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 48
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80
What a contrast now ! the whole camp is a scene of the direst confu- sion and alarm. The remaining savages leap to their feet in a vain en- deavor to escape the pursuing blades. Every one is sooner or later dis- patched. The captives at first fled in alarm, but finding preservers at
437
TRACKED BY A DOG.
hand, soon returned and were restored to their friends. The spring by the side of which the Indians camped was afterwards, in memory of this swift retribution and dreadful tragedy, called the "Bloody Spring."
TRACKED BY A DOG-AN INDIAN CAMP ATTACKED.
Once on returning from a scout, Brady was keeping a sharp lookout in expectation of being trailed, and taking every precaution to avoid pursuit, such as keeping on the driest ridges and walking on logs when- ever they suited his course, he found he was followed by Indians. His practiced eye would occasionally discover in the distance, an Indian hopping to or from a tree, or other screen, and advancing on his trail. After being satisfied of the fact, he stated it to his men and told them no Indian could thus pursue him, after the precautions he had taken, without having a dog on his track. "I will stop," said Brady, "and shoot the dog and then we can get along better." He selected the root of a tall chestnut tree which had fallen westward, for his place of am- bush. He walked from the west end of the tree or log to the east, and sat down in the pit made by the raising of the roots. He had not been long there when a small slut mounted the log at the west end and with her nose to the trunk approached him. Close behind her followed a plumed warrior. Brady had his choice. He preferred shooting the slut, which he did; she rolled off the log stone dead, and the warrior, with a loud whoop, sprang into the woods and disappeared. He was followed no further.
On another occasion the Indians had made a destructive raid upon the Sewickley settlement and the Fort Pitt soldiers were out to chastise them. Brady took five men and his pet Indian and also went out, but in an entirely different direction. He crossed the Allegheny and pro- ceeded straight up that stream, rightly conjecturing that the invaders must have descended it in canoes. He, therefore, carefully examined the mouths of all the little streams on his way, and when opposite to the Mahoning, his sagacity was rewarded, for there lay the canoes drawn up to the bank. He instantly retreated down the river, and at night made a raft and crossed to the other side. He then proceeded up to the creek, and found that the Indians had in the meantime crossed it, as the canoes were now on the other side.
The country at the mouth of the Mahoning being rough and the stream high, the current was very rapid, and it was not until after sev- eral ineffectual attempts, that the Brady party crossed, two or three miles from the mouth. Then they made a fire, dried their clothes, in- spected their arms, and moved towards the Indian camp, which was on
438
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
the second bank of the river. Brady placed his men at some distance on the lower bank. The Indians had captured a stallion, which they had fettered and turned to pasture on the lower bank. One of them, probably the owner, came down to him frequently, and troubled our party greatly. The horse, too, seemed desirous to keep with them, and it required considerable circumspection to avoid all intercourse with either. Brady became so provoked that he strongly desired to kill the Indian, but his calmer judgment prevented this, as likely to hazard a more important achievement.
Brady being desirous to ascertain the numbers of the Indians and the position of the guns, crept up so close that the pet Indian would accom- pany him no further. While he was thus watching, an Indian rose and came so close to him that he could have touched him with his foot. However, he discovered nothing, and returned to his blanket and was soon asleep.
Brady returned to his men and posted them, and in silence they awaited the light. When it appeared, the Indians arose and stood around their fires. When the signal was given, seven rifles cracked and five Indians fell dead. Brady gave his well-known war cry, and the party charged and secured all the guns. The remaining Indians in- stantly fled. One was pursued by the trace of his blood, but soon he seemed to have succeeded in staunching this. The pet Indian then gave . the cry of a young wolf, which was answered by the wounded man, and the pursuit was renewed. A second time the wolf cry was given and answered, and the pursuit continued into a " wind-fall."
Here the savage must have seen his pursuers, for he answered no more; but Brady, three weeks afterwards, found his body. Taking the horse and the plunder, the party returned to Pittsburgh, most of them descending in the Indian canoes. Three days after their return, the first detachment of seekers came in. They reported that they had fol- lowed the Indians closely, but that the latter had escaped in their canoes.
