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Samuel Kirkland

 Samuel Kirkland, son of Rev. Daniel Kirkland, pastor of the third Congregational Church in Norwich, (now Lisbon,) was born at Norwich, December 1, 1741. At the age of twenty, he entered this school; was graduated at Princeton College, New Jersey, in 1765, leaving College a few months before graduation to engage in his mission to the Indians; a work to which he had given himself from very early life.

 In company with two Seneca Indians, he set out, November 20, 1764, on a missionary expedition to their own tribe, the most remote and the most savage of the Six Nations. The snow was four feet deep, and he traveled on snow-shoes, with his pack of provisions on his back, more than two hundred miles into the wilderness, without paths or houses to lodge in.

After an absence of about a year and a half, a period of great hardship and peril, yet of some encouragement in his work, he returned to Connecticut, bringing a Seneca chief with him. On the 19th of June, 1766, he was ordained at Lebanon Crank, and on the same day received a general commission as an Indian Missionary from the Connecticut " Board of Correspondents" of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge; a board which was constituted July 4, 1764, to have the supervision of these Indian missions.

 In about six weeks he was again at his mission work, taking up his residence among the Oneidas, where he continued to labor, with some interruptions, for more than forty years. A Christian church was soon organized under his ministrations, which, by occasional accessions, showed a good degree of prosperity. His labors were partially suspended during the Revolutionary war, though he continued to hold such an influence as to keep the Oneidas and part of the Mohawks on friendly terms with the Americans, while nearly all in the other tribes of the Six Nations took the position of active hostility.

 In 1779 he was Brigade Chaplain with General Sullivan, having previously been employed in procuring intelligence of the designs and movements of the enemy at Niagara. In the spring of 1784 he resumed his missionary work at Oneida. Two years afterwords his labors were attended with a considerable revival of religion, which seemed to have its beginning in the conversion of a strong minded Indian more than seventy years old, who up to that time had been a bigoted pagan.

 In 1788, Mr. Kirkland and his two eldest sons received from the Indians and the State of New York conjointly, a grant of large and valuable tracts of land in the vicinity of Oneida, on which he built for himself a log house.

 In 1790, while on a mission to Congress in behalf of the Senecas, he,was instrumental in the conversion of the celebrated chief, Cornplanter, to the Christian faith.

In the winter of 1791-2, by request of the Secretary of War, he conducted about forty chiefs and warriors, a representation of five nations, to Philadelphia, to consult with Congress on the best method of intro ducing the blessings of civilization among them, and also with a view of preserving peace between the Indians and the United States. This visit had the desired effect, and not only secured to the United States the friendship of the Six Nations, rendering them mediators between the Federal Government and the Western Indians, but also securing to the Six Nations an increased degree of favor from the Government in the promotion of education and civilization among them".

COL. BROADHEAD'S EXPEDITION.

At the breaking out of the Revolution, the limits of settlement and civilization had extended somewhat nearer to Chautauqua county; but no event of great importance affecting these regions transpired until near the close of the war. Long prior to 1779, the hostile Indians and tories had desolated the frontier settlements of New York and Pennsylvania; to punish them, Washington planned two expeditions. One was to march by the north branch of the Susquehanna, against the Indian villages of the Six Nations in New York; the other was, at the same time, to proceed up the Allegany, under the command of Col. Daniel Broadhead, a gallant and enterprising officer, who then commanded at Pittsburgh, and to destroy the villages of the Seneca and Munsey Indians, who dwelt along that river and its tributaries, and afterwards to unite with the army of Gen. Sullivan in a combined attack upon Fort Niagara.

 On account of the difficulty of providing Col. Broadhead with supplies in time, and the want of satisfactory information concerning the country along the Allegany, the idea of the two expeditions co6perrating with each other was abandoned by Gen. Washington.+ Col. Broadhead, however, on the IIth of August, 1779, at the head of 605 militia and volunteers, and with one month's provisions, set out from Pittsburgh, and advanced up the Allegany river to the mouth of the Mahoning. Here their provisions were transferred from the boats to pack-horses; and the army proceeded on to Brady's Bend, in Clarion county, Pennsylvania.

 Here an advanced party of Col. Broadhead's force, consisting of fifteen white men and eight Delaware Indians, under the command of Lieut. Harding, fell in with thirty or forty Indian warriors coming down the river in seven canoes.

 The Indians landed and stripped off their shirts; a sharp contest ensued; the Indians were defeated, and five of their number were killed and several wounded; and all their canoes and contents fell into the hands of Col. Broadhead. Lieut. Harding had three men wounded, including one of the Delaware Indians.

