Long before the white men came to settle in what is now Cayuga County, or even before the first white man stepped on American soil, bands of Indians blazed a trail across what is now New York state from Buffalo to Albany. This famous trail led across Cayuga Lake to what is now known as “David” or “Cowing's Point,” eastward through the woods to where the New York Central Railroad crosses the present Genesee turnpike at Aurelius station and on through what is now the Genesee highway to the Hudson River. It was known in later years as the “Indian Trail.”

The Cayuga Nation was one of the tribes of the “Iroquois Confederacy,” which occupied this part of the “Lakes Region.” There were Six Nations belonging to this Confederacy: the Cayugas, the Senecas, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Mohawks, and the Tuscaroras. These tribes were accustomed to holding a meeting or council table at some site along the “Indian Trail,” usually around some large tree. A large maple tree stood at Cowing's Point where the Six Nations sometimes held their councils. A spring is still running on that point where once was quenched the thirst of Indians, and later that of the white men. Many Indian relics were found on that point by Cyrus Davis, who many years later farmed it.

There is an Indian Legend in connection with the Cayuga. It seems that a great many years ago this tribe of Indians was led eastward through the Lakes region by their devoted chief “Ha-wen-ne-yu.” He was partly human and partly divine. All went well with the Cayugas until they came to what is now known as the “Cayuga-Montezuma Marshes,” where they encountered a monstrous eagle. They gave battle, and after much hardship, they killed the horrible creature.

After that, the Indians were able to catch a great deal of game. It was written by the Rev. Peter Raffeix, a Jesuit missionary, “more than a thousand deer are killed every year in the neighborhood of Cayuga. Fishing for both the salmon and the eel and for other sorts of fish is as abundant as at Onondaga. Four leagues distant from here on the brink of the river, I have seen within a small space 800 or 1,000 are often caught at a single stroke of the net.”

Another Indian legend concerns a huge mosquito, which infected the Cayuga-Montezuma Marshes and prevented the hunting of game. So one day Ha-wen-ne-yu, the famous warrior, came upon the beast, pursued it, and chased it all around the Great Lakes and surrounding country, until he at last slew it in the neighborhood of Cayuga Lake. “The blood flowing from his lifeless body gave birth, to innumerable swarms of small mosquitoes, which still linger about the place of his death.” Tradition has given us a reason for the many little mosquitoes, which are abundant to this day.

John Harris came in 1788 and settled on the Cayuga Reservation. He built his first log cabin just off the Indian Trail, on what was now just a little north of “Brick House,” formerly owned by the late Cyrus Davis.

The Harris' cabin has since been destroyed. Thus the village of Cayuga was born. He was the first white man to settle and trade among the Cayuga Indians.

He was the first white settler in the township of Aurelius, and one of, if not the first, in Cayuga County.

Ruth Probst is historian for the town of Aurelius.