CHAPTER IX
ENGLISH DOMINION
Pontiac’s Conspiracy – The Devil’s Hole – A Fight at Black Rock – Bradstreet’s Expedition – Sulky Senecas – The Troops Composing Bradstreet’s Command – Israel Putnam – The Revolution – Four Iroquois Tribes Hostile – The Treaty at Oswego – A Price for American Scalps – Brant, the Mohawk – Principal Seneca Chiefs – Wyoming – Cornplanter Conspicuous – His Many Names, etc. – Cherry Valley – Americans Retaliate – Brodhead’s Expedition – Sullivan’s Indian Campaign – Results – Close of the War, and of English Rule.
Although the French soldiers had disappeared, the western tribes still remembered them with affection and were still disposed to wage war upon the English. In truth, no sooner were the latter in complete possession of the country, than they began by neglect and ill treatment to excite the worst passions of the red men. The mutterings of the coming storm, therefore, soon began to be heard, and in May, 1763, the great Indian uprising known as “Pontiac’s Conspiracy” occurred, resulting in the capture of nine out of twelve English posts, and the relentless massacre of their garrisons. The forts at Venango, Le Boeuf, and Presque Isle were among those which fell before the fierce onslaught of the savages, while those at Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Niagara alone escaped surprise, and each successfully resisted a siege, in which branch of war, indeed, the Indians were almost certain to fail as against white men. There is no positive evidence, but there is little doubt that the Senecas were involved in Pontiac’s league, and were active in the attack on Fort Niagara. They had been unwilling to fight their brethren of the Long House, under Sir William Johnson, but had no scruples about killing the English when left alone, as was soon made terribly manifest.
In the September following occurred the awful tragedy of the Devil’s Hole, when a band of Senecas, of whom Honayewus, afterwards celebrated as Farmer’s Brother, was one, and Cornplanter probably another, ambushed a train of English army wagons with an escort of soldiers, the whole numbering ninety-six men, three and a half miles below Niagara Falls, and massacred every man with four exceptions.
A few weeks later – October 10, 1763 – while six hundred British soldiers under Major Wilkins were on their way in boats to reinforce their comrades at Detroit, and when just upon the point of passing from the Niagara River into Lake Erie, a hundred and sixty of them, who were half a mile astern of the others, were suddenly fired upon by a band of Senecas, ensconced in a thicket on the river shore, probably on the site of Black Rock. Though even the British estimated the enemy at only sixty, yet so close was their aim that thirteen men were killed and wounded at the first fire. The captain in command of the nearest boats immediately ordered fifty men ashore and attacked the Indians. The latter fell back a short distance, but rallied, and when the British pursued them they maintained their ground so well that three more were killed on the spot, and twelve others badly wounded, including two commissioned officers. Meanwhile, under the protection of other soldiers, who formed on the beach, the boats made their way into the lake, and the men who had taken part in the fight were enabled to re-embark. It does not appear that the Indians suffered nearly as heavily as the soldiers.
This was the last serious attack by the Senecas upon the English. Becoming at length convinced that the French had really yielded, and that Pontiac’s scheme had failed as to its main purpose, they sullenly agreed to abandon their Gallic friends and be at peace with the English.
Events in the West, however, where Pontiac still maintained an active but unavailing hostility to the British, as well as the massacres previously perpetrated by the Senecas, determined the English commander-in-chief to send a force up the lakes able to overcome all opposition. Accordingly, in the summer of 1764, General Bradstreet, an able officer, with twelve hundred British and Americans, proceeded by water to Fort Niagara, accompanied by the indefatigable Sir William Johnson and a strong body of his Mohawk warriors. A grand council of friendly Indians was held at the fort, among whom Sir William exercised his customary skill, and satisfactory treaties were made with them.
But the Senecas, though repeatedly promising attendance in answer to the baronet’s messages, still held aloof and were said to be meditating a renewal of war. At length General Bradstreet ordered their immediate attendance under penalty of the destruction of their settlements. This threat had its desired effect. They came, ratified the treaty, and thereafter adhered to it pretty faithfully, notwithstanding the peremptory manner in which it was obtained. In the mean time a fort had been erected on the site of Fort Erie, the first ever built there.
