THE CATALAN MIGRATION TO NEW YORK A view from La Llumanera de Nova York (1874-1881)

by Dr. Lluís Costa
Professor Titular. Comunicació Audiovisual i Publicitat
Departament de Filologia i Comunicació
Universitat de Girona

The first issue of La Llumanera de Nova York came out in November 1874 and was not published until 1881. The challenge was certainly complicated: editing a newspaper in Catalan in New York, with the aim of influencing a group of potential readers who were distributed in the United States and, at the same time, become a medium that would bring the ideas of a new era, both from a political and cultural point of view. The life of the newspaper coincided with a time of renewal of the newspapers in the western world and, also, in Catalonia. The emerging mass press of this year put the new technologies to test; that allowed the increasing of the production, just as alphabetization, and urbanization demanded for more information. The railway enabled a more extensive and effective distribution. The modernization of the printing improved the quality and efficiency of the issues. And the telegraph, and later the telephone, would help to speed the transition and acquisition of information and news, the raw material of newspapers and magazines.

Having analysed the situation of Catalonia in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it could be said that La Llumanera de Nova York represents the first solid journalistic experience of interconnection between Catalonia and America. This statement, expressed as a hypothesis, is based on a rather indisputable reality: in the eighties the people who emigrated from Catalonia to America were established, the technological advances applied to the press were very important: the modernization of the printing press, the introduction of the telephone and the telegraph – which was essential in the process of issuing news–, the photography –which was also essential in a medium that prioritised illustration on lithographic stone– and improvements in the shipping of the hand of the steam engine and in the land transportation, where the rail network went, in Europe, from 143.039 to 191.596 kilometres and, in the United States, from 119.352 to 206.607 kilometres, the exorbitant rates of illiteracy that still prevailed in the second half of the nineteenth century began to experience clear signs of change, which favoured a potential increase of the population who were able to read[i] and, finally, Catalonia seemed to be ready to build its own discourse based in cultural roots but in a political key.

A detailed analysis of the contents of La Llumanera de Nova York provides enough elements to understand the relationship between the Catalans established in Cuba, the United States and Spain. The political speech is not only cultural, nor politic.

Beyond these aspects, the Catalan newspaper took a leading role as a defender of the Catalan economy and set as one of its objectives the stimulation of the trading and exchange of Catalan products. The Universal Exhibition of Philadelphia in 1876 was an excellent opportunity to show the world the prosperity and dynamic of Catalonia in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. La Llumanera was highly involved with the exhibition, as it understood that it was a very appropriate framework for establishing business and knowledge relationships.

First issue of La Llumanera
de Nova York, November, 1877

Heading of the newspaper.

Views of New York published in 
La Llumanera, January, 1875

The working hypothesis considered in the beginning of the research was to consider La Llumanera de Nova York as a modern and contemporary newspaper in the time when it was published; a newspaper advanced in technical aspects that had to make real efforts to be able to distribute and reach markets geographically dispersed that it wanted to cover. The fact of being edited in a city that could be considered as the capital of the journalistic world, New York, favoured it. The newspaper had a significant public projection thanks to the extensive network of agents and, later, sales points distributed around the world. La Llumanera created a structure consisting of commercial agents distributed in New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Mobile (Alabama), Havana, Matanzas, London and Barcelona. After four months of being founded, it extended its network of commercial agents in Cuba in the towns of Matanzas, Cárdenas, Cienfuegos, Sagua, Colón, Guanaja y and Jovellanos (in the province of Matanzas). It is obvious that the island of Cuba was the most important market of potential readers. Although in the United States, apart from the cities mentioned, other cities were added: Baltimore, Charleston, Pensacola, Ilion, Pascagoula, Washington and San Francisco. Sometime later, there were other commercial agents in other countries of the American continent: Puerto Rico (Mayáguez), Mexico (City of Mexico), Venezuela (Puerto Cabello), Colombia, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Guatemala and Peru (Lima). In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, having such a broad panel of agents that sought the diffusion of the newspaper –and in a lot of cases the existence of writers-commercials– offered a patina of modernity to the project. Even the newspaper considered the possibility that other potential agents postulated to cover more geographic locations.

Note that the delegations of La Llumanera were distributed across the American continent, although there were significant absences in Argentina and Chile (Map No. 1), while in the United States there was a clear concentration of offices in the east coast, especially around New York and New Orleans, with the significant representation in the west coast in San Francisco (Map no. 2).

The printing was done, throughout its existence, in various places in New York: “Imprenta de El Cronista, 64 y 66.Broadway” (no. one to thirteen); “Imprenta Las novedades, 69, 71 y 73. Broadway (No. fourteen to twenty-eight); “Sears & Cole, 51. Maiden Lane.New York” (No. twenty-nine to fourty-nine); “Thompson & Moreau, 51 y 53.New York” (No. fifty to seventy-three). In New York it could be bought in the editorial, at Emili Puig’s home, although it also had selling points in the bookshop Brentano, in the Union square, and in a kiosk at the corner of the Sixth Avenue, near the Hotel Español (“Spanish Hotel”).

The reader of the newspaper – the receptor – was composed, mainly, by the bourgeoisie, which represented an important segment of the Catalan population living in New York or Cuba, and to a lesser extent in other American countries. Their profile was of a new rich thanks to the trading, the agriculture or the slave trade. However, it is very inconvenient to generalise, given that not everyone had a high position in society, and it must be interpreted that some readers were part of the lowest social classes, who also read La Llumanera, although they were not probably subscribers, but they read it in the societies and centres where the newspaper arrived. A hypothetical reader of the newspaper was also the upper class Cuban, especially with peninsular origin – the creole – that found the expression of new styles and ways of living in the newspaper of New York: “whose upper layers are eager to Europeanisation and cosmopolitanism, devour foreign publications, imitating the lifestyles and tastes that they present”.[ii]

Modernity was reflected, also, in advertising, which became, at that time, the main source of income –even more than the subscription and the sale – of a press that was increasingly conceived in an entrepreneurial way. The observation of the advertising in La Llumanera helps to interpret the implications of the New-Yorker environment in the newspaper and allows to see the commercial strategy of the American businessman, much more advanced than the strategies of the Catalan businessman.

Thus, La Llumanera was published in a time of change, when there were new ways of understanding life and new customs emerged on the scene, when leisure and entertainment took centre stage and when culture was more democratic and accessible to the middle-class. The contents of the newspaper adapted to the new conception of life and evolved. The news about shows and performances took on great importance in the press of the eighties, as they offered a response to a social demand, not only linked to the culture, but also to the urban social amusement.

Throughout the nineteenth century the journalistic progression in the United States was very spectacular. When the first issue of La Llumanera de Nova York was out, in 1874, 8,082 newspapers were already published. There were newspapers on every topic and in every language. Out of the 551 that were published in New York, forty-nine were written in German, eight in Spanish, seven in French, one in Swedish, one in Italian, one in Portuguese and one in Catalan. The rest, obviously, were written in English.

The innovation and the progress of journalism were born in the United States. There were close relationships between advertisers, periodicals and readers that would produce a pattern of operation, financing and production of content, which later would be used in other forms of mass communication. New York was the door of the United States where thousands of Europeans immigrants entered, and where worked some of the most significant publishers in the history of communication, such as Hearst and Pulitzer, creators of the yellow journalism, willing to do anything to spread news, even inventing.


New York, the modern city

New York, the city that hosted, in the beginning of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, many Catalans and a publication in this language had, according to the census of 1875, 1,046,037 inhabitants, which added to its surroundings, the conurbation exceeded the two million inhabitants (Brooklyn, 484,616, Philadelphia, 674,022). The other major American cities were Boston (341,919 inhabitants), St. Louis (310,864), Chicago (298,977), Cincinnati (216,354) and New Orleans (203,439).

The urban population in the United States was way higher than in Catalonia, where its great capital city, Barcelona, had, according to the census of 1877, 243,385 inhabitants, while the other major cities were Madrid (399,523 inhabitants), Valencia (142,057), Seville (132,789) and Malaga (116,143). Barcelona could be considered, from an economic progress point of view, as one of the big exceptions in the context of the Spanish State, where the economic structure was still dominated by the mode of the agricultural production, with rural communities poorly developed, also from a demographic and customs point of view. In New York, like La Llumanera said, there were “many cars driven by girls, alone or accompanied”. The contrast with the Spanish State was brutal; its mobile park was very discreet and it would take a long time before the inclusion of women in society. The powerful theatrical activity of the American city was also reflected on the pages of the Catalan newspaper which often inserted detailed chronicles of artistic programming.[iii]

The description made by La Llumanera of the city of New York – the third city of the world – was of admiration and surprise: The long streets are also the widest and they are called Avenues, except for the one right in the middle which is called Broadway (…) Buses, cars, trucks of all sizes depending on their business(…) Almost all of them have (at their homes) flagpoles. Do you know why? Because the first thing that Yankees do in any celebration is to raise the flag. The impression perceived when the Catalan immigrant arrived in New York was of astonishment and bedazzlement of the immensity of the city. Doctor Joaquim Martí describes his feelings when he arrived in New York, and he publishes them in La Llumanera in July, 1879: The first thing that came to my mind while I saw all that immensity was: When will Barcelona be able to arouse admiration to the foreigners like New York has done it to me? When will we be lucky enough to be able to be practical and satisfy our material needs? (…) I have to say that what you see when you’ve just arrived already impresses, but it’s even more impressing once you’re inside the city. The streets are 20-25 metres wide. The sidewalks of both sides are 3 or 4 metres wide and they’re full of skylights that illuminate the basements of the houses; and everywhere you can see magnificent shops and private homes built with taste and after a rigorous study of the hygienic conditions. The streets are almost straight and extremely long; some of them are four miles long. For the comfort of the walkers there are dozens of trams, hundreds of buses and I don’t know how many companies of elevated railways.

