MOONEY] SIR WILLIAM .loHNSON CAI'T. JOHN STl'AKT 'iOS' 



Nations, over whom he acquireil a greater iiifliieiu-e than lias ever been exercised 

 by any other white man before or since. He was formally adopted as a chief by the 

 Mohawk trilie. In 1744, lieing still a very yoiwif; man, he was placed in charge of 

 Britisli affairs with the »Six Nations, and in 17.")5 was regnlarly commissioned at 

 their own urgent request as superintendent for the Six Nations and their dependent 

 and allied tribes, a position which he held for the rest of his life. In 1748 he was 

 also placed in command of the New York colonial forces, and two years later was 

 appointed to the governor's council. At the beginning of the French anil Indian war 

 he was commissioned a major-general. He defeated Dieskau at the battle of Lake 

 George, where he was severely wounded early in the action, hut refused to leave the 

 field. For this service he received the thanks of Parliament, a grant of £5,000, and 

 a haronetcv. He also distinguished himself at Ticonderoga and Fort Niagara, taking 

 the latter after routing the French army sent to its relief. At the head of his Indian 

 and colonial forces he took part in other actions and expeditions, and was present at 

 the surrender of Montreal. For his services throughout the war he received a grant 

 of 100,000 acres of land north of the Mohawk river. Here he built ".Tohnson 

 Hall," which still stands, near the village of Johnstown, which was laid out by him 

 with stores, church, and other buildings, at his own expense. At Johnson Hall he 

 lived in the style of an old country baron, dividing his attention between Indian 

 affairs and the raising of blooded stock, and dispensing a princely hospitality to all 

 comers. His influence alone prevented the Six Nations joining Pontiac's great con- 

 federacy against the English. In 17(58 he concluded the treaty of Fort Stanwix, 

 which fixed the Ohio as the boundary between the northern colonies and the western 

 tribes, the boundary for which the Indians afterward contended against the Ameri- 

 cans until 1795. In 1739 he married a German girl of the Mohawk valley, who died 

 after bearing him three children. Later in life he formed a connection with the 

 sister of Brant, the iSIohawk chief. He died from over-exertion at an Indian council. 

 His son. Sir John Johnson, succeeded to his title and estates, and on the breaking out 

 of the Revolution espoused the British side, drawing with him the Jlohawks and 

 a great part of the other Six Nations, who abandoned their homes and fled with 

 him to Canada (see W. L. Stone, Life of Sir William Johnson). 



(LSI C.\PTAix John Stu.vbt (p. 44): This distinguished officer was contem])oraneou.s 

 with Sir William Johnson, and sprang from the same adventurous Keltic stock 

 ■which has furnished so many men conspicuous in our early Indian history. Born in 

 Scotland about the year 1700, he came to America in 1733, was appointed to a 

 subordinate command in the British service, and soon became a favorite with the 

 Indians. When Fort Loudon was taken by the Cherokee in 1780, he was second in 

 command, and his rescue by Ata-kullakulla is one of the romantic episodes of that 

 period. In 1763 he was appointed superintendent for the southern tribes, a ]>osition 

 which he continued to hold until his death. In 1768 he negotiated with the Chero- 

 kee the treaty of Hard Labor by which the Kanawha was fixed as the western 

 boundary of Virginia, Sir William Johnson at the same time concluding a treaty with 

 the northerii tribes by which the boundary was continued northward along the Ohio. 

 At the outbreak of the Revolution he organized the Cherokee and other southern 

 tribes, with the white loyalists, against the Americans, and wa,s largely responsible 

 for the Indian outrages along the .southern border. He planned a general inviusion 

 by the southern tribes along the whole frontier, in cooperation with a British force 

 to be landed in western Florida, while a British fleet should occupy the attention of 

 the Americans on the coast side and the Tories should rise in the interior. On the 

 discovery of the plot and the subsequent defeat of the Cherokee by the .Vmericans, 

 he fled to Florida and soon afterward sailed for England, where he died in 1 779. 



(14) Nancy Ward (p. 47): A noted halfbreed Cherokee woman, the date and 

 place of whose birth and death are alike unkiiown. It is said that her father was a 



