The land-owners manual: containing a summary of statute regulations, in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin, concerning land titles, deeds, mortgages, wills of real estate, ... With an Appendix containing the constitutions of the said States

Front matter

THE LAND OWNER'S MANUAL. CONTAINING A SUMMARY OF STATUTE REGULATIONS, IN NEW-YORK, OHIO, INDIANA, ILLINOIS, MICHIGAN, IOWA AND WISCONSIN, CONCERNING LAND TITLES, DEEDS, MORTGAGES, WILLS OF REAL ESTATE, DESCENTS, LAND TAXES, TAX SALES, REDEMPTIONS, LIMITATIONS, EXEMPTIONS INTEREST OF MONEY AND USURY, WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE SAID STATES. BY BENJAMIN F. HALL, COUNSELLOR AT LAW; —,...— AUBURN, N.Y.: J. C. DERBY & CO., PUBLISHERS. BUFFALO : DERBY & HEWSON. CINCINNATI : DERBY, BRADLEY & CO. 1847. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and forty-seven, by BENJAMIN. F. HALL, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of New-York. PRESS OP JOHN C. MERRELL _ CO., A-BURB, N. Y. TESTIMONIALS. The Publishers beg leave to submit the following extracts from communications relating to the Land Owner's Manual, and its adaptation to the exigencies of the times and the wants of the public : FROM EX.

GOV. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. " I believe your work will be* extensively useful, and think I cannot be mis taken in advising its publication under an expectation that it will be of much service to land owners and to the public." FROM THE HON. ALFRED CONKLING, U. S. D. C " 1 cannot doubt that an accurate summary of the Statute regulations in the States northwest of the Ohio, concerning the execution, attestation, acknowledgment and recording of deeds, wills of real estate, descents, land taxes and redemptions, is a desideratum, and would be found highly convenient and useful to the profession, as well as to non-resident land owners." FROM THE HON. MILLARD FILLMORE. " Such a work is wanted not only by the legal profession of this State, but by many business men having commerce or dealings in the States noticed.

Such a manual would furnish just the information which persons interested in western lands desire. It would also be valuable in each of the several States, from the Statutes of which the compilation is made, by furnishing to citizens of each a knowledge of the laws in the other States." FROM THE HON. FREEBORN G. JEWETT, N. Y. S. C. " I do not hesitate to express my opinion that a publication containing an accu rate summary of the Statute regulations in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, concerning conveyances, wills, land taxes and redemptions, cannot fail to be highly convenient and valuable, as well to the legal profession as to men having property or dealing in the said States." TESTIMONIALS. FROM THE HON. JOSEPH L. RICHARDSON, FIRST JUDGE OF CAYUGA COUNTV. " I am os opinion that the Land Owner's Manual will be found to bo a work of prime necessity.

Preface

. 19

PREFACE.

. The want of a convenient summary of such of the statute regulations in the States northwest of the Ohio as relate to the execution, attestation, acknowledgment and recording of conveyances, the execution, at testation, probate and recording of wills of real estate, descents, land taxes, redemptions, limitations, exemptions, and the interest of money, together with the suggestions of friends owning land at the west, in duced the preparation of the following work. In consideration of the growing importance of this fertile country, and its eligibility for agriculture and commerce, immense numbers of the inhabitants of the old States have, within the last ten years, become land owners and tax payers in the new, and being non-residents of the States in which their possessions were situated, have experienced much difficulty and embarrassment in the payment of their taxes, and in re-obtaining their title, in case the same had been forfeited by accident or neglect.

As the Statutes at large of the new States have not been conveniently accessible to the majority of non-resident land owners, and as the legal profession in the eastern and middle States, who are often suspected of being au fait in such matters, have not generally supplied their libraries with books enabling them to advise in this behalf, a majority of such non-resident land owners have been left to acquire their information by an expensive journey to the west, or to rely upon the letter of a friend, little better informed, perhaps, than themselves. In view of these and other constantly recurring difficulties, the author had for some time anxiously looked for the appearance of a book from some quarter, con taining the information so generally wanted ; but discerning nothing in dicative of such a result, he was induced to undertake the execution of one himself, in the hope that if it did not fully answer the public want, it would nevertheless be of some service, as well to the profession and conveyancers, as to such of his fellow citizens as have lands in, or commerce with the inhabitants of the States from whose statutes the ma terial for the following pages was collected.

PREFACE.

