USA > Indiana > Dearborn County > History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 8
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THE AMBUSCADE AND MASSACRE.
At last Colonel Laughery despaired of overtaking Clark's men before reaching the falls of the Ohio and. to obtain forage, they made a landing about ten o'clock in the morning on August 24. 1781, on the north bank of a wide- mouthed creek, about seven miles below the mouth of the Great Miami. Here they loosed their horses and let them graze in the tall grass. One of the party shot a buffalo and all, except a few detailed to watch the horses, were busy around the fire preparing a feast from the animal. Of a sudden and without warning, a withering volley of rifle balls poured from the shelter of the green wood which thickly covered the high bank. In an instant there ap- peared Indians in vast numbers, fully armed and ready to close in on the un- prepared whites. But, instead of stampeding or surrendering without struggle, the men ran to their boats, seized their guns and defended themselves as best they could under such circumstances. But the boats were unwieldy, the water shallow and their force so greatly weakened by the deadly fire from the ambuscaded savages that surrender was inevitable.
The Indians at once fell upon Colonel Laughery and massacred him, together with several other prisoners. More atrocities would have been com- mitted but for the arrival of the commanding chief, the celebrated Brant, who afterward apologized for the massacre. He declared that he did not approve of such wanton conduct, but that it was impossible to entirely control his Indians. They had murdered the white prisoners to avenge the massacre of Indian prisoners taken by General Broadhead's army on the Muskingum a few months previous. The Indians under Brant numbered upwards of three hundred and consisted of members of various tribes, among whom the prison- ers and plunder were divided in proportion to the number of warriors of each tribe engaged.
On the following day the Indians set out to return to the Delaware towns with their prisoners. There they were met by a party of British and Indians, commanded by Colonel Caldwell and accompanied by the famous renegades, Simon and James Girty and McKee, who claimed that they were on their way to the falls to attack George Rogers Clark. Thereupon, Brant, with the greater part of the Indians under him, turned with Colonel Caldwell toward the falls of the Ohio. Only enough of a force was left to take charge of the prisoners and spoils, which they separated and took to the towns to which they were assigned. The prisoners remained in captivity until the following year, which brought the Revolutionary War to a close. More than one-half of the number who left Pennsylvania under Colonel Laughery never returned.
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This account of the expedition is taken from the story written by Captain Orr. Another version was that of Lieut. Isaac Anderson, who kept a daily journal from the time he set out on the expedition until he returned. This is published in McBride's "Pioneer Biographies." The following excerpt from this diary is taken verbatim:
"JOURNAL.
"August Ist, 1781 .- We met at Colonel Carnahan's in order to form a body of men to join General Clark on the expedition against the Indians.
"Aug. 2d .- Rendezvoused at said place.
"Aug. 3rd .- Marched under command of Colonel Laughery to Maracle's mill, about 83 in number.
"Aug. 4th .- Crossed Youghagania :iver.
"Aug. 5th .- Marched to Devor's ferry.
"Aug. 6th .- To Raccoon settlement.
"Aug. 7th .- To Captain Mason's.
"Aug. 8th .- To Wheeling Fort, and found Clark was started down the river about twelve hours.
"Aug. 9th .- Col. Laughery sent a quartermaster and officer of the horse after him, which overtook him at middle Island and returned; then started all our foot troops on seven boats and our horses by land to Grave Creek.
"Aug. 13th .- Moved down to Fishing Creek; we took up Lieut. Baker and 16 men, deserting from Gen. Clark, and went that day to middle of Long Reach, where we stayed that night.
"Aug. 15th .- To the Three Islands, where we found Major Creacroft waiting for us with a horse-boat. He, with his guard, six men, started that night after Gen. Clark.
"Aug. 16th .- Colonel Laughery detailed Capt. Shannon with 7 men and letter after Gen. Clark, and we moved that day to the little Connaway (Kan- ahwa) with all our horses on board the boats.
"Aug. 17th .- Two men went out to hunt who never returned to us. We moved that day to Buffalo Island.
"Aug. 18th .- To Catfish Island.
"Aug. 19 .- To Bare Banks.
