Production Note Cornell University Library produced this volume to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. It was scanned using Xerox software and equipment at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior to storage using CCITT Group 4 compression. The digital data were used to create Cornell's replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1984. The production of this volume was supported in part by the New York State Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials and the Xerox Corporation. Digital file copyright by Cornell University Library 1994.L NARRATIVE OF EARLY YEARS IN THE LIFE OF JUDGE AUGUSTUS PORTER WRITTEN BY HIM IN 1848 FOR THE YOUNG MEN*S ASSOCIA- TION OF BUFFALO ; THE MANUSCRIPT SUBSEQUENTLY DEPOSITED WITH THE BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.* My father, Joshua Porter, was born in Lebanon, Conn., on the 26th June, O. S., 1730. He was educated at Yale College and adopted the profession of physician and sur- geon. In the year 1757 he located himself in the town of Salisbury in the same state, where he lived in the actual prac- tice of his profession for more than fifty years, and where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1825, in the 95th year of his age. In May, 1759, he was married to my mother, Abigail Buel, daughter of Peter Buel of Coventry, Conn., with whom he lived until her death in October, 1797. By this marriage he had six children, viz: Joshua Porter, born May 1, 1760; Abigail Porter, born Oct. 20, 1762; Eunice Porter, born Sept. 10, 1765; Augustus Porter, born Jan. 18, 1769; Peter B. Porter, born August 14, 1773; and Sally Porter, born Sept. 10, 1778. I attended the common school of the town until I was some 14 or 15 years old. My regular attendance at school * Ample extracts were used by Orsamus Turner in his “History of the Holland Purchase/’ but the autobiography as a whole has never before been printed. 277278 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. was however interrupted during the war of the Revolution, when owing to the scarcity of men to perform the labors of the farm, it became necessary to employ boys; so that much of the time I only went to school in the winter, and worked on the farm in the summer. In the Fall of 1786 I spent some three or four months with Mr. Tisdale of Lebanon, under whose instruction I studied mathematics, and particularly surveying. In conse- quence of the sudden death of Mr. Tisdale by paralysis I returned to my father’s and again commenced work on the farm, which was my chief employment until 1789. In 1787 I assisted a Mr. Moore in making some farm surveys in the neighborhood, and in 1788 I did some surveying myself, by which I acquired some practical knowledge of the art. In the year 1789 Captain William Bacon, Gen. John Fellows, Gen. John Ashley, and Elisha Lee, Esq., of Shef- field, Mass.; Deacon John Adams of Alford, Mass., and my father, having become the purchasers of Township No. 12, 1st. Range (now Arcadia, Wayne Co.), and No. 10 in the 4th Range (now East Bloomfield, Ontario Co.), then in the county of Montgomery, New York, I entered into an agree- ment with them to go out and survey these tracts. I ac- cordingly in pursuance of previous arrangements made with Captain Bacon, met him at Schenectady, early in May, 1789. Here I found Captain Bacon had collected some cattle, pro- visions and farming utensils for the use of the settlers who were going forward in company with Deacon Adams and his family, whom I also met at the same place, and who took charge of the cattle. The provisions were taken into two boats. I assisted in navigating one of the boats, each carry- ing about twelve barrels, and known as Schenectady bat- teaux, and each navigated by four men. Leaving Schenectady, we proceeded up the Mohawk to Fort Stanwix (now Rome). In passing Little Falls of the Mohawk the boats and their contents were transported around on wagons. At Fort Stanwix we carried our boats, etc., over a portage of about one mile to the waters of Wood Creek. This Creek affords but little water from the portage to its junction with the Canada Creek, which falls into WoodAUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 279 Creek seven miles west of Fort Stanwix. At the portage there was a dam for a sawmill which created a considerable pond. This pond when full could be rapidly discharged, and on the flood thus suddenly made boats were enabled to pass down. We passed down this stream, which empties into the Oneida Lake, and through that lake and its outlet to the Three River point, and thence up the Seneca river and the outlet of Kanadasaga Lake (now Seneca lake), to Kana- dasaga settlement, now Geneva. The only interruption to the navigation of this river and outlet occurred at Seneca Falls and Waterloo, then known as Scoys. At Seneca Falls we passed our boat up the stream empty by the strength of a double crew, our loading being taken around by a man named Job Smith, who had a pair of oxen and a rudely constructed cart, the wheels of which were made by sawing off a section of a log, some or 3 feet in diameter. At Scoys we took out about half our load to pass, consisting mostly of bar- rels which were rolled around the rapids. From the time we left Fort Stanwix until we arrived at Kanadasaga, we found no white persons, except at the junc- tion of Canada and Wood Creeks, where a man lived by the name of Armstrong; at Three River Point where lived a Mr. Bingham; and at Seneca Falls, where was Joab Smith. Geneva was at that time the most important western settle- ment, and consisted of some six or seven families, among who were Col. Reed, father of the late Rufus S. Reed of Erie, Penn.; Roger Noble and family of Sheffield, Mass., and Asa Ransom, late of Erie County, who had a small shop, and was engaged in making Indian trinkets. At Geneva we left our boats and cargoes in charge of Capt. Bacon, who had come from Schenectady to Fort Stanwix on horseback and then took passage in our boats. Joel Steel, Thaddeus Keyes, Orange Woodruff and myself, took our packs on our backs and followed the Indian trail over to Canandaigua. At Canandaigua (then called Kanandarque) we found Gen. Chapin, Daniel Gates, Joseph Smith (Indian interpre- ter), Benjamin Gardner and family, Frederick Saxton (sur- veyor), and probably some half dozen others, all of whom except Smith and Gardner had come on with Gen. Chapin280 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. some ten or fifteen days before in boats from Schenectady by Fort Stanwix, Wood Creek, Oneida Lake, etc., and up the Canandaigua Outlet into the very lake itself. This is the only instance within my knowledge of the ascent of boats for transportation so high up; the ordinary point of landing, afterwards, being at Manchester, seven miles down. The only houses in Canandaigua were of logs; one occupied by Gen. Chapin near the outlet; one a little further north on the rising ground occupied by Smith, and one by Gardner near the old Antis house as at present known, and the other on the lot where the Oliver Phelps house stands, which had been built the fall before by Mr. Walker, an agent of Mr. Phelps. In this house Caleb Walker, his brother, died in 1790, and was the first person buried in the graveyard in Canandaigua. From Canandaigua I went to Township No. 10, in the 4th Range, now East Bloomfield, where I found Jonathan Adams, one of the proprietors of the town who had come on from Schenectady with cattle and horses, accompanied by his large family, consisting of the following persons: Him- self and wife, his sons John, William, Abner and Joseph; his sons-in-law Ephraim Rew and Lorin Hull, and their wives (his daughters) ; Wilcox, another son-in-law, and a younger daughter, afterwards the wife of John Keyes; Elijah Rose, a brother-in-law, wife and son, and the follow- ing named persons: Moses Gunn, Lot Rew, John Barnes, Roger Sprague, Asa Heacock, Benj. Goss, John Keyes, Nathaniel Norton and Eber Norton. Here Mr. Adams had erected two small log houses and one large one in which for the time being all these people found shelter. Mr. Adams in compliance with an arrangement with the proprietors fur- nished me with the necessary hands and provisions to fit out my surveying party, and I then commenced the survey of the town. After finishing the survey of this township Frederick Saxton and myself surveyed and allotted Township 9 in the 6th Range (now Livonia, Livingston County), which proved to be one of the best townships of land in the Genesee country. To show however the inconsiderable value putAUGUSTUS PORTER'S OWN NARRATIVE. 281 upon it at that time, I mention the fact that Gen. Fellows offered to sell the whole township to Mr. Saxton and myself at twenty cents per acre. After completing the survey of this township, Mr. Saxton assisted me in the survey of Township No. 12, 1st Range. (Arcadia, Wayne Co.) Col. Hugh Maxwell, a surveyor, had contracted with Phelps and Gorham the previous year to run out into Townships the whole of that part of their purchase to which the Indian title had been extinguished. Not having completed the work, he entered into an agree- ment with Mr. Saxton and myself to survey a portion, con- sisting of about forty townships, which now constitute a part of Steuben County. We entered immediately on this survey, and completed it in the course of the season. While employed in it we made our headquarters at Painted Post on the Conhocton River, at the house of old Mr. Harris and his son William. These two men, Mr. Goodhue, who lived near by, and a Mr. Meade two miles up the river, at the mouth of a stream since known as Meade’s Creek, were the only per- sons then on the territory we were surveying. Before we left, however, Solomon Bennet, Mr. Stevens, Capt. Jameson and Mr. Crosby arrived from Pennsylvania in search of a township for purchase and future settlement, and fixed on Township No. 3, in the 5th and No. 4 in the 6th Ranges, both lying on the Canisteo River, and soon after settled by these men. They are now known in whole or in part as the town of Canisteo. In the Fall I returned to my father’s in Salisbury by the water route in company with several persons from New Eng- land, who having spent the Summer at the West, were re- turning home to pass the winter. In addition to the persons mentioned by me as found at Canandaigua in the Spring of this year (1789), the follow- ing came in during the Summer, viz.: Abner Barlow, Israel Chapin, Jr., Othmiel Taylor, Nathaniel Gorham, Dr. Moses Atwater, Judah Colt, John Call, Amos Hall, Ge. Wells, John Clark, Daniel Brainerd, John Fanning, Stephen Bates, Aaron Heacock, James Fisk, Jairus Rose, Hugh Jameson, Mr. Truman, Orange Brace, Martin Dudley, and Luther282 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. Cole. The following came into Victor: Hezekiah Boughton, Enos Boughton, Jared Boughton, Seymour Boughton, 2d, Lyman Boughton, Zebulon Norton, Joel Scudder, Mr. Smith and Mr. Brace. Into Bristol, Gamaliel Wilder, Jonathan Wilder, William Gooding, Elnathan Gooding; into Geneva, Roger Noble, Phineas Stevens, Elias Jackson, Mr. Jennings, William Patterson, Peter Bortle. To Palmyra, Gen. John Swift. To Pittsford, Israel Stone, Simon Stone, Paul Rich- ardson, Mr. Allen, Mr. Acker. To Irondequoit Landing, Mr. Lusk. To Brighton, Orange Stone and Chauncey Hyde. Also Capt. John Gilbert from Lenox, Mass, (father of John Gilbert, now of Ypsilanti, Mich.), who surveyed the town into lots. To Perrinton, Glover Perrin, and Caleb Walker. To Livonia, Solomon Woodruff. To Avon, Gilbert Berry, Capt. Thompson, Timothy Hosmer, and Mr. Rice (whose wife gave birth to the first child born on the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, who was named Oliver Phelps Rice). To Vienna, Decker Robinson. To Middletown, at the head of Canandaigua Lake, Col. Clark, Capt. Walkins, Lieut. Cleveland, and Ensign Parrish. To Lima, Abner Miles and Dr. Minor. Among the incidents of this year (1789) in this western region, then just beginning to be inhabited, was the follow- ing: A Mr. Jenkins, who went out for the proprietors, John Swift and others, to survey Township 12, 2d Range (Pal- myra), commenced his labors early in the season, and erected for the accommodation of his party, a small hut of poles. One night, when the party were asleep, two Indians attacked them, first firing their rifles through the open cracks of the hut, and then rushing in. One of Jenkins’s men was killed by the first fire, but Jenkins and his party, after a brief struggle, succeeded in driving the savages off without further loss. He went the next morning to Geneva, where he learned that the Indian party to which they prob- ably belonged had gone south. He accordingly, in company with others, followed in pursuit as far as Newtown (now Elmira), on the Chemung River, near which place the mur- derers were captured. Newtown was then the principal, indeed almost the only settlement in that region of country.AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 283 The Indians were examined before an informal assembly, and the proof being in their opinion, sufficient to establish their guilt, the question arose, as to how they should be dis- posed of. The gaol of the county (then Montgomery) was at Johnstown, and it was not deemed practicable to trans- port them so great a distance through an Indian wilderness. It was therefore deternfined1 sutnmarily to execute them, and their determination was carried into immediate effect, an account of which I received from Jasper Parrish and Horatio Jones (afterwards Indian agents), who were eye witnesses of the execution. Another incident occurred at Canandaigua during this year worthy perhaps of notice. The year was one of unusual scarcity among the Indians. Indeed they were almost re- duced to starvation. Oliver Phelps having made a treaty with them the year previous they were to meet him this year to receive their stipulated annuities. As is usual on such occasions presents were provided for distribution among them, as well as articles of subsistence, of which it was known they stood in great need. The number of Indi- ans assembled however greatly exceeded his expectations (increased doubtless by their starving condition), amounting probably to 2,000. The stock of provisions proving inade- quate to their wants, they were driven to the necessity of de- vouring everything that could satisfy hunger, consuming with voracity even the entrails of the animals that had been slaughtered. They parted with almost everything that they had to purchase food, and did not disperse until they had nearly produced a famine among the white inhabitants. Another occurrence of this season was the opening of a road from Geneva to Canandaigua, which was the first piece of road opened west of Westmoreland, now in Oneida County. The winter of i789-?9o I spent at my father's in copying my field notes and finishing up my surveys. During the winter of 1789-90 I entered into an agree- ment with Gen. John Fellows, one of the proprietors of East Bloomfield, to join him in the erection of a sawmill on Mud Creek in that town, about five miles west of Canandaigua. In pursuance of this plan we collected at Schenectady a284 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. stock of provisions, tools, etc., necessary for the purpose. In May I embarked again at Schenectady for the West, taking with me these articles, and proceeded by nearly the same route as in the previous year except that I passed up the Canandaigua Outlet to