to give up all prisoners captured and detained among them, belonging to or captured in the United States. There were at this time among the Six Nations ninety-three white prisoners, Parrish among the number. On November 29, 1784. he left Lewiston accompanied by the Indians to be surrendered at Fort Stanwix. Immediately afterwards he set out on his return to his own family and friends, whom he had not heard from, or of, during his long captivity, but whom he at length found at Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y. He had heard the English language so rarely, and had been so totally unaccustomed to speak it himself that he could with difficulty make himself understood. He was destitute of education and was able to devote but very little time to school on his return home, receiving only nine months' schooling.* With this exception he was wholly self-taught and educated from his after-reading and intercourse with the world. In November, 1790, he was requested by Timothy Pickering, commissioner on the part of Congress to act as interpreter between the Seneca Indians and the Government at a treaty held at that time at Tioga Point. He was called upon again by the same commissioner to act as interpreter at another treaty at Newtown Point (near Elmira), in July, 1791. This treaty was held with the Six Nations of Indians. Here he gained a good deal of commendation and applause from the commissioner and the Indians for the very accurate and faithful manner in which he rendered the Indian language. In April, 1792, he was appointed by President Washington as a standing interpreter for the Six Nations of Indians, and was instructed to reside at Canandarque under the direction and instruction of Gen. Israel Chapin, then agent to the Six Nations.† In November, 1794, another treaty was held with the Six Nations at Canandaigua, the Hon. Timothy Pickering presiding as commissioner on the part of the United States, where again he was the principal interpreter. This treaty "About a year."-S. P. + His salary was $200 per year. (Letter, Pickering to Parrish.) now remains as the governing treaty between the Six Nations and the United States to the present time, 1822. After serving as interpreter thirteen years, he was appointed sub-agent and interpreter by the President of the United States, on the 15th of February, 1803.* These two appointments he held through all the successive administrations down to the second term of Gen. Jackson, transacting all kinds of business between the United States and the Six Nations, and also between the State of New York and the Indians. He also officiated as interpreter and was present at very many other treaties during his term of office. He was very anxious to civilize the Indians by inculcating among them habits of industry and instructing them how to cultivate their lands and endeavoring to impress them with the use of property and the value of time. In his endeavors to effect this object, he has found a friendly disposition among the Oneidas and Tuscarora tribes, and among the Senecas residing at the Buffalo Reservation, except Red Jacket, to welcome missionaries and schoolmasters, and all instruction calculated to ameliorate their condition. Teachers and missionaries meet with considerable encouragement among them, and the children of the above-named tribes are receiving from schools very great benefit. Much good has already been accomplished and greater advancement been made in six years in husbandry than have been made in forty years before. They are tilling their land much better, making good fences and building more comfortable dwellings for themselves. The means that are placed in the hands of the agents by the Government enable them to furnish each tribe annually with all necessary farming utensils, and all implements of *The following is copied from the War Department records: To Jasper Parrish Esquire. Sir: You are hereby with the approbation of the President of the United States, appointed a Sub-Agent, to the Six Nations of Indians, residing within the territories of the said United States, now under the general superintendence of Callender Irvine Esquire. For your government in discharging the various duties of this appointment, you will from time to time, be furnished with general instructions, and particular directions, as circumstances may call for, or render necessary. Your compensation will be a salary of Four hundred & fifty dollars, per annum, payable quarter Yearly. Given under my hand at the War Office of the United States this 15th day of February 1803. (L. S.) H. DEARBORN. husbandry to enable them properly to till the land, and they are instructed how to use them. They are thus able to raise a considerable surplus of grain beyond what is needed for their own consumption, instead of being dependent upon the precarious results of the chase. During the time I was prisoner among them for six years and eight months, and for many years subsequent to the Revolutionary War, the use of the plough was entirely unknown to them, but they are now familiar with almost every essential