In the section Llumenetas, the newspaper briefly described news about New York, sometimes in an ironical way with the aim to ridicule some customs of the American society. It sometimes also used to reflect dark and lamentable aspects of the modern city, like when, in November 1877, it explained that from 24 August to 14 October there were, in New York City, 36 attempts of suicide (some of them accomplished).

This feeling of admiration and contempt that the Catalan had towards the city can also be applied to the Cuban community. New York received, throughout the nineteenth century, many prominent Cuban writers who found a refuge in the big city for their exile. Many of them wrote memorable reviews of the city that had become their home. The great poet Jose Maria Heredia arrived in New York in 1823 and described it as “precious New York”, “city of the seas”, “grand spectacle”, but some months later his opinion changed: “I assure you that it oppresses my soul and I would want to die when I think that my hope is to live until I die amongst these people, hearing their horrible language. Can you believe that in seven months of continuous study I’ve barely learnt to speak it a little, incorrectly, and I almost remain in a fasted state when they speak?”[iv] Much time later, in the last year of La Llumanera, in January 1880, the most prominent figure of the Cuban history arrived in New York: José Martí, a journalist that remained in the American city until shortly before he died on a Cuban battlefield in 1895, and he did not quite adapt to the New York way of life: “But do not lie to ourselves: Martí admired this city but he did not love it. If he lived in it for fifteen years was because he was forced by the circumstances, because New York was the alternative centre of the Cuban politics and only from there could he influence the destiny of the Island”.[v] In some of his chronicles Jose Martí also talks about the darkest and ugliest parts of New York: “Oh! There in the city with dirty neighbourhoods in which you can see, like tattered flags, gaunt grimy hands on the roofs; there, in the wet streets where men and women knead and stir, without air, without space, like clumsy and deformed worms beneath the ground that affect the vegetal life; there, in the tortuous and muddy buildings where homeless people live in cells, filled with still air; there, where poor children die throughout the summer”.[vi] It was the other face of the modern city, of the depressed neighbourhoods, full of people leading poor lives.

The modern New York, however, exported new customs around the world, although they arrived quite late in Spain, but La Llumanera anticipated and explained the new American lifestyles that caused bedazzlement to its readers in Catalonia. When many years still left for the transformations of the Catalan coastal villages in consequence of the massive tourism, when the Catalan coast was still virgin and wild, when the houses of the fishermen were the only architectural elements in the coast, in New York, the island of Coney Island, there was a beach for bathing since 1875: “three entrepreneur Yankees, who knew that they could take advantage of that place, built three magnificent hotels in that beach; but don’t you think that they were usual hotels . They were three enormous and luxurious buildings, with all the comforts you can imagine”.To arrive to the island, which was relatively close to New York, the hotel entrepreneurs also built a railway line. All this caused a great movement of bathers – some days there were 80,000 people –: “rich and poor, lords and workers, men, women and children find chill on the beach of Coney Island”. In the resort there were pavilions for freshwater baths, wardrobes for storing personal belongings. “Although the changing rooms were separated for both genders, men and women, they bathed and swam together in the sea, which is a really funny and instructive spectacle. The swim suits are so small that you can even study anatomy and in some cases osteology. As we can assume, beautiful girls like to walk in the beach with their swimsuits, and as they don’t make a big deal of it, men don’t cover their face (…) One of the rooms of the hotel that makes a good input is what’s called bar-room, which is a luxurious tavern where American drink soft drinks and other drinks without even sitting down”.[vii] In Catalonia and, naturally, in Spain, this kind of newspaper articles that described new realities aroused curiosity and enlivened, even more, the illusion for the new world. Two years later, the Diari Català of Barcelona described the emerging Catalan custom of practising the sea bathing in Barcelona.[viii]

New York was, from the Catalan point of view, an exemplary city, also from an economical point of view, well organized and that had clear objectives. There is a very interesting article of La Llumanera, written in a very modern journalistic way, a dialogue between brown sugar and tobacco. The analytical description of the processes of productions of both elements exhibits a very favourable interpretation of the American economy as opposed to the Cuban and Spanish:

- And what do you think of this country? What is your opinion about the United States?

- It’s a great country. They are very good at business.

- More than Cuba?

- Stupid! Much more!

- In Cuba they are very good!

- Get out! In Cuba they can’t see anything but themselves. They only do cheap things. But business, trading that requires prevision, great diplomacy, financial skills that are favourable to the interests of the country which ties or unties them to other nations, and that are builtafter thestudy, observation, calculation and analyse of the financial, agricultural, trading and industrial state of the different countries whom it has relationships: that still hasn’t been done in the island of Cuba, nor in Spain.

- Do you think?

- See what happens with us. They let us get out of the island; you like a leaf and me like red sugar, to be elaborated in the United States. If the people of Cuba understood their interests, if they had prevision, they wouldn’t have allowed that a company that refined sugar was established in the United States.

- And how could they avoid it?

- Very easily. Firstly, establishing a lot of refineries in the island, and then with a strong right to export the sugar. If the United States saw that the red sugar in Cuba costs them the same as the refined, they wouldn’t be so stupid to import the red and then have to refine it; they would, instead, import the refined, which would mean that all the benefits of this industry would stay in the island.

Since September 1878, a section called Cartas sobre la classe trevalladora en los Estados Unidos (“Letters about the working class in the United States”). The look of this social group is the new discourse favourable to the social and economic organization of the United States, which is presented like a host land for the immigrants, whom are offered lands and job opportunities: People from all the countries, English, German, French, Swedish, Russian, Italian, Turkish and even Chinese and Japanese migrate to the United States. All of them, except rare exceptions, come fleeing from poverty or despotism and come to establish in this country to work in the shadows of the liberal institutions of the Republic. Each of them brings a spark of civilisation (…) The nation is benefited of this mix of practical knowledge, and in it, almost as much as in the protectionist system adopted by the American government, due to the great development.

The fact that La Llumanera was first published was noticed in New York. The knowledge of Catalonia in the American city was almost non-existent or very superficial. One of the most prestigious newspapers of New York, the Evening Post, owned and directed by the poet William Cullen Bryant –who knew the Spanish and Catalan literature very well– wrote an article in his newspaper in which he demonstrated his knowledge about the Catalan reality: “In New York most of the languages of the civilized world are spoken. Apart from the most widespread, there are other minority languages, like the Gaelic and the Irish, and we have to add the language spoken in the Principality of Catalonia, in Spain. We have, before us, a newspaper published here with this dialect, called La Llumanera de Nova York, which reached its twelfth issue. It isn’t very difficult to understand for those who understand the main languages of southern Europe, although occasionally the reader might have to stop when reading a strange word, of which is not possible to find etymology. Perhaps there are few people in this country who know the extension where the Catalan language is spoken. The people who live in the southern Departments of France still speak this language that was before called llenguad’oc, and can understand people when they cross the frontier and arrive in the northern-east Spain. In the city of Barcelona, Catalan is spoken in homes, and Barcelona is the only place of Spain where the trading and growing of the city reminds some ports of America. The spirit of commercial business that distinguishes its inhabitants has made that some of them establish shops in New York, and this newspaper is published because the Catalans can read news of their homeland, in their “beloved language”, like they call it. The newspaper that we have before us is illustrated with engravings, but what’s most curious are the verses that it has, written by Catalan poets who live in New York, who still sing in what was the language of ancient troubadours. The Catalan language has dictionaries and grammars, and one of the articles of the newspaper proposes the creation of an Academy of Catalan Language “in order to preserve the purity and virility of the language”, and to look at spelling, so we deduce that it’s still not well determined”.

