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 73
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their killed and wounded. They were supposed to have been the same concerned in the engagement with Captain Van Buskirk's company at the mouth of Brush Run, an account of which has already been given.
A " PERFECT DEVIL" KILLS SEVEN INDIANS.
In 1758 an incident occurred near the present village of Petersburg, Va., which stands without a parallel in modern history. A man named Bingaman lived with his family in a cabin remote from any neighbors. He had been cautioned against the Indians; but, being a man of most determined resolution and herculean strength, he laughed at the idea of fear and said no cut-throat savages should ever drive him from his home. In the Fall of this year a party of eight Indians made a de- scent upon his cabin, late at night, while all his family were asleep. The household consisted of Bingaman, his wife, child and parents, who slept down stairs, and a hired man who slept above. Before Bingaman was aware of his danger the savages had forced the door and were in the house. Mrs. Bingaman, the younger, was shot through the left breast, but not dangerously wounded. Bingaman got his parents, wife and child beneath the bed, and then prepared for battle. The hired man was called down, but refused to come. The room was dark, and having discharged his gun, he commenced beating about at random with his heavy rifle. In this manner he fought with the desperation of a hero, and terribly did his blows tell upon the enemy. One after another he beat down before him, until, finally, of the eight but one remained, and he, terror-stricken, made from the house and escaped to tell his tribe that he had met with a man who was a "perfect devil." The in- trepid Virginian had actually killed seven of his foes, which, certainly, is unexampled in the history of single-handed combat. During the fight the Indians frequently grappled their powerful antagonist, but were unable to keep him down, as early in the engagement he had pulled off his shirt. In the morning, when he found that his wife was wounded, he became so exasperated at the cowardice of the hired man that he would have killed him, had not Mrs. Bingaman interposed to save his life. Bingaman afterwards moved to Natchez, where his son Adam, who was a lad at the time of the fight, had previously moved, and there he (the elder) died.
Kerchieval gives another incident illustrative of the energy and cour- - age of this man, which we give. A party of whites (of whom Binga- man was one) had started in pursuit of some retreating Indians. They
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were overtaken late at night, and the pursuing party dismounting, the Captain ordered Bingaman to remain with the horses whilst the rest made the attack. This he refused to do, and followed after the com- pany. To make the destruction of the enemy more certain, it was deemed advisable to wait until daylight before they began the attack; but a young man, whose zeal overcame his discretion, fired into the group, upon which the Indians sprang to their feet and fled. Bingaman singled out a fellow of giant-like size, whom he pursued, throwing aside his rifle that his speed might not be retarded-passed several smaller Indians in the chase-came up with him, and, with a single blow of his hatchet, cleft his skull. When Bingaman returned to his battle ground, the Captain sternly observed, "I ordered you to stay and guard the horses." Bingaman as sternly replied, "You are a rascal, sir; you intended to disgrace me; and one more insolent word, and you shall share the fate of that Indian," pointing towards the Indian he had just slain. The Captain quailed under this stern menace and held his peace. He and Bingaman, a few days before, had a falling out. Several Indians fell in this affair, while the whites lost none of their party.
LEVI MORGAN'S STRATAGEM FOR HIS LIFE.
In 1787 the Indians again visited the settlement on Buffalo, Pa., and as Levi Morgan was engaged in skinning a wolf which he had just taken from his trap, he saw three of them-one riding a horse which he well knew, the other two walking near behind, coming towards him. On first looking in the direction they were coming, he recognized the horse and supposed the rider to be its owner-one of his near neighbors. A second glance discovered the mistake, and he seized his gun and sprang behind a large rock-the Indians at the same instant taking shelter by the side of a large tree. As soon as his body was obscured from their view, he turned, and seeing the Indians looking towards the farther end of the rock as if expecting him to make his appearance there, he fired and one of them fell. Instantly he had recourse to his powder horn to reload, but while engaged in skinning the wolf the stopper had fallen out and his powder was wasted. He then fled, and one of the savages took after him.
For some time he held to his gun, but finding his pursuer sensibly gain- ing on him he dropped it, under the hope that it would attract the atten- tion of the Indian and give him a better chance of escape. The savage
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RIDDLED WITH BULLETS AND YET ESCAPES.
passed heedlessly by it. Morgan then threw his shot pouch and coat in the way, to tempt the Indian to a momentary delay. It was equally vain-his pursuer did not falter for an instant. He now had recourse to another expedient to save himself from captivity or death. Arriving at the summit of the hill up which he had directed his steps, he halted; and, as if some men were approaching from the other side, called aloud, "Come on! come on! here is one; make haste!" The Indian, not doubting that he was really calling to some men at hand, turned and retreated as precipitately as he had advanced; and when he heard Morgan exclaim, "Shoot quick or he will be out of reach," he seemed to redouble his exertions to gain that desirable distance. Pleased with the success of the artifice, Morgan hastened home, leaving his coat and gun to reward the savage for the deception practiced on him. At the treaty of Auglaize, Morgan met with the Indian who had given him this chase, and who still had his gun. After talking over the circumstance, rather more composedly than they had acted it, they agreed to test each other's speed in a friendly race. The Indian being beaten, rubbed his hams and said, "Stiff, stiff ; too old." "Well," said Morgan, " you got the gun by outrunning me then, and I should have it now for out- running you;" and accordingly took it.
RIDDLED WITH BULLETS AND YET ESCAPES.
One of the most remarkable escapes upon record is that of Thomas Mills. The circumstances were these: On the thirtieth day of July, 1783, Mills and two other men, Henry Smith and Hambleton Kerr, started on a fishing excursion, up the river, from Wheeling. When near Glenn's Run, a party of Indians, who had watched the movements of the whites, fired upon them, killing Smith and wounding Mills in fourteen places. He had that many distinct bullet holes in him, and yet not one of them was mortal. Kerr escaped. Just before the at- tack, Mills and his companions had caught an enormous catfish (weigh- ing eighty-seven pounds); and when the men were taken from the canoe, at Wheeling, their appearance was truly frightful; they were literally covered with blood and sand. Mills, attended by Rebecca Williams and Mrs. Ebenezer Zane, both skilled nurses, recovered from his wounds, and, as late as 1850, was living on the Ohio, near Shade river. He was, in his time, a most useful man on the frontier, possess- ing great experience as a hunter and scout.
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Kerr was one of the most efficient spies west of the Ohio river. His father was killed near the mouth of Duck Creek, in the Summer of 1791. Two of his neighbors, who were passing down the river in a canoe on the Virginia side of the island, hearing the report of a gun, landed and passed over the island, where they saw two Indians going from the canoe in which Kerr lay with the struggle of death still upon him. This murder of his father greatly exasperated Hambleton, and thence- forward no Indian was safe who crossed his path. He settled at the mouth of a small stream now known as Kerr's Run, at the upper end of Pomeroy, Ohio.
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A HANDSOME SQUAW MAKES LOVE TO BIGGS.
In the year 1788 William Biggs was a settler in West Illinois, and while riding not far from home, was taken prisoner by a party of Kick- apoo Indians, one of whom was very bitter and ferocious, and tried several times to kill him. He, however, was prevented by the rest. When a halt was made for a meal, the party held a council to deter- mine what they would do with this contumacious one, who, they said, was stubborn and a coward, and would kill their captive the first opportunity. They finally concluded they would kill their refractory Indian. Two started out in his company, and soon after Biggs heard the