Manchester now called, and thence transported my loading by teams to East Bloomfield. One of my companions in this expedition was Doctor Daniel Chapin, who resided many years in Bloomfield, and after- wards removed to Buffalo where he died. Also Oliver Chapin and Aaron Taylor and family. I have heretofore remarked that the mode adopted to render Wood Creek navigable was to collect the water by means of a milldam, thus creating a sudden flood, to carry boats down. Sometimes boats did not succeed in getting through to deep water on one flood and were consequently obliged to await a second one. As we were coursing down the creek during the voyage on our first flood we overtook a boat which had grounded after the previous one, the navi- gators of which were in the water ready to push her off as soon as the coming tide should reach them. Among these persons was James Wadsworth of Geneseo, with whom I then first became acquainted. He was then on his way to the West, to occupy his property at Geneseo, which has since become so beautiful and valuable an estate. Gen. Fellows set out for Bloomfield on horseback, having sent on a team (two yoke of oxen and a wagon) with a moderate load and four or five cows. These were driven by some persons com- ing on to assist in building the mill, and among them Mr. Dibble the millwright. Gen. Fellows parted with the wagon near Utica. During the previous winter the Legislature of New York had appropriated a township of land (called the “road town- ship” ), situated in what is now called Madison County, the proceeds of which were to be applied to opening a road west from Westmoreland. The job had been taken by contract and Gen. Fellows found the party cutting out the road not far from the present settlement of Onondaga. After Gen. Fellows reached Bloomfield, fearing that the team might not be able to get through with the materials for the mill, heAUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. despatched me back to meet the party and help them along, At Cayuga Lake I met Mr. Dibble the millwright, from whom I learned that the team had left its load at Onondaga, and that the men with the cattle and wagon were coming on with a large number of settlers, as fast as the persons em- ployed in opening the road with their assistance progressed with the work. I thereupon concluded to return to Man- chester and take the boat I had left there and go to Onon- daga for the loading. Taking Mr. Dibble and another man with me I went to Onondaga, and returned with the loading. The men and teams of the party reached Bloomfield at about the same time we did. I spent the summer chiefly in attend- ing to the erection of the sawmill, occasionally doing some surveying, particularly Town 13, 4th Range, now Penfield, Monroe County, which had been purchased of Phelps & Gorham by Jonathan Fassett. The mill was finished in the fall, and was I believe the third one erected on the Phelps & Gorham purchase. In December of this year (1790) I went in company with Orange Brace and two other persons on foot to Connecticut. The journey was a tedious and painful one, being made through a deep snow the whole distance, a part of which was accomplished on snowshoes. The following are some of the persons who came into the country this year, viz.: To Canandaigua, Nathaniel San- burn, Lemuel Castle, Seth Holcomb; to Victor, Hezekiah Boughton, sen., Seymour Boughton, sen.; to Bristol, Deacon Codding, John Codding, George Codding, Francis Codding, and Ephraim Wilder; to Pittstown (now Richmond), Peter, Gideon, William and Samuel Pitts; to Geneseo, James and William Wadsworth; to West Bloomfield, Benjamin Gardner (from Canandaigua), Robert Taft, Mr. Miller, Clark Peck, Esq. Curtis, Jasper P. Sears, Nathan Marvin, Lorin Wait, Amos Hall; to Avon, Gad Wadsworth, Mr. Ganson; to Farmington, old Mr. Comstock and his sons Jared, Darius, John and Otis, and Isaac Hathaway. During the session of the Legislature in i789-?90, a law was passed erecting the county of Ontario, to consist of all that portion of the State lying west of the east line ofAUGUSTUS PORTERS OWN NARRATIVE. the Phelps & Gorham Purchase. This was the first county set off from Montgomery. The following were the first officers appointed: Oliver Phelps, first judge; Timothy Hosmer (afterwards himself first judge), Arnold Potter and Israel Chapin, side judges; Judah Colt, sheriff, and Nathaniel Gorham, clerk. I spent a part of the winter of i790-’9i at my father’s, and in February I left again for the West. I made the jour- ney in company with John Fellows, son of Gen. Fellows, and two others, in a two-horse sleigh. At that time the only white settlements between Westmoreland and the Seneca Lake, were at Onondaga Hollow, where Gen. Danforth and Comfort Taylor had settled; and at what is now Eldridge in Cayuga County, where a Mr. Buck had located himself. On this journey we encamped for the night in a fine hemlock grove on the east side of the Owasco Outlet, where Auburn now stands. During the early part of this season (1791), in carrying on the sawmill and making improvement on land, with oc- casional surveying, I became acquainted for the first time with Oliver Phelps. This was an important event in my life at the West, for it led not only to my permanent and steady employment for more than ten years (first for Phelps & Gorham, but always under the direction of Mr. Phelps himself), during which I became familiar with most of the transactions relating to land sales, surveys, etc., but was followed by a personal intimacy with him, from which I derived many important advantages. His friendship for and confidence in me never faltered, and I have consequently always retained the highest personal respect for his name and memory. From him I obtained most of the information I now possess relative to the early hisory of the title to the Genesee country, as that portion of the state purchased from Massachusetts by Phelps & Gorham was then called. As this history may not be familiar to all, I will give my recol- lections of it. At the close of the Revolutionary War there existed con- flicting claims between the States of Massachusetts and New York, as to the proprietorship of the country lying west ofAUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 287 the Mohawk, and extending west to the Pacific Ocean, each claiming under a Royal charter from the British Crown. The two States having ceded to the General Government so much of the territory so claimed as lay west of a line to be drawn from the western waters of Lake Ontario due south to the 42d degree of North latitude, the controversy, as it related to the residue, was settled by commissioners repre- senting the two States, who met at Hartford in 1786. The result of their conferences was that the State of New York was to have jurisdiction over the whole territory, not ceded to the General Government, reserving and vesting in Massa- chusets the right of preemption from the Indians of all the country lying west of a line to be drawn due north from milestone No. 82 (being 82 miles due west from the Dela- ware River on the 42d parallel of latitude) in the north line of Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario; excepting therefrom a strip of land one mile in width lying along the easterly side of the Niagara River, and the islands in that river. In the year 1788, the State of Massachusetts being much in debt, incurred in the final discharge of tire Revolutionary army (which debt was evidenced by what were called “final settlement notes”) sought relief and liquidation by a dis- j posal of these lands. The State accordingly entered into a ] contract with Oliver Phelps of Granville, Mass., and Na- ! thaniel Gorham of Charlestown in the same State, for a sale j to them of the whole territory, in consideration of 300,000] pounds (Massachusetts currency), the whole of which might i be paid in these “final settlement notes” at par, in three \ annual instalments; the market value of these notes being then about four shillings on the pound. For the payment of this consideration the State required the purchaser to pro- cure personal guaranties. On the 12th May, 1788, Mr. Phelps, accompanied by Col. Hugh Maxwell, a Revolution- ary officer of Heath, Mass., as surveyor, then 57 years old, and William Walker of Lenox as assistant, proceeded to Kanadesaga, now Geneva, for the purpose of making ar- rangements for holding a treaty with the Indians for the pur- chase of the possessory right to the whole or a part of the territory. On arriving at Kanadesaga he found the Indians288 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. assembled in council with John Livingston of Columbia County, and Caleb Benton of Greene County, who repre- sented a company known at that time as “the Lessee'Com- pany/' for the lease of the tract lying immediately east of the Massachusetts claim. Mr. Phelps at once commenced nego- tiations, but as the Indians were not very numerously repre- sented further proceedings were adjourned to a treaty to be held at Buffalo about the last of June. This treaty was held at Buffalo in pursuance of this ad- journment. Mr. Phelps was anxious to purchase all their lands within the Massachusetts preemption claim; but the Indians were unwilling to sell any part of the country west of the Genesee River, alleging that the Great Spirit had fixed that stream as a boundary between the white and the red man. Mr. Phelps finding them quite immovable on this point, then represented to them that he was very desirous to get some land west of the river at the great falls, for the purpose of building thereon mills for the use and conveni- ence of the white settlers coming into the country, and that these mills when built, would be very convenient for the Indians themselves. The Indians then asked him how much land he wanted for his mill seat. He replied that he thought a piece about twelve miles wide, extending from Conewa- garas village on the west side of the river to its mouth (about 28 miles) would answer the purpose. To this the .Indians replied that it seemed a good deal of land for a mill seat, but as they supposed the Yankees knew best what was required, they would let him have it. After the treaty was concluded the Indians told Mr. Phelps that it being cus- tomary for them to give to the man with whom they had dealt, a name, they would give him one. They also said they should expect from him a “treat," and a walking-staff (meaning some spirit) to help them home. The name they gave to Mr. Phelps on this occasion was that by which he was ever afterwards known among them, viz.: Scaw-gwn- se-ga, which translated is “the great fall." This purchase, which comprised what is now the city of Rochester, was thereafter called “the millseat tract." Its contents are about 200,000 acres!AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. The result of this treaty was the purchase of this mill- seat tract and the whole of the eastern portion of the Mas- sachusetts claim, bounded as follows: North by Lake On- tario, east by the east line of the Massachusetts claim, which passes through a part of the Seneca Lake at Geneva; south by the Pennsylvania north line; and west by the Genesee River as far up as the mouth of the Canaseraga Creek, and by a line running due south from that point to the Pennsyl- vania line. The lands thus purchased at this treaty I shall hereafter have occasion to refer to as the “Phelps & Gorham Indian Purchase.” At the same time the Lessee Company concluded their arrangement with the Indians, renting from them for 999 years the tract lying east of the Phelps & Gorham purchase. The object of this company in taking their conveyance from the Indians in the form of a lease was to evade the preemp- tive right. It was however so palpable a fraud on that right that the State of New York at once refused to recognize it, and it was declared void by the Legislature, at its next session. The lands were subsequently appropriated by the State to the payment of military bounties, and hence have since been known as the Military Tract. The agents of the Lessee Company, Messrs. Livingston and Benton, at this treaty rendered important services in aiding Mr. Phelps in his negotiations, and received from him two townships of land in what is now Yates County, which were afterwards known as the “Lessee townships,” one of which is now named Benton, after the grantee above mentioned. Messrs. Phelps & Gorham and the lessees, as soon as their treaties were concluded, determined at once to send surveyors to run out the line which was to divide their prop- erty, viz., the east line of the Massachusetts claim. Geneva was then a small settlement, beautifully situated on the bank of the Seneca Lake, rendered quite attractive from its lying adjoining an old Indian settlement in which was an orchard. This orchard had been destroyed by Gen. Sullivan in his cele- brated campaign of 1779, but sprouts had grown up from it into bearing trees. As it was known the line must pass near this place, some anxiety was felt as to which party it might290 AUGUSTUS PORTER'S OWN NARRATIVE. belong. Col. Maxwell, on the part of Phelps & Gorham, and Mr. Jenkins, on the part of the lessees, as surveyors, pro- ceeded to the point of beginning, at the 82d milestone, on the north line of Pennsylvania, and ran through to Lake Ontario a line known as the Preemption line, which passed about a mile and a quarter west of Geneva, and which was the basis of the survey made by Phelps & Gorham. This line after- ward was proved to have been incorrectly run; and it was charged that the incorrectness was in part a fraud of Jen- kins, whose object was, to secure to his employers the Lessee Company, the location of Geneva. The suspicion of fraud led to a re-survey of this line, under the direction of Robert Morris, the particulars of which will be given in the sequel. The line being run, Col. Maxwell commenced im- mediately the survey of the tract west of it, and in the course of the season run out about thirty townships, and began the survey and allotment of Canandaigua. The supposition was quite common that on ascertaining the western boundary of the Massachusetts claim (being the east line of the New York and Massachusetts cession to the United States), it would be found to include the harbor and town of Presqu’ Isle (now Erie, Pa.) The State of Penn- sylvania was anxious to secure to itself that point, and in the winter of i788-’9 had made propositions to Phelps & Gor- ham for the purchase of it. At the request of Phelps & Gorham, the United States Government sent out the sur- veyor General Andrew Ellicott, in 1789, for the purpose of running and establishing this line. Frederick Saxton went with him on behalf of Phelps & Gorham. As this line was to commence at the west end of Lake Ontario, there was some hesitation at the outset in determining whether it should commence at the western extremity of Burlington Bay, or at the peninsula separating the bay from the lake. But it was at length fixed at the peninsula, and on the completion of the survey, by first running some distance south and then offsetting around the east end of Lake Erie, it was found to pass some twenty miles east of Presqu’ Isle. This line now forms the western boundary of the State of New York, between Lake Erie and the old north line of Pennsylvania,AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 291 and is the eastern line of a tract known as the “Presqu* Isle Triangle,” which was afterwards purchased by Penn- sylvania of the