing characteristic — at least few looked beyond their own families ; yet there were some exceptions. On the morning of the 30th a farmer from Hamburg, with a load of cheese for the Buffalo market, met the fugitives on the lake beach, a short distance from the village. He immediately flung his cheese right and left upon the ground, filled his sleigh with women and children and carried them as far as his home. I have mentioned how Hoysington's children were carried off by horsemen. Such aid by mounted men to children was quite frequent. Sometimes a horseman would take up two or three children ; sometimes a gallant cavalier would be seen with some weary woman seated behind him, and a child on the pommel of his saddle. The cases of separation of families were very numerous, and sometimes they were not united for several weeks. In Clarence a family hastily loaded some provisions and several children into a sleigh, and drove eastward at full speed. After traveling several miles they discovered that they had lost one of the chil- dren out of the hind end of the sleigh. Fortunately, on returning, it was found uninjured. Those who fled told the most dismal stories, making the mis- fortune even worse than the sad reality. The Indians were represented as just in the rear, tomahawking men, women and children indiscriminately. Even particular individuals were causelessly reported as killed, to their terror-stricken friends. A militiaman came to the log tavern of Colonel Warren, where his frightened wife was anx- iously awaiting news of her husband. He looked up and read aloud the name on the sign — "William Warren." "Well," said he "Colonel Warren is no more ; I myself stepped over his dead body ;" and then hurried on. In fact, the colonel was not even wounded. 262 THE SECOND RAID. The fleeing Indians added to the dreadfid rumors. During the war they kept runners going ahnost constantly between the Buffalo reservation and those of Cattaraugus and Allegany. One of their trails ran through Eden. These, when they could talk a little English, frequently enlivened the minds of the inhabi- tants along the route by terrible tales of the "British Indians." But after the burning of Buffalo they let loose all their powers of description. "Whoop!" cried the dusky runner, as he paused for an instant before the door of some log cabin, where stood a trembling matron surrounded by tow-headed children; "Whoop! Buffalo all burned up! British Indians coming! Kill white squaw! Kill papoose! Scalp 'em all! Burn up everything! Whoop!" and away he bounded through the forest, leaving dismay and wailing in his track. Still, when it was found that the enemy had retired, curiosity induced many men from the nearest towns to visit the ruins. Others went to render what assistance they could, and still others, alas, to take advantage of the universal confusion and purloin whatever might have been left by the invader. A few went on the 31st of December, more on the 1st of January. On the former day everything was quiet. On the latter, as the few remaining citizens and some from the country were star- ing at the ghastly ruins, a detachment of the enemy suddenly appeared, making prisoners of most of them ; among others of Benjamin Hodge, Jr., of Buffalo, and David Eddy, of Ham- burg. The former was kept prisoner throughout the war. They then fired all the remaining buildings, except the jail, which would not burn, Reese's blacksmith shop, and Mrs. St. John's cottage. On their coming to the latter, Mrs. S. and her daughters tried to persuade the commander not to burn the large hotel, which was still standing. He, however, drew from his pocket, and read, an order commanding him to burn every build- ing except " the one occupied by an old woman and two girls." So the big hotel went with the rest. The little house in which lay the remains of the murdered Mrs. Lovejoy was also fired, and the building and corpse were consumed together. As the detachment was about to depart, the commandant was informed that there were public stores at Hodge's tavern, on the EVENTS AT HODGE'S. 263 hill. A squad of horsemen were sent thither to burn it. Benj. Hodge, Sr., and Keep, the Cold Spring blacksmith, were there, and ran on the enemy's approach. The sergeant in command called to them to stop, and Hodge did so. Keep ran on a short distance, when a carbine bullet pierced him and he fell — near where is now the south gate of Spring Abbey. The sergeant then entered, and, seeing a large quantity of merchandise stored there by merchants of the village, ordered the house set on fire, though assured that none of it was public property. After the building was well aflame he found a cask of old Jamaica, and was filling his canteen from it, when the cry was raised, "The Yankees are coming." A detachment of horse was seen crossing Scajaquada creek. The British hurriedly mounted, and rode off toward Buffalo. The new comers were some mounted Canadian volunteers, under Adjutant Tottman. He galloped up to the side of the rearmost of the retreating Britons, and was instantly shot dead. Close behind Tottman's force came Mr. William Hodge, who, having returned from Harris' Hill the day before and found his property undisturbed, was flattering himself that he had escaped the general desolation. Now he saw his hopes shattered at a blow. His house was the last one burned, both in point of time and of distance from the village. After Tottman was shot, his men, dashing- up, caught a half-blood Indian setting fire to Hodge's barn. He was taken into Newstead where he was summarily disposed of At this same time, a squad of Indians went to Major Miller's tavern, at Cold Spring. A Mrs. Martin, who was there, fed them and kept them in good humor until our horsemen ap- peared, when they escaped into the woods. This was the far- thest that any of the enemy penetrated into the country. A day or two after the second raid the people assembled and picked up the dead bodies, and brought them to Reese's black- smith shop. The number is variously stated, but the most care- ful account makes it forty-two killed, besides some who were not found, (Hoysington was not found until spring,) and .some prominent persons like Col. Boughton, who were taken care of earlier. At the shop they were laid in rows, a ghastly display, all being frozen stiff, and most of them stripped, tomahawked 264 COMING BACK. and scalped. After those belonging in the vicinity had been taken away by their friends, the rest were deposited in a single large grave, in the old burying ground on Franklin Square, cov- ered only with boards, so they could be easily examined and taken away. Then quiet settled doAvn on the destroyed village and almost deserted county. Even Mrs. St. John left, and when, a few days after the burning, James Sloan and Samuel Wilkeson came down the lake shore, the only living thing which they saw between Pratt's ferry and Cold Spring was a solitary cat wandering amid the blackened ruins. But the pioneers had plenty of energy and resolution, even if they were not very good soldiers. On the 6th of January, just a week after the main conflagration, William Hodge brought his family back, it being the first that returned. Pomeroy came immediately afterwards. That energetic personage raised the first building in the new village of Buffalo, on the same spot where he had been once mobbed and once burned out within thirteen months. Hodge's was the second. A few others came back and fitted up temporary shelters. A Mr. Allen occupied Mrs. St. John's cottage, and did a good business by keeping a house of entertainment for those who came to see the ruins. Soldiers were stationed in the village — I think a detachment of regulars — and as time wore on people began to feel more safe. But the winter was one of intense excitement and distress. Scarce a night passed without a rumor of an attack. Many times some of the inhabitants packed up their goods, ready to flee. Twice during the winter small squads of the enemy crossed the river, but were driven back by the sol- diers and citizens without much fighting. Most of the people who came back had nothing to live on, save what was issued to them by the commissary department of the army. The rest of the county was hardly less disturbed. There were houses to live in, and generally plenty to eat, but every blast that whistled mournfully through the forest reminded the excited people of the death-yell of the savage, and fast-succeeding rumors of invasion kept the whole population in a state of spasmodic terror. The Salisburys evidently made good their escape with their RELIEF. 265 type as soon as they heard of the capture of Fort Niagara. On the 1 8th of January they issued their paper at Harris' Hill. That point became a kind of rendezvous for business men. Root & Boardman opened a law office there, locating, according to their advertisement, " next door east of Harris' tavern and fourteen miles from Buffalo ruins." Le Couteulx went east after the destruction of his property, and Zenas Barker was ap- pointed county clerk, establishing his office at Harris' Hill. The nearest post-office, however, was at Williamsville. The suffering would have been even greater than it was, had not prompt measures of relief been taken by the public authori- ties and the citizens of more fortunate localities. The legisla- ture voted $40,000 in aid of the devastated district, besides $5,000 to the Tuscarora Indians, and $5,000 to residents of Canada driven out on account of their friendship for the United States. The city of Albany voted a thousand dollars, and the city of New York three thousand. The citizens of Canandai- gua appointed a committee of relief, who raised a considerable amount there, and sent communications soliciting aid to all the country eastward. They were promptly responded to, and lib- eral contributions raised throughout the State. With this aid, and that of the commissary department, and the assistance of personal friends, those who remained on the frontier managed to live through that woeful winter. iS 266 TROOPS AT WILLIAMSVILLE. CHAPTER XXVI. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1814. Mars and Hymen. — Soldiers' Graves. — Scott and Brown. — Elections and Appoint- ments. — Discipline at Buffalo. — The Death Penalty. — The Advance. — Cap- ture of Fort Erie. — Approaching Chippewa. — An Indian Battle. — A Retreat. —A Dismounted Young Brave. — Victory. — Scalps. — "Hard Times." — Ad- vance to Fort George. — Return. — Lundy's Lane. — The Romance of War. — Retreat to Fort Erie. — The Death of the Spy. — "Battle of Conjockety Creek.'" — Assault on Fort Erie. — The Explosion. — Call for Volunteers. — The Response. — The Track through the Forest. — The Sortie. — Gallantry of the Volunteers. — Gen. Porter. — Quiet. — Peace. As spring approached, the frontier began to revive. More troops appeared, and their presence caused the paying out of considerable sums of money among the inhabitants. There was a ready market for produce at large prices. By March the people had sufficiently recovered from their fright to go to getting married. One number of the Gazette contained notices of two weddings at Williamsville, one at Har- ris' Hill, one in Clarence, one in Willink, and one in Concord — the longest list which had yet appeared in that paper. Williamsville was the rendezvous for the troops. There was a long row of barracks, parallel with the main street of that vil- lage and a short distance north of it, and others used as a hos- pital, a mile or so up the Eleven-Mile creek. Near these latter, and close beside the murmuring waters of the stream, rest sev- eral scores of soldiers who died in that hospital, all unknown, their almost imperceptible graves marked only by a row of ma- ples, long since planted by some reverent hand. Buffalo began to rise from its ashes. A brick-company was organized, and by the first of April several buildings had been erected, and contracts made for the erection of twenty or thirty more. By the 20th of that month several business men were there. The post-office was reopened, at first at Judge Granger's house and soon after at the village. On the loth of April there arrived on the frontier a stately SCOTT AND BROWN. 267 young warrior, whose presence was already considered a har- binger of victory, and whose shoulders had lately been adorned by the epaulets of a brigadier-general. This was Winfield Scott, then thirty years old, and the beau ideal of a gallant soldier. Im- mediately afterwards came his superior officer, Major-General Brown, who had been rapidly advanced to the highest rank, on the strength of the vigor and skill he had shown as a commander at the foot of Lake Ontario. An election was held in this month, at which General Porter was again chosen to Congress on the Democratic ticket. Clar- ence cast two hundred and twenty-three votes, while the whole town of Buffalo only furnished a hundred and forty- seven. It had only been a year and four months since the last congressional election, which was doubtless owing to some change in the law regarding the time of holding. Jonas Williams was again elected to the assembly. The only supervisors known were Simeon Fillmore of Clarence, Lemuel Parmely of Eden, and Richard Smith of Hamburg. A new " commission of the peace " was issued by which Dan- iel Chapin, Charles Townsend and Oliver Forward of Buf- falo, Richard Smith of Hamburg, and Archibald S. Clarke of Clarence, were named as judges ; and Jonas Williams, James Cronk, John Beach and David Eddy as assistant justices. The justices of the peace named in the new commission were John Seeley, Philip M. Holmes, Joseph Hershey and Edward S. Stew- art, of Buffalo ; Daniel McCleary, Daniel Rawson, and Levi Brown, of Clarence ; Joshua Henshaw, Calvin CliffiDrd, James Wolcott, and Ebenezer Holmes, of Willink ; Daniel Thurston and Amasa Smith, of Hamburg; Joseph Hanchett, of Concord ; Asa Cary and John Hill, of Eden. Joseph Landon, Rowland Cotton and Henry Brothers were named as coroners. Many changes were also taking place among the military men of the county. A new commission, announcing promotions and appointments in Lt.-Col. Warren's regiment, (the 48th New York infantry,) designated Ezekiel Cook as first major, and Ezra Nott as second ; Lyman Blackmar, Peter LewiSj Frederick Richmond, Luther Colvin, Benjamin I. Clough, Timothy P"uller and James M. Stevens as captains ; Thomas Holmes, Aaron Salisbury, Dennis Riley, Moses Baker, William Austin, Oliver Alger, 26S . THE DEATH TENALTV. Micah B. Crook and Klihu Rice as lieutenants ; and John INI. Holmes, Otis Wheelock. Lathrop Francis. Sumner Warren. George Hamilton. Calvin Doolittle. Giles Briggs and Asa War- ren as ensigns. B>- the 20th of Ma>- there were three taverns in operation in Buffalo, four stores, three offices and twelve shops ; besides twentv-three houses, mostlv occupied bv families, and thirty or forty huts. Dr. Chapin. having been exchanged, got home about the first of June, and immediately began issuing statements. Bodies of regular troops and some volunteers continued to concentrate at Williamsville and Buffalo. Scott removed his headquarters to the latter place toward the last of Ma}-, where the troops were encamped amid the ruins. Great efforts were made to introduce rigid discipline. The men were under con- stant drill, and desertion was mercilessly punished. Among the reminiscences of that era, no scene appears to have been more vividly impressed on the minds of the relators than the one which was displayed near the present comer of ]\Iar}'land and Sixth streets, on the 4th of June, 18 14. Five men, convicted of desertion, knelt with bandaged eyes and pinioned arms, each with an open coffin before him and a new-made grave behind him. Twenty paces in front stood a platoon of men, detailed to inflict the supreme penalty of mili- tary law. The whole army was drawn up on three sides of a hollow square, to witness the execution, the artillerymen stand- ing by their pieces with lighted matches, ready to suppress a possible mutiny, while Generals Brown, Scott and Ripley sat upon their horses, surrounded by their brilliant staffs, looking sternly on the scene. When the firing party did their deadly work, four men fell in their coffins or their graves, but one, a youth under twenty-one, was unhurt. He sprang up. wrenched loose his pinioned arms, and tore the bandage from his eyes. Two men advanced to ex- tinijuish the last remains of life in those who had fallen. He supposed they were about to dispatch him. and fell fainting to the ground. He was taken away without further injur}-. Doubtless it had been determined to spare him on account of his youth, and therefore all of his supposed executioners had been furnished with unloaded muskets. TIIK SIX NATIONS IN ARMS. 269 The work of preparation went forward, though not very rap- idly. On the 28th of June a statement appeared in the Gazette that the rumors of an immediate advance which had been in circulation were not true, and that the transportation of the army was not ready. This was no doubt inserted by order, for on the 3d of July the advance be^an. Brown's .force consisted of two brigades of regulars under Generals Scott and Ripley, and one of volunteers under General Porter. This was composed of five hundred Penn.sylvanians, six hundred New York volunteers, all of whom had not arrived when the movement began, and nearly six hundred Indians. Six hundred was almo.st the entire strength of the Six Na- tions, and these had been gathered from all the reservations in Western New York. It is probable that the great age of Farm- er's Brother prevented him from crossing. Acting as a private in the ranks was Red Jacket, the principal civil leader of the Six Nations, who, notwithstanding the timidity usually attribu- ted to him, was unwilling to stay behind while his countrymen were winning glory on the field of carnage. Col. Robert Flem- ing was quartermaster of this peculiar battalion. Fort Erie was garrisoned by a hundred and seventy British soldiers. The main body of the enemy was at Chippewa, two miles above the Falls, and eighteen miles below the fort. On the 2d of July, Brown, Scott and Porter reconnoitred Fort Erie and concerted the plan of attack. Ripley, with part of his brigade, was to embark in boats at Buffalo in the night, and land a mile up the lake from the fort. Scott with his brigade was to cross from Black Rock, and land a mile below Fort P>ie, which, in the morning, both brigades were to invest and capture. Scott and Ripley both .started at the time appointed, but, as in most military operations depending on concert of action be- tween separate corps, there was a difficulty not foreseen. Rip- ley's pilot was misled by a fog on the lake, and his command did not land until .several hours pa.st time. Scott, however, crossed promptly, and was able to invest the fort with his brig- ade alone. At sunrise the artillery and Indians crossed at the ferry, and after .some parleying the fort surrendered, without awaiting an attack. The campaign along the Niagara, which followed, was out- 2/0 DOWN THE NIAGARA. side the bounds of Erie county. I shall, however, give a sketch of it for several reasons. It was participated in by many sol- diers of Erie county, in the ranks of the New York volun- teers, though I cannot ascertain whether they had any separ- ate organization. The Indians who took part in it on our side mostly belonged to the "oldest families" of Erie county. One of Brown's three brigades was commanded by the Erie county general, Peter B. Porter. And besides, my readers must be dis- gusted by the poor fighting done by the Americans on the Ni- agara during the previous years, and I want to take the taste out of their mouths. The afternoon of the 3d, Scott marched several miles down the Niagara, and on the morning of the 4th drove in the en- emy's advanced posts. He was followed by Brown and Ripley, and both brigades established themselves on the south side of Street's creek, two miles south of Chippewa. On their left, three fourths of a mile from the Niagara, was a dense and somewhat swampy forest on both sides of Street's creek, extending to within three fourths of a mile of Chippewa creek, which was bordered for that distance by a level, cleared plain. On the north side of that creek the British army lay in- trenched. The two armies were concealed from each other's sight by a narrow strip of woodland, reaching from the main forest to within a hundred yards of the river bank. During the night of the 4th the Americans were much an- noyed by Indians and Canadians lurking in the forest, who drove in their pickets and threatened their flanks. Late that night General Porter crossed the river with his In- dians and Pennsylvanians, and in the morning marched toward Chippewa. He was met on the road by General Brown, who spoke of the manner in which he had been annoyed by lurkers in the forest, and proposed that Porter should drive them out, declaring confidently that there would be no Briti.sh regulars south of the Chippewa that day. Still, he said he would order Scott to occupy the open ground beyond Street's creek, in sup- port of Porter. The latter accepted the proposition of his chief, and at three o'clock started to put it in execution. The Indians assumed their usual full battle-dress — of matur- nip-line, breech-clout, moccasins, feathers and paint — and the , SOLDIERS AND WARRIORS. 2/1 war-chiefs then proceeded to elect a leader. Their choice fell on Captain Pollard, a veteran of Wyoming and many other fights. Porter left two hundred of his Pennsylvanians in camp, think- ing their presence needless, and formed the other three hundred in one rank, on the open ground, half a mile south of Street's creek, their left resting on the forest. The whole five or six hundred Indians were also formed in one rank in the woods, tlieir right reaching to the left of the whites. General Porter .stationed himself between the two wings of his command, with Captain Pollard on his left. He was also attended by two or three staff officers, by Hank Johnson the interpreter, and by several regular officers, who had volunteered to see the fun. Red Jacket was on the extreme left of the Indian line. A company of regular infantry followed as a reserve. The war chiefs took their places twenty yards in front of their braves, and a few .scouts were sent still farther in advance. Then, at a given signal, the whole line moved forward, the whites marching steadily with shouldered arms on the plain, the naked Indians gliding through the forest with cat-like tread, their bodies bent forward, their rifles held ready for instant use, their feathers nodding at every step, their fierce eyes flash- ing in every direction. Suddenly one of the chiefs made a sig- nal, and the whole line of painted warriors sank to the ground, as quickly and as noiselessly as the sons of Clan Alpine at the command of Roderick Dhu. This maneuver was a part of their primitive tactics, and the chiefs rapidly assembled to consult over some report brought back by a scout. At another signal the warriors sprang up, and the feather- crested line again moved through the forest. The maneuver was repeated when the scouts brought word that the enemy was awaiting them on the north bank of Street's creek. General Porter was informed of this fact, and made some slight changes in his arrangements, and again the line advanced with increased speed. As the Indians approached the creek, they received the fire of a force of British Indians and Canadians stationed there. The}- instantly raised a war-whoop that resounded far over the Ni- agara, and charged at the top of their speed. The foe at once 2^2 AN INniAX UAiri.K. fled. The Iroquois dashed through the little stream and bounded after them, whooping, yeUing, shooting, eleaving skulls and tear- ing oft'^sealps hke so many demons. Many were overtaken, but few eaptured. Occasionalh-, however, a Seneca or Cayuga would seize an enem\-, unwind his maturnip-line, bind him witii surprising quickness, and then go trotting back to the rear, hold- ing one end of the maturnip, as a man might lead a horse b\- the halter. Such speed and bottom were displayed b\- the Indians that neither the regulars nor \olunteers were able to keep up with them. I'or more than a mile the pursuit was maintained, in the words of General Porter, "through scenes of frightful havoc." At leuiith the Indians, who had got considerablv in advance, emerged upon the open ground three quarters of a mile from Chippewa creek, when thc\- were received with a tremendous fire from the greater part of the British regular army, draw n in line of battle on the plain. It looks as if General Riall had determined to attack the Americans, and had sent forward his light troops to bring on a battle, expecting probably that the whole American force would get exhausted in pursuit, and become an easy prey to his fresh battalions. The fact that the pursuit was carried on by the American light troops and Indians alone broke up. and in fact reversed, this programme. The warriors quickly fled from the destructive fire in front. General Porter, supposing that it came from the force they had been pursuing, rallied the greater part of them, formed them again on the left of his volunteers and nuned forward to the edge of the wood. Again the long, red-coated battalions opened fire. The \olunteers stood and exchanged two or three volleys with them, but when the enemy dashed forward with the bayonet Porter, seeing nothing of Scott with the supports, gave the order to retreat. Both whites and Indians fled in the greatest confusion. On came the red-coats at their utmost speed, supposing they had gained another easv victor\-. and that all that was necessarv was to catch the runaway's. The Indians, being the best runners and unencumbered with clothing, got ahead in the retreat as they had in the advance, but the whites did their best to keep up with them. The flight continued for a mile, pursuers as A SWIFT KKTRKAT. 