. 20 The mention of a foreign State or Territory naturally suggests an in quiry concerning so much of its history as relates to the title which may be acquired to its lands; and although it has not been the purpose of the author to spread upon these pages much historical incident, he has taken occasion to open each chapter with some interesting documentary matter, with incidental remarks, for the purpose of indicating generally the source whence the existing land titles in the several States were de rived, in the hope of rendering the book more acceptable to the general reader. As they precede the political organization of the States, it was believed that they would be in place as an introduction to the organic and statute regulations concerning lands, and the tenures by which the same are now held.

As the early history of the country was long since written, it is un necessary to observe that most of the facts embraced in the remarks which accompany the documents, are given on the authority of the emi nent gentlemen referred to in the notes appended. Indeed, very little of originality is claimed for any portion of the work, as it professes to be for the most part only an epitome and arrangement of pre-existing matter, prepared with the hope and desire of placing it within the reach of those to whom it was not before conveniently accessible. That embraced within the fust chapter of this work was not with in the compass of the original design, but was subsequently pre pared at the suggestion of a gentleman of high judicial standing, to the end that persons residing at the west, and having commerce or dealin" with the inhabitantsof New-York, or owning lands therein. might, from this volume, derive the same information concerning the statutes of the latter State, as the remaining chapters profess to give of those in the States northwest of the Ohio.

Many of the recent emigrants thereto from New-York yet retain their original possessions here, and are thereby concerned for their preservation, equally with those who are non-resident owners of lands at the west. It was therefore believed that the suggestion was entitled to consideration, and in view of the general usefulness of the Manual, that the matter relating to the documentary history and statute regulations of New-York should be in serted. It will be seen that in preparing the chapter relating to Wisconsin, she was regarded as a State in anticipation of an approval by the peo ple of the Constitution adopted in tbe Convention of Delegates, held at Madison, on the fourteenth day of December, eighteen hundred and forty-six. All the usual incipient measures had been taken for the ap-

PREFACE.

. 21 proval of that instrument by Congress, and for her admission into the Union on the same footing with the original States ; and as the rejection of ber first Constitution was not apprehended, until after that part of the manuscript had gone to press, an apparent, although not an im portant misnomer, occurs in the chapter head. The rejection of that in strument leaves her to remain under a territorial organization, until another shall have been formed and ratified by the people. As land titles are protected, and to some extent regulated, by the Constitution of every commonwealth, it has been deemed advisable to insert those of the Slates noticed, in an Appendix, with a reference thereto in the body of the work. Upon a careful examination, the reader will find that most of them contain important provisions concern ing tenures and estates in land, that should be known to every land owner.

If it seem to the profession that there has been a departure from es tablished forms of expression concerning tenures and estates in land, the apology therefor rests in the fact that tbis Manual was mainly designed for the use of land owners, most of whom are unlearned in legal phraseology, and to whom the expressions used were supposed to be more in accordance with those employed by themselves to express the ideas intended to be conveyed. The license taken, therefore, was not without the desire and design of good, however ill adapted may be the language employed for the attainment of such an end. In consequence of the frequent and almost innumerable alterations in, and amendments and revisions of the Statutes of the new States, that have occurred within the last ten years, the procurement of the material for the following pages has been attended with some difficulty and delay.

As authenticity is the main desideratum in such a work, much pains has been taken to render it reliable. That it will be found entirely free from imperfections the author will not venture to pretend ; but that it will be found essentially faithful, he confidently believes. Executed as it has been during intervals of professional business, errors may have been overlooked that will render it obnoxious to criticism ; yet if upon the whole, the Manual shall prevent a recurrence of any considerable proportion of the difficulties which it was designed to ob viate, the aim and purpose of the author will have been answered. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. State Of New-york

The Source os Title to Lands in the State. Early Proprietors thereof. Visit to New-York by tho Danes and Normans. Exploration by Henry Hudson and Colonization by the Dutch. Charter of the West India Company. Grants of Freedoms and Exemptions to Colonists. Patroonships. Feudal Appendages and Pre-emptions. Article of Capitulation to the English. Grant of Charles II. lo James, Duke of York. Merger of Title in tho Crown. Succession of the People, thereto under the Treaty of Paris. Cessions by the Native Proprietor- Rights of Indians to the Soil. Guaranties of the present Constitution. Land Titles as Regulated by Statute. Regulations concerning the Execution, Attesta tion, Proof, Acknowledgment and Recording of Conveyances. Recording Dis tricts. The Execution, Attestation, Probate and Recording of Wills of Real Estate. The Statute of Descents. Taxation of Lands. Land-tax Forfeitures, Sales and Redemptions. Limitations. Exemptions. Interest of Money and Usury.