United States, and is now a part of that State. After the conclusion of the Indian treaty at Buffalo, in 1788, and as soon as the progress of surveys would permit, Phelps & Gorham commenced making sales, and up to the middle of the year 1789 had sold some thirty or forty town- ships, receiving small payments, chiefly in Massachusetts final settlement notes, with an understanding that future pay- ments might be made in the same securities at par. It was in consequence of this system of sales that they were so large. In consequence of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, not long after the purchase by Phelps & Gor- ham, it was anticipated that the General Government would assume the indebtedness of the several states, growing out of the War of the Revolution. The effect of this belief was to make the holders of State securities less willing to sell at low rates, so that Messrs. Phelps & Gorham, instead of being able to continue to sell rapidly, for this species of payment, sold comparatively little after about the middle of 1789, and during the year 1790 Congress did in fact assume the pay- ment of certain State debts, among which were included these Massachusetts final settlement notes. The consequence of this assumption was to raise them at once to par and even above. Having failed to make the payment of the instalment due to Massachusetts in i789-’90, the State commenced a suit against Phelps & Gorham and their sureties. Phelps & Gorman were, however, enabled to effect a compromise with the State, by which it was agreed that Phelps & Gorham should reconvey to Massachusetts all that portion of their purchase to which they had not extinguished the Indian title, viz.: all west of the Genesee River up to the mouth of the Canaseraga, and thence due south to the Pennsylvania line, except the mill-seat tract above mentioned, and retain to themselves the remainder, supposed to be about one-third of the whole, paying therefor a sum proportioned to the292 AUGUSTUS PORTERS OWN NARRATIVE. amount retained. It being understood that the final settle- ment notes were worth only four shillings on the pound when the purchase was made, the amount to be paid was estimated on that basis. This agreement was carried into effect in 1790 or thereabouts. Meanwhile the rise of these public State securities, which had prevented Phelps & Gorham from fulfilling their con- tract with Massachusetts, in like manner prevented the early purchasers under them from making their payments. Con- sequently a considerable part of these lands sold, reverted to Phelps & Gorham in after years or were bought by Oliver Phelps and sold by him to other persons. Early in 1790 Phelps & Gorham agreed to sell to Robert Morris of Philadelphia (the eminent financier of the Revo- lution) all the land in their Indian purchase, except what had been previously sold and were specially excepted, amounting in all to about fifty townships. Immediately after the purchase by Mr. Morris was concluded, in conse- quence of the suspicion always entertained of the incorrect- ness of the easterly line of the purchase (which had been run as before stated by Maxwell and Jenkins), he deter- mined to have it resurveyed. He accordingly employed An- drew Ellicott, the Surveyor General of the United States, to run this line again. I was with Mr. Ellicott and assisted him in a part of his survey. It was made with great care, with the very best instruments then in use, and the result showed a very considerable difference between it and that made by Maxwell and Jenkins. I joined Mr. Ellicott, while he was engaged in running this line, at the point where, in coming up from the south, it is brought in contact with the Seneca Lake. This point is from ten to twelve miles south of Geneva, a due north line from which would not touch the shore until it reached the foot of the lake, a distance of about twelve miles. From this, after concerting with Mr. Ellicott a system of signals, I traversed with my compass the west shore of the lake, and pursued this traverse around the north end, until I came to the meridian, as shown by my instrument, corresponding with that at my starting-point.AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 293 Mr. Ellicott and I, being now twelve miles apart, with an open expanse of water between us, could only communi- cate with each other by means of night signals. The mode of doing this was as follows: I raised two lights, one quite high, and the other less- elevated. Mr. Ellicott did the same, both of us being provided with telescopes. He then moved his shorter light (his longer one being fixed on the line he was running) in the direction he wished me to move mine, right or left, until my shorter or movable light was on the true meridian; when as previously agreed on, he was to in- dicate I was right by placing his lower light immediately under his higher one. The easterly line of the purchase was- found to pass about as far east of Geneva as the other passed to the west of that place, and the triangle bounded by these two lines and Lake Ontario was found to contain about 84,000 acres. The Ellicott line passed through a portion of Seneca Lake east of Geneva. The west line of Phelps & Gorham’s Indian purchase, running south from the mouth of the Canaseraga to the Pennsylvania line, which had been run by Col. Maxwell in 1789, I had about this time re-examined and found it substantially correct. The west line of the mill- seat tract, west of the Genesee River, had been run by Col. Maxwell in 1789. This tract, by the treaty of Buffalo the year previous, was to be bounded in substance as follows: Beginning on the west bank of the Genesee River, two miles north of Conewagaras Indian village, nearly opposite the now village of Avon, thence due west twelve miles, thence northerly to Lake Ontario, on a line to be run parallel to the general course of the river, thence by Lake Ontario and the Genesee River to the place of beginning on the river. Col. Maxwell, in laying out this tract, ran his line twelve miles west from the place of beginning on the river, and then as- suming that the course of the river to its mouth was north, ran his line due north to Lake Ontario. As Mr. Morris had directed the re-examination of the two lines already spoken of, he also directed a re-survey of the west line of this mill- seat tract. This duty was committed to me. In making this re-survey it became necessary for me to determine what was294 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. the general course of the Genesee river to its mouth from the point of beginning. The general course as ascertained was found to be North 2iy2 deg. east, so that in running the west line of the tract on that course, a triangle contain- ing about 90,000 acres, was left between the line run by Col. Maxwell and that run by me. As the townships were sur- veyed with reference to the line of Col. Maxwell, the varia- tion of the line will account for the oblique manner in which the corrected line is brought in contact with the township lines between it and the Genesee River. This “triangle” is well known as being owned by LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers of New York to whom it was sold by Mr. Morris, as will appear hereafter, and within which, near its appex, the beautiful village of LeRoy is situated. From these re-/ surveys of lines it was found that the amount purchased by Mr. Morris of Phelps & Gorham was about 1,200,000 acres. Very soon after this purchase by Robert Morris he sold the whole of it to Sir William Pultney, and it has since been known as the Pultney estate. Sir William, through his agent, Charles Williamson, who resided at Geneva, com- menced the sale of it to actual settlers. My recollection Is that in this sale to Sir William, Mr. Morris cleared about $70,000. It must, however, be borne in mind that Phelps & Gorham in their sale to Mr. Morris, excepted what had previously been sold (much of which reverted, as before stated), and reserved from the sale other townships and tracts, and that these sales and reservations constituted by far the better part of the Phelps & Gorham Indian purchase. This must be apparent from the fact that they were made after careful examination with a view to actual settlement. Not long after the surrender by Phelps & Gorham of their preemptive right to the country west of their Indian purchase to the State of Massachusetts, Mr. Morris pur- chased of that State, that right to the whole tract, and com- menced reselling it in large quantities, stipulating at the same time to extinguish the Indian right. One of his first sales was to LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers of New York of the “Triangle,” as has already been stated and described. He also sold to Watson & Greenleaf a parallelogram sixAUGUSTUS PORTER'S OWN NARRATIVE. 295 miles in width lying directly west of the Triangle, bounded north by Lake Ontario, and extending so far south as to in- clude 100,000 acres. Watson & Greenleaf afterwards sold this tract to Oliver Phelps, who in 1795 sold it with other lands to DeWitt Clinton. In conveying to Mr. Clinton, Mr. Phelps executed to him a deed or deeds of the tract in two undivided halves, he paying to Mr. Phelps on this and other lands $30,000 down, and executing two mortgages back, each of an undivided half. Mr. Clinton conveyed subject to the mortgage one undivided half to Charles Williamson, the agent of Sir William Pultney. The mortgage was paid off by Mr. Williamson, and the lands thus became part of the Pultney estate. The other half Mr. Clinton never paid for, and it reverted to Mr. Phelps. Mr. Clinton having given no bond or other personal security collateral to the mortgage, the debt was paid by a forfeiture of the mort- gage. After the death of Mr. Phelps the interest of his estate in this tract was conveyed by his representatives to the State of Connecticut in payment of a debt due by him for lands purchased in the Western Reserve of Ohio. It was thus that half of this 100,000 acre tract became a part of the Connecticut school fund lands. Mr. Morris also sold through Herman LeRoy, John Linklaen and others, to certain Holland companies, all that portion of his purchase of the State of Massachusetts, lying west of a north and south line to commence on the north line of Pennsylvania, twelve miles west from the southwest comer of Phelps & Gorham Indian purchase, and extending to Lake Ontario. He also sold to Andrew Craigie of Boston, a tract lying directly south of the Watson & Green- leaf tracts, and of the same width, six miles, to extend in a rectangular form so far south as to contain 14,000 acres. When, in 1798, the east line of the Holland Purchase was run out, it was found to cut off from the west side of this Craigie tract a strip some two miles in width, and would have taken a strip of equal width from the Watson & Greenleaf tract, but that the conveyance to Watson & Greenleaf was of earlier date than that to Herman LeRoy and others. Of the remaining lands held by Mr. Morris, a296 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. portion was conveyed to trustees for the benefit of his hon- orary creditors, but previous to this conveyance he sold a large tract in the twelve-mile strip between the east line of the Holland tract and the west line of Phelps & Gorham’s Indian Purchase, in what is now a part of Allegany County, to John B. Church, Esq., of the City of New York, the son- in-law of the distinguished Revolutionary general Philip Schuyler (Mrs. Church being the General’s daughter). This sale to Mr. Church led to the settlement on the tract of his son, Philip Church, Esq., who gave to the place of his residence the name Angelica, after his mother. Previously, however, to these large sales by Mr. Morris a tract of about 10,000 acres lying on the west side of the Genesee River, embracing the now village of Leicester, was given by the Indians to Joseph Smith and Horatio Jones, Indian interpreters. As Mr. Morris had yet to treat with the Indians for the extinguishment of their right to the whole country, he did not hesitate to confirm to their friends Smith and Jones, this gift. The interest of Smith in this tract was afterwards purchased from him by Mr. Phelps. That of Mr. Jones I suppose is now in the hands of his de- scendants, and of his surviving brother, John Jones.* In the year 1797 a treaty was held by Mr. Morris with the Indians at Geneseo, at which the Indian title was ob- tained to the whole tract bought by him of the State of Massachusetts; except the lands comprised in ten Indian reservations (of which that of Buffalo was one), which are well known. In July, 1791, I entered into the employ of Phelps & Gorham, whom I served chiefly for some years. In Septem- ber of this year however, I was engaged in making surveys for Robert Morris, at the instance of his loyal agent, Adam Hoops, Esq., and spent the fall in running out townships and in resurveyinig the lines already spoken of. At the close of the year I again returned to Salisbury and passed the winter at my father’s. During this year the first town * Judge John H. Jones, the first judge of Genesee county when it extended from the Genesee river to the Niagara. See Buffalo Historical Society Publica- tions, Vol. VI., p. 526.AUGUSTUS PORTERS OWN NARRATIVE. 