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Christian Roots Nurtured At Indian Hill CO cn By William J Oley Pompey Town Historian The town of Pompey has the great honor of being the place where the first Mass in New York State was celebrated, and the place in Central New York where the first Christian ser mon was heard and where the first Christian chapel was erected It is here also that the Mission of St. John the Baptist was established in 1655 and continued nearly 60 years This is so evident in the famous \Jesuit Relations\ that I need only point out the precise spot and the attendant events. It was long thought there had been a much earlier visit of devout men to this town, wanderers in the wilderness, a belief based on the \Pompey Stone\ In 1894 Dr W.M Beauchamp critically ex amined this, pointing out its modern character and the several tools used in inscribing it This was at once confirmed by a published statement, based on actual knowledge by John E Sweet, a prominent citizen of Syracuse, that his uncle and another mis c hievous Pompey boy carved and planted the stone and en joved the joke The first certain and historic visit of a white man here was that of Samuel de Champlain in 1H1 S He had been to the Huron country where Father I A' Caron. a Recollect mis sionarv had just established himself He remained at his post while Champlain and the adventurous Frenchmen gathered there, accompanied the Huron war partv against the Iroquois From the cir i umstances and Champlain s own journal, it is certain no priest wan in the party Cham plain was devout and would not have omitted so important a fact. In this early march the great Frenchman merely passed and repassed through the northeast part of Onon daga County No religious act is mentioned The brief visit of Jean Esprit Radisson, probably in 1652. was that of an adopted captive in a Mohawk war party and needs no farther attention The coming of Father Simon LeMoyne was wholly different. He came on the business of the Church, con soling captives, healing the sick, hearing confessions, pronouncing absolution, proclaiming peace and good will and baptizing those of every age. Every act is plainly before us, each one fully recorded. First of all. to what place did he and his immediate succes sors come 9 All antiquarians agree that it was Indian Hill, the site of a large and recent town, two and one-half miles south of Manlius village and on Military Lot Nine of the Town of Pompey. Father LeMoyne arrived at the site of Brewerton August 3, 1654 and spent the night a league farther south. Next day he traveled leisurely and at night was four leagues from Onondaga. The next year Chaumonot was more precise. November 4, 1655, after leav ing the river he said, \We made about six leagues — We passed the night in a field at four leagues from Onontague'.\ That is it was 10 leagues by estimate from Oneida River to the Onondaga town, and first distances always seem long. In. this case Gen. I.S. Clark, an eminent authority, mad« the 10 leagues equal 25 miles. In March of 1656 Father Dablon left Onondaga and went 11 leagues to Oneida Lake, if we add two distances. Gen. Clark, however, thought the six small leagues of the second day in eluded the first, and this seems correct The town evidently was south of that lake, which was crossed on the ice It was also many miles from Onon daga Lake Father LeMoyne left Onon daga August 15, camped on the way, and reached the salt springs and Onondaga Lake August 16 He did not mention the dis tance to the springs, but the next year Father Dablon called it four leagues The \Relations\ of 1657 said that from the fort on the lake the Father Superior went \to the Town of Onontaghe', a dis tance of five small leagues from our dwelling.\ That is, Onondaga was about 1.3 miles from the mission site of Ste Mane of Gannentaa Greenhalgh, in describing the Onondaga town in 1677 \situate on a hill that is very large,\ made it 15 miles from Oneida I^ake and 36 from the Oneida town farm up Oneida Creek These distances center .it Indian Hill Another evidence is that of reins on this location At the next earlier site, a few miles south. European relics abound, hut none are of religious character On Indian Hill crosses and crucifixes medals and rings bearing sacred emblems have been abundant and are yet found The most remarkable thing however, was the recovery of fragments of a large bell, sup posed to have been brought from the mission at the lake and often rung by the great Garakontie' to call the Fren< h captives,theChristian Hurons and others to worship The coming of Father LeMoyne to the Town ol Pompey was thus an occasion of great religious and historic interest, the 250th anniversary of which was celebrated at Pompey Hill August 15, 1904 August 6 he gave medicine to sick children, some of whom he baptized, and also confessed some of the old Huron Chns tians The next day he bap tized a captive girl of the Neut ral nation at the request of a Huron woman, who gave her the name of Therese. \This was the first baptism of adults at Onontague', for which we are indebted to the piety of a Huron \ August 3 he baptized three sick children and confessed several persons August 10, the Father said at the council, \I opened the proceedings by a public prayer, which I made on my knees, and in a loud voice, all in the Huron