Chapter II. State Of Ohio

Native Proprietors of the Territory northwest of the River Ohio. Exploration and Settlement thereof by the French. Grants by Governors of Posts. The Coutume De Paris. Vandrcuil's Capitulation to General Amherst, and Surrender of the Territory to Great Britain. Extracts from the Charters of Massachu setts, Connecticut, New-York and Virginia. Succession of the United States to the rights of Great Britain over the Territory. Cessions of Domain from Massa chusetts, Connecticut, New -Y'ork and Virginia. Treaties extinguishing the In dian Right of Occupancy. Ordinance of Congress concerning the Territory. The Constitution of Ohio. Land Titles generally in the State. The Execution, CONTENTS. 23 Attestation, Proof, Acknowledgment and Recording of Conveyances. The Exe cution and Probate of Wills of Real Estate. Descents. Land Taxes. Tax Sales and Redemptions, Limitations and Exemptions. Interest of Money, and Usury.

Chapter III. State Of Indiana

Source of Title to Lands in Indiana. Settlement thereof by the French. Ca pitulation to the English. The Quebec Act. Relinquishment of the Country by Great Britain. The Cessions of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New-York, and Virginia. Erection of the Territory northwest of the river Ohio. Ordinance of 17S7. Acts of Congress concerning the early settlers. The Erection and Division of Indiana Territory. Admission into the Union of Indiana as a State, Her Constitution. Land Titles generally. The Execution, Attestation, Proof, Acknowledgment and Recording of Conveyances. The Execution, Attestation, Probate and Recording of Wills of Real Estate. The Statute of Descents. The Levy and Collection of Land Taxes. Tax Sales, Forfeitures and Redemp tions. Limitations and Exemptions. Interest of Money and Usury.

Chapter IV. State Of Illinois

Source of Title to Lands in Illinois. Erection of Illinois Territory from that part of Indiana lying west of the Wabash. Act enabling the people therein to form a Constitution and State Government. Ordinance accepting the proposition of Congress. Admission of Illinois into the Union as a State. Her Constitution. Land Titles generally, as regulated by Statute. The Execution, Attestation, Proof, Acknowledgment, Authentication, and Recording of Deeds and Mort gages. The Execution, Attestation, Probate and Recording of Wills of Real Estate. Regulations concerning Descents. The Levy and Collection of Land Taxes. Land Tax Forfeitures. Sales and Redemptions. Limitation upon Actions for the Recovery of Lands. The Statute of Exemptions. Interest of Money and Usury. CONTENTS.

Chapter V. State Of Michigan

Source of Title to Lands in the State. Native Proprietors thereof. Erection of Michigan Territory from that of Indiana. Enlargement of the same upon the Admission of Illinois as a State. Act of Congress authorizing the People of the Territory to form a Constitution, and for the Admission of Michigan as a State ; and another to Establish the Northern Boundary Line of the State of Ohio, and to Provide for the Admission of Michigan into the Union upon the conditions therein expressed. Her Constitution, and Land Titles generally. The Execution, Attestation, Proof, Acknowledgment, Authentication, and Re cording of Conveyances. The Execution, Attestation, Probate, and Recording or Wills of Real Estate. Regulations concerning Titles by Descent. The Levy and Collection of Land Taxes. Land Tax Forfeitures, Sales, and Redemp tions. Exemptions. Interest of Money, and Usury.

Chapter VI. Territory Of Wisconsin

Source of Title to Lands in the Territory. Native Proprietors thereof. Ex ploration of the country, and settlement by the French at La Point and Green Bay. Surrender thereof to Great Britain. The Quebec Act. The Charter of Virginia. Her Claim and Cession to the General Government. Wisconsin a portion of the Northwestern Territory. Was set off with Indiana and subsequently with Illi nois. Was attached to Michigan. Erection of the Wisconsin Territory. Act of Congress for the admission of Wisconsin into the Union. Her Constitution. Land Titles generally. The Execution, Attestation, Proof, Acknowledgment, Authenti cation, and Recording of Deeds and Mortgages. The Execution, Attestation, Probate and Recording of Wills of Real Estate. Descent of Real Estate. Land Taxes. Forfeitures and Redemptions. Limitation!. Exemptions. Interest of Money, and Usury.