297 meeting was held at Canandaigua, then the only organized town in Ontario County. Thomas Morris, Esq., a son of Robert Morris, went to Canandaigua this year and took up his residence there. In the Spring of 1792, while in the City of New York, I was tempted by the representations of a friend to visit Rich- mond, Va., for the purpose of seeking my fortune in that part of the Union. Finding after a short stay that the plans of my friend were not at all congenial with my habits of thinking and acting, I returned to the field of my former labors in Western New York. During the Summer I was engaged by Major Hoops, the agent of Robert Morris, in re- surveying lines and various tracts of land. In October of this year I was attacked with bilious fever and during my confinement was visited at Canandaigua by my brothers Joshua and Peter B. Porter, who then for the first ,time came to the “Genesee country.” With them, after my recovery, I returned to my father’s, from where I went to Suffield and passed the winter with Mr. Phelps in making out surveys. In the Spring of 1793 James Wadsworth came to see me at Salisbury for the purpose of obtaining my services in ex- ploring a tract of land situated some fifty miles north of Schenectady, being part of what was known as the Totten & Crossfield tract, which in the rage for land speculation at that day, Mr. Wadsworth, James Watson of New York and others contemplated purchasing. Having agreed to make this exploration, I at once entered into it by proceeding with Mr. Wadsworth through Schenectady to the bend in the Sacondaga branch of the Hudson River, known by the name of “Johnson’s fish house.” On reaching this point we found so much snow as to prevent all progress in exploring, and Mr. Wadsworth therefore left me, with instructions to re- port the results of my examination to Mr. Watson in New York. As soon as the state of the weather would permit, I completed the examination and reported as directed. It is hardly necessary I should add that my report was in the highest degree unfavorable, and that the idea of Mr. Wads-298 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. worth and his friends of purchasing these lands, was at once abandoned. Mr. Watson however having in view the purchase of part of a tract owned by Walkins & Flint, situated between the south end of the Cayuga Lake and the Susquehanna River, agreed with me for an exploration of it, and also of a tract of some 10,000 acres lying in the neighborhood of Og- densburg on the St. Lawrence. In pursuance of this ar- rangement I left Salisbury with one man to accompany me on foot, and crossing the Hudson at Catskill, proceeded to Owego. The whole country at that time, between Owego and the head of Cayuga Lake, and for many miles north of it, was an unbroken wilderness. After completing this ex- ploration, I procured a canoe at the head of Cayuga Lake, and attended by a single assistant, started for Ogdensburg. We proceeded down the lake and outlet to Oswego, which was then a military post in possession of the English, who would not permit us to pass. As the land route from this place to Ogdensburg was an entire wilderness throughout, we abandoned the attempt to proceed further, and returned by water with the canoe to Schenectady. I went in person to New York to make my report to Mr. Watson. While in the city I witnessed an incident of a most ex- citing character growing out of the strong popular feeling then existing in the country in regard to the French Revo- lution, and to the war then pending between France and England. The French Republican frigate L’Ambuscade, which was lying at anchor near the Battery, received a chal- lenge from the English frigate Boston, then off Sandy Hook, to a combat. This challenge was promptly accepted by the Frenchman and the Ambuscade put to sea to meet her an- tagonist amid the cheers of assembled thousands, followed down the bay by numerous small craft filled with passengers, desirous of being spectators of the engagement. The meet- ing between the frigates took place in pursuance of the chal- lenge. But while they were warmly engaged the approach of a French squadron to the New York harbor compelled the Boston to withdraw from the contest, and make her escape. The French fleet entered the harbor and sailed upAUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 299 to their anchorage in the Hudson, accompanied by the Am- buscade, which vessel, bearing the marks of the recent hos- tile encounter, in tattered sails, wounded spars, etc., was an object that produced an enthusiasm bordering on frenzy among the multitude who had assembled on the Battery to greet her return. Shouts and cheers filled the air; the Bat- tery was literally crammed with human beings. In the midst of these loud manifestations of sympathy for the French, an extraordinary excitement arose in one part of the crowd, the cause of which was soon apparent. A man was seen elevated above the heads of the multitude, over which he was passed as rapidly as possible, until he reached the en- closure at an adjoining street. Over this enclosure he was unceremoniously tossed among the boys and stragglers who pursued him with screams and jeers and all sorts of vile missiles, until he was out of -sight. The offence which had brought on him this display of popular indignation was merely that in conversation with a fellow-citizen in the crowd, he had said the French were no match for the English in a sea fight on equal terms. These and similar manifestations of popular feeling produced the celebrated proclamation of President Washington, enjoining neutrality on the American people in the wars growing out of the French Revolution. After making my report to Mr. Watson I again turned my face toward the Genesee country and proceeded to Can- andaigua. I soon commenced the resurvey of townships for Mr. Phelps, which employment occupied me until fall, when I returned with him to Suffield and spent the winter in making out surveys and other matters connected with his land operations. In the Spring of 1794 I again returned to Canandaigua, and was employed during the whole season in making sur- veys of various tracts for Mr. Phelps. In the fall I again returned with him to Suffield, where I spent part of the winter, and the remainder with him in New York, where he effected his large land sale to DeWitt Clinton, and other large sales to other persons. During the Summer of 1794 the court house for Ontario300 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. County was erected at Canandaigua. Thaddeus Chapin came this year to Canandaigua. For several years previous to 1794 the United States had been at war with the Indians residing south and west of Lake Erie, and two of our armies, under St. Clair and Harmar, had been defeated. These successes of the Indians had excited among a portion of the Six Nations (who were encouraged in their disaffection towards this country by the British in Canada), a strong disposition to engage in a war against us. Our Government foreseeing the danger, ap- pointed commissioners to treat for peace with the Western Indians, and in the early part of 1793 strong efforts were made to hold a council with them at Sundusky, but owing to their late successes and the influence of the British noth- ing was effected. In the Spring of 1794 Gen. Wayne took the field and marched into the Indian country with an effi- cient army, to prosecute the war. During the Summer of 1794 Gen. Pickering had been appointed a commissioner to treat, and if possible to estab- lish a good understanding with the Six Nations. He met them at Canandaigua in September. At first they mani- fested much of the spirit of unfriendliness that had been evinced by the Western Indians the year before at Sandusky, and a favorable result seemed for a time quite doubtful, but better influences finally prevailed (of which the success of Wayne at the West was an important one), and a satisfac- tory treaty was concluded. In the Spring of 1795, I again left Suffield for Canan- daigua. At Salisbury I was joined by my brother Peter B. Porter, who had decided to settle at Canandaigua in the practice of the law. During this season I acted as agent for Mr. Phelps in the management and sale of his lands, and in surveying for him. In the latter part of August of this year I went to Presqu’ Isle (now Erie, Pa.), in company with Judah Colt. At this time all that part of the State lying west of Phelps & Gorham’s Indian purchase was still occu- pied by the Indians, their title to it being yet unextinguished. There was of course no road leading from Buffalo eastward except an Indian trail, and no settlement whatever on thatAUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 301 trail. We traveled on horseback from Conewagus (now Avon) to Buffalo, and were two days in performing the journey. At Buffalo there lived a man named Johnson, a British Indian interpreter, also a Dutchman and his family by the name of Middaugh, and an Indian trader by the name of Winne. From Buffalo we proceeded to Chippewa, U. C., where we found Capt. William Lee, with a small row-boat, about to start for Presqu’ Isle, and waiting only for assistance to row the boat. Mr. Colt, Mr. Joshua Fairbanks,* now of Lewiston, and myself joined him. Two days of hard row- ing brought us to that place, where we found surveyors en- gaged in laying out the village, now called Erie. Also a military company under the command of Gen. Irwin, ordered there by the Government of the State to protect the sur- veyors against the Indians. Col. Seth Reed (father of Rufus S. Reed and grandfather of Charles M. Reed) was there with his family, living in a marquee, having just arrived. A Mr. Reese was also there, acting as agent for the “Popu- lation Company,” for selling and managing their lands, of whom Mr. Colt and I purchased 2,000 acres. We returned in the same boat to Chippewa, and from thence on horse- back by way of Queenston on the Indian trail through the Tonawanda Indian village to Canandaigua. During this expedition from Buffalo to Erie, a very re- markable circumstance presented itself to us, the like of which I had never before seen, nor have I since witnessed it. Before starting from Buffalo we had been detained there for two days by a heavy fall of rain, accompanied by a strong northeast gale. When off Cattaraugus Creek on our up- * Joshua Fairbanks arrived at Fort Niagara in 1791, from Geneva, having coasted along Lake Ontario. O. Turner has recorded an incident in Mr. Fair- banks’s own words: “We made a short call at Fort Niagara, reporting ourselves to the commanding officer. He gave us a specimen of British civility, during the ‘hold-over’ after the Revolution. It was after a protracted dinner-sitting, I should think. He asked where I was going. I replied, to Chippewa. ‘Go along and be d—d to you,’ was his laconic verbal passport.” Mr. Fairbanks kept a tavern for a time at Queenston, then settled at Lewiston, of which place he was a leading citizen for many years. He reestablished himself, after the ruin which the war had wrought, and in 1817 began a mercantile business in the firm of Fairbanks & Thompson. He was a school commissioner in 1817, and in 1835, was one of the incorporators of the Lewiston Railroad Company.302 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. ward passage, about one or two miles from land, we discov- ered some distance ahead a white strip on the surface of the lake, extending out from the shore as far as we could see. On approaching this white strip we found it to be five or six rods wide and its whole surface covered with fish of all the varieties common to the lake, lying on their sides, as if dead. On touching them however, they would dart below the sur- face but immediately rise again to their former position. We commenced taking them by hand, making our selections of the best, and finding them perfectly sound we took in a good number ; indeed if we had desired we might have loaded our boat with them. On reaching Erie we had some of them cooked and found them perfectly good. The posi- tion of these fish on their sides in the water, placed their mouths partly above and partly below the surface, so that they seemed to be inhaling both water and air, for at each effort in inhaling bubbles would rise and float on the water. It was these bubbles that caused the white appearance on the lake’s surface. I have supposed that these fish had from some cause, growing out of the extraordinary agitation of the lake by the gale from the eastward, and the sudden reflux of water from west to east after it subsided, been thrown together in this way, and from some unknown nat- ural cause had lost the power of regulating their specific gravity, which it is said they do, by means of an air bladder furnished them by nature. I leave it to others, however, to explain the phenomenon. During this season (1795) Nathaniel W. Howell of Can- andaigua and General Vincent Mathews, late of Rochester, first came to Canandaigua to attend court, their residence being at that time at Newtown, now Elmira. In 1796 I entered into an agreement with the Connecticut Land Company to superintend as chief surveyor, the survey of that part of Ohio called the Connecticut Reserve, which had been purchased the year before of the State of Connec- ticut by a company under that name. I was authorized to employ such number of surveyors and assistants and to pro- vide such articles of outfit for the expedition as were neces- sary. Early in April I commenced the work of preparation,AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 303 Schenectady being the place of rendezvous. I employed as assistant surveyors Seth Pease, John M. Holley, Richard M. Stoddard, and Mr. Warren. Mr. Pease, a brother-in-law of the late Hon. Gideon Granger of Canandaigua, was an ac- complished mathematician and astronomer. Such a selection was deemed indispensable in consequence of the important duty to be performed, of ascertaining with accuracy the point where the 41st degree of north latitude intersected the west line of the State of Pennsylvania, that parallel being the south boundary of the reserve. Early in the Spring Mr. Pease was sent to Philadelphia to procure the necessary number of surveyors’ compasses from the manufactory of the celebrated David Rittenhouse, whose instruments were at that time universally preferred; and to procure also such other instruments as the nature of our business required.* Having accomplished the object of his mission, he joined me at Albany, where I was engaged in other preparatory meas- ures. Gen. [Moses] Cleaveland of Connecticut was employed by the company to act as the general agent to quiet all In- dian interference that might be offered in opening the land for sale as soon as a portion of it should be surveyed. Joshua Stow of Middletown was of our party, and was charged with the duty of superintending transportation. The number of persons who went forward from Schenectady in four batteaux, including surveyors and their crews, was about twenty. I assisted in fitting up the boats, and then left on horseback for Canandaigua. The party in charge of the boats proceeded without interruption or accident, ex- cept the loss of a man by drowning at Spraker’s riff, until they arrived at Oswego. Here they were stopped by the English, who still held military possession of the post, in violation of the treaty of 1783, although the time was then near at hand when its evacuation was about to take place. As the happening of this event was a matter of uncertainty, the party were unwilling to await it. They therefore re- * The compass used by Augustus Porter in his surveys of Western New York and the Western Reserve of Ohio, 1789 to 1796, and his case of draught- ing instruments of the same period, are now in the possession of the Buffalo Historical Society.304 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. sorted to a strategem to pass the fort, in which they suc- ceeded. They withdrew a short distance up stream, appar- ently to await permission to pass. During the night, which was quite dark, they dropped down with such silence, that they cleared the fort unseen, and before daylight were out of sight on their way westward. On their arrival at Fort Ni- agara, however, no such detention took place, that post hav- ing within a day or two previous been given up.* On reaching Canandaigua I purchased a quantity of pork and flour for the expedition, and had it forwarded by way of Irondequoit, Niagara and Queenston, to Chippewa, from whence it was transported to the reserve. While at Canan- daigua, I purchased about ten pack-horses, and an equal number of pack-saddles, and about ten head of cattle for beef. I also hired a sufficient number of hands, in addition to those coming on in boats, to fit out our five surveying parties. The horses and cattle were taken on by these men to Buffalo, by the Indian trail. While here I was joined by Gen. Cleaveland from Connecticut, in company with whom I proceeded to Buffalo. Here a number of Indians had as- sembled, among whom were Brant, Farmer’s Brother, and Red Jacket, for the purpose of presenting some claim to the country we were going to survey. Gen. Cleaveland listened to the statement of their claim, but found very little diffi- culty in satisfying it after a day or two spent in council, by distributing among them about $2,000 worth of presents. Our boats from Schenectady, and our men with the cattle from Canandaigua, had in the meantime arrived. The whole expedition then moved on, a part of the men in boats, and the remainder with the cattle by land. That division of our party which proceeded west from Buffalo in boats, were two days in reaching Presqu’ Isle. *If Fort Niagara was not in British hands when Judge Porter’s expedition reached it, his men must have taken 28 or more days to make the journey from Oswego, which is not credible. Oswego—Fort Ontario—-was first occupied by Americans on July 15, 1796. Fort Niagara was not given up by the British until August nth. Detroit was relinquished by the British, July nth; while Mackinac did not pass into the hands of the Americans until October. It is probable that the main body of British troops—the Fifth Regiment—had with- drawn from Fort Niagara, before the arrival of the Porter boats, leaving a small detachment to await the coming of the American troops, who also came from Oswego.AUGUSTUS PORTERS OWN NARRATIVE. 