THE Senecas
were, at one time in their history, a very powerful race,
and about the time of the revolutionary war the most
savage and cruel of any of these forest monsters.
About the time they took possession of their reservation in
Seneca county, there was scarcely anything left of them, and
those that did settle here were a mixed rabble of several
tribes, half-breeds and captives.
For more than a century this tribe had been in contact
with the white race, in peace and in war; and instead of
deriving the benefit which naturally ought to have followed,
from this intimacy, they deteriorated to more abject
barbarism still, and dwindled down to a handful of dirty,
stupid, superstitious, worthless rabble. Had not this
county once been their home, and been named after them,
nobody would care to read or learn anything about them.
As it is, the reader would scarce be satisfied, in perusing
a history of this county, without having an opportunity to
learn all there was of them, and what they were like when
they roamed over the ground that contains so many happy
homes as now enjoyed by the people here. All these
sprung up by magic, as it were, since the last satanic yell
of these hell-hounds of the woods died on the desert air.
The manner in which the British government carried on
both her wars with the United States, by making these red
fiends their allies, and supplying them with everything
needful to perpetrate their cruelties upon the white people
along the frontier, put that government in a worse light
still, looked at from every stand-point that tie may
justify. For a high-toned, christian people, claiming
the mastery of the seas, and upon whose territory the sun
never ceases to shine, not only justifying midnight
butcheries of her superior enemy by savage warfare, but
helping it along and approving these atrocities, calls aloud
for universal condemnation.Page 122 -
The relation of Great Britain
with the western frontier, is clearly shown
Page 123 -
Page 124 -
Page 125 -
Page 126 -
Page 127 -
Page 128 -
was nicely braided. Very proud of his education and
French training, he often put on great airs, and said, "This
is the way the French officers do." His overbearing
disposition often got him into trouble with other Indians,
all of whom he regarded as vastly his inferiors, and very
frequently father was called upon to settle his troubles for
him.
A man by the name of Keeler lived near the river
bank. He had a family of six children; he came from
the state of New York, and bought forty acres of land.
The family suffered greatly with sickness. I don't
remember what became of them.
Alexander McNutt and his brother, Daniel
McNutt, were also here in 1819. Daniel had
a family, and Alexander married a sister of Isaac
I. Dumond. My father solemnized their marriage.
William Montgomery started a
store in 1833, in a log cabin, in the village that is now
called Fort Seneca.
Eliphalet Rogers bought a farm near Wolf creek.
He married Hannah Jackson, who had lived at Mr.
Bowe's a long time. Rogers was an honest,
home-spun sort of a man. His farm became afterwards
known as the Snook farm.
Old Mr. Sherwood was a captain of a militia
company, and very proud of his station. He was a great
talker, and somewhat boastful. He did not live to be
very old.
Mr. William Harris, the gunsmith, was a man
about five feet ten inches high, stout and well built.
He was poor, but a man of considerable refinement, and
strictly honest. He drank some, but not to excess.
He came here with his family after the Barneys, but
before the Dumonds, and was amongst the first that
settled near the fort.
The Pikes and the Chaneys lived on the
Spicer place when we came to the fort.
There were three of these Tuguanias. One was the
head chief, another was the Joseph, and the third was
the Armstrong Tugnania, the son of the one eyed
medicine woman.
__________
MRS. SALLY INGHAM
Page 129 -
Page 130 -
to Ralph Gates, and died in 1877; Justin, who
died in 1863, as a prisoner of war in a rebel hospital in
Danville, Virginia.
The writer, in gratitude for her many narratives of men
and things pertaining to early lifein Seneca county, can
only wish her many more years of life in the enjoyment of
her happy nature, in health, comfort and contentment.
- END OF CHAPTER VII - |
