Margaret St. John, along with her husband Gamaliel Cyrus St. John, moved first from Connecticut to central New York shortly after the end of the American War for Independence from Britain in the 1790s. They then moved on to western New York in 1807, settling on a farm in what became Erie County. Three years later, the family moved into the emerging settlement of Buffalo, a new town laid out by the Holland Land Company which sold deeds to plots in the area, including one to a Mrs. Chapman who sold it to the family. According to their daughter,
Mrs. Jonathan Sidway, they acquired
a claim for Lot No. 53, Holland Land Co. survey,
on which was the frame for a house, forty feet square, standing on blocks, and back
of which was an appendix of twenty feet square, one and a half stories high, enclosed
and floored, having a chimney with the old-fashioned fireplace, and baking oven by
the side of the fireplace....
Into this apology for a house the family, then consisting of the parents and ten
children, moved on or about the 10th of May, 1810. On the 28th day of that month,
in the chamber of the above-mentioned appendix, was born the eleventh child, Orson
Swift St. John.
During the American Revolution, the native people of what became New York State -- the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee Confederacy -- had mostly thrown in with the British. British red-coated soldiers were mostly far away and not immediate threats, as were the land-grabbing settlers. The natives had over a century of "diplomatic" relations with the distant King in London; the entrepreneurial Americans were obvious disturbers of their peace. Bloody massacres by both natives and insurgent Americans followed in central New York. When the Brits surrendered in Yorktown 1781, their peace treaty with the new nation in the former colony ceded not only British claims, but also native land in what became western New York, the Niagara Frontier. In the subsequent decade, the tribes signed several treaties giving up their historic lands in the area, though neither settlers nor many natives were particularly law-abiding.
This was where the St. John family was living when the United States went to war with Britain again in 1812. If remembered at all, our history of that conflict focuses on the eastern coasts and the burning of the new capital at Washington. But on the frontier, many Americans saw their chance to enlarge their country by seizing the British colony in Canada. Native groups again picked allies; this time the Seneca sided with the Americans, while the Shawnee leader Tecumseh joined up with the British farther west. U.S. troops invaded the Canadian province of Ontario and burned several towns.
In June 1813, Gamaliel St. John and son Elijah drowned in the Niagara River while doing work for the U.S. Army.
On December 30, 1813, Margaret St. John remained in Buffalo as British troops and native auxiliaries out to avenge the American attacks on Upper Canada came bearing down. Most of the settlers got away, but for lack of transport Mrs. St. John, a daughter, and a Mrs. Lovejoy, who owned a house across the street, remained in town. The local American militia defenders broke and ran.
Mrs. Lovejoy refused to leave her home.
Mrs. St. John ... stated, "I
was fearful she would provoke them to kill her." Then she spoke to Mrs. Lovejoy
and told her, "Do not risk your life for property." Mrs. Lovejoy responded,
"When my property goes, my life shall go with it."
Mrs. St. John stated that she saw an Indian pulling down the curtains
in the Lovejoy house which Mrs. Lovejoy objected to, and allegedly attacked the hand
of the invader with a knife.
The attacker allegedly raised his hatchet and struck Mrs. Lovejoy. The Lovejoy
house was torched.
We have the story because Margaret St. John persuaded a British officer to set a soldier to guard her house, but only after
... some Indian women had entered and were already plundering it. They
took the cloaks and bonnets off from the three white women, replacing them
their own blankets and were proceeding to further annoyances when a dwarfish little
man appeared, sent away the Indians and quieted the St. Johns' fears by telling them
of General Riall's latest orders, that no one should be molested who was obliged
for good reason to stay in the town. He informed them also that he was the General's
interpreter and, on hearing their story, offered to accompany them to the General's
headquarters on Niagara Street and obtain protection for them. After securing this
promise, he returned with them, sat down inside the door, and whenever Indians came
and banged on door he sent them away looking as if they had been severely reproved.
And so, the St. John house and my ancestors survived the burning of Buffalo. One of Margaret St. John's sons, known in the family as Legrandcannon, drew a sketch of what the neatly laid out Holland Land Company town looked like when the settlers returned -- nothing but stone chimneys remained standing.
Buffalo rapidly rebuilt and prospered. The Senecas were confined their reservation south of the city and most of the others tribes to Canada which also prospered as a white British dominion.
For some time the terrified settlers remained in their hiding places, stealing over
to the St. John house under cover of darkness for an occasional meal. They had lost
homes and personal property but many had carried their money with them so they were
able to remunerate Mrs. St. John for her hospitality and to pay her for the making
of much needed clothing. This brave woman and her family were soon reunited and joined
in a successful effort to build up their fallen fortunes.
The relief committee of Canandaigua made an appeal for money, supplies and clothing
for the unfortunate refugees which received a prompt response, thirteen thousand
dollars besides food and needed warm garments being raised in a short time. In addition
to the local relief, the State Legislature, the cities of Albany and New York, the
Holland Land Company and others contributed nearly sixty thousand dollars.
Then the work of reconstruction went on apace. After a brief interval the Gazette
went to press again and in April it reported that Joseph Pomeroy had rebuilt
his hotel and was ready for customers. So rapidly did rebuilding take place that
five months after the fire a score of stores and taverns had been erected while many
families were camping out in shacks or huts awaiting the completion of new homes....
• • •
As in most eras of settler colonialism, the losers were dispossessed and eradicated by the winners. It's what our species has usually done. Is there a better we could do?
Iyad el-Baghdadi suggests that the only partial break in the pattern in modern times has been South Africa. He concludes hopefully:
South Africa model = International isolation & anti-apartheid struggle ends with establishing democracy
I too tend to historical optimism, but the record is brutal. I don't engage is historical guilt. Life is lived forward.
• • •
I pulled this post together from family stories and internet research. I can't vouch completely for its historical accuracy, but I believe the main lines are true if not the color details imported from various sources. True in spirit, if not in all details.
