Seneca Archives - Chris Carosa

Competing Dreams For The Genesee Country—Part I: John Livingston and the Lessees

By Chris Carosa on July 7, 2026

The future of the Genesee Country remained uncertain even after the Treaty of Hartford settled the dispute between Massachusetts and New York. The question was no longer who owned the land, but what would become of it.

Before Hartford, uncertainty reigned. Competing state claims clouded ownership and discouraged investment. The treaty transformed a disputed wilderness into a marketable asset. Speculators, investors, politicians, and settlers quickly recognized the opportunity.

While Hartford settled one argument, it spawned several new ones.

By the beginning of 1787, two roads stretched westward across a region that would one day become the Crossroads of America. Each promised prosperity. Each attracted ambitious followers. Yet each offered a very different vision for the future of the Genesee Country.

With the ink on the Treaty of Hartford barely dried, ambitious men set out along both roads.

The race to the future had begun.

* * * * *

Why has history forgotten John Livingston? While his accomplishments pale in comparison to Continue Reading “Competing Dreams For The Genesee Country—Part I: John Livingston and the Lessees”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged 999-year lease, Bedford Falls, Benjamin Barton, Calen Benton, Columbia County, Ezekiel Gilbert, Genesee Country, George Bailey, George Clinton, Hudson River, John Butler, John Livingston, John Powell, John Stevenson, Lessees, livingston Manor, Lord of Livingston Manor, Massachusetts, New York, New York Genesee Land Company, Niagara Genesee Land Company, Peter Ryckman, Robert Livingston, Robert R. Livingston, Samuel Street, Seneca, Six Nations, Treaty of Hartford, William Johnson

The Seneca Between Nations: Western New York After the Treaty of Paris

By Chris Carosa on June 23, 2026

There sat the Seneca between nations. To the west lay the British. To the east stood Americans who could not even agree among themselves who possessed authority over the region.

On paper, Western New York belonged to everyone. Massachusetts had its colonial charter mandate. New York cited both conquest and treaty. Recalcitrant Connecticut clung to its thin claims. Congress may have possessed the authority, but it lacked the means to settle the matter.

These interstate disputes, however, remained largely theoretical. Traders still moved Continue Reading “The Seneca Between Nations: Western New York After the Treaty of Paris”

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged America, Articles of Confederation, British, Congress, Connecticut, Cornplanter, Denonville, Farmer's Brother, Federalist Papers, Fort Niagara, Fort Ontario, Genesee Country, Genesee Valley, George Washington, Iroquois, Iroquois Confederacy, James Duane, Joseph Brant, Massachusetts, Mohawk, New York, Red Jacket, Schuyler, Seneca, Six Nations, Sullivan, Treaty of Paris, Western New York

How Colonial Charters Continued To Haunt The New Republic

By Chris Carosa on June 16, 2026

Articles of Confederation via Wikimedia Commons.

The Treaty of Paris may have resolved the conflict between America and Great Britain, but it left unaddressed the conflicts between America’s new states. United in their struggle for independence, they were far less united in determining where one state’s claims ended and another’s began.

King George no longer ruled the former colonies. The legacy of the colonial charters, however, continued to shape the thinking of the individual states. For more than a century, English monarchs had granted overlapping charters across North America, often with only the vaguest understanding of the geography involved. The Treaty of Paris transferred vast stretches of Britain’s former frontier to the United States, but it also revived old questions those charters had never fully answered.

America had overthrown the king. It had not escaped the king’s paperwork.

Nowhere was this more apparent than in Greater Western New York. Although some colonial Continue Reading “How Colonial Charters Continued To Haunt The New Republic”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged America, American Revolution, Articles of Confederation, Britain, Connecticut, Connecticut Gore, Ethan Allen, Genesee Country, Great Britain, Greater Western New York, King George, Lake Erie, Massachusetts, Pennamite-Yankee Wars, Pennsylvania, Province of New York, Revolutionary War, Seneca, Southern Tier, Treaty of Paris, United States, Vermont, Western New York, Wyoming County

Sullivan’s Soldiers Discover The Genesee Valley

By Chris Carosa on June 2, 2026

Today, we call it the Genesee Valley. To Sullivan’s soldiers, the broad plain surrounding the great Seneca town of Chenussio was the Genesee Flatts, a beautiful vista that remained etched in memory long after the campaign ended. Soon, very soon, to American pioneers scanning maps of the western frontier, the entire region would come to be known simply as the Genesee Country.

