Johannes Gerlach

Dutch

"Many Oneidas as well as Tuscaroras lived at Canaseraga, and as it was on the Oneida Reservation travelers called this also "Oneida Village." When the first white settlers came to Sullivan, there were many Indian houses here, and ten or more on the hill west of the creek, where Hiram Brown now lives —Lot No. 2. There is something, even to this day, about the hills in this vicinity which looks particularly romantic; as if the spirit of untamed nature still revelled in her own —especially when autumnal dyes have flung their tints over tree, bush and fern, does it remind one that it was once a favorite abiding place of the Indian. All around the village were their cultivated patches of ground of two or three acres each, fenced and unfenced; their cattle roamed at will through the forest, and kindly enough, on his advent among them, did they grant the white man's herds the same privilege.

The most prominent Indian families at this point, at the time of its settlement, were the Dennies and Doxtators, who owned vast tracts of land in various sections. Lewis Dennie, (or Denny, also elsewhere mentioned) the head man, a patriarch among them, was of French parentage, born upon the Illinois about 1740, and when eighteen years old came up in the French war with a French officer to fight the Five Nations, and was taken prisoner by the; Mohawks, among whom he married. He adopted the Indian customs and became a power among them. By those who remember him, Dennie is said to have been a small man, not over 5 feet 8 inches in hight, with very light blue eyes, but with a voice of great depth and power.

The Dennys of St. Louis, Mo., are the same family to which Lewis Dennie belonged. The manner in which the name is spelled has become changed by one family or the other. Lewis Dennie had four sons and one daughter, John, Jonathan, Martinus, Lewis and Polly. John Dennie kept the first tavern of Canaseraga, and built the first frame house there in 1800. His daughter Sally became the wife of a very fair and handsome Dutchman, by the name of John Garlock; she was a good woman and very wealthy in her own right. One of John Dennie's sons was sent to New Hartford to School, but it is said there was too much native in him to confine his mind to books. John Dennie lost his life in 1807 or '08 by wrestling with a Dutchman named Hartman Picard; it took place at Canaseraga during "general training," an occasion in that day, when wrestlers congregated to try their strength, and both these men were famous for their prowess in that direction. Lewis Dennie's sons were large, finely built, good looking men, inheriting a good degree of the physical make-up of their mother, who was a large, noble looking woman. She was esteemed a very good woman by her white neighbors. Martinus Dennie is well remembered for his jest upon his race; —" Me no Indian, only French and squaw!"—which he used to repeat frequently. Polly Dennie, the only daughter of Lewis, was a fine looking girl, quite fair, possessing amiable qualities of disposition. She married Angel DeFerriere, a Frenchman, who came to this country during the French Revolution, and went first to Cazenovia with Mr. Lincklaen. He was very wealthy, and Mr. Dennie was very proud of him, it was said, as a son-in-law."
SOURCE: "History of Madison county, state of New York", Mrs. Whitney Luna M. Hammond, Syracuse, Truair, Smith & Co., 1872, pp. 661-663.