 Capt. Samuel Brady, who was in this encounter, and whose name has been given to this locality, was born at Shippensburgh, Penn., I758. He was at the siege of Boston, and a lieutenant at the massacre of Paoli. Having lost both his father and brother by the hands of Indians, he took an oath of vengeance against the race.

 Having been ordered to Fort Pitt with the rest of his regiment under General Broadhead, it gave him an opportunity to fulfill his vow. He was generally placed in command of scouting parties sent into the Indian country from Fort Pitt; and being an athletic, active and courageous man, familiar with the woods and Indian warfare, he (* Doc. Hist. N. Y., pp. 587-9I. t Letter from Washington to Col. Broadhead, April 21, I779. ) became the hero of many bold exploits in the north-east part of the valley of the Ohio, and a serious trouble to his Indian foes in those parts.

 An account of his daring adventures and hair-breadth escapes would fill a book. They gave his name permanently to many localities in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Jonathan Zane was also in this engagement, and was wounded. He was a celebrated scout and great hunter, and piloted many expeditions against the Indians.

Colonel Broadhead's command continued to march up the river, as far as the Indian village of Buckaloons, on the flats near Irvineton, at the mouth of the Broken Straw, in Warren county. The Indians were driven from their village, and retreated to the hills in the rear. The town was destroyed, and a breastwork of trees thrown up.

 A garrison of forty men was left to guard the provisions; and the remainder of the force proceeded to the Indian town of Conawago, which was found to have been deserted eighteen months before. Conawago was burnt, and the troops marched still further up the river, past Kinjua to Yohroonwago, a place about four miles below the southern boundary of the state of New York.

 Here they found a painted image, or war post, clothed in dog skin. The troops remained there three days, burning this and other towns in the vicinity and destroying the extensive cornfields that they found there. Col. Broadhead believed, from the great quantity of corn found, and from the number of new houses which were built, and being built of square and round logs and of framed timbers, that the whole Seneca and Munsey nations intended to collect there.

Yohroonwago was situated where, some years afterwards, Cornplanter made his residence, and where an Indian village grew up, called De-o-no-sa-da-ga, meaning, in English:" burned houses".

According to Mrs. Jemison, Colonel Broadhead's troops ascended the Allegany as far as Olean Point, and burnt other Indian towns on French creek, including Maghinquechahocking, a village of thirty-five large houses. Col. Broadhead arrived at Fort Pitt, on his return, September I4th, 1779; having burned ten Indian villages, containing one hundred and sixty-five houses, having destroyed more than five hundred acres of Indian corn, and taken three thousand dollars' worth of furs and olher plunder, and having himself lost neither man nor beast.

 BRITISH AND INDIAN EXPEDITION OVER CHAUTAUQUA LAKE IN I782.

 The expedition of Sullivan and Broadhead, and the destruction of the Indian towns and cornfields, had the effect to throw the Indians upon the run (*Butterfield's Hist. of Crawford's Expedition, I28, 129. t).

 Sometime afterwards, Major Morrison, who became a distinguished citizen of Lexington, Ky., returned to the mouth of the Broken Straw to reconnoiter, and narrowly escaped with his life. He had stooped to drink from the creek, when a rifle ball from an Indian's gun splashed the water into his face.-Pa. Hist. Collection, 653.

 The remains of this stockade were very plainly to be seen a few years ago. They were situate about half a mile above the crossing of the Broken Straw, on the road to Warren, on a high bluff on the Allegany river, and commanded an extensive view up and down the river.(Dr. Win. A. Irvine. Broadhead's Rep. to T. Pickering, Sept. I6. I799).

This page is from: History of Chautauqua County, New York, from its first settlement to the present time; with numerous biographical and family sketches. By Andrew W. Young ... Embellished with upwards of one hundred portraits of citizens., Young, Andrew W. (Andrew White), 1802-1877.

 INDIAN OCCUPATION.
Near Irvinton, in Warren county, at the mouth of the Broken Straw,was the Indian village of Buckaloons. About five miles above Kinjua, extending several miles along the Allegany river, was a large Seneca town, called Yah-roon-wa-go. Near where once was the centre of this town, Cornplanter made his residence.

 Mrs. Mary Jemison, before her faculties were impaired, imparted much information to the white men respecting the Indians and some of their settlements in Western New York. She was known by the early settlers as the " White Woman." She was captured by the Indians in her youth during the French and Indian wars, and lived with them the remainder of her days. She died in Buffalo, September 19th, I833, at a very advanced age, much esteemed for her goodness and intelligence, by both whites and Indians.

 She was so kindly treated by the Indians after her captivity, that she adopted their customs, and married an Indian husband. In 1759, with her little son on her back and with her three adopted Indian brothers, she journeyed through the wilderness from Ohio to Little Beardstown, on the Genesee.