In August Bradstreet’s army, increased to nearly three thousand men, among whom were three hundred Senecas (who seem to have been taken along partly as hostages), proceeded westward along the south shore of Lake Erie, for the purpose of bringing the Western Indians to terms, a task which was successfully accomplished without bloodshed. From the somewhat indefinite accounts which have come down to us, it is evident that the journey was made in open boats, rigged with sails, with which, when the wind was favorable, excellent speed was made.
This army, like D’Aubrey’s, was a somewhat mixed one. There were stalwart, red-coated British regulars, who, when they marched, did so as one man; hardy New England provincials, or “minute men,” whose dress and discipline and military maneuvers were but a poor imitation of the imported Britons, yet who had faced the legions of France on many a well-fought field; rude hunters of the border, to whom all discipline was irksome; faithful Indian allies from the Mohawk valley, trained to admiration of the English by Sir William Johnson; and finally the three hundred dark, sullen Senecas, their hands red from the massacre of the Devil’s Hole, and almost ready to stain them again with English blood.
Of the British and Americans, who then in closest friendship and under the same banners passed along the shores of Lake Erie, there were not a few who in twelve years more were destined to seek each other’s lives on the battlefields of the Revolution. Among them was one whose name was a tower of strength to the patriotic dwellers of America, whose voice rallied the faltering soldiers at Bunker Hill, and whose fame has come down to us surrounded by a peculiar halo of adventurous valor. This was Israel Putnam, then a loyal soldier of King George, and lieutenant-colonel commanding the Connecticut battalion.
For a while after the successful termination of Bradstreet’s expedition there was peace, not only between England and France, but between the Indians and the colonists. But this quiet condition of affairs was destined to be of but brief duration. The Senecas, who it seems were chronic grumblers, always in trouble and ever ready for a fight – and a massacre, if they could accomplish it – began to make complaints of depredations committed by whites on some of their number, who had villages on the head waters of the Susquehanna and Allegheny in Pennsylvania. “Cressap’s war,” in which the celebrated Logan was an actor, also contributed to render them uneasy, but they did not break out into open hostilities. They, like the rest of the Six Nations, had by this time learned to place explicit confidence in Sir William Johnson, and made all their complaints through him.
He did his best to redress their grievances, and also sought to have them, withdraw their villages from those isolated localities in Pennsylvania to their chief seats in New York, so that they would be more completely under his jurisdiction and protection. Ere this could be accomplished, however, all men’s attention was drawn to certain mutterings in the political sky, low at first, but growing more and more angry until at length there burst upon the country that long and desolating storm of war known as the Revolution.
As the danger of hostilities increased, the Johnsons, at Johnson’s Hall, showed themselves more and more clearly on the side of the king. Sir William said little and seemed greatly disturbed by the gathering trouble. There is little doubt, however, that had he lived he would have used his power in behalf of his royal master. But in 1774 he suddenly died. Much of his influence over the Six Nations descended to his son, Sir John Johnson, and his nephew, Colonel Guy Johnson; the latter becoming his successor in the office of superintendent of Indian affairs.
The Revolution began in 1775, and soon after the new superintendent persuaded the Mohawks to move westward with him, and made good his influence over all the Six Nations except the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, though it was nearly two years from the breaking out of the war before they committed any serious hostilities. John Butler, however, established himself at Fort Niagara, and organized a regiment of Tories known as Butler’s Rangers, and he and the Johnsons used all their influence to induce the Indians to attack the Americans.
The prospect of both scalps and pay was too much for the Senecas long to withstand, and in 1777 they, in common with the Cayugas, Onondagas, and Mohawks, made a treaty with the British at Oswego, agreeing to serve the king throughout the war. Mary Jemison, the “white woman” then living among the Senecas on the Genesee, has declared that at that treaty the British agents, after giving the Indians numerous presents, “promised a bounty on every scalp that should be brought in.”
The question whether a price was actually paid or promised for scalps has been widely debated. There is not sufficient evidence to prove that it was done, and the probabilities are that it was not. Mary Jemison was usually considered truthful, and had good means of knowing what the Indians understood on the subject, but the latter were very ready to understand that they would be paid for taking scalps. Whether the British paid a bounty for scalps or not, the Indians were certainly employed by them to assail the inhabitants with constant marauding parties, notwithstanding their well-known and inveterate habit of slaughtering and scalping men, women, and children whenever opportunity offered. In fact they were good for very little else, their desultory methods of warfare making them almost entirely useless in assisting the regular operations of an army.