"Aug. 20th .- We met with two of Shannon's men, who told us they had put to shore to cook, below the mouth of the Siotha (Scioto) where Shannon sent them and a sergeant out to hunt. When they got about half a mile in the
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woods they heard a number of guns fire which they supposed to be Indians firing on the rest of the party, and they immediately took up the river to meet us; but, unfortunately, the sergeant's knife dropped on the ground and it ran directly through his foot, and he died of the wound in a few minutes. We sailed all night.
"Aug. 21st .- We moved to the Two Islands.
"Aug. 22nd .- To the Sassafres Bottom.
"Aug. 23rd .- We went all day and all night.
"Aug. 24th .- Col. Laughery ordered the boats to land on the Indian shore, about ten miles below the mouth of the great Meyamee (Miami) river to cook provisions and cut grass for the horses, when we were fired on by a party of Indians from the bank. We took to our boats, expecting to cross the river, and was fired on by another party in a number of canoes, and we soon became a prey to them. They killed the Col. and a number more after they were prisoners. The number of our killed was about forty. They marched us that night about eight miles up the river and encamped.
"Aug. 25 .- We marched eight miles up the Meyamee river and en- camped.
"Aug. 26th .- Lay in camp.
"Aug. 27th .- The party that took us was joined by one hundred white men under command of Capt. Thompson and three hundred Indians under command of Capt. McKee.
"Aug. 28th .- The whole of the Indians and whites went down against the settlements of Kentucky, excepting a sergeant and eighteen men, which were left to take care of sixteen prisoners and stores that were left there. We lay there until the fifteenth of Sept.
"Sept. 15th .- We started toward the Shawna towns on our way to Detroit."
In brief, the remainder of the journal follows: Lieutenant Anderson ar- rived at Detroit, October 11, and was confined to the citadel; was taken in a sloop to Ft. Niagara; thence to Montreal, where he succeeded in scaling the pickets and finally made his way back to his home in Pennsylvania, where he arrived in July, 1782.
Lieutenant Anderson did not forget the beautiful and fertile country which, as an Indian captive, he was forced to traverse northward from the battle at the mouth of the creek which was afterward to bear the name of Laughery. Several years after his return, he purchased a section of land on the west bank of Great Miami river, near the mouth of Indian creek, in Butler
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county, Ohio, and in 1812 removed thither with his family. There he resided until his death, in 1839, in his eighty-second year.
The battle in which Colonel Laughery was so disastrously defeated was the first conflict on record between the Indians and the whites on Indiana soil. It took place during the last year of the Revolutionary War and was in reality one of the battles of the Revolution, because the Indians engaged were allies of the British. Indeed, had not the British and renegades, like the notorious Girty brothers, coached the Indians and urged them to wage the kind of war- fare for which the whites could not be prepared, the outcome of practically all the early expeditions against the Indians would have been favorable to the whites.
But the far-reaching result of this conflict is only seen by hypothesis. Had Laughery and his men intact joined General Clark at the falls of the Ohio, there would have been a sufficient number to have undertaken the movement against Detroit. The latter post at that time was poorly garrisoned and was under incompetent command. The British were struggling des- perately in the East to hold their colonial possessions and had neither time nor men to waste on the defense of such a post as Detroit, which relatively was of no importance. . Yet, Detroit was the key to the whole West and North at that time. With its fall would have passed into the hands of the continental authorities the absolute control of the western three of the great lakes and eventually, when the boundary treaty with England was struck, Canada would have been a part of the United States.
To some, perhaps, these deductions may seem a trifle fanciful. Very well. Just consider the words of General Washington when he wrote to Gov- ernor Jefferson, saying: "I have ever been of the opinion that the reduction of Detroit would be the only certain means of giving peace and security to the whole western frontier, and I have consequently had my eye on that object." It was the one great objective point in the West. It was a recognized fact by such men as Washington and Jefferson that Gen. George Rogers Clark ·was the one man whose absolute familiarity with the West and with the Indian character fitted him to lead such an expedition.
