Iroquois Archives - Chris Carosa

Jasper Parrish And The Terror At Civilization’s Edge

By Chris Carosa on February 10, 2026

Massacre of Wyoming (Pennsylvania), 1858, by Alonzo Chappel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Captain Zebulon Parish saw the man hurry out of the dense woods into the field. The smell of burning wood wafted through the air around him. In the distance, black smoke rose above the treetops. He thought he heard muffled screams, but it might have been the wind whipping through the forest.

His eyebrow furled as the curious settlers assembled. He was the captain. They looked to him for guidance.

Zebulon recognized the man. It was Lebbeus Hammond.¹ He didn’t look too good. Out of breath, he huffed and puffed, “We’ve been attacked!”

This is bad, was Zebulon’s immediate conclusion.

His mind raced. They’re probably coming for us next. How long do we have? And should we prepare for defense or run? Continue Reading “Jasper Parrish And The Terror At Civilization’s Edge”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Algonquin, Aurora, British, Captain Blanchard, Colonel John Butler, common sense, Connecticut, Connecticut Yankee, Continental Army, Delaware, England, Forty fort, Iroquois, Ishmeal Benn, Jasper Parrish, John Trumbull, Joseph Elliot, Lebbeus Hammond, Lenni-Lenape, Massacre, Old King, Pennamite-Yankee Wars, Pennsylvania, Queen Esther's Rock, Reubon Jones, Roswell Franklin, Sakayenguaraghton, Second Pennamite War, Seneca, Squire Whitaker, Stephen Kimble, Stephen Parrish, Susquehannah Company, The Shades of Death, Thomas Paine, Wallenpaupack, Westmoreland, Wilkesbarre, Windham, Wintermoot, Wyoming County, Wyoming fort, Wyoming Massacre, Wyoming Valley, Zebulon Parish

Lafayette On The Folly Of Tolerance

By Chris Carosa on April 9, 2024

James Madison served as the fourth President of the United States from 1809 to 1817, immediately preceding James Monroe. History textbooks refer to him as the “Father of the Constitution” as he acted as the driving force in drafting both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

A short three years prior to that seminal event, Madison traveled from Baltimore to Fort Stanwix to negotiate with the Iroquois Confederacy. Accompanying him was a young French general and a protégé of George Washington. That would be the Marquis de Lafayette.

This chance meeting formed what would become a lifelong bond between the two men. Very early on, Madison recognized Lafayette’s affinity with the American Indians, as well as Continue Reading “Lafayette On The Folly Of Tolerance”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged André-Nicolas Lavassuer, commonality, Fort Stanwix, George Washington, Iroquois, Iroquois Confederacy, James Madison, James Monroe, Lafayette, liberty, Thomas Jefferson, tolerance

School Elections Matter, Too

By Chris Carosa on May 10, 2022

The moonless night trembled with eerie silence. Still, the veteran warriors waited with resigned anticipation. The now 54-day old siege had worn upon them. Yet, they stood, along with their courageous emperor, willing to confront their ultimate fate.

That final assault began shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the 29th of May, 1453. It would prove to be the last day of an Empire that had existed – in one form or another – for more than 20 centuries. Wave after wave of Ottoman attackers charged with relentless regularity. The 150,000 invaders far outnumbered the 7,000 war-weary defenders of Constantinople – the last capital of the Roman Empire.

Amid the battles cries and the shouts, the screams and the barking of orders, the first Continue Reading “School Elections Matter, Too”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Albany, BOCES, Byzantium, Constantine XI, Constantinople, French Jesuits, Handbook of North American Indians, Haudenosaunee, Iroquois, Lewis Henry Morgan, Livingston County School Districts, Livonia, New York State curriculum, Ongweh’onweh, Ottoman, redlining, Roman, Smithsonian Institution

Brighton’s Council Rock Primary School Must Change Its Name Immediately!

By Chris Carosa on January 4, 2022

This is not the kind of column I like to write. Still, there’s an obligation as a journalist to sometimes cross a line your mother would not like to see you cross. Alas, this is one of those times.

Our story begins where most stories begin: at the confluence of two well-worn travel routes. No one knows the origin of these two intersecting paths. Most likely, they began as something equivalent to a deer run, a track blazed by animals as they wandered from one watering hole to another in search of food.