tongue This greatly impressed the assem bled chiefs \The 16th We arrive at the entrance of a small lake, in a great basin half dried We taste the water of a spring which they dare not drink, saying that there is a demon within it which renders it fetid, having tasted it, I found that it was a fountain of salt water, and, in fact, we made salt from it as natural as that from the sea This great discovery, prac tically the foundation of a great city, is now commemorated in Syracuse bv the Kirkpatrick fountain and its fine historic group which Father I>eMoyne is the central figure Fathers Chaumonot and Dablon arrived at Onondaga November 5, 1655 Sunday November 14, they said, thev \could not commence better than by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which we celebrated on a little altar in an orator\ used in the cabin of Teotonharason,\ a woman of high standing This is the onl\ account of the first Mass celeb rated in the State of New York of which I can find an\ authen tic record November 11 Father Dablon visited \the salt foun tain which is onlv four leagues from here near the Like called Gannentaa. the place chosen for the French settlement The 17th, after we had celebrated Holv Mass, thev brought us to take the measures of a chapel It was built the next dav and as a good omen it was the dav of the dedication of the church of St Peter and St Paul It is true that in place of marble and all precious metals we used onlv bark So soon as it was constructed it was sanctified by the baptism of three children \ Thus, on Indian Hill was erected the first c hapel amcinK the Iroquois July 1 1. Ib5b. the French colony entered Onondaga I^ake. settling on lot 10b Sahna. near the railroad bridge Father Chaumonot had remained at Onondaga, and with the colonists were Fathers Francis le Mercier. Rene' Menard. Jacques Framin, Claude Dablon and Brothers Ambrose Broat and Joseph Boursier The next Sunday, July 16. they all ac complished a vow made that all would commune together if they arrived safely Visits were made to Onon daga, five short leagues away, and then they returned to the lake where the \French were working to prepare us a house that we shall call Sainte Mane of Gannentaa \ This was the seat of the colony, but not stric- tlv the field of direct mission work The chapel there was for the French rather than the In dians. though the latter came there for instruction, relief out uf i uriosity. sometimes cam ping for weeks outside the fort. About a hundred men were thus t abined w hen the fort was • •v ac uated The mission work proper was clone elsewhere 'We had built a c hapel at Onontaghe, a part of our Fathers having remained there, the others went through the cabins, preaching, teaching and bap tizing The colonists were differently occupied The Krenc h who are at Ste Marie of the L^ake of Gannentaa, per formed all the trades of a town to lodge us all, t o preserve us in the midst of these barbarous nations \ Their industry there gave strength to the real mis sionary work elsewhere. After the retreat of 1658, H ather I >»Moyne visited Onon daga in 1661, and did not date his letter from Ste. Marie of Gannentaa, but \From the chapel of Onnontaghe', which was still used by French and Huron captives Gearakentie', the Father of the French,\ took care that worship should be maintained on Indian Hill Father Julien Gamier resumed the work at Onon daga in 1668. and at once had a new chapel built. He was quic kly followed by Father Pierre Milet, the mission being thenceforth known as St. John WW\ v < •:' • * c 3 a CO >J CO m 09 ? CO 5\ 5' • CD 5' z CD t at 3 Baptist As such it continued at I ndian Hill and a little south of Jamesville until 1687, sur viving the general withdrawal of the Jesuits in 1684 Father Milet left the mission in 1672. and was succeeded bv Father Jean de l«amberville In 1679 he was replaced bv Father Bruyas, but returned in 1681, and described the removal of the town to Butter nut Creek, where it was burned in 1696 This site is on lot three, old town of Pompey. and had yielded many religious em blems Father Jacques de I^amberville joined his brother there, and they remained until 1687 In 1702 Father de Lamber ville again had a house and chapel at the new village on Butternut Creek, and Father d'Heu wrote from there May 24. 1708 The next year Ab raham Schuyler induced Father de Lamberville to go to Montreal to report, and then persuaded Father de Mareuil to seek refuge in Albany. The Onondagas then burned the house and chapel There was another attempt to build a chapel there in I7l l , but Col Schuvler interfered. A few years later the Onondagas removed to Onondaga Valley, and no more missions were undertaken All the Indian chapels proper had been in the old town of Pompey Those known to have officiated there were Fathers LeMoyne, Chaumonot, Dablon. LeMer- cier, Gearnier, Milet, Bruyas, the two Lamberfilles, Del'Heu and DeMareuil. Two hundred seventy years have passed since the noble sons of Loyola were forced to leave their \children of the forest\ a prey t o the merciless advance of the \pale face.\ That which the \medicine man\ could not effect has been successfully accomplished by our \methods of modern civilizations,\ and the rem nants of the once proud Iro quois are, as I am penning these lines, sacrificing the \White Dog\ and enjoying the pagan ceremonies.
