WESTERN / CENTRAL New York timeline / 1770-1774

1770
Delaware Indians bring Onondaga salt to the father of Judge Bowker of Cayuga at Papeconck (now Colchester). ** Olcott settler James Van Horn is born in New Jersey.


1771
The Seneca Indian Otetiani (later known as Red Jacket) tells a tribal council he dreamt three times he was a sachem. Tribal elders hesitate to make him one. ** The approximate date Robert Morris gains the Holland Land Purchase.


1772
Otetiani again tells a council he dreamt three times he was a sachem. The elders still will not proclaim him one.


1773
Aug 14
New York State lawyer, politician, soldier and U. S. Secretary of War Peter Buell Porter is born in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Oct 10
Rochester grocer William Carter is born in Killingworth, Connecticut.

Dec 1
Rochester pioneer Hamlet Scrantom is born in Durham, Connecticut.

State
The family of Syracuse pioneer Ephraim Webster moves into the colony from New Hampshire. ** Otetiani tells the Iroquois tribal council for the third year in a row that he must be made a sachem, adding that tragedy will ensue if he's refused. Nothing is done.

North Carolina
Nathaniel Rochester goes into business with his employer James Monroe of Hillsborough and Colonel John Hamilton. The partnership will break up with the outbreak of the Revolution.


1774
January
Smallpox begins breaking out among the tribes of the Iroquois League.

Mar 12
Otetiani tells the elders that a recent smallpox outbreak is the Great Spirit’s punishment for their not proclaiming him a sachem. He is made one and given the name Sagoyewatha (He-Keeps-Them-Awake).

Oct 13
The Iroquois tribes hold a council at Onondaga. Joseph Brant (Thayendenegea), official representative of Colonel Guy Johnson, the late Sir William's son-in-law and successor, urges the Nation to ally itself with the British. Red Jacket, distrusting Brant’s connection with whites, urges neutrality. No decision is reached.


© 2009 David Minor / Eagles Byte