Nearly four years later, The Daily Graphic showed its knowledge about Catalonia and some north-American sectors that could perfectly differentiate Catalonia from Spain: A curious fact in the matter of journalism is the publication in this city of a newspaper, La Llumanera, written in the dialect of Catalonia. It’s an illustrated magazine that has reached its third year of publication. It is very singular that a newspaper of these conditions can find support to pay its owners, especially considering that the amount of readers is reduced to a proportionally small number of sons of Spain. The Catalan language is very different from the Castilian, and similar to the Provencal, so not many people outside Catalonia understand Catalan. Like with the language, the Catalans are differentiated in many things from the rest of the nation. Even when Spain was invaded by Julius Caesar, the inhabitants of this province were the most difficult ones to beat. The energy and strength that they showed then is still within them, and they have more activity and industries than the rest of sons of Spain. Maybe it’s because of this than La Llumanera was born can be maintained.[ix]


The Catalans in New York

In the first decades of the nineteenth century a Catalan from the Barcelonan municipal of Arenys de Mar, Josep Xifré i Casas, would establish, being one of the pioneers, trading relations with New York. Xifré had migrated in the late eighteenth century to Cuba and in 1808 he managed to export raw leather, modernized the means of production and the machinery that came from England, and started frequent trading of that product and some others, like sugar and coffee, with the United States. He would also work with speculation and banking activities and in 1818 he would marry Judith Dowling, daughter of his agent in New York, city in which he would establish in 1823, and which would become a centre of the distribution to Europe. He had some significant buildings built, and associated with Peter Harmong for the banking businesses. Xifré came back to Barcelona with a real fortune and never went back in 1840.[x] The case of Josep Xifré illustrates the figure of the Catalans who saw from a very early time the chance to do business in the United States.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of reliable census in terms of the number of Catalans who migrated to the United States in the nineteenth century, which also happens with Spanish people. There are some statistics, though, that provide us with some references. So, the population of Cuba and Spain in New York and Brooklyn was the following. In 1870, Cuba: 1565 emigrants; Spain: 682; in 1880: Cuba: 2073 emigrants; Spain: 1048.[xi] Knowing this, it is possible to speculate the number of Catalans, but doing it with a scientific base is too risky.

Apart from not being able to specify numbers, over the years, the Catalan presence in New York increased moderately and was, sometimes, visible in the pages of La Llumanera; in fact, this was one of the most important aims of the newspaper: the interrelation of the community through the diffusion of its interests and activities. In June of 1876 the newspaper published news about the existence of a Catalan hostel, near the city of New York, in Philadelphia, run by Catalans Bosch and Llauradó: “the owners are Catalan, the interpreter is Catalan, the cook is Catalan”, but, careful, “there is a canteen with Cuban style”. The connection United States-Cuba-Catalonia was reflected, also, in the gastronomic sector. In the same news it was told that in the section of advertising there would be more information. Like it will be seen later, it was not common that the Catalan commercial initiatives used advertisements to let people know about their products.

Certainly, the gastronomy was, already at that time, an element of identity and cohesion of the Catalan community. Some months after they were opened, the newspaper talked about another Catalan hostel, established in New York, although it had a name with a significant national ambiguity –Hotel Español (“Spanish Hotel”)– and about a Catalan restaurant which was in Liberty Street, in New York, owned by Catalans Pont, Ruiloba and Rahola. There they served “dishes in the style of our land, well cooked and presented, and there is always wine, sausages, canned fruit, olives and other Catalan products”.

The number of Catalans who lived in New York was not too large, but over time its organizational capacities grew, and La Llumanera was, sometimes, the nexus and, especially the medium of diffusion, of the Catalan reality in America. Its support to the Catalan industry was quite well known, and the diffusion that it made of the culture of Catalonia was very significant. In the early 1879 the Catalans in New York founded the Choral Catalan Society, under the direction of Artur Cuyàs.

However, the newspaper considered that undertaking the adventure of emigration from Catalonia to the United States could be complicated and, sometimes, even dangerous if it was not planned with guarantees. In this sense, it discouraged Catalan families to send their children to the north-American continent if they did not had a hosting with minimal conditions: “There are many young Catalans who emigrate from Cuba or the Peninsula for different reasons and they come to the United States without speaking English, without money, thinking that it would be easy to find a job, that we find necessary to tell our fellow Catalans that are thinking of sending a son, a relative or a friend to this country that they must not do it if they do not want to go through very rough times”.[xii] In fact, this stated the necessity of creating an emigration network, a practice that was widespread throughout the nineteenth century. Indeed, many of the thousand Catalans that emigrated, especially to Cuba and Puerto Rico, in the nineteenth century, did it with an authentic chain network: the first emigrants asked their relatives to go to America, or maybe just the neighbours of their town, to work in businesses that they had created and that they used to be mixed small shops, where they sold several products: food, trinkets, textiles… The structure of this trade was based in the progressive creation of customers and a capital created from generation to generation. When a young man reached the age in which he could work, which used to be between the childhood and the adolescence, it was very common that he started the migration experience, then, if there was not any member of the nuclear family that had emigrated before, their parents looked for their family relations or neighbours to find a job in a store for their son in America. The emigrant never went to America empty-handed; on the contrary, he always had a letter of recommendation in hand guaranteeing a job. La Llumanera claimed this practise but in reference to the trip from Cuba to the United States, everything suggests that the profile of this emigrant would be a poor man who failed in everything and who would not have succeeded in his West Indian economical and vital project

The involvement of the Catalan emigrant to the American political life was almost non-existent, unlike the Cuban emigration, which went from a support to the Republican to the Democratic Party, depending on the attitude of the president of the United States towards the independence of Cuba. It must be said, too, that while there were Cuban intellectuals, most of them exiled, in the island –most of them founded newspapers–, such as Juan Ignacio de Armas y Céspedes, Enrique Piñeyro, José Manuel Mestre, etc., which were related to each other. José Martí was the true referent; the Catalan emigrants did not stood out especially in the field of letters, making clear that their migration responded to economic reasons and not politic reasons.

The American press, occasionally, also talked about Catalonia, proof of the evident interests that the Catalan lands awakened in the American continent, at least to a potential market that consisted of readers who emigrated. The New York Times correspondent in Barcelona – who signed as Gar – wrote an article, in October 1877, about the traditional feasts of La Mercè in Barcelona.

Late in 1878 La Llumanera published an issue about the painter Marià Fortuny, on the occasion of his death, and was widely praised and referenced in the press of New York: the New York Herald made a detailed description, the American Art Journal talked about him in three columns, La Correspondance Américane mentioned the services offered for La Llumanera in favour of the trading relations between Catalonia and the United States. Most newspapers of New York wrote chronicles and briefs about the Catalan newspaper: the Evening Post, the Evening Telegram, the Evening Mail, the Home Journal, The Daily Graphic, the Lady’s Journal, the Commercial Advertiser, etc., as well as other newspapers in Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and Cincinnati. In conclusion, the presence of La Llumanera was not unnoticed.

The scientific progresses of Catalan citizens also caught the attention of the American newspapers. The Scientific Press Supplement and The Engineer of the Pacific, both publications of California, informed about the scientific contributions by two Catalan engineers who lived in California, Eusebi Molera –from Vic – and Joan Cebrian – from Madrid, but his mother was Catalan– who had invented a pump for mines that could be also used as a fan and elastic piston machines with driving force of gas.[xiii] It was time of modernity, of progress and inventions. The major social figures – called, nowadays, significant public people – were the inventors. Tomas Alva Edison, born in 1847 in the state of Ohio, in the United States, was considered as some kind of myth for his technological contributions, mainly, in the field of electricity. No wonder that one of the covers of La Llumanera showed an image of this inventor, his biography – signed by Artur Cuyás – and a dedicatory that said, in Catalan, “Cheers to the readers of La Llumanera”. The Catalan newspaper accomplished a goal that it had wanted to accomplish for a long time: it knew how to harmonise the new social interests and a figure of great prestige with the Catalan reality: “For this reason La Llumanera has not stopped until this great man paid attention to the Catalan land and he paid a tribute, writing in our own language, the autograph that we publish today, even if it’s brief we have no doubt it will have great value for the readers of La Llumanera to whom it is dedicated”. The success of this issue was astonishing and it was sold out.

La Llumanera began a strategy that consisted on spreading the name of Catalonia using personalities of the north-American society; like they did with Edison, Artur Cuyàs wrote to the president elect of the United States, James Abram Garfield, who replied with a signed letter which they published translated into Catalan in the issue of January, 1881 and which said: “Dear Sir, I thank you for your letter of the 15 of the current month and for the issue of La Llumanera that you have been so kind to send me. I have read it pleased with what it says about Catalans, and I have had special satisfaction to know about the progress of this land. Yours sincerely, S.S.J.A. Garfield.”[xiv]
In conclusion, La Llumanera de Nova York

Cover of The Daily Graphic, 

13 January, 1879. 

was a medium that facilitated the interrelation of the Catalan emigrants spread in the world and, especially in America, and which opened spaces of knowledge of the Catalan reality in the United States.

About the Author:

LLUÍS COSTA FERNANDEZ, (Girona, 1959). Doctor of History. Professor of Communication at the University of Girona. His research has sometimes been focused in the history of communication and its relationship with society, as well as the analysis of the historical ties between America and Spain. He is the author of more than a dozen books.