We have seen how General Clark endeavored to equip such an expedition. We have recounted the disheartening failures that he met with and how he determined to prosecute the plan at all events, no matter what the opposition was. Yet, even after he actually began his movement, he was harassed and embarrassed by desertion, insurrection and mutiny. Finally, however. he ar- rived at the falls of the Ohio to await the coming of Colonel Laughery and his
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men. The utter failure of these reinforcements to come, spoiled what was destined to be the most daring and carefully-planned campaign of those stirring times.
Today, a short distance below the mouth of Laughery creek, and the spot where the massacre took place, is located the beautiful and luxurious Laughery Club, which is owned and maintained by Cincinnati business men as a place for out-of-doors recreation. There is no more ideally situated country club in the whole country, and the luxury and liberal hospitality on fete occasions are well known from ocean to ocean.
As for the battlefield itself, it is marked by a government light, placed high on the bank, where the Indians lay in ambush. Here the light shines forth at night as a guide to Ohio river pilots.
TREATY OF FT. FINNEY.
Ft. Finney was erected in the autumn of 1785 for the purpose of pro- tecting the United States commissioners and troops during the negotiations with the Indians preliminary to the treaty there entered into on January 31, 1786. The fort stood on the bank of the Ohio, just above the mouth of the Miami river. It had been resolved by Congress, in March, 1785, to hold a treaty with the Indians of the Wabash and other parts of Indiana at Vin- cennes, June 20, 1785. This place of meeting was afterward changed to the mouth of the Great Miami. The three men representing the United States were George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Samuel H. Parsons Unavoidable circumstances caused the date of the meeting to be postponed until the winter of 1785-86. The Wabash Indians refused to attend on ac- count of a growing spirit of hostility. But some of the chiefs and warriors of the Shawnees and a few Delawares and Wyandots finally met with the commissioners.
In 1860 the journal of Maj. Ebenezer Denny was published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society and contained a detailed account of the movements of the troops during the negotiations opened by the commissioners with the tardily assembled Indians.
In October, 1785, Lieutenant Denny was ordered to embark for the Great Miami in company with Generals Butler and Parsons, commissioners instructed to treat with the Wyandot, Delaware and Shawnee tribes of In- dians. The treaty proposed was to be supplementary to the one effected at Ft. McIntosh in January, 1785, concerning which there had been complaints among the Indians, and was principally intended to include the Shawnees
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who were not included in the treaty at Ft. McIntosh. The company to which Lieutenant Denny was attached was commanded by Captain Finney, and numbered about seventy men. The fleet bearing the commissioners and troops left Ft. Pitt early in October, and consisted of twelve small keel-boats and batteaux, bearing the troops and goods for the Indians, with two large Ken- tucky flats to carry horses, cattle, etc. The arrival at North Bend and the erection of Ft. Finney are given in the following extract from Denny's journal :
"Oct. 22nd .- Arrived at mouth of Great Miami. Best ground for our station about a mile above the mouth where the boats were brought, and everything unloaded. All hands set to work chopping, clearing, etc., and preparing timber for block-houses and pickets, and on the 8th inst. (Novem- ber) had ourselves enclosed; hoisted United States flag, and christened the place Fort Finney, in compliment to Lieut. Finney, the commanding officer. Our work is a square stockade fort, substantial block-houses, two stories, twenty-four by eighteen feet in each angle, contains about one hundred feet of stout pickets, four feet in the ground, and nine feet above, situated one hundred and fifty yards from the river on a rising second bank. A building eighteen by twenty feet, within the east and west curtains, for the accommo- dation and reception of contractors' stores and Indian goods; and one small, but strong building, center of north curtain, for magazine. A council-house twenty by sixty, detached, but within gunshot. Commissioners and their followers pitch their tents within the fort, and erect wooden chimneys."