It was only a matter of time before man followed those beasts, hunting them down for Continue Reading “Brighton’s Council Rock Primary School Must Change Its Name Immediately!”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged A. Emerson Babcock, Avon, Ban, Brighton, Canandaigua, Council Rock, East Avenue, Evelyn Sharp, Genesee Falls, Indian Landing, Indian Trail, Irondequoit Creek, Iroquois, Jingle Bells, Orringh Stone, Politically Correct, Revolutionary War, Seneca, Stone Tolan House, Tryon, William Billinghurst, Woke

The Story of Abraham Parrish, Mendon’s First Tavern Keeper (Part III)

By Chris Carosa on April 20, 2021

1838 - Rochester in 1812 (showing first 'hotel') - Sketches of Rochester

Rochester in 1812 (showing first ‘hotel’). Source: Sketches of Rochester, 1838

Abraham Parrish had front row seats to watch his older brother Jasper become a success. And what a role model Jasper was. As a boy, Jasper had been captured by Indians in the immediate aftermath of the Wyoming Massacre in 1778, sold as a slave among various tribes, beaten mercilessly, nearly killed for a guinea when the British put a bounty on Yankee scalps, until he was finally bought by a Mohawk named “Captain Hill” for $20.³⁰

Captain Hill so admired Jasper and Jasper so admired Captain Hill that in 1780 the Captain formally adopted Jasper in a traditional Iroquois ceremony. In turn, Jasper came to Continue Reading “The Story of Abraham Parrish, Mendon’s First Tavern Keeper (Part III)”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Abraham Parrish, Battle of Black Rock, Buffalo, Buffalo Creek, Canandaigua, Captain Hill, Falls Hotel, Farmer's Brother, George Washington, Harry Allen, Honeoye Falls, Horatio Jones, Iroquois, Jasper Parrish, Lima, Lucia Allen, Norton's Mills, Red Jacket, Rochester, Seneca, Six Nations, Treaty of Canandaigua, West Mendon, Wilcox Hotel, Wyoming Massacre

The Story of Abraham Parrish, Mendon’s First Tavern Keeper (Part II)

By Chris Carosa on April 13, 2021

Source: Ontario County Times, April 16, 1897

When last we left the family of Zebulon Parish, they had packed up their bags and the young’uns, including the toddler Abraham, and ventured out into the frontier wilderness of Connecticut. The family landed right smack dab in the middle of a hornet’s nest. More on that in a moment.

Abraham Parrish was born on March 30, 1772. There’s a couple of things you should know about Abraham: one which you’re already asking; and one which you probably don’t know enough to ask.

First, as you might have noticed, Abraham’s last name contains two r’s (“Parrish”) while his father (and his three oldest brothers Jacob, Nathan, and Isaac), kept the original spelling with one r (“Parish”).¹⁵ It’s not clear why.

Here’s the thing you likely don’t know: Abraham was Continue Reading “The Story of Abraham Parrish, Mendon’s First Tavern Keeper (Part II)”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Abraham Parrish, Canandaigua, Connecticut, Connecticut Yankee, Delaware tribe, Doctor Parrrish, George Washington, Iroquois, King George, Lebbeus Hammond, Lenni-Lenape, materia medica, Pennamite-Yankee Wars, Pennsylvania, Queen Esther's Rock, Reuben Jones, Rush, Stephan Parrish, Thomas Paine, Tory, Wayne County, Westmoreland, Wyoming Valley, Zebulon Parish

The Story of Abraham Parrish, Mendon’s First Tavern Keeper (Part I)

By Chris Carosa on April 6, 2021

Wyoming Forts A-Fort Durkee, B-Fort Wyoming or Wilkesbarre, C-Fort Ogden, D-Kingston Village, E-Forty Fort, G-battleground, H-Fort Jenkins, I-Monocasy Island, J-Pittstown stockades, G-Queen Esther’s Rock Source: Lossing, Benson, The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, January 7, 1859, p. 353

In many ways, the life of Abraham Parrish wasn’t that different from any other person participating in the formative decades of the grand American Experiment.

In other ways, he lived a unique life that exposed him at an early age to the rarified frontier air that existed when Western New York emerged from its dense terra incognita forest. He witnessed firsthand nearly all the major personalities of our region and saw how they forged this thickly wooded region into an industrious civilization.

But let’s not get too far ahead…

Zebulon Parish represents a typical American story. He was born on February 12, 1726 in Windham, a town in the eastern half of the Colony of Connecticut between Hartford and the Rhode Island border. He not only shares a birthday with Abraham Lincoln, he shares something else – his descendants were active in the abolition movement.

There was a very good reason Zebulon’s family joined the fight against slavery – his grandfather, John Wattles, came to America as a slave.

Our story, therefore, begins in Scotland…Continue Reading “The Story of Abraham Parrish, Mendon’s First Tavern Keeper (Part I)”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Abraham Parrish, Battle of Worcester, Charles I, Charles II, Iroquois, John Butler, John Wattles, Mary Wattell, Mendon, Old King, Sakayenguaraghton, Scotland, Seneca, Westmoreland, Wilkesbarre, Wintermoot, Wyoming County, Wyoming Massacre, Zebulon Parish

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