Sunday, October 27, 2019

A Ghost Story on the Old Northwest Frontier, 1821 ©


 
The Lower Ebenezer Cemetery, West Street, in West Seneca, picture by the author



This story is about murder, witchcraft, violent death, a celebrity murderer, a celebrity witness, a restless ghost; and oh yes, the independence and sovereignty of the Seneca Nation.

“Wait a second”, you say, “you always write about survival, woods-lore and the wilderness, what gives…”?

You are right, I do.  However, in 1821, what today is the Lower Ebenezer Cemetery, on West Main Street, in West Seneca, was then the edge of the Old Northwest Frontier and the wilderness was just outside the cabin door.  Besides it is Halloween and you will have to forgive me for writing about a good ghost story that still haunts the Lower Ebenezer Cemetery and the story of the of the ensuing murder trial, the ghost of which still haunts the halls of the Governor’s Mansion in Albany, New York.

 
A excerpt from Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, Vol. XXIV, p 110



It all started in the spring of 1821, on the Buffalo Creek Reservation, in western New York state, near the mouth of the Buffalo River, where modern day Buffalo, New York stands today.

That spring a Seneca man, living about three miles from the mouth of the Buffalo River and the frontier village of Buffalo, on the Buffalo Creek Reservation; sickened and died a lingering death.  The Seneca Medicine Men were perplexed, and thought the circumstances surrounding his lingering illness and symptoms were suspicious.  They concluded that he was a victim of witchcraft and evil sorcery.  They blamed a Seneca woman, named Kau-qua-tau, who had nursed him and watched over him at his bed side. They named her as the prime suspect in his murder by witchcraft and sorcery with the aid of an evil spirit!

Kau-qua-tau knew that the penalty for witchcraft and sorcery in Seneca society, from time immemorial, was death: so, she fled her cabin and the Buffalo Creek Reserve and crossed the Niagara River into Canada.

Her flight to Canada was considered proof of her guilt and she was followed, arrested, tried by the Seneca council who had crossed into Canada after her, found guilty and sentenced to death.

But the Seneca council had a problem.  They knew that if they carried out the sentence of death outside of their territory, either in Canada or in anywhere in the Unites States, except in the Buffalo Creek Reserve, it would be considered murder and they would be found guilty of it.  So somehow, they convinced Kau-qua-tau to return with them, back to the Buffalo Creek Reserve.  There they planned on carrying out their sentence of death for the crime of witchcraft and sorcery!

They arrived back into their own territory on May 2nd, 1821 and the Seneca Sachems expected that their duly designated executioner would perform his duty, then and there: however, for some reason he refused.  At this point a Seneca Chief named So-on-on-gise, who was called Tommy Jemmy by his American neighbors and was thought to be related to the Seneca man who had died the lingering death, seized a knife and slit Kau-qua-tau’s throat, killing her on the spot! 

 
The log cabin at the lower left, belonged to Seneca Chief Red Jacket, from Images of America: West Seneca, by Jim Pace, page 33

 
From Images of America: West Seneca, by Jim Pace, page 20
 



It is said that Kau-qua-tau was buried under the earthen floor of her cabin, which stood on the grounds of today’s Lower Ebenezer Cemetery, on the bluff above Cazenovia Creek.  And here our ghost story rests in an uneasy grave until 1842, and the removal of the Senecas from the Buffalo Creek Reserve and the purchase of what is today West Seneca by the religious Community of True Inspiration, commonly known as the Ebenezer Society.

The Seneca’s abandoned cabins and homes were assigned to various members of the Ebenezer Society.  Not knowing the bloody history of the cabin on the bluff above Cazenovia creek, some Ebenezer’s moved into the old cabin and came to live in Kau-qua-tau’s old cabin.  According to legend, it wasn’t long until they began to hear strange sounds and see visions and complain of sleeplessness.  In fact, anyone who tried to stay in the old cabin claimed to experience the same sensations.  Eventually the Ebenezer Society leader, Christian Metz, in attempt to dispel the claims, stayed overnight in Kau-qua-tau’s old cabin.  The legend says that the tormented spirit of Kau-qua-tau, bloody and bound in chains, appeared to Metz.  The next day the Kau-qua-tau’s old cabin was burned to the ground and the clearing where it stood was consecrated as a cemetery.  Tradition also has it that no one was ever buried on the site of the Kau-qua-tau’s burned cabin and grave!

The Lower Ebenezer Cemetery, West Street, in West Seneca, in 1956, from Images of America: West Seneca, by Jim Pace, page 111



The Lower Ebenezer Cemetery, West Main Street, in West Seneca, today, picture by the author




The Lower Ebenezer Cemetery, West Main Street, in West Seneca, today, picture by the author


And so, that is the end of our ghost story and a ghost story is all it would have been, except back in 1821 the American inhabitants of the village of Buffalo were shocked and horrified by the charges of witchcraft, sorcery and murder.  Forgetting that the Seneca were, to a certain extent at least, an independent community with their own laws, customs and jurisdictions, they arrested So-on-on-gise on a charge of murder for the killing of Kau-qua-tau!  And thus, begins a story of a murder trial, the ghost of which still haunts the halls of the Governor’s Mansion in Albany, New York, to this very day.



