The Story of Frenchman's Island on Lake Oneida and the Family Who Settled on it in 1791.

White Creek, NY
December 21 - 28, 2019

     Quite a number of years ago now, I had read Alexis De Toqueville’s account of his 1831 visit to Lake Oneida in Central New York and became interested in his quest to find a mysterious Frenchman and his wife who had settled on an island in the lake long before he trekked there. He had read a book in France called “Voyage au lac Oneida”. In Alexis’ own words:

“The author related that a
young Frenchman and his wife, driven from their country by the storms of our first revolution, sought an asylum in one of the islands on the lake. There, separated from the whole world, far from the tempests of Europe, and cast off by the society in which they were born, they lived for each other, and found mutual consolation in their misfortune.
This book had left a deep and lasting impression on my mind. Whether its effect on me were due to the
talent of the author, to the real charm of the incidents, or to my youth, I cannot say ; but the remembrance of the French couple on the Lake Oneida was never effaced from my memory.”

     The fact that I had driven by Lake Oneida numerous times when I was at college at SUNY Oswego and seen the islands in the distance only added to my interest.

      (Alexis seemingly never had any idea of their names, evidently the book he read [which isn’t available any more and was in French] did not name them). It is supposed, however, that it was a French translation of Sophie von La Roche’s German book made by Joachim Campe, who stripped a lot of things out of Sophie’s book and presented it as his own work. Supposedly one of those things was any reference to the French Revolution, but then why does De Toqueville write: “ driven from their country by the storms of our first revolution,”? I suspect he had a different pirated translation of Sophie’s book. Copyright in France at the time was very limited – like nonexistent.

     I was never able at the time to find out any more, but for some reason I started researching it again this morning and ended up spending (wasting?) much of the day on it! The task was made easier by being able to use the internet (non-existent in the late 1960’s) to search for sources, and harder by the myriad spellings and mis-spellings of names. There are many variants used by different people: Des Wattine, De Wattine, Von Wattine, Desvattines - the most common one in the Oneida Lake area, etc. Wattine could be spelled beginning with a W or V, have one or two t’s in it, an s on the end or not. There were a few almost unrecognizable spelling variants: Divity or Devitzy.

Introduction:


     In the 1790’s there was a German woman author named Sophie von La Roche. [ “La Roche was a prolific author, publishing novels, essays, and travelogues. Like Engel, she wrote to generate income when she lost her pension after the French occupation of the Rhineland in 1794. In 1798 she published her three volume Erscheinungen am See Oneida”i (Apparitions at Lake Oneida) “which is based on the true story of the Wattines family from French Flanders, yet also fictionalizes it”.]

     Her book was a “Robinsonade”, following the pattern of Daniel Defoe’s 1719 and still popular book “Robinson Crusoe”. To make it fit the pattern and also the French Revolution, she fictionalized much. The Wattines family did not really flee the French Revolution, they came over in 1786 due to financial considerations. They also did not immediately move to the island by choice, but because of the failure of the husband’s real estate and business ventures. They were also not cut off from everyone, being on the main water route west. By 1793 they were already becoming quite famous and by 1795 had had a lot of visitors. Sophie’s son Fritz and wife Elsy collected information and also actually visited the Wattines once after they had moved to New Rotterdam, (later called Constantia), on the north shore of the lake. Elsy wrote a iiletter to Sophie, which Sophie used with other stories and sources to write her novel.

     Sophie was also an early feminist, and used her book to promote the idea of education and equality for women.

     Most of the modern romanticized stories about the Des Wattines on Frenchman’s Island seem to have come from Sophie’s fictional book, yet the people actually existed and are listed among the first few settlers of the area. (The first name of the wife may well be a product of Sophie’s imagination, drawn from Rousseau. The accounts by visitors just refer to her as Madame or Mrs. Wattine. The husband’s first name of Carl may also be made up. I came across a reference that it was really Louis, but can’t access any real documentation of that. The last name, however, is accurate though spellings vary). Since I have not been able to prove their real first names, I will use the ones Sophie gave them in her book.

     So what is the true story?


The True Story

As Far as Can be Discerned





     Carl claimed to be a signeur near Lisle, France. There is no obvious mention of him among the French aristocracy. Carl and Emilie Des Wattine left France in 1786 after his father squandered much of the estate and Carl finished it off. They are reported to have come to Philadelphia at first, and then settled in New York City, a fairly standard path for French immigrants at the time, where Carl lost a lot of his remaining money on bad investments and partnered with a man who ran off with the rest. Neither father nor son seems to have managed money well, or been good judges of character. Carl seems to have soured on Americans and wanted to “get away from it all”, though of course his real motives were known only to himself. Central New York was beginning to open up at the time, so perhaps he decided that was the frontier where he could get away from people. Lake Oneida was on the main path west – coming west from Albany out the Mohawk River, portaging to Wood Creek at Fort Stanwix (Rome), down Wood Creek to Lake Oneida, and then upriver to Oswego and Lake Ontario. They settled in the Spring or summer of 1791 on what soon became known as Frenchman’s Island, but probably was unnamed at the timeiii.

