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Diaries & Letters
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Indian Settlement on Seeley Creek in 1779
from the Journal of Lieutenant Erkuries Beatty |
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Indian Settlement on Seeley Creek in 1779
from the Journal of Lieutenant Erkuries Beatty
4th Pennsylvania Line
Sullivan Campaign Against the Six Nations
Added information in parenthesis for clarification by J. Kelsey Jones 2008
Monday 30th (August 1779). Rained a little last night and partly all
this day by Showers near half the Army out to day cutting corn which is
in great Abundance here; the party out of our Brigade went over the River
(south side of Chemung River), where the corn Chiefly grows, went up the
River about 2 Miles then took up a large branch (Seeley Creek) of the River
which bears near S. W. one Mile burnt 5 houses and destroyed all the corn
in our way. Our Brigade Destroyed about 150 Acres of the best corn that
Ever I saw, some of the Stalks grew 16 feet high besides great Quantities
of Beans, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Cucumbers, Squashes & Watermellons, and
the Enemy looking at us from the hills but did not fire on us. The Army
lay on this ground all day and draw’d 16 Days flower and the Army was put
on half allowance of provision which the men submitted to with a great
deal of cheerfulness.
The above journal does not give a description of the five Indian houses
that were burned along Seeley Creek during the Sullivan Campaign of 1779
compared to the description of some villages in various journals. The accompanying
map gives the approximate location of the five houses that were burned.
We know very little about this small village or even if the houses had
been occupied. On the following day Beatty recorded “proceeded on to Newtown
(Elmira) which consists of between 20 & 30 houses very well built but
very much scattered.” Many other journals of officers and enlisted men
with Sullivan’s Campaign have survived but since the main army remained
on the north side of the river, this appears to be the only journal that
mentions the small village on Seeley Creek – J. Kelsey Jones
Other villages in the vicinity that were destroyed:
Newtown, an occupied town of about twenty houses, located on the north
side of the Chemung River about five miles east of Elmira and about a mile
west of Baldwin’s Creek, burned August 1779.
Lowman, a small unoccupied town on both sides of Baldwin’s Creek of
twenty or thirty houses, burned August 1779.
Wellsburg Crossing, a small town on Baldwin’s Creek, near the Chemung
River, burned August 1779.
Chemung, an occupied town of fifty or sixty houses on the north side
of the Chemung River, three miles west of the present village of Chemung,
burned August 13, 1779.
Old Chemung, a partially occupied town on the north side of the Chemung
River, half a mile west of the present village of Chemung, burned August
13, 1779.
Middletown, a small town lying on the north side of the Chemung River
lying west of Newtown and a few miles from Elmira, consisting of eight
houses, burned August 31, 1779.
Kanawlohalla, located on the present site of Elmira on the north side
of the Chemung River, burned August 31, 1779. In some journals this town
is called Newtown and the one near the battle, Lower Newtown but the majority
designate it by its Indian name.
Originally Published in Newsletter of Town of Southport.
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Published On 20 SEP 2008
By Joyce M. Tice
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