“The highest elevation of land in the town [of Savannah] is Fort Hill, so named from an ancient earthwork discovered upon its extreme summit. It is supposed to have been a work of defense, but aside from this its history is buried in oblivion. It is situated near Seneca River south of the railroad. The old Jesuit “Relations” notice a mission as existing on this hill about 1657. It was established by Father René Menard.”  (Cowles. “Landmarks of Wayne County” p. 347. published 1895)

One of the five original Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) confederacy, the Cayuga – “People of the Great Swamp” – Goyogoyen or Oiogoen as called by the French Jesuits, lay between the Onondaga to the east and the Seneca to the west. Around the time of the French Jesuit missions during the mid to late 1600s, there were three Cayuga villages: Goyogoyen (Cayuga), the main village, which was located south of Union Springs on Cayuga Lake; Tiehero located at the north end of Cayuga Lake on the east side of the Seneca River; and Onontare (Onnontare) or St. René (after Father René Menard) reputed to be located at a place named Fort Hill in the town of Savannah.  Onnontaré translates to “on a hill.” 

The late Harold Secor of Savannah, an amateur archeologist and local historian, compiled a book in 1987 titled “Pre-History of the Savannah, New York Area: 9000 B.C. to 1700 A.D.”  Filled with drawings, charts, and details of various Native American sites in Savannah, Secor lists some 29 known sites where artifacts of the Cayuga and Owasco (pre-Iroquois’ peoples) have been found. A fascinating treatise, Secor expounds about many of the artifact locations located within and around Crusoe Island, Crusoe Creek, and the Seneca River – the most easterly boundary of southeastern Savannah and Cayuga County.  

Of Fort Hill, Secor writes: “There is an early Owasco Village Site on top of Fort Hill, south of Savannah Village. Early settlers could see an earth ring on the north side of the top of the hill when it was cleared. There was a deposit of refuse on the east slope of the hill near the site of the Palisade Ring. The Owasco material here is related to the Owasco material on the Dhondt Site which lies below Fort Hill to the east about ½ mile away.”

In his 1883 “Military History of Wayne County” Lewis Clark briefly referenced the Jesuit mission at Fort Hill. In August of 1656, setting out from Onondaga, where the Jesuits had been since 1653, “Fathers Chaumont and Menard set out to answer the invitations of the Cayugas and Seneca. The former leaving Menard at Cayuga, proceeding to the populous village of the Senecas.”  Menard stayed with the Cayuga for two years. In 1658, Menard was recalled to Onondaga so that he and other missionaries could return to Quebec, as the ongoing war between the Iroquois and French was escalating.    

Clark continues to explain that there were possibly three Jesuit mission locations within Cayuga territory. “One in the vicinity of Union Springs, Cayuga County; a second near the foot of Cayuga lake, not far from the railroad bridge, and a third farther north at Fort Hill, Savannah. There may have been other points where mission work was done to some extent.” Lewis also goes on to discuss a potential mission site in Clyde.  (Clark pages 70-72.)

Compiled by Rosa Fox, Town of Huron Historian.