Web page: http://lluiscosta.net

ENDNOTES

[i]While in Spain the literacy was a slow process (in the last quarter of the 19th century only a third of the population knew how to read and write), in the United States in 1870 there was only a 20% of illiteracy and a 10% in 1900.

[ii] Carmen Adams Fernández (1992), p. 142

[iii] As an example see the article "Theatres of New York," La Llumanera, no. 54; October 1879.

[iv]Letter to his uncle Ignasi. 15 April 1824. José Martí National Library. Sala Cubana. Collection of Manuscritos. Heredia CAR-83. Guiteras, Pedro Jose. "Don Jose Maria Heredia," Revista de Cuba (Havana), t. IX, 1881, pp. 18-19, quoted by Enrique Lopez Mesa (2002), pp. 61-62.

[v]Enrique Lopez Mesa. 2002, p. 36. See the issue of the stay of José Martí in New York: Marlene Vázquez Pérez. 2010.

[vi]José Martí.Obras Completas (1963-1973). vol.9, p. 458

[vii]"Los banys de mar de Nova York", La Llumanera de Nova York. No. 42 October 1878, p. 5. The article is very well illustrated with drawings that reproduce the scenes described.

[viii]The article of the Diari Català was reproduced by La Llumanera, no. 64, August 1880.

[ix] Article from The Daily Graphic translated into Catalan and reproduced in La Llumanera, no. 35 March of 1878 issue.

[x]Diccionari dels catalans d’Amèrica. 1992., vol.IV, pp. 279 i 280.

[xi]Source: USA, Department of the Interior Census Office. Compendium of the Eleventh Census: 1890. Washington, government Office, 1892-1897.

[xii]“No vingueu als Estats Units”, La Llumanera, no. 56, December, 1879.

[xiii]A few months later, in October 1879, La Llumanera wrote an extensive report about the two Catalan scientists, with images of both of them and their inventions.

[xiv]James Abram Garfield (1831-1881) was, when they published theletter, the U.S. president-elect, and did not take possession until a few days later, on March 4, 1881. A few months later, in July, he was the victim of an attack, the consequences of which he died on 19 September of that year, 1881.



REFERENCES


Adams Fernández, Carmen. 1992. “Cuba y su cultura durante el último cuarto del siglo XIX through La Ilustración Española y Americana”, in Morales, M.C, Llordén, M (eds.), Arte, cultura y sociedad en la emigración española a América. Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo, pp. 127-166.

Albert, Pierre. 1990. Historia de la prensa. Madrid: Rialp.

Arús i Arderiu, Rossend.1877. Cartas a la dona. Nova York: Estampa de John Smith.

Balcells, Josep M. 1988. Revistes dels catalans a les Amèriques. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya.

Caballer Dondarza, Mercedes. 2007. La narrativa española en la prensa estadounidense: hallazgo, promoción, publicación y crítica (1875-1900). Madrid: Iberoamericana.

Cadafalch, C; Julian, I; Salcedo, A. 1992. “Un ejemplo de ilustración catalana. La revista La Llumanera de Nova York,” in Morales, M.C, Llordén, M (eds.), Arte, cultura y sociedad en la emigración española a América. Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo, pp. 103-125.

Costa, Lluís. 2005. La Llumanera de Nova York (1874-1881): la veu d’una burguesia catalana a favor a favor d’una Cuba española. Barcelona: Societat Catalana de Comunicació, pp. 55-65.

Costa, Lluís. 2006. El nacionalisme cubà i Catalunya. Comunicació política, social i cultural entre Cuba i Catalunya. Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.

Costa, Lluís. 2012. La Llumanera de Nova York. Un periòdic entre Catalunya i Amèrica. Barcelona: Llibres de l’Índex.

Diccionari dels catalans d’Amèrica. 1992-1993. 4 vols. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya.

Galofré, Jordi. 1989. Rossend Arús i Arderiu (1845-1891). Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona.

Givanel i Mas, Joan. 1937. Bibliografia catalana. Premsa. 3 vols. Barcelona: Fundació Patxot.

Gómez Mompart, Josep Lluís. 1992. La gènesi de la prensa de masses a Catalunya (1902-1923). Barcelona: Pòrtic.

López Mesa, Enrique. 2002. La comunidad cubana de New York: siglo XIX. Havana: Centro de Estudios Martianos.

Martí, Carlos. 1918. Los catalanes en Amèrica, Cuba. Barcelona: Editorial Minerva.

Martí, José. 1963-1973. Obras completes. Havana: Editorial Nacional de Cuba.

Molas, Joaquim; Matabosch, Joan (prologue). 1987. La Llumanera de Nova York: revista catalana de novas y gresca. Nova York 1874-1881. Barcelona: Edicions Anglo-Catalanes.

Sánchez Ferré, Pere. 1985. “La maçoneria catalana i el conflicte colonial cubà al darrer terç del segle XIX”, in1eres. Jornades d’Estudis Catalano-Americans. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, pp. 241-255.

Solà Dachs, Lluís. July-August 1981. “La Llumanera de Nova York”, in L’Avenç no. 40, pg. 10.

Surroca, Robert. 2004. Premsa catalana de l’exili i de l’emigració (1861-1976). Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya.

Torrent, Joan; Tasis, Rafael. 1996. Història de la premsa catalana. Barcelona: Ed. Bruguera, 2 vols.

Vázquez Pérez, Marlene. 2010. La vigilia perpétua. Martí en Nueva York. Havana: Centro de Estudios Martianos..



CAPTIONS

(these captions should be distributed throughout the article)


1-First issue of La Llumanera de Nova York, November, 1877.

2-Heading of the newspaper.

3-Views of New York published in La Llumanera, January, 1875.

4-Cover of The Daily Graphic, 13 January, 1879.

5-Chronicle of an article published in La Llumanera, in October, 1878 with the title Los banys de mar de Nova York (“The baths of New York”).

The Code of Handsome Lake

By Michael Keene

Copyright © 2012 by the author. All rights reserved.

Handsome Lake

In early June 1799, a young Seneca woman sat outside the door of her family’s home. She was waiting for her father to die. He had been sick for nearly four years and was now little but “yellow skin and dried bones.” Suddenly, she heard him call out “Niio” and then he burst out the door. He swayed and she stood quickly to catch him as he fell into her arms. She took him back to his bed. Then she dressed him in burial clothes and sent for his closest male relatives, Blacksnake and Cornplanter. By the time they arrived, it appeared that the old man was dead: There was no breathing, no heartbeat, and the body was cool to the touch.

But the man wasn’t dead. Blacksnake soon discovered a warm spot on the sick man’s chest. Then the man began breathing again. The warm spot grew bigger and bigger, as if life was returning to the man’s body bit by bit. After two hours, the man finally opened his eyes and began to speak. He described a journey he had taken while he lay there, unconscious. In this vision, he met with messengers who spoke to him of the problems of his people, and the proper way to deal with them. No one knew it yet, but the journey the man took while he lay there, somewhere between life and death, was the first of a series of visitations he would have from the messengers. They would inspire, over the sixteen years the man had remaining to him, an entire philosophy—a code of life and conduct—that would change the historical course of his people. In the end, Handsome Lake would become known as a great prophet and the savior of the Seneca Nation.

* * *

Handsome Lake (ca. 1735–1815) was born Hadawa’ko (Shaking Snow) in the Seneca village of Conewaugus, located on the Genesee River near present-day Avon. Very little is known of his parents or his early life. He was born into the Wolf clan, although he was eventually raised by the Turtle clan.

When he was born, the Seneca—indeed, the entire Iroquois Confederacy—was at the height of its power and prosperity. But the fortunes of the Indians fell precipitously during the eighteenth century, and over the course of his life Handsome Lake would be both witness to and victim of this social and cultural decline. It is fair to say that the summer afternoon when Handsome Lake lay apparently dying was the lowest point of his life, and perhaps that of the life of his people as well.

The Iroquois Confederacy had continuously existed since the fourteenth century. Its constitution—The Great Law of Peace, an orally transmitted document—is one of the oldest constitutions in the world. It described a federal union of five (later six) Indian nations: Mohawk, Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida, Cayuga, and Tuscarora. The document (which was finally put into writing in 1915 by Arthur C. Parker, an archeologist and Indian specialist who worked for the State Museum of New York) is often mentioned along with the likes of the Magna Charta in terms of the greatest political documents in history.

It provided a framework for working out problems between its nation-members and described political and social systems that were balanced and largely egalitarian. Iroquois society was matrilineal, meaning that land ownership and ancestry were determined by tracing heritage through the mother’s line. The Iroquois are sometimes referred to as “the people of the longhouse,” the translation from the nation’s own word (haudenosaunee) for itself. (The word “Iroquois” is an appellation of French missionaries, and represents the way they heard the term hiro kone, meaning “I have spoken.” It was a ritual expression with which Iroquois typically ended their orations.) The tribe’s term for itself is based on their primary form of social and family organization: The longhouse. Ranging from twenty-five to four hundred feet long, these narrow, rectangular structures housed entire clans, traced along the maternal line. The longhouses were divided into compartments, with a long central hall. Each family had its own personal space of about 6’x9’. The structure typically held twenty or more families. Each clan had its own name, typically an animal name.