farming implement. Notwithstanding this great advance toward improvement, and all the efforts made by the Government and citizens to Christianize the Six Nations, the noted Red Jacket has been and still is violently opposed to all innovations upon their old customs, and all changes in their condition. He says they were created Indians, and Indians they should remain, and that he will never relinquish their ancient pagan customs and habits. FURTHER DATA ON JASPER PARRISH. The foregoing narrative, written fourteen years before the death of Jasper Parrish, is of course without allusion to his later years. His services as interpreter merit a fuller record than the present editor can here make. It has been shown in preceding pages of this volume how often he was associated with Horatio Jones, at treaties and councils; and he shared with his fellow-interpreter the favor of the Senecas, marked by their gift to him of the mile square on the Niagara now known as the Parrish tract. Jasper Parrish bore a prominent part in the negotiations which culminated in the treaty held at Albany, August 20, 1802, at which the Senecas sold to the State the tract a mile wide, extending from Buffalo Creek along the Niagara River to "Stedman's farm," at Fort Schlosser. They received for this land $200 down, $5300 to be paid later, and $500 worth of calico for their women; also the right to go upon the Mile Strip to fish in the river, to cross the Niagara ferry free of charge, and to be exempt from tolls on roads and bridges. Embodied in this treaty were the grants to Jasper Parrish and Horatio Jones of a mile square, heretofore described. Jones does not appear to have attended this treaty at Albany. Parrish was the interpreter, and the next day (August 21st) appeared before Justice James Kent to certify to the genuine *The original MS. here changes from the third person to the first; evidently the writer concluded the narrative in Jasper Parrish's own words. ness of the Indian consents. March 14, 1803, Parrish, Farmer's Brother, Young King and Benjamin DeWitt certified that the Senecas had received the full amount stipulated in the treaty. Prior to this time Parrish had interpreted an address made by Saccaressa, chief of the Tuscaroras, to the acting Secretary of War; in which, speaking for the remnant of his people, the Tuscarora statesman (such he truly was) begged that the Tuscarora claim to lands on the Roanoke in North Carolina might be recognized, that they might be sold and the proceeds applied to the purchase of a tract in the neighborhood of their present residence near Lewiston.* A less important but characteristic service rendered to his Indian friends by Jasper Parrish is indicated by the following, copied verbatim from the original: CANANDAIGUA, June 16th, 1803. SIR, I am sir, your friend and humble servent JASPER PARRISH. The letter is worth noting chiefly because it illustrates the attitude of helpfulness and friendliness which Jasper Parrish maintained towards the Indians throughout his life. By a treaty entered into at Buffalo, September 12, 1815, the Senecas sold to the State all the islands in the Niagara River, within the jurisdiction of the United States, reserving to themselves hunting and fishing privileges. For these islands the treaty stipulated that the Senecas should receive $1000 down, and an annuity of $500 in perpetuity. The name of Red Jacket is the first appended to this agreement. Among others in the long list of Senecas and whites are those of Pollard, Little Billy and Young King, Captain Shongo, Horatio Jones's old friend Sharp Shins, Governor Daniel D. Tompkins, Gen. Peter B. Porter, Horatio Jones and Jasper Parrish. For fourteen years the Indians went to Canandaigua every June for their money; this proving expensive and troublesome an agreement was entered into by which they received their money annually in a draft payable at Buffalo. This agreement is called the Albany treaty of March 6, 1830. Jasper Parrish attended a council of the Six Nations chiefs at Buffalo, in December, 1823, regarding their purchase of lands from the Menomonees at Green Bay, Wis. The Indians decided to send a delegation the next spring to examine the country. Jasper Parrish War Dept. Records, February 11, 1801. † Among the Holland Land Co.'s papers, in the possession of the Buffalo Historical Society. conducted their correspondence in the matter; his letters to the Hon. John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, are preserved in that department. Jasper Parrish married in early life a daughter of General Edward Paine of Aurora, N. Y., who in the early period of the settlement of Ohio, located and gave name to the village of Painesville. He died at Canandaigua, July 12, 1836, aged 69 years and 4 months. He left a family of six children, three sons and three daughters. The eldest of the daughters married Ebenezer S. Cobb, who was lost on the steamboat Erie, which burned near Dunkirk in 1841. The second daughter married William W. Gorham of Canandaigua, son of Nathaniel Gorham.* Stephen Parrish narrative in Orlando Allen's MS. |