Historical Wyoming County September 1949 - Old Fulton History

September I9I4.9 Paf e 1?
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TRAILS ~
(Archives of Attica Historical Society)
There -were two main Indian
trails crossing Attica and probably
others. James Tolles mentions
one which crossed the northern
part of Bennington and pursued a
serpentine course over the 7 ilkie
and Doty farms to Attica, following
the tannery brook near the
cider mill on Market Street Road.
It passed near a spring called
Red Jacket Spring," and thence
crossed the Tonawanda to the
Indian Village located on the
flats north of the Gatgen home on
Prospect Street. A decade ago a
stretch of this old route, some
30-l|.0 feet in length, could be
seen.
William Schroeder,Attica, in
a communication to the Historical
Society in 1938* commenting on
this old trail,retold two stories
which had come down from Mr.
Ear11, who settled by this Indian
highway about l3l0. The incidents
occurred on the hillside but a
few hundred feet back of the
cider mill site. "A few years
after Mr. Earll built a log cabin
there," he wrote, "a settler out
of Bennington came along the trail
and met a bear. In the tussle
between the two the settler was
killed ard his body rolled down
the hill and lodged against a
small wild cherry tree. This
tree, when it was oointed out to
me by the late John V. Willians,
many years ago, was quite a landmark,
towering far above all the
other trees. Today, only a stump
is left."
"One day Red Jacket and several
young Indians came along the
trail and stooped at the Earll
jlace. whether the Chief had imbibed
too much"fire wr.ter" before
he arrived there, or whether Mr.
Earll gave him some, the storytellers
did not say. The Indians
were in a hurry to be on their
way to Buffalo and were in a
quandry what to:do with the.Chief
who was too intoxicated to walk.
Mr.Ear11 then suggested they roll
him down the steeo hill several
times and maybe that would sober
him ur>. The Indians immediately
took his advice, with t^e result
they were able to contiue their
journey In a very short time. "
Thus, If the legend be true, t-e
•oroud and haughty warrior chieftain.,
renowned for his silvertongue
in the Iroquois T ation,had
good reason :to remember the valley
of the Tonawanda at Attica.
The second leading Red Man's
trail was one which came from the
south, following in general the
Exchange Street Road, crossing
Main Street where the Methodist
Church now stands and continuing
northward across the Loomis ->roerty
down the hill. This intersected
the first trail near
Monterey(north of Attica,Alexander
Townshi^), turned eastward near
the "Dry Bridge" and continued
toward Warsaw. Another trail
branched off from Exchange Street
Road,which led -oast the reservoir
to Hall's Corners.