Brady told a Mr. Sumerall that he once started out alone from Wheel- ing for the purpose of bringing in prisoners, not scalps. He was gone over two weeks and returned with five prisoners-an Indian and squaw, one boy and girl and a pappoose. He proceeded to two villages and se- creted himself in a swamp .. He saw this family enter into a cabin lying on the outskirts of the village, and that night he broke open the door, told them who he was and that if they made one murmur he would slay them all. The warrior had heard of Brady and knew he would do as he said.
Brady told them if they would go peaceably with him, he would take
-
439
BRADY'S LEAP OVER THE CUYAHOGA RIVER.
them safely. He made the squaw carry the pappoose and drove the whole before him, traveling only by night. He was, as he expected to be, pursued, but he had selected his resting places so that he could reach them by wading up or down a stream to them, and as " water leaves no trail," he thus threw his pursuers off the track. Sumerall described to a Mr. Wadsworth the position of the two villages so accurately, that several years after the latter was traveling through that part of Ohio, and identified them as Greentown and Jerometown, between Mansfield and Wooster.
" BRADY'S LEAP" OVER THE CUYAHOGA RIVER.
Brady's famed leap of twenty-five odd feet has been by many consid- ered a myth of romance, and by others has been located on Slippery Rock Creek, or in Beaver county, Pa., but we have received so much detailed information about this asserted leap, that we not only feel cer- tain it did take place, but that it was made by Brady over the Cuyahoga river.
General L. V. Bierce, the aged and honored antiquarian of Akron, Ohio, writes us that there can be no doubt whatever not only as to the fact, but also as to the exact locality where it occurred. The place, he writes, has ever since borne the name of "Brady's Leap." The little lake in which he afterwards concealed himself, also bears to this day the name of Brady's Lake. The tradition of his fight with the savages on the south shore of that same lake, has been confirmed by skulls and a sword having been found there; and, moreover, he heard the story narra- ted by John Jacobs, Henry Stough and John Haymaker, all friends of Brady, and who asserted they had it from his own mouth. Haymaker and Wadsworth both measured the stream where the leap was made, and found it twenty-five feet across and some thirty feet above the water. Brady jumped from the west to the east side and caught the bushes on the steep, rocky cliff, slipping down some three or four feet before he recovered himself.
But let us briefly and in substance narrate the story as told by Brady himself to Sumerall and by him to F. Wadsworth. There is a small lake in Portage county, Ohio, which still retains the name of Brady's Lake, and on the south side of which Brady had a severe battle. He had collected a company of twenty for a scout in the Sandusky country, but was waylaid by a much superior force at this lake, and his whole company cut off but himself and one more. Many years after, Wads- worth and Haymaker hunted up the precise locality, and by scraping away the earth and leaves, found many skulls and human bones and a basket-hilted sword.
440
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
At another time-the same occasion, according to some, when he threw either the chief's squaw or her child upon the fire built for himself --- Brady was hotly pursued from Sandusky for about a hundred miles. When he arrived near the Cuyahoga, (which stream he intended crossing at the "Standing Stone,") he found he was headed on all sides. He reached the stream at the rocky gorge where the contracted current rushes through, as it were, a narrow fissure in the rocks. Finding him- self thus hemmed in, Brady summoned all his energies for the mighty leap, and, as stated, caught by the bushes on the other side. When the pursuing savages saw the flying jump, they stood astonished, and then set up a terrific yell, three or four of them firing at him and wounding him in the leg.
Very soon he found the Indians had crossed the river at the "Standing Stone," and were again in hot pursuit. When he arrived at the lake, finding the savages rapidly gaining on him, and his wound greatly troubling him, he concluded that unless he could secrete himself some- where, he was gone. Plunging into the water, he made his way to a place that was covered with lily pads or pond lilies. Fortunately he found that he could keep his face under water by breathing through the hollow stem of a weed. The Indians were not long after him. Fol- lowing his bloody trail, they tracked him into the water and made mi- nute search for him, but concluding that-severely wounded as he was- he had preferred drowning himself to losing his life and scalp at their hands, they finally gave up the search. Brady heard the Indians hunt- ing around all that day and part of the night, and then made good his escape.
But Judge Moses Hampton, of Pittsburgh, gives us still other inform- ation, gathered not only from a personal visit to the locality of the leap, but from details derived from his father over fifty years ago. He writes us that the place where Brady leaped is at the Franklin Mills, Portage county, Ohio, within two miles of the Pittsburgh and Cleveland Rail- road. While there he was informed that the distance leaped was twen- ty-seven feet six inches. After the search for Brady had been aban- doned by the Indians, they returned to make a more careful survey of the spot of this extraordinary leap.
