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Stories of The Kanestio Valley THIRD EDITION BY WILLIAM M. STUART Author of: Hand to Back, Who's Who in Steuben, Masonic Soldiers of Fortune, etc. Copyright 193 5 by WILLIAM M. STUART Canisteo, N.Y. PRINTED IN U.S.A. BY F. A. OWEN PUB. CO .• DANSVILLE. N. Y To My Son, Roger Winship Stuart CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Under Three Flags . • • • • • • • • 7 II The Shades of Death . • • • • • • • • 20 III The Fall of the Long House . 29 IV How the White Men Came to the Valley . 43 V Tales They Told . 70 VI A Captain with Washington . • . 88 VII Neighhors . • • . 9 3 VIII Terror by Night . • . .· . 114 IX The Killing of Joshua Stephens . • • . 122 X The Douglas Affair . 13 0 XI The Lower Valley . 140 XII Wolf! Wolf! . • . 152 XIII The Abduction of William Morgan • • • • • 161 XIV Rafting on the Canisteo River • . 166 XV How They Lived . 172 XVI Anti-Renters . 180 XVII The Coming of the Railroad . 19 0 XVIII The Mystery of David Weatherby . 197 XIX The Man Who Bluffed Lee . 207 XX The Brazilian Adventure . 218 XXI Average Americans . • • • • • • • 223 FOREWORD The book, STORIES OF THE KANESTIO VALLEY, had its begin ning away back in the winter of 1918-19, when I was asked by the editor of The Canisteo Chronicle to prepare a few sketches of local history to run serially in his paper. I agreed to this, and at first blocked out only ten stories, the first one of which was published January 8, 1919. Presently the editor was good enough to tell me the yarns were eliciting some favorable com ment. He asked me to continue. The upshot of the matter was the publication of a series of forty-three stories, running through most of the issues of the paper in the year 1919. In the early part of 1920 the tales were collected and published in book form, making a volume of 208 pages, 8 vo, with 12-point type, 4 illustrations. The book was stapled, had paper covers, and but 60 copies were issued. While these were disposed of promptly, it cannot be said that the advent of the volume produced any excitement in the Valley. During the year 19 2 8 the series was revised, several chapters were discarded, much new material was introduced, more care taken with the preparatiort ( since the first edition had been rathei' hastily thrown together) , the whole now being published in The Canisteo Times. The new series excited considerable interest, which made me decide to publish this also in book form. The volume was copyrighted in 1929. It had forty-one chapters and an appendix, no illustrations, was printed in ordi nary newspaper type, and embraced 146 pages-about 100,000 words. Like the first edition, this work was stapled, but unlike the first it was bound in cloth, with gilt lettering on the cover. A total of 23 5 copies was published. The copies sold with amaz ing rapidity, the demand by no means being limited to the Canisteo Valley. The edition was soon exhausted, and ever since I have been receiving orders for the book. These orders I have been unable to fill, and so I have been forced to bring out this, the third edition. (5) 6 FOREWORD As the second edition varied considerably from the first in content, so this offering varies by about the same amount from the second. In the present book I have discarded much strictly genealogical data and have endeavored to get back to the orig inal purpose of the book, implied by its title: STORIES OF THE KANESTIO VALLEY. It is not intended to be a history of the Valley, wherefore I have in this copy thrown out most ma terial that had not story value. The net result of all this growth and pruning is that I have produced three essentially different books under exactly the same title. And yet a considerable amount of identical material is to be found in all three editions. My fond hope is that this book will prove to be the best of the lot. Surely, there was room enough for improvement! CHAPTER I Under Three Flags It was the year of starvation at Niagara. Of the original garrison of one hundred Frenchmen who had built Fort Denonville late in the summer of 1687, but forty were alive by midwinter. When the Marquis de Nonville had given the command of the post to the Sieur de Troyes, and himself made ready to de part for Montreal, he promised to send a shipload of provisions. "In any event," said he, "you should not starve. In these wa ters are the :finest fish in the world." The post, the military ancestor of the present Fort Niagara, had required only