2/3 well as pursued becoming greatly disorganized, and the speed of the fugitives being accelerated by the constant bursting of shells from the enemy's artillery. Approaching Street's creek, Scott's brigade was found just crossing the bridge and forming line. They took up their posi- tion with the greatest coolness under the fire of the British artil- lery, but Porter claimed that, thrcnigh the fault of either Scott or Brown, they were very much behind time. The former general was always celebrated for his promptness, and the fault, if there was one, was probably with Brown. Perhaps he didn't expect Porter's men to run so fast, either going or coming. The result, however, was as satisfactory as if this precipitate retreat had been planned to draw forward the foe. Ripley's bri- gade was at once sent off to the left, through the woods, to flank the enemy. The fugitives, as they ran, also bore to the west- ward, and Scott's fresh battalions came into line in perfect order, making somewhat merry over the haste of their red and white comrades. Some of the Indians had taken their .sons, from twelve to six- teen years old, into battle, to initiate them in the business of war. One of these careful fathers was now seen running at his best speed, with his son on his shoulders. Just as he passed the left flank of Scott's brigade, near where the general and his staff sat on their horses, superintending the formation of the line, a shell burst directly over the head of the panting warrior. "Ugh," lie exclaimed, in a voice of terror, bounding several feet from the ground. As he came down he fell to the earth, and the lad tumbled off. Springing up, the older Indian ran on at still greater speed than before, leaving the youngster to pick himself up and scamper away as best he might. The scene was greeted with a roar of laughter by the young officers around Scott, who re- buked them sharply for their levity. In a few moments they had plenty of serious work to occupy their attention. The Americans reserved their fire till the enemy was within fifty yards, when they poured in so deadly a volley that the Brit- ish instantly fell back. They were quickly rallied knd led to the attack, but were again met with a terrific fire, under which they retreated in hopeless disorder. Scott pursued them beyond the strip of woods before mentioned, when they fled across the 2/4 VICTORY. Chippewa into their intrenchments, and tore up the bridge. Scott's brigade then lay down on the open plain north of the woods. The battle, so far as the regidars were concerned, lasted only a few moments, but was one of the most decisive of the whole war. By order of Gen. Brown, who was in the midst of the fight, Porter took his two hundred reserve Pennsylvanians to the left of Scott's brigade, where they, too, lay down under the fire of the British artillery. After awhile Ripley's brigade came out of the woods, covered with mud, having had their march for noth- ing, as the enemy they had attempted to flank had run away before their flank could be reached. It not being deemed best to attack the foe in his intrenchments, directly in front, the Americans returned at nightfall to their encampment. The battle of Chippewa was the first, during the war of 1812, in which a large body of British regulars were defeated in the open field, and the Americans were immensely encouraged by it. Enlistment was thereafter much more rapid than before. The total British loss, as officially reported, was five hundred and fourteen, of whom between one and two hundred were found dead on the field by the victors. About two hundred and fifty were taken prisoners, mostly wounded. The Americans had about fifty killed, a hundred and forty wounded, and a few taken prisoners. The number of American regulars engaged was thirteen hundred. Gen. Porter estimated the British regu- lars in the fight at seventeen hundred, but I know not on what grounds, nor how correctly. It will be noticed that I am frequently referring to Gen. Por- ter as authority. In fact it is from his statement, in Stone's " Life of Red Jacket," that this description of the battle of Chippewa is principally derived. There was a somewhat amusing dispute as to whether the American or British Indians ran the fastest and farthest. It was asserted that our braves never stopped till they reached the Buff"alo reservation. This Porter declared to be a slander, in- sisting that the only reason why the Indians reached the rear before the whites was because they could run faster. It is certain that the main body of them remained with the army some two weeks after the battle. The Canadian Indians were so roughly A GRIM EPISODE. 275 handled that they fled at once to the head of Lake Ontario, and never after took any part in the war. The next morning Gen. Porter was horrified by the appear- ance at his tent of some twenty chiefs, each attended by a war- rior of his band, bearing the bloody scalps they had stripped from their fallen foes. They had been informed that a bounty would be paid them for every scalp they produced. The startled general told them that nothing of the kind would be done, whereupon the ghastly trophies were burned or flung into the Niagara. The story that they were to be paid for scalps was in direct contravention of the agreement under which they had en- tered the American service, yet it found ready credence among the Indians. This tends to show that the stories of the British paying a bounty for scalps in the Revolution may have been without foundation, even though believed by the savages themselves. After this grim episode, the chiefs obtained permission to visit the field and bring off their own dead. They brought in fifteen warriors, who were buried with the honors of war. They also found three of their enemies mortally wounded but not yet dead. They cut the throats of two of these, but, recognizing the third as an old acquaintance, they furnished him with a canteen of water and left him to die in peace. On their relating what they had done, an officer angrily reproached Cat- taraugus Hank for this brutality. " Well, Colonel," said Hank, casting down his eyes, and speak- ing with every appearance of contrition, " it does seem rather hard to kill men in that way, but then you must remember these are very hard times." Red Jacket is said to have played his part at Chippewa as well as any of his brethren. Yet even his admirers used to rally him about his timidity. One of them was heard chaffing him, declaring that he had given the sachem a scalp in order that he, too, might have a trophy to show, but that the latter was afraid to carry it. On the 7th of July, the six hundred volunteers from Western New York joined Porter's brigade. I have found no account of how they were organized, nor of the localities from which they came. 2/6 TO QUEENSTON AND BACK. On the 8th, Ripley's brig^adc and these New York voKinteers forced .1 passat^e of the Chippewa, three miles up, quickl\' driv- ing back the force stationed there. General Riall, finding; him- self flanked, destroj-ed his works and retreated rapidly to Oueen- ston. and then to h'ort George. Brown [nirsued and tool; up his quarters at Oueenston, but did not deem his force sufficient either to assault or besiege the fortress. On the 1 6th, Porter's brigade skirmished around the fort, to give the engineers a chance to reconnoitre, but nothing came of it. At this time Red Jacket, who had all along opposed his coun- trymen's taking part in the war, proposed that messengers should be sent to the IMohawks, to concert a withdrawal of the Indians on both sides. General Brown consented, and two young chiefs were tlispatched on a secret mission for that pur- pose. They were favorably received b\- some o( the chiefs, but no formal arrangement was made. Meanwhile the British received reinforcements, and Brown de- termined to return to Fort Erie. Riall followed. Before arriv- ing at the Falls most of the Indians, through the management of Red Jacket, obtained permission to retire to their homes, agreeing to return if the British Indians should again take the field. But the latter were perfecth' satisfied with that terrible drubbing in the Chippewa woods, and never again appeared in arms against the Americans. Nevertheless, some forty or fifty of our Indians remained with the army throughout the campaign. On the 25th of July, Brown's army encamped near Chippewa creek. Riall was pressing so closely on the American rear that Brown sent back Scott's brigade to check him. Scott met the enemy at Bridgewater, just below the Falls. Sending back word to his superior, the impetuous Virginian led his columns to the attack. For an hour a desperate battle raged between Scott's single brigade and Riall's ami}', neither gaining any decided advantage. At the end of that time, and but a little before night. Brown arrived with the brigades of Ripley and Porter. Determining to interpose a new line and disengage Scott's exhausted men, he ordered forward the two fresh brigades. The enemy's line was then near "Lundy's Lane," a road running at right angles lundy's lane. 277 with the river, which it reaches a short distance below the Falls. His artillery was on a piece of rising ground, which was the key of the position. Colonel Miller, commanding a regiment of infantry, was asked by Brown if he could capture it. "I can try, sir," was the memorable response of the gallant officer. Though the regiment which should have supported Miller's gave way, yet the latter moved steadily up the hill. Increasing its pace it swept forward, while its ranks were depleted at every step, and after a brief but desperate struggle carried the heights, and captured the hostile cannon at the point of the bayonet. At the same time Major Jessup's regiment drove back a part of the enemy's infantry, capturing Major-General Riall, their commander, and when General Ripley led forward his reserve regiment the British fell back and disappeared from the field. It was now eight o'clock and entirely dark. In a short time the enemy rallied and attempted to regain his lost artillery. Seldom in all the annals of war has a conflict been fought under more strange and romantic circumstances. The darkness of night was over all the combatants. A little way to the north- eastward rolled and roared the greatest cataract in the world, the wonderful Niagara. Its thunders, subdued yet distinct, could be heard whenever the cannon were silent. And there, in the darkness, upon that solitary hillside, within sound of that mighty avalanche of waters, the soldiers of the young republic, flushed with the triumph which had given them their enemy's battle-ground, and cannon, and commander, calmly awaited the onslaught of England's defeated but not disheartened veterans. At half past eight the Americans saw the darkness turning red far down the slope, and soon in the gloom were dimly out- lined the advancing battalions of the foe. The red line came swiftly, silently, and gallantly up the hill, beneath the swaying banners of St. George, and all the while the subdued roar of Niagara was rolling gently over the field. Suddenly the American cannon and small-arms lighted up the scene with their angry glare, their voices drowning the noise of the cataract. The red battalions were torn asunder, and the hillside strewed with dead and dying men, but the line closed up and advanced still more rapidly, their fire rivaling that of the Americans, and both turning the night into deadly day. 2/8 THE AMERICANS VICTORIOUS. Presently the assailants ceased firing, and then with thunder- ing cheers and leveled bayonets rushed forward to the charge. But the American grape and canister made terrible havoc in their ranks, the musketry of Scott and Ripley mowed them down by the score, and the sharp-cracking rifles of Porter's vol- unteers did their work with deadly discrimination. More and more the assailants wavered, and when the Americans in turn charged bayonets the whole British line fled at their utmost speed. The regulars followed but a short distance, being held in hand by their officers, who had no idea of plunging through the dark- ness against a possible reserve. But the volunteers chased the enemy down the slope, and captured a considerable number of prisoners. Then the Americans reformed their lines, and then again the murmur of the cataract held sway over the field. Twice within the next hour the British attempted to retake their cannon, and both times the result was the same as that of the first effort. For two hours afterwards the Americans re- mained in line, awaiting another onslaught of the foe, but the latter made no further attempt. Having no extra teams, the victors were unable to take awa}' the captured guns, with one exception. Accordingly, with this single trophy, with their own wounded, and with a hundred and sixty-nine prisoners, including Gen. Riall, the Americans at midnight returned to their encampment on the Chippewa. Their loss was a hundred and seventv-one killed, four hundred and forty-nine wounded, and a hundred and seventeen missing. Both Brown and Scott were wounded, the latter severely, and both were removed to Buffalo. One or two British writers have claimed a technical victory at Lundy's Lane, because the Americans finally left the field at midnight, but they do not dispute the facts above set forth, which are vouched for by Generals Brown, Porter and Ripley in a public declaration, viz., the capture of the English cannon, the attempt to recapture them, the utter failure, and the two hours' peaceable possession of the field by the Americans, be- fore leaving it. The real condition of the two armies is plainly shown by the fact that the next day the enemy allowed Ripley to burn the AN INDIAN SPY. 279 mills, barracks and bridge at Bridgewater, without molestation. The Americans then pursued their untroubled march to Fort Erie. On their arrival, the most of the volunteers went home, hav- ing served the remarkably long time of three or four months. Nevertheless they had done good service, and were entitled to a rest according to the views of volunteering then in vogue. The regulars had been reduced by various casualties to some fifteen hundred men. The British on the other hand had received re- inforcements, and felt themselves strong enough to besiege the fort, if fort it could be called, which was rather a partially in- trenched encampment. Before narrating the renowned scenes around Fort Erie, I will mention a somewhat peculiar event on this side. Though the Senecas, Cayugas, etc., had mostly returned home, yet they were all friendly to the United States, and willing to prove it in any way which did not involve the risk of running against British bat- talions, while chasing Mohawks. Captain Worth, (afterwards the celebrated General Worth,) then a member of Scott's staff, was, like his chief, wounded at Lundy's Lane. His affable manners and dashing valor had made him a great favorite of the Indians, and when he was brought wounded to Landon's hotel they vied with each other in rendering him attention. The veteran Far- mer's Brother, in particular, was in the habit of watching for hours by the captain's bedside. On the 31st of July a Chippewa Indian came across the river, claiming to be a deserter. Individual desertion is a very un- common crime among Indians, (though tribes sometimes change sides in a body,) and his story was received with suspicion by the Senecas. Nevertheless he was allowed to circulate freely among them, and a bottle of whisky being procured he was in- vited to share it. Warmed by the vivifying fluid, the Senecas began recounting their valiant deeds, especially boasting of the red-coats and British Indians they had slain at Chippewa. The new comer, forgetful of the part he had assumed, began to brag of the great deeds he had done, holding up his fingers to indicate how many Yankees and Yankee Indians he had made to bite the dust, especially mentioning " Twenty Canoes," a noted chief and friend j8o an INDIAN COURT-MARTIAL. of J'armer's Brotlicr. The wrathful Senecas at once gathered around aiul (.Icnounccd him as a spy. It is said, I know not how truK', that he then confessed that he had come in tliat capacity. The\- w ere on Main street, close to Landon's, and the angr\- altercation reached the ears of Farmer's Brother, who was then at the bedside of Captain Worth. The old chief immediately joined the assemblage, and inciuired the cause. He was told of the pretended deserter's otifense, and particular!}- of his boasting" over the slaughter of " Twent\' Canoes." lU' this time Capt. I'ollard, Major Berry and other chiefs had joined the crowd, and several whites were standing by as spectators. On learning the facts. Farmer's Brother grasped his war-club, walked up to the unfortunate Chippewa, and felled him to the earth with a blow which broke the club into splinters. It was probably a fancy, full-dress war-club, not intended for such severe ser\ice. For a moment the Chippewa lay senseless, then suddenly sprang up. with the blood streaming down his face, burst through the crowd of startled Senecas and bounded away. Not a man followed him. but sexeral cried out. (in their own tongue, of course): "Flo! coward! You dare not sta}- and be punished ! Coward! coward !" The Chippewa stopped, slowly retraced his steps into the midst of his enemies, drew his blanket over his head, as C.'Esar veiled his face with his toga, and lay down beside the wall of one of the burneci buildings. A brief consultation took place among the chiefs. Some of the whites who had gathered around manifested a disposition to interfere, but were sternly informed that that was an Indian trial, and the court must not be disturbed. Presently a rifle was handed to Farmer's Brother, who walked up to the recumbent Chippewa and said : "Here are my rifle, my tomahawk, and my scalping-knife ; take your choice by which you will die." The spy muttered his preference for the rifle. "And where will you be shot.'" continued the unconscious imitator of the mercy of Richard the Third. The condemned man put his hand to his heart, the chieftain placed the muzzle "BATTLK OK CONJOCKETY CREEK." 28 1 of his rifle at the point indicated and [jullcd the tri^c^er. With one convulsive movement the spy expired. Four young Scnecas [)icked up the corpse, carried it to the edge of the wood a c|uar- ter of a mile east of Main street, flung it down and left it un- buried, to be devoured by the wild animals of the forest. (Jn the other side of the river, General Drummond's army for two weeks -steadily worked their way toward the American defenses. These consisted principally of two stone mess-houses and a bastion, known as "Old I'^ort lirie," a short distance east of the river bank, and a natural mound, half a mile farther south and near the lake, which was surmounted with breastworks and cannon and called "Towson's Battery." Between the old fort and the battery ran a parapet, and another from the old fort eastward to the river. On both the north and west a dense forest came within sixty rods of the American works. The British erected batteries in the woods on tlie north, each one farther south than its i)redecessor, and then in the night chopped out openings through which their cannon could play on our works. At this time the commander at Fort lirie was in the habit of sending across a battalion of regular riflemen every night, to guard the bridge over Scajaquada creek, who returned each morning to the fort. About the lOth of August a heavy British force crossed the river at night, at some point below the Sca- jaquada, and just before daylight they attempted to force their way across the latter stream. Their objective point was doubt- less the public stores at Black Rock and Buffalo. Being opposed by the riflemen before mentioned, under Ma- jor Lodowick Morgan, there ensued a fight of .some importance, of which old men sometimes speak as the "Battle of Conjockety Creek," but of which I have found no printed record. Even the Buffalo Gazette of the day was silent regarding it, though it afterwards alluded to Major Morgan as "the hero of Con- jockety." The planks of the bridge had been taken up, and the riflemen lay in wait on the south side. When the enemy's column came up, Morgan's men opened a destructive fire. The English pressed forward so boldly that some of them, when shot, fell into the creek and were swept down the Niagara. They were compelled 19 282 STORMING OF FORT ERIE. to fall back, but again and again they repeated the attempt, and every time they were repulsed with loss. A body of militia, under Colonels Swift and Warren, were placed on the right of the regulars, and prevented the enemy from crossing farther up the creek. Several deserters came over to our forces, having thrown away their weapons and taken off their red coats, which they carried rolled up under their arms. They reported the enemy's force at seventeen hundred, but that was probabl)' an exaggeration. After a conflict lasting several hours the enemy retreated, having suffered severely in the fight. The Americans had eight men wounded. Early in the morning of the 15th of August, 18 14, the Eng- lish attempted to carry Fort Erie by storm, under cover of the darkness. At half past two o'clock, a column of a thousand to fifteen hundred men moved from the woods on the west against Towson's battery. Though received with a terrific fire they pressed forward, but were at length stopped within a few yards of the American lines. They retreated in confusion, and no further attempt was made at that point. Notwithstanding the strength of this attack it was perhaps partly in the nature of a feint, for immediately afterwards two other columns issued from the forest on the north. One sought to force its way up along the riv-er bank, but was easily repulsed. The other, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond, advanced against the main bastion. It was defended by several heavy guns and field-pieces, by the Ninth United States infantry, and by one company each of New York and Pennsylvania volunteers. Received with a withering discharge of cannon and musketry. Drummond's right and left were driven back. His center, how- ever, ascended the parapet, but were finally repulsed with dread- ful carnage. Again Drummond led his men to the charge and again they were repulsed. A third time the undaunted Englishmen advanced over ground strewn thick with the bodies of their brethren, in the face of a sheet of flame from the walls of the bastion, and a third time they were driven back with terrible loss. This would have sat- isfied most men of any nation, and one cannot refrain from a THE EXPLOSION. 283 tribute to P^n^^lish valor of the most desperate kind, when he learns that Drummond again rallied his men, led them a fourth time over that pathway of death, mounted the parapet in spite of the volleying flames which enveloped it, and actually captured the bastion at the point of the bayonet. Many American officers were killed in this terrible struggle. Drummond was as fierce as he was brave, and was frequently heard crying to his men, "Give the damned Yankees no quar- ter." But even in the moment of apparent victory he met his fate — a shot from one of the last of the retreating Americans laying him dead upon the ground. Reinforcements were promptly sent to the endangered locality by Gens. Ripley and Porter. A detachment of riflemen attacked the British in the bastion but were repulsed. Another and larger force repeated the attack, but also failed. The Americans prepared for a third charge, and two batteries of artillery were playing upon the heroic band of Britons. Sud- denly the whole .scene was lighted up by a vast column of flame, the earth shook to the water's edge, the ear was deafened by a fearful sound which reechoed far over the river. A large amount of cartridges, stored in one of the mess-houses adjoining the bastion, had been reached by a cannon-ball and exploded. One instant the fortress, the forest, the river, the dead, the dying and the maddened living, were revealed by that fearful glare— the next all was enveloped in darkness, while the shrieks of hun- dreds of Britons, in more terrible agony than even the .soldier often suffers, pierced the murky and sulphurous air. The Americans saw their opportunity and redoubled the fire of their artillery. For a few moments the conquerors of the bastion maintained their position, but half their number, includ- ing most of their officers, were killed or wounded, their com- mander was slain, and they were dazed and overwhelmed by the calamity that had so unexpectedly befallen them. After a few volleys they fled in utter confusion to the friendly forest. As they went out of the bastion the Americans dashed in, snatching a hundred and eighty-six prisoners from the rear of the flying foe. Besides these there remained on the ground they had so valiantly contested two hundred and twenty-one English dead, and a hundred and seventy-four wounded, nearly 284 ■ STARTLED BUFFALONIANS. all in and around that single bastion. Besides, there were the wounded who were carried away by their comrades, including nearly all who fell in the other two columns. The Americans had twenty-six killed and ninety-two wounded. Seldom has there been a more gallant attack, and seldom a more disastrous repulse. During the fight the most intense anxiety prevailed on this side. The tremendous cannonade a little after midnight told plainly enough that an attack was being made. Nearly every human being who resided among the ruins of Buffalo and Black Rock, and many in the country around, were up and watching. All expected that if the fort should be captured the enemy would immediately cross, and the horrors of the previous winter would be repeated. Many packed up and prepared for instant flight. When the explosion came, the shock startled even the war- seasoned inhabitants of Buffalo. Some thought the British had captured the fort and blown it up, others imagined that the Am- ericans had penetrated to the British camp and blown that up ; and all awaited the coming of morn with nerves strung to their utmost tension. It was soon daylight, when boats crossed the river from the fort, and the news of another American victory was soon scattered far and wide through the country. A day or two afterwards the wounded prisoners were sent to the hospital at Williamsville, and the unwounded to the depot of prisoners near Albany. Mr. William Hodge relates that when the wagons filled with blistered, blackened men halted near his father's house, they begged for liquor to drown their pain, but some of the unhurt, who marched on foot, were saucy enough. Looking at the brick house rising on the ruins of the former one, they declared they would burn it again within a year. They could not, however, have been very anxious to escape, for they were escorted by only a very small guard of militia. The late James Wood, of Wales, was one of the guard. Many of the prisoners were Highlanders, of the Glengarry regiment. Having failed to carry the fort by assault, the British settled down to a regular siege. Closer and closer their lines were drawn and their batteries erected, the dense forest affording every facility for uninterrupted approach. Reinforcements con- .i VOLUNTEERS TO THE FRONT. 285 stantly arrived at the English camp, while not a soHtary regular soldier was added to the constantly diminishing force of the Americans. By the latter part of August their case had become so desperate that Gov. Tompkins called out all the militia west of the Genesee, cii masse, and ordered them to Buffalo. They are said by Turner to have responded with great alacrity. Arriving at Buffalo, the officers were first assembled, and Gen. Porter called on them to volunteer to cross the river. There was considerable hanging back, but the general made another speech, and under his stinging words most of the officers volun- teered. The men were then called on to follow their example, and a force o'i about fifteen hundred was raised. The 48th regiment furnished one company. Col. Warren volunteered and crossed the river, but was sent back with other supernumerary officers, and placed in command of the militia remaining at Buffalo. The volunteers were conveyed across the river at night, about the 1 0th of September, and encamped on the lake shore above Towson's battery, behind a sod breast-work hastily erected by themselves. They were commanded by General Porter, who bivouacked in their midst, under whom was General Daniel Davis, of Le Roy. General Brown had resumed command of the whole American force. At this time the enemy was divided into three brigades of fourteen or fifteen hundred men each, one of which was kept on duty in their batteries every three days, while the other two remained at the main camp, on a farm a mile and a half west of the fort. Immediately after the arrival of the volunteers, a plan was concerted to break in on the enemy's operations by a sortie. The British had opened two batteries, and were nearly ready to unmask another, still nearer and in a more dangerous position. This was called " Battery No. Three," the one next north " No. Two," and the farthest one "No. One." It was determined to make an attack on the 17th of September, before Battery No. Three could be completed. On the i6th. Majors Eraser and Riddle, both officers of the regular army acting as aids to General Porter, each followed by a hundred men, fifty of each party being armed and fifty pro- 2S6 THE SORTIE. vided with axes, proceeded from the camp of the volunteers, by a circuitous route through the woods, to within a short distance of Battery No. Three. Thence each detachment cut out the un- derbrush so as to make a track back to camp over the swampy ground, cur\-ing where necessary to avoid the most miry places. The work was accomplished without the British having the slightest suspicion of what was going on. This was the most difficult part of the whole enterprise, and its being accom- plished without the enemy's hearing it must be partly attributed to good fortune. In the forenoon of the 17th the whole of the volunteers were paraded, the enterprise was revealed to them, and a hand-bill was read, announcing the glorious victories won on Lake Cham- plain and at Plattsburg a few days before. The news was joy- fully received and the sortie enthusiastically welcomed. The volunteers not being uniformed, every one was required to lay aside his hat or cap and \\ear on his head a red handkerchief, or a piece of red cloth which was furnished. Not an officer nor man wore aiu' other head-gear, except General Porter. At noon that commander led forth the principal attacking body from the volunteer camp. The advance consisted of two hundred volunteers under Colonel Gibson. Behind them came the column designed for storming the batteries, composed of four hundred regulars followed by five hundred volunteers, all commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Wood. These took the right hand track cut out the day before. Another column, of nearly the same strength, mostly volunteers, under General Davis, intended to hold the enem}-'s reinforcements in check and co- operate in the attack, took the left hand road. At the same time a body of regulars, under General Miller, was concealed in a ravine near the northwest corner of the in- trenchments, prepared to attack in front at the proper time. The rest of the troops were held in reserve under General Ripley. Just after the main column started it began to rain, and con- tinued to do so throughout the afternoon. The march was necessarily slow along the swampy, winding pathway, and had it not been for the underbrushed tracks the columns would probably have lost their wa)' or been delayed till nightfall. BRILLIANT SUCCESS. 