There was no “state” religion—each tribe was free to celebrate its own religious rites and festivals. Civil affairs were separate from religious affairs. This is not to suggest that there was an Iroquois idyll before first contact with the Europeans. Rather, the Iroquois had a highly developed, highly functional political and social system that would be shattered by its intersection with the founding of the new American nation.

Initial contacts between Europeans and the Iroquois were generally positive and relations remained friendly and respectful through the mid-eighteenth century. Though our Thanksgiving notions of Native Americans and white settlers sitting down to celebrate the fall harvest with a meal (complete with a cornucopia on the table) may be somewhat simplistic, there is a kernel of truth in that image. Many settlers relied on trade with the Indians for survival, and freely adopted those Indian customs, ideas, and modes of living that made adaptation to the New World easier.

During the colonial era, Indian leaders and statesmen met as equals to diplomatically solve problems. Good trade relationships were critical to the prosperity of the colonies, and this provided powerful incentives to alleviate strains in relations. Many early Americans also plainly admired the Indians. For instance, Benjamin Franklin, who served as an Indian commissioner, studied the Indian way of life, published accounts of treaty negotiations, and cited the Iroquois model in his arguments about relations between the British and the colonies. Franklin stressed the fact that the individual nations of the Confederacy managed their own internal affairs without interference from the Grand Council.

Other founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and George Washington were familiar with—and admiring of—the Iroquois’ federal form of government. Each nation was represented at the Confederate Council by one political leader and one war leader. The Confederacy included a system of checks and balances, with each nation holding veto power for certain actions. Each individual nation had a system for choosing its leaders, and there were impeachment provisions as well, ensuring that leaders governed in accordance with public consent. Much of this should be familiar to Americans, and for good reason: Historians have shown that the federal system of the U.S. government and the U.S. Constitution itself was patterned in part on the Iroquois system.

But the Iroquois system underwent a severe challenge with the outbreak of the American Revolution. Both the British and the Americans sought the allegiance—or at least the neutrality—of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Six Nations divided: Most Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Seneca tribes chose to ally with the British, while most Oneida and Tuscarora tribes joined the American revolutionaries. In some sense, the American Revolution became a civil war for the Iroquois, and the divisions which precipitated the split would grow wider during the years of war, and go on to echo in internal Indian debates in the ensuing decades.

In particular, the results of the War of Independence would be disastrous for the Seneca, who not only chose the losing side, but stuck with it until the end. For instance, even after the British surrender at Saratoga, Loyalists and their Iroquois allies in upper New York continued to raid American settlements, as well as the villages of fellow Iroquois who had been allied with the revolutionaries. The Seneca chief Cornplanter led some of these raids, alongside Loyalist commanders, such John Butler (with whom “Indian” Allan served.)

In 1777 the Continental Congress, concerned that a major Indian war was imminent, decided to raise an army of 3,000 men to deal with the Indian problem on the frontier. Planning and preparations were slow, and it would take roughly another year to be brought to fruition. But the course of events during that year only hardened the resolve of the Americans. Indian–Loyalist attacks on settlers continued apace. There were some reprisals by American units already in the field, but the small number of available troops made it nearly impossible to offer an effective defense, or to thwart the ability of the Indians and Loyalists to mount attacks.

The turning point was a major Iroquois raid in November of 1778, when nearly 400 Indians, led by Cornplanter, launched on assault on a fort near Cherry Valley. The so-called Cherry Valley Massacre—in which approximately fifty soldiers and civilians died, with another eighty taken captive—forced the hand of the fledgling American government. General George Washington assigned Major General John Sullivan to lead the new force to deal with the Seneca.

The Sullivan Expedition, as this campaign would come to be known, was notorious for the toll it took on both sides. In the end, Colonel Sullivan had nearly 4,000 men at his command, and he drove them—and their horses—tirelessly. The village of Horseheads, in the Southern Tier of New York, acquired its name from an event during this campaign: The pack horses of Sullivan’s army, having hauled heavy military equipment for over 400 miles through difficult terrain, reached the end of their endurance in a little valley, and there the horses were slaughtered en masse. A few years later, horse skulls were arrayed along the trail by returning Native Americans, reportedly as a warning, or as a gesture of anger or defiance.

* * *

The devastation of the Sullivan Expedition created great hardship for more than 5,000 Iroquois refugees the following winter, and many starved or froze to death. And although General Washington was disappointed by what he perceived as the lack of a clear military verdict—there was only one major battle during the campaign—it nevertheless became clear in the long term that the victory of the new American nation over the Iroquois was complete. The infrastructure of the Iroquois Confederacy had been devastated. But the damage was much deeper and more long-lasting than physical losses. In the final analysis, the significance of the Sullivan Expedition is that it broke not only the means of the Iroquois Confederacy to defend its territory by making war, but its very will to do so. And as his nation’s will was broken, so was that of Handsome Lake. He, like so many of his compatriots, gave in to despair and to alcoholism.

Over the next decade, a series of treaties—with their predictable ex-post-facto claims and counter-claims—were executed, and while some small groups of Iroquois were moved onto reservations in the region, many more were moved to reservations in Canada and beyond the American frontier (which then meant west and north of Illinois, essentially.) After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783—formally ending the war between the British and the Americans—white settlers began moving west into New York, into areas made safe by the removal of Indians.

All of this led to critical issues for the Seneca, especially given the grim conditions on the reservations. The standard of living was abysmal, and there was rampant cultural and social breakdown: Alcoholism, domestic abuse, and the breakdown of families. There were accusations of witchcraft, as is so often the case in such conditions. Iroquois social structure was crumbling under reservation life and traditional religious practices were insufficient to meet the needs of the people. Until that summer day in 1799, it is perhaps fair to say that Handsome Lake had been as much a victim of these conditions as any other Seneca.

There is mysteriously (and frustratingly) little known about Handsome Lake’s life prior to his near-death experience and the visions that accompanied it. He was described by Buffalo Tom Jemison as a middle-sized man, slim, and unhealthy looking. He was a member of a noble family, though nothing is known about them (other than Cornplanter and Red Jacket.) Handsome Lake’s warrior name is unknown, as is the provenance of the name under which we know him. His name does appear on a 1794 treaty, but what role he might have played in the negotiations is unknown.

It is known, however, that after the loss of the bulk of Seneca lands in Genesee area, he went with members of his tribe to settlements on the Allegheny River. By many accounts, he was an alcoholic for some twenty years—and quite seriously ill, perhaps with the complications that often accompany end-stage alcoholism—for four years preceding the visions of 1799.

He was nursed in his illness by his married daughter and reportedly was able to do very little for himself. Some accounts suggest his bare-bones cabin was located quite close to the river, for he recalled hearing the drunken play—and fighting—of the raftsmen nearby. He thus had a long period of time in which he had little do but contemplate the effects of alcohol abuse, on his own life and on the lives of his tribesmen. In his Code, he refers again and again to the “demons” afflicting the Seneca, and alcohol is clearly the primary demon he has in mind.

On the summer afternoon when Handsome Lake woke from his coma, he immediately began describing his vision to the family and friends that had gathered in preparation for his funeral.

Handsome Lake said:

Never have I seen such a wondrous vision. I saw three men clothed in fine raiment, noble and commanding, cheeks painted red, only a few feathers in their bonnets. They had in one hand bows and arrows, in the other, huckleberry bushes and berries of every color.

The first messenger said: “He who created the world employed us to come to earth and go to the sick man and help him recover. Take these berries and eat of every color, for they will give you strength. Before noon, the people will gather at the council house and give you some early strawberries and they will make strawberry wine sweetened with sugar. They will drink the juice of the berry and thank the Great Spirit for your recovery.”

“When you are well, we will tell you how things ought to be upon the earth. For whatsoever you think is evil, is evil.”

And the second messenger said: “Behold! Look through the valley and between the two hills. Look between the sunrise and the noon. In that place, a man is buried who refused to obey the Great Spirit. He will never rise from that spot!”

“So now we say to you, proclaim the message we give you and tell it truly to all the people.”

And the third messenger said: “Now, the first thing has been finished and it remains for us to uncover all wickedness before you.”

And the first messenger said: “Now it time for our departure. We shall go on a journey. And then you will see the coming of the fourth messenger. And more: You will see the house of the punisher and the lands of the Great Spirit.”

* * *

In addition to telling Handsome Lake that he would recover, and why they appeared, the messengers clearly promised that they would return with more messages from the Great Spirit. This seemed to have had an immediate effect on Handsome Lake: He would proclaim that he was cured of his alcoholism on this day. And his life seems to have changed in another crucial respect: He had a new purpose in life, as a teacher and prophet. He began preaching what he called Gaiwiio (the good word), and his life from this day on would be dedicated to bringing the message of the Great Spirit (via the messengers) to the Seneca, and taking an active role in improving the lives of his people.