305 These boats, one of which I had charge of personally, were each managed by four men, and were of a burthen sufficient to carry about fourteen barrels. On the morning after our arrival at Presqu’ Isle, a gale came on from the westward which detained us two or three days. By this time our horses and cattle, which had taken the land route, overtook us, and were sent on to the isthmus connecting the penin- sula with the main shore. The boats were also taken up to that point, during the gale. Here the boats were unloaded and dragged across into the lake above, by our men. From this place we reached Conneaut without further detention. On the 5th July all hands except myself and two or three others, commenced building a log house near the mouth of the creek, on the east side, which was in a very short time completed, and was large enough to receive all our provisions and stores, and to accommodate in a decent way the two men with their wives, and Gen. Cleaveland. After leaving Presqu’ Isle we were without any knowl- edge of the country, except that we were informed at Presqu’ Isle that the mouth of the Conneaut Creek was about three miles west of the west line of Pennsylvania. The directors of the land company had however furnished me before I left Connecticut, with an old French map of the southern coast of Lake Erie, on which the mouths of all the principal streams discharging into the lake were indicated with their names, as they are now known, namely, Conneaut, Ashtabula, Grand River, Chagrin, Cuyahoga, Rocky, Black, Vermillion and Huron, also the mouth of Sandusky Bay. The Pennsylvania line on the shore of the lake, I found with- out difficulty. A stone placed by Andrew Ellicott in 1786, was found so marked and engraved as to indicate that it was on the west line of Pennsylvania. The latitude on which it stood was something short of the parallel of 42 deg, about three minutes, if I recollect right. By reference to a map of Ohio or of Pennsylvania, it will be seen that the line inter- sects the 42d parallel in the lake a short distance from the shore. We all arrived at the mouth of Conneaut Creek, in Ohio, on the 4th day of July, 1796, where we celebrated the day by306 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. the firing of muskets and drinking of toasts, not with wine in glasses, but with water seasoned with sugar and ginger, in tin cups. The whole party at this time consisted of 52 per- sons, two of whom were females. One was the wife of a Mr. Gun, who with her husband became settlers and passed their lives in the country. A day or two after our arrival we were visited by a small number of Indians who lived a short distance up the creek, with the chief of the little tribe by the name of Pogh-qua. These Indians also preferred claims, which Gen. Cleaveland satisfied, as at Buffalo, by distributing among them $500 or $600 worth of presents in dry-goods. They then conferred on the General a name which they intended as a high com- pliment, it being after their chief, Pogh-qua, the chief him- self presenting to him at the same time a pair of leggins, a pair of moccasins, and an Indian coat made of a blanket, which he frequently thereafter wore, and from his being a man of an uncommonly dark complexion, he was considered in appearance not a bad counterpart of his namesake. That part of the Western Reserve to which the Indian title had been extinguished by Wayne’s Treaty in 1795 was bounded east by Pennsylvania, west by the Cuyahoga River, south by the parallel of latitude 41, and north by that of 42. Within these limits our surveys were confined, except that the important duty was assigned to me to ascertain and re- port (for reasons that will hereafter appear), the entire quantity of land in the whole reserve, the boundaries of which were given as follows: East by the Pennsylvania line; west by a line 120 miles west therefrom, north by lati- tude 42, and south by latitude 41. It was known that these boundaries would include a portion of Lake Erie, and from circumstances I will mention hereafter the company desired that such surveys should be made, as would enable us to ascertain the quantity of land (not covered by water) em- braced. For this purpose it was necessary that the whole shore of the lake should be traversed from the east to the west bounds of the territory. This service I performed per- sonally, Gen. Cleaveland accompanying me. At this time there was not a white person residing on the reserve, ex-AUGUSTUS PORTERS OWN NARRATIVE. 307 cepting a Frenchman who lived with the Indians at San- dusky Bay. In 1795, when the State of Connecticut sold this tract of country, three separate companies attended at Hartford, each with a view to purchase. Finding they could not oper- ate successfully as competitors, they entered into a compro- mise by which two of the companies, one represented by Oliver Phelps, and the other by John Livingston, united in one and entered into an agreement with the third, repre- sented by Gen. William Hull, afterwards Governor of Michi- gan. By this compromise the first two companies (united) were to purchase the whole tract then offered for sale, which was the whole reserve, excepting a half million of acres of the extreme western part, which had been previously granted by the State to certain of its citizens whose property had been burned by the enemy during the Revolutionary War, and which were for that reason called the “fire lands/’* Gen. Hull’s company were eventually to have all the lands thus purchased, over three millions of acres, at the average price of the whole. The two former thus united was called the Connecticut Land Company, the latter, the Excess Company. This shows why it became necessary to ascertain as early a§ possible the whole quantity contained in the territory, that the Excess Company might know the quantity to which it was entitled. During the time the survey was going on, this supposed excess was divided into shares, and became the subject of sharp speculation, the number of shares being 120. In one instance it was rumored that a single share was sold at a premium of $2,000. On the completion of the sur- vey it turned out that the Excess Company was not entitled to a single acre, and that the other purchasing company fell short some 200,000 acres of their quantity. In a few days after our arrival at Conneaut, the proper steps were taken to organize four surveying parties, each consisting of a surveyor and seven hands. This being ac- complished, we were to proceed south on the Pennsylvania line, our joint destination being the point on that line where * The name is perpetuated in various usages, e. g., the Fir elands Pioneer, published at Norwalk, O., the Firelands Historical Society, etc.308 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE,. the 41st parallel meets it, and also the southeast corner of the Western Reserve. That point being ascertained, our plan was to proceed west on that parallel, and at the end of each six miles, start a surveyor on a meridian to the lake. In adopting this plan we were influenced by two reasons: first, because we considered this the more proper point from which to begin our surveys; and second, because we might draw a considerable part of our supplies of provisions from the Ohio River, where we had been informed flour and bacon might be had, in any quantity and at reasonable prices, and if so, could be obtained much more easily than from Canandaigua, from whence we had not yet received sufficient for our wants. All things being thus arranged for a start, and while mustering our hands for service, we found a highly excited and mutinous spirit among them, which on inquiry was found to be what would now be termed a strike. The move- ment was one in which all united, and a compromise and settlement became unavoidable. With this view Gen. Qeaveland agreed with them that before the close of the season, and after some of the township lines had been run, a township should be selected and set apart, to be surveyed into lots, and that each individual of the party should at his election have the right of purchasing a lot on a credit at a stipulated price, which was I think, a dollar an acre. This settled the difficulty, all being satisfied. This township was in pursuance of this arrangement, set apart and called Euclid, which name I understand it yet bears. The adjustment as above having been made, the four parties started, there being four surveyors beside myself. On arriving at the Mahoning River, a branch of the Beaver, Mr. Pease and the others of the party continued down the line as before arranged, while I with three men and as many pack-horses, went down the Beaver to its mouth, where was a place then called Fort Macintosh, for provisions. At this place none were to be had, but we were informed that any quantity could be obtained,at a place called Washington, about twelve miles below, on the Virginia side of the Ohio. We therefore provided ourselves with a large canoe, andAUGUSTUS PORTERS OWN NARRATIVE. 309 proceeded down to that place, where we succeeded in getting a quantity of flour to load our horses, but no more. We could get no meat. We returned to the place where we had parted from Mr. Pease, and continued up the Mahoning, or near it until we arrived at the old salt works, said to have been occupied several years before by the distinguished Revolutionary gen- eral Samuel Holder Parsons, by permission of the Governor of Connecticut. General Parsons, it will be remembered, was drowned in the rapids of the Beaver, while descending that river in a boat, and that at the time of his death he held under a commission from Congress the office of Presiding Judge of the old Northwestern Territory. At these salt works we found a small piece of open ground, say two or three acres, a plank vat of about sixteen or eighteen feet square, and four or five feet deep set in the ground which was filled with water and salt kettles. An Indian and squaw were here in the act of boiling water for salt, but from appearance, with but poor success. We had been at this place but a short time when Mr. Pease and his party joined us. Mr. Pease had fixed the southeast corner of the Reserve, and had run a line due west therefrom 24 miles, having at the end of each six miles started a surveyor with his party due north for the lake, as had been proposed, he being himself with the party running the fourth and last meridian, which crossed the Indian trail we were on, less than a mile west of the salt works, and from five to eight miles north of the 41st parallel. On reaching the trail, finding from its appearance that we had not yet passed, he followed it eastward for the purpose of meeting us, and did meet us at the spring, less than a mile from his meridian line. This meeting was an important matter with Mr. Pease, for he had delivered over to the other surveyors all the provisions except a very small supply, estimated to be sufficient to subsist on until my return from the south. This scanty supply was all exhausted, when our meeting took place, and this brought to them, flour only. Most fortunately for us, however, we found the same after- noon one of the finest bee-trees I ever saw. We at once en-310 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. camped, cut down the tree and gathered the honey. Having eaten to our satisfaction, each man filled his canteen. What remained was put into the flour-bags and mixed up with the flour, ready to be baked into sweet cakes at our next place of encampment. From this time we were about ten days reaching the lake, during which, except while the honey lasted, we subsisted on flour alone. Of course our route northerly was on Mr. Pease’s meridian. On our arrival at the lake we followed the beach eastwardly for headquarters at Conneaut, and what was quite remarkable, on our way there we fell in with all three of the other parties, who had brought their lines to the lake, and all arrived at the same time at Conneaut. During our absence the house at this place had been completed, and General Cleaveland had held his conference with the Indians, as has already been stated. In a day or two, four surveying parties were started to run east and west lines, six miles from each other, from the Pennsylvania line to continue west until they should reach the Cuyahoga River. At the same time, taking with me the necessary number of men and supplies, with a batteau to accompany us along the coast, I commenced the traverse of the lake shore, for the purposes already stated. This party con- sisted of Gen. Cleaveland, Joshua Stow, Doctor Shepard, and Joseph Landon (who afterward settled in Buffalo, where he lived many years), together with three other men. On our way west we encamped one night near the mouth of Ashtabula Creek—I think west of it, but how far I cannot say. The next morning, the weather being calm and the lake perfectly smooth, we discovered bubbles rising rapidly on the surface, some two or three rods from the shore, very much as would be produced by the discharge of air from the bunghole of a cask filling with water. The suspicion occur- ring to us that it might be inflammable gas issuing from the bottom, we lighted a torch and applying it to the spot, the gas took fire, thus confirming the fact. The depth of the water was about two feet. On a beech tree directly opposite we noted the circumstance by a suitable inscription. In making this traverse, Mr. Stow acted as flagman, andAUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 311 was constantly always in the advance of others. Rattle- snakes were very plenty and he was the first to encounter them, which he did by killing them. I had mentioned to him a circumstance which had once happened to me, and which was that I had with two or three others, been three days in the woods without provisions, during which time we had killed a rattlesnake, which on being dressed and nicely cooked we had eaten with a high relish; but whether it was enjoyed as such from the delicacy and richness of the meat, or from the craving state of our stomachs, I could not say. Mr. Stow was a very healthy, active man, fond of woods life and its adventures, and determined to adopt all the prac- tices of such a life, even to the eating of snakes. During almost every day while on the lake shore he killed and swung about his person from two to six large rattlesnakes, and at night a part or all were dressed, cooked and eaten by the party, all partaking, I believe, except Gen. Cleaveland, and all seeming to relish them, probably more from their being fresh, while our meat was all salt. In making this traverse of the south shore of Lake Erie, it will be borne in mind, its object was to ascertain the entire area of the Western Reserve. To do this, it was necessary for us to penetrate some fifty miles into the Indian country, the