USA > Massachusetts > Our western border : its life, combats, adventures, forays, massacres, captivities, scouts, red chiefs, pioneer women, one hundred years ago, containing the cream of all the rare old border chronicles > Part 44
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But soon the low, depraved, vagabondish " Indian trader," with his cheap daubs, gewgaws and abominable whiskey, made his appearance ; perverting and demoralizing the faithful, sowing jealousies, and creating great trouble generally. In the meantime, persistent invitations had been extended to the Moravians by the Great Council of Delawares in Ohio, to come further west and settle near them on the Muskingum. This invitation was soon after more urgently repeated by the great and good Delaware chief, Netawatwees, backed by the Wyandot chiefs, who promised all the land they needed and constant protection.
In '75 this invitation was accepted, and, a large number of disciples from east of the mountains having migrated, Friedenstadt was aban- doned the next year for the new village of Schoenbrun, (Beautiful Spring,) on the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, some going by land, and twenty-two large canoes going by water down the Beaver and Ohio, and then up the Muskingum nearly two hundred miles.
It would take many pages even to briefly relate the varied and deeply interesting history of the Christian villages located in those years on this river. Schoenbrun was followed by Gnadenhutten ; then by Lich- tenau, and when, in '79, that village had to be abandoned, because lying directly on the great war path between the British Indians and the American borders, was followed by Salem.
These three all grew fat and flourished. Indians crowded in from all sides. Even one tribe of Miami Shawnees moved near to be under their benign influence. The reports of the love, harmony and abun- dance which existed among these three communities of converts spread far and near, and exercised a most happy influence. Their fields of waving corn could be counted by the hundred acres; the hills were dotted with fine horses and cattle; while droves of hogs roamed and
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GOD'S MIGHTY WORK IN THE WILDERNESS.
fattened in the woods. Chapels, schools, houses and workshops were built, and the voice of prayer and praise was alternated with the busy hum of industry. On still nights the inhabitants of each village could hear the sounds of the church bell from the neighboring village; rude cabins made way for comfortable two-story houses of hewn logs; travel- ing bands of Indians were always treated hospitably and fed with abun- dance and variety ; war, and all that led to or made for it, was forever forsworn, and every tribe in Ohio saw, heard, understood and won- dered.
Alas ! this was too good a state of things to last ! The contrast was too marked. Prosperity begets envy, and those bereft of everything soon learn to hate those who are blessed with everything. The con- jurers and "medicines " of the various tribes saw "an unknown God" set up for worship; felt their own power and influence waning, and denounced the new religion as making squaws of their chiefs and war- riors. They execrated the "praying Indians" for their neutrality ; made border-scalpers return by their towns so as to draw on them the vengeance of the whites; accused them of constantly conveying news to Forts Pitt and McIntosh, so that all Indian raids aborted.
In all this they were aided and even surpassed by those three artful and desperate tories and renegades, Girty, Elliott and McKee, who were constantly, like Saul of Tarsus, "breathing out threatenings and slaugh- ter against the disciples of the Lord." They all saw that the Delaware nation persisted in maintaining strict neutrality in the war between the British and Americans, and made repeated efforts first to sow dissen- sions; then break up the Moravian towns; then waylay and kill the mis- sionaries, and, all these failing, to make the British at Detroit, and Pomoacon, the Huron Half King, remove the "praying Indians" back out of the way.
The missionary Senseman had been attacked near Schoenbrun; Ed- wards and Young were shot at while planting potatoes near Gnaden- hutten; Heckewelder had been thrice waylaid and assaulted; while Zeisberger had been ambushed by a hired gang of eight Mingoes. Just as Simon Girty, their leader, leaped into the path before him, shouting, "This is the man; now do your work as promised," some Delaware hunters providentially appeared and effected a rescue. If any was more persistent in his hatred to the Moravians than Girty, it was Elliott, who was infinitely more artful and sneaking. Pipe, whose prophetess wife had been finally converted to the new doctrines, was quite as bad and hateful as either. If Girty and Elliott were the crafty, designing plotters, Pipe and the Huron Half King, Pomoacon, were the pliant tools. We have already related how Pipe at length succeeded in dividing the Lenni-
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Lenape in two, taking with him the Wolf tribe, which was for war, and leaving the Turtle tribe, which was for peace, on the Muskingum.
