French Archives - Chris Carosa

A Royal Mess Of Competing Colonial Charters

By Chris Carosa on April 7, 2026

By the eve of the Revolutionary War, with the French out of the way, Great Britain held dominant power in eastern North America—especially our region.

Or so it would appear.

Greater Western New York had been claimed many times before it was ever governed. European powers declared it theirs, and when Britain removed its rivals, the claims didn’t disappear—they multiplied. Now they came from within, as competing colonial charters layered atop one another. At one point, no fewer than five colonies claimed the region.

Yet, not one ever truly governed it.

Authority did not collapse at the forest’s edge. It contradicted itself at the source.

Long before a single settler felled a tree in Western New York, the kings of England were Continue Reading “A Royal Mess Of Competing Colonial Charters”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 42nd parallel, 43rd parallel, Atlantic Ocean, Batavia, British, Buffalo, Canandaigua, Charter for the Province of Pennsylvania, Charter of Connecticut, Charter of Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, Connecticut Charter, Connecticut River, Duke of York, Dutch, French, Great Britain, Green Mountains, King Charles II, King James I, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Bay Colony, New England, New Hampshire, New York, New York Patent, Pacific Ocean, Pennsylvania, Rochester, Sea to Sea, Second Charter of Virginia, South Sea, Treaty of Paris, Virginia, Virginia Company of London, Western New York, William Penn

Settling Old Scores: The Beaver Wars

By Chris Carosa on March 10, 2026

The journey east had taken days.

The ambassadors followed the ancient trail that cut through the forests of Western New York. Trail was almost the wrong word for it. Generations of footsteps had worn it into the earth until it resembled a narrow trench, barely wide enough for a traveler moving single file, sunk deeper than the ankle in places. But it was still easier than fighting through the tangled underbrush of the virgin forest.

Even the flats along the treeless banks of the Genesee River—now behind them—had offered little relief. The grass there grew straight and thick, taller than a man.

Still, the air smelled fresh. And hope traveled with the delegation.

Thirty ambassadors of the Cat Nation—the people the French called the Erie—had come to the Seneca capital district seeking peace. They came from the lands west of the Genesee River, where Seneca expansion had begun to press against the hunting grounds of the Erie people.

It was just a mistake. An accident. Something meant to be settled with words, not weapons.

They left the trail and gathered at the council near Sonnontouan.

But hope faded quickly.

The tension in the council house was unmistakable. Words sharpened. Voices rose.

For a moment the room fell silent.

Then it happened.

A Seneca chief lay dead.

No one knows exactly how it happened. Even the French Jesuits who recorded the event could only describe it as “some unexpected accident.”¹

But the consequences were immediate.Continue Reading “Settling Old Scores: The Beaver Wars”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Algonquin, Allegheny River, Beaver Wars, Boughton Hill, British, Canada, Cat Nation, Central Trail, Dutch, England, Erie, Five Nations, French, Genesee River, Gonandagon, Gondagaro, Great Lakes, Huron, Iroquois Confederacy, jesuit, Mendon, Nation du Cat, Neutral Nation, New Netherlands, Niagara Peninsula, Niagara River, Seneca, Sonnontouan, St. Lawrence River, St. Lawrence Valley, Susquehanna River, Tobacco Nation, Totiakton, Victor, Wenro, Western New York

William French and the Westminster Massacre

By Chris Carosa on January 27, 2026

On a late Winter morning in 1775, William French woke up for the last time. The lively 22-year-old lived in the Town of Bennington—itself scarcely older than he was.

Self-named by Benning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, Bennington became—in 1741—the first township granted west of the Connecticut River. It was a fact that would soon matter far more than anyone expected.

French headed to Westminster, a small hamlet on the west side of the Connecticut River, nestled in the broad curve of the oxbowing waterway, in the fertile eastern valley beneath the Green Mountains.

That afternoon, French walked along King’s Highway to the farmhouse of Capt. Axariah Wright, an eccentric old patriot. There he met Daniel Houghton and nearly 100 other men. They were there to confront a problem they believed could no longer be avoided.Continue Reading “William French and the Westminster Massacre”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Act of Outlawry, Albany County, Axariah Wright, Benning Wentworth, Bennington, British, Cadwallader Colden, Charles II, Connecticut River, Daniel Houghton, Duke of York, Dutch, Ethan Allen, French, French and Indian War, General Council of Safety, George Clinton, Green Mountain Boys, Green Mountains, Henry Bridge, Irish Corners, James II, King's Highway, Liberty Men, Mahican, Mohawk, New Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Netherland, New York, Vermont, West Bennington, Westminster, Westminster Massacre, William French, William Patterson

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Dunkirk, The Last Frontier

By Chris Carosa on May 14, 2024

Previous: Fast Fredonia Frenzy

It was three o’clock in the morning when Lafayette and his travel partners left Fredonia. They weren’t alone. A horde of enthusiastic citizens accompanied the nation’s guest to the Superior, the famous Great Lakes steamer that had been waiting offshore in the Dunkirk harbor from the previous day.

The late (or early) hour had no impact on the escort. They gladly trudged through the dew and mud. It would be something they would remember for the rest of their lives. There they were. Side by side with the Revolutionary War hero, the friend of George Washington, an icon they could only dream of meeting.