28/ At nearly three o'clock Porter's command arrived at the end of the track, within a few rods of Battery No. Three, entirely unsuspected by its occupants. The final arrangements being made, they moved on, and in a few moments emerged upon the astonished workers and their guard. With a tremendous cheer, which was distinctly heard across the river, the men rushed for- ward, and tjie whole force in the battery, thoroughly surprised and overwhelmed by numbers, at once surrendered, without hardly firing a shot. This attack was the signal for the advance of Miller's regu- lars, who sprang out of their ravine and hurried forward, direct- ing their steps toward Battery No. Two. Leaving a detachment to spike and dismount the captured cannon, both of Porter's columns dashed forward toward the same object, Gen. Davis leading his volunteers and cooperating closely with Wood. They arrived at the same time as Miller. They were received with a heavy fire, but the three commands combined and car- ried the battery at the point of the bayonet. Leaving another party to spike and dismount cannon, the united force pressed forward toward Battery No. One. But by this time the whole British army was alarmed, and reinforce- ments were rapidly arriving. Nevertheless the Americans at- tacked and captured Battery No. One, after a severe conflict. How gallantly they were led is shown by the fact that all of Porter's principal commanders were shot down — Gibson at Battery No. Two, Wood while approaching No. One, and Davis while gallantly mounting a parapet between the two batteries at the head of his men. In the last struggle, too. Gen. Porter himself was slightly wounded by a sword-cut on the hand, and temporarily taken prisoner, but was immediately rescued by his own men. Of course, in a sortie the assailants are not expected to hold the conquered ground. The work in this case had been as completely done as in any sortie ever made, and after Batter)- No. One had been captured a retreat was ordered to the fort, where the victorious troops arrived just before sunset. The loss of the Americans was seventy-nine killed and two hundred and fourteen wounded ; very few, if any, captured. Pour hundred British were taken prisoners, a large number 288 THE AMERICAN VOLUNTEER. killed and wounded, and what was far more important all the re- sults of nearly two months' labor were entirely overthrown. So completely were their plans destroyed by this brilliant assault that only four days afterwards Gen. Drummond raised the siege, and retired down the Niagara. After the enemy retreated the volunteers were dismissed with the thanks of their commanders, having saved the American army from losing its last hold on the western side of the Niagara. The relief of Fort Erie was one of the most skillfully planned and gallantly executed sorties ever made. Gen. Napier, the celebrated British soldier and military historian, mentions it as one of the very few cases in which a single sortie had compelled the raising of a siege. It was also the first really important service performed by the kind of soldier whose renown has since become world-wide, the American volunteer. The previous efforts of the volunteers had been very desultory, and, though often showing distinguished courage, they had not before borne A principal part in any bat- tle. At this sortie, however, they were the chief actors, and then began that long series of brilliant services so well known to every American. A few months later the battle of New Or- leans was won by their valor. During the Mexican war the s)^s- tem of volunteering was thoroughly matured, and during the war for the Union the worth of the American volunteer was tested on a hundred fields. Very high credit was given to General Porter, both for his eloquence in engaging the volunteers and his skill and valor in leading them. The press sounded his praises, the citizens of Batavia tendered him a dinner, the governor breveted him a major-general, and Congress voted him a gold medal — he being, I think, the only officer of volunteers to whom that honor was awarded during the war of 1812. These guerdons were justly his due on account of the distin- guished services then known to the public. In addition, there is little doubt that he is entitled to the credit of originating and planning the sortie of Fort Erie. For several days previous he had been holding frequent interviews with General Brown, and also with two officers of engineers, the object of which was con- THE PIONEER OF THE VOLUNTEER SYSTEM. 289 cealed from his staff. He afterwards informed Col. Wm. A. Bird that the secret interviews with General Brown and tlie en- gineer officers were for the purpose of planning the sortie, and that Brown hesitated and requested Porter to draw a plan in writing, which he did, leaving the paper with Brown. It is certain that it was Porter's aides who superintended the cuttinir out of the roads over which the main columns of attack passed, and it was Porter who was chosen to command that force, though composed of both regulars and volunteers, and though there were two or more regular generals under Brown at the fort. There was no probable reason why he should have been charged with the execution of the attack, except because he had planned it. Of course it was sanctioned by Brown, and the latter is fairly entitled to the credit belonging to every commander un- der whose orders a successful movement is carried out, but there is also especial credit due to the originator of a good plan, and I have little doubt that in this case that honor belongs to Peter B. Porter. But the much higher honor is his of being the first distin- guished leader of American volunteers against a disciplined foe. If he cannot be called the father of the volunteer system, he was certainly its principal pioneer. The raising of the siege of Fort Erie was substantially the close of the war on the Niagara frontier. A few unimportant skirmishes took place, but nothing that need be recorded here. All the troops except a small guard were withdrawn from Fort Erie to Buffalo. It was known during the winter that commis- sioners were trying to negotiate a peace at Ghent, and there was a universal desire for their success. In this vicinity, at least, the people had had enough of the glories of war. On the 15th of January, 181 5, the news of the victory of New Orleans was announced in an extra of the Buffalo Gazette, but although it occasioned general rejoicing, yet the delight was by no means so great as when, a week later, the people of the ravaged frontier were informed of the signing of the treaty of Ghent. Post-riders as they delivered letters, doctors as they visited their patients, ministers as they journeyed to meet their backwoods congregations, spread everywhere the welcome news of peace. 290 PEACE AND GLADNESS. Gen. Nott, in his reminiscences, relates that the first sermon in Sardinia was preached at his house by " Father Spencer," early in 1 81 5. There was a large gathering. The people had heard that the good missionary had a newspaper announcing the conclusion of peace, and they were, most of them, probably more anxious to have their hopes in that respect confirmed than for aught else. Father Spencer was not disposed to tantalize them, and imme- diately on rising to begin the services he took the paper from his pocket, saying, " I bring you news of peace." He then read the official announcement, and it may be presumed that the grat- ified congregation afterwards listened all the more earnestly to the news of divine peace which it was the minister's especial province to deliver. In a very brief time the glad tidings penetrated to the most secluded cabins in the county, and all the people turned with joyful anticipations to the half-suspended pursuits of peaceful life. THE SITUATION. 29I CHAPTER XXVII. 1815 AND 1816. The Situation. — Beginnings of Villages. — General Porter. — A. H. Tracy.— Sam- uel Wilkeson. — Dr. Marshall.— Another Newspaper.— New Officials.— First Murder Trial. — Reese and Young King. — An "Angel of Death."— The Moral Society. — Marine Intelligence. — Buffalo Business. — Williamsville. — Alden. — Willink. — .^.n Unpleasant Meeting. — Cheap Money. — Holland Mills. —Basswood Sugar.— Wright's Corners.— Duplicate "Smith's Mills."— Hill's Corners.— "Fiddler's Green."— "The Old Court House."— "The Man who Knows all the World."— Civil and Military Dignitaries. — Lake Cargoes. — "Grand Canal" Preliminaries. — Bank of Niagara. — Marshal Grouchy. — Red Jacket on Etiquette. — " The Cold Summer."— The Con,sequences.— A Mighty Hunter. — A Fruitless Sacrifice. — Asa Warren. It is needless to give a resume of the condition of Erie county at the close of the war of 1812. It was just where it was at the beginning- of that contest, except that Buffalo and Black Rock had been burned, and that here and there a pioneer had abandoned his little clearing. No new business had been devel- oped anywhere, hardly a solitary new settler had taken up his abode in the county, and those already there had been so har- rassed by Indian alarms and militia drafts that they had ex- tended but very little the clearings which existed at the begin- ning of the war. Immediately after the conclusion of peace, however, the long restrained tide again flowed westward, and for a while emigrants poured on to the Holland Purchase more rapidly than ever. It will of course be impracticable, henceforth, to give atten- tion to the names of individual settlers, to petty officers and to minor details, as during the pioneer period before the war. My notices will necessarily be confined to men in more or less pub- lic positions, to the general development of the county, to im- portant events occurring in it, and to the origin of the scores of pleasant villages which now dot its surface. Nearly all of these first began to assume village shape during the ten years next succeeding the war of 18 12. 292 A r ATRETIC FAREWELL. \Villiams\-iIle and Clarence Hollow were the only places, out- side of Buffalo and its afterward-absorbed rix'al. Black Rock, which had adv-anced far enough to have a grist-mill, saw-mill, tavern and store all at once. The acquisition of the last-named institution, in addition to the other three, might fairly be con- sidered as marking the beginning of a village. Tav^ems could be started anywhere. A man bought a few gallons of whisky, put up a sign in front of his log house, and forthwith became a hotel-keeper. Saw-mills were not very expensive, and were soon scattered along the numerous streams wherever there was the necessarv fall. Grist-mills were more costlv, and he was a heavv capitalist who could build one ; still they were so absolutely nec- essarj' that they were frequently erected very early in the course of settlement, and while residences were still widely scattered. But a sfortr, a place where a real merchant dispensed calico, tea, nails, molasses, ribbons and salt, marked a decided ad\-ance in civilization, and almost always was the nucleus of a hamlet which has since developed into a thriving village. A considerable body of troops rematned at Buffalo during the winter, but all were sent away in the spring. With one of the officers. Colonel Snelling. Red Jacket had formed a special intimacy. On his being oniered to Govemor" s Island in the harbor of New York, the sachem made him the following little speech, as published by a relati\*e of the colonel: " Brother — I hear you are going to a place called Govemor s " Island. I hope j^ou will be a govemor yourself. I understand '' that you white people think children a blessing. I hope you "may have a thousand. And above all, wherever you go. I " hope you may ne\^r find whisky above two shillings a quart." In March. General Porter was appointed Secretary- of State of New York by Govemor Tompkins, and resigned his seat in Congress. His new position, and the one which he subsequent- ly accepted, of United States commissioner to settle the north- em boundary-, seem to have had an obscuring effect on his fame; for whereas, not only during but before the war he had been one of the foremost men of the State» and almost of the nation, yet immediately after\\-ards he nearly disappeared from public sight. Nor did he ever regain the preeminent position he occu- rKA(.v, wii kisoN, i: re. 293 pied at the clo.^c of the war, thoui;l\ ho afterwards for a brief period held a cabinet othce. A \oun^" man, destined in a \er)' brief lime to acquire a large part of the intluence previously wielded b\- I'orter, opened a law- otfice in ButValo in the spring of 1S15. This Wvis Albert H. Trac)-, then twenty-two years old. a tall, erect, vigorous \oung num. of brilliant intellect and thorough culture, a clear-headed law) er and a skillful manager of the political chariot. Another man, who inunediatel\- after the war entered on a career of great success and intluence, was Samuel W'ilkeson. In fact he had made a beginning in HutValo a little earlier, building a shant}' and opening a small mercantile business among the ruins, while war was still thundering around, lie was another oi' the "big n\en," ph\"sicall\' as well as met\tall\'. who biult up the prosperity of the emporium of Western New York. Over six feet high, with strong, resolute features, the index of a vigorous nund, always driving straight at his object, tremendous indeed must iiave been the ditliculties which could divert him from it. Dr. John K. Marshall was another intluential man who set- tled in ButValo in the spring of 1815. Like W'ilkeson he came tVoni Chautauqua count}-, of which he had been the tirst county clerk, and soon became prominent in his profession, in business and in political life. In April. 1815, another newspaper, called the Niagara Jour- nal, was established in HutValo by David M. Day, who remained its editor and proprietor for many years, and wielded a strong intluence in the count)-. The Gazette had leaned toward h'ed- eralism ; the Journal was Democratic. The assembl)- district composed of Niagara, L'attaraugus and Chautauqua counties was now awarded two members, the first ones chosen being Daniel McCleary. of Burtalo. and Elias Osborn. of Clarence. McClear)-. also, soon after removed to Clarence. The data are somewhat obscure, but Senator Archibald S. Clarke was elected to fill out Porter's term in Congress, and 1 think it was at a special election in June. 1815. Mr. Clarke was also appointed count)- clerk in 1815, and Dr. Johnson sur- rogate. 1 he superxisors chosen in that )-ear were Jonas Harrison, of 294 FIRST MURDER TRIAL. Buffalo ; Otis R. Hopkins, of Clarence ; Lemuel Wasson, of Hamburg ; Lemuel Parmely, of Eden. Concord and Willink unknown. In the latter town Arthur Humphrey and Isaac Phelps, Jr., were supervisors two or three terms each, between its first and second divisions. These were the days when "general trainings" were occasions of great importance, and we must not neglect the military. At the close of the war Gen. Hopkins resigned his brigadier- ship, and in May a new military commission was issued by which Lt.-Col. Wm. Warren was made brigadier-general. Wm. W. Chapin (son of Dr. Daniel) became lieutenant-colonel, with James Cronk and Joseph Wells as majors. Ezekiel Cook was made lieutenant-colonel commanding the regiment in the south- ern towns, its majors being Ezra Nott and Sumner Warren. In June, 1815, there occurred the first murder trial in the present county of Erie, when Charles Thompson and James Peters were convicted of the murder of James Burba. They had both been soldiers in the regular army, and during the war had been sent on a scout with a companion, another soldier, a mile and a half below Scajaquada creek. They had gone three miles below the creek to Burba's residence, committed some depredations, got into a quarrel with the owner, and finally killed him. Their comrade escaped. The case furnishes further evidence of the inattention paid by the journals of that day to local news. To this important trial, at which two men were convicted of a capital crime, the Buffalo Gazette de- voted just seventeen lines ! Not a word of the evidence was given. Yet in the same issue that journal gave up a column and a half to the execution of a forger in England. In August the two men were executed in public, as was the rule in that day. The prisoners and scaffold were guarded by several companies of militia, under General Warren. Glezen Fillmore, the young Methodist minister of Clarence, preached the funeral sermon, and was assisted in the last rites to the con- demned by Rev. Miles P. Squier, who had just settled in Buf- falo as the pastor of the Presbyterian church. On this occasion the Gazette conquered its apparent antipathy to local matters so far as to give a narrative of the crime in forty-six lines, but restricted its description of the execution to sixteen. REESE AND YOUNG KING. 295 Another event, which at an earHer day would have set all the people wild with fears of Indian massacre, was a conflict be- tween David Reese, the blacksmith, and the Seneca chief, "Young King." The former had had a quarrel with another Indian, and had struck him. Young King rode up and de- nounced him for doing so. Reese told the chief if he would get off his horse he would serve him the same way. At this Young King dismounted and struck the blacksmith with his club. Reese immediately snatched a scythe from a bystander, and inflicted on the chief's arm a blow so severe that it was found necessary to amputate it. Ten years before this might have brought on a bloody conflict between the Indians and whites, but the latter were now strong enough to protect themselves unless their red neighbors were joined by the English, of which there was at that time no dan- ger. There was, however, some danger to Reese himself from the vengeance of Young King's friends. None of those around Buffalo seem to have made any trouble, but John Jemison, the half-breed son of the celebrated " White Woman," a man of desperate passions, who murdered two of his own brothers, came from the Genesee at the head of a party of Indians, with the avowed intention of killing Reese. Turner, in his " Holland Purchase," mentions having seen Jemison on his way, and de- scribes him as well personifying the ideal Angel of Death. His face was painted a bloody red, long bunches of horsehair, also colored red, hung from his arms, and his appearance betokened a determination to use promptly the war-club and tomahawk which were his only weapons. Reese's friends, however, either secreted or guarded him, and the danger passed by. The dispute with Young King was prob- ably settled by Reese's paying him a sum of money, though all I can learn is that it was referred by the principals to Judge Por- ter, Joshua Gillett and Jonas Williams, as arbitrators. The proceedings of a brief-lived institution called the Buffalo Moral Society, organized for the repression of vice in that vil- lage, shows the change of public sentiment on two points. A very guarded temperance resolution was adopted, in which it was recommended to professors of religion and friends of mor- ality " as far as practicable " to refrain from ardent spirits, to 2g6 MORALS AND MERCHANDISE. admit their use cautiously if at all, and to devise means of les- sening if not discontinuing their use among laborers. As to Sabbath-breaking their ideas were far more positive, as not long after they published a resolution declaring that the laws should be strictly enforced, not only against all who should drive loaded teams into the village, unload goods, keep open stores, etc., but also against all parties of pleasure, riding 07' zvalking to Black Rock or elsewhere. Such a society would now speak far more strongly against the use of liquor, but would hardly dream of prohibiting people from walking out on Sunday. The first marine intelligence published under the head of " Port of Buffalo" was on the 15th of August, 181 5, when the Gazette announced the following for the week previous : Entered — a boat from Detroit, loaded with fish and wool ; sloop Commo- dore Perry, peltries. Cleared — sloop Fiddler, Cuyahoga, salt and pork. The vessels in use appear to have been all sloops, schooners and open boats, and all but the last named craft landed at Black Rock. Salt was the most common article of merchandise sent up the lake. There were also sent in small quantities, dry goods, groceries, furniture and clothing. There was still less return freight. Nearly half of the few vessels came down the lake in bal- last, but none went up so. When they were loaded on the return trip, it was usually with fish, fur and peltries. Not a bushel of grain, not a pound of flour, came down for many years after the war. Building went on apace, and in July the Gazette boasted that there were nearly as many houses erected, or in process of erec- tion, as had been burned a year and a half before. Williamsville, which had become a place of considerable im- portance during the war, did not increase much for a good while after. Isaac F. Bowman was merchant and postmaster there in 1815. Alden had been hardly as early in settlement as the other towns north of the reservation. The first saw-mill was not erected until 18 14, John C. Rogers being the owner and builder. The next year a small log house was fitted up on the east part of the site of Alden village, and used both as school-house and church; Miss Mehitable Estabrooks being the first school-teacher. AURORA AND SOUTH WALES. 297 To the corners in VVillink, a mile east of Stephens' Mills, (now " East Aurora,") there came in the spring of 18 15 a tall, dark, slender young man, about twenty-one years old, who pur- chased a small, unfinished frame and opened a store. This was Robert Person, for fifty years one of the most prominent citizens of Aurora, and this was the beginning of merchandis- ing in VVillink, aside from the abortive attempt of 181 1. A little before the close of the war a mail-route had been established through Wiliink and Hamburg, from east to west, running near the center of the present towns of Wales, Aurora and East Hamburg. There was a post-office called Wiliink at Blakely's Corners, two miles south of Aurora village, and, I think, one called Hamburg at "John Green's tavern." Simon Crook was the first postmaster of the former. After the war it was moved down to Aurora village, where Elihu Walker was postmaster for nearly twenty years. Dr. John Watson continued to be the physician for the local- ity around Stephens' Mills. His brother, Dr. Ira G. Watson, located at what was afterwards called South Wales, where he prac- ticed over thirty years, his ride extending over a large part of Wales, Aurora, Holland and Colden. It would appear that country doctors were sometimes short of medicines, for Dr. John Watson took pains to advertise that he had medicines for practice. Mr. Wm. C. Russell, of South Wales, who came there, a boy, with his father, John Russell, near the close of the war, says there was then a road, which could be traveled by teams, from Buffalo through the reservation to Stephens' Mills. It was suffi- ciently wild, however. He and his oldest sister, a young girl, drove a cow ahead of the team. Near what is now Spring Brook a bear crossed the trail just ahead of them. Seeing the children, he stood up on his hind legs to reconnoitre. Hearing them scream and seeing them pick up clubs, he finally retreated. At this time John McKeen kept the old " Eagle stand " at the west end of the village of East Aurora, and there were a few houses, mostly log, at each end of that village. In 1 8 16, Aaron Warner opened a tavern at South Wales. His son, D. S. Warner, in describing the scarcity of money then, says he does not believe there was five dollars of current 20 298 HOLLAND AND HAMBURG. money between Aurora and Holland. "Shinplasters," issued by private firms, were in use in many parts of the country, which, as Mr. Warner says, "were good from one turnpike gate to another." Before the close of the war, Col. Warren and Ephraim Wood- ruff had bought the mill-site at Holland village, and finished a grist-mill already begun — the first in the present town of Hol- land. In the spring of 181 5 Warren bought out Woodruff and moved to Holland, where he built a saw-mill, the first in that vicinity. Robert Orr was the mill-wright, and in the autumn of the same year he bought out Warren, who returned from Hol- land to Aurora; that is to say, he returned from the place where Holland was going to be to the place where Aurora was going to be. Joshua Barron kept the first tavern in Holland, on the site of the village, just after the war, in the only frame house in the township. His sister, Lodisa Barron, since Mrs. Stanton, and still an active woman, kept the first school in that vi- cinity. There had been one in the Humphrey neighborhood before. James Reynolds opened a store in East Hamburg, near the close of the war, not far from the site of the Friends' meeting- house — afterwards still nearer Potter's Corners. A man named Cromwell also had a store there not long after the war. His clerk was from New York city, and old pioneers still smile aloud as they relate how the young New Yorker attempted a grand speculation in sugar, and began by tapping all the largest white oaks and basswoods he could find. Jacob Wright still kept the inn at or near Wright's Corners, and there the "townsmen of Hamburg" met in 181 5, and, after electing Mr. Wasson supervisor, voted a bounty of five dollars on wolf-scalps. At this time the town was divided into nine school-districts. The " Friends, called Quakers," as the record says, presented a petition, and were set off in a district by themselves. About this time, too, a Mr. Bennett opened a dry-goods and grocery store at Smith's Mills, (Hamburg,) the first one there. James Husted also had a tannery there. Although that was the principal place known as " Smith's Mills," there was another SMITH S MILLS AND FIDDLERS GREEN. 