Alas! for the worried and harrowed .Moravian towns, their great and good protector, Netawatwees, had died at Fort Pitt in '76, desiring, as his last will and testament, that his nation should embrace the Gospel. His successor, the greater Captain White Eyes, although, like King Agrippa, "almost persuaded to be a Christian," had contented himself with remaining their staunch and unwavering friend, and had died the very next year. Soon after, the young chief who was lineally to suc- ceed them, was compelled, by Pipe and tribal dissensions, to move with his guardians, Killbuck and Big Cat, to Smoky Island, under the pro- tecting guns of Fort Pitt.
What more was left for the peeling and scattering of these persecuted heathen converts? The ignoble trio of tories and deserters from Fort Pitt having been baffled in all their bad schemes, now applied for aid to the Six Nations of New York, who claimed all the Ohio soil and a pro- tectorate over the western tribes. These steady friends of the British would not openly interfere, but were found ready enough to relegate the cowardly business to others, so they sent to the Chippewas and Ot- tawas the following pleasant message: "We herewith make you a present of the Christian Indians on the Muskingum to make broth of." These two nations were too proud to engage in such contemptible work, alleging that "their 'Grandfather' had done them no injury." The same sum- mons was then sent to the Wyandots, who were nearly connected with the Six Nations, but even they at first refused, since the Delawares were their "cousins," and they had formerly contracted to be protectors of the Christian Indians.
POMOACON DESTROYS TOWNS AND CARRIES MORAVIANS CAPTIVE.
The machinations of Girty, Pipe and the rest soon persuaded the Half King to lead a hostile expedition against the Moravian towns. Accord- ingly, with a cohort of three hundred chosen warriors, Pomoacon "came down like a wolf on the fold." British guns were in their hands; the British flag waved over them, and Elliott, a British captain, was at their head. It was either removal or death.
Great and unspeakable was the consternation among these three peace- ful communities at the sudden appearance of so many fierce and hostile warriors. The gist of the Half King's commands was that the believing Indians "were sitting just half way between two powerful, angry gods, who stood with their mouths wide open and looking ferociously at each other; that if they didn't move back out of the road they would be
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TOWNS DESTROYED AND MORAVIANS CAPTURED.
ground to powder by the teeth of either one or the other, or perhaps by both. He urged them not to stand stupidly gazing at their horses, flocks and standing crops, but to rise, take their teachers, and he would lead them to a fat and rich place, near his own town, where game, fish and corn were plenty."
No use to argue! A whole week was spent in that way, the unruly rabble becoming each day more violent and aggressive, wantonly shoot- ing down cattle, pillaging houses, and riding over fenced grounds. The interception of some messengers who had secretly been dispatched to Fort Pitt, and the escape thither of a squaw who had ridden off Pipe's famous riding horse, brought matters to a crisis, and the missionaries and their chief assistants were arrested and menaced with death. This so alarmed the more timid of the congregations that they finally con- sented to leave their beautiful villages behind, and go whither their cruel and merciless persecutors directed.
The last parting was a most touching one. The chapel was thrown open and crowded with people, many of the heathen savages having also flocked in. After hymn singing by the united congregations, all joining their sad wails together, Zeisberger, their most beloved minis- ter, calmly arose and preached a touching and most powerful sermon from Isaiah liv : 8-" In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee. saith the Lord, thy Redeemer."
The scene then presented was certainly one of very extraordinary interest. The venerable missionary was most profoundly grieved and touched, and discoursed with unwonted force and feeling; Joachim, the native chapel interpreter, spoke with equal freedom and unction, and as his clear, ringing tones resounded through the crowded assem- blage, weeping and wailings arose on all sides. It was like an inspira- tion-as if the tongue had been " touched with a live coal from off the altar." Even the on-looking heathen were moved to tears.
But why dwell longer on these sad and harrowing scenes? These persecuted Christians, "hunted like a partridge upon the mountain," placed their beloved pastors in their midst, and took up their melan- choly pilgrimage for the distant Sandusky ; all their comfortable homes abandoned ; over three hundred acres of standing corn left in the ear ; most of their cattle shot or driven to the woods; their bountiful stores of meat, honey, tools, &c., left behind, and nothing to look forward to but a dreary Winter of cold and privations.