The dream vision of this June day was only the first—if most dramatic—of a series of three or four visitations Handsome Lake would have over the next few years. He would also be visited by the spirits of John the Baptist, as well as a number of Jesus’ disciples. The lessons Handsome Lake took from the visions would be compiled into The Code of Handsome Lake. The document (as taken down in translation) had some 15 sections, in the form of anecdotes which illustrated particular points. One example:

Now the Great Spirit ordained that people should live to an old age: He appointed that when a woman becomes old she should be without strength and unable to work. Now the Great Spirit says that it is a great wrong to be unkind to our grandmothers. The Great Spirit forbids unkindness to the old. We, the messengers, say it. The Great Spirit appointed it this way: He designed it so that an old woman should be as a child again and when she becomes so, the Creator wishes the grandchildren to help her; for only because she is, they are. Whosoever does right to the aged does right in the sight of the Creator.


For Handsome Lake, the first issue at hand was to condemn the use of the white man’s one’ga, meaning whiskey. Since first contact, alcohol abuse had made serious inroads in the life of his nation, threatening its very extinction. As Arthur C. Parker described the situation:

“The frauds which the Six Nations had suffered, the loss of land and of ancient seats had reduced them to poverty and disheartened them. The crushing blow of Sullivan's campaign was yet felt and the wounds then inflicted were fresh. The national order of the Confederacy was destroyed. Poverty, the sting of defeat, the loss of ancestral homes, the memory of broken promises, and the hostility of the white settlers all conspired to bring despair. There is not much energy in despairing nations who see themselves hopeless and alone, the greedy eyes of their conquerors fastened on the few acres that remain to them. It was little wonder that the Indian sought forgetfulness in the trader's rum.”

Many of the lessons in the Code address social or cultural problems, and impart what might be called middle-class values: Young people should marry, and be kind and faithful to one another, and good to their children. They should not gossip, or practice witchcraft, or drink alcohol. In all, the sentiments expressed are strikingly similar to the Biblical Ten Commandments. There is some evidence that Handsome Lake might have been familiar with the Bible: One story holds that his nephew Henry Obail (Abeal), who had been educated at a white institution in Philadelphia, took Handsome Lake up into the mountains and explained the Christian Bible to him. Handsome Lake might also have acquired some knowledge of the Bible from missionaries as well. At any rate, the Code, like the Bible, forbade drunkenness, witchcraft, and sexual promiscuity, wife beating, quarreling, and gambling.

But this is not to suggest that the Code wasn’t revolutionary in its own way, for not only did it come from a Seneca, but Handsome Lake addressed the internal social ills that he believed were destroying Seneca culture just as surely as the intrusion of the white man. He took on such taboo topics such as child sexual abuse, spousal abuse, adultery, divorce, and abortion. Significantly, Handsome Lake addressed the men in his society in the same way that some modern groups like Promise Keepers and Concerned Black Men call on the males of their communities to be good husbands and fathers.

Other parts of the Code dealt with the practicalities of life. In particular, Handsome Lake argued that the Seneca should give up the nomadic way of life and adopt an agricultural lifestyle. This is another example of his advocacy of what might be called middle-class values, even what would become the American dream: A farm, a home, and family. He advocated practical, orderly self-sufficiency and sober living.

It is clear that Handsome Lake was in critical ways a realist. He believed that the white man was here to stay, and that the Seneca could not survive and prosper by fighting the larger culture or falling into the trap of blaming the intruders for their conditions. This set him on a collision course with factions of his own community, as well as for openly discussing these difficult issues within the Seneca nation. This was a middle way: neither a capitulation to Christianity nor an unreasoning hold on the traditional past.

In fact, Handsome Lake’s message was a masterful blend of the old and new. In order to appreciate the effect that Handsome Lake had on his people, it is perhaps necessary to point out that the Iroquois of the Great Lakes region had always considered dreams to be a guide to their lives. Their dreams influenced many decisions, from where to hunt or fish to where and when to make war or undertake marriage. Dreaming was believed to be a period in which the individual was in contact with the sacred power, and messages received during that time were taken with utmost seriousness. To ignore these messages was to court illness, madness, or disaster. In fact, the Iroquois paid particular attention to dreams on the eve of big events, like war and hunting, and war parties were known to turn back if one of its members had an ominous dream.

For this reason, it may be fair to say that Handsome Lake’s followers took his dreams, or visions, as seriously as he did. His dreams also represented answers to questions they were facing that were as equally momentous as war and hunting—that is, issues of the life and death of the nation.

In 1802, Handsome Lake visited Washington, D.C. with a delegation of Seneca and Onondaga chiefs, and his work drew the attention of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who wrote a letter to Handsome Lake that concluded:

Go on then, brother, in the great reformation you have undertaken. Persuade our red brethren then to be sober, and to cultivate their lands; and their women to spin and weave for their families. You will soon see your women and children well fed and clothed, your men living happily in peace and plenty, and your numbers increasing from year to year. It will be a great glory to you to have been the instrument of so happy a change, and your children's children, from generation to generation, will repeat your name with love and gratitude forever. In all your enterprises for the good of your people, you may count with confidence on the aid and protection of the United States, and on the sincerity and zeal with which I am myself animated in the furthering of this humane work. You are our brethren of the same land; we wish your prosperity as brethren should do. Farewell.

This letter is a remarkable document, for it shows Thomas Jefferson’s respect for the Indians, and his willingness and hope of working with them to achieve peace and a good relationship. It also served as an endorsement of Handsome Lake’s activities and program, and copies of it were given to each of the Chiefs of the Six Nations.

* * *

Handsome Lake, like countless recovered addicts and social reformers, could sometimes be unreasoning and overzealous. This is particularly true when it came to the question of witchcraft among the Seneca.

By some accounts, Handsome Lake became obsessed with witch hunting and demanded confessions from those whom he suspected of witchcraft. There is evidence that some of those who refused to confess were killed, on his orders. His obsession nearly started a war with another tribe when he accused one its members of being a witch, and demanded that tribal leaders punish the young man. His obsessive hunting of witches began to cost him support among his people, and his popularity declined for a period.

According to one account, when he first arrived at Tonawanda, Handsome Lake was so discouraged that he was reluctant to talk about his visions and beliefs. Over time, however, people became friendlier, and he resumed his teachings. He was invited to visit the Onondaga and he accepted the invitation, although “according to his visions it necessitated the singing of his ‘third song,’ which meant that he would die.” But in another vision, the messengers said: "They have stretched out their hands, pleading for you to come and they are your own people at Onondaga."

So Handsome Lake and some followers started to walk to the Onondaga, and the numbers increased as they neared the destination, as people began to hear about his prediction of his own death. Handsome Lake had more visions along the way, each containing omens of his own death. He reportedly grew more and more depressed, even fearful. He was so distressed that upon arrival he was unable to address those who came to hear him saying, "I will soon go to my new home. Soon will I step into the new world, for there is a plain pathway before me leading there."

He then went to his cabin, attended by three persons, who swore to keep all the details of his death secret. On August 10, 1815, Handsome Lake "commenced his walk" over the path that had appeared before him. He was buried under a nearby council house, with impressive ceremonial rites. His tomb may still be seen there. It is marked by a granite monument erected by the Six Nations to Sedwa'gowa'ne: Our Great Teacher.

* * *

Despite Handsome Lake’s excesses and failings, he had a profound and lasting impact on the life of the Seneca, and of the entire Iroquois nation. As the noted Indian scholar Arthur C. Parker wrote, “Handsome Lake helped to give the Iroquois a social and cultural identity that drew on the best of their traditional past, yet allowed them to turn their attention to finding a new way to live within the larger nation in which they now found themselves.”

Handsome Lake's Code was so successful because it combined traditional Iroquois values and cultural forms with white and Christian values that allowed the Indians to adapt to their new circumstances. It emphasized practical strategies for survival without requiring the sacrifice of an Indian identity.

Handsome Lake’s teachings long outlived him. Beginning in the 1820s, it became traditional for the Code to be recited every September at Tonawanda, and biannually at other reservations in connection with the beginning of Six Nation meetings. The Code of Handsome Lake was eventually compiled and translated from interviews with descendants of Handsome Lake and published in 1913, ensuring that his teachings remain a part of Iroquois culture.



Reprinted from Michael Keene's book Folklore and Legends of Rochester, The Mystery of Hoodoo Corner.

1st New York Light Artillery - Battery E - “Wheeler’s Battery”

by Robert Yott
Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved by the author.

When southern forces fired upon Fort Sumter in April of 1861, response from the North was swift. Here in the Southern Tier, loyal citizens quickly answered the call and men represented Bath in 17 regiments.

The following incidents are of one such unit from Steuben County, the First New York Light Artillery, Battery E.