As formerly the Senecas, though favorable to the French, hesitated about attacking their brethren of the Long House, or the combined nations of the confederacy, so now the Oneidas, who were friendly to the Americans, did not go out to battle against the other Iroquois, but remained neutral throughout the contest. The great league was weakened but not destroyed.
From the autumn of 1777 forward, the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, and Mohawks were active in the British interests. Fort Niagara again became, as it had been during the French War, the key of all this region, and to it the Iroquois constantly looked for support and guidance. Their raids kept the whole frontier for hundreds of miles in a state of terror, and were attended by all the horrors of savage warfare.
The most active and most celebrated of the Iroquois chiefs in the Revolution was Joseph Brant, or Thayendenegea, a Mohawk who had received a moderate English education under the patronage of Sir William Johnson. He was most frequently intrusted with the command of detached parties by the British officers, but it does not appear that he had authority over all the tribes, and it is almost certain that the haughty Senecas, the most powerful tribe of the confederacy, to whom, indeed, by ancient custom belonged the right of choosing the principal war-chiefs of the league, would not have submitted and did not submit to the control of a Mohawk.
Of the Senecas who became most conspicuous during this period, in carrying death and destruction to many American border settlements, were the chiefs “Farmer’s Brother,” “Cornplanter,” and “Governor Blacksnake.” The first two, it will be remembered, are credited with the massacre of over ninety British soldiers at the Devil’s Hole, and, it has been stated, were half brothers. These three chiefs seem to have been the principal leaders of the Seneca murderers during the struggle for American independence, but which one of them was the ranking chieftain has not been learned. It is probable, however, that they acted independently to a certain extent, and that each received his orders directly from the British officers when ready to start forth against the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania.
In the summer of 1778 a force of savages and sour-faced Tories to the number of about twelve hundred – under the leadership of Colonel John Butler, the cruel and inhuman wretch before mentioned – descending from Fort Niagara and the Seneca country, appeared in the Wyoming valley, or the present county of Luzerne, Pa., on the 2d of July. The strong men of the valley were serving in Washington’s army, and the only defenders were old men, beardless boys, and resolute women. These old men and boys, to the number of about four hundred, under Colonel Zebulon Butler, a brave soldier who had won distinction in the old French War, and who happened to be present, moved resolutely out to meet the invaders. Overborne by numbers, the inhabitants were beaten and put to the sword, the few who escaped retreating to Forty Fort, whither the helpless, up and down the valley, had sought safety. Here humane terms of surrender were agreed to, and the families returned to their homes, supposing all danger to be past. But the savages had tasted blood, and perhaps captured liquor, and were little mindful of capitulations. The night of the 5th was given to indiscriminate massacre, burning, and pillage. The cries of the wounded and helpless rang out upon the night air, and the heavens all along the valley were lighted up with the flames of burning cottages; “and when the moon arose, the surviving, terrified inhabitants were fleeing to the Wilkesbarre Mountains and the dark morasses of the Pocono Mountain beyond.” Most of these were emigrants from Connecticut, and they made their way homeward as fast as their feet would carry them, many of them crossing the Hudson at Poughkeepsie, where they told their tales of woe.
Another writer, intending to speak in extenuation of the conduct of the Tories and Indians, says “no quarter was given during the conflict; and after the Americans were routed the Tories and Senecas pursued and killed all they could;” but that “those who reached the fort and afterward surrendered were not harmed, nor were any of the non-combatants. The whole valley, however, was devastated and the houses burned.” We leave it to the impartial reader to decide whether this presentation adds to or detracts from the unenviable reputation of the Tories and Senecas.
W.L. Stone, in his “Life of Brant,” says that Brant, the Mohawk, was not present at Wyoming, and that the leader of the Senecas, who formed the main body of the Indian force on that ever memorable occasion, was Gui-eng-wah-toh. Now, as we understand it, Stone was not at all familiar with the multiplicity of names borne by “the Cornplanter” through life, and, since we find the Indian name of the latter variously written by white men who knew him, as Guiengwako, Gientwadoh, Kientwoughko, Gyantwado, Gyantawanka, Cyentookee, Cyentwokee, Gyantwache, Kiendtwoke, Gyantwachia, Gientwakia, and Gyantwahia, we strongly incline to the belief that the “Guiengwahtoh” mentioned by Brant and Stone was none other than the then blood-stained savage, “Captain John O’Bail,” or “the Cornplanter.”