The season was very favorable but cool, and the men were employed for some time finishing the block-houses and clearing off the timber and brush for some distance outside. Gen. George Rogers Clark came up from the falls of the Ohio and joined the other commissioners a few days later. On the 24th of November Major Denny noted the arrival of messengers, who set out from Pittsburgh to the Indian towns to invite the Indians to a treaty at Ft. Finney. They were accompanied by six chiefs of the Shawnees, Wyandot and Dela- ware nations, namely : Captain Johnny, Half King, Crane, Pipe, Wingman and White-Eyes, "all glad to see us, brothers"; some grog and smoke were produced. On the 27th, "about one hundred Indians assemble and are camped a couple of miles from us; the greatest part Wyandots; a few Delawares." On the 5th of December Major Denny makes entry: "Generals Clark, But- ler and Parsons leave us on a visit to the falls of the Ohio, about one hundred and fifty miles below. Captain Finney, with a party of soldiers in boats, go to Big Bone Lick, thirty miles down; dig up and collect some astonishing large bones."
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On the 20th of December the commissioners returned from the falls and were disappointed at not finding more Indians assembled. Those who had come were principally from the Wyandots and Delawares, with whom the treaty at Ft. McIntosh was made. The Shawnees, for whom, primarily, the treaty was intended, were loath to attend. Later, it was ascertained that the notorious Simon Girty was again at the bottom of this, as he was of many of the inexplicable and discouraging affairs of that time. The renegade was using all of his nefarious powers of persuasion to prevent the Shawnee tribe from attending the treaty.
Later, however, on January 14, 1786. there appeared at Ft. Finney about one hundred and fifty Shawnee men and eighty women, who visited the fort and were received with high honors. The commissioners directed that a party of soldiers should cook and serve out provisions for them in the council- house. As the Shawnees always selected their old and decrepid women to do the cooking, when they saw United States soldiers carrying kettles of pro- visions to them they laughed and shouted in derision. They approached the fort in a stately manner, with Indian music beaten on a keg drum and singing. The Wyandots separated themselves from the others by pitching their camp on the bank of the Great Miami about three miles from Ft. Finney.
Of all the men of the earlier frontiersmen, there were none who, better than Gen. George Rogers Clark, knew the Indian character. During the proceeding about to begin it was that thorough knowledge, gained throughout years of dealing with the wily and treacherous savage, that saved trouble with the assembled Indians on the spot and probably a severe loss of lives. General Clark was a short, thick-set man, with sandy hair, stern, cold blue eyes. and bore an air of one used to being obeyed. On account of some petty jealousies, he kept apart from his colleagues of the commission, but he was on very friendly and familiar terms with Lieutenant Denny and often invited him to spend his evening with him in his tent, where he talked freely concerning his adventures and varied experiences.
The Shawnees, still keyed with the doubt and suspicion with which Simon Girty had poisoned them, came to the fort in no friendly spirit. Three hun- dred of their warriors, in their paint and feathers, on January 14, filed into the council-house. Their demeanor was sullen and haughty as they faced the commissioners, who sat at a table in the center of the chamber. The scene that followed is best described in the "Encyclopedia Americana." by an officer who was present:
"On the part of the Indians, an old council sachem and a war chief took
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the lead. The latter, a tall, raw-boned fellow with an impudent and villainous look, made a boisterous speech, which operated effectually on the passions of the Indians, who set up a prodigious whoop at every pause. He concluded by presenting a black and white wampum, to signify that they were prepared for either event, peace or war. Clark exhibited the same unaltered and careless countenance he had shown during the whole scene, his head leaning on his hand and his elbow resting on the table. He raised his cane a little and pushed the sacred wampum off the table with little ceremony. Every Indian at the same time started from his seat with one of those sudden, simultaneous and peculiar savage sounds which startle and disconcert the stoutest heart, and can neither be described nor forgotten.
"At this juncture Clark arose. The scrutinizing eye lowered at his glance. He stamped his foot on the prostrate and insulted symbol and ordered them to leave the hall. They did so, apparently involuntarily. They were heard all night, debating in the bushes near the fort. The raw-boned chief was for war; the old sachem was for peace. The latter prevailed and the next morning they came back and sued for peace."
The troops remained at Ft. Finney for several months after the signing of the treaty, on January 31, 1786. A majority of the men in the garrison were Irish, and celebrated St. Patrick's day by getting drunk, in the evening only six men being fit for duty. One of the men died the next day from over-indulgence in liquor. On the 25th of March the block-house, on the bank of the river, was completed to guard the boats. The 4th of July was celebrated by firing three rounds from small arms and three from the field pieces. Lieutenant Denny's diary at the fort closes in July, 1786, when he was ordered to Ft. Harmar. Just at what time Ft. Finney was abandoned is not known, but it was before Judge John Cleves Symmes made his settle- ment at North Bend.
