BeeLines - July 27, 2017
By Marybelle Beigh, Westfield Town & Village Historian
Portage Road-French/Indian War WNY’s First “Fourth of July” in 1754 – Part VI
This BeeLines continues the interesting story of a WNY’s First “Fourth of July” in 1754, found in a June 1954 Buffalo Evening News, bylined by Merle G. Sheffield. In Part V of the current series on the Portage Road-French & Indian War, Sheffield’s somewhat different version of the history of the building of the Portage Road from Barcelona to Chautauqua Lake was described covering the time period from the early 1600s French claims in North America to through the 1739 De Lery and 1749 De Bienville expeditions. The story left off with the 1753 Marin/Pean building of two portages – Presque-Le Boeuf and Chautauqua Creek-Chautauqua Lake. (Note: The same map used in Part V is reused with Part VI.)
Sheffield writes: “In the closing months of 1753 news of the forts reached the New York and Virginia colonists. The seizure of the Venango trading post came perilously close to an act of war. First to act was Gov. Dinwiddie of Virginia, who decided to send a message warning the French to withdraw. A young adjutant in the Virginia militia heard of the governor’s intentions and decided to volunteer for the job. He was George Washington, then a major.
“Washington, then 21, left Williamsburg VA on Oct. 31 with a small party of guides and orderlies to help him on the journey, mostly through forests so thick only an expert could find the trail. On Dec. 4 he arrived at Venango, where the French fleur-de-lis was flying over the old log trading post. The man who greeted Washington at Venango was Philippe Joncaire, a captain in the French army and one of his country’s ablest Indian agents. He courteously refused to accept the message and referred Washington to Legardeur de St. Pierre, a higher-ranking officer at Ft. Le Boeuf. The English had no choice but to continue on their way.
“On Dec. 12, Washington arrived at Le Boeuf, about 13 miles from the present New York-Pennsylvania border and as close to Western NY as he was destined to get in his lifetime. The Virginian’s one-eyed host, St. Pierre, proposed that the envoy continue his journey to Quebec and present the letter to the governor of Canada in person. However, Washington had delivered his message to the French commander on the Allegheny, as he had been instructed, and he refused to go further. St. Pierre’s answer to the message from Dinwiddie was a politely-worded notice that he would stand his ground.”
So, according to Sheffield, Washington returned to Williamsburg in January of 1754, reported the activities and intentions of the French to extend their line of forts down the Ohio Valley toward where Pittsburgh is now (2017). This prompted the English to attempt a “roadblock” fortification at that point. But the French anticipated this and sent a force of 500 from Quebec, reaching Ft. Niagara on Feb. 25, 1754. They left 100 men at Niagara, and the remaining 400 continued on, landing artillery and supplies simultaneously at the Chautauqua Creek and Presque Isle Portages on March 8th.
But what a surprise was in store for the French when they reached the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers on April 17, 1754. There were the British, working to erect fortifications. Unfortunately for the British, the French outnumbered them 10-to-1, and when the French commander deployed his men, he demanded the British garrison leader’s surrender – there was no choice but to comply.
The French continued to secure the waterway routes, especially repairing the portages at Niagara and Chautauqua in May. According to Sheffield, “A large camp was established at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek, near the future site of Barcelona, as headquarters for sending supplies down the Allegheny. This camp served as living quarters for hundreds of portage workmen and boasted a hospital, warehouse, powder magazine, blacksmith’s forge, five rows of tents and a log house for the commanding officer.” (The name of the camp was “Chatakoin” as was the name for Chautauqua Lake.)
Since there were few canoes on the “little lake,” when the men and horse used to transport supplies over the 9-mile portage reached the north end of the lake, they had to make dug-out canoes on the spot. Sheffield notes that one of his sources “shows that no less than 79 of these pirogues were manufactured near the eastern end of Lake Chautauqua in what must have been the earliest Jamestown manufacturing venture.” (This sounds a bit confusing, since they really needed the canoes at the Mayville end of the lake first, and other sources indicate another encampment, similar to that at Barcelona, was located at the Mayville end of the lake.) At any rate, “On June 16, the first of many supply convoys put their canoes into the waters of Lake Chautauqua. They were headed for the new fort at the forks of the Ohio, called Ft. DuQuesne.” (please refer to map).
“Meanwhile, newly promoted Lieut. Col. Washington had learned while en route to the rivers’ junction that the strategic point had been taken and his advance party captured.” Washington put surveillance on the French fort, and searched for other ones. On May 27th Washington’s men encountered a French scouting party, and surprised (ambushed) the enemy inflicting numerous casualties and taking prisoners. “Among the French dead was their leader… With this encounter Washington knew the fat was in the fire… He chose to retreat along his supply line… the small Virginia band finally stopped to entrench themselves … [naming their location] Ft. Necessity.”
“The French found the crude position on July 3, and, by nightfall, had inflicted such damage that Washington agreed to parley...On the next day, July 4… [1754] … the Virginians left the Ohio Valley to the French.”