 
An excerpt from Niles' Weekly Register, from August 4, 1821, p. 358-359; discussing the first trial of So-on-on-gise

The arrest and trial of So-on-on-gise was big news in 1821, it had a celebrity murderer, allegations of witchcraft, evil sorcery and murder, and even a famous witness! 

So-on-on-gise was a celebrity and had led a troupe of Seneca performers to England from 1817 to early 1819, with Storrs and Company of Canandaigua, New York, where they had played in an Indian Show, with great success.  He was also a Seneca elder and chief and as late as 1835 was still a signatory on official letters to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs and President Andrew Jackson1, but that is getting ahead of our story. 

So-on-on-gise, or Tommy Jemmy as he was called by the newspaper reporters who covered the trial and who turned it into a sensation, was arrested and thrown into prison in the village of Buffalo, on Saturday, May 5th, 1821.  So-on-on-gise, during his first trial before a Circuit Court session held in Buffalo, which started in mid-July 1821; never denied killing Kau-qua-tau.  In fact, he plead not guilty because, “…the Seneca Indians were a sovereign and independent nation, exercising exclusive jurisdiction of all offences committed by any of its members within their own territory2.  Since both Kau-qua-tau and So-on-on-gise were Seneca and both the judicial execution and the alleged witchcraft had occurred on Seneca territory, according to So-on-on-gise, his legal counsel and the Seneca Nation, this was not a matter for the courts of New York State.  The Senecas felt that the entire issue was about their sovereignty and independence, which was guaranteed by treaties with the Federal Government of the United States and the U.S. Constitution; and that even though their territory was completely surrounded by New York State, they were independent from the State of New York.



Picture by the author
An excerpt from William Leete Stones, The Life and Times of Red-Jacket, page 320-321, reporting some of Red Jacket’s testimony at the trial
 
So-on-on-gise’s first trial started in mid-July 1821, and featured testimony from the famous orator, and Native American spokesman, Red Jacket, or as he was known to the Senecas, Sa-go-ye-wat-ha.  Red jacket was put on the stand as a witness for So-on-on-gise and his plea of not guilty.  The trial ended later that same month, with the jury quickly determining that, all “…the allegations contained in the prisoner’s plea were true3.  Tommy Jemmy, or So-on-on-gise as he was known to the Senecas, was found not guilty!




An excerpt from Niles' Weekly Register, from August 25, 1821, p. 411-412; discussing the second trial of So-on-on-gise


Not to be undone, the prosecution quickly referred the case to the New York Supreme Court, and so started the second trial of So-on-on-gise.  However, the New York Supreme Court, which started proceedings in August 1821, was unable to deny the Seneca’s claims to a “qualified sovereignty4 and another New York State court allowed So-on-on-gise to go free!

But New York State, which is never willing to admit that it was wrong, passed a bill in the New York Assembly, on April 8, 1822, which unconstitutionally declared the supremacy of the jurisdiction of New York State courts over a “a sovereign and independent nation” and at the same time pardoned So-on-on-gise, who had not been convicted of a crime by two different New York State courts.  This strange bill was quickly ratified by Governor De Witt Clinton and the Council of Revisions on April 12, 1822 and it gave life to the ghost of the trial of So-on-on-gise.  The ghost of So-on-on-gise’s trial and the question of Seneca sovereignty still haunt the New York State Governor’s Mansion to this very day, with legal issues being tried or arbitrated from time to time.

Ooohh…spooky!  Have a fun and safe Halloween!

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Notes

1 Dennis, Matthews; “Murder! Or the Remarkable Trial of Tommy Jemmy, 19th-Century Seneca Witch-Hunter and Defender of Indian Sovereignty”

2 Stone, William Leete; The Life and Times of Red-Jacket, page 319

3 Stone, William Leete; The Life and Times of Red-Jacket, on page 321

4 Stone, William Leete; The Life and Times of Red-Jacket, on page 322


Sources

Dennis, Matthews; “Murder! Or the Remarkable Trial of Tommy Jemmy, 19th-Century Seneca Witch-Hunter and Defender of Indian Sovereignty”, Readex Report, Vol. 7, Issue 2, [Readex. 2019]

Niles' Weekly Register, Volume 20, No. 23, August 4, 1821 [Baltimore, MD,], p. 358-359,

Niles' Weekly Register, Volume 20, No. 26, August 25, 1821 [Baltimore, MD,], p. 411-412

Pace, James; Images of America: West Seneca, [Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2011], p. 111

Severance, Frank H.; Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, Vol. XXIV, [Buffalo Historical Society, Buffalo, NY, 1920], p. 110,

Stone, William Leete; The Life and Times of Red-Jacket, Or Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha, [Wiley and Putnam, New York, NY, 1841], p. 317-321,

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