     The first white resident of the area had been Oliver Stevens, who settled at Fort Brewerton in 1789. He was followed by Major Ryal Bingham, who also settled near Fort Brewerton at about the same time in 1791 that the Wattines settled on the island. A Mr. Bruce also settled on the future site of Constantia in 1791 or 1792. These four families were the only known white settlers in the whole area in 1791, outside of those at Fort Ontario.

     In the first year, they got land cleared, some crops in, and began a cabin. There was also a small kitchen separate from the main building with a bark roof. They were unable to complete the cabin adequately before winter, so left the Island and stayed with the Oneidas at Oneida Castle. Carl helped with hunting to keep the village supplied and seemed to get along well with the Oneidas. Their youngest daughter Camille was born during this time.

     Back in Albany and New York City, however, the land speculators were busy and on July 26 of 1791 John and Nicholas Roosevelt (yes, of the family of the future presidents!) had made an offer to pay 6d an acre for lands north of Oneida Lake. This proposal was amended several times, finally accepted by the State, and in December they applied to have it surveyediv.

     In June of 1792 the Desvatines were visited by Francis Adrian Vanderkempe and Baron De Zeng, who had undertaken a journey to examine the Roosevelt Purchase with a view to settlement. Arriving just at sunset, they describe the island as a pleasant place, with a very small cabin that was roofed over and a partially roofed over kitchen to the left, at the center of a circular clearing. The cabin contained a few trunks, a few chairs, an oval table, a double-barrel gun, two neat beds, and a collection of books. They were impressed with a stand of corn already 4 feet high in mid June, and also with the extensive garden behind the cabin. They mention that the four Desvatines lived there alone, without servants, neighbors, or even a cow. When Mr. Desvatines found they were going to Fort Ontario by canoe, he offered his bateaux to them, which they gratefully accepted. In July they returned from Fort Ontario (ruined but still garrisoned by the British!) after several adventures and brought back the bateaux. Mr. Desvatines gave them a supply of garden vegetables and accompanied them as far as Fish Creek, to obtain more corn from the Oneidas, leaving his wife and children alone on the Islandv.

     It is possible that the Desvantines spent the winter of 1792/93 on their island. It would have been very difficult. Though the island is described as having plentiful avian wildlife, that would have moved on south for the winter. From freeze-up until the lake was frozen deep enough to walk on, they would have been trapped there – and again in the spring break-up. There would have been no game on such a small island to hunt and they would be forced to survive on what they had managed to store. It seems likely that they again spent the winter with their Oneida friends, but there is no way to be sure.

     In the Spring of 1793 people began moving into the country in larger numbers. George Scriba had bought out the Roosevelts and started a settlement at the mouth of Bruce’s Creek, calling it “New Rotterdam”. The “New” was dropped by 1795 and it was eventually renamed Constantia, which it remains today. He built a sawmill and sold 100 acres on the north shore on easy terms to Carl Desvantine, who it is noted, was required to leave his islandvi. There is a story the Roosevelts made him leave, but that is unlikely. They were land speculators, never visited the area, and sold out to Scriba as soon as possible. Scriba needed settlers and may have made the condition part of his land sale to the Desvantines. It is unlikely the Desvantines ever returned to the island to live, though they may have maintained their garden there through 1793.

     In the Autumn, the new settlement was visited by Mr. Pharoux and Mr. Desjardins, who had left France July 1 and arrived on October 13. With them were engineer Marc Brunel and Baron De Zeng and 4 Indians. They represented the tragically doomed Castorland Company, formed in France to purchase 200,000 acres from William Constable and start a settlement north of the Black Rivervii. 1793 was an unusually dry year. They mention coming down Wood Creek with their campsites illuminated by the burning forestsviii. Everyone in New Rotterdam was sick, and dead fish were heaped along the shoreline. New Rotterdam is mentioned as consisting of Scriba’s mill with it’s inadequate dam, and three cabins. Mr. Desvartine is mentioned as living nearby, but being away hunting at the time. On the 31st they returned from the north country, having sneaked Brunel past the British and survived various other adventures. Mr. Vanderkempe came to see them at midnight and treated them to a feast of bear meat at Mr. Scriba’s house. They visited the Desvatines while there, and describe them as follows: “His house was as open as a cage” (no roof). “We found his wife and three young children as jovial as cupids. They made the most they could of their poor barrack, where they would be obliged to spend the winter, as from all appearance it could not be finished this season.” “He had at that time a couple of cows, which had been obtained by the sale of fine embroidered clothing, and his poultry yard contained a few fowls,; these were his sole possessions, except his ‘chance’ on the land.” The travelers mentioned Mr. Scriba’s intention to open a road to the mouth of Salmon Creek. They soon departed to the east. M. Desvatine accompanied them for some distance in a dilapidated canoeix.