299 point of the same name not a great ways off, at the mills of Humphrey Smith, in VVillink, since called Griffin's Mills. Mr. Wm. Boies, of the latter place, relates that when he first came into Erie county, in the spring of 181 5, he was sent ahead by his brother to find his way, on horseback, to a still older brother who lived at " Staffordshire," in Aurora. He was di- rected to go to Buffalo, then up the beach of the lake, inquiring the way to "Wright's Corners," and there to inquire for " Smith's Mills." He did so, and was surprised to find himself at Smith's Mills only two miles from Wright's Corners. Further inquiry led to his finding that there was another Smith's Mills six or seven miles eastward, and thither he made his way. Soon after the war John Hill's father, William Hill, formerly a surgeon in the Revolution, came to what is now Eden Center, and kept the first tavern there. The place was then called Hill's Corners. The people of the town of Concord, (which it will be remem- bered comprised Sardinia, Concord, Collins and North Collins,) began to make a kind of business center at the point on Spring creek where Albro and Cochran had first settled, where Rufus Eaton had built a saw-mill before the war, and where he had afterwards erected a grist-mill and distillery. Settlers had become so numerous around there that, in the winter of 18 14, Mr. Eaton's son, Rufus C. Eaton, then nineteen, taught a school with seventy scholars. David Stickney started a tavern, and Capt. Frederick Richmond brought in some grocer- ies shortly after the war — I cannot learn exactly when. There was a small open space, used as a kind of common, where the public square at Springville now is, which soon acquired the name of Fiddler's Green. The reason is a little doubtful, but the best account is that there were several good fiddlers living in the immediate vicinity, and the people for miles around used to assemble there for merry-makings of all kinds. From this the little village received the same name, and for many years " Fiddler's Green " was its universal designation. Notwithstand- ing this godless name, a Presbyterian church was organized there by Father Spencer, in 18 16, being the first in the place. A Methodist and a Baptist church were formed not long after, but I have not the exact dates. 300 "THE MAN WHO KNOWS ALL THE WORLD." In the spring of i8i6 a new court-house was begun in Buffalo, and the walls erected during the summer. Instead of being placed in the middle of Onondaga (Washington) street, with a circular plat around it, as before, it was built on the east side of that street, and a small park was laid out in front of it. The building then erected was the one which for the last twenty-five years has been known as the " Old Court House," and which has been torn down during the present season. In that year Benjamin Ellicott, younger brother of Joseph, was elected to Congress. He was a resident of Williamsville, a surveyor by occupation, and not conspicuous after the expiration of his official term. The Indians called him by a name signify- ing " The Man who Knows all the World." They had observed him draw maps from notes brought him by his subordinates on which he depicted rivers and creeks which they knew he had never seen ; hence the admiring appellation they gave him. He w^as the last congressman from Erie county residing outside the village or city of Buffalo. The members of assembly chosen from this district were Richard Smith of Hamburg, and Jediah Prendergast of Chau- tauqua county. Frederick B. Merrill was appointed county clerk in this year, in place of Archibald S. Clarke ; the latter being made a member of the governor's council of appointment. He was also commissioned as a judge of the Common Pleas. I doubt if any other man in the county has ever held so many offices as Judge Clarke. The board of supervisors for that year was comprised of Na- thaniel Sill of Buffalo, Otis R. Hopkins of Clarence, Richard Smith of Hamburg and Lemuel Parmely of Eden. The town-book of Buffalo has been preserved since the war, and this one of its records, in 1816, brings vividly before the reader the then primeval condition of that great city and its suburbs : "Voted that a reward of $5.00 be paid for the destruction of every wolf killed in said town, to be paid by the town, and that the evidence of their destruction shall be their scalp with the skin and ears on." Military affairs were not suffered to lag, so far as the appoint- ment of officers was concerned. A new regiment was created MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL. 3OI in the spring of 1816; Colonels Chapin and Cook disappear from the record, and a commission was issued making Sumner Warren of Willink (Aurora), James Cronk of Clarence (New- stead), and Ezra Nott of Concord (Sardinia), lieutenant-colonels commandant ; Joseph Wells of Buffalo, and Luther Colvin of Hamburg (East Hamburg), first majors ; and Calvin Fillmore of Clarence (Lancaster), Frederick Richmond of Concord, and Benjamin L Clough of Hamburg, second majors. The commerce of the port of Buffalo continued of a very miscellaneous character, and articles of the same kind frequently went both ways. From a few records of cargoes, taken in their order, I find the articles going up were whisky, dry-goods, house- hold-goods, naval stores, dry-goods, groceries, hardware, salt, fish, spirits, household-goods, mill-irons, salt, tea, whisky, butter, whisky, coffee, soap, medicines, groceries, household-goods, farm utensils. Coming down, the list comprised furs, fish, cider, furs, paint, dry-goods, furniture, scythes, furs, grindstones, coffee, skins, furs, cider, paint, furs, fish, household-goods, grindstones, skins, scythes, coffee, fish, building-stone, crockery, hardware, pork, scythes, clothing. It is difficult to guess whereabouts up the lake crockery, hardware, dry-goods and coffee came from at that day, but such is the record. Nearly all the vessels were schooners, a few only being sloops. The lake marine in 18 16 was composed, besides a few open boats, of the schooners Dolphin, Diligence, Erie, Pomfret, Wea- sel, Widow's Son, Merry Calvin, Firefly, Paulina, Mink, Mer- chant, Pilot, Rachel, Michigan, Neptune, Hercules, Croghan, Tiger, Aurora, Experiment, Black Snake, Ranger, Fiddler, and Champion ; and the sloops Venus, American Eagle, Persever- ance, Nightingale, and Black-River-Packet. There certainly did not seem to be much commerce to justify a grand canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie, but the statesmen of the day, looking hopefully toward the future, deemed its con- struction expedient, and they were eagerly seconded by the people. There had been various suggestions put forth from a very early day regarding the importance of a good water-com- munication between the ocean and the lakes. Most of them, how- ever, were directed toward the improvement of the natural 302 THE "GRAND CANAL." channels, so as to connect the Mohawk with Lake Ontario at Oswego. The first distinct, pubHc advocacy of a separate canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie was made by Jesse Hawley, of On- tario county, in a series of essays published in the Ontario Mes- senger, in 1807-8. His idea was taken up by others, explora- tions were ordered by the legislature, and just before the war a law was passed authorizing the actual construction of the canal. The war, however, caused its repeal. De Witt Clinton had been foremost in urging forward the work, being strongly seconded by Gouverneur Morris, Joseph Ellicott, Peter B. Por- ter and others. Mr. Ellicott, especially, showed at once great breadth of view, and excellent practical judgment. Immediately after the war the scheme was revived, Clinton being still its warmest supporter. Public opinion was thor- oughly awakened, and in March, 18 16, a bill passed the assembly directing the immediate commencement of the canal. The more conservative senate insisted on further surveys and esti- mates, to which the assembly assented. The same summer a route was surveyed from Buffalo to the Genesee, which was sub- stantially the same as that finally adopted. In July, 1 8 16, the first bank in Erie county was organized, and named the Bank of Niagara. The whole capital was the immense sum (for those times) of five hundred thousand dollars, but the amount required to be paid down was modest enough, being only six dollars and twenty-five cents on each share of a hundred dollars. The directors were chosen from a wide range of country — being Augustus Porter, of Niagara Ealls ; James Brisbane, of Batavia ; A. S. Clarke, of Clarence ; Jonas Wil- liams and Benjamin Caryl, of Williamsville ; Isaac Kibbe, of Hamburg; Martin Prendergast, of Chautauqua county; Samuel Russell and Chauncey Loomis (exact residence unknown), and Ebenezer F. Norton, Jonas Harrison, Ebenezer Walden and John G. Camp, of Buffalo. Isaac Kibbe was the first president, and Isaac Q. Leake the first cashier. In those days probably a man viigJit move in the first circles without his name being either Ebenezer, Jonas or Isaac, but those were certainly the fashionable appellations. Probably it had no perceptible influence on the destiny of RED JACKET ON ETIQUETTE. 303 Erie county, yet it seems worth mentioning that in November, 18 16, Marshal Grouchy and suite, returning from Niagara Falls, came to Buffalo and then visited the Seneca Indian village. It is interesting to pause a moment from chronicling the erection of log-taverns and the election of supervisors, to contemplate the war-worn French marshal, (the hero of a score of battles, yet half-beli-eved a traitor because he failed to intercept the march of Blucher to support Wellington at Waterloo,) soothing his v^exed spirit with a visit to the greatest of natural wonders, and then coming to seek wisdom at aboriginal sources, and exchange compliments with Red Jacket and Little Billy. Doubtless the renowned Seneca orator arrrayed himself in his most becoming apparel, and assumed his stateliest demeanor to welcome the great war-chief from over the sea, and doubtless he felt that it was he, Sagoyewatha, who was conferring honor by the interview. An anecdote related by Stone shows how proudly the sachem was accustomed to maintain his dignity. A young French count came to Buffalo, and, hearing that Red Jacket was one of the lions of the western world, sent a messenger inviting the sachem to visit him at his hotel. Sa- goyewatha sent back word that if the young stranger wished to see the old chief, he would be welcome at his cabin. The count again sent a message, saying that he was much fatigued with his long journey of four thousand miles; that he had come all that distance to see the celebrated orator, Red Jacket, and he thought it strange that the latter would not come five miles to meet him. But the chief, as wily as he was proud, returned answer that it was still more strange that, after the count had traveled all that immense distance for such a purpose, he should halt only a few miles from the home of the man he had come so far to see. Finally the young nobleman gave up, visited the sachem at his home, and was delighted with the eloquence, wisdom and dig- nity of the savage. Then, the claims of etiquette having been satisfied, the punctilious chieftain accepted an invitation to dine with his titled visitor at his hotel. The same year, several Senecas were taken to Europe to be shown, by a speculator called Captain Hale. The principal ones were the Chief So-onongise, commonly called by the whites Tommy Jemmy, his son. Little Bear, and a handsome Indian 304 THE COLD SUMMER. called " I Like You." Jacob A. Barker, son of Judge Zenas Barker, went along as interpreter. The speculation seems not to have been a success, and Hale ran away. An English lady, said to have been of good family and refined manners, fell des- perately in love with " I Like You," and was with difficulty pre- vented from linking her fortunes to his. After his return, the enamored lady sent her portrait across the ocean to her dusky lover. There have been many such cases, and sometimes the woman has actually wedded her copper-colored Othello, and taken up her residence in his wigwam or cabin. Among the farmers, the peculiar characteristic of i8i6 was that it was the year of the " cold summer." Though sixty years have passed away, the memory of the " cold summer " is still vividly impressed on the minds of the surviving pioneers. Snow fell late in May, there was a heavy frost on the 9th of June, and all through the summer the weather was terribly un- propitious to the crops of the struggling settlers. There had been a large emigration in the spring, just about time enough having elapsed since the war for people to make up their minds to go West. Forty families came into the present town of Hol- land alone, and elsewhere the tide was nearly as great. An overflowing population and an extremely short crop, with no reserves in the granaries to fall back on, soon made provisions of all kinds extremely high and dear. The fact that there. is little or no grain in store always makes a failure of the crop fall with treble severity on a new country, as has been seen in the case of drouth in Kansas and grasshoppers in Nebraska. How closely the reserve was worked up in this section may be seen by the fact that on the 17th of August, 18 16, just before the new crop was ground, flour sold in Buffalo for $15.00 a bar- rel, and on the 19th there was not a barrel on sale in the village. The new crop relieved the pressure for a while, but this ran low early in the winter, and then came scenes of great sufl'ering for the poorer class of settlers. In many cases the hunter's skill furnished his family with meat, but in a large part of the county there had been just enough settlement to scare away the game. There is no proof that any of the people actually starved to death, but there can be no doubt that the weakening from long privation caused many a premature death. A MIGHTY HUNTER. 305 Fortunate were the dwellers where the deer were still numer- ous. There were many in the vicinity of the Cattaraugus creek. Josiah Thompson, now of Holland, was a famous hunter of those days, residing in the east part of Concord, now Sardinia. He told me that in the winter after the "cold summer," when many families were almost starving, the men would come to him for the loan of his rifle to kill deer. But, like many hunters, he held his rifle as something sacred. His invariable reply was that he would not loan his rifle, but would willingly kill a deer for the seeker, and did so again and again. He stated that he had frequently, after killing deer all one day, had a good sled-load to draw in the next day. Not only deer but bears and wolves fell before his unerring rifle. On one oc- casion he met five bears and killed three of them. But his most remarkable feat was when, as he asserted, he went out after supper and killed eighteen deer before quitting for the night. I didn't ask him when he ate supper. During the cold summer the Indians tried to produce a change by pagan sacrifices. Major Jack Berry, Red Jacket's inter- preter, a fat chief who usually went about in summer with a bunch of flowers in his hat, said that to avert the cold weather his countrymen burnt a white dog and a deer, and held a grand pow-wow under the direction of the medicine men — but the next morning there was a harder frost than ever before. Notwithstanding the adverse weather, the large emigration produced some progress even in 18 16. In the present town of Alden, Amos Bliss opened the first tavern in that year. Seth Estabrooks brought in a cart-load of groceries, etc., and set up as the first merchant, in a one-roomed log-house, a few rods south of the main road, on what is now called the Mercer road. Gen. Warren built another frame tavern at the east end of Willink village. His younger brother, Asa Warren, moved from Aurora to Eden, settling first at a place now called Kromer's Mills, two or three miles eastward from Eden Center, where he built a grist-mill and saw-mill, becoming one of the leading citi- zens of the town. About the same time, or a little earlier, Erastus Torrey, with his younger brothers, located at what is now called Boston Cor- ners, but which for many years was known as Torrey's Corners. 3o6 A WANDERING BALLOT-BOX. CHAPTER XXVIII. 1817 AND 1818. Wandering Polls. — Officers. — Formation of Boston. — First Cargo of Flour. — Furs. — A Presidential Visitor. — Terrible Roads. — The Four-Mile Woods. — Starv- ing Indians. —Father Spencer. — A Revival. — Beginning the Canal. — Progress Here and There. — Lost and Frozen. — Four New Towns. — Willink Destroyed. — Political Complications. — A Youthful Congressman. — Wearers of Epau- lets.— The "Walk-in-the-Water."— The "Horn Breeze."— Religious Im- provement. — A Church Building. — Wright's Mills. — Springville. — Wales Emmons. — A Wonderful Battle. — John Turkey's Victory. The migratory character of the ballot-box, sixty years ago, is well illustrated by the journeyings of that of the town of Buf- falo in 1817. On the 29th day of March, at 9 a. m., the polls were opened at the house of Frederick Miller, at Williamsville. At 5 p. m. they were adjourned to the house of Anna Ad- kins, on Buffalo Plains. They opened there the next morning at nine, and at twelve adjourned to the house of Pliny A. Field, at Black Rock. At 5 p. m. they were adjourtied to the house of Elias Ransom, in the village of Buffalo, where they remained during the next day, March 31st. The assemblymen elected were Isaac Phelps, Jr., of Willink, (Aurora,) and Robt. Fleming, of the present county of Niagara. The known supervisors' for 18 17 were Erastus Granger of Buffalo, Otis R. Hopkins of Clarence, Isaac Chandler of Ham- burg, and Silas Estee of Eden. The town of Boston, with its present boundaries, was formed from Eden on the 5th day of April, 18 17. It comprised the whole of township Eight, range Seven, except the western tier of lots, which was left attached to Eden. It was organized the next year, with Samuel Abbott as the first supervisor and young Truman Cary as one of the board of assessors. Cattaraugus county was separately organized in the summer of 1817. Shortly afterwards Samuel Tupper, first judge of Ni- agara county, died, and ere long these changes caused a reor- OFFICIAL AND COMMERCIAL. 307 g-anization of the Court of Common Pleas, by which Wilham Hotchkiss, from the present county of Niagara, was named as first judg-e, with five associates ; of these Ohver Forward, Chas. Townsend, Samuel Wilkeson and Samuel Russell were from the present county of Erie. I give a list of justices of the peace appointed in 1817, which I have chanced to meet with, though henceforth it will be im- practicable, for lack of room, to include those increasing conserv- ators of the law. They were James Wolcott, Jonathan Bowen. Isaac Wilson, C. Clifford, Seth Abbott, Amos Smith, John Hill, Nathaniel Gray, Salmon W. Beardsley, Gad Pierce, Morton Crosby, Frederick Richmond, Rufus Eaton, Burgoyne Camp, Elijah Doty, James Sheldon, Ezra St. John, Alexander Hitch- cock, Rufus Spaulding, Simeon Fillmore and Luther Barney. When I wrote the first draft of this chapter, I mentioned that of all that list only Alexander Hitchcock, of Cheektowaga, sur- vived. Before the revision for the press took place, he too passed away. One of the number, James Sheldon, father of the pres- ent Judge Sheldon, was a young lawyer who had lately settled in Buff"alo, forming a partnership with C. G. Olmsted, who had been there a little longer. The open boat Troyer, which came into port about the middle of July, 18 17, brought the pioneer cargo of breadstuffs from the West, being partly loaded with flour from Cuyahoga. This was the feeble beginning of a trade which now rivals that of many an independent nation. Yet it was many years after that before the commerce in west- ern breadstuffs became of any considerable consequence. Half the vessels still came down the lake empty. One week six or seven arrivals were in ballast. Furs still constituted the princi- pal shipments, in value, from the West, and in the summer of 1817 a vessel bearing the curious name of "Tigress and Han- nah" brought the largest and most valuable lot ever shipped at once from the West, estimated to be worth over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It comprised five hundred and ninety- f®ur packages of beaver, otter, muskrat, bear and buffalo skins, of which three hundred and twenty-two packages belonged to John Jacob Astor. A notable event for this frontier county was the first visit of 3o8 A PRESIDENTIAL VISITOR. a President of the United States. President Monroe, having spent a day at the Falls, came up the river on the 9th of Au- gust, accompanied by General Jacob Brown, commander-in- chief of the army. He was met below Black Rock by a com- mittee of eminent citizens, and escorted to Landon's hotel. There was an address by the committee, a brief, extemporane- ous reply by the illustrious guest, the usual hand-shake accorded to our patient statesmen, and then the President embarked the same evening for Detroit. It was noticed by the press that the President had then "already been more than two months away from Washington," and his western trip and return must have consumed nearly a month more. The distinguished visitor was certainly not detained to greet the people of Tonawanda, for that now flourishing burg had then not even made a start in the race for success. Mr. Urial Driggs, who as a boy passed through there in that year, says there was nothing there but an old log-tavern and a rope-ferry. There were, however, two or three log houses on the north side. Early in 1817 a post-office was established at Black Rock, James L. Barton being the first postmaster. Even at this period there was only a tri-weekly mail from and to the East, the stage leaving Buffalo Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 5 o'clock a. m. These were the days of terrible roads, in both spring and fall. In summer the big coaches bowled along easily enough over hill and dale, the closely- packed passengers beguiling the time with many a pleasant tale, until " stage-coach stories " have become famous for their wit and jollity. But woe to the unlucky traveler, doomed to a stage-coach experience in spring or fall. That he should be re- quired to go on foot half the time was the least of his troubles. His services were frequently demanded to pry the coach from some fearful mud-hole, in which it had sunk to the axle, with a rail abstracted from a neighboring fence, and through pieces of wood it was often thought best to take a rail along. "To go on foot and carry a rail," and pay for the privilege besides, was a method of stage-riding as celebrated as it was unpleasant. Erie county had something more than its full share of such highways, as the reservations in it had no roads that were even tolerable. Frequent were the complaints of the Cayuga Creek ROADS AND INDIANS. 309 road, the Buffalo road, the Big Tree road, etc., but the cHmax of despair was only reached at the "Four-Mile Woods," on the lake shore, a little this side of Cattaraugus creek. Old settlers tell wonderful stories of the Plutonian depths to which the mud reached in that dreadful locality. The historian of Evans insists that it was there and nowhere else that the story originated" of the traveler who, while passing over a horrible road, descried a good-looking hat just at the top of the mud. Picking it up, he was surprised at being denounced by some one underneath, for taking a gentleman's hat off his head without leave. On offering to help the submerged individual out, he was still more astonished when the latter declined on the ground that he couldn't leave the horse he was riding, which was travel- ing on hard ground. All agree that this event ought to have happened in the " Four-Mile Woods," whether it did or not. The Indians on the various reservations had suffered quite as severely as any one from the effects of the "cold summer." Their game had been largely driven away by settlement around them, their own small crops had been destroyed by frost, and even their annuities were reduced in actual value by the high price of provisions. The schoolmaster, Mr. Hyde, made a pub- lic appeal for help, declaring that there was great actual want. At this time the few Onondagas received about six dollars each, while the Senecas, numbering seven hundred, received about two dollars and a half to each individual. Part of this came from an annuity of five hundred dollars a year, being the principal consideration for Grand Island, their claim to which they had sold to the State a short time previous. In passing, it may be mentioned that that island was entirely unoccupied except by a few " squatters," who had located there principally for the purpose of cutting staves out of the State's timber. These gradually increased in number, and as it was not yet fully decided whether the island belonged to the United States or Canada, and also because it was very difficult to reach the interlopers, they did about as they pleased. Some of the Indians cut wood for the Buffalo market, receiv- ing a trifling pay in flour and pork. Some of them obtained credit for provisions, and Mr. Hyde declared that they were honest and punctual in paying their debts. He said that after 310 FATHER SPENCER. doing so they would have just about enough left of their annu- ities to buy their seed. He got little help from the people, who had slight patience with Indian peculiarities. The Presbyterian synod of Geneva, however, furnished some aid, and some way or other the Indians worried through. At this time the Presbyterians, including theCongregationalists, with whom they were united for church work, were the leading denomination of the county, so far as any could be said to lead, though the Methodists, led by that enthusiastic young preacher, Glezen Fillmore, were rapidly gaining upon them. I have be- fore spoken of "Father Spencer," who was a Congregational minister acting under the Presbyterian synod. I find his traces everywhere, especially south of the Buffalo reservation. Almost eVery old settler, whatever his religious proclivities, has a story to tell of Father Spencer, a short, sturdy man, on a big, bob- tailed horse, riding from one scattered neighborhood to another, summer and winter, preaching, praying, organizing churches, burying the dead and marrying the living ; a man full of zeal in his Master's cause, but full also of life and mirth, ready to answer every jest with another, and a universal favorite among the hardy pioneers. Pie, himself, would not admit being thoroughly beaten in jest save in a single instance. His big horse was almost as noted as himself One day, when the roads were terrible, he was resting the animal by going on foot ahead, leading him by the bridle. The little man trudged sturdily along, but the horse, being old and stiff, hung back the full length of the reins. Passing through a little village, a pert young man suddenly called out : "See here, old gentleman, you ought to trade that horse off for a hand-sled ; you could draw it a great deal easier." Father Spencer thought so too, and made no reply, but he kept the big horse, and used to tell the story on himself with great zest. I heard it from half a dozen informants. This proves that there were some saucy young men in those days, and also that people could get a great deal of enjoyment out of a very moderate joke. In 1817, I find the first account of anything resembling a revival of religion. On one Sunday eight members were ad- mitted into the Presbyterian church in Buffalo, and a writer con- PROGRESS HERE AND THERE. 