Chapter I. The State Of New- York

The source of Title to Lands in the State. Early Proprietors thereof. Visit to New-York by the Danes and Normans. Exploration by Henry Hudson and Colonization by the Dutch. Charter of the West India Company. Grants of Freedoms and Exemptions to Colonists. Fatroonships. Feudal Appendages and Pre-emptions. Article of Capitulation to the English. Grant of Charles II. to James, Duke of Y'ork. Merger of Title in the Crown. Succession of tho People thereto, under the Treaty of Paris. Cessions by the Native Proprietors. Rights of Indians to the Soil. Guaranties of the present Constitution. Land Titles as Regulated by Statute. Regulations concerning the Execution, Attestation, Proof, Acknowledgment and Recording of Conveyances. Recording Districts. The Execution, Attestation, Probate and Recording of Wills of Real Estate.

The Statute of Descents. Taxation of Lands. Land-tax Forfeitures, Sales and Redemptions. Limitations. Exemptions. Interest of Money and Usury. I. THE SOURCE OF TITLE TO LANDS IN NEW-YORK. The discovery and possession of lands on the American Continent, by Europeans acting under the authority of an existing government, constitute the original title under which the same are now held. That title was the exclusive power of acquiring the soil by extinguishing the Indian right of occupancy. [Johnson et al vs. Mclntosh, 8 Wheaton, 548 ; 5 Condensed Reports, 515.] All Land Titles in New-York are consequently derived from that remote but common source ; and involve a very choice and interesting portion of the documentary history of the State. The precise period Avhen the first claim of title, grounded SOURCES OF LAND TITLES IN on discovery, might have been made to her soil, rests mainly in conjecture; yet authors assert, with confidence, th.tt five hundred years before Columbus entered the western ocean, it was visited by Danes and Normans, who pushed their way from Iceland to Greenland, and (hence southwest erly "to a climate that was temperate, to a soil that was fruitful, and to a majestic river flowing south through mag nificent highlands."

So well has this been established, that it has come to be regarded as a well authenticated historical fact ; and moreover, that even those early visitors were pre ceded by another race who were in possession of the country, and claiming the same as native proprietors. This induces an inquiry concerning the claimants, which reaches back into an age whose records are forever lost to history. Of those who have reconnoitered it, but few have re turned laden with facts, others only with food for crazy con jecture. Some report the aborigines as descendants of the lost tribes of Israel ; some that they are of Tartar origin; and others that they are indigenous to the continent. But until more evidence is adduced in support of the former position, and until the theory of multiform creations can be maintained in opposition to the record of Moses, both the former and latter opinions must be rejected.

Such theories, it is true, are largely imposed on the credulity of the age; but as against the evidence that supports the second proposition, they cannot prevail. It is admitted that orthographical inquirers have found words in the dialects of the tribes resembling those in the Hebrew, and which are uttered with similarity of intonation; and iu the absence of better evidence, such facts excite a suspicion that the aborigines descended from Hebrew stock. No well grounded conclusion, however, can be arrived at from such premises. It is axiomatic that " that which is certain and unchangeable NEW-YORK. prevails against that which is uncertain and changeable ;" and it is believed that no language, dialect or tongue, spoken since the confusion at Babel, can be found, wherein there is not some remote resemblance in etymology, accent, or intona tion, to some other language, dialect or tongue also spoken.

Resemblances to the Greek or Celtic exist in the dialects of the tribes as striking as any which have been found to the Hebrew. Etymology is not reliable data. Neither is simi larity of pronunciation safe criteria. Never, since the great catastrophe upon the plains of Shinar, has there existed a spoken language which was uttered with sounds that could, in every vibration, be gathered by ears wholly unaided by custom or experience; and where no legible hyeroglyphics can be found, and no key obtained, except from intonations varying with every speaker, such a test is of doubtful accuracy. " Of all sources of information," says McKenney in his lectures, "by which the descent of nations can be traced, I consider the deductions of etymology the most uncertain. It is difficult, in such cases, to fix with accuracy the true sound of words ; and it is well known that coincidences exist in many languages radically different from one another, and spoken by communities whose separation from any common stock precedes all historic monuments."

