there being no intermediate settler. They camped out the third night; and the fourth, staid with John Harris on the Cayuga Lake. The parents of Gen. Parkhurst Whitney, of Niagara Falls, came through to Seneca Lake, in February, 1790, "camping out" three nights west of Rome. It is mentioned, in connection with some account of the early advent of Major Danforth, in May, 1788, that his wife saw no white woman in the first eight months. These incidents are cited, to remind the younger class of readers that the pioneers of this region not only came to a wilderness, but had a long and dreary one to pass through before arriving at their destination.

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The first name we find for all New York west of Albany, was that bestowed by the Dutch in 1638:- "Terra Incognita," or known land." It was next Albany county; in 1772 Tryon county (named from the then English Governor,) was set off, embracing all of the territory in this state west of a line drawn north and south that would pass through the centre of Schoharie county. Immediately after the Revolution the name was changed to Montgomery. All this region was in Montgomery county when settlement commenced. In 1788, all the region west of Utica was the town of Whitestown. The first town meeting was held at the "barn of Captain Daniel White, in said District, in April, 1789; Jedediah Sanger, was elected Supervisor. At the third town meeting, in 1791, Trueworthy Cook, of Pompey, and Jeremiah Gould of Salina, Onondaga county, and James Wadsworth of Geneseo, were chosen path masters. Accordingly, it may be noted that Mr. Wadsworth was the first path master west of Cayuga Lake. It could have been little more than the supervision of Indian trails; but the "warning" must have been an onerous task. Mr. Wadsworth had the year previous, done something at road making, which probably suggested the idea that he would make a good path master.* At the first general election for Whitestown, the polls were opened at Cayuga Ferry, adjourned to Onondaga, and closed at Whitestown. Herkimer county was taken from Montgomery in 1791, and included all west of the present county of Montgomery.

"The first road attempted to be made in this country, was in 1790, under the direction of the Wadsworths, from the settlement at Whitestown to Canandaigua through a country then very little explored, and then quite a wilderness."— [History of Onondaga.

CHAPTER III

THE

GENESEE COUNTRY AT THE PERIOD WHEN SETTLEMENT COMMENCED ITS POSITION IN REFERENCE TO CONTIGUOUS TERRITORY CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY GENERALLY AFTER THE REVOLUTION.

AT Geneva, (then called Kanadesaga) there was a cluster of buildings, occupied by Indian traders, and a few settlers who had come in under the auspices of the Lessee Company. Jemima Wilkinson, with her small colony, was upon her first location upon the west bank of Seneca Lake, upon the Indian Trail through the valley of the Susquehannah, and across Western New York to Upper Canada; the primitive highway of all this region; one or two white families had settled at Catherine's Town, at the head of Seneca Lake. A wide region of wilderness, separated the most northern and western settlements of Pennsylvania from all this region. All that portion of Ohio bordering upon the Lake, had, of our race, but the small trading establishment at Sandusky, and the military and trading posts upon the Maumee. Michigan was a wilderness, save the French village and the British garrison at Detroit, and a few French settlers upon the Detroit River and the River Raisin. In fact, all that is now included in the geographical designationthe Great West — was Indian territory, and had but Indian occupancy, with similar exceptions, to those made in reference to Michigan. In what is now known as Canada West, there had been the British occupancy, of a post opposite Buffalo, early known as Fort Erie, and a trading station at Niagara, since the expulsion of the French, in 1759. Settlement, in its proper sense, had its commencement in Canada West during the Revolution; was the offspring of one of its emergencies. Those in the then colonies who adhered to the King, fled there for refuge: for the protection offered by British dominion and armed occupancy. The termination of the struggle,

in favor of the colonies, and the encouragement afforded by the colonial authorities, gave an impetus to this emigration; yet at the period of the first commencement of settlement in Western New York, settlement in Canada West was confined to Kingston and its neighborhood, Niagara, Queenston, Chippewa, along the banks of the Niagara River, with a few small settlements in the immediate interior. Upon Lakes Erie and Ontario, there were a few British armed vessels, and three or four schooners were employed in the commerce, which was confined wholly to the fur trade, and the supplying of British garrisons.

Within the Genesee country, other than the small settlement at Geneva, and the Friend's settlement, which has been before mentioned, there were two or three Indian traders upon the Genesee River, a few white families who were squatters, upon the flats; one or two white families at Lewiston; one at Schlosser; a negro, with a squaw wife, at Tonawanda; an Indian interpreter, and two or three traders at the mouth of Buffalo creek, and a negro Indian trader at the mouth of Cattaragus creek. Fort Niagara was a British garrison. All else was Seneca Indian occupancy.

In all that relates to other than the natural productions of the soil, there was but the cultivation, in a rude way, of a few acres of flats, and intervals, on the river and creeks, wherever the Indians were located; the productions principally confined to corn, beans and squashes. In the way of cultivated fruit, there was in several localities, a few apple trees, the seeds of which had been planted by the Jesuit Missionaries; and they were almost the only relic left of their early, and long continued occupancy. At Fort Niagara and Schlosser, there were ordinary English gardens.