Equally strange and contradictory are the statements respecting Cornplanter’s parentage, and in spelling another of his many names. One says that his father was a Frenchman, another that he was an Irishman, while a third gravely asserts that the Cornplanter and Red Jacket were brothers. Then, too, we find that his reputed father’s name has been written and printed Obeal, O’Bail, O’Bayle, Abeil, Obeel, Abeel, Abeal, and O’Bale. The reader can form his own opinion regarding the chief’s progenitor, but we will venture to assert that he (Cornplanter) and Red Jacket were not brothers.
Returning to the harrowing scenes of the Revolution, we find that at Cherry Valley, N.Y., the same year (1778) the blood-thirsty Senecas were present in force, together with a body of Mohawks under Brant, and of Tories under Captain Walter Butler, son of Colonel John Butler, and there then was an undoubted massacre. Nearly thirty women and children were killed, besides many men surprised helpless in their homes.
These events and similar ones on a smaller scale induced Congress and General Washington, in the spring of 1779, to set on foot movements of strong bodies of Continental troops into the Indian country by way of retaliation. These expeditions against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations were commanded, respectively, by General Sullivan and Colonel Brodhead. The latter’s route led him through the present county of Warren, and his report to the commander-in-chief of the Continental armies, made at the conclusion of the campaign, was as follows:
“To His Excellency Gen. Washington.
“Pittsburg, Sep’r 16th, 1779.
“DEAR GENERAL: I returned from the expedition against the Seneca and Muncy nations the 14th inst., and now do myself the honor to inform you how far I have succeeded in prosecuting it.
“I left this place the 11th of last month with six hundred & five Rank & File, including Militia & Volunteers, & one Month’s provision which excepts the live Cattle was transported by water under the escort of one hundred men to a place called Mahoning, about 15 Miles above Fort Armstrong,* where after four days detention by excessive Rains & the straying of some of the Cattle, the stores were loaded on Pack Horses, and the troops proceeded on the march for Canawago** on the path leading to Cuscushing; at ten miles on this side the town, one of the advance guards consisting of fifteen White men, including the spies & Eight Delaware Indians, under the command of Lieut. Hardin of the 8th Penn’a Reg’t, whom I have before recommended to your Excellency for his great bravery & skill as a partisan, discovered between thirty and Forty warriors coming down the Allegheny River in seven Canoes. These warriors having likewise discovered some of the Troops, immediately landed, stript off their shirts and prepared for action, and the advanced Guard immediately began the attack. All the troops except one column and Flankers being in the narrows between the River and high hill were immediately prepared to receive the enemy, which being done I went forward to discover the Enemy, and saw six of them retreating over the River without arms, at the same time the rest ran away leaving their Canoes, Blankets, Shirts, provisions and eight Guns, besides five dead and by the signs of Blood, several went off wounded; only two of my men and one of the Delaware Indians (Nanouland) were wounded and so slightly that they are already recovered & fit for action. The next morning the Troops proceeded to Buchloons,*** where I ordered a small Breastwork to be thrown up of felled Timber and fascines, a Capt. and forty men were left to secure our Baggage and Stores, and the Troops immediately proceeded to Canawago, which I found had been deserted about eighteen months past.
“Here the Troops seemed much mortified because we had no person to serve as a Guide to the upper Towns, but I ordered them to proceed on a path which appeared to have been traveled on by the Enemy some time past, and we continued marching on it about 20 Miles before any discoveries were made except of a few tracks of their spies. But immediately after ascending a high hill we discovered the Allegheny River & a number of Corn Fields, and descending several towns(4*) which the Enemy had deserted on the approach of the Troops. Some of them fled just before the advanced Guards reached the Towns and left several packs of Deer skins. At the upper Seneca Towns we found a painted image or War post, clothed in Dog skin, and John Montour told me this town was called Yoghroonwago; besides this we found seven other Towns, consisting in the whole of one hundred and thirty Houses, some of which were large enough for the accommodation of three or four Indian families. The Troops remained on the ground three whole days destroying the Towns and Corn Fields. I never saw finer Corn altho’ it was planted much thicker than is common with our Farmers. The quantity of Corn and other vegetables destroyed at the several Towns, from the best accounts I can collect from the officers employed to destroy it, must certainly exceed five hundred acres which is the lowest estimate, and the plunder taken is estimated at 30 m. Dollars; I have directed a sale to be made of it for the Troops. On my return I preferred the Venango Road, the old towns of Canawago, Buchloons & Mahusquechikoken, about 20 Miles above Venango on French Creek, consisting of 35 large houses were likewise burnt. The greatest part of the Indian houses were larger than common, and built of square & round logs and frame work. From the great quantity of Corn in new Ground & the number of new houses Built and Building it appears that the whole Seneca & Muncy nations intended to collect to this settlement which extends about eight Miles on the Allegheny River, between one hundred and seventy and two hundred miles from hence. The River at the upper Towns is little if any larger than Kiskamanitis Creek. It is remarkable that neither man or Beast has fallen into the Enemies hands on this expedition, & I have a happy presage that the counties of Westmoreland, Bedford & Northumberland, if not the whole western Frontiers will experience the good effect of it.