They were just a month on their way, and suffered untold hardships. But these were as nothing to what followed. The promised Paradise turned out a bleak, wintry desert. The wretched victims were cast 26
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adrift in the barren woods, while the Half King and his exultant followers continued on to their own town. Some miserable hovels were knocked up. Many of their cattle now died of absolute starvation, and amid want, pinching cold, and sick and starving children, passed the terrible Winter of '81. Added to all this, their missionaries were now dragged to Detroit and confronted with Pipe, their chief tormentor and accuser.
On being ordered by the British commandant, De Peyster, to make good his constant charges against the Muskingum Moravians, that trucu- lent worthy, much to the surprise of all, called on his chiefs to "get on their legs and speak." Alas! these were utterly dumb! A second com- mand, and Pipe arose in a most embarrassed manner, and recalled all he had ever said against the Moravians; taking the blame on himself and tribe, and concluded with the request that the missionaries should be treated well, and sent back to their suffering congregations. Being thus triumphantly acquitted, this was done, De Peyster making all the amends in his power by sending with them food, clothes and his best wishes.
The year 1782 opened very miserably for the poor wanderers. They had, it is true, built a new chapel and continued their devotions, but suffered so terribly from cold and want of provisions, that many sick- ened and died. They were straitened to that degree as to be obliged to live on the carcasses of their starved cattle, and many sucking babes perished miserably. Each grown person was reduced to one pint of corn per day. The famine now increased; corn advanced to half a dollar per quart, and very little to be had at that ; their children dis- tressed them by their constant wails for food, and, to save them and theirs from sheer starvation, they concluded to return to their forsaken towns on the Muskingum, and gather the corn from the large crops they had left standing in the ear. They accordingly set out-men, women and children, with horses to bring back the food-in three divisions, and numbering one hundred and fifty souls.
Girty and the Half King all this time continued increasingly hostile. Their object was to drive the "praying Indians" out of the country altogether. To this end new charges were trumped up against the mis- sionaries, the Half King threatening that if they were not removed he " would know what to do." A special order from Detroit was sent to Girty to conduct them again to Detroit, and should they refuse to come, Pomoacon was bidden to aid him.
The grief and consternation of the poor Indians when they found they must lose their pastors and teachers, was indescribable. They lost both sleep and appetite, and hurried off messengers to hasten back the expedition which had left for the Muskingum in quest of corn. Alas!
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HORRIBLE MASSACRE OF MORAVIANS AT GNADENHUTTEN.
most of these were fated never to come back, or to look again on the faces of their beloved teachers.
On March 14th, just as the missionaries were preparing to set off, they heard the "alarm yell " sound, and, on going out, found a " run- ner " returning from the Muskingum with the sad news that while the one hundred and fifty Indians were busy gathering their maize, a party of Virginians had come upon them and made them all prisoners, killing some and taking the remainder to Pittsburgh.
With this heavy news the missionaries started. How would their hearts have bled had they known the whole dread story, in all its horrid and sickening details! They surely must have concluded that the Half King's rhetorical figure was not overdrawn, and that between the two angry gods standing opposed to each other with mouths open, the one on the Sandusky and the other on the Ohio, they and their flocks were being ground to powder.
HORRIBLE MASSACRE OF MORAVIANS AT GNADENHUTTEN.