311 gratulates the public that "through this section of this lately heathen country the spirit of the Lord and the spirit of the Gospel are extending far and wide." The same writer is de- lighted with similar results attained in "the towns of Willink, Hamburg and Edon, where lately the spirits of the evil one enchained the hearts of many." The year 18 17 was also notable in the history of the State for a measure deeply affecting the interests of Erie county ; viz., the passage of a law actually directing the construction of a canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie. Previously all had been uncertain ; now the work was made as sure as legislative enactment' could make it. The first ground was broken near Rome, on the 4th of July of that year. Among the scattered signs of progress in this year, which I have chanced to meet with, I find that John C. Rogers, the en- terprising builder of the first saw-mill in Alden, in 18 17 also erected the first grist-mill. My authority for this and several other statements regarding that town is the "Oddaographic," an odd and graphic little sheet published at Alden village. About this time the Willink " Smith's mills " were sold to James and Robert Griffin, and the place has ever since borne the name of "Griffin's Mills," or " Griffinshire." James Griffin was a man of considerable prominence and was supervisor of Aurora two or three years. Adams Paul also set up a store there near the same time, perhaps a little earlier, which he kept for nearly thirty years. In this year, also, Leonard Cook, who still survives, residing upon Vermont Hill, opened the first store in the present town of Holland, at what is now Holland village. That same fall there occurred in that locality one of those events which most strongly excite the feelings of a frontier set- tlement, and furnish a subject of conversation for scores of years afterwards. On the eastern side of Vermont Hill, nearly east from the embryo village, lived John Colby, a young settler, some thirty years of age, with a wife and two small children. Like many others he had been severely straitened by the "cold summer" of 1 8 16, and had barely struggled through the succeeding winter. By the autumn of 181 7, he obtained a cow and one or two young cattle. 312 LOST AND FROZEN. When the first snow of the season came, in the month of November, Colby's cattle and those of a neighbor strayed away, and the two started out in search of them. The neighbor found his and returned home, while Colby continued on in search of his own. All day and all night his wife expected his return, but he came not. More snow fell during the night. The next morning the news was sent around the neighborhood that John Colby must be lost. The log dwellings of the settlers on the hill were widely scattered, but the news spread rapidly and a goodly number of hardy, active men were soon assembled. The snow of the last night had not entirely obliterated the track of the wanderer, and the searchers followed upon it. For awhile it pursued the direction in which Colby was prob- ably seeking his cattle. At length, however, it got among the hills and ravines southward from the site of Holland village, and then it would appear as if the traveler had entirely lost track of home, and had wandered aimlessly among those forest-covered steeps. Very likely night had overtaken him before he entered among them. His friends pursued among the gorges his devious pathway, barely discernible under the new-fallen snow. So tortuous had been his wanderings that, though the searchers pressed on with all practicable speed, the forenoon passed and the afternoon waned ere they discovered aught but the half-covered track of the missing man. At length, a little before nightfall, as the party was approach- ing the settlements on Cazenove creek, the leader discovered, curled up at the foot of a tree and covered with snow, some- thing resembling a human form. All quickly gathered around, and there lay John Colby, dead, only a short distance from the clearing and house of a settler. It would appear that, having once lost his way, he had be- come entirely unable to adopt any line of action. When night came on he had wandered about at random among the hills and ravines, growing colder and weaker as he went. Had the obvi- ous expedient of following a stream of water down hill sug- gested itself to him, it would soon have carried him to a clearing, but nothing of the kind seems to have come into his mind. FOUR NEW TOWNS. 313 So he had struggled on, and at length, toward morning, had leaned against a tree to rest, and then, overcome by cold and fatigue, had fallen down in a heap at its foot. Every event of that kind was pretty sure to be celebrated in rhyme by some rude versifier of the forest. One Simeon Davis was the poetic genius of that locality, and ere long he had turned the mournful story of poor John Colby into verse. No less than two hundred and forty lines were produced by the facile poet, and these being reduced to writing by some admirer, (for Simeon himself was destitute of that accomplishment,) were copied, and repeated, and sung in many a frontier home for more than a score of years. The year 18 18 was distinguished by the creation of four new towns, and the annihilation of the oldest one in the county. On the tenth day of April an act was passed forming the town of Amherst out of Buffalo. It comprised the present towns of Amherst and Cheektowaga, and nominally extended to the cen- ter of the reservation. Five days later the town of Willink, the organization of which dated back to 1804, was stricken from existence. From its for- mer magnificent proportions, rivaling those of a German prin- cipality, comprising at one time a strip eighteen miles wide by a hundred long, at another a space twenty-seven miles by thirty-five, it had been reduced to a block twelve miles square, and was now about to suffer annihilation. Whether the settlers had some special grudge against the worthy Amsterdam burgher who was the recognized head of the so-called Holland Land Company, or whether they thought his name lacking in euphony, I know not, but they determined, so far as they could, to get rid of "Willink." Petitions were sent to the legislature, and on the 15th of April the necessary law was passed. Township Eight, in range Five, and township Eight, in range Six, were formed into a new town named Holland, comprising the present towns of Holland and Colden. It could hardly have been dislike of the Holland Company that led to the cast- ing off of the name of "Willink," for Holland must have re- ceived its appellation purely out of compliment to that com- pany. Nothing could well have been more unlike the half- 21 314 WALES, AURORA, ETC. submerged plains at the mouth of the Rhine than the narrow valley, precipitous hillsides, and lofty table-lands of the new town. There was more propriety in the name of " Wales," which was given to another new town, composed of township Nine, range Five, with the nominal addition of half the reservation-land op- posite. Its hills, though not so lofty, were numerous enough to give it a strong resemblance to the little principality which over- looks the Irish channel. Finally, by the same act, the remainder of Willink (viz., the ninth township in the sixth range and the adjoining reservation- land,) was formed into a town by the name of Aurora. As it contained a larger population than either of the others, it has usually been considered as the lineal successor of Willink, but the law simply annihilated the latter town and created three new ones. The known supervisors for 1818 were Charles G. Olmstead of Buffalo, Otis R. Hopkins of Clarence, Richard Smith of Ham- burg, Samuel Abbott of Boston, and John March of Eden. The new towns were not organized till the next year. Early in 1818 S. H. Salisbury retired from the Gazette, a fact which I notice in order to mention that his farewell address of fifty-two lines was the longest editorial which had at that time appeared in Erie county. In a few months H. A. Salisbury be- came sole editor and proprietor. He changed the paper's name to " The Niagara Patriot," and announced that in future it would be a Republican sheet. It will be observed that the name "Republican" was still ap- plied to the party which had of old borne that appellation, but which had recently been more often called "Democratic." This was during what has been termed the "era of good feeling," when the Federal party had almost entirely disappeared and no new one had taken its place. The Republican, or Democratic, party was in full possession of the national field, but in local matters it frequently split into factions, which waged war with a fury indicating but little of the "good feeling" commonly sup- posed to have prevailed. In this congressional district the regular Republican conven- tion nominated Nathaniel Allen, from the eastern part, and Al- A YOUNG CONGRESSxMAN. 315 bcrt H. Tracy, the young lawyer of Buffalo. Isaac Phelps, Jr., of Aurora was renominated to the assembly, along with Philo Orton of Chautauqua county. Forthwith a large portion of the party declared war against the nominees. The cause is hard to discover, but there was a vast amount of denunciation of the " Kremlin Junta." By this it is evident that the original " Krem- lin block" was already in existence, having doubtless been thus named because built amid the ruins of Buffalo, as the Kremlin was rebuilt over the ashes of Moscow. It was there that the "Junta," consisting of Mr. Tracy, Dr. Marshall, James Sheldon and a few others, were supposed to meet and concoct the most direful plans. Ex- Congressman Clarke was the leader of the opposing fac- tion. Ere long an independent convention nominated Judge Elias Osborne, of Clarence, for the assembly, against Phelps, but seem to have been unable to find candidates for Congress. The old members, John C. Spencer and Benjamin Ellicott, declined a renomination, but were voted for by many members of the anti-Kremlin party. The Patriot was the organ of the Clarke- Osborn faction, while the Journal fought for Tracy and Phelp.s. Dire were the epithets hurled on either side. No political con- flict, over the most important issues of the present day, has been more bitter than this little unpleasantness during the " era of good feeling." At the election in April, Tracy was chosen by a large majority, and Phelps by twenty-three. The former was then but twenty-five years of age, barely old enough to be le- gally eligible to Congress, and considerably the youngest mem- ber who has ever been elected in this county.. A law was passed this year abolishing the office of assistant- justice, restricting the number of associate-judges to four, and requiring a district-attorney in every county. Under this stat- ute Charles .G. Olmsted was the first district-attorney of Niagara county. Asa Ransom, who had been four times appointed sheriff, made his final retirement in 18 18, and James Cronk, of what is now Newstead, was commissioned in his place. Passing from the stirring conflicts of political life to the peace- ful scenes of the militia-encampment, we find that in the same year Brigadier-General William Warren was appointed major- 3l6 SWORD AND EPAULET. general of the twenty-fourth division, Colonel Ezra Nott being made brigadier in his stead. Elihu Rice was Nott's brigade major, Earl Sawyer his quartermaster, and Edward Paine quar- termaster of another brigade. By this time no less than four regiments of infantry had been organized within the present county of Erie, and, as the law had recently been changed, each had a colonel, lieutenant-colonel and one major. The field officers of the i/th regiment, the one north of the reservation, were James Cronk, colonel ; Calvin Fill- more, lieutenant-colonel ; and Arunah Hibbard, major. Cronk's office was soon vacated by his appointment as sheriff, when I suppose Fillmore and Hibbard were promoted. Those of the 170th regiment, apparently comprising only the old town of Willink, (Aurora, Wales, Holland and Colden,) were Sumner Warren, colonel ; Lyman Blackmar, lieutenant- colonel ; and Abner Currier, major. Of the 48th regiment, in the towns farther west, Charles Johnson was colonel; Asa War- ren, lieutenant-colonel; and Silas Whiting, major. Farther south was the iSist regiment, of which Frederick Richmonci was col- onel ; Truman White, lieutenant-colonel ; and Benjamin Fay, major. Besides these the 12th regiment of cavalry and the 7th regi- ment of artillery had a representation in the county, as I find the name of Hawxhurst Addington, of Aurora, as captain in the former, and Reuben B. Heacock, of Buffalo, in the latter. We were a ver}' militar}- community in those days. A hundred and thirty-nine years after the gallant La Salle entered Lake Erie with the pioneer sail-vessel, there occurred at the same point a similar event, which, though lacking the heroic and romantic elements of the earlier scene, was yet a mat- ter of intense interest to a great number of people. In the previous November two or three capitalists had come from New York to Black Rock, and caused to be laid the keel of the first steamboat which any one had ever attempted to build above the great cataract. In the spring the work was pressed forward, and on the 28th of Ma)-, 1818, the new vessel was launched amid the acclamations of a host of spectators. It re- ceived the appropriate and striking name of "Walk-in-the- Water," partly because it did walk in the water, and partly in THE WALK-IN-THE-WATER. 317 honor of a great Wyandot chieftain who once bore that pecuHar cognomen. The new steamer was ready for use about the middle of Au- gust, and then occurred a reproduction of La Salle's experience, with an element of the ludicrous superadded. Again and again the Walk-in-the-Water essayed to steam up the rapids into the lake, and again and again it was compelled to fall back, its en- gines not being strong enough for the purpose. At length, after several days of unavailing trials, the owners, to their intense mortification, were compelled to apply to Capt. Sheldon Thompson, of Black Rock, for the loan of his cele- brated " Horn Breeze," that is to say, of the dozen yoke of oxen used to drag sail-vessels up the rapids, and which, as before mentioned, the sailors had dubbed by that peculiar title. On the 23d of August another trial was made. The " Horn Breeze " was duly attached by a cable to the vessel, and steam was generated to the utmost capacity of the boilers. The stok- ers flung wood into the fire-places, the drivers swung their whips, and with steam-power and ox-power combined the vessel moved slowly up the rapids. Ere long the difficulty was passed, smooth water was reached, the " Horn Breeze " was detached, and thus, a hundred and thirty-nine years and sixteen days after the Griffin first ploughed the waters of Erie, the Walk-in-the-Water inaugurated the sec- ond great era of lake navigation. Religious improvement steadily continued. A Presbyterian church, the first in the present town of Lancaster, was organized on the 7th of February, 18 18, at the "Johnson school-house," on the site of Lancaster village, under the name of the Cayuga Creek church. It was composed of five males and eight females. Rev. Jas. H. Mills being the officiating minister, and was the fruit of the revival of the previous year, which was con- tinued during the succeeding summer. Before the infant church was a year old, it numbered thirty-one members. Notwithstanding the large and growing population of the county, there was not a solitary church-building within its limits, excepting the log meeting-house of the Quakers at East Ham- burg. In 1 818, however, that energetic young servant of Christ, Glezen Fillmore, after serving nine years as a local preacher, 3l8 A CHURCH IN FORTY-SEVEN DAYS. was regularly ordained as a Methodist minister, at the age of twenty-eight, and appointed to a circuit comprising Buffalo and Black Rock, and a wide region northward from those villages. On arriving at Buffalo he found just four Methodist brethren! The Presbyterians held services in the court-house, and the Epis- copalians in a building which, though private property, w^as used as a school-house. At first Mr. Fillmore preached in the lat- ter place, by permission of the owner, at sunrise and at early candle-light. Besides this he preached twice at Black Rock, making four services every Sabbath, and on week-days met fourteen appointments in the country. His salary was seventy- five dollars the first year. Some difficulty arising, he was denied the privilege of preach- ing in the school-house. It was determined to build a church. A lot was leased on Tuscarora (Franklin) street, and a church twenty-five feet by thirty-five was begun on the eighth of De- cember, 1818. Mr. Fillmore assumed the responsibility for everything. As he expressed it afterwards, " I had no trustees, no time to make them, and nothing to make them of" His peo- ple, however, contributed according to their means, he wrote to a zealous Methodist in New York who collected and sent him a hundred and twenty dollars, and Joseph Ellicott gave him three hundred. On the 24th day of January, 1819, just forty- seven days after it was begun, the church was dedicated. Near this time, though at a warmer season, the whole Metho- dist church of Buffalo rode out to a quarterly meeting in Clar- ence, in one lumber wagon. Fortunately for the horses there were but seven members. At the same time improvements were taking place in every direction. The forest was being constantly swept away, and every little while a new grist-mill or store marked another step toward the condition of older communities. In most cases the details have not come down to us, but oc- casionally I have been able to get hold of an item showing the course of progress. A grist-mill was built at what is now Evans Center, in 18 18, by a man named Wright, who had previously had a saw-mill there. A few houses were built around, and for a long time the little settlement was known as "Wright's Mills." LEGAL LORE EXTRAORDINARY. 319 Springville had by this time probably a dozen houses, and Mr. Rufus Eaton became so impressed with its prospects that he procured a surveyor to make a rej^ular map of it, several of the streets then laid down corresponding with those of the present day. Drs. Daniel and Varney Ingalls, two brothers, came there about this time, and began practicing medicine, being the first regular physicans. A Dr. Churchill had practiced before, with- out a diploma. The place of a lawyer was supplied by Wales Emmons, a cabinet-maker, who had settled there the year before, whose services in justices' courts were in wide demand, and whose many pranks are still the theme of jovial rehearsal. One of the sto- ries represents him as being employed by the defendant in an action brought before a justice some miles from Springville. Seeing that there was no defense, and knowing the dullness of the magistrate, Emmons rode over to his residence a day or two before the time appointed for the trial, and informed him that the defendant had concluded to withdraw the suit and pay the costs. To this the worthy justice assented, received the money, and noted the withdrawal in his docket. On the appointed day the plaintiff, with his counsel, (also an amateur,) appeared, when the justice benignantly informed them that the defendant had withdrawn the case and paid the costs. "Withdrawn the case," roared the pettifogger; "what do you mean .-' The defendant can't withdraw the case." " But he has withdrawn it," replied the justice, with dignity, for he felt as if his word was disputed ; "he Jias withdrawn it and paid the costs, and it is so entered on my docket, and I will have nothing more to do with it." The counsel advised a suit before another justice, but the un- lucky plaintiff had had experience enough, and settled with Emmons' client on the best terms he could obtain. Notwithstanding the march of improvement, (as shown by such courts of justice,) the fierce denizens of the forest still prowled in large numbers around the frontier cabins. Numerous combats took place between them and their human antagonists, but there was one battle, which came off near the beginning or close of 18 18, of such a remarkable character as to deserve especial notice. In fact I doubt if all the annals of 320 A BATTLE ROYAL. that kind of warfare can show a solitary instance of greater coohiess, courage or success than was seen on the occasion of which I am speaking. It beats even the exploit of Philip Con- jockety in killing the two panthers, which I thought sufficiently audacious. So remarkable were the circumstances, that I hesitated to be- lieve this story until investigation convinced me of its truth. I have heard it from several different sources, and, though they vary slightly as to details, yet as to the main points there is no dispute. The following account of it is derived from a compar- ison of the different stories, though the most direct statement comes, through Mr. George Wheeler, from Mr. Isaac Hale of North Collins, who was a boy of fourteen, residing near where the event occurred. It is corroborated by John Sherman, Esq., an old resident of the same place. An Indian on the Cattaraugus reservation one day discovered the trail of three panthers in the f^eep snow. Not desiring to meet such game as that himself, he notified another brave, named John Turkey, one of the celebrated hunters of the tribe. As the latter told it : "Me sick when he come ; me well quick when he tell about panther." . Turkey took his gun and accoutrements and started alone in pursuit. He followed the trail about six miles to the head of "Big Sister Swamp" in the present town of North Collins, two or three miles southeastward from the village of that name. There he came to two or three large trees, turned up by the roots and lying close together. Looking beyond them he saw no tracks, and at once concluded that the animals were concealed there. Turkey put two balls in his mouth, took the stopper out of his powder-horn, cocked his gun and approached. Suddenly a panther sprang out on to one of the trees, while two others were heard below ; all making a noise which Turkey describes as re- sembling the caterwauling of a score of tabbies, fifty times in- creased. I infer from the story, though it is not directly stated, that the first was an old one, and the others not quite full grown. Instantly leveling his gun, the hunter fired with so true an aim that the panther fell dead to the ground. The two others sprang out on the farther side, raising a yell that resounded afar through the forest. Turkey reloaded almost in a second, pouring in turkey's triumph. 321 plenty of powder without measuring, and snatching a ball from his mouth and dropping it into the muzzle, without a patch and without ramming. "Mebbe," said he, "ball go half way down ; mebbe not." At the same time one of the young panthers sprang on the trees and came toward him. Again he leveled his weapon and the second enemy fell dead. The third one had attempted to follow the first, but had struck his breast against the farther tree, fallen back, and then turned to go around the tops. This gave Turkey time to reload in the same expeditious manner as before. He had hardly done so when number three came around the tops, jumped on a log, and prepared to spring. Just as he was doing so, Turkey fired for the third time. The ani- mal was fatally wounded in the neck, but came on. Turkey sprang aside, the panther stopped, and the Indian was about to strike him with his clubbed rifle when he saw him stagger. He gave him a push with the muzzle of his gun, when the animal immediately rolled over and expired. By this time it was nearly dark, and as Turkey was not very well he did not purpose to travel any more that evening. So he scooped away the snow between the trees, laid down hemlock boughs for a bed, put some more across the two trunks for a shel- ter, and thus made himself thoroughly comfortable for the night, with his dead enemies all around. The next morning he skinned his game, shouldered the pelts with the heads attached, and went some three miles southwest- ward to Hanford's tavern, at Taylor's Hollow. Hanford, or some one else, gave him a certificate on which he obtained the bounty paid by the town for panthers. He then took them to Buffalo, and it is said obtained a county bounty also. Passing through Hill's Corners, (Eden Center,) he showed the three scalps to the children as they came out of school. I have talked with those who saw them there, and the various stones from which 1 have compiled the foregoing account differ only in some minor details. It was certainly one of the "boldest ex- ploits ever performed, and fairly entitles John Turkey to espe- cial mention in the annals of the brave. 322 THE "GRAND CANAL CHAPTER XXIX. 1819 AND 1820. The "Grand Canal." — The Harbor Company. — Supervisors, etc. — .Strong Lan- guage. — The International Boundary. — An Indian Council. — Pagans and Christians. — Red Jacket's Question. — Another Execution. — "The People of Grand Island.'" — A .Small Rebellion. — Troops ordered out. — The Squatters Removed. — A Sad Dilemma. — Governor Clark. — Clintonians and Bucktails. — Tracy Reelected. — Other officials. — The Harbor Begun. — Wilkeson turns Engineer. — His Services. — New Post-Offices. — Dr. Colegrove. — Niagara Ag- ricultural Society. — Town-Managers. — Another Church. — The Amateur En- gineer becomes a Judge. — Three New Towns. — New Use for a Psalm-Tune. This chapter will be extended a little beyond the years named in its title; it being most convenient to include the three months of 1 82 1 previous to the formation of Erie county. More and more the "Grand Canal," as it was generally called, (the name " Erie " was not at first applied to it,) attracted gen- eral attention. At Buffalo and Black Rock, in particular, the question as to which should be the terminal point became of the deepest interest. It was plain that the chances of the former must be gravely injured by the fact that it had no har- bor, and steps to build one were taken by ten of the principal citizens. Of ready money there was almost none in the village. The State passed a law to loan twelve thousand dollars for the required purpose, to be secured by the bonds and mortgages of individuals for twice that amount. If the State officials should approve the harbor when finished, they had the privilege of tak- ing it and cancelling the indebtedness ; if not, the company would have to pay the bonds and reimburse themselves out of tolls. These harrd conditions caused all the managers to withdraw, except Charles Townsend, George Coit and Oliver Forward. The last of 18 19 Samuel Wilkeson joined with them, and then the State's offer was accepted. Wilkeson, Forward and Town- send (with whom Coit was associated) gave their separate bonds and mortgages, each for eight thousand dollars. No work, how- STRONG LANGUAGE. 