These units travelled to the “Elmira Rendezvous” for mustering into service, which was commanded by General Robert B. Van Valkenburgh. His Aide-de-Camp and Assistant-Adjutant General was Captain William Rumsey who resigned and was replaced by Captain Ira Davenport.

In early September, 1861, General Van Valkenburgh, who served as lieutenant with the “Bath Artillery” years before, called upon his former First Sergeant John Stocum, to recruit and command a battery for a regiment being formed in Elmira. In late September Stocum arrived in Elmira with 81 men. Charles Wheeler, who had relinquished his duties as principal of Haverling High School, arrived shortly thereafter with an additional 22 men.

Army regulation required all recruits be mustered in by an officer of the Regular Army. Battery E was mustered into service on October 7, 1861 by Captain Arthur T. Lee, Eighth US Regulars. Captain Guilford D. Bailey was commissioned Colonel and placed in command of the regiment; he was joined by Major David H. Van Valkenburgh, who transferred from Battery A. Officers were John Stocum, captain; Charles Wheeler and Robert H. Gansevoort, commissioned first and second lieutenant respectively.

On October 29 Battery E, consisting of 103 men, departed Elmira via the Northern Central and Baltimore & Ohio railroads for Washington, DC. They arrived at their camp of instruction located a mile and a half east of the Halls of Congress. Officers were required to attend schools of instruction in tactics and gunnery. Like many other officers, Captain Stocum and Lieutenant Gansevoort failed to qualify at the school.

In early January, 1862, Captain Stocum was officially relieved and replaced by newly promoted Captain Charles Wheeler. Adjutant Rumsey was made first lieutenant and Commissary Sergeant Edward H. Underhill was promoted to second lieutenant and replaced Lieutenant Gansevoort who had resigned.

One uncommon feature of the newly organized battery was the fact that they had hired a private company cook. The salary of the cook was raised by voluntary assessment of each enlisted man twenty-five cents a month. The officers made up any deficit. It is not known how long the battery enjoyed this fanciful fare but, while other companies supped on the salt pork and beans, these men enjoyed roast beef, baked ham, fried doughnuts and ginger-bread. It was also noted that these men suffered less from the effects of a poor diet.

On February 25, 1862, with ninety-five enlisted men and two officers present for duty out of the 103 original members, Battery E, or Wheeler’s Battery, was assigned to General William F. (Baldy) Smith’s Division, of the Fourth Corps, Army of the Potomac. Due to lack of sufficient strength, hopes for a six-gun battery (consistent with Union procedure) were abandoned. Instead, on March 1, Battery E received four 3-inch ordnance, rifled cannons and was incorporated into the Artillery Brigade. Included in this brigade were Battery F, Fifth United States Battery; the First New York Independent Battery (Cowan’s Battery) and the Third New York Independent Battery. Captain Romaine B. Ayres was the chief.

On March 10, the entire command headed for Alexandria, Va. where it set sail for Fort Monroe on the steamer “Agnes,” with their horses in tow aboard two schooners. At Hampton, Virginia, the brigade met with its first misfortune. To make room for the thousands of embarking troops the two horse-laden schooners were untethered and moved about so much so that apparently they became lost in the shuffle. It was not until March 27 when the artillery brigade finally landed at Fort Monroe. Thus, they began their march through the marsh and mud which would plague the Union troops throughout the Peninsula Campaign. With only half their horses ashore Wheeler’s Battery set out through the mud. The march was taking its toll on the horses but on April 5, the first gun section (two guns) was able to advance to a position near Confederate defenses at Yorktown.

On April 6, the second section had finally trudged its way through the mud and caught up with the first section and the four-gun battery was in place. It was on this day that the men of Battery E first “saw the elephant,” firing the first shots of the battle for Yorktown. Immediately, the enemy returned fire. During the barrage a round from the enemy’s 10-pounder Parrot passed through an ammunition chest of one of Wheeler’s guns. The shell exploded twenty-nine cannon cartridges and two case shots in one compartment and set fire to the packing tow of the other compartment.

Immediately, Sergeant David L. Smith and Artificer James H. Hickox of Bath grabbed buckets of water and began to douse the flames while Private William H. Kershner, also of Bath, pulled out with his bare hands burning embers, thus preventing the rest of the rounds from exploding. Miraculously, no one had been killed and General E. D. Keyes, commander of the Fourth Corps, mentioned the incident in his official report and added words of praise to the men of the Battery E.

After the engagement, the battery retired to a position opposite Confederate forces at Lee’s Mill two miles distant. On April 16, Wheeler’s Battery was called out and successfully silenced the Confederate artillery. The enemy was pouring a terrific barrage on the beleaguered Cowan’s Battery which had advanced in support of the Vermont Brigade.

For the next three weeks following the battle all was quiet. It was during this time that Wheeler’s Battery suffered its first casualty. William F. Payne of Bradford, who was never considered a very healthy specimen, died from the exposures of camp life.

The following weeks saw Smith’s Division advance on the retreating enemy with Wheeler’s Battery leading the artillery. It was General McClellan’s intention not to rush the advance as he was planning on racing up the York River and have his forces block the Confederates withdrawal at West Point. In defiance of orders, Smith, seeing an advantage in the terrain, quietly ordered Hancock’s Brigade and Cowan’s Battery to occupy an abandoned works which flanked Longstreet position at Fort Magruder.

With the works taken, Wheeler’s Battery and the Vermont Brigade were ordered forward to join Hancock and Cowan’s. General Keyes, having heard of the order, immediately set out to stop the movement. Wheeler’s Battery had set out at a gallop and could not be overtaken. The Vermont Brigade however, was ordered back. For assumption of authority, General Smith was about to be placed under arrest when McClellan arrived on the scene and ordered Hancock be reinforced.

 Hancock’s men marched forward in a line of battle beyond the works just taken. He posted his main force on an elevation in the field while waiting for the reinforcements promised but only Wheeler’s Battery arrived. Assuming more reinforcements immediately to his rear, Hancock boldly ordered his ten pieces of artillery forward to within 650 yards of the enemy’s defenses. The Fifth Wisconsin, placed just behind the batteries, was the sole infantry support. Wheeler’s Battery occupied the right flank of the line with dense woods 600 yards to their right.

At 4pm Cowan’s Battery opened fire. As the opposing lines exchanged fire a force of rebel infantry, along with 100 cavalry were discovered between the lines. A few well-placed shot by the Union guns sent them scurrying, presumably back to their lines. This was not the case however as the rebel force snuck down a ravine and massed in the dense woods aforementioned.

With no reinforcement, Hancock sent word to order back the artillery. It was too late. The enemy now appeared in force, forming two great battle lines. One, the Fifth North Carolina was immediately to the front; the other, the 24th Virginia, emerged from the woods on Wheeler’s right flank. Case-shot and canister was poured into the enemy lines but this did not deter the advance of the enemy. So rapid was the firing that the axle on one of Wheeler’s guns was broken by the recoil and sent back to the rear. As the enemy advanced, their lines took shape of a “J” with Wheeler’s gun in the curve. The Fifth Wisconsin, which had fallen back, was now firing upon 24th Virginia.

Cowan’s Battery, which suffered one man killed and several wounded, began to withdraw. The enemy advanced to within 100 yards on the front and right of Wheeler’s Battery when they received the order to withdraw their remaining three guns. One gun, commanded by the gunner Corporal James Bryant of Bath, became tangled in a fence. Bullets whizzed by their heads as the men of Gun No. 2 struggled to free the gun lest it fell into the hands of the enemy. Just as it became free of the fence, the gun immediately became mired in the mud. As the horses struggled to free the piece, Bryant, with almost superhuman strength hugged the hot barrel of the cannon and heaved to. The mud finally let loose the piece and Bryant was the last man to leave this particular field of battle.

The men were now at their original position. The infantry had fallen back, concealed beyond a slope, to await the attack of the enemy. The nine guns reached the field directly in front of their own lines and swung about to meet the approaching rebels. The artillery pieces were being used as bait to draw the enemy in. As they neared, Wheeler and Cowan poured canister into their ranks. The enemy had now advanced to within six rods of the Union lines when they were surprised by 2500 muskets firing into their ranks.

As Wheeler’s Battery struggled to fall back the enemy fired a volley into them, mortally wounding Alexander Adams of Bath. Capture seemed imminent. The battery and the Seventh Maine were endangered of being overrun when Captain Wheeler, mounted, rallied the left flank of the Seventh Maine and led a charge directly into the enemy, completely routing them. The battery resumed firing into the fleeing enemy. This so shattered the moral of their second battle line that many broke and ran and a number of prisoners were taken. This ended the action for the day.

On May 9, the newly formed Sixth Corps was announced and Battery E was transferred into the Second Division with General Smith commanding. On May 11, the battery lost Sergeant Alson W. Davis of Avoca. Davis wounded himself with his pistol and after a long recuperating period was finally discharged. Davis reenlisted as Commissary Sergeant into Company G, 22nd Cavalry.