Cuyahoga River being at that time its eastern boundary. In proceeding west, therefore, from the mouth of that river, the traversing party under my direction and lead, was ac- companied coastwise by our boat, which contained our pro- visions, etc., and which would always afford us the means of escape in case we should be attacked by hostile Indians. We passed on however without any such interruption. Indeed we saw no Indians until we reached the western point at the mouth of Sandusky Bay. Here, near the site of an immense burial place we encountered a party of some twenty or thirty. Of their disposition toward us we could only judge from their manner, which appeared to us anything but friendly and conciliating. They examined our instruments very closely and minutely, and with apparently gloomy jeal- ousy and disapprobation. Being now very near the western boundary of the Re-312 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. serve, as shown by my traverse, we pushed on as rapidly as possible (after a short interview with the Frenchman, from whom, owing to the want of a community of language we could learn nothing satisfactory) until we reached the point of our western destination, viz.: the western limit of the Reserve, which we found to be a short distance beyond Hat Island. Here, after setting our land-mark with all possible dispatch, we embarked in our boat, and giving the land a wide berth we held our way for the mouth of the Cuyahoga direct without touching at any intermediate point. Soon after my arrival there I laid out by direction of Gen. Cleaveland a mile square of land into streets, etc., on which now stands the city bearing his name. After this, I began the traverse of the Cuyahoga River, with a view to ascertain the treaty line of Wayne, which was the Cuyahoga River up to the portage, and thence by the portage to the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum. This portage, which was nothing more than an Indian trail, I was unable to find. At best it must have been very indistinct, and was rendered entirely so by the leaves of autumn which had re- cently fallen. I traversed the river, however, until I found I had proceeded too far northerly for the intersection of the portage, and then gave up my search. This river, as will be seen by reference to correct maps, has its source in a latitude north of its mouth. Some ten or fifteen miles up the river from its mouth on the west side we found standing a log house of considerable size, evidently built by white people, about which there was however, no clearing. I understood at the time, from what source I am unable to say, that it was erected and occupied for some time by Heckewelder the missionary.* Shortly after my return to Cuyahoga River from San- dusky, as before stated, Gen. Cleaveland left us to return * This was probably the cabin which was built in 1761 by the missionary Christian Frederick Post. In 1762 Post and John Heckewelder occupied it. Heckewelder has left a most graphic account of his lonely and dangerous so-' journ there, and of its final abandonment. He describes it as standing “on the east side of the Muskingum, about four rods from the stream,” and a mile or more north of the Indian town Tuscarawas. This would indicate that it stood on the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, and accords with Judge Porter’s narrative.AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 313 home. He went down to Chippewa in one of our batteaux, in charge of Mr. Tinker who was then on his second or third trip after supplies. On our return from our survey of the Cuyahoga River to its mouth, we learned that Tinker, while on his trip up, had been driven ashore near the mouth of Chautauque Creek, now Portland, his boat stove, cargo lost and himself drowned. This accident was in its consequences very serious to us, as it cut off our supply of provisions too late in the season for us to hope for another, and we were consequently obliged to leave the country some weeks earlier than we intended. We left Cuyahoga as late, I should think, as the later part of October or first of November, in two boats, with perhaps ten or fifteen men in each. I recollect that in passing out of the mouth of the river, all hands were obliged to get into the water, to take the boats over the sand- bar. During the early part of the season, say some time in July or August, a Mr. Kingsbury came with his family into the country and I believe continued to reside there, and be- came a judge of one of the earliest counties formed on the Reserve. Gen. Paine also came, and selected and purchased a farm near the Grand River. Nathan Perry purchased near the Chagrin, and afterward settled near the mouth of Black River. I have already remarked that our western posts were this year surrendered by the British, and taken possession of by our troops, under the stipulations of Jay’s treaty. The provisions to supply our troops at Detroit, had been fur- nished by Gen. O’Hara, late of Pittsburg, and by him trans- ported to Detroit on pack horses by way of Fort Macintosh, up the Big Beaver, by Parson’s salt spring, Sandusky and Maumee. A horse branded with his name we found a little east of the salt spring, having a bell on, which was no doubt one of his that had strayed. In the fall of 1796 I returned to Suffield and spent most of the winter in making up my surveys and maps of the Re- serve, and in closing up my business with the Connecticut Land Company, having concluded not to remain longer in their service, although they were very desirous I should.314 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. But as I had now a family, and had spent most of my time for seven years in the fatigues and hardships of a woods life, I determined to settle at Canandaigua and accept the agency offered me by Mr. Phelps of his land business. In accordance with this determination, in the latter part of February, 1797, I left Suffield with my family in a sleigh for Canandaigua, where I arrived early in March. I imme- diately entered into the service of Mr. Phelps, in settling and surveying his lands, and in collecting his debts. One of the first acts of my agency was to sell three or four farms on the road leading north toward Farmington. In running them out, as it was necessary I should, I caught a severe cold in the swamps, through which I was obliged to make my way by wading. From this circumstance I date the com- mencement of my deafness, which has since so much af- flicted me. During the winter of 1797 Gideon King and Zadok Granger, two of the proprietors of the tract pf 20,000 acres in the north part of the township, one short range, which in- cluded the land on which Rochester now stands, and two or three other families from Suffield, had gone' to the tract and commenced thereon a settlement. Mr. Phelps, my brother Peter B., and myself were also proprietors. The southern part of this township, being about 4,000 acres, was included in Mr. Phelps’s great sale to DeWitt Clinton. It was sub- sequently sold, subject to the mortgage given by Mr. Clinton for the purchase money, and eventually passed through the hands of Charles Williamson to the Pultney estate. This 20.000 acre tract was sold originally by Phelps & Gorman in 1790, to a company of gentlemen of Springfield and Northampton, Mass., among whom were Ebenezer Hunt, Quartus Pomeroy, and Justin Ely. The tract was bounded north and west by the north and west lines of the township, east by the Genesee River, and south by a line parallel with the north line, and so far distant therefrom as to contain 20.000 acres, excepting and reserving therefrom 100 acres which had been previously sold to Ebenezer Allan, for the purpose of erecting a mill thereon, which 100 acres were to be located in as near a square form as the windings of theAUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 315 river would permit, commencing at the center of the mill, and extending an equal distance up and down the river, then back so far as to contain the ioo acres in the above form. This tract of ioo acres was purchased of Ebenezer Allan by Charles Williamson in behalf of the Pultney estate, by whom it was subsequently sold to Col. Rochester and others. The Allan mill stood very near where the Erie Canal aqueduct now crosses the Genesee River. The lines of this 20,000 acres had been run by Frederick Saxton, in the summer of 1790. It may not be uninteresting to state here that this 100 acres embraces the most densely and valuably built part of the city of Rochester; that all the present titles within it are derived from Allan, who never himself had any other known paper title than that which is derived by implication from the exception above mentioned in Phelps & Gorham’s deed to the Springfield & Northampton Company. In May of this year 1797, I went to this 20,000 acre tract, and after first running out the Allan 100 acres, ac- cording to the description above given, proceeded to survey it into farm lots, excepting a portion about Hanford’s land- ing, which was laid into village lots. This year as has before been stated Robert Morris pur- chased the Indian title to all the lands to which he had pre- viously purchased the preemptive right of the State of Massachusetts, lying west of Genesee River, excepting twelve separate tracts which the Indians reserved, known by the following names, viz.: Caneadea, Gardeau, Squakie Hill, Little Beard’s, Big Tree, Conewagus, Tonawanda, Tus- carora, Buffalo, Cattaraugus, Alleghany and Seneca Oil Spring. The treaty held by Mn Morris for the purchase of these lands was concluded the latter part of August. Major Hoops,* the agent of Mr. Morris, engaged me to make as speedily as possible such surveys as were necessary in order to ascertain the whole quantity of lands, to which he had purchased the preemptive right. On the first of September I left home, accompanied by Mr. Joseph Ellicott. We com- menced the survey on the south shore of Lake Ontario, * Adam Hoops, the founder of Hamilton, now Olean, N. Y.316 AUGUSTUS PORTERS OWN NARRATIVE. twelve miles west of the mouth of the Genesee River, at the northwest corner of the mill-seat tract, from thence along the shore of said lake, west to Niagara River, up that river on the east side to Lake Erie, and along the south shore of that lake to the northeast corner of the Presqu’ Isle triangle. The east line of this triangle to the old north line of Pennsyl- vania, as well as the said north line to the southwest corner of Phelps & Gorham’s Indian purchase, had been formerly established, as well as the whole western boundary of said Indian Purchase. The data were thus obtained by which to ascertain the whole quantity purchased by Mr. Morris. After making the calculation I prepared a copy which I delivered to Major Hoops. The original I retained until 1813, when it was burned with other papers when my house was de- stroyed by an invading British force. Owing to this circum- stance I am unable to give the quantity. During the summer of 1798 I was engaged in surveying at the instance of Joseph Ellicott, the agent of the Holland Land Company. I surveyed this year the Indian reserva- tions at Caneadea, Squakie Hill, Little Beard’s Town, Big Tree, Conewagus, Buffalo and Cattaraugus. The winter of i798-’99 I spent at Canandaigua except that I made a journey to Albany in January, and another to Salisbury in February. On returning to Canandaigua after completing the sur- vey for Robert Morris, in company with Mr. Joseph Ellicott, we travelled down the lake to Buffalo, chiefly on the beach, there being no road, and as yet none other than an Indian trail from Buffalo to Conewagus, now Avon. There was then (1797) but one dwelling house between the two places, which was owned by a Mr. Wilber. It was situated at the point where Mr. John Ganson afterward built a large house and kept a tavern many years, and is about one and a half miles east of LeRoy. In 1800 I built a dwelling-house in Canandaigua, oppo- site the Academy, in which I resided until the year 1806, when on removing with my family to Niagara Falls, I sold it to John Greig, Esq., by whom it was occupied many years. Here at Niagara Falls, except during the War of 1812, IAUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 317 have continuously resided. In 1813 an invasion by the Brit- ish troops took place, which resulted in laying all the settle- ments on the frontier, Buffalo included, in ashes. My dwelling, mill, etc., at Niagara Falls, shared in the common desolation. The alleged justification of this system of war- fare was the burning of Newark, now Niagara, U. C., by the troops of the United States under the command of Gen. George McClure, on his evacuating Fort George, a few weeks previous. During the last years of my residence at Canandaigua I was interested with Mr. Phelps and Nathaniel and Birdseye Norton in a contract with the United States for the supply of provisions to the garrisons of Niagara, Detroit, Mack- inaw, Chicago and Fort Wayne. This connection with Mr. Phelps continued indeed until his death, which occurred in the winter of 1809. In 1810 I took this contract in my own name, and supplied the above posts until 1813, except during the period of their occupation by the enemy after the surren- der of Detroit by Gen. Hull. These transactions led to my early connection with the commerce of the lakes. Early Navigation on the Lakes.