In order to render the account of the Gnadenhutten massacre more actual to our readers, we borrow a chapter from our Historical Work of " Simon Girty, the Renegade." The narration therein given is faith- ful to history, having been carefully gathered from every reliable source, while the dialogue style makes the whole drama, as it were, more present and realistic. In order to a fuller understanding of the scene presented, we may premise that two companies of border scouts, out on an Indian trail in search of a party of captives, meet and encamp by appointment -only two months after the massacre-near the burnt and deserted village of Gnadenhutten. Captain Sam. Brady, the noted scout and one of the prominent characters of the romance, desirous of witnessing the deserted ruins, and the scene of a butchery, the details of which were then in every mouth on the frontier, is piloted at night to the ruins by Rev. Edward Christy. This young divine, having lost his betrothed by Indians, had accompanied Williamson's slaughtering expedition, and was a protesting and horrified witness of the dreadful drama. We now quote :
* * * * "Let me see," replied Christy, reflectively, " it was the 4th of March that our company of about a hundred, gathered from
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the Ohio shore and the various settlements along Short, Buffalo, Rac- coon, Ten Mile, and other creeks, assembled at Mingo Bottom. Most of us were good and true men, who were much exasperated at Indian incursions and atrocities and determined to retaliate. Since all the signs favored the Moravians as either the perpetrators or the instigators of these thefts and scalpings, and as we did not know their characters so well as they were known at Fort Pitt, we were honest in our ends; but still there were many Indian haters among us; people who looked upon them as of no more account than mad curs, to be shot on sight; others, who had a religious or rather fanatical hate of all redmen, and very many rough, lawless desperadoes, who coveted their lands, horses and pelts, and who, by their boldness and violence, were allowed to have far too much influence among us. There was the mischief ! It was an odd and incongruous mixture of good and bad.
" Well, in about two days we came in sight of this town. We found out afterwards that about one hundred and fifty men, women and chil- dren, all told, had come down from Sandusky to gather their corn, and that the day before our coming, a party of Wyandots passing through here confessed to a border murder, and advised them all to be off or they would be attacked. A conference was then held here by the lead- ers of the three villages, and the conclusion was, that as they had always been peaceable and friendly to the whites, feeding and relieving their captives and sending the settlements early intelligence of expected raids, they certainly had nothing to fear; but it was also resolved, that as they had gathered their corn and were all ready to go back, they would start from home on the 6th, the very day we arrived.
" Our videttes having informed us that most of the reddys were across the river, the band was divided into two equal parts ; one to cross over about a mile below Gnadenhutten and secure those who were gathering corn, and the other, with which I was, to attack this village itself. The first party found young Shabosch about a mile from here out catching horses. He was shot and scalped by a Captain Builderbeck .* Find- ing no canoes for crossing, and the river being high and running ice, young Dave Slaughter swam over and brought back an old sugar trough, which would only carry two at a time.
*This Captain Builderbeck was a large, fine looking, and very daring borderer, who was some years after captured by Indians. On giving his name, a look of intelligence immediately circulated among his captors. He was recognized as the man who fired the first shot at the Moravian massa- cre, and as the slayer of the much-esteemed Shabosch, and was at once killed and scalped under circumstances of great cruelty. It may here also be stated that, although Colonel David William- son escaped immediate retribution for his share in the massacre, and was even afterwards made sheriff of Washington county, Pa., yet towards the end of his life he became wretchedly poor, and died in the Washington, Pa., jail.
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HORRIBLE MASSACRE OF MORAVIANS AT GNADENHUTTEN.
" This was slow work, and a good many stripped, and, putting guns and clothes on board, swam over. Fearing the noise of their shot would alarm the Indians, they sent word for us to advance on the town, which we did with a rush, finding it, much to our surprise, completely deserted-all but one man, who was just pushing off in a canoe, and who was instantly killed.
" The other party hurried along with all speed; hailed the corn gatherers as friends and brothers ; told them they had heard of their sufferings and bad treatment among the Hurons, and offered to take them to Fort Pitt and protect and support them.
" This was joyful news to the Indians, for they had been so starved and maltreated that any change was for the better. So they gathered about, shook hands and exchanged congratulations with each other. They were then advised to leave off work and cross to Gnadenhutten.
" Meanwhile, as we afterwards learned, a native teacher, by name of Martin, from Salem, on the west side of the river, five miles below, was out with his son and saw the tracks of our shodden horses, for we had a good many mounted men with us; and being surprised thereat, as- cended a hill to reconnoitre. Seeing whites and reds all together, talk- ing and chatting in the most friendly manner, he sent his son across, while he rode rapidly off to Salem, and told them there what he had seen, giving it as his opinion that God had ordained that they should not perish on the Sandusky barrens, and that these whites were sent to succor them. Two brethren were then dispatched to this village, and finding all favorable, returned with some of our band to Salem, who, on repeating the same promises that were made by the whites here, all came trooping up the west bank.