"After carefully contemplating the whole scene," continues the Judge, " and being unwilling to admit (and this is a well-known trait of Indian character) that any white man can excel an Indian in feats of activity, they gradually came to the conclusion that he was not a man, but a turkey, and flew across, saying, 'he no man, he turkey; he flew,' and in order to commemorate that fact, they carved on a rock close by a rude representation of a turkey's foot. This remained an
441
BRADY'S TRIAL.
object of curiosity to hundreds till the Summer of '56, when, being at the place, and finding the rock was about to be quarried, I obtained permission to have that part of the rock containing the carving of this turkey's foot cut out, which I brought home, and until recently held in my possession."
BRADY'S TRIAL-MARRIAGE TO DRUSILLA SWEARINGEN-HIS DEATH.
At one time Brady had to stand a trial at Pittsburgh for the killing, in time of peace, of a gang of redskins. It was proved by him that. these savages had been on a plundering and scalping raid among the Chartiers settlements, and that he, selecting some of his tried followers, had made a rapid pursuit, and waylaid them at the Ohio river crossing near Beaver, thus justifying the attack as nothing but a swift punishment for flagrant acts of hostilities on the part of the savages. The trial created great excitement at the time, and was ably argued. Public senti- ment-which had been lately greatly excited by savage marauds-was overwhelmingly in favor of Brady, and he was triumphantly acquitted.
One of the minor incidents of the trial may be noticed, as exhibiting an Indian's idea of the paramount claims of friendship. Guyasutha, the famed Mingo Chief, was one of the witnesses for Brady, and swore very extravagantly in his favor-in fact, far more than Brady wanted. After the session was over, the bystanders gathered about the chief and twitted him considerably for his reckless swearing. Drawing himself up with great dignity, and striking his brawny breast, the old chief gave this significant reply, " Why me no swear vely hard ? Guyasutha vely big friend to Captain Blady."
Of Brady's private and social life it is very difficult to gather reliable particulars. About all these old Indian fighters there was so much of mystery and romance, and the feats attributed to them come to us with such changes of locality and incident, that it is hard to sift the true from the false. We have tried, in every instance, to get as near facts as possible, rejecting all that is doubtful or improbable. Lyman C. Draper, who is excellent authority, writes us that Brady married, about the year 1786, Miss Drusilla Swearingen, daughter of Captain Van Swearingen-" Indian Van," he was called on the border -- a gallant officer in General Morgan's Rifle Corps. Drusilla was a very gentle and beautiful lady, and was sent East for her education. After the Revolution Captain Swearingen forted and settled where Wellsburg, West Va., now stands.
It is a tradition that the gentle Drusilla was first wooed by Dr. Brad- ford, of Whiskey Insurrection notoriety, but Brady returned from a
44%
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
long trip to Kentucky just in time to secure the coveted prize. Her father objected at first to his daughter's marrying Brady, on account of his roving and dangerous scout's life, but afterwards gave his consent. There was some foundation for this objection, for we have learned that the fond and lovely wife suffered untold miseries when her reckless hus- band was absent on distant scouts longer than the time agreed on for return. Dr. Darby once witnessed the meeting between husband and wife on such an occasion and states it as having been very affecting.
The exact time of Captain Brady's death we have not yet been able to fix definitely. It was probably somewhere near the year 1800. Joseph Quigley, who lived in the Chartiers settlement, which Brady made his headquarters during a large portion of his bachelor life, says that he frequently saw Brady at his father's house, and that he looked much older than he really was. He walked quite lame from the wound received in his leg at the time he leaped the Cuyahoga river. He was also then pretty deaf, which he attributed to lying so long in the lake where he was chased after he made his famous leap. Quigley says that it was John Dillow and a man by the name of Stoup or Sprott, who were with Brady on the Indian excursion terminated by the leap, and that when he approached the lake he swam out to a log, surrounded by pond lilies and secreted himself beneath, but kept his face just above water.
Brady spent the last years of his life at West Liberty, West Va., where he died. " After life's fitful fever he sleeps well." He left two sons, both now dead. His wife subsequently married again, moved to Tyler county, Va., and lived to a good old age.