To the high authority of that bureau officer, may be superadded the opinion of the celebrated John Ledyard, "that a foreigner's ear is too slow to catch, with accuracy, the guttural tones and inflections of an Indian's voice." But "the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, 7ior the leop ard his spot." They are enduring monuments of ancestral identity — unfading testimonials of their race. They are facts — facts resting in the immutable laws of animal being ; and consequently are of themselves a data far more reliable than any to be found in etymology or sounds. The Caucasians were white, as have been all descendants of the parent stock. The Ethiopians were black, as NATIVE PROPRIETORS OF have been their descendants. And the Asiatic Tartars were red, as, according to the course of nature their descend ants must have been.

And as it is both credible and credit ed, that the whites of the present day were of Caucasian origin, and that the blacks were of Ethiopian, it is no less credible or probable that the red inhabitants of Tartary were the ancestors of the red men of America. Other facts corroborate this opinion. Whilst the races of men have been unable to change their skin, they have also found it difficult to alter the contour of their skulls. The skulls of the several races are widely dissimilar, and yet those of the Tartar and Indian correspond. And if manners and customs have any influence in determining the question, sufficient points of similitude between those of the Tartar and North American Indian have been discovered to exhaust the power of common arithmetic. An enumeration cannot be here attempted.

But there is a sim ilarity in their modes of obtaining subsistence, in their war fare, and domestic arrangements. Both are archers, both lead a wandering life, both dornicil iu huts, both have the same token of recognition, both have plaintive music, both are energetic and hardy, and both raise pyramids over the sepulchres of their dead. We assume, therefore, that Tar tars preceded the Danes and Normans in the discovery and occupancy of America. The Tartars, according to Josephus, sprung from Japheth, the third son of Noah, the navigator and survivor of the flood. By a reference to the sacred history of the century which succeeded that remarkable event, in which to avert the disaster of another deluge, the progeny of Noah begun the tower, until which event one language was alone spoken, it will be seen that they were not only confounded in lan guage, " that they might not understand one another," but they were scattered abroad 'from thence, upon the face of all the earth."

NEW-YORK. Having found, upon the plains of Tartary, the parent stock of the original proprietors of our soil, the era and manner of their emigration, is the next inquiry. The era is forever lost to chronology, but the manner may have been by land, but probably was by water, at Behring's Straits. McKenney thinks it " the more enlight ened opinion," that there was formerly an isthmus, connect ing the continents. If such were the case, they may have crossed dry shod to this country ; and if the contrary be true, then less than fifty miles of navigation, by accident or design, brought them to our shores, where they have multi plied, and dwelt in numberless tribes, cantons and confed eracies, to the present day. The Alleghans appear in aboriginal history as the most ancient of the tribes of North America.

Like their ances tors in Tartary, they were noble, valiant, and populous. They possessed considerable knowledge of agriculture and of the arts, of the policy of government, of implements of war, and fortifications for defence.* The latter acquirements indicate the existence of an enemy sufficiently powerful, in their estimation, to jeopard their safety. That such an enemy was found in the Iroquois confederacy is now established by the concurrent testimony of tradition, and the line of fortifications along the Ohio Val ley, Lake Erie, and in Western New-York. The Alleghans were, doubtless, the mound builders of North America. t It is believed that they once occupied, a considerable portion of New-York. According to Davies, they cultivated corn and apples in large quantities, and dwelt together in towns.

Although they were more intelligent, and equally valiant, they were less hardy than the Iroquois, who succeeded them. They fortified their camp with earthen walls, as they moved from place to place, but were nevertheless besieged or driven * N. Y. Historic So. Col., Vol. 2. t Schoolcraft's notes on the Iroquois, 1846. NATIVE PROPRIETORS OF from them by the Iroquois, who followed them from the Mississippi Valley to the St. Lawrence.* Whether the Iroquois were an offshoot from the Alleghans, or were more recent descendants from the parent stock, is not known. The best opinions are, that they had long ex isted in the south, before they waged the exterminating war upon the Alleghans, which drove the latter up the valley of the Ohio, and caused the erection of the numberless earthen forts, as they receded from their pursuers.

" A series of old forts," says Schoolcraft, " anterior in age to the Iroquois power, extends along the shores of Lake Erie, and even as far east as the ancient Osco, which have striking points of identity with those in the valleys below, and are believed to have been erected by the same people." The prevailing opinion among ethnological writers is, that the Alleghans were in existence, as a tribe or confederacy, long before the discovery of America by Columbus; and that they were the mound builders of whom so little has been known. In corroboration of this, much evidence may be derived from an old Fort in Highland county, Ohio, where there is reliable data of its abandonment before Columbus entered the western ocean ; and of its erection, above six hundred years before ;t also, Grave Creek mound, whose trenches were abandoned in 1308.