By the treaty of Ft. Finney the United States were acknowledged to be the sole and absolute sovereign of all the territory ceded to them by the treaty with Great Britain in 1784. Hunting grounds, lying chiefly in Indiana, were allotted the Shawnees as follows :
"The United States do allot to the Shawnee nation lands within said territory, to live and hunt upon, beginning at the south line of the lands allotted to the Wyandot and Delaware nations, at the place where the main branch of the Great Miami, which falls into the Ohio, intersects said line; thence down the river Miami to the fort of that river next below the old fort, which was taken by the French in one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two; (7)
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thence due west to the river De La Panse; thence down that river to the Wabash; beyond which lines none of the citizens of the United States shall settle, nor disturb the Shawnees in their settlement possessions."
The treaty at Ft. Finney entirely failed in securing peace, as the tribes more distant than the Shawnees were in no way disposed to cease their incur- sions. But this treaty, like other treaties. would have been of great importance if the provisions of it had been faithfully carried out by the Indians. The terms of the treaty clearly defined the territories to be occupied by them and provided against trespassing thereon by the whites, besides containing other salutary provisions. But, unfortunately, they were not lived up to in good faith, and there is considerable reason to suppose that those who signed the treaty did not intend to abide by its tenets. Another reason for the treaty of Ft. Finney, in common with almost every other Indian treaty, being broken, was that all Indian tribes had in their midst certain adventurers who eternally favored war and were open in their declaration that they would never be bound by a treaty. In fine, there seems to be plenty of reason to entertain the suspicion that the Indians attending the councils and signing the treaties that were entered into, were actuated more by a desire to receive the presents from the whites and to have a good time than to promote general peace or anything else. When hostilities ceased, many years after the ending of the Revolutionary War, it can hardly be said that the contest was ended. Rather was it suspended. But it cannot justly be said that the treaties were of no avail. On the contrary, each succeeding treaty brought the savage to a closer understanding of the ways of civilization and consequently gave impetus to the necessarily slow process of settling in a wilderness and building for the future with some idea of security.
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CHPATER VI.
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF DEARBORN COUNTY.
It is, perhaps, well, before beginning the story of the first settlements in Dearborn county, to narrate the trend of the advancing column of civiliza- tion which slowly felt its way down the Ohio river. Each fresh victory over the Indians by the military trail blazers gave fresh impetus to the movement. Slowly and gradually the lines widened, always pushing forward. The doubt and despair that at times threatened to conquer the ardor of the doughty adventurers were swept aside by the enthusiasm that they gained upon sight of the rich and fertile country confronting them. Stories of the vastness and remarkable fertility of the new country got back to "the old folks at home" and caused new expeditions to be fitted out. And so, founded in the begin- ning on the hope and faith of the Jason of old, the people came to find a ver- itable "golden fleece" in another form.
We of today cannot and, perhaps, will refuse to try to appreciate what we owe to these people who made possible for us the things which we now enjoy. The hardships they suffered will never be known and the privations that were theirs were most of the time taxing the very limit of human endur- ance. But the general fortitude and indomitable courage, in the face of these disheartening crises, is proof in plenty that these men had a mission when they set out. They came to prepare a home for us, and-so far as they went-they succeeded. We who read the stories of other days know that they made mistakes. They founded town sites in places where it was phys- ically impossible to build a town that, growing with the country, should take its place among the cities. They made other mistakes, but it should not be for us to criticise too severely these little short-comings. We should rather look at the end they achieved. Measured by this, they were successful in that they did what they set out to do.
The first settlement of importance along the Ohio river in the vicinity of Dearborn county was at Tanner's Station, where Petersburg, Kentucky, now stands. In April, 1785, a party from Pennsylvania, composed of John Hindman, William West, John Simmons, John Seft and the aged Mr. Carlin, together with their families, settled on the ground claimed by Rev. John Tanner, and cleared forty acres opposite the mouth of a creek which was
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