Ephraim Webster (June 30, 1762 - October 16, 1824) was the first white 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."
Although he could make a living off of city jobs, Webster a wanted to be a frontiersman and went to Albany, New York, before heading out into the wilderness where he met an Indian hunting party.
In his brother's words;
Settler and trader
In 1786, at age 24, he arrived in Onondaga Hollow to make trade with the Onondagas. Webster eventually became the first white person to permanently settle in what later became Onondaga County.
He built a trading post on a bank of Onondaga Creek, close to Onondaga Lake. According to his father, he became accostumed to Indian traditions and made a career off of trading them rum and ammunition."
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.
Although he had the trading post on the south shore of Onondaga Lake, Webster was afraid of getting swamp fever, so moved inland to Onondaga Hollow in 1788 and established Onondaga County's first permanent settlement.
In the spring of 1788, Webster used his influence with the Onondagas to get their consent to bring Major Asa Danforth from Montgomery County to Onondaga. Danforth was the second white man to settle in the area. 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."