     In 1794 and early 1795 a number of interesting events took place. Mr. Scriba built a 4-rod road to the mouth of Salmon Creek, where he established the town of Vera Cruz (one house – today’s New Haven/Mexico area) and repaired his dam at Rotterdam, which had washed out as predicted. It is obvious that Mr. Scriba intended to establish a bypass of the hated British Customs House at Oswego. Road widths were measured in rods at the time, one rod equaling 16 feet. One-rod roads were driveways and field roads, two-rod rods were the customary town roads, three-rod roads were the “Great Roads” between major population centers. Four-rod roads were almost unheard of, superhighways of the time! More money was sunk into building more houses at Rotterdam. It worked for a time, but Scriba sunk so much money into it that he eventually died nearly broke! There was a panic when the British began firing off their cannon to celebrate King George’s birthday! You can read further of these events in the “History of Oswego County”.

     There is no further mention of the Desvatines until June of 1795, when the Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, a French nobleman, passed through. He mentions about a dozen poor log houses at Rotterdam, built at Scriba’s expense. Besides these, there was only Mr. Vanderkempe’s 1000 acre farm and one other farm with a log house on it on the whole north shore of Oneida Lake. “The Duke describes him”, Desvantines, “as a man of thirty, gay and active, always laughing, accustomed to labor, complaining of nothing, and on good terms with all his neighbors. He exchanged work with them, and sold them the products of his well-cultivated garden. He was delighted at seeing a countryman, and, generous as ever, insisted on supplying the Duke with vegetables without price. After having sold his jewelry and his fine clothing, he had finally been obliged to dispose of his library to Mr. Vanderkempe, though he still retained several standard French works”. The three children before mentioned were all living. Madame Desvatines is portrayed by the gallant Duke as then only twenty-four years of age, though her oldest child was nearly ten. He says - “She appears bright and intelligent; makes hay, bread, and soap and does the kitchen work; yet her hands are quite delicate. She is lively, good, and has eyes of particularly good and agreeable expression.”

     La Rouchefoucauld evidently considered Desvatines’ troubles as largely owing to his unstable disposition and suggests that his Gallic devotion to other women had aroused some jealousy on the part of his wife, who was warmly attached to him. x

     This is the last definite mention of the Desvatines. There is a story that they were taken to Livingston Manor by someone of importance who knew the wife’s family, and from there went back to France. This is considered fanciful by Crisfield Johnson.

On July 15, 1796 Fort Ontario was transferred to the Americans and Scriba’s empire began to fall apart.

Dewitt Clinton, passing through in 1810, laying out a general route for the coming Erie Canal, describes Rotterdam as a “decayed settlement”, “11 miles from the inlet”, containing eight or ten houses. The Desvatines were obviously gone, but Clinton got a somewhat garbled account of them which indicates two things of interest – that the Desvatines had resided there 7 years, which if correct would mean they left in 1798, and that his (Desvatine’s) countrymen in Albany had made a subscription to enable him and his family to return to Francexi. Clinton also states that Frenchman’s Island is State Land, which means it was not part of the Roosevelt/Scriba Patent and there was no reason for the Desvatines to be forced off of it!

The Erie Canal, when finally built, was routed to the south of Oneida Lake and the old route west was abandoned.

It seems likely, then, that the Desvatines left Rotterdam in 1798 and returned to France soon after. None of them are buried on Frenchman’s Island, as popular legend suggests.

George Scriba died in 1836. His papers are at the State Library in Albany.

Scriba's Patent - Lake Oneida, Rotterdam, Frenchman's Island






Scriba Patent












iLa Roche, Sophie von, "Erscheinungen am See Oneida" (1798). Prose Fiction. 82.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sophiefiction/82

iiiJohnson, Crisfield. “History of Oswego County New York”. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts and Co., 1877. P. 55. Available at: https://www.getsfreebook.com/download/?id=byJEAQAAMAAJ

iv“Calendar of New York Colonial Manuscripts, Indorsed Land Papers in the Office of the Secretary of State of New York. 1643 – 1803”. Albany: Weed, Parsons, and Co. Printers and Publishers. 1864. Pp. 869, 879. Available at: https://archive.org/details/calendarofnycolo00alba/page/n8

vJohnson, Crisfield. “History of Oswego County New York”. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts and Co., 1877. Pp. 46, 47. Available at: https://www.getsfreebook.com/download/?id=byJEAQAAMAAJ

viiAppleton, John. “Journal de Castorland”. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Boston: John Wilson and Son. 1864. This is a summary and doesn’t mention the Desvatines much.

viiiIbid. pp. 7, 8.

ixJohnson, Crisfield. “History of Oswego County New York”. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts and Co., 1877. Pp. 48, 49. Available at: https://www.getsfreebook.com/download/?id=byJEAQAAMAAJ

xIbid. P. 51.

xiCampbell, William W. The Life and Writings of DeWitt Clinton. DeWitt Clinton, His Private Canal Journal – 1810. Part 1. July 14th. Available at: https://www.eriecanal.org/texts/Campbell/chap06-1.html#OneidaLake
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