Ephraim Webster

Ephraim Webster (June 30, 1762 - October 16, 1824) was the first Euro-American settler in Central New York when he arrived in 1786 to an area later named Syracuse. For three decades, the Onondagas trusted him more than any other non-tribe member.

Webster was a translator and acted as agent for the Onondagas on several land treaties with the State of New York and was instrumental in the eventual settlement by white pioneers of Syracuse, New York, although the Onondagas later felt betrayed by him.

Biography

Ephraim Webster was born on June 30, 1762, in Hampstead, New Hampshire, United States and was raised in Newbury, Vermont. He was the son of Ephraim Webster Sr. and Phebe Tucker. He had nine siblings. His mother died when he was a teenager and his father, son of Samuel Webster and Mary Kimball, remarried on January 8, 1778, in Chester, New Hampshire, to Sarah Colby Wells, a widow. Ephraim Webster Sr. was very well-written and left an extensive family diary.

Revolutionary war

In 1777, at age 15, he served as a private in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. During his time in service, he was called on by the commanders of Fort Ticonderoga in New York to volunteer with another soldier to swim Lake Champlain and carry dispatches to General Lincoln near Mount Independence, Vermont. The trip was a distance of and took place in the late autumn when the water was already quite cold. The two soldiers departed one evening and feared they would not make it alive. Webster completed the duty, however, nearly lost his life and had to be rescued by his companion, Wallace of Thetford.

Early life

At age 21, in 1783, he tried his hand at shoemaking, a skill his father, a tailor, insisted he learn, however, he tired of it after a year. According to his brother, "He seemingly inherited my dissatisfaction with leaving a destiny to a father's whim, and he left to seek his fortune. He tried his luck in the towns of Boston, Philadelphia and New York City, but his fortune was not to be found in a city."

Webster was married to an Onondaga woman named "One-Eyed Nancy" late 1780s, named so because of how she was blinded by smallpox. They later had a son. While on a hunting trip in Montgomery County, Webster slept in the barn of Danforth in Johnstown, New York. Webster's praise of Onondaga that Danforth's family and Comfort Tyler emigrated to the county and erected a home in the county.

Indian interpreter

Webster conceived the idea of locating to Upstate New York during the last period of the American Revolutionary War when he was stationed at Greenbush, New York, and became acquainted with a Mohawk Indian named Peter Gain. He went with Gain to his home on West Canada Creek and spent three months there without speaking a word of English during the entire time. By the time he left there he was fluent in the Indian language. Webster learned to speak or write a total of six Indian languages, and served as an interpreter for a salary of two dollars a day.

According to documents at the Onondaga Historical Association from reports by other pioneers such as Calvin Jackson, interviewed in 1837, who relayed that in 1793 he saw Webster "dressed in an Indian costume and painted (with) a jewel in his nose and ears. Had a squaw with him with one eye and a little boy with them. (They) called the boy William, but (he) has since gone by the name of Harry." Onondagas sold to the State of New York for $1,000 and annual payments of $430, along with 50 bushels of salt. at the Seneca Indian Reservation at Tonawanda, New York.

His will left all his possessions, including $2,000 worth of personal property, a large fortune for that time, to his second wife, Hannah and to their children despite the Onondagas belief that the land should naturally return to them. Some members of the family lived on the , later called the "Half-Mile" until the late 19th century. He left nothing in his will to his son Harry Webster.

After Webster's wife died, his son Harry Webster filed a suit in April, 1837 against Webster's family for some of the land inherited by his white half-siblings, however, he did not win.

Harry Webster went on to become the Iroquois Confederacy's spiritual leader before he died on January 28, 1864, at the age of 75 at Onondaga Castle.

Familial ties disputed

Harry's relation to Ephraim Webster was the subject of debate several for years. In a letter to the Syracuse Herald in 1899, Orris D. Webster, one of Webster's descendants, insisted Ephraim Webster never fathered any Onondaga children and claimed that Harry Webster had filed a "bogus lawsuit"

A lawsuit was filed and the trial began during which time, with Orris Webster not winning the lawsuit and later writing "they were beaten, lost their money and their case."

Legacy Webster's Pond in Syracuse, New York, was named after him.