“Too much praise cannot be given to both officers and soldiers of every Corps during the whole expedition, their perseverance and zeal during the whole march thro’ a Country too inaccessible to be described can scarcely be equaled in history. Notwithstanding many of them returned barefooted(5*) and naked they disdained to complain, and to my great mortification I have neither Shoes, Shirts, Blankets, Hats, Stockings nor leggins to relieve their necessities.
“On my return here I found the Chiefs of the Delawares, the principal Chief of the Hurons (Wyandots) and now the king of the Maquichee tribe of the Shawnese, is likewise come to treat with me; about 30 Delaware warriors are here likewise ready to go to war, but I have nothing to encourage them with, and without the means of paying them I cannot send them out. The Troops here have at least nine months pay due them and there is neither money nor Pay master to discharge the arrearages.
“A majority of my Reg’t are now discharged and the term of the two Ranging Companies of Westmoreland expired, so that I shall be weak in Troops to prosecute an expedition which by your permission I should be happy to make against Detroit, taking the Shawanese in my way. I should be happy to have your permission to make occasional excursions against any of the Indian nations who may hereafter prove inimical to us, as sometimes a favorable opportunity may be lost before I can be favored with your particular orders. Likewise to know your pleasure in regard to the Senecas and Muncies should they in their great distress sue for peace. I have before taken the liberty to give you my opinion respecting them, and the pairings of scalps and the hair of our Countrymen found at every Warrior’s camp on the path we marched are new inducements for Revenge.
“I am informed that Col. Clark who took Post St. Vincent, is making peace and war with the natives. I am not instructed how far your Excellency has authorized him to do so and apprehend the worst consequences to this frontier should either Col. Clark or myself enter into a treaty of peace with one of the Indian nations and the others break it, and by my instructions I am confined to the immediate command of the Troops here, I can take no steps to prevent such a probable (event?) but humbly entreat you to do it.
“The Wyandotts and the Maquichee tribe of the Shawanese promise very fair, and I have promised them peace, provided they take as many prisoners and scalps from the Enemy as they have done from us and on every occasion join us against the enemies of America, which they have engaged to do.
“A few Indian Goods, Paint and trinkets at this juncture would enable me to engage the Delawares to harrass the enemy frequently.
“The bearer, Capt. McIntire, has some private as well as public Business to transact at Philada. I have therefore ordered him to proceed to Head Quarters and he will have the honor to wait on you with this letter.
“I have the honor to be with the most perfect regard and esteem, Your Excellency’s Most Obed’t H’ble Serv’t,
D. BRODHEAD.”
In a subsequent letter, addressed to the “Hon’ble Major Gen’l Sullivan,” Colonel Brodhead said that “Yahrungwago is about forty miles on this side (meaning to the southward) Jenesseo, where I should have gone had I not been disappointed in getting a sufficient number of shoes for my men.” This would indicate that Brodhead penetrated as far northward as the southern central part of Cattaraugus county, New York State, or the vicinity now known as the town of Salamanca. It will also be noticed in the foregoing letter from Colonel Brodhead to General Washington, that the Colonel makes the statement, “it is remarkable that neither man or Beast has fallen into the Enemies hands on this expedition.” Now, viewed from another stand-point, these results were not at all remarkable. There were no Seneca warriors at home to oppose him. His movement into their country was wholly unexpected. Hence the chief portion of the warlike Senecas, under the leadership of “Cornplanter,” “Farmer’s Brother,” and “Governor Blacksnake,” had gone forward to join others of the Six Nations in opposing General Sullivan.