After all, who were they, these pioneers of Western New York? Sure, a few were surviving Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Dunkirk, The Last Frontier”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Barcelona, Brigham Road, Buffalo and Erie Road, Canadaway creek, Central Avenue, Chautauqua County, Chautauqua Creek, Dunkirk, Erie, Erie Canal, Fredonia, French, Heman Ely, John Brigham, Lafayette, Lewis Morgan, Mary Ann Drake, Niagara Frontier, Presque Isle, Temple Street

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Lafayette Prepares To Enter The Greater Western New York Region

By Chris Carosa on March 19, 2024

Previous: Overview Of His 1824-1825 American Visit (Part II)

The sun rose the morning of Friday, June 3, 1825, at 4:05am local time in Waterford, Pennsylvania.¹ Lafayette had two weeks—14 days—to travel 550 miles and visit almost two dozen towns and villages before the June 17^th dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston. He was determined to meet every community he promised to visit. Speed was of the essence.

But he couldn’t show it. At least not in a too obvious way.

Roughly three hours after the break of dawn, at about 7 o’clock, Lafayette’s party left Waterford for the seat of the County, Erie, Pennsylvania.² Though technically still in the Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Lafayette Prepares To Enter The Greater Western New York Region”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Andrew Ellicott, Battle of Lake Erie, Boston, Bunker Hill Monument, Captain Budd, cessation, cessions, Daniel Dobbins, Erie, Erie Triangle, French, General B. Wallace, Genesee Country, George Washington, Joseph Ellicott, Judah Colt, Lafayette, Lake Erie, Levasseur, Massachusetts, New York, Oliver Hazard Perry, Pennsyvalnia, Presqu' Isle, Revolutionary War, Rochester, War of 1812, Waterford

Ode to a Once Mighty Oak

By Chris Carosa on October 13, 2020

And in that brief moment, its reign ended.

We don’t know how old it really was, but the centuries had exacted their toll. Despite the efforts of the valiant few, the rot that builds with age had eaten its way through the internal fabric that once supported its mighty infrastructure.

When that final gust rushed through, the great citadel had fallen. It had stood for so long that those closest to it, stunned by the fatal reality before their own eyes, could only muster an anemic disbelief.

All that incredulity could not suspend the finality that was. It was gone. Not really. But really.

* * *

The Seneca tribe was a fierce warrior tribe. They had to be. They guarded the “west gate” of the Iroquois Confederacy. From that position, they both protected one flank of their Continue Reading “Ode to a Once Mighty Oak”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Algonquin, Boughton Hill, British, Champlain, Denonville, Department of Transportation, Dutch, Erie, French, Ganondagan, General Sullivan, Genesee River, George Washington, Huron, Iroquois, Mendon, Mendon Foundation, Neutral, New York State, Plains Road, Revolutionary War, Route 15A, Saguenay River, Seneca, St. Lawrence River, Tabacco, Tadoussac, Totiakton, Victor, Wenro

Welcome to the New Age of (Virtual) Exploration

By Chris Carosa on October 6, 2020

Following the fall of Rome, the European continent went dark. Although the term “Dark Ages” has fallen out of favor, we have no problem referring to the nadir of that time – when the Bubonic Plague – decimated Europe’s population as “the Black Death.”

Shortly after this tragic pandemic, Europe finally emerged from its thousand-year cocoon. Today, we call this the “Renaissance,” and it is aptly named. Side-by-side with the flourishing arts and sciences was the advent of something greater, something that, without it, we would not exist.

It’s called the “Age of Exploration.”

It was a time when everything came together for Europe. It was a time we forever remember as a simple mental image of a dandily dressed mustachioed man in a shiny helmet planting his Continue Reading “Welcome to the New Age of (Virtual) Exploration”

Posted in Business Tips, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Age of Exploration, Black Death, Bubonic Plague, Chinese curse, colonization, Columbus, Constantinople, CougarTech, Covid, Crusades, Dark Ages, Dutch, English, Europe, Frederic R. Coudert, French, HFL, Ottoman, Portugal, Renaissance, Robert Kennedy, Spain, World War One, Zoom

I’ll Have One for the Road and Two for the Sea

By Chris Carosa on May 7, 2013

And let me the canakin clink, clink,
And let me the canakin clink.
A soldier’s a man;
A life’s but a span;
Why, then, let a soldier drink.
– Othello

The reason James Fenimore Cooper strode into Hustler’s Tavern has disappeared into the hazy mists of history. By 1821, his life had been less than pristine. Kicked out of

Yale after three years as a trouble-maker (he blew up a classmate’s door), the son of a (probably embarrassed) Congressman who founded the City of Cooperstown did what any other lost teenager trying to find himself did in the early eighteenth century – he joined the Merchant Marine.¹

Perhaps he remembered his earlier, albeit brief, stay in the Niagara Frontier just before the War of 1812.² Serving mostly overseas, he saw some of his best crewmates taken from their ships and forced to serve aboard British warships against Napoleonic France. Like the rest of America, he detested Continue Reading “I’ll Have One for the Road and Two for the Sea”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, Arsenic and Old Lace, Artpark, Betsy Flanagan, Betty Flanagan, British, Buffalo, Buffalo Philharmonic, Canada, Catherine Hustler, Chabert Joncaire, Chautauqua Institution, Cicely Tyson, Cocktail, Earl W. Bridges, Erie Canal, Erie Tribe, French, French and Indian War, George Washington, Hopewellian India Burial Mound, Huron, Hustler's Tavern, James Coco, James Fenimore Cooper, Jay Treaty, Joseph O. Kesselring, Lewiston, Mile Strip, Newark, Niagara County, Niagara River, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Oak Hill Mansion, Omega, Owen Morrell, Precaution, Queenston-Lewiston Suspension Bridge, Seneca Tribe, Sergeant Hollister, Starkweather Sisters, The Spy, Thomas Hustler, Treaty of Hartford, War of 1812