* I have resided in Western New York since the spring of 1789, and on the Niagara River since the spring of 1806. I first visited Lake Erie and the Niagara River in August, I795 y and from an early period, until within the last twenty years, have been more or less interested in the navigation of the Lakes. It is well known that the military posts of Oswego, Niagara, Detroit and Mackinac were not surrendered to the United States until the fore part of the year 1796, under Jay’s treaty. Boats had not been permitted to pass Oswego into Lake Ontario, and as no settlements of importance had been made previous to that time on the American shores of * Judge Porter’s reminiscences of early navigation on the Lakes were pub- lished in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, Mch. 27, 1846. For the sake of completeness they are here appended to the foregoing narrative. No other his- torical writings by him are known.318 AUGUSTUS PORTERS OWN NARRATIVE. the Lakes (excepting the old French settlements in the neighborhood of these ports, and they were under the juris- diction and influence of the British Government), no vessels were required and of course none had been built. In August, 1795, I left Canandaigua, in company with Mr. Judah Colt, on a journey to Presqu’ Isle, now Erie, Pa., where Mr. Colt afterwards settled. The country west of the Genesee River, excepting a tract twelve miles in width ex- tending from opposite Avon along the river to its mouth, had not then been purchased of the Indians, and no roads opened. We of course followed the Indian trail to Buffalo. At that time the only residents at that place, as far as I recollect, were William Johnson, the British Indian inter- preter, whose house stood on the site of the present Mansion House, an Indian trader named Winnee,* a negro named Joe, also a trader, both of whom resided on the flats, near the mouth of Little Buffalo, and a Dutchman by the name of Middaugh, with a family, who resided some forty or fifty rods east of Johnson's. A large portion of the ground now occupied by your beautiful city was then an unbroken wil- derness. By advice of Mr. Johnson, we concluded to go down to Chippewa, Upper Canada, to take passage in a small sail and row-boat, owned by Captain William Lee, with which he had made several voyages to Presqu’ Isle, where settlements were just commencing, and had taken up the family of Col. Reed, the father of Rufus G. Reed. Capt. Lee had no crew engaged, and only made trips when he could obtain pas- sengers enough able and willing to work their passage. Mr. Colt, Mr. Joshua Fairbanks of Lewiston, .and myself joined Capt. Lee. Leaving our horses at Chippewa, we set out on our voyage and reached our destination in safety. We found several families commencing their settlement of Erie, and a party of surveyors laying out the town, under the protection of a company of Pennsylvania militia com- manded by Gen. Irvin of Carlisle. While we remained we shared the hospitalities of Col. Reed in his marquee, his house not being ready to occupy. Without entering into Cornelius Winne or Winney.AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 319 further details, I will merely add that we had a safe and pleasant passage back to Chippewa, and Mr. Colt and myself crossed the Niagara at Queenston on our return home. I am not aware that at that time a single vessel was owned on the United States side of the Lakes, and remem- ber that Capt. Lee, who would have known, informed me that there were none. In 1796, I was employed by the Connecticut Land Com- pany, to survey the Western Reserve, and I prepared to go on early in the season with several other surveyors and a party of men to perform the work. At Schenectady we fitted out three batteaux manned with four hands each, with the necessary articles for the expedition, such as tents, blankets, cooking utensils, groceries, etc., with a quantity of dry goods, designed as presents to the Indians. These boats were put under the care of Joshua Stow, uncle of Judge Stow of Buffalo. Understanding that the military posts of Oswego and Niagara were to be given up to the United States early this Spring, under a stipulation in Jay’s treaty, Mr. Stow took the route by Oswego and Niag- ara to Queenston. On his arrival at Oswego, that fort had not been surrendered, and the boats were not permitted to pass. Determined not to be delayed, Mr. Stow took the boats a mile or two up the river, and the night following run them past the fort into the lake, and pursued his voyage, and before arriving at Niagara that post had passed into the possession of our troops. He landed at Queenston, had his boats and loading taken to Chippewa, where he took in pro- visions to complete his cargoes, which had been purchased at Canandaigua and forwarded by the way of Irondequoit and the lake in open boats and arrived a day or two before. At Buffalo he was met by others of the party who had come on by land, among these, Gen. Moses Cleaveland, one of the directors of the Connecticut Land Company, (from whom the city of Cleveland took its name), who by way of securing the good will of the Indians to the expedition, held a council and distributed presents among them. The expe- dition went on from here, a part by the boats, and a part by land with pack-horses, and arrived at the mouth of Con-320 AUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. neaut Creek on the 4th day of July, 1796, and celebrated the day. The party then consisted of fifty-two persons. No American vessel had yet been built, and some of the baggage and stores for the troops at Detroit had been trans- ported from Western Pennsylvania, by the contractor, Gen. O’Hara, up the valley of the Big Beaver, and through the wilderness to Detroit, on pack-horses. The first American craft that I know of, as navigating Lake Ontario, was a Schenectady batteau, fitted out for a trading expedition to Canada, in 1789, by John Fellows of Sheffield, Mass., its cargo mostly tobacco and tea. On ar- riving in the Oswego River he ascertained that he would not be permitted to pass the British post at Oswego, and he manifested no little resolution and enterprise in overcoming the difficulty. He took his boat up the Canandaigua outlet, to what is now Clyde, where he built a small log house (long known as the block house) to store his goods until he cleared out a sled road to Sodus Bay, whither he transported boat and goods and pursued his voyage, and by the aid of some secret friends disposed of his cargo to great advantage, and brought his boat back into Irondequoit Creek and sold it to a man by the name of Lusk, who had that year begun a set- tlement at that place. In 1798 a small schooner of thirty tons, in which I had an interest, was built at Hanford’s Landing, on the Genesee River, about three miles below Rochester, by Eli Granger, and called the Jemima. Between the years 1796 and 1800 (I am unable to par- ticularize the year) the schooner General Tracy was built at Detroit, and in August, 1808, purchased by Porter, Barton & Co. and thoroughly repaired, and on her second or third trip was wrecked on the Fort Erie reef in 1809.* * The first vessel bearing the American flag which floated on Lake Erie was the sloop Detroit, of 70 guns, bought of the Northwest Company by the General Government in 1796, but soon condemned as unseaworthy. In the same year a small schooner, the Erie Packet, was built in Canada to run between Fort Erie and Presqu’ Isle (Erie, Pa.). She was lost near the latter place the same year. The schooner Wilkeson, which, as Judge Porter says, was built at Detroit—one authority says in 1797—navigated the lake for some years. In 1810 or 1811 she was overhauled and her name changed to the Amelia. In 1812 she was bought by the Government and formed part of Perry’s squadron in theAUGUSTUS PORTER’S OWN NARRATIVE. 321 The brig Adams, a Government vessel, was built about the same time as the General Tracy, and was sailed by Capt. Brevoort for a number'of years. She was built at Detroit. A small vessel called the Good Intent was built at Presqu’ Isle by Capt. William Lee, and I believe was partly, and perhaps wholly, owned by Rufus S. Reed. She I think was built about 1800 and wrecked near Point Abino in 1805. In 1802 or 1803 the schooner General Wilkeson of 70 tons was built at Detroit, and in 1811 thoroughly repaired and her name changed to Amelia. One half of her was pur- chased of Solomon Sibley by Porter, Barton & Co. in 1811. She was sold to the United States during the war. In the winter of 1802^3 the sloop Contractor of 64 tons was built at Black Rock by the company having the Govern- ment cqntract for the supply of the military posts, under the superintendence of Capt. William Lee, by whom she was sailed until 1809, and afterwards by Capt. James Beard. In 1803 or 1804 a small sloop called the Niagara, of 30 tons, was built at Cayuga Creek, on the Niagara River, by the United States Government, but not put in commission. She was purchased by Porter, Barton & Co. in 1806, and her name changed to the Nancy, and sailed by Capt. Richard O’Neil. In 1806 the schooner Mary, of 105 tons, was built at Erie by Thomas Wilson, and purchased, the one half by James Rough and George Bueshler, and the other half by Porter, Barton & Co., in 1808, and sailed by Capt. Rough until the war, and then sold to the United States. In 1808, Porter, Barton & Co. purchased the schooner Ranger, then several years old, of George Wilber. She was repaired and sailed by Capt. Hathaway. In 1810 the sloop Erie was built at Black Rock, by Porter, Barton & Co. and sold to the United States in time of the war. The schooner battle of Lake Erie. The schooner Good Intent, 35 tons, was built in 1800 and lost on Point Abino in 1805, with all her crew. In 1799 the brig Adams and schooner Tracy were built by the Government. The Adams was taken by the British in 1812, and afterwards retaken and burnt. In 1810 the schooner Catharine was built by S. Thompson and others, at Black Rock; she was bought by the Government and was in the battle of Lake Erie under the name of the Somers. Up to the declaration of war, 1812, there were not over fifteen sailing vessels on Lake Erie.322 AUGUSTUS PORTERS OWN NARRATIVE. Salina, sailed by Capt. Dobbins, and the schooner Eleanor, and probably others that I do not now recollect, were built and sailed before the war, but I am unable to say where and when they were built, or by whom owned. Messrs. Rufus S. Reed, Bixby & Murray, of Erie, and others whose names I do not recollect, built and owned vessels on the lake. Mr. Reed was largely interested in transporting over to Waterford and Pittsburgh. On Lake Ontario, I find that previous to 1809, and dur- ing that year, the following vessels had been built, and were engaged in the commerce of the lake: Schooner Fair American, owned by Matthew McNair of Oswego, Theophilus Pease, master; schooner Lark, I. Goodwin, master; schooner Island Packet, Wm. Howell, master; schooner Eagle, ----- Baldwin, master; schooner Mary, Edward M. Tyler, master; schooner Farmer, Samuel Carver, master; schooner Two Brothers, A. Bennet, master; schooner Experiment, C. Holmes, master; schooner Demo- crat. Some time previous to the war [1812] the United States brig Oneida was built and commanded by Capt. Woolsey. In 1809 the schooner Ontario of 70 tons was built by Porter, Barton & Co. at Lewiston, and sold to the United States during the war. In 1809 the schooner Cambria was built on an island at the lower end of Lake Ontario, and brought in an unfinished state to Lewiston, where she was purchased and fitted out by Porter, Barton & Co., and her name changed to Niagara. In addition to the foregoing vessels the following were in commission in 1810: Schooner Diana, A. Montgomery, master; sloop Marion, schooner Charles & Ann, Gold Hunter, and Genesee Packet. Messrs. Matthew McNair, Townsend, Bronson & Co., Thomas H. Wentworth, and Capt. Eagle, were the principal owners and forwarders on Lake Ontario previous to the war. A number of vessels on both lakes, owned and armed during the war by the United States, were afterwards sold and employed in the commerce of the Lakes.LETTERS BY AUGUSTUS PORTER With one exception the originals of the following, letters are in the possession of the Buffalo Historical Society, all but the last two having been preserved with the Holland Land Company’s papers. The letter to Myron Holley (Niagara Falls, Jan. 3, 1817) was pub- lished with the report of the Canal Commissioners for 1817. In connection with the preceding autobiographical narrative, and Mr. Robinson’s admirable review of Judge Porter’s career, the publica- tion of these letters—until now, unprinted—may be welcomed. They appear as written, correction or annotation being uncalled for. [no place] Mr. Joseph Ellicott Sir: If you should not procure the provisions which you are wanting on the terms which you now propose, and should conclude to employ some person to purchase and put it up, I will undertake the business for you at one dollar per bbl, of purchasing, putting up in good order and transporting to the different places as you may direct, you to pay all expences which shall accrue excepting my own time— or if you should wish to purchase Oxen, Horses or any thing of that kind in this Countpr, you will please to give me directions if you think proper & I will faithfully attend to the business. I am Sir your Obt Servt. Augs Porter. Nov. 29th, 1797. Buffalow Creek Oct. 15th 1798. Dear Sir: I arived at this place last Evening from Kateragus, having completed the Reservation at that place, on my arrival I re- cieved your letter dated at this place, and shall immediately attend to its contents, am very sorry that I did not arive in time to have made out the Maps & field notes to forward by Mr. Barker the bearer, but suppose there will be no difficulty in finding opportunities hereafter. I am Sir with due Respect Your Obedient Servt. Aug’s Porter. Joseph Ellicott, Esq. Buffalo Creek, Oct. 16, 1798. Dear Sir: Inclosed is a map and survey of the Kateragus Res- ervation. By the survey you will find that one of the north south lines is not run a due north as was directed, but that it varies 25 to East, this was occasioned by an alteration of variation of the needle on the line to which the above line was to run parallel too, but this 323324 LETTERS OF AUGUSTUS PORTER. error was so small that I concluded (by the advise of Mr. Thomp- son) not to correct it, but to lay off as much land on the north side of the tract as was excluded by this error. Otherwise I the Survey is exactly agreeably to orders, containing the exact quantity of acres, as I run the closeing line (which was the north eight mile line) through and corrected it back. I shall tomorrow begin the survey of the Reservation at this place, having this moment received your letter of this day’s date by Capt. Johnston, every part of which I shall endeavor to attend strictly to. I shall agreeably to your request forward by the same convey- ance which conveys this, a line to my brother respecting Mr. Stod- dard’s traverse of the road. And Remain, Sir with respect Your Obt. Servt, Aug’s Porter. ‘ Joseph Ellicott, Esq. Canandarque Nov. 17, 1799 Messrs. Clark & Street. The Bearer Mr. L’andon is employed by me to take on some Loading from Niagara to Presqu’ Isle; should be glad to have your assistance in sending it from Queenston to Ft. Erie, or perhaps he may only want your aid to deliver it at Chippawa. If you will give him such assistance as he may want, in forwarding his loading to Presque Isle, I will account to you for the expense & trouble on re- ceiving your bill -by Mr. Landon. I will also request you to send me your bill for transportation of loading last July—which shall be paid on receiving the Bills. I am, Sirs, your Obt. Servt. Aug’s Porter. Canandarque, March 25th 1802. Sir: The republicans in this county are determined to support at the ensuing Election for Members of Assembly, persons professing republican sentiments, and in conformity with this determination have pick’d on yourself as a proper person to be supported, and have requested me to write you on the subject, and know if you will suffer yourself to be considered as a candidate. In forming your deter- mination on this subject, I believe you may do it with the fullest assurance of success in case [?you] are run. I therefore hope and request that you will not refuse. You will be so good as to give me an answer on the subject as soon as may be. I am, sir, with esteem, Yours respectfully, Aug’s Porter. Mr. J. Ellicott. Albany, March 7th 1803 Dear Sir : I have this day written to Col°. Fish proposing to him whether it might not be best, for yourself, and him, and his friends to enter into a compromise relative to the organization of your County.LETTERS OF AUGUSTUS PORTER. 