"Unfortunately, our party who went to Salem set fire to the church and houses there, which at once excited disapproval and suspicion. It was explained, however, that as they were going to abandon the place, it had been done to prevent its occupation by the enemy."
" They must have been a very credulous folk," here put in Brady, " to be so easily deceived."
" Well, I've heard that our boys talked religion to them, praised their church, called them good Christians, and made so many fine promises that their suspicions seem to have been completely lulled. On arriving opposite this place, however, their eyes were opened very quick; but it was now too late. They discovered blood on the sandy beach, and more of it in the canoe by which they crossed."
" But when they found themselves betrayed, why didn't they fly to arms ?" wonderingly asked Brady.
" Ah, that was the most curious part of the whole performance," said
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Christy. "Both lots of Indians had freely and unhesitatingly yielded up guns, axes and knives, on solemn promise being made that when arrived at Pittsburgh all should be promptly returned to the right own- ers ; besides, by their religion, they were non-combatants.
" Up to this point, I cannot say but what I, and many who after- wards joined me in a solemn protest against the subsequent atrocities, acquiesced. But now all disguise was thrown off, and we immediately saw that, guilty or not guilty, these poor creatures, of all ages and both sexes, were doomed to a horrid death. I almost shudder at the thought of what followed.
THE INDIANS TOLD TO PREPARE FOR DEATH-TOUCHING SCENES.
" Brady, do you see that blotch of deep shadow yonder, marking a break in the river bank ?"
" Just in front of those two spectral-looking chimney-stacks? Yes ; what of it?"
"'Twas the road to the ferry; and right on that bluff above, the two lots of dismayed Indians met and exchanged sad greetings and suspi- cions. They had much reason. For, presto, presto, and the scene was now abruptly changed. The looks of their captors lowered; their faces became clouded and sullen ; their words grew fierce and insolent. They roughly separated the women and children, and confined them in one cabin, and then drove the shocked and unresisting males into an- other, impudently charging them with being warriors and enemies instead of peaceful Christians; with having the stolen goods of murdered bor- derers in their possession, and triumphantly pointing to pewter dishes and spoons, and to branded horses as proof of the alleged robberies.
" "Twas in vain that the branding irons made by native blacksmiths were shown, and that the astonished Indians accounted-as I heard their teachers do in each case-for every article in their possession-what had been made by themselves and what had been bought from traders or carried from the East. It was the old fable of the Wolf and the Lamb. They were doomed to destruction, and as the terrible truth gradually took possession of them, a feeling of horror was depicted on their tear- ful countenances.
" A council was now held by the miscreant band, and a violent and bloodthirsty feeling soon developed itself. Angry words arose, followed by menacing gestures. Suggestions of pity and moderation were rudely scoffed at, and it soon became manifest that the hundred were to be ruled and domineered by a few fierce, violent, fanatical spirits-turbulent,
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THE INDIANS TOLD TO PREPARE FOR DEATH.
tempestuous borderers, with mouths filled with whiskey, tobacco and big oaths, and who hated and hunted Indians like snakes."
" But where was the craven Williamson all this time?" queried Brady, indignantly ; "and why didn't he at once rebuke and beat down this dastardly treachery ?"
" Well, Williamson did what he could in a mild, arguing sort of way. I'll give him that credit. But his band was militia, all of equal author- ity, collected from various places, many of them unknown to him; and, although a brave and humane man himself, he hadn't that kind of quiet moral force that such a lawless band required. All he and the officers generally dared to do was to refer the matter to the men and take a vote *
" Well, by -, there's just where he made a fatal mistake," hotly put in Brady. " I've served through the Revolution, and know well how a few bold, blustering bullies can make a whole regiment do wrong against their will. No use for an officer to temporize and argue with that strain of men. He must take the bull by the horns, and dare do his whole duty. If Dave Williamson had stepped sternly out ; boldly denounced and forbidden such villainy, and called on his command to obey orders, and not discuss them, the few cut-throat savages would have at once slunk away, and the rest asserted themselves."
" I believe you, Captain," answered the young divinity student, quietly ; " but would have believed you just as readily if you hadn't challenged your Maker to back you up. 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.'"
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