TOO 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



John Bartram's account of the Onondaga council house in 1743 

 may be quoted, and his plan and elevation are reproduced in figure 9. 

 It should be remembered that this was not a dwelling house. He was 

 at Onondaga with Conrad Weiser and Lewis Evans, having come by 

 way of Owego. He said : 



They shew'd us where to lay our baggage, and repose ourselves 

 during our stay with them ; which was in the two end apartments of 

 this large house. The Indians that came with us were placed over 

 against us; this cabin is about 80 feet long, and 17 broad, the com- 

 mon passage 6 feet wide; and the apartments on each side 5 feet, 

 raised a foot above the passage by a long sapling hewed square, and 

 fitted with joists that go from it to the back of the house; on these 

 joists they lay large pieces of bark, and on extraordinary occasions 

 spread matts made of rushes, this favour we had; on these floors 

 they set or lye down every one as he will, the apartments are divided 

 from each other by boards or bark, 6 or 7 foot long, from the lower 

 floor to the upper, on which they put their lumber, when they have 

 eaten their homony, as they set in each apartment before the fire, they 

 can put the bowel over head, having not above 5 foot to reach ; they 

 set on the floor sometimes at each end, but mostly at one ; they have 

 a shed to put their wood into in the winter, or in the summer to con- 

 verse or play, that has a door to the south ; all the sides and roof of 

 the cabin is made of bark, bound fast to poles set in the ground, and 

 bent round on the top, or set aflat, for the roof as we set our rafters ; 

 over each fireplace they leave a hole to let out the smoak, which in 

 rainy weather, they cover with a piece of bark, and this they can 

 easily reach with a pole to push it on one side or quite over the hole, 

 after this model are most of their cabins built. Bartram, p.40 



When the Rev. Samuel Kirkland was at Onondaga in 1764, he said 

 the council house was about 80 feet long and had four fires. The 

 Seneca council house was of the same size. In Bartram's plan the 

 apartments would be about 5 by 7 feet, with a hight of 18 feet for the 

 cabin. For sleeping there was sometimes a second tier, and the 

 lodgers lay as in the berths of a ship. 



In later days the long dwelling house was shortened, and it was 

 eventually displaced by the cabin of squared logs, now giving way to 

 modern framed houses. Mr Morgan was able to secure traditional 

 accounts of the early houses, and of the later ones of bark. Some 

 minor particulars of this kind the writer has had from the Onondagas. 