Having marched up the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, where he was joined by a brigade under General James Clinton (father of Dc Witt Clinton), General Sullivan, early in August, 1779, with a total force of some four thousand men, moved up the Chemung to a point a few miles below the site of Elmira. There Colonel John Butler, with a small body of Tories and Indian allies, to the number of about fifteen hundred men, had thrown up intrenchments and a battle was fought. Speedily defeated with considerable loss, Butler hastily retired and made no further opposition.
Sullivan advanced and destroyed all the Seneca villages on the Genesee and about Geneva, burning wigwams and log cabins, cutting down orchards, cutting up green corn, and utterly devastating the country. The Senecas fled in great dismay to the British stronghold known as Fort Niagara. The Onondaga village had in the mean time been destroyed by another force, but it is evident that the Senecas were the ones who were chiefly feared and against whom the vengeance of the Americans was chiefly directed. After thoroughly laying waste their country the Americans under Sullivan returned to the East.
Sullivan’s and Brodhead’s expeditions substantially destroyed the league which bound the Six Nations together. Its form remained, but it had lost its binding power. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras were encouraged to increase their separation from the other confederates. Those tribes whose possessions had been destroyed were thrown into more complete subservience to the British power, thereby weakening their intertribal relations, and the spirits of the once haughty Senecas, the most powerful and warlike of them all, were much broken by the double dose of punishment they had received.
It was a more serious matter than had been the destruction of their villages in earlier times, as they had adopted a more permanent mode of existence. They had learned to depend more on agriculture and less on the chase, and possessed not only cornfields, but gardens, orchards, and sometimes comfortable houses. In fact they had adopted many of the customs of civilized life, though without relinquishing their primitive pleasures, such as tomahawking prisoners and scalping the dead.
They fled en masse to Fort Niagara, and during the winter of 1779 – 80, which was of extraordinary severity, were scantily sustained by rations which the British authorities with difficulty obtained. As spring approached, the English made earnest efforts to reduce the expense by persuading the Indians to make new settlements and plant crops. The red men, however, were naturally anxious to keep as far as practicable from their dreaded foes (the “Long Knives,” as they sometimes termed the American soldiery, especially the Virginians) who had inflicted such heavy punishment the year before, and were unwilling to risk their families again at their ancient seats.
At this time a considerable body of the Senecas, with a few Cayugas and Onondagas, moved up from Niagara and established themselves near Buffalo Creek, about four miles above its mouth. The same spring another band located themselves at the mouth of the Cattaraugus. The Senecas who settled on Buffalo Creek were under the leadership of Sayengaraghta, an aged but influential chief sometimes called Old King, and said to have been during his life the head sachem of the Seneca nation.
Meanwhile the war was continued with varying fortunes. The Johnsons, Colonel Butler, Brant, and prominent Tories kept the Indians as busy as possible, marauding in small parties upon the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania; but they had been so thoroughly broken up by Sullivan and Brodhead that they were unable to produce such devastation as marked their pathway at Wyoming and Cherry Valley. They had learned to fear the Americans, to respect their strength, and to doubt the vaunted invincibility of British armies. Burgoyne had already succumbed to the inevitable. Cornwallis surrendered in October, 1781, and on the 11th of April, 1783, the treaty of peace having been signed and the independence of the United States of America acknowledged by Great Britain, Congress sent forth the joyful proclamation ordering the cessation of hostilities. Thus the unquestioned English authority over the territory of which Warren county forms a part, lasted only a little more than twenty years.
* Fort Armstrong stood on the site of the present town of Kittanning. It had been built and garrisoned, by orders of Colonel Brodhead, a few weeks prior to the beginning of this expedition.
** Now written Conewango. The Indian village of “Canawago” stood a mile or so below the site of the town of Warren.
*** An Indian town, at the junction of Brokenstraw Creek and the Allegheny River.
(4*) Cornplanter’s towns, the lower one of which was located where the descendants of that chief and his followers still reside.
(5*) Said Colonel Brodhead in describing his lack of supplies, clothing, etc., a few days before this movement began: “My officers begin to be very ragged, and some have worn out and lost their blankets, and I have not a single stocking for my men.”
SOURCE: Page(s) 72-82, History of Warren County, J.S. Schenck & W.S. Rann, Syracuse, New York: D. Mason, 1887
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