A SCENIC GIFT TO NEW YORK STATE. 



573 



UPPER FALLS OF THE GENESEE. 



(Portage Bridge in the distance.) 



size of many trees planted much earlier else- 

 where. Some Norway spruces have grown 

 to a splendor of height and thickness of foli- 

 age which seem almost to imply that the 

 original habitat of this tree was a tropical, 

 rather than a northern, clime. In the rear 

 of the house, but removed to one side, has 

 been laid out a large floral garden, oval in 

 shape, and surrounded by a hedge of ever- 

 greens, twelve or more feet high, this serving 

 as a wind break. Within this area familiar 

 flowers of the garden, such as roses, nastur- 

 tiums, heliotropes, geraniums, and mignonette, 

 grow to unusual sizes. One. rarely sees in 

 England more splendid floral growths than 

 this domain affords, — not even in Cornwall. 

 On an elevated plateau, not far from the 

 house, stand several interesting memorials of 

 the Indians. One of these is a section of 

 what is known as " the big treaty tree of 

 I 797>" which originally stood near Mount 

 Morris. It was under this tree that Robert 

 Morris negotiated the purchase of the lands 

 of the Genesee Valley, the Indians reserving 

 18,000 acres for Mary Jemison, the famous 

 " old white woman of the Genesee." Near 

 the tree stands the former cabin home of 



Mary Jemison, as removed from its original 

 site further down the river, and just outside 

 the doorway of the cabin is Mary Jemison's 

 grave, with the monument erected over it by 

 Mr. Letchworth. 



Mary Jemison originally was buried on 

 the Buffalo Creek reservation, but the open- 

 ing of a street making necessary the removal 

 of the body, Mr. Letchworth caused it to be 

 taken to " Glen Iris." She was the most re* 

 -markable white woman ever married to an 

 Indian. Born on the ocean in 1742, she went 

 as a child with her parents to western Penn- 

 sylvania, where she was made a captive by 

 .the Indians during the French War, and 

 afterwards became the wife of Hiokatoo, a 

 Seneca chieftain, who was the most blood- 

 thirsty of all the Indians at the massacre of 

 Cherry Valley. She spent forty years with 

 Hiokatoo, and afterwards prepared her 

 memoirs, which were published in a book 

 that is still famous with students of that 

 period of American history. She declared 

 in this book that, although Hiokatoo was 

 famous for his ferocity in war, he had uni- 

 formly treated her with tenderness; he had 

 never cnce been insulting in his conduct. 