$
443
ANDY POE'S FAMOUS FIGHT WITH BIGFOOT.
ANDY POE'S FAMOUS FIGHT WITH BIGFOOT
THE ONLY RELIABLE ACCOUNT EVER YET PUBLISHED.
The narrations of the famous combat between the brothers Poe and Bigfoot are very much mixed up in the old border books, Doddridge and those who follow him substituting the name of Adam for that of Andy, while others have made the date of the occurrence 1782, instead of 1781. The sabjoined detailed narrative of the desperate fight, is from the pen of Simpson R. Poe, of Ravenna, O., who is a grandson of Andrew Poe, and who possesses the very tomahawk which Bigfoot wielded in the sanguinary encounter. We have every reason to believe this account the only correct one.
Andrew Poe was born in Frederick county, Maryland, September 30th, 1742. His father, George Poe, possessed a large property in that county, but died when Andrew was fourteen years of age. Soon after Andrew became of age, finding he would get none of his father's estate, ยท he left his mother and brother, with whom he had still lived, and came to Pittsburgh, Pa., and worked in that neighborhood for several years until he acquired a little property. He then, in company with two young men, went to Harmon's Creek, in Washington county, Pa., (then Virginia,) where each of them selected for himself a tract of land, and commenced making the first improvements in that part, and pur- sued their labors undisturbed for several years. Adam Poe was six years younger than Andrew. When he became of age Andrew returned to Maryland and induced him to come to Harmon's Creek, and Adam also took up a farm, and their little settlement increased to ten or twelve families. Adam Poe was married in 1778, and Andrew in 1780.
The Indians became very troublesome about this time. This little settlement was about twelve miles back from the Ohio river. The In- dians very often came across the river into the settlement in small par- ties, and killed a number of the inhabitants. Such as were active on foot went in small scouting parties into the Indian settlements to learn their strength and retaliate their injuries. Andrew Poe went frequently on those excursions, as he was of a daring spirit and inured to all the perils of the woods. At one time, in the Spring of 1781, whilst Andrew Poe, Robert Wallace and Robert Kennedy were on a scout in the Indian settlement, a party of Indians came into their neighborhood and killed the wife and child (about a year old) of Robert Wallace,
444
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
who lived nearest neighbor to Andrew Poe. The same year, in the month of June, a party of Indians, seven in number, came into the settlement, and about midnight broke into the house of William Jack- son, a man of about sixty years of age; he being alone in the house, they took him prisoner.
They next tried to break into another house, where were several men, but failing to get in, they made off with Jackson. These men immedi- ately gave the alarm; the whole settlement was collected, and it was found that Jackson was missing. They made preparations for following the Indians as soon as it was light enough to see their trail, which was very visible in the thick and high growth of herbage. Twelve of their number, mounted on horseback, pursued at the greatest possible speed until they reached the top of the river hill, which was about twelve miles. There they hitched their horses, as the hill was steep, and trav- eled on foot. When they arrived at the bottom of the hill, near to the river, the trail turned down the river, and in crossing a little rivulet that put into the river, Andrew observed that where the Indians had stepped into the water it was still riley, and cautioned the men to keep quiet ; that the Indians were very near and would hear them and kill the pris- oner, as the men were making considerable noise with their feet by running.
After several fruitless efforts to quiet them, he left the company, turning off square to the right, went to the bank of the river, and look- ing down, about twelve feet below him he saw two Indians standing about half bent, with their guns in their hands, looking down the river in the direction of the noise. He observed that one was a very large man. The thought struck him that he would shoot the big one and take the other prisoner. Accordingly, he squatted down in the weeds, they not having observed him. He crept up to the brow of the bank, put his gun through the weeds, took deliberate aim at the big Indian, who was three feet in advance of the other; but his gun missed fire. When the gun snapped, they both yelled, " Woh ! Woh ! ! "
Poe immediately drew his head back, and the Indians did not see him. By this time the other men had overtaken the other five Indians with the prisoner, who were about one hundred yards lower down the river, and had begun to fire, which drew the attention of these two. Andrew cocked his gun and crept to the very edge of the bank, and again leveled his gun at the big Indian, but again it missed fire. He dropped the piece and sprang instantly on them. They, on wheeling about at the snap of his gun, were brought side by side, but had not time even to raise their guns before Andrew was upon them. He threw his weight on the big Indian, catching each of them around the
DERECURP
Andrew Poe's Famous Combat with Big Foot. SEE PAGE 445.
