Chautauqua or "the Place of Easy Death"

While doing research for the Bicentennial Biographies project,  I was reading Andrew Young's "History of Chautauqua County, New York" (1875). The opening chapter, which was written by historian Obed Edison, tells of Chautauqua County's history prior to settlement by the white man. The entire section is fascinating, but I was especially intrigued by telling of the origin of "Chautauqua" - so intrigued that I figured I'd share it on my blog. Enjoy.

Vintage Map of "Chautauque" County

The name Ohio, or La Belle Riviere, was applied by the French to that portion of the Allegany, extending up from Pittsburgh as far, at least, as Franklin, as well as to the Ohio proper. It is probable that the Connewango, Chautauqua lake and outlet, and perhaps that part of the Allegany below the mouth of the Connewango to Franklin, were called by the French the Tchadakoin, as inscribed upon this leaden plate [see 'Lead Plate Expedition' in this link], and that, in process of time, this appellation was retained only by the lake. The word underwent various changes in its orthography also, until it came to be spelled "Chautauqua."



 Evolution of "Chautauqua"

• On a manuscript map of 1749, made by a Jesuit in the Department de La Marine in Paris, it is spelled "Tjadakoin," and the Chautauqua creek that empties into Lake Erie in the town of Westfield, is called the Riviere Aux Pomes, or "Apple river." 
• In the translations of the letters of Du Quesne, [pronounced Du Kane], governor-general of Canada, to the French government in 1753, found in vol. 10 of Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, it is spelled "Chataconit."
• In Stephen Coffin’s affidavit, sworn to before Sir William Johnson in 1754, "Ghadakoin." 
• In the French of Capt. Pouchot, in his history of the French and English war in North America, written before the American Revolution, and in the map accompanying it, the name of the lake is spelled "Shatacoin." 
• On Powell’s map of 1775, and Lewis Evans’ of 1755, it is written "Jadaxque." 
• Gen. Wm. Irvine, who visited Chautauqua prior to 1788, writes it "Jadaqua." 
• On the map made by the Holland Land Company in 1804, it is "Chataughque." 
• After the settlement of the county, until the year 1859, it was spelled "Chautauque," when, by a resolution of the Board of Supervisors, passed October 11th of that year, at the suggestion of Hon. E. T. Foote, it was changed to "Chautauqua," that its pronunciation might conform to the pronunciation of the word by the Indians, at the time of the first settlement of the county.

Seneca Chief Cornplanter

Various significations have been attributed to the word Chautauqua. Among others, it is said to mean, "the place where one was lost," or the "place of easy death," in allusion to a tradition of the Senecas. Cornplanter, in his celebrated speech against the title of the Phelps and Gorham tract, alluding to this tradition, says: "In this case one chief has said he would ask you to put him out of pain: another who will not think of dying by the hand of his father or his brother, has said he will retire to ‘Chauddauk-wa,’ eat of the fatal root, and sleep with his fathers in peace."

Dr. Peter Wilson, an educated Cayuga chief, communicated to O. H. Marshall, Esq., the following Seneca tradition:
"A party of Senecas returning from the Ohio in the spring of the year, ascended the outlet of Chautauqua lake, passed into the lake, and while paddling through it, caught a fish of a kind with which they were not familiar, and they threw it into the bottom of their canoe. Reaching the head of the lake, they made a portage across to the Chautauqua creek, then swollen with the spring freshets. Descending the creek into Lake Erie, they found, to their astonishment, the fish still alive. They threw it into the lake, and it disappeared. In process of time the same fish appeared abundantly in the lake, having never been caught in it before. They concluded they all sprang from the Chautauqua lake progenitor, and hence they named that Lake, "Ga-ja-dah’-gwah, compounded of two Seneca words Ga-jah, 'fish,' and Ga-dah’-gwah 'taken out.' In process of time the word became contracted into Jah-dah-gwah; the prefix Ga being dropped, as is often the case."~

Other meanings have been assigned to the word. Chautauqua has been said to signify "foggy place," in allusion to the mist arising from the lake; also to mean "high up," referring to the elevated situation of the lake; while it is said that Horatio Jones and Jasper Parrish, early Indian interpreters, well versed in the Seneca tongue, gave its meaning to be "a pack tied in the middle" or "two moccasins fastened together," from the resemblance of the lake to those objects.

The following lines and note are from the pen of Col. Wm. H. C. Hosmer, of Avon:
"Famous in the days of yore,
Bright Ja-da-qua was thy shore,
And the stranger treasures yet
Pebbles that thy waves have wet;
For they catch an added glow
From a tale of long ago.
Ere the settler’s flashing steel
Rang the greenwood’s funeral peal,
Or the plow-share in the vale
Blotted out the red man’s trail.
 "Deadly was the plant that grewNear thy sheet of glimmering blue,
But the mystic leaves were known
To our wandering tribe alone.
Sweeter far than honeyed fruit
Of the wild plum was its root;
But the smallest morsel cursed
Those who tasted, with a thirst
That impelled them to leap down
In thy cooling depth, and drown.
 "On thy banks, in other hours,Sat O-wA.NA wreathing flowers,
And, with whortleberries sweet,
Filled were baskets at her feet.
Nature to a form of grace
I-lad allied a faultless face;
But the music of her tread
Made the prophet shake his head,
For the mark of early doom
He had seen through beauty bloom.
 "When a fragrant wreath was made,Round her brow she clasped the braid;
When her roving eye, alas
Flowering in the summer grass,
Did the fatal plant behold,
And she plucked it from the mould;
Of the honeyed root she ate,
And her peril learned too late,
Flying fast her thirst to slake
From thy wave, enchanting lake.
 "Then was gained the treacherous brink,Stooped O-WA-NA down to drink;
Then the waters, calm before,
Waking, burst upon the shore;
And the maid was seen no more.
Azure glass in emeralds framed,
Since that hour Ja-da-qua named,
Or ‘the place of easy death,’
When I pant with failing breath,
I will eat the root that grows
On thy banks, and find repose
With the loveliest of our daughters
In thy blue engulfing waters."

 "These lines allude to a beautiful Seneca tradition that lends an added charm to Chautauqua lake, in the state of New York. A young squaw is said to have eaten of a root growing on its banks, which created tormenting thirst. To slake it she stooped down to drink of its clear waters, and disappeared for ever. Hence the name of the lake JA-DAQUA, or the place of easy death, where one disappears and is seen no more."