By May 22 the battery was now stationed at New Cold Harbor. On the morning of May 23, Davidson’s Brigade which consisted of the 33rd, 49th and 77th New York; the Seventh Maine regiments and Wheeler’s Battery, moved out on reconnaissance on the Mechanicsburg Turnpike. At dusk, the reconnoitering party arrived one mile outside Mechanicsville where it captured two artillery pieces of the enemy and a regiment of cavalry. Early the next day, Wheeler’s Battery opened fire upon Mechanicsburg at a range of 1,500 yards while return fire was negligible. Unable to dislodge the enemy which was well-protected, General Davidson loudly proclaimed it was that it was the fault of the gunners of Wheeler’s Battery. After his tirade, he ordered Wheeler’s Battery to within 400 yards of the town. A few, well-placed shots forced the enemy to hastily vacate the town.

Upon entering the town, the general witnessed firsthand the effective firing of Wheeler’s Battery of the first occasion. Not one building in town went unscathed and many were riddled, by the precision of the gunners’ aim. In an effort to make amends, General Davidson apologized to Captain Wheeler in front of the entire command. Colonel McKean of the 77th New York wrote in his official report of the engage “Wheeler’s Battery most effectively riddled the village, driving the enemy’s sharpshooters out of the buildings, and causing his artillery reply at longer and still longer intervals until it was silent.” Wheeler’s Battery’s loss on this mission consisted of three horses.

On May 26, the battery was stationed in the vicinity of the Gaines’ House, east of the Chickahominy River. While the battle of Fair Oaks raged on March 31-June 1, the battery was unable to join in the fray due to the swollen river. It was during this battle that Colonel Bailey and Major Van Valkenburgh met their fate. Battery A occupied a redoubt west of the river and was about to be overran. With all their horses killed, Colonel Bailey ordered his men to fall back while he remained to spike the guns, lest they be captured and turned upon them. It was during this action that both the colonel and major fell, mortally wounded. Major Rumsey was severely wounded but survived.

A freak occurrence on the morning of June 3, 1862 would have devastating effects on Battery E and lead to its demise. At 2am, a severe thunderstorm broke out. Perhaps attracted by the heavy iron guns and equipment of the battery, a lightning bolt struck in Wheeler’s Battery’s camp and nearly wiped out the entire command. James Bryant, hero of Fort Magruder, was killed outright and nearly every man in the battery suffered from shock and numbness. Many of the horses had been thrown to the ground and all were deemed unfit for further service. For their meritorious service at Mechanicsburg, Harper’s Weekly chose to honor Wheeler’s Battery with a sketch. It is unfortunate that the following is what they chose to depict.

On June 5, the suffering men began the difficult movement across the marshes of the Chickahominy. The new location was only two miles as the crow flies but to cross the river the men had to slough through the mud to Grapevine Bridge in order to cross traverse, making the hike nearly ten miles. They were positioned on the southern end of the Union line near New Bridge. Opposite them were the rebels, occupying a place called Old Tavern. For the next several nights at sunset, the enemy would fire several rounds of artillery into Battery E’s position much to the annoyance of the men. The only casualty suffered was that of Gould’s kettle which held the men’s dinner.

By June 10, the battery had been reduced to 53 men. Captain Wheeler was ill and Lieutenant Underhill was confined to quarters suffering from malarial fever. Wheeler’s Battery had suffered terribly from the mud and rain of the Peninsula Campaign and disease and illness took its toll on the men. The lightning strike and forced march had been the final blow. The unit, which saw limited action at Harrison’s Landing near the end of July, would not recover.

The Artillery Brigade had been drastically reduced in numbers. After receiving Captain Wheeler’s report of July 10 describing the condition of his command, it was decided to grant Captain Wheeler furlough for the purpose of recruiting more men. The remaining men of Battery E were attached to Cowan’s Battery on August 8, 1862. With this unit the men served in the Maryland campaign and saw action at Antietam and Fredericksburg.

On June 20, 1863, the men of Battery E were transferred once again; this time to Battery L, First New York Light Artillery (Reynolds’ Battery.) The men saw action with this unit at Gettysburg, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania.

Captain Wheeler’s attempt to recruit enough men to restore Battery E had been in vain. The battery would never attain the strength it needed for a gun battery. Disappointed, Captain Wheeler resigned his commission in January of 1863.

Oddly, Battery E was reorganized in May of 1864 under Captain Henry W. Davis. Sadly, Davis, while trying to rally a line of infantry, was killed at the battle of North Anna River on May 23, 1864.

In June of 1864, Battery E, reorganized under the command of First Lieutenant James B. Hazelton, participated in its final campaign at Petersburg. It and now was in the Fifth Corps, Brigade of Artillery Reserve. The battery was assigned to the trenches and manned Coehorn mortars used during the 10-month siege. It was during this time that Lieutenant Angell Matthewson was promoted to captain and given command of the battery.

Change of command once again saw Lieutenant George H. Marsh leading the battery during its active participation in the assault of Petersburg. After the fall of Petersburg the battery accompanied Fifth Corps to Appomattox and witnessed the end of the war. One officer and four enlisted men were killed or mortally wounded and one officer and 12 enlisted men were lost to disease. The battery, once again under command of Captain Mattewson, returned to Elmira and was mustered out of service on June 6, 1865.

Although details of Wheeler’s Battery are sketchy, it is safe to say that the majority of the command had served honorably, during the war and after.

Relieved of his command, Captain Stocum returned to Bath and in the fall of 1862 he enlisted as commander of Company F, 161st NY Infantry; John F. Little and James Faucett were his lieutenants. In 1863, suffering from severe illness, Stocum returned home once again. Lincoln’s last call for troops in 1864 saw Stocum again in service, this time commanding Company A, 189th NY Infantry. On April 9, 1865, this regiment deployed as skirmishers and drove back into Appomattox the last rebel battery General Lee had sent out. Captain Stocum engaged in the furniture and undertaking business after the war and was contracted to bury veterans who died at the Soldiers’ Home. It was stated he buried more than 1,300 veterans of the war.

Major Rumsey, after recovering from his wounds at the Battle of Fair Oaks, returned to service as General W.W. Averell’s Adjutant General. Rumsey was described as a “dashing cavalry officer” and was promoted to the brevetted rank of lieutenant-colonel for conspicuous acts of gallantry during the campaign of 1864. He served on the State Supreme Court and was commander of Custer Post No.81, GAR. He died in 1903 and is buried on a private cemetery on Rumsey Estate.

Captain Wheeler served several years as principal of Haverling. After the war, he moved to New York City where he worked as a journalist. His wife Etta was instrumental in establishing the American Humane Association. Mr. Wheeler entered the Bath Soldiers' Home from Brooklyn on November 28, 1908. He died on July 2, 1912 of cerebral apoplexy at age 77. He is buried in Chamberlain Cemetery.

Robert Yott, author of From Soldiers’ Home to Medical Center” lives in Mitchellsville and is a carpenter by trade. He built his own cannon with limber and his unit represents Wheeler’s Battery at Civil War reenactment, parades and educational programs. A portion of his artifacts from the Civil War and Bath Soldiers’ Home collection will be on display beginning September 2012 at the New York State Museum in Albany as part of their exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.




ON page 428 we reproduce a sketch by Mr. Mead, representing a very remarkable accident which lately took place in the Army of the Potomac. Mr. Mead writes: "A very sad and singular accident occurred in Captain Wheeler's Battery, General Smith's Division, near Richmond, about two o'clock on the morning of the 3d of June. A heavy thunder-storm had been raging from the west for some time, and had apparently almost spent its force. The tents of time men consisted of paulins or gun-covers stretched on sticks and rails, and were placed on a line between the guns and caissons. The sentries perceived a dark cloud sweeping from the west at a very low elevation, and as it passed over the park a terrific discharge of the electric fluid took place. The whole battery seemed enveloped in a sheet of flame. All of the sentries but one, the corporal of the guard, and the horses were knocked down. The flame seemed to strike one of the guns, leaped from thence to the supports of the tent, passing downward, and stunning and burning or partially paralyzing a whole platoon of twenty men. One, Corporal James Bryant, of Bath, New York, gunner of the left piece, an intelligent and brave young man, was instantly killed; the others in that tent, although rendered senseless for a time being, with the exception of three or four, were able to do duty the next day. The electric fluid passed under the rubber blanket of one man, lifting him several inches from the ground. Some had legs and arms partially paralyzed. Providentially the ammunition chests were not touched. Captain Wheeler's battery belongs to the First New York Artillery, organized by the lamented Colonel G. D. Bailey, and was engaged at Dam No. 1 before Yorktown, where a shell from the enemy exploded one of the ammunition chests, at Lee's Mills, at Williamsburg with Hancock's brigade, and at Mechanicsville with General Davidson. The men are unanimous in the belief that lightning is harder to beat than the rebels. From Harper's Weekly, 5 July 1862…