323 ever, could be done till the next year. It seems strange to learn that, as Judge Wilkeson afterwards stated, no one ever thought of applying to the general government to do a work so plainly belonging to it as that. Like almost everything in this country the canal question found its way into politics. Candidates were interrogated as to their position, and in this part of the State a charge of infidelity to the " Grand Canal " was the most damaging that could be brought. Oliver Forward was elected to the assembly in the fall of 18 19, along with Elial T. Foote, of Chautauqua county. Heman B. Potter was appointed district attorney, and Dr. John E. Mar- shall county clerk. The new towns created the year before were organized in 18 19, Gen. Timothy S. Hopkins being elected the first supervisor of Amherst, Ebenezer Holmes of Wales, and Arthur Humphrey of Holland ; Aurora unknown. Those from the other towns were Elijah Leach of Buffalo, Otis R. Hopkins of Clarence, Abner Wilson of Hamburg, John March of Eden, and John Twining of Boston ; Concord unknown. Though politics were rather quiet at this time, there were other subjects in which vigorous language could be used. Said a writer on the Patriot one day, replying to a previous one in the rival sheet: "Some citizen, in the Journal, with a malignity well worthy of a denizen of the lower region, has been kind enough to empty the Augean stable of his bosom on the late cashier of the Bank of Niagara." "Augean stable of his bosom" is about as strong an ex- pression as can be found in the vocabulary of any modern vituperator. There were some bad boys then, too, as well as now, if one may judge from the terms in which one individual described his ab- sconding apprentice. Apprenticing was more common then than now, and there were a good many advertisements of run- aways. But a return of the levanting youth was probably not much desired by the master who offered "one cent reward" therefor, describing him as about twenty years old, and adding: " He has light complexion, knavish look, quarrelsome disposi- tion, knows- more than anybody else, and is a great liar and tattler." 324 THE INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY. In the forepart of 1819 the boundary commission, coming from the east, estabHshed the hne between the United States and Canada along the Niagara, and in July passed on to the west end of Lake Erie. Gen. Porter was the American, and Col. Ogilvie the English commissioner. The principal siu'veyor on the part of the Americans was William A. Bird, (the well- known Col. Bird, of Black Rock,) who had just succeeded to that post, having previously been assistant. The sovereignty of Grand Island was first decisively settled by this commission, though previously claimed by the United States. It was found by actual measurement of depth, width and velocity that the main channel of the river was on the Canadian side. There passed on that side 12,802,750 cubic feet of water per minute ; on the American side 8,540,080 cubic feet rolled by in the same time. To prove the accuracy of these measurements, the quantity passing Black Rock per minute was calculated by the same method, and found to be 21,549,590 cubic feet, or substantially the same as the sum of the amounts at Grand Island. As, however, the determination of the "main channel" was held by some to involve other considerations than the amount of water, it is possible that Grand Island would not have fallen to the Americans had not a large island in the St. Lawrence just been awarded to Canada. All the small islands in the Ni- agara were also, on account of their location, assigned to the Americans, except Navy island, which fell to Canada. In the summer of 18 19 a strong effort was made by the pre- emption-owners to induce the Indians to sell the whole or a part of their lands. A council was held on the Buffalo reserve, at which were present a commissioner on the part of the United States, one on the part of Massachusetts, Colonel Ogden and some of his associates, and all the principal chiefs of the Sene- cas, Cayugas and Onondagas. After the United States commissioner had explained the ob- ject of the council, and had submitted two propositions, both looking to the sale of the Buffalo Creek reservation. Red Jacket, on the 9th of July, "rekindled the council fire" and made a long speech. As usual he went over the whole ground of the inter- course between the white men and the red men, and declared CHRISTIANS AND PAGANS. 325 most emphatically as the voice of his people that they would not sell their lands, no not one foot of them. Warming with his subject, the indignant orator declared that they would not have a single white man on their reservations — neither work- man, school-master nor preacher. Those Indians who wished could send their children to schools outside, and those who de- sired to ai;tend church could go outside the reservation to do so. He added bitterly that if Colonel Ogden had come down from heaven clothed in flesh and blood, and had proved that the Great Spirit had said he should have their lands, then, and then alone, they would have yielded. Afterwards Captain Pollard and thirteen other chiefs apolo- gized to the commissioner for the language of Red Jacket. Captain Pollard declared that he saw nothing to admire in the old ways of his people, and wished for civilization and Christian- ity. But all were united in opposing the sale of any of their lands, and nothing was effected to that end. By this time two distinct parties had been developed among the Indians. One favored Christianity and improvement, among whom Captain Pollard was the most prominent. Captain Strong, a distinguished chief on the Cattaraugus reservation, also an- nounced himself a Christian. The other faction was devoted to paganism, and resisted every attempt at change, of whom Red Jacket was the unquestioned leader. The great orator had become more and more bitter against everything in anywise pertaining to the white race — except whisky. He was doubtless sincere in the belief that the adop- tion of white customs would work the destruction of his people, and he fought them at every step. He could see the evil wrought through the excessive use of liquor, of which he was himself a most conspicuous example ; he could see that since the arrival of the whites the once mighty Iroquois had dwindled to a few feeble bands dependent on the forbearance of their conquerors, and he could not, or would not, see anything else. Even in minor matters he detested the laws of the whites, and derided their justice. Not far from the time of which I am speaking, an Indian was indicted at Batavia for burglary, in en- tering Joseph Ellicott's house and stealing some trifling article. Red Jacket and other Indians attended the trial, and the latter 326 THE sachem's SARCASM. obtained permission to address the jury on behalf of the prisoner (of course throu<^h an interpreter). He boldly questioned the jurisdiction of the court, declared that the Senecas were allies, not subjects, of the United States, and said that Indians who committed offenses should be tried by their own laws ; as- serting that if accused persons should be delivered to them they would be so tried and, if guilty, duly punished. The culprit was, however, convicted and sentenced to impris- onment for life, which was then the penalty for burglary. At the same time a white man who had stolen a larger amount than the Indian, but without the accompaniment of burglary, was sentenced to only a few years imprisonment. This was a new- cause of disgust to the chieftain, who in his youth had lived in a wigwam, to whom a house had none of the sacredness that it has to a white man, and in whose mind, consequently, the crime of theft was not enhanced by that of burglary. Going from the court-house to the tavern, after the session, in company with some lawyers, the old sachem observed the State coat-of-arms painted over the door of a newspaper-office. Point- ing to the representation of Liberty, he mustered his little stock of broken English and inquired : " What— him— call ? " " Liberty," replied one of the legal gentlemen. " Ugh ! " exclaimed the chieftain, in a tone of derision. Then he pomtcd to the other figure on the coat-of-arms and again asked : " What— him— call .? " "Justice," was the reply. Red Jacket's eye flashed and his lip curled, as he slowly asked, in a tone of mingled inquiry and sarcasm : " Where — him — live — now .'' " Very likely the sachem knew as well as his companions what the figui-es represented, and asked the questions merely to make a point. In December, 1819, the second execution for murder took place in the present county of Erie. The crime, however, was committed outside its limits, having been the murder of a sol- dier of the garrison of Fort Niagara, by Corporal John Godfrey, who was impatient at his dilatory movements. "THE PEOPLE OF GRAND ISLAND." 327 Again the people assembled in throngs, again the mihtia com- panies guarded the prisoner, and again the sonorous tones of Glezen FiHmore rolled out deep and strong, as he preached the funeral sermon of the doomed man. But probably the most important event of the year occurred on Grand Island. The stave-cutting squatters, heretofore men- tioned, had been so little disturbed by the civil authorities, (partly because of the difficulty of reaching them, .and partly because it had not been quite determined whether the island be- longed to the United States or Canada,) that they had grown to consider themselves a kind of independent nation. They set up a sort of government of their own, under which they settled whatever difficulties may have arisen among them- selves, but bade defiance to the authorities on both sides of the river. A Mr. Pendleton Clark, one of the squatters, was recog- nized as "governor" by his fellows, justices of the peace were elected, and precepts were actually issued " in the name of the people of Grand Island." On one occasion a constable crossed to the island to arrest one of these squatter-sovereigns, when several friends of the culprit assembled, put the officer back in his boat, took away his oars and set him adrift on the river. He might very likely have been carried over the Falls, had he not been rescued by a more humane outlaw, living farther' down the stream, and taken to the Ameri- can side. Then the authorities of the State, to which all the land be- longed, thought it was time to clear out this nest of offenders. In April, 1 8 19, an act was passed requiring them to leave the island, and in case they did not the governor was authorized to remove them by force. To this they paid no attention. In the fall the governor sent orders to remove the intruders, to Sheriff Cronk. That official transmitted the orders to the trans- gressors, with directions to leave by a specified day. Some obeyed, but over many cabins the smoke continued to curl as saucily as before. The sheriff then called out a detachment of militia, under Lieutenant (afterwards Colonel) Benjamin Hodge, of Buffalo, and prepared to vindicate the laws by force. On the 9th of Decem- ber, Lieutenant Hodge, with Lieutenant Stephen Osborn, of 328 THE ARMY OF INVASION. Clarence, (afterwards sheriff,) and thirty rank and file, marched down the river from Buffalo to a point opposite the head of the island, to which they crossed by boats, landing about 5 o'clock p. m. The first sergeant of the company was Nathaniel Wilgus, who wrote an account of the expedition for the Buffalo Histo- rical Society, to which I am indebted for many of the facts here related. Rumors of resistance having been rife, muskets were loaded with ball-cartridges, and guards and pickets duly stationed ere the men encamped for the night. As nearly all the squatters were on the western side of the island, the command was marched over there the next morning. It was then divided into three parties ; a vanguard to read the governor's proclamation and help to clear the houses where the parties were willing to leave, a main body to forcibly remove all persons and property re- maining, and a rear-guard to burn the buildings. The boats, which were manned by sailors from the lake, had come around the head of the island, and were in readiness to convey the families to the United States or Canada, as they might choose. With one exception they all preferred Canada. Perhaps they had come from this side, and had good reasons for not wishing to return. That day was occupied in removing people to Canada and burning houses. The next day was devoted to the same work, but there was one case that was peculiar. Dwelling in a comfort- able log house, the sheriff found a man and woman living together, who begged piteously to be allowed to remain. They could not make choice between the United States and Canada, for the man said he had a wife living in the former country, and the woman had a husband in the latter. The good-natured sheriff appreciated the terrors of the dilemma, and, on their promising to leave as soon as they could see a clear path of escape, he gave them permission to remain a while on their island home, and even furnished them with two quarts of whisky to relieve the tedium of solitude. On the next day (the 12th) the party found an old Irishman named Dennison, who with two sons and some helpers was busy putting up houses. He claimed the right to remain, and told the sheriff he had discovered the secret of perpetual motion, in GOVERNOR CLARK. 329 I which he would give Colonel Cronk a half interest if the latter would let him stay. The colonel told him to put his "perpetual motion" in use, and leave the island at once. Two more days were devoted to the removal of families and the destruction of buildings, making five days spent on the island by the "army of invasion," besides the time occupied in going and returning. About seventy houses (occupied and un- occupied) were destroyed, and a hundred and fifty-five men, women and children transported to the mainland. Nearly all were desperately poor, and Mr. Wilgus stated that he did not remember of seeing a cow or a hog on the island. There were only about a hundred acres of clearing, all told. While crossing the island, on their return, the troops found one of the precepts before mentioned, "in the name of the people of Grand Island," fastened to the door of a deserted buildinsf. The last house visited, and the only one on the eastern shore, was that of "Governor" Pendleton Clark, who had already placed his effects on a scow preparatory to removal. He went to the American side, and not long after bought a tract of land at the point where the Erie canal was expected to enter Tonawanda creek. Here in time a village was built to which he (>-ave his own first name — Pendleton — and of which he was lono- a respected citizen. Such is a condensed history of the only civil war (and that a bloodless one) ever known within the bounds of Erie county. A few of the dispossessed parties soon returned, but as they kept very quiet, and were careful not to draw attention to them- selves by committing any depredations, they were permitted to remain for several years. Among them was "perpetual motion " Dennison, who for fifteen years clung to his possession, and in- sisted on the value of his "motion," with amusing pertinacity. By the beginning of 1820 the Clintonian and Bucktail par- ties were in full blast all over the State. Clinton was of course the leader and candidate of the former, which claimed, and o-en- erally received, the benefit of the strong canal feeling which pre- vailed. The latter had to some extent the benefit of the regular Republican organization, and nominated Vice-President Tomp- kins for governor. Clinton was elected by a large majority, though his opponent 22 330 CLINTONIANS AND BUCKTAILS. had a few years before been the most popular man in the State. In the present county of Erie, Ch'nton received seven hundred and thirty-seven votes, to three hundred and ten for Tompkins. Boston gave thirty-five votes for Clinton, to one for Tompkins ; Aurora a hundred and sixty-four for Clinton, to twenty for Tompkins ; Wales a hundred and twenty-six for Clinton, to twenty-seven for Tompkins ; and Concord a hundred and twenty-eight for Clinton, to twenty for Tompkins. The Patriot was the organ of the Bucktails, the Journal of the Clintonians. It should be remembered that there was still a property qualification, which accounts for the small vote. It seems, too, that fraudulent voting was not an unheard of offense in those days, for the Patriot charged that neither Aurora nor Wales had a hundred legal voters, although the former polled a hundred and eighty-four votes, and the latter a hundred and forty-seven. The assemblyman this year was Judge Hotchkiss, from north of the Tonawanda. The young congressman, Albert H. Tracy, was again elected to the national legislature, as the candidate of the Clintonians. Judge Oliver P'^orward, of Buffalo, was elected to the State senate, and took a very active part in pro- moting the canal, and bringing it to Buffalo. The supervisors chosen in 1820 were Ebenezer Walden of Buffalo, Oziel Smith of Amherst, Otis R. Hopkins of Clarence, Lemuel Wasson of Hamburg, James Aldrich of Eden, John Twining of Boston, P^benczer Holmes of Wales, and Arthur Humphrey of Holland. Isaac Phelps, Jr., of Aurora, was ap- pointed a judge of the Common Pleas. One hardly ever thinks of slavery as having existed in Erie county, and in fact slaves were extremely rare thei'c, even when the institution was tolerated by law. Yet I think there had been two or three colored people permanently held in bondage, besides those brought here by officers during the war. The law of 1 818 decreed the gradual abolition of slavery, providing that males under twenty-eight and females under twenty-five should remain slaves until those ages, and allowing none but young- slaves to be brought from other states ; in which case the owner was obliged to file an affidavit that they were only to be kept till those ages respectively. The only case in this county under BEGINNING A HARBOR. 33 I the law, of which 1 am aware, occurred in 1820. Gen. Porter married a Mrs. Grayson, of Kentucky, daughter of Hon. John Breckenridge, attorney-general of the United States under Jef- ferson, and aunt of the late John C. Breckenridge. She brought five young slaves to Black Rock, and a certified copy of the affi- davit of herself and husband, under the above mentioned law, is now on file in the old town-book of Buffalo. It is surrounded on all sides by records of town-elections, stray heifers and sheep's ear-marks, among which this solitary memento of a pow- erful but fallen institution has a curious and almost startling appearance. It was not merely by voting for Clinton that the Buffalonians sought to build up their town. The all-important work of con- structing a harbor was begun. A superintendent was hired at fifty dollars a month! Cheap as were his services, however, it was soon found that his estimates were too liberal for a twelve- thousand-dollar fund, and he was discharged. No one, however, knew where a better man could be found, and none of the com- pany knew anything about building a harbor. Rather than see the work stop, Mr. Wilkeson abandoned his own business and accepted the superintendency. Once installed he pushed on the work with even more than his wonted energy. The laborers' wages were increased two dollars a month above the ordinary price, to induce them to work in the rain, and then, in all weather, superintendent and subordinates were seen at their task. I have read several reminiscences of that critical period of Buffalo's history, and all agree that to Samuel Wilkeson, more than to any other one man, the city is indebted for its proud commercial position. If Ellicott was its founder, Wilkeson was certainly its preserver. In the spring of 1820 a new mail-route was established, run- ning from Buffalo to Clean, with three new offices in this county — one at " Smithville," more commonly called Smith's Mills, one at " Boston," generally known as Torrey's Corners, and one at " Springville," still in common parlance called Fiddler's Green, Ralph Shepard was the first postmaster at Smithville, Erastus Torrey at Boston, and Rufus C. Eaton at Springville. A post-office had already been located on the lake shore, in 7,T,2 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. the present town of Evans, but under the name of Eden, which was then the appellation of the whole town. James W. Peters was the first postmaster. Although there was as yet nothing in the shape of a village, nor even a post-office, in Sardinia, yet in 1820 a young physi- cian established himself there, who soon acquired wide renown in the healing art. This was Dr. Bela H. Colegrove, who located at what has since been called Colegrove's Corners. As a sur- geon, especially, his reputation in time became equal to that of almost any one in Western New York, and he was often called in difficult cases, not only in Erie and the adjoining counties, but as far south as Pennsylvania. He was prominent, also, in political life, and showed himself in all respects a leader among men. In 1820 the first daily mail was established between Buffalo and Albany. The year was also noteworthy for the holding of the first agricultural fair, an important event in those days. It was under the management of the Niagara County Agricultural Society, which had been organized the fall before. Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, who had been little heard of for a long- time, was its president. The vice-presidents were Arthur Hum- phrey, Asher Saxton, Ebenezer Goodrich, Ebcnezer Walden and James Cronk ; the secretary was Joseph W. Moulton ; the treasurer, Reuben B. Heacock ; and the auditor, Heman B. Potter. There was also a board of town-managers, consisting of three in each town, which may be presumed to have comprised some of the leading men, especially farmers, in their respective local- ities. These were P^lias Ransom, Adial Sherwood and Elijah Leach, of Buffalo ; William W. Morseman, David Eddy and Abner Wilson, of Hamburg ; Isaac Phelps, Jr., Jonathan Bowen and Ephraim Woodruff of Aurora ; Richard Buffum, Asa Crook and Samuel Corliss, of Holland ; Ethan Allen, Ebenezer Holmes and Henry B. Stevens, of Wales; John Hill, Benjamin Bowen and John March, of Eden ; Belden Slosson, Alexander Hitchcock and Abram Miller, of Amherst; L. Parmely, M. Cary and Daniel Swain, of Boston. I can find no representation of either Clarence or Concord. The list of premiums offered is noticeable for some seldom OFFICIAL AND NUMERICAL. 333 found on modem catalogues — which in fact would hardly find takers if offered. As for instance — for the best fifteen yards of woolen cloth, "made in the family," ten dollars; which is as large as the premium offered for the best two acres of wheat. For the best worsted cloth, "made in the family," six dollars. For the best fine linen, "made in the family," six dollars. For a 'long time the fair of the Agricultural Society was one of the great events of the year. Everybody, high and low, at- tended, and the proceedings were closed with a ball, which was graced by whatever of aristocracy was to be found in the county. The first Episcopal church-building, and the third of any kind in the county, was St. Paul's. The society of that name, at Buffalo, erected a neat edifice in 1820, with a gothic tower and spire, which was consecrated by Bishop Hobart the next February. Almost an entire new set of officers was appointed in Feb- ruary, 1 82 1. Samuel Wilkeson was made first judge of the Common Pleas, and Samuel Russell, Belden Slosson, Robert Fleming and Henry M. Campbell, judges. John G. Camp was appointed sheriff; Roswell Chapin, surrogate; and James L. Barton, county clerk. The selection of Mr. Wilkeson for the office of "first judge " had been strongly opposed by some, on the ground that he was not an attorney. He was, however, earnestly supported by his friends, and after his appointment his native common sense, firmness and diligence enabled him to fulfill his duties accepta- bly to the community. By the census of 1820 the population of the whole of Ni- agara county was 23,313, of which 15,668 were in the present county of Erie. These numbers were considered sufficient to ■justify a division, and the northern part of the county was anx- ious to have its business transacted nearer home than Buffalo ; a desire which was gratified by the legislature of 182 1. Just before the division of the county, three new towns were created. By a law of the i6th of March, 1821, all that part of Eden comprised in township Eight, range Nine, was formed into a new town named Evans. This was a little larger than an or- dinary township, being nearly nine miles east and west on its 334 EVANS, COLLINS AND SARDINIA. southern boundary, and thence narrowed by the hike to about four miles and a half on its northern boundary. By the same law the excessively lon^ town of Concord was subdivided into three towns. That part comprised in town.ships Six and Seven, ran^'-e lM"i;ht, and in three tiers of lots on the west side of townships Six and Seven, range Seven, was formed into a new town named Collins. That part comprised in town- ship Seven, range Five, and three tiers of lots on the east side of township Seven, range Six, and in the portion of township Six, range Six, north of Cattaraugus creek, was formed into a new town named Sardinia. Collins \\'as named by Turner Aldrich, the most prominent of the old settlers, after his wife's maiden name. General Nott states in his reminiscences that he named Sardinia after his favor- ite psalm-tune, lie says that "Concord," "Wales" and "Sar- dinia " were all well known limes in the old psalm-book, " Sar- dinia" being his especial delight. Seeing tliat "Wales" and " Concord " were immortalized by their names being given to towns, he determined that his own favorite shouUl receive equal glory. So he claimed his privilege as the oldest resident, and succeeded in getting the new town named Sardinia. TMV. NEW COUNTY. 335 CHAPTER XXX. MISCELLANEOUS. 'I'lie New County.- — Niagara I'crpctuatuMl. — Change of Cliaraclcristics. — Change of Names.— Wliite's Corners. — Abbott's Corners. — A IMack Wolf. — An Effect- ive Hlow. — A Curious Couple. — A Wolf's Strategy. — Trapped and Slain. — An Impromptu Gallows. — Pigeons. — Black Rock. — Condition of Buffalo. — Some of its Lawyers. — Anecdotes of John Root. On the second day of April, 1821, a law was passed, enacting that all that part of the county of Niagara north of the center of Tonawanda creek should be a separate county, by the name of Niagara, while the remainder should thenceforth be known as Erie. Thus at length was formed and named the great county, the annals of which I have the honor to record. It liad the bound- aries specified in the first chapter, and those boundaries it has ever since retained. As stated in chapter eighteen, the old county of Niagara was perpetuated in most respects in the county of I'lrie rather than in the one that bore the ancient name, since the former retained more than half the area, two thirds of the population, the county seat, the county records and most of the county officers. In every respect except the name, Erie is a continuation of old Niagara, organized in 1808, while the present Niagara is a new county, organized in 1821. Doubtless the reason for giving the old name to the smaller and less important county was because the great cataract, which makes Niagara's name renowned, was on its borders, and it was felt that there would be an incongruity in conferring the name on a county which, at its nearest point, was three miles distant from the famous Falls. (Even this is probably nearer than most people suppose, but it is a trifle less than three miles from the cataract to the lower end of Jkickhorn island.) The reader and the author have now arrived at a turning point in the history of the county. Not only was its name changed, 336 CHANG F. OF CHARACTERISTICS. but it so happens that that change is very closely identical in time with an important chant^e in its general character. Hith- erto it had been a pioneer county. Henceforth it might fairly be called a farming county. There was no particular year that could be selected as the epoch of change, but 1821 comes very close to the time. Previ- ously the principal business had been to clear up land. As a general rule, there was little money with which to build comfort- able houses, little time even to raise large crops, except in a few localities. After a time not far from 1821, although there was still a great deal of land-clearing done, yet it could not be called the principal business of the county. The raising of cattle and grain for market assumed greater im- portance, and in fact from that time forward, the county taken as a whole, though still a ncivish country, would hardly be called a new country. Yet there were a few townships almost entirel}' covered with forest, and everywhere the characteristics of the pioneer era were closely intermingled with those of a more ad- vanced period. Probably the most conspicuous manner in which the change was manifested to the eye was by the material of the houses. Hitherto, log houses had been the dwelling-places of nearly all the people outside of the village of Buffalo. Even the little vil- lages, which had sprung up in almost every township, were largely composed of those specimens of primeval architecture. But with improved circumstances came improved buildings. After the time in question, a majority of the new houses erected in the county were frames, and every year saw a rapid increase in the proportion of that class of buildings over the log edifices of earlier days. When Erie county was named it contained thirteen towns. At that time there were but ten post-offices in it, but there were several others established a little later. The ten were situ- ated at Buffalo, Black Rock, Williamsville, Clarence, Willink, Smithville, Barkersville, Boston, Springville, and Eden. The Eden post-office, as has been said, was in Evans, on the lake shore. That of "Barkersville" was at the old Barker stand in Hamburg, at the "head of the turnpike." "Willink " was at Aurora village. white's corners, ABBOTT'S CORNERS, ETC. 337 Besides these there had been one, and probably there was still one, called "Hamburg," at John Green's tavern. Although the post-office at what is now Hamburg village had been called "Smithville," yet the name never stuck, and even the old one of ".Smith's Mills" began to fade away. Thomas T. White had lately settled at that point, engaging heavily in busi- ness, the" Smiths had sold their mills to other parties, and ere long the place began to be known as "White's Corners." This was its only name for ever forty years, and it is still generally known by it, notwithstanding its present legal title, "Hamburg." Mr. Seth Abbott also moved to the place previously known as "Wright's Corners," not far from this time, and built a large public house there. His son, Henry Abbott, engaged in trade there, the old name fell into use, and for over half a century the little village has been known only as Abbott's Corners. At most of the post-offices mentioned, there was the nucleus of a village, but there was none at " Barkersvillc," nor at the " Eden " post-office, in Evans. Whatever of metropolitan pos- sibilities there were in the latter town manifested themselves at "Wright's Mills," which ere long began to be called "Evans Center," but where there was as yet no post-office. There were also the nuclei of villages, but without post-offices, at " Cayuga Creek" (Lancaster), Aldcn, Hall's Mills (or Hall's Hollow), Holland, Griffin's Mills, East Hamburg and Gowanda. Notwithstanding these signs of improvement, and the general transformation of the county from a land-clearing to a land- tilling district, the farmers met with incessant discouragement. Keeping .sheep was their especial difficulty, yet sheep must be kept, for there was no money to buy clothes. The wolves were almost as troublesome in peace as the Indians in war. Besides the gray-backed prowlers, an occasional bold, black wolf was seen, though very rarely. One, which had killed over fifty sheep in Lancaster, came into the open fields within a fur- long of Mr. Clark's house in the day time, and caught another. Young James Clark and his brother saw the raid but were un- able to prevent its successful execution. They, however, set a trap for the dark slayer, and had the good fortune to catch him. The bounty then was ten dollars. Afterwards it wa.s, in some towns, from sixty to ninety dollars ; whelps half-price. An 338 AN EFFECTIVE BLOW. Indian is reported to have made $360 in one forenoon, catching young wolves. It was generally supposed that many hunters, both Indians and whites, were in the habit of letting old she- wolves escape— in fact of guarding against their discovery by others — in order to get an annual revenue from the whelps. In this case it was the wolf that laid the golden eggs. On several occasions the citizens in different parts of the county got up grand wolf-hunts, forming long lines and beating the woods for miles, or trying to enclose them in circles, but I have heard of none that were successful. The " Anaconda Sys- tem " did not work any better then than in later years. The wily marauders always found a loop-hole of escape. While these elaborate preparations usually failed, one of these public enemies was frequently slain by the simplest means. A Mr. Patterson, living a little south of Mr. Oren Treat's, in Aurora, is said by that gentleman and others to have killed one, near 1820, at a single blow. Hearing a noise in a kind of outside pan- try attached to his house, he picked up an unloaded gun and ran out. A big wolf jumped out of the pantry window. With all his might Patterson struck him with the breech of his gun, and his wolfship fell to the ground. On bringing a light the old musket was found to be broken short off at the breech, and the wolf lay stone dead ; the single, well-directed blow having broken his neck. But the most remarkable of these primitive raiders, and the only one for whose exploits I have further room, was an old she- wolf which infested the territory of Collins and North Collins. According to Messrs. Wheeler and Hale before mentioned, Mr. George Southwick, of Gowanda, and others, she was a marauder of most surprising intelligence and accomplishments. In that she slaughtered sheep, she was like the rest of her race. But her especial forte was to form an intimate acquaint- ance with most of the large dogs of the vicinity. Those that she could not tempt into forbidden paths she fought with and whipped, and thus she was mistress of the situation so far as the canine race was concerned. Her most particular friend was a dog belonging to Levi Woodward, in the present town of North Collins. This canine Antony and lupine Cleopatra would roam the fields at night A STRANCJE COUPLE. 339 in company, killing sheep by the dozen, and retire to the swamps in the day-time. Frequently a number of men would turn out and follow them, but without avail, and they would perhaps come back the very next night and kill more sheep. The dog occasionally came around his master's house, but it was thought best not to kill him, as it was hoped he might be used to cause the destruction of the more dangerous offender. So a bell was put on him, and he was left to seek the company of his mistress, the project being that when that bell was heard at night some one should get up and kill the wolf. But she would never go by a house in his company. The bell has been heard coming along a road, toward a lonely house, when the owner would arise and wait, with loaded rifle, the ap- pearance of the great marauder. But presently the dog would go trotting along, alone. The next morning it would be seen by the tracks that, while the dog trotted carelessly by, the wolf had gotten over the fence some distance from the house, gone around, and reentered the road on the other side. At length the people of the neighborhood three miles south- ward from North Collins became satisfied that she had a litter of whelps in the vicinity, and thought they could at least cap- ture them, even if the old one was too much for them. They made up a company of fourteen, which searched the woods until at length the prize was found in a lair made in the boughs of a basswood, which had been felled for browse. Seven puppy-whelps, half-dog, half-wolf, were taken from the lair, and just as the last one was drawn out, the maternal head of the family put in an appearance, a short distance away. The men seized their guns, but, ere one of them could take aim, the madam comprehended the situation and vanished in the forest. The scalps of her unfortunate family were taken to Springville, and thirty dollars apiece received for them from the proper offi- cials, sixty dollars being the bounty on full-grown wolves. Young Hale, who was one of the party of fourteen, received fifteen dollars for his share. Since the whelps were only half- wolf, a question might have been raised by casuists as to whether the captors were entitled to more than half the usual bounty, but since both father and mother were sheep-killers, probably the officials thought the spirit of the law was complied with. 340 IGNOMINIOUS EXECUTIONS. Madam Wolf did not return to that neighborhood, but estab- lished herself on the farm of Samuel Tucker, about a mile from North Collins, and began to make her accustomed raids. Mr. T. determined to ensnare her, but knew that she had always avoided traps with remarkable skill, and therefore took extra precautions. Having killed a calf, he placed a part of it in a corn- field, putting in the midst of the bait a common fox -trap which had been dipped in melted tallow, and heavily coated with that material. This destroyed the smell of the iron, and the gray depredator was at last outwitted and caught. A heavy clog being attached to the trap, she was unable to drag it away, and daylight revealed her misfortune to her enemies. Word was sent out, and the men and boys from miles around assembled to see the dreaded foe of the sheepfold. She was slain amid universal rejoicing, and Mr. Tucker received sixty dollars for her scalp. Her canine friend met with a still more ignominious fate. One Sunday he ventured to approach a house whence all the family had gone to a Quaker meeting, save one woman. Recognizing the sheep-slayer, she determined on his destruction, but having no fire-arms, or not knowing how to use them, she was obliged to depend on strategy. First she arranged a rope into a slip-noose. Next she pulled down the long, heavy well-sweep and fastened it to the curb. Then giving the dog some food, she invited him up to the well, managed to slip the noose over his neck, fastened it to the small end of the sweep, and loosened the sweep from the curb. The heavy end went down with a rush, and in an instant the sheep- killer was hanging a dozen feet above the ground. Besides the four-footed wild game, pigeons were a frequent resource in their season, especially for the Indians. Not merely the few that can be shot as they fly, but the vast numbers that can be obtained from their nests. The banks of the Cattarau- gus were celebrated as their resorts, and a little west of Spring- ville, on both sides of the creek, there were millions of nests. The whole tribe used to go out from Buffalo creek to get a supply. They were obtained by cutting down the trees, and of this, as of all other work, the squaws at that time did the greater part. Mr. C. C. Smith, of Springville, says he has seen the BLACK ROCK AND BUFFALO. 34I squaws cut down trees from two to three feet through, getting fifty or sixty nests from one tree. Each nest contained a single "squab," that is a fat young pigeon, big enough to eat, but not big enough to fly. Occasionally, but very rarely, there were two in a nest. These were scalded, salted and dried by the thou- sand, furnishing food most acceptable to the Indians and not despised by the whites. While the country was thus divided between raising crops, starting villages and hunting game, the embryo city at the head of the Niagara was beginning to make rapid progress. At the time of the formation of Erie county it had nearly two thousand inhabitants. Black Rock, too, which had long remained an insignificant liamlet, was now rapidly advancing, and was making desperate efforts to secure the termination of the grand cahal. General Porter had returned home from his work of locating the inter- national boundary, had resumed a portion of his former influ- ence, and was the leader of the Black Rock forces in their con- test with Buffalo. As Black Rock still had the only harbor in the vicinity, as not a ship was built at, nor sailed from, any other American port within a hundred miles, her chances of success appeared good, and the little village grew even faster than Buffalo. It was mostly situated on Niagara street, at the foot of the hill north of the site of Fort Porter. In Buffalo, the main part of the business was transacted on Main street, between Crow (Exchange) street and the court- house park. There were also numerous residences in the same quarter. Other dwellings, more or less scattered, occupied parts of Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Tuscarora streets, for these were still the appellations of the highways now known respect- ively as Ellicott, Washington, Pearl and Franklin. There were also a few dwellings on the cross-streets. The town was sup- posed to be rich enough, and the people gay enough, so that some one had built a place of entertainment called the Buffalo Theater, but there are indications that it was not very largely patronized. Near Chippewa market there was a swampy place, and a gully carried its waters toward the river, crossing Main street 342 THE BAR IN 182O. near Chippewa. All the northeastern part of the present city was low ground, unoccupied and untilled. Not far up Busti avenue (Genesee street) there was a log causeway, whither the girls and boys went in summer to pick the blackberries growing beside it. As far up as Cold Spring, an irregular line of forest came up to within from forty to a hundred rods of Main street. About this time, or a little later, after a grand squirrel-hunt, lasting all one day, the two parties of hunters, which had been led by two young lawyers, Frederick B. Merrill and Joseph Clary, met the next day to count their game at a spring near Delaware street, just north of Virginia. They selected that place because there the woods came from the west to Delaware street, affording a pleas- ant shade. Mr. Clary was a new addition to the Erie county bar, in which he afterwards took a fair rank. There were none as yet, how- ever, of that remarkable galaxy of lawyers who, fifteen years later, made the bar of Erie county celebrated throughout the State. Albert H. Tracy was probably the peer in intellect of any of them, but he devoted himself largely to politics, and seldom appeared in the legal arena. Potter, Walden, Harrison, Sheldon, Clary, Moseley, Moulton, and "Old Counselor Root" were the leading ' practitioners. Sheldon Smith came a little later. Counselor John Root, a big, round-shouldered, slouching man, whose practice was beginning to decline on account of drink and idleness, was the " charac- ter" of the Erie county bar in 1820. Two-thirds of the jokes and sharp sayings related by the older members of the bar, are attributed to "Old Counselor Root." As in other cases of a similar kind, it is quite likely that he has been saddled with more than is really chargeable to him, but there is no doubt of his great readiness in repartee and tact in management. H. W. Rogers, Esq., has collected a number of anecdotes of Mr. Root, in his essay before the Historical Society, entitled, " Wits of the Buffalo Bar." Some of them I will transfer into this "Miscellaneous" chapter, to give a side-light on the men and manners of half a century ago. He was not inclined to spare even the court, and on one occa- sion, when somewhat excited by liquor, in commenting on an "OLD COUNSELOR ROOT." 343 adverse decision of the judge, he declared that it could only be compared with the celebrated decree of Pontius Pilate. "Sit down, Mr. Root, sit down," angrily exclaimed the judge; " you are drunk, sir." The old counselor slowly sank into his chair, saying, in rather low tones, but loud enough to be heard by all around : "That is the only correct decision your honor has made during the whole term." The court and bar were compelled to laugh, and Root escaped without further censure. Some time afterwards a young lawyer, who perhaps thought he could be as brusque before the court as the old counselor, re- ceived an unfavorable decision with the indignant exclamation that he was astonished at the judgment of the court. He was immediately arraigned for contempt. Finding himself in trouble, he besought Root to help him. The latter drew himself up to the utmost of his great height, and, in the most solemn and dignified manner, besought the court to pardon the offender. " I know," said he, " that our brother is to blame. But he is young — quite young. If he had been at this bar as long as I have, your honor, he would long since have ceased to be aston- ished at any decision which this honorable court might make." The Court of Common Pleas, in the absence of its first judge, was once held by the senior side-judge. Not being overstocked with brains, and being entirely without experience as a presiding judge, business dragged sadly under his administration. The lawyers made irrelevant motions and interminable speeches, and the court was powerless to control them. One morning the temporary presiding judge and several lawyers, among whom was Root, met in the court-house hall, just before the time for opening court. Something was said about the slowness of the proceedings, when the judge observed: "I only wish some way could be devised for shortening the lawyers' tongues." "Perhaps, your honor," said the old counselor quietly, "the same object could be effected by shortening the judges' ears." In those times a charivari, or "horning," was the frequent accompaniment of a wedding. On one occasion, occurring" in Amherst or Clarence, the father and brothers of the bride re- sented the advent of the discordant crowd around their home by 344 A FERTILE son,. firing on them with guns loaded with peas, wounding two or three of the number. For this they were duly indicted and brought to trial. Counselor Root defended them. One of the wounded persons, a rough, unkempt-looking fellow, testified to the shooting, and to being hit with peas in the calf of the leg. On the cross-examination, Root insisted that he should pull up the leg of his pantaloons and show where he was shot. The witness hesitated but did as requested, displaying a limb thickly covered with dirt. It looked as if it had never known the use of soap or water. "There" said he, pointing to a spot even more thickly in- crusted than the rest, "is where the peas went in." "And when," queried Root, "did the shooting occur.^" "About six weeks ago," replied the witness. "Oh, nonsense!" exclaimed the counselor, "if there had been any peas planted in that soil six weeks ago, they would have been four inches high by this time!" OFFICIAL AND POSTAL. 345 CHAPTER XXXI. 1821 TO 1824. Oftloial and I'ostal. — Military and Journalislic. — Dramatic Scenes. — Kauquatau Condemned. — The Flight and the Return. — The Wiles of So-onongise. — The Execution. — -The Arrest. — -A Primitive Court-room. — The Trial. — Red Jacket's Philippic. — Im|)otent Conclusion. — ICllicott's ResiLjnation. — The Old- est Physician. — A Sardinia Merciiant.— Puffalo Ilarijor. — Ingenious Channel- Cutting. — A Warlike Pile-driver. — Loss of the Walk-in-the- Water. — A Haz- ardous Bond. — First Work on the Canal. — New Constitution. — Officers under it. — Other Officials. — Millard Fillmore. — A Vigorous Race. — Alden and Frie. — "Cayuga Creek." — Beginning at Tonawanda. — Other Matters. — An Uneventful Year. — Easier Payments. In the spring of 1821 Judge Forward was elected to the State senate, but neither of the two assemblymen from this district were residents of Erie county. Roswell Chapin was appointed surrogate in place of Dr. Johnson. Later in the season Samuel Russell was chosen a delegate to the State constitutional con- vention. The supervisors for the year, so far as known, were Ebenezer Waldcn of Buffalo, Oziel Smith of Amherst, O. R. Hopkins of Clarence, Ebenezer Ilolmes of Wales, Lemuel Wasson of Hamburg, James Green of Eden, John Twining of Boston, Mitchell Corliss of Holland, Elihu Rice of Sardinia, and John Lawton of Collins. A new post-office was established during the year at P^ast Plamburg, with Lewis Arnold as postmaster, and one at Wales, with Wm. A. Burt as postmaster. The latter gentleman had pre- viously begun the business of merchandising in Wales, by sell- ing a few goods in his house, according to the custom before spoken of. P>om one of the "military commissions" so fre- quently published at this era, one learns that in 1821, Abner Currier, of Holland, was made colonel, and Josiah luncry, of Aurora, lieutenant-colonel, of the 170th regiment of infantry; Hiram Yaw, of Boston, colonel of the 48th regiment, and Robert Kerr, lieutenant-colonel. About this time Truman Cary resigned a commission as lieutenant-colonel. Necessarily, 23 346 STARTLING EVENTS. I mention only the ofificers of whom there happens to be a record. Frederick Richmond, of Springville, was a brigadier-general about the same time. The change of name of the county made it necessary for the two newspapers in it to drop their old appellations. So the Ni- agara Patriot (whilom the Buffalo Gazette) became the Buffalo Patriot, and the Niagara Journal, the Buffalo Journal. Scarcely had the county of Erie entered on its separate career, when there occurred within its limits a series of events of start- ling and dramatic character, which show as vividly as anything in American history how closely civilization treads upon the footsteps of barbarism — how narrow in our country is the space which separates the bloody rites of the savage council from the stately deliberations of the Anglo-Saxon tribunal. The facts in the case are derived from Stone's Life of Red Jacket, the papers of the period, and the reminiscences of Mr. James Aigin. In the spring of 1821 a Seneca Indian died of some lingering disease, the nature of which was incomprehensible by the medi- cine-men. They accordingly attributed it to sorcery, and desig- nated as the culprit a squaw named Kauquatau, who had nursed the deceased during his sickness. A council was assembled, and, after such evidence as the case admitted of, Kauquatau was solemnly pronounced guilty, and sentenced to death. The frightened woman fled to Canada. The Indians were shrewd enough not to attempt her execution there, nor even in the United States, off from their own reserva- tion. Some of them followed her to Canada, and by some means, doubtless by false promises of security, persuaded her to recross the Niagara. Among her betrayers was the chief, So-onongise, commonly called by the whites Tonnny Jimmy, who had been secretly ap- pointed her executioner. On the second day of May, Mr. Aigin states that he saw Tommy Jimmy treating Kauquatau from a bottle of whisky, in the streets of Buffalo. The blandishments of the chieftain and the quality of his liquor were too much for poor Kauquatau, and toward night she accompanied her pre- tended friend across the reservation line, which, as will be re- membered, ran close to the village. No sooner had she done so than the friend disappeared and the EXECUTION OF A WITCH. 347 executioner showed himself. Drawing his knife, Tommy Jimmy seized the wretched woman and cut her throat, kilhna; her on the instant. Then, leaving her on the ground where he had slain her, making no attempt to conceal the body, he strode off to the Indian village, doubtless feeling that he had done his country good service. The next morning she was found by the whites, lying near Buffalo creek, only a short distance above Pratt's ferry. A cor- oner's inquest was held, and, as the Indians made no conceal- ment, it was easily ascertained that Tommy Jimmy was the murderer. It appears to have been the first event of the kind which had become known in Erie county, though Mary Jem- ison says there was scarcely a year passed, while the tribe lived on the Genesee, that one or more persons (generally wo- men) were not killed as witches. The claim of sovereignty over the reservation, set up by the Indians, did not reconcile the whites to the shocking occurrence, and it was determined to bring the slayer to trial. Stephen G. Austin, then a young lawyer and justice of the peace, issued a warrant. The constable to whom it was first given objected to going out among a tribe of savages to arrest one of their most popular chiefs, and Pascal P. Pratt, uncle of the gentleman who now bears that name, was deputized for the purpose. He was well acquainted with Tommy Jimmy and was a particular friend of Red Jacket. Pratt found the culprit at the house of the orator. Making- known his mission, he advised them to yield peacefully, and make whatever defense they might have, before the courts. Red Jacket pledged himself that Tommy Jimmy should appear before Austin the next day, and Pratt departed, perfectly satis- fied that he would come. Punctually, at the hour appointed, Sagoyewatha and So-onon- gise came before the young justice of the peace, accompanied by a crowd of other Indians. The whites, also, gathered in numbers, and, as Austin's office was small, he held his court on a pile of timber across the road from it. The slaying was ad- mitted, the jurisdiction of the whites denied, and the victim de- clared to be a witch, executed in accordance with Indian law. Austin, however, committed the slayer to jail, to take his trial in a higher court. 348 A REMARKABLE TRIAL. So-onOngise, alias Tommy Jimmy, was duly indicted for murder. The Indians obtained the assistance of able counsel, who put in a plea to the jurisdiction of the court, claiming that Kauquatau was executed in accordance with Indian law, on In- dian land. This was denied by the district-attorney, and the question was sent to a jury for trial. Thus it was that at the Erie county Oyer and Terminer, in June, 1 82 1, there occurred one of the most singular trials re- corded in legal annals. The court-house was crowded by a motley throng of red men and white men, the latter drawn by curiosity, the former by intense interest in the fate of their brother, and intense anxiety regarding their own privileges. All the lights of the Buftalo bar were there, eager to know how this curious legal complication would result. Tommy Jimmy, a middle-aged and fairly intelligent Indian, though the center of observation, sat perfectly unmoved, and doubtless considered himself a martyr. By his side was Red Jacket, acting as amateur counsel, and wearing his stateliest de- meanor. He still had sufficient self-control to force himself into a few days sobriety on great occasions, and was in full posses- sion of his faculties. When the jurors were called he scanned every man with his piercing eye, formed his opinion as to his bias, and communicated to the regular counsel his decision in favor of acceptance or rejection. After several other witnesses had been sworn, Red Jacket was put on the stand by the counsel for the accused. The prosecut- ing attorney sought to exclude him by inquiring if he believed in a God. "More truly than one who could ask me such a question," was his haughty reply. When asked what rank he held in his nation, he answered contemptuously : "Look at the papers which the white people keep the most carefully ; they will tell you what I am." He referred to the treaties which ceded the Indian lands to the whites. Like the other Indians he testified that the woman had been condemned by a regular council, in accordance with immemo- rial law, and that So-onongise had been duly authorized to exe- cute the decree. Seeing, or imagining, that some of the lawyers RED jacket's philippic. 349 were disposed to ridicule his views of witchcraft, he broke out' in a fierce phiHppic, which, as interpreted, was thus pubHshed in the Albany Argus, one of whose editors was present : "What ! Do you denounce us as fools and bigots because we still believe what you yourselves believed two centuries ago ? Your black-coats thundered this doctrine from the pulpit, your judges pronounced it from the bench, and sanctioned it with the formalities of law ; and would you now punish our unfortunate brother for adhering to the faith of his fathers and of yours ? Go to Salem! Look at the records of your own government, and you will find that thousands have been executed for the very crime which has called forth the sentence of condemna- tion against this woman, and drawn down upon her the arm of vengeance. What have our brothers done more than the rulers of your people .-' And what crime has this man committed, by executing in a summary way the laws of his country and the command of the Great Spirit ?" As Red Jacket had certainly not read the story of Salem witchcraft, he must haye informed himself by conversation be- fore the trial, doubtless for the express purpose of making a well-studied point against the pale-faces. His appearance as he delivered his philippic, his tall form drawn up to its utmost height, his head erect and his black eye flashing with ire, is said to have been impressive in the extreme. On the question of fact submitted to them, the jury found that Kauquatau was really executed in accordance with Indian law. The legal question still remained as to whether this would exempt him from punishment. The case was removed by certio- rari to the Supreme Court, where it was argued the ensuing August. The result was a most lame and impotent conclusion of so dramatic a trial. No judgment was rendered. The court, being unable to deny that the Indians had from the beginning been recognized to a certain extent as independent peoples, and yet unwilling to decide that they had absolute authority to com- mit murder, permitted the discharge of the prisoner by the consent of the attorney-general. Laws were afterwards passed, subjecting the Indians to the same penalties for crimes as the whites. In the autumn of 1821 Joseph Ellicott, the founder of Buf- falo, resigned the local agency of the Holland Company, which he had held for twenty-one years. There had been considerable 350 ELLICOTTS RETIREMENT. dissatisfaction on the part of the settlers, during the latter years of his administration, but it principally originated in the difficulty of keeping up the payments on their lands, in the hard times succeeding the war. Probably the chief fault of the com- pany and its agents was in permitting men to buy large tracts without any substantial payment in advance, and in letting the occupants get so far in arrears as they did during the first ten or fifteen years. There is nothing like a steady, gentle pres- sure to stimulate industry and compel frugality. Mr. E.'s mind was still clear, but he had already developed that tendency toward hypochondria which, after five years of inaction, led to the insanity and final suicide of one who had been for two de- cades the most influential man in Western New York. Jacob S. Otto, of Philadelphia, took his place as local agent. Among the new comers was one who has had an exceptional career. Dr. George Sweetland, then about twenty-three years old, located himself, in 1821, in the woods where now stands the little village, of East Evans, and began practicing as a physi- cian. During all the fifty-five years since that time he has re- mained at the same place, engaged in the duties of his profes- sion, being now the oldest and earliest practitioner in Erie county. In the earlier part of his professional career, he fre- quently visited Eden, Hamburg and Collins, riding on horse- back as was the wont of country doctors. Sometimes, when the roads were at their worst, he took his saddle-bags on his arm, and went on foot five or six miles to visit a patient. Now, of course, his range is more circumscribed, but he still bravely up- holds the banner of Esculapius, which he unfurled fifty-five years ago. In the same year Chauncey Hastings opened the first store in what is now Sardinia village, and the first of any consequence in the town. There were then but three houses in the "village." He was the only merchant there for over twenty-five years. Afterwards he built a hotel which he kept for an equal length- of time, being, as may easily be seen, the principal business man of the town. As soon as spring opened in 182 1, superintendent Wilkeson recommenced work on the Buffalo harbor. The mouth of the creek was sixty rods north of where it now is, the stream run- UNIQUE ENGINEERING. 3^1 ning- for that distance nearly parallel with the lake. The ridge between them was found to be of gravel, so solid that it could not be removed, (as was necessary to make a new mouth and a straight channel,) by manual labor, without immense expense. The method adopted was so ingenious as to be worthy of es- pecial mention. A stout dam was built across the creek just below where it turned to the north. Then a small opening was made in the gravel at the end of the dam next the lake, when the imprisoned water rushed around it, tearing out a great hole in the ridge. Then the dam was advanced still further westward, and the stream re- moved more gravel. The process was repeated until a straight channel, large enough for small vessels, was cut clear through into the lake. In this and other parts of the work it was absolutely neces- sary to have a pile-driver, and impossible to get one of the usual make. So one was improvised for the occasion, the ham- mer being composed of an old mortar which had been used in the war of i8i2. The trunnions were knocked off, and it served the needs of peace better, I am afraid, than it had those of war. The harbor was completed in the summer of 1821, two hun- dred and twenty-one working days having been occupied in its construction. In November, Lake Erie lost the pioneer of her steam-marine, the solitary and celebrated Walk-in-the-Water. Having just left Black Rock one afternoon, and being struck by a squall about four miles above Bird Island, she lay at anchor all night, and the next morning was driven ashore near the light-house. No lives were lost, but the Walk-in-the-Water had sustained such serious injuries that she ceased forever from her aquatic pedestrianism. Steps, however, were immediately taken to supply her place; and in January, 1822, an agent of an eastern company came on to select a place to build a new steamer, and make a contract for the same. He was directed to build at Buffalo, unless he should be satisfied that its harbor was not available. He went to Black Rock first, and its people soon satisfied hin> that the new harbor was useless, laying especial stress on the assertion that it would remain filled with ice after the lake was clear in the spring. The 352 A HAZARDOUS BARGAIN. agent thereupon made arrangements to build at Black Rock, and went to Buffalo to have the papers drawn. The Buffalonians heard what was going on, and an excited crowd gathered around the hotel where he was staying. To have it decided that their harbor was not fit to build a steam- boat in might be ruinous. It was rumored that the agent was about to return east the next morning, and no time was to be lost. Judge Wilkeson was deputed to wait on him. His only instructions were to get the steamboat. "Make any arrangement you think necessary," said the citi- zens, "and we will stand by you." The committee of one entered the agent's room, introduced himself, and asked why he did not propose to build at Buffalo, as his principals expected. That gentleman gave the reasons which had prompted his action, naming especially the danger that the steamer would be detained by ice. Wilkeson promptly replied : "We will furnish timber at a quarter less than Black Rock prices, and give a judgment-bond with ample security, provid- ing for the payment of a hundred and fifty dollars for every day the boat shall be detained in the creek, beyond the first of May." The offer was at once accepted, the necessary arrangements were made, a contractor was found for the timber, and the bond agreed upon was signed by nearly every responsible citizen. The building of the vessel soon began, and went steadily forward. As spring approached the citizens looked for a freshet to clear out the loose sand, gravel, etc., which still remained in the har- bor. A freshet did come, but, as there was a large bank of ice at the new mouth of the creek, the high water carried an im- mense amount of sediment upon it, making a formidable dam. Several expedients were tried for removing it, but without avail Meanwhile the first of May was approaching. At length it was evident that extraordinary exertions must be made, or the citizens would be saddled with a bill for damages on their bond, which at that time would have been enormous. A subscription of $1,361 was raised*; a little in cash, the rest in goods or labor. Dr. Johnson subscribed the largest sum, $1 10, "in goods at cash prices." The other amounts ranged from a hundred dollars THE CANAL BEGUN. 353 down to two. One man subscribed "a certain brown cow with a white head, to be appraised by the harbor commissioners." By the energetic use of the aid thus provided, a channel was cut through by the 1st of May. On that day the steamboat, which had been named the "Superior," went down to test it. The work was still incomplete and the channel dangerous, but the pilot was 'a Bufifalonian who thoroughly understood the track ; he took the Superior safely through and the bond was cancelled. All this while there had been a continuous contest between the Buffalonians and Black Rockers, to influence the canal com- missioners in the selection of a terminus. The Black Rock men also built a pier to enclose a harbor, and General Porter's influence was strong in favor of his village. In this as in other contests Judge Wilkeson led the Buffalonians, and his arguments before the commissioners and other officials, though perhaps lacking in grace, and delivered with all the energy of the most energetic of men, went straight to the point and were eminently effective. At length the controversy was decided in favor of Buftlalo, and on the 9th of August, 1823, work on the grand canal was begun in Erie county. Ground was broken near the Commer- cial-street bridge, in Buffalo. There was of course a celebration, including procession, speech-making, etc. The assembled crowd were so eagerly interested in the great work that they did not content themselves with the formal removal of a few spadefuls, but fell in procession behind the contractor's ploughs, and fol- lowed them for half a mile, with music playing and cannon firing. "Then," says the account, "they partook of a beverage furnished by the contractor," and afterwards dispersed with vociferous cheers. During the summer of 1822, a new State constitution was formed, and adopted by the people. By its provisions sheriffs and county clerks were to be elected by the people instead of appointed — each holding for three years. Justices of the peace and district-attorneys were appointed by the judges of the Common Pleas and the board of supervisors, acting conjointly. All other judicial officers were appointed by the governor and senate. Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties became the thirtieth congressional district, entitled to one 354 OFFICIAL, MILITARY AND POSTAL. member. At this time, too, the date of holding elections was changed' from April to November. Accordingly, in the fall of 1822, Wray S. Ivittlefield, of Ham- burg, was elected sheriff, and Jacob A. Barker, of Bufifalo, son of the pioneer judge, Zenas Barker, was chosen county clerk. At the same time Albert H. Tracy was elected to Congress for the third time. Considering that he was still on the sunny side of thirt}% his success was something astonishing. Ebenezer F. Norton, a Buffalo lawyer, was chosen member of assembly, and about the same time Dr. Josiah Trowbridge was appointed a judge of the Common Pleas. The supervisors for 1822, the rec- ords of whose election have been preserved, were Ebenezer Walden of Bufifalo, Oziel Smith of Amherst, Otis R. Hopkins of Clarence, Ebenezer Holmes of Wales, Lemuel Wasson of Hamburg, James Green of Eden, John Twining of Boston, Mitchell Corliss of Holland, Benoni Tuttle of Sardinia, and Henry Joslin of Collins. The military record shows no lack of epauletted gentlemen. The 17th regiment of cavalry was evidently a Bufifalo institu- tion, of which, in 1822, S. K. Grosvenor was appointed colonel; David S. Conkey, lieutenant-colonel ; and Lucius Storrs, major. Of the 13th regiment of infantry Orange Mansfield (of Clar- ence) was made colonel; Francis Lincoln, lieutenant-colonel; and George Stow, major. The same commission appointed Earl Sawyer, lieutenant-colonel, and Asa Wells, major, of the iSist regiment of infantry. Several new post-ofifices were established this year. One was at Holland, with Lyman Clark as postmaster. One was in Collins, named Angola, (at Taylor's Hollow,) with Jacob Taylor, the old Quaker instructor of the Indians, as postmaster. There was already one in Evans, called Eden, in which town it had originally been included, and in this year there was one es- tablished in Eden, with John M. Welch for postmaster, which, by some blunder, was called Evans. These names were soon afterwards transposed so as to give each town a post-office of its own name. Col. Asa Warren removed to "Hill's Corners" in 1822, and built a large hotel, though in two or three years he gave up keeping it on account of scruples against selling liquor. This MILLARD FILLMORE. 355 was about the time of the earhest development of feeling on that subject. Fillmore & Johnson had a small store there a little later, the place began to take village shape, and people began to call it " Eden Corners." The allowance of three post-offices for the single town of Hamburg seems to have been thought altogether too extrava- gant by tlie department. So " East Hamburg," " Smithville " and " Barkersville " were all discontinued, and a new office, called " Hamburg," was established at Abbott's Corners, under Harry Abbott as postmaster, as stated in the journals of the day. The old office called " Hamburg," at John Green's tavern, must have been previously discontinued. Another post-office was also established in 1822, at "West Clarence," of which Simeon Fillmore was the first postmaster. Apropos of that name, it was in the spring of 1822 that a tall young man, of stalwart form, open countenance and pleasing demeanor, came from an eastern county and entered the law office of Joseph Clary. This was Millard Fillmore, the future President of the^United States. Born in Cayuga county, at the very beginning of the century, he had passed his boyhood amid the privations of a backwoods farm, and had in early youth learned the trade of a clothier. Approaching man's estate, his aspiring mind had sought more congenial employment in the study of the law. A lawyer who appreciated his abilities gave him some assistance, and tlie young man supported himself partly by working at his trade, and partly by teaching a country school. Meanwhile his father, Nathaniel Fillmore, had emi- grated to Aurora in this county, about the same time that his (Nathaniel's) brother Calvin moved thither from Clarence. Mil- lard, as before stated, followed in 1822, and continued his law studies in Buffalo. AH of the elder Fillmores were men of powerful frame, and all had considerable local prominence, such as is often gained in country-towns by sensible though not highly educated men. Simeon was supervisor of Clarence several years. Calvin was a prominent local politician, a colonel of militia, and at one time a member of the assembly. Millard's father, Nathaniel, was less noted, but was for several years a justice of the peace, and was generally recognized as a man of unblemished integrity and 3S^ ALDEN AND ERIE. sound judgment. Of Glezen Fillmore, the son of Simeon. I have spoken at some length before. Young Millard continued his studies through the summer, and in the winter taught a school at Cold Spring. It is said that the young school-teacher and law-student was recognized as a man of considerable ability, and that some of his admirers predicteci that he would vet fill a seat in the State legislature ! In the spring of 1823 he was admitted to practice in the county court, and immediately opened an office at Aurora. He was the first lawyer in the county, outside of Buffalo and Black Rock. Another gentleman in the southern part of the county, whom I must mention oa account of his prominence and his long pro- fessional career, was Dr. Carlos Emmons, who in 1823 settled at Springville. For nearly half a century he practiced his pro- fession there, besides filling many important positions, and onl\' within the last year has he passed away from life. Early in that year the legislature erected two new towns from Clarence — Alden and Erie. The former occupied the same ter- ritory as now, with the nominal addition of part of the reserva- tion opposite. The name of the latter was afterwards changed to Newstead, and the existence of the previous town of Erie, which was formed in 1804 and obliterated in 1808, has caused remarkable confusion among the statisticians. All the gazet- teers, civil-lists, etc.. that I have seen, state that the town of Newstead was "formed as Erie, in 1804," whereas the town of Erie, which was formed in 1804. had ceased to exist for fifteen \'ears when the town of Erie which afterwards became Newstead was erected, and the two "Fries" were six miles apart at the nearest point. The town-records of Newstead were burned a few years as. • but those of Alden ha\"e been preserved and show that the fi:v- town-meeting was held at the house of Washburn Parker, on tU 27th day of May, 1823, when Edmond Badger was elected t'.i : first supervisor. It is said that Alden was so designated by one of its citizens after the name of his wife's mother, and \v thereupon for several years denominated " Grannytown," by t i - irreverent youth of the period. Clarence, after the division, still included the present Lan- caster, making a town six miles wide and nearly twenty long. LANCASTER AND TONAWANDA. 357 The south part, however, had grown so that the next winter a post-office was established at the present village of Lancaster, by the name of " Cayuga Creek ; " Thomas Gross being the first postmaster. The grand canal was now fixirly under way in this section. All along the banks of the Niagara, from Buffalo to Tonawanda creek, ploughs and spades were busily at work. Early in the winter the commissioners had let the contract for a dam at the mouth of that creek to Judge Wilkeson and Dr. Johnson, and throughout the summer of 1823 those energetic business men kept that locality alive with the noise of a host of laborers. Mr. Wilkeson also established a store there, the first one nearer than Williamsville. Soon afterwards, Tracy, Tovvnsend and other Buffalonians formed a company, bought a tract of land, and laid oft" a village at that point. This was the beginning of Tonawanda, a place of which large expectations were formed, that waited long for their fulfillment, but which in the last ten years have been amply realized. The war between Buffalo and Black Rock was at its heiofht in 1823, the champions of the former place being the Buffalo Patriot and the Buffalo Journal, and that of the latter the Black Rock Beacon, which had been started the year before. This was the time when the fortunes of Black Rock reached their climax, its citizens being still inspired by the hope of having a "cut off"," wdiich should give them the actual terminus of the canal. It was probably nearly half as large as Buffalo. But thenceforward it stood nearly still, until it was absorbed in Buff"alo and began to share its growth. Buffalo's lack of a harbor had been so fully remedied in 1823 that, on the 12th of July, one of her journals proudly boasted of twenty-nine vessels at her wharves at once. The imports in- cluded cedar posts, flax-seed, corn, oats, whisky, maple-sugar, ashes, and gmseng. No wheat nor flour that time — though wheat and flour occasionally came, in small quantities. In the spring of this year (1823) Mr. Wilkeson resigned his judicial position, and kbenezer Walden, the pioneer lawyer of the county, was appointed first judge of the Common Tleas. In the fall the ex-judge was selected to represent the county in the assembly. ^SS AN UNEVENTFUL YEAR. The Lindestroyed records show the following supervisors elected in 1823 and '24, nearly all of them serving both years : Buffalo, Josiah Trowbridge; Amherst, John Grove and Oziel Smith; Clarence, Simeon Fillmore; Alden, Edmond Badger; Wales, Ebenezer Holmes; Hamburg, Lemuel Wasson ; Eden, James Green and Asa Warren ; Boston, John Twining ; Holland, Mitchell Corliss; Sardinia, Morton Crosby and Horace Clark; Collins, Stephen White and Nathaniel Knight. The year 1824 was not an eventful one in Erie county. The canal was nearly finished within the county limits, and only awaited the completion of the great cut through the mountain ridge at Lockport, and some work of less importance on either side. While it was thus in progress its great advocate, DeWitt Clinton, who after being governor many years was then serving as canal commissioner, was removed from that humble but im- portant office through partisan hostility. This ungrateful act roused the intense resentment of a large portion of the people, and in the fall he received an independent nomination for gov- ernor, and was triumphantly elected. Erie county remembered her benefactor and gave him a handsome majority. At the same time Colonel Calvin Fillmore, of Aurora, was chosen to represent the county in the assembly, and Judge Wilkeson was elected to the senate. Daniel G. Garnsey, of Chautauqua county, was elected to Congress. Mr. Tracy de- clined a renomination for that position, and in the winter was nominated by the State senate for United States senator, though then but thirty-one years of age. The assembly, however, failed to concur, and on a subsequent joint ballot another aspirant was elected. Another weekly paper was established this year, by Lazelle & Francis, called the Buffalo Emporium. Not far from the time under consideration, certainly during the administration of Mr. Otto as local agent, the Holland Company adopted a system of receiving from the settlers the products of their farms, in payment for land. Agents yearly received cattle at certain advertised points, and endorsed the value thereof on the contracts. Turner states that, while the measure was highly beneficial to the settlers, the company, by reason of the expense of agencies, etc., lost largely by the new system. AN EXCITING SEARCH. 359 CHAPTER XXXII. A YEAR OF SENSATIONS. An Exciting Search. — The Thayers. — John Love. — The Shooting Match. — Tlie Dis- covery. — The Trial. — -The Confession. — The Execution. — Reception of La- fayette. — Interview -with Red Jacket. — An Amusing Episode. — Major Noah. — Ararat. — Laying the Corner-stone. — Noah's Proclamation. — The End of Ararat. — The Climax of Absurdity. — Completion of the Canal. — The Grand Celebration.— De Witt Clinton. — The State Salute. — The Wedding of Lake and Ocean. — Political Matters. The quiet of 1824 was more than compensated by the excite- ments of 1825. Since the close of the war no such eventful twelvemonth had passed over the county of Erie. Early in the year the public first learned of a tragedy which became celebrated throughout the country, and to which old residents of Western New York still look back as the event most deeply branded on their memories. For many reasons I would be willing to omit all mention of this wretched event, yet it was so notorious that it would obviously be out of the question for any one to pretend to write a history of Erie county, without giving some account of the episode of " The Three Thayers." In the latter part of February, 1825, there was a great excite- ment in the town of Boston, especially in the northern portion. Men and boys were out on all the hillsides and in all the valleys, peering into bushes, looking under logs, exploring every nook where a human body might be secreted. They were searching for the corpse of John Love. Love was a Scotchman by birth, who made a practice of sailing the lake in summer and going on peddling tours in winter. He was an unmarried man, and for two or three years had made his headquarters among the Thayers, near North Boston. These were an old man, Israel Thayer, and his three sons, Nelson, Israel, Jr., and Isaac. The two first were married, though the oldest was but twenty-three years of age, the young- est of the three being nineteen. They were all in very humble 360 THE THREE THAYERS. circumstances, and the young men have generally been reputed as of reckless and evil character. On the other hand, it has been said by some who knew them well that their general be- havior was no worse than that of many young men, and that, had it not been for their subsequent crimes, their characters would have passed without special reprobation. S. V. R. Graves, Esq., of East Hamburg, so informed me, and added that either of them would share his last sixpence with an acquaintance, in case of need. Certain it is that the two oldest both married into respectable families. Love had acquired some money, which he was in the habit of loaning. He had lent some to the Thayers. During the sum- mer of 1824 he sailed in the employ of young Bennett, now the venerable Deacon Joseph Bennett, of Evans, then the owner and captain of a small vessel on the lake. Deacon Bennett declares Love to have been a penurious, grasping man, and says he has no doubt, from circumstances within his knowledge, that he was planning to get possession of all the little property the Tha}-ers had. In the fall of 1S24, Love, after returning from the lake to Boston, and remaining with the Thayers for awhile, suddenly disappeared. Little was thought oi it at first, as it was sup- posed he had gone on one of his peddling trips. Ere long, how- ever, it was noticed that the Thayers, usually so poor, were well supplied with money. Perhaps the first suspicion against them was aroused at a shooting-match in Boston, on Christmas day. Shots were a six- pence apiece, and sixpences were scarce in those times. Marks- men were in the habit of economizing, especially if they found themselves missing many shots. But all the afternoon the three Tha\-ers kept up a constant firing at the match-maker's turkeys, careless whether they hit or missed, and flinging out their six- pences with a profusion positively startling to the rural mind of that era. Soon, one or another of the young men was seen riding a fine horse which had belonged to Love, and which they said he had triven them. Einallv, with that fatuitv which so often lures criminals to their destruction, the Thayers attempted to collect notes and accounts, which they represented that Lo\e had left DISCOVERY. TRIAL AND CONVICTION. 36 1 with them for that purpose. The debtors demurred. One of them refused to pay because no power of attorney was pro- duced. In a few days a power of attorne}- was brought forward. Then suspicions rapidly grew rife. The Thayers were closely questioned as to Love's whereabouts, and their unsatisfactor}- answers increased the suspicions. At len