 In her account of their journey, she says: "When we arrived at the mouth of French creek, we hunted two days, and thence came on to Connewango creek, where we staid eight or ten days, in consequence of our horses having left us and strayed into the woods. The horses, however, were found, and we again prepared to resume our journey.

 During our stay at that place, the rain fell fast, and had raised the creek to such a height, that it was seemingly impossible for us to cross it. A number of times we ventured in, but were compelled to return, barely escaping with our lives. At length we succeeded in swimming our horses, and reached the opposite shore, though I and my little boy but just escaped from being drowned. From Sandusky the path we traveled was crooked and obscure, but was tolerably well understood by my oldest brother, who had traveled it a number of times when going and returning from the Cherokee wars. The fall by this time was considerably advanced, and the rains, attended with cold winds, continued daily to increase the difficulties of traveling.

 From Connewango we came to a place called by the Indians Che-na-shun-ga-tan, on the Allegany river, at the mouth of what is now called Cold Spring creek in the town of Napoli [now Cold Spring], Cattaraugus county, and from that to Twa-wan-ne-gwan, or Tu-ne-un-gwan, [which means an eddy not strong], where the early frosts had destroyed the corn, so that the Indians were in danger of starving for want of bread. Having rested ourselves two days at that place, we came to Caneadea." The Indian village of Tu-ne-un-gwan mentioned by Mrs. Jemison, was situated 18 miles further up the river than Che-na-shun-ga-tan in the town of Carrollton, Cattaraugus county.

The Senecas also settled, at an early day, near the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek. At the close of the last century, there were indians along the Allegany and French  creek (* Its Indian name was Hosh-e-nuk-wa-gunk, signifying the place where much broken straw and other drift stuff are accumulated together.-Aldez's Alissions, 156. ) Signifying, in the Indian tongue, the place of many fishes.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

Scattered through north-western Pennsylvania and south-western New York, were other Indian towns; but none were then known to have certainly existed in Chautauqua county. The evidences remained, however, at the first settlement of the county, of its having not long previously been occupied at various points by Indians.

 In 1795, when Col. James McMahan passed through this county, upon the Judge Prendergast tract on Connewango creek, in the town of Kiantone, there was an Indian camping ground. There were also to be seen, at the first settlement of the county, near the mouth of the Kiantone, the forms of corn hills, upon lands that appeared to have once been cleared, and had since grown up to small shrubbery of thorns and red plum."

In November, 1805, when William Bemus first came to the town of Ellery, at Bemus Point, unmistakable evidences remained, that an Indian settlement had formerly existed there. Where the cemetery is situated, were the decayed remains and traces of some Indian dwellings, and the evidences that a large tract of land in the vicinity had formerly been improved. On Bemus creek were two clearings, each about ten acres in extent, a quarter of a mile apart. Where these improvements were, wild plum trees grew; and there were the remains of brush inclosures, which Wm. Bemus had repaired, enabling him to secure a crop of grass the first years of his settlement there. Corn hills also were visible, and even potatoes of the lady finger variety, that had been perpetuated from year to year were there still growing; some of which were gathered and planted by Wm. Bemus. Below Bemus', at Griffith's Point, were similar signs of Indian occupation.

 After the close of the Revolutionary war, that numerous portion or clan of the Seneca nation residing along the Allegany and its tributaries, were under the control of the very able and just war chief Cornplanter, sometimes called John O'Beel.

The domain of this branch of the Senecas' property included Chautauqua county; and the rude improvements found here were the results, probably, of the occupation by these Indians, who undoubtedly, at some time during the last century, had at least temporary homes within the county.

 This clan were often referred to as the Seneca-Abeel; and in a map published by Reading Howell, 1792, the country of the upper waters of the Connewango, and of Chautauqua lake, is designated as "O'Beel's Cayentona".

 This map is among the Pennsylvania Historical Collections. In James Ross Snowden's Historical Sketch of Cornplanter, prepared for the occasion of the Cornplanter monument, is the following:"A solitary traveler, after the close of the Revolutionary war, in I783, wandering near the shores of Chautauqua lake, found himself benighted; and ignorant of the path which should lead him to his place of destination, he feared he would be compelled to pass the night in the forest, and without shelter. But when the darkness of the night gathered around him, he saw the light of a distant fire in the woods, to which he bent his steps. Then he  found an Indian wigwam, the habitation of a chief with his family. He was kindly received and hospitably entertained. After a supper of corn and venison, the traveler returned thanks to God, whose kind Providence had directed his way, and preserved him in the wilderness. He slept comfortably on the ample bear skins provided by his host. "In the morning, the Indian invited the traveler to sit beside him on a large log in front of his cabin. They were seated, side by side. Presently the Indian told the traveler to move on a little, which he did; and, keeping by his side, again requested him to move. This was repeated several times. At length, when near the end of the log, the chief gave an energetic push, and requested his companion to move further. The traveler remonstrated, and said,'I can go no further; if I do, I shall fall off the log.''That is the way' said the Indian in reply,'you white people treat us. When the United People, the Six Nations, owned the whole land from the lakes to the great waters, they gave to Corlaer a seat on the Hudson, and to Ouas a town and land on the Delaware.