Before that, however, there was the Sullivan Expedition. It entered the Genesee Valley as a military campaign. It left behind something far more enduring. More than 4,000 soldiers carried home eyewitness accounts of a fertile country few Americans had ever seen.

Shortly after noon on Tuesday, September 14^th, 1779, Lieutenant Erkuries Beatty and his fellow soldiers had finished destroying a “great abundance” of corn and beans.¹ He—and the men with him—were about to behold a sight unlike anything they had seen before. For a Continue Reading “Sullivan’s Soldiers Discover The Genesee Valley”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Adam Hubley, Daniel Livermore, Erkuries Beatty, Genesee Country, Genesee Flats, Genesee Flatts, Genesee River, Genesee Valley, John Burrowes, Lake Ontario, Paris Peace Treaty, Revolutionary War, Seneca, Sullivan Campaign, Sullivan Expedition, Western New York

Washington’s Gamble – The Sullivan–Clinton Campaign

By Chris Carosa on May 19, 2026

Washington’s Gamble began when frontier war threatened the survival of the Revolution itself. The growing violence on the western frontiers of Pennsylvania and New York left him little choice. It was one he had hoped to avoid. But it was the response demanded by Congress. The steady stream of reports from the frontier forced them to act.

Zebulon Butler, who led the defense (and retreat) during the Wyoming Massacre, attested to continued incursions. In a letter to General Hand on March 23, 1779, the Pennsylvanian wrote, “…after severe skirmishing for two hours and a half, the enemy carried off sixty head of horned cattle, 20 horses, and shot my riding horse, which they could not catch, and burnt five barns that were partly full of grain and hay, and 10 houses, which the inhabitants had deserted. They shot a number of hogs and sheep, that they left lying.” He asked that the information be relayed to General Washington.¹

Even before Butler’s letter to Hand, Congress had received letters from the governors of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York. On February 25, 1779, they appointed their Commander-in-Chief to raise five companies of rangers. The resolution directed Washington to Continue Reading “Washington’s Gamble – The Sullivan–Clinton Campaign”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Allegana, America250, Battle of Newtown, British, Canada, chain of forts, Cherry Valley, Congress, Connecticut, Continental Army, Continental Congress, Denonville, Elmira, Erie, Fort Niagara, France, French, French and Indian War, Frontier, General Hand, Geneseo, George Washington, Greater Western New York, Hudson Valley, Iroquois, Iroquois Confederacy, John Butler, Joseph Brant, Major General John Sullivan, Mohawk, New York, New York City, Newtown, Pennsylvania, Revolutionary War, Seneca, Sullivan's Expedition, Susquehanna River, Thomas Boyd, Walter Butler, Wyoming Massacre, Zebulon Butler

The River Ran Red With Blood

By Chris Carosa on May 5, 2026

Incident in Cherry Valley – fate of Jane Wells / from the original picture by Alonzo Chappel (1828-1887); Thomas Phillibrown, engraver. Jane Wells is pleading for her life, and a man attempts to protect her from an Indian who is about to kill her. House behind them is being burned by Loyalists and Indians led by Major Walter Butler and Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, Cherry Valley, New York. Published: N.Y. : Martin, Johnson & Co. publishers, c1856. via Wikimedia

Heart pumping, Hugh Mitchell rushed into his burning home. Face covered against the smoke, his mind raced. Where could he begin? But his mind emptied of all thought when he saw what lay before him. The bloodied bodies of his wife and four children.

Hugh had been out working the fields when he saw the raiders approaching. Too far away to run to his house, he fled into the nearby woods, hoping the Indians would show mercy to his family should they have failed to escape. He hurried to his home as soon as it was safe to do so, only to find his worst fears confirmed.