1
445
ANDY POE'S FAMOUS FIGHT WITH BIGFOOT.
neck. His weight coming on them so suddenly, threw them both down.
Bigfoot fell on his back, Andrew fell with his left side on him and his left arm around his neck. The little Indian fell rather behind An- drew, whose right arm was around his neck. Their guns both fell. One of them laid within reach of Andrew, who observed that it was cocked. The Indians had a raft fastened to the shore close by where they were standing, the river being very high. Their tomahawks and shot pouches, with their knives, were on the raft. Andrew's knife was" in the scabbard attached to his shot pouch, which was pressed between him and Bigfoot. He got a slight hold of the handle and was trying to draw it out to dispatch Bigfoot, who, observing it, caught his hand and spoke in his own tongue very vehemently to the other, who was struggling hard to get loose.
Andrew made several efforts to get his knife, but in vain. At last he jerked with all his might. Bigfoot instantly let his hand go, and An- drew, not having a good hold of the handle, and the knife coming out unexpectedly easy in consequence of Bigfoot's instantly loosing his grasp, it flew out of Andrew's hand, and the little Indian drew his head from under his arm, his grasp being slackened by the act of drawing the knife. Bigfoot instantly threw his long arms around Andrew's body and hugged him like a bear, whilst the little Indian sprang to the raft, which was about six feet off, and brought a tomahawk and struck at Andrew's head, who was still lying on his side on Bigfoot, he holding him fast. Andrew threw up his foot as the stroke came, and hit the Indian on the wrist with the toe of his shoe, and the tomahawk flew into the river.
Bigfoot yelled at the little Indian furiously, who sprang to the raft and got the other tomahawk, and, after making several motions, struck at Andrew's head, who threw up his right arm and received the blow on his wrist, which cut off one bone of it and the cords of three of his fingers, disabling all the fingers of his right hand but the fore finger. Andrew immediately threw his hand over his head when he was struck, and the tomahawk, catching in the sinews of his arm, drew it out of the Indian's hand, and it flew over his head. After the stroke was given, Bigfoot let got his hold, and Andrew immediately sprang up. As he rose he seized the gun, which lay by his head, with his left hand, and it being already cocked, he shot the lesser Indian through the body.
But scarcely had he done so when Bigfoot arose, and, placing one hand on his collar and the other on his hip, he threw him into the river. Andrew threw his left hand back, caught the Indian by his buckskin
446
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
breech-clout, and brought him along into the stream. The water being deep, they both went under. Then a desperate effort was made by each to drown the other, and sometimes one was under the water, sometimes the other, and sometimes both.
THE TWO MAKE A DESPERATE EFFORT TO DROWN EACH OTHER.
In the struggle they were carried about thirty yards out into the river. Poe at length seized the tuft of hair on the scalp of the Indian, by which he held his head under water until he supposed him drowned. But he himself was sinking ; not being able to do much with his right. hand, he threw it on the back of Bigfoot's neck, who was under water, and swam with his left hand, to recruit himself a little. But Bigfoot had only been " possuming," and got from under Andrew's arm and swam for shore with all his speed. Poe followed him as fast as he could, but having only one hand to swim with, he could not catch him.
As soon as Bigfoot got out of the water, the gun being uncocked, he went to cock it and disabled the lock. He then threw it down and picked up the empty gun with which Andrew had shot the other Indian, and went to the raft for the shot pouch and powder horn, and com- menced loading. In the meantime, as soon as Bigfoot reached the spot where both guns and tomahawk lay, Andrew swam back into the river and called for his brother Adam, who was with the other party.
Adam came running on the bank where Andrew had jumped off, stopped, began to load his gun, as he had discharged it at the other In- dians. Andrew continued swimming away from them, with nothing but his face out of the water, still hurrying Adam to load quickly. The race between the two in loading was about equal, but the Indian drew the ramrod too hastily and it slipped out of his hands and fell a little distance from him. He quickly caught it up and rammed down his bul- let. This little delay gave Poe the advantage, so that just as Bigfoot raised his gun to shoot Andrew, Adam's ball entered the breast of the savage, and he fell forward on his face upon the very margin of the river.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.