 We have been driven from our lands on the Mohawk, the Genesee, the Chemung, and the Unadilla. And from our western door, we have been pushed from the Susquehanna; then over the great mountains; then beyond the Ohio, the Allegany, and Connewango; and now we are here on the borders of the great lakes, and a further push will throw me and my people off the log.''`' The chief, in conclusion, with a-sad and anxious countenance asked the question, Where are we to go?' The only response that was made, was the sighing of the wind through the leaves of the forest; the traveler was silent." The traveler above referred to was the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, who, for many years previous to the Revolutionary war, was a missionary among the Six Nations, and whose name and services are, during and after the Revolution, recorded in connection with Indian history.
* Judge E. T. Foote. Warren's History of Chautauqua County. + J. L. Bugbee. See also his sketch of WTm. Bemus.

The Indian villages of North-western Pennsylvania and Western New York often contained houses sufficiently large to accommodate three or four families. Adjacent to them were frequently extensive cornfields. Between these villages, or leading from them to their favorite hunting grounds and fishing places, were well trodden pathways, several of which passed through the county of Chautauqua.

A broad and well worn Indian trail led from the Cattaraugus creek, through the lake towns, to the Pennsylvania line. Another commenced near to the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek, and passed over the ridge in Arkwright and Charlotte, at the point of its lowest elevation; and through Charlotte Center and Sinclairville, and southerly in the direction of the Indian towns on the Allegany river.

 This trail had the appearance of much use; the roots of the trees along its margin were marred and calloused; and at certain points it was worn deeply into the ground. It was used by the early settlers as a highway or bridle path, in going from the center to the north-eastern part of the county, and also by the Indians subsequently to the settlement of the county. Still another Indian path commenced at the Indian settlement, near the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek,. and passed down the Connewango valley, through the eastern parts of the towns of Hanover, Villenova, Cherry Creek, and Ellington.

This path was  used by white men in the settlement of these towns, and by the Indians subsequently to the settlement of the county. All the region lying west of Blue Ridge, and east of the Wabash, which included within its limits Chautauqua county, remained unexplored and almost unknown to Europeans, until nearly as late as the year 1750; for the outermost limits of the back settlements of the English colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania only extended as far west as the Blue Ridge.

 Either the French had been excluded from here by the fierce and warlike Senecas, who were their implacable foes, or their enterprise had not yet led them in this direction; and prior to this time, the points occupied by civilized men in the West were mostly mere trading posts, and the forests were only traversed by traders and missionaries.

 Chautauqua county, and the adjacent regions, not being in the route of their travel, were barely known, and were untraversed except by bands of Indians in their hostile excursions. The French officer La Hontan says: "The banks of this lake [Erie] are commonly frequented by none but warriors, whether the Iroquois, the Illinese, the Oumiamies, etc.; and it is very dangerous to stop there. By this means it comes to pass, that the stags, roebucks, and turkeys run in great bodies up and down the shore, all around the lake. In former times the Errionons and the Andastogueronons lived upon the confines of the lake; but they were extirpated by the Iroquois, as well as the other nations marked on the map.

 Events leading to the French and Indian wars: The boundary line between the French and English possessions in America had long been a cause for earnest contention. The French claimed dominion to all the country lying west of the Allegany mountains. The English also claimed the territory westward of their colonies to the Pacific Ocean. The territory of Chautauqua county was included in these disputed regions; and as a consequence of this controversy, it was soon brought nearer to the scene of prominent military operations, and in close proximity to important lines of communication, or rough military highways leading from distant military posts in this then interminable western wilderness. Communications between the French posts on the Mississippi river, and the French forts and settlements in Canada, were at first maintained by the long and circuitous route of the Mississippi, Green Bay, and the Ottawa, and afterwards by Lake Michigan and the Illinois; and at a still later period by the way of the Maumee and the Wabash. The direct and easy communication that could be had between Canada and the Mississippi, by the way of Lake Erie and the short portage of Chautauqua lake, or over that from Presque Isle [Erie] to French creek, and the upper waters of the Ohio, seems for a long time to have been unknown to the French; but events of an important character as affecting this part of the world, and also the history of that of the two most powerful nations of Europe, were destined soon to  La Hontan's Voyages.