HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



23 



west of Crooked Lake was unexplored by the white man. 

 In a map drawn by Guy Johnson, in 1771, it is written, 

 " There are more lakes hereabouts, but they cannot be laid 

 down with certainty." 



The Senecas were the original owners of these lands. 

 They were looked upon in the confederacy as the " Western 

 Door," through which all communications from the West 

 must be made to the nation. Hence we find Sir William 

 Johnson addressing them as follows : " You have always 

 been looked upon as the door of the Six Nations, where all 

 news, especially from the westward and southward, must 

 enter and go out." The principal village of the Senecas 

 was near the Genesee River, about 4wenty miles from Iron- 

 dequoit Bay. In 1770 the Senecas were the most numer- 

 ous of the Six Nations; they could number about one 

 thousand fighting men. For a long time they resisted 

 every application of the provincial governors for permission 

 to build a fort at Irondequoit, in their country, but finally 

 consented. In another chapter will be found the history 

 of Gen. Sullivan's expedition into their country, in 1779, 

 their disastrous defeat, and the destruction of their chief 

 town. Little Beardstown, consisting of one hundred and 

 fifty houses. This town was situated on the eastern side 

 of the Genesee River, in a beautiful valley, which was 

 covered with extensive corn-fields, which were all destroyed 

 by the invading army. 



During the colonial period there was a noted settlement 

 of Indians on the Canisteo, near the site of the present 

 village of that name. At what time they settled there is 

 uncertain, but it was many years before our Revolution and 

 some time after the conquest of the Del a wares by the 

 Iroquois. The clan of Indians which lived there at the 

 time when written history first alludes to them was of 

 Delaware extraction, reduced to a low state of degradation. 

 To them had joined themselves a few deserters from the 

 British army, with a sprinkling of fugitive slaves, escaped 

 convicts, and refugees from various Indian tribes, making 

 altogether a class fitly designated by the great council at 

 Onondaga as " stragglers from all nations." 



In 1762 two of these Canisteo brigands murdered, some- 

 where in the Seneca country, two British subjects, Dutch 

 traders from Albany, whose goods were confiscated by them, 

 and probably carried to their village at Canisteo. Sir Wil- 

 liam Johnson, the English governor on the Mohawk, made 

 prompt requisition of the head men of the Iroquois league 

 to have the murderers brought to justice. The chiefs made 

 fair promises, but the murderers managed to escape. Ne- 

 gotiations on the subject continued through many months. 

 Lieut. Guy Johnson, the aide to the English governor, who 

 made formal complaint to the council at Onondaga, reported 

 to his commander that, after stating the facts to the chiefs 

 in solemn session, the chief 'sachem went through the cere- 

 mony of plucking the thorn from their feet, and clearing 

 their sight by wiping away the tears which must have been 

 shed on the late melancholy occasion, which he declared 

 gave their nation the utmost concern. The matter was 

 held under consideration for several days, Lieut. Johnson 

 pressing his demand for the surrender of the murderers 

 energetically. Finally, on the seventh day, an answer of 

 the council was given by Teyawarunte, chief speaker of 



the Onondagas, to the efiect that the confederacy ought not 

 to be charged with a breach of friendly relations with the 

 English on account of the acts of a pair of miscreants 

 from a village like Canisteo, composed of stragglers from 

 all nations. But as the murderers were under the jurisdic- 

 tion of the Senecas he requested that Sir WiUiam Johnson 

 should wait till they were heard from ; and if the Senecas, 

 on due requisition, did not deliver up the off'enders the 

 other tribes would apprehend them. 



Lieut. Johnson accepted this reasonable answer, and the 

 next day a Seneca Indian, then at Onondaga, was sent to 

 convey to his nation the demand of the council for the sur- 

 render of the murderers. We quote here the words of 

 Judge McMaster, in his Centennial Address, delivered at 

 Bath : " The upper nations received the summons of the 

 chiefs and paid due outward respect to their demand, but 

 after all the necks of our late fellow-citizens of the Second 

 Assembly District did not with sufficient alacrity present 

 themselves for the halter. The truth perhaps was, that the 

 ' Genesee uncles' thought it a superfluity of justice to send 

 two healthy warriors to the gallows as an equivalent for a 

 firm of Dutch peddlers from Albany. But there was, fur- 

 ther, a political question of no little consequence involved. 

 While the Six Nations, as a people, maintained for a long 

 time preceding the final overthrow of the French a stead- 

 fast allegiance with the English, the western clans of the 

 Senecas, on account of the proximity of Fort Niagara and 

 the means thus afi'orded for French agents to intrigue with 

 them, were strongly inclined to favor the latter ; and it was 

 with no little exertion on the part of their brethren that 

 they were prevented from openly taking up arms against 

 the English. The fall of Quebec in 1759 of course put 

 an end to all fears on that score. But the Genesee Senecas, 

 with sympathizing regret for their vanquished friends, felt 

 but a languid interest in the search for the Canisteo cul- 

 prits. A more serious matter at that time was the pro- 

 jected hostilities of the Western Ottawas and other distant 

 nations against the English, which resulted in the great 

 enterprise of Pontiac, the attempt of a master mind to com- 

 bine whatever there was of savage force in the shattered 

 tribes of the forest for the outpouring of one overwhelm- 

 ing vial of destruction upon the English posts. The loy- 

 alty of the Senecas to their treaty obligations was trembling 

 in the scale under these new infiuences, at the time when 

 the murder of the traders occurred, and their dependents, 

 the Delawares of the Susquehanna and the Canisteo, were 

 violently dissatisfied. The latter did, finally, quite gener- 

 ally give adhesion to the enemy with many of the Senecas.'^ 

 " Two years went by after the summons of the old people 

 (the council) went forth, and we may be sure it was the sub- 

 ject of much talk at the Canisteo Castle (as the ancient 

 wilderness village over the hills was called), and perhaps 

 was canvassed in some hunting-party on this very ground. 

 In the mean time the conspiracy of Pontiac came to a head, 

 and a fierce conflict raged along the Western lakes. The 

 agitation of that contest was felt even upon the upper Sus- 

 quehanna, though that region was removed far from the 

 seat of war. 



* Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac. 