With melancholy remorse, he extinguished the fire before returning to the corpses. One still breathed—barely. Extending his arms under her, he gently lifted her, then placed her at the door for fresh air. As he bent down to examine the extent of her injuries, he saw another party heading toward the house. He barely had time to hide undetected behind a log fence.

He did not move. He could not. He watched helplessly as one of Butler’s rangers, later identified as Sergeant Newbury, stepped up to the girl and, with a single blow of his hatchet, killed Mitchell’s last surviving child.¹

A year later, Hugh Mitchell would testify to this brutal act at Newbury’s trial. The British soldier was found guilty and hanged for his crime.²

But justice was the exception.

And in 1778, exception was giving way to pattern.

* * * * *

The fate of Mitchell’s family in the Cherry Valley Massacre reveals how warfare intensified in Continue Reading “The River Ran Red With Blood”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Adam Crysler, Albany, Alexander Hamilton, Battle of Oriskany, Battle of Wyoming, Benedict Arnold, British, Butler's Rangers, Cayuga, Cherry Valley, Cherry Valley Massacre, Cobleskill, Continental Army, Fort Niagara, Fort Stanwix, General Clinton, General Schuyler, George P. Ransom, German Flatts, Hugh Mitchell, Indian, Iroquois, Iroquois Confederacy, Jane Wells, Jasper Parrish, John Butler, John Montresor, John Wells, Joseph Brant, Lebeus Hammond, Loyalist, Massacre, Mohawk, New York, Oneida, Onondaga, Patriot, Philip Schuyler, Robert Wells, Rudolph Shoemaker, Seneca, Sergeant Newbury, Sir William Johnson, The Federalist Papers, Tuscarora, Unadilla, Upper Mohawk Town, Walter Butler, Walter Campbell, Wyoming Massacre

The British–Iroquois Alliance and the Fractured Confederacy

By Chris Carosa on April 21, 2026

$Iroquois Confederacy fracture$

Portrait of Samuel Kirkland by Augustus Rockwell

Internal disputes weren’t limited to the Green Mountains on the Province of New York’s eastern edge. But what unfolded there would pale in comparison to what was about to erupt on the western frontier.

Here, in the wild, untamed forests, far beyond the reach of authority, conflict took on a different character. Courts gave way to violence. Diplomacy gave way to force. Far from the centers of power, restraint disappeared. Local actors dictated events, and alliances, long maintained, began to crack.

The conflict did not simply reach the frontier. It entered the Confederacy itself.

Once inside, it would tear it apart.

Samuel Kirkland became that inside man. Ironically, long-time British Superintendent of Indian Continue Reading “The British–Iroquois Alliance and the Fractured Confederacy”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Battle of Oriskany, British, Cayuga, College of New Jersey, Colony, Connecticut, Council Fire, Dartmouth, Eleazar Wheelock, Fort Stanwix Treaty, Guy Johnson, Iroquois Confederacy, Joseph Brant, Mohawk, Moor’s Charity School, New Hampshire, New York, Oneida, Oneida Castle, Onondaga, Patriot, Princeton University, Province, Red Jacket, Revolutionary, Samuel Kirkland, Seneca, Sir William Johnson, Six Nations, Tuscarora, Tyerhansera

European Rivals and the Seneca Frontier

By Chris Carosa on March 31, 2026

The stagnant heat draped over the weary marchers like a heavy blanket. The still air muffled any sound. The eerie silence only gnawed at their nerves.

Suddenly, the quiet forest erupted with sharp cries.

The startled Frenchmen stopped in their tracks. Before they could think, puffs of smoke popped from the thicket before them. Instantly, speeding musket balls whizzed through the ranks.

In an instant, two soldiers lay dead. Stunned by the ambush, the remaining staggered. But Continue Reading “European Rivals and the Seneca Frontier”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Bloomfield, Champlain, Denonville, France, Irondequoit Bay, Lima, Mendon, Seneca, Victor

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

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