three days to build. It was merely a stockade with bastions and log barracks. For a time the gay Frenchmen were happy. They fished in the Niagara River and Lake On tario; they ranged the forest that lay dark and forbidding to the southward, shouting like schoolboys and hunting for nuts which the frosts of autumn had brought down. Wondrous Indian summer came, the air was still and sound carried far in the for est. To the west ran the strong current of the Niagara, its wa ters emerald green, vthile at evening the sun, glowing blood-red through the smoky atmosphere, painted a vivid streak on the surface of the lake. Then the Senecas, real owners of the land and inveterate foes of the French, besieged the post. No soldier might now venture beyond the stockade to hunt or fish. Every night strict watch and ward must needs be kept, for the forest swarmed with Iro quois, and each glancing shadow produced the roar of a musket. Provisions began to fail. Anxiously the garrison waited for the promised ship. At last it was seen, far down the lake, mov ing slowly, for there was little wind. A breeze sprang up and the bark was wafted to the shore. Eager hands unloaded her burden. Disappointment, rage, terror followed; the provisions were found to be spoiled. Within the next six weeks sixty men perished. (7) 8 STORIES OF THE KANESTIO VALLEY The hostile Indians had withdrawn to their camps, but King Winter reigned. Across the peninsula, so pleasant in summer but desolate and bleak in winter, the icy blasts hcv.T!ed, moaning in the pines and shrieking about the timbers of the fort. Dur ing the frequent storms none dared to venture out, for the sur vivors had grown weak and almost helpless. One day, as the fuel had become exhausted, a band of the strongest tottered out to chop some wood. Their strength was not equal to the task. Amid the drifting snow clouds they lurched toward the post, but sank exhausted just outside the gate. In the words of one of the surviving garrison: ''None durst go out to them. The second day the wolves found them-we saw it all." By the time that the mellow breath of spring had reduced the snow to pools of muddy water, twelve Frenchmen remained alive. Then came Chief Michitonka, of the friendly Miami tribe. He caused his warriors to bring food and medicine. The twelve were saved. Such was the :first dramatic episode in the his~ory of Fort Niagara, which was destined to become the stronghold of that portion of New France now known as Western New York. Niagara was the key to the West, and the French soon discov ered that fact. They realized that it stood at the gateway of their western empire, and wisely they decided to fortify it. Eventually a vast territory was governed from this point. The first military work on this site was built in 1679 by the explorer La Salle, and by him was named "Fort Tonty." It burned the following year and nothing but the magazine re mained. For seven years thereafter the place was unfortified, then followed the gruesome incident of Fort Denonville, which has just been recounted. This post of odious memory was abandoned temporarily in September, 1688. The next fortification was begun in 1725 and completed in 1727. The undertaking was upon the orders of the Governor General of New France, De Vaudreuil. The engineer who se lected the site and drew the plans did so with such skill and good judgment that both the fort and the plans remain to this day. Recently the old stronghold was renovated and restored to its original condition, and it is now one of the show places of the western frontier of the Empire State. Tradition has it that the Senecas were strongly opposed to the UNDER THREE FLAGS 9 French fortifying this spot again, and threatened to make war upon them. Some unscrupulous strategist thereupon induced the savages to go upon a long hunting expedition. When they returned, a month later, the walls of the fort were so far ad vanced that they dared not make an attack. One thing is certain, the work was well done. There were real builders in the land in those days. The main building, some times called the "Mess House," but generally designated as "The Castle," is 10 5 feet long, 47 feet wide, three stories high. Its massive walls were built of native stone from the hills of Lewiston, trimmed with cut stones brought across the lake from Kingston, Canada. The heavy timbers, most of which are intact after the lapse of more than two centuries, were obtained in the forest to the west, beyond the Niagara River.