The ramparts at Marietta bear the same evidence. Fort Osco, near the beautiful village of Auburn, is no less " elo quent of antiquity." As late as 1S20, Macauley, the histo rian,, counted the rings on a chesnut stump, standing in one of its moats, and another standing near it, and determined that one germinated prior to 1492, and the other in 1555.J Archaeological evidence and tradition concur in the fact that the Alleghans were a confederacy ; that such confederacy fell in the twelfth or thirteenth century ; and that they *Gen. Harrison's Discourse. t N. Y. Ethnological Society, 1846. t Macauley's History of New-York, vol. 2. NEW-YORK. were finally subdued by the bolder and hardier Iroquois, who, with a few cantons of Algonquins, were in possession ofthe territory now embraced in New-York, at the period of the settlement of the New-Netherlands by the Dutch in 1614.* The Iroquois were, therefore, successors to the Alleghans, and the predecessors of the early white settlers of New- York.

Composed of six of the most powerful tribes, bound together in an honorable league, the Iroquois confederacy remained for a long period a tower of strength which has no parallel in history. Although they were inferior to their predecessors in knowledge of the arts, they were superior in government. They came together as independent tribes, and their confederacy was a perfect union. Each canton had its civil and military chieftain — the former to preside in council, the latter to marshal its warriors in the field. The former were termed sachems, or sages, and represented the several cantons in the Grand Council — the latter carried out the unanimous resolves of the sachems, and were dis graced by any disobedience of orders. In council, entire unanimity was requisite to a decision.? This gave im portance and efficacy to the vote of every sachem.

Upon the matrons was conferred the power to decide when the war-club should be dropped and hostilities cease. This -provision enabled a tribe to abandon a warfare, with out compromising its character for bravery. The Onondagas were the parent tribe, out of which sprung the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tus caroras, who, with their parent, constituted the Iroquois, or Six Nations.! The offshoots took place while the Ononda gas were upon the Oswego river, where they had located themselves for some reason not now definitely understood. Requiring a large range for subsistence, they migrated from one region to another, as want of game in one place, and abundance in another, suggested. Their movements were * Legislative Doc. 1846. t Clinton's Discourse. X Schoolcraft. NATIVE PROPRIETORS OF up the Oswego river, and upon reaching Three River Point, a part went up the eastern fork, and pushed over the summit into the valley of the stream flowing east, and became the Mohawks.* Another portion went up the western fork, and upon reaching the outlet of Cayuga Lake, divided, and formed the Cayugast on the east, and Senecas on the west.t When the Onondagas reached the hill country, now known as Onondaga, there went out another offshoot eastward, and became the Oneidas.

The Tuscaroras sprung from the pa rent tribe, at a remote day, and went south, whence they were brought back by the Oneidas, by whose chieftains they were marshaled and protected in the war with the French, and subsequently on the side of the States in theRevolution.il The effect of this separation appears to have been a rapid increase in numbers, and afterwards the generation of dis putes about territory. The Mohawks became quarrelsome, the Oneidas intemperate, the Onondagas overbearing, and the Cayugas and Senecas disposed to a wandering indolence. They often built forts and entrenchments for the protection of their women and children, while they were abroad in warfare, hunting, or fishing. The women cultivated patch es of corn, and performed labor and drudgery about their wigwams. After that manner the Iroquois lived in New- York, prior to the seventeenth century, sometimes increas ing, but generally decreasing, until the calamities of war, the ravages of pestilence, and the laws of vitality reduced and disorganized them. * Brant was of this tribe, t Logan was a Cayuga. t Red Jacket was a Seneca. || Mingocs is the self-designation of the Six Notions.

The Dutch called them Maquas, and the Virginia Indians, Massawomeket. The French missionaries gave them the appellation of Iroquois, which has been the more popular term. Logan, Brant, and Red Jacket, were Mingo chiefs. Logan is believed to have been born at Osco, near Auburn, and that he went with his father to Shamokin, in Pennsylvania, where the latter, according to Loskicl, died in 1749, having pre viously been converted to the Catholic faith, by Jesuit missionaries. The Cayu gas that had left New-York to hunt in that region, soon after went into the Ohio Valley, where Logun attained manhood and bocamc a chieftain. NEW-YORK. 33 Besides these, there were within the present boundaries of the State several tribes of a race known as the Algonquins, or Algonquin-Lenapes, most of whom hunted and fished in the southern portion of the State.