325 As this is soon to take place & as unanimity is important in your County I would sugest to you whether if he should come forward and make some proposals to you relative to a compromise whether you had not better relinquish a part of your arrangement, and suffer him to participate in some of the Offices of the County. Mr. Phelps is in this place and informs me that a short time be- fore he left home he had the pleasure of seeing you at Canandaigua, where it was agreed that you was to be one of the Candidates for member of Assembly at the next election. To this I most cordially concur and will thro' the little influence which I have into the scale to promote your Election. I this day received the petition of the Supervisors of the County of Ontario to be authorized to raise money to build a bridge across Genesee River, it has come rather late in the session but I shall if possible get a law passed, giving them that power. A statement by Judge Livingston of the trial of the Indian at Canandarque has been laid before the house of Assembly this day, and no doubt from what passed but he will be pardoned. Nothing very important has been done by the Legislature this Session, we go on very harmoniously with very little opposition from the Feds, as they are in the Senate only as about one, to two Re- publicans, and in the Assembly, as about one to four. I am Sir respectfully your obedient Servt Aug's Porter. J. Ellicott, Esq. Canandarque, April 21st, 1803. Dear Sir : I wrote you a few days since that Polidon B. Wisner, with others, would be supported in this quarter for member of As- sembly. Since that time the republicans in this quarter have agreed to support John Swift in place of Wisner. I hope it may suit you to support Swift. Our ticket then will be, John Swift, Ezra Patterson and Daniel Chapin for Assembly, and Caleb Hyde for Senate. I am sir, respectfully your Obt. Servt Aug's Porter. Mr. J. Ellicott. Canandarque [no date.] Dear Sir: On my return from Albany I lodged one night with your brother, we had conversation relative to the persons to be sup- ported for Assembly at the ensuing election. Polidon B. Wisner, Dan’l Chapin and my brother, it was supposed would be run by the republicans, and your brother informed me he had written you to that effect. But since that time my brother has declined being con- sidered a candidate, and we have here agreed to run Ezra Patterson of Geneva in his place. I hope this may meet your approbation, if so hope you will support him. Gen'l Caleb Hyde of Tioga is the republican candidate for Sena- tor for this district. I am sir respectfully Your obt. servt. Aug's Porter. Mr. B. Ellicott.326 LETTERS OF AUGUSTUS PORTER. Canandarque Feb’y 13, 1804. Sir: The bearer Mr. Landon tells me he understands that you are irrecting a building which you design for a Hotell, he now goes to Batavia with a view to obtain of you a lease and privilege of keep- ing it. Mr. Landon tells me he is unacquainted with you, and has re- quested me make him known. I can say that I have for several years been intimately acquainted with him and have had considerable business to transact with him, that I have always found him to possess strict integrity and honesty. His wife is from a very respectable family and is herself respectable. If you have not leased your house and should conclude to let it to Mr. Landon, I promise he will keep it to your satisfaction he possesses considerable property which would perhaps enable him to commence the business under better advantages than almost any one who would undertake it. I am sir respectfully your Obt Servt Aug's Porter. Joseph Ellicott, Esq. Canandarque, March 31st, 1804. Sir: The election is just at hand, and no men are yet proposed except by the Federalists to be suported for Assembly. Your name has been much talked of, and I have not the least dout, but if you will agree to be the Candidate that you can be elected by a great Majority. From an unhappy misunderstanding which happened be- tween us one year ago you may perhaps entertain doubts as to my sincerity in the present proposition, but if you will agree to run I conclude the result of the Election will convince you of our sincerity. I assure you that you can run well in the eastern part of this county. I expect Daniel Lewis of Geneva & yourself will be supported in this quarter, & I think N. Gorham or Daniel Chapin for the other. It may be objected by some that Mr. Lewis & Mr. Gorham are Federal- ists, but I expect that Lewis will be supported by all parties in his own neighbourhood. Be so good as to write me immediately on the subject as it is of consequence to promote our Candidates soon. As to Governor I have not heard who you intend to support. I should like to hear what part you intend taking in that business—for myself I shall support Colo. Burr, but I shall now declare to you that whichever of the candidates you support for Governor it will make no kind of difference with me as to giving you my support for Assembly. # I am sir, respectfully your Obt. Servt, Aug's Porter. J. Ellicott, Esq. Sclosser July 14th 1806 Sir: The bearer Mr. Short, is a gentleman of my acquaintance who has sold his property in the County of Ontario, for about four thousand dollars, he is now in pursuit of a place to resettle himself,LETTERS OF AUGUSTUS PORTER. 327 from information from me he has been induced to go on to the S. W. part of the Holland Company’s Land to view the country and ex- amine the Outlet of the Chautauqua Lake, with respect to its naviga- tion. I have had some conversation with Mr. Short respecting the salt trade from Onondago to Pittsburgh, and as the great difficulty of that trade is that of transporting the salt from Lake Erie to Alegena river, Mr. Short has been to explore the Outlet of the Lake and also French Creek, to satisfy himself which is the most eligible for navigation. If Mr. Short should have a wish to settle himself on the waters of the Chautauqua I prosume he would be a useful man in giving aid to a settlement in that quarter. You may be assured that Mr. Short is a man of business and sustains the character of an honest and re- spectable man. I should be extremely glad if he could be accommo- dated with a situation that would suit him. I am sir respectfully Your Obt. Servt Joseph Ellicott, Esq. Aug’s Porter. Schlosser Sept. 15th 1808 Sir : I have a neighbor who is desirous of taking up and settling two tracts of land lying in township No. 13 in the 9th Range, one tract is described as part of lot No. 10 and was taken up in Feby 1805 by James Turerf?], the other tract is described as the north part of lot No. 19 and the south part of lot No. 15, and was taken up by Zachariah Warner on the 13th day of May 1804. Some little improvement has been made on these lots but they are as I am in- formed now abandoned. The man who wishes to take them now can procure an Assignment of the Articles given by the Holland Company in case the price can be reduced to the present price at which you are now selling lands in the Neighbourhood. If you will be good enough to inform me I will communicate the information to my neighbour. I am respectfully your Obt. Servt Jos. Ellicott Esq. Aug’s Porter. Schlosser, August 28th 1809. Sir: The Bearer goes out to Batavia to take up a lot of land. I am indebted to him and he call’d on me for money to pay the sum required to be advanced on the lot, & not having it by me I take the liberty to request you to consider this as my order on you for twenty seven dollars, to go in payment of the advance he is to make on the lot he is about to take up. The amount of this order I shall be able to pay you in a short time. I am Sir respectfully your Obedient Servant Joseph Ellicott Esq. Augs Porter. * Fort Schlosser, Feb’y 25th 1810 Dr Sir: On the 28th of August last I gave Gilbert Hinds an order on you for $27, to apply as payment on a lot of land he took up about that time. I now enclose a Bank bill of $20, and a CountyLETTERS OF AUGUSTUS PORTER. order of $10, out of which you will please receive the ammount of the order above mentioned, and endorse the residue on A. Porter & B. Barton’s Note. You will be so good as to acknowledge the receipt of this by re- turn of Mail. I find that the settlers on Tonawanta Creek are felling large quantities of timber into the Creek, by which means the navigation of the stream is very much injured, and the timber floating down the current has done great damage to the Bridge near the mouth and was very near last spring carrying the whole off. I believe the navi- gation naturally from its mouth to the Indian Village is very good & I believe in time may be very useful to the country. The people along this river are much interested in the safety of the bridge, and I prosume you are in the Navigation. Would you not be willing to write to Mr. Clarke our representative and request him to use his influence to procure this stream declared a public highway from its mouth to the Tonewanta Village ? or such distance as you may deem proper to preserve the Navigation. I have written him on the subject, and prosuming there can be 110 objections to such a measure, as I conclude there is no mill seats in this distance, the stream therefore must be more valuable for naviga- tion than for any other purpose. I am sir Very respectfully your Obt. Servt Aug’s Porter. Joseph Ellicott Esq. Manchester March 20th 1810. Sir: Two weeks ago I enclosed to you in a letter a county order of ten dollars and a Bank bill of $20, to which letter I have received no answer. As it contained money you will confer a particular favour if you will inform me whether or no it has been received. I am Sir very respectfully Your obdt. Servt. Joseph Ellicott Esq. Augs Porter Manchester, Dec. 27, 1815 Sir : I send you a copy of so much of a letter rec’d from my brother dated the 4th Instant at New York as relates to the subject of a steamboat. “I have made very particular inquiries in respect to the expense of a steam boat and I find that an excellent engine with all the ma- chinery to carry a boat of 100 tons (which after deducting the weight of the engine &c. will leave 70 tons for freight) will cost 13,000 to 13,500 dollars. The boat will cost about 4,000 dolls, and Fulton’s ex- clusive right for the Niagara about 3,000 dolls, making an aggregate of about 20,000 dolls. The men with whom I have conversed, Ogden &. others, think there is no difficulty in making her stem the rapids altho the current should be 7 miles an hour. “I shall leave this for Washington in the morning and be here again the fore part of January. In the mean time I wish you to consult Mr. Barton, Townsend &c. & write me your determination, as no time should be lost if you conclude to build, instruct me to make the necessary contracts. Mr. David Parish is about to build aLETTERS OF AUGUSTUS PORTER. steam boat to run from Ogdensburgh to Niagara and an other com- pany is forming to run from Buffalo to Detroit.” I shall by mail tomorrow write my brother giving him instruc- tions to make contracts for .the engines &c. agreeably to the under- standing yesterday. In case you should have any different ideas on the subject please communicate them in time that I may understand them before writing. Yours respectfully [To Charles Townsend.] Aug's Porter. Niagara Falls, January 3d, 1817. Dear Sir: Your letter of the 9th of August last was received, requesting of me answers to the following questions, viz.: What is the kind of rock, through which your canal is exca- vated ? What is the length, depth, and width of such excavation? What was the expense of it? What, in your opinion, would be the expense of excavating a canal, 30 feet wide, and 5 feet deep, for one mile, through the com- mon limestone rock, lying between Lake Erie and Genesee River? In reply to these inquiries I would answer. The kind of rock is horizontal strata or layers of limestone, of 6 to 24 inches thick. The horizontal joints, between these layers, are so open, that there is very little difficulty in separating the layers. These layers are separated by perpendicular cracks, dividing them into irregular and unequal slabs, of from one to 6 or 8 feet square. These slabs are so sound as to blast well, and are very pure limestone, so that an augur, suit- ably tempered, will, not batter, but will last until the friction on the stone wears it out. The length of my canal is 20 rods, its width 7 1-2 feet, on an average, its depth in the rock 5 feet, besides one foot of earth on the top of the rock. It cost about $500. To excavate a mile of the same kind of rock, the same width and depth, would of course cost $8,000. My canal being the depth required, viz. 5 feet, and one fourth part of the width required, viz. 71-2 feet, it follows that four times as much rock would require to be removed from a canal 30 feet wide and five feet deep, as from one of the size of mine: In that proportion, then, it would cost $32,000 per mile. It is however my opinion, that one of 30 feet wide, would by no means cost in the same proportion, for the following reasons: First, because in first making an opening, the rocks are all bound together in such a manner, that it is difficult to remove any single stone or rock without blasting; and at least one half of the blasts have little or no effect. Whereas, after an opening is made, the rock being separated both by horizontal and perpendicular joints, many of them may be removed without breaking, either by hand or the aid of cattle; and those too large to be removed whole may be broken by a sledge or with a single blast. Secondly, the width of the canal will enable you to remove very large rocks, by the aid of oxen, much easier than they could be hoisted by a windlass, which was the way most of mine were done. Many of those which I was obliged to blast to enable me to handle880 LETTERS OF AUGUSTUS PORTER. them, might have been removed by oxen, could I have used them. For these reasons I have no doubt, that a canal through the same kind of rbck, which mine passes (and it is the same as that which prevails generally between Lake Erie arid Genesee River), of 30 feet wideband 5 feet deep, might be made for double what one of the size of mine would cost, viz. it might be made for $16,000 per mile. I am, Sir, with great respect, Your obedient servant, To Myron Holley, Esq. Augustus Porter. [One of the Canal Commissioners of the State of New York.] Bank of Niagara 3d July 1818. Dear Sir : A Gentleman of the board of Directors of this Bank has an inclination to resign his seat; it has ever been our wishes to induce you to become a member of this board. Permit us therefore to solicit you to consent to fill this vacancy, as a measure tending to draw the respectability and promote the welfare of the institution. We are mo. Respecty Sir Your Very Ob Sert, Augs Porter, Archd. S. Clarke, J. Brisbane, Jno. G. Camp, E. Walden, J. Harrison, Benjamin Caryl. Joseph Ellicott, Esquire, Batavia. The Bank of Niagara was Buffalo’s first bank, organized in July, 1816. Augustus Porter was one of the original directors, as Mr. Robinson has stated (p. 260). Accepting the invitation of Judge Porter and his associates, Mr. Ellicott became a director, but re- signed in 1819. The original desk used by Isaac Kibbe, the first president of the bank, is now in the possession of the Buffalo His- torical Society. An amusing reminder of the political animosities between Fed- eralists and Republicans a century ago is afforded by a letter from James B. Mower of Canandaigua, to Joseph Ellicott, dated May 7, 1804, in which we read: “Augustus Porter alias the political trim- mer, is down, and in God’s name let him be there.” Another glimpse of Judge Porter’s interest in politics is afforded by a letter from Jonas Williams to Mr. Ellicott, dated April 10, 1807: “Last Tuesday I attended Town Meeting, the people were quite Noisey and chos Daniel Chapin Supervisor, Gillet Town Clerk &c. In the evening the republicans called a Meeting and agreed firmly to Support the Ticket you sent me, and to have their proceedings published in the Mes- enger. Augustus Porter drew up the resolutions and appeared to be a firm friends to Tompkins, which was rather unexpected to most of the People in Buffalo.” \_Ellicott MSS.] Judge Porter was public-spirited, and independent; his character as shown in the foregoing pages is ample answer to the epithets of a forgotten campaign.