The streams upon an average, were twice as large as now; the clearing of the land, and consequent absorption of the water, having diminished one half, and perhaps more, the quantity of water then carried off through their channels. The primitive forests-other than those that were deemed of second growth-that are standing now, have undergone but little change, that of ordinary decay, growth, and re-production, but there are large groves of second growth, now consisting of good sized forest trees, that were sixty years ago but small saplings. The aged Senecas point out in many instances, swamps that are now thickly wooded, that they have known as open marshes, with but here and there a copse of under

wood. The origin of many marshes, especially upon the small streams, may be distinctly traced to the beaver; the erection of their dams, and the consequent flooding of the lands, having destroyed the timber. As the beaver gradually disappeared, the dams wore away, the water flowed off, and forest trees began to grow.

And here it may not be out of place to remark, that a very common error exists in reference to the adaptedness of certain kinds of forest trees to a wet soil. We find the soft maple, black ash, a species of elm, the fir, the spruce, the tamarack, the alder, and several other varieties of trees and shrubs growing in wet soils, and then draw the inference that wet soils are their natural localities. Should we not rather infer, that all this is accidental, or rather, to be traced to other causes, than that of peculiar adaptation? Take the case of land that has been flooded by the beaver: — the water has receded, and the open ground is prepared for the recep tion of such seeds as the winds, the floods, the birds and fowls, bring to it. It will be found that the seeds of those trees which predominate in the swamps, are those best adapted to the modes of transmission. The practical bearing of these remarks, has reference to the transplanting of trees from wet grounds. Wherever the ash, the fir, spruce, tamarack, high bush cranberry, soft maple, &c. have been transplanted upon up lands, and properly cared for, they furnish evidence that it was a casualty, not a peculiar adaptation, that placed them where found, generally stinted and unhealthy.

But little was known in the colonies of New York, and New England of Western New York, previous to the Revolution. During the twenty-four years it had been in the possession of the English, there had been a communication kept up by water, via Oswego and Niagara, to the western posts; and a few traders from the east visited the Senecas. The expeditions of Prideux and Bradstreet were composed partly of citizens of New England and New York, but they saw nothing of the interior of all this region. A few years previous to the Revolution, in 1765, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, whose name will appear in connexion with Indian treaties, in subsequent pages, extended his missionary labors to the Indian village of Kanadesaga, where he sojourned for several months, making excursions to the Genesee River, Tonawanda and Buffalo Creeks. He was the first protestant missionary among the Senecas, and with the exception of Indian traders, probably gave the people

of New England, the first account of the Genesee country.* But the campaign of Gen. Sullivan, in 1779, more than all else perhaps, served to create an interest in this region. The route of the army, after entering the Genesee country, was one to give them a favorable impression of it. They saw the fine region along the west shore of the Seneca Lake; and passing through what are now the towns of Seneca, Phelps, Gorham, Canandaigua, Bristol, Bloomfield, Richmond, Livonia, Conesus, they passed up and down the flats of the Genesee and the Canasoraga. To eyes that had rested only upon. the rugged scenery of New England, its mountains and rocky hill sides, its sterile soil and stinted herbage, the march must have afforded a constant succession of beautiful landscapes; and what was of greater interest to them, practical working men as they were, was the rich easily cultivated soil, that at every step caused them to look forward to the period when they could make to it a second adventa peaceful one-with the implements of agriculture, rather than the weapons of war. Returning to the firesides of Eastern New York, and New England, they relieved the dark picture of retaliatory warfare-the route, the flight, smouldering cabins, pillage and spoliations-with the lighter shades-descrip. tions of the Lakes and Rivers, the rolling up-lands and rich valleys -the Canaan of the wilderness, they had seen. But it was a far off land, farther off than would seem to us now, our remote possessions upon the Pacific; associated in the minds of the people of New England, with all the horrors of a warfare they had known upon their own extreme borders; the Revolution was not consum

The young missionary had first seen some of the young men of the Six Nations, at the mission school of the Rev. Mr. Wheelock in Lebanon, Connecticut, where they were his fellow students, among whom was Joseph Brant. Taking a deep interest in the spiritual welfare of their people, he got introduced to them as a missionary of Sir William Johnson. With Indian guides, carrying a pack containing his provisions, travelling upon snow shoes, and camping at night upon and under hemlock boughs, he reached the Indian settlement at the foot of Seneca Lake, or rather at the Seneca Castle. He was well received by the chief sachem of the village, and invited to remain; but another chief of the Pagan party of the village, soon made him much trouble, and in fact endangered his life, by accusing him of witchcraft-of being the cause of the sudden death of one of their people. He was tried and acquitted through the influence of his friend the chief sachem, and a trader from the Mohawk, by the name of Wemple, the father of Mrs. Gilbert Berry, and grandfather of Mrs. George Hosmer. After this he was uninterrupted in his missionary labors. Mr. Kirkland's influence with the Indians enabled him to do essential service during the Revolution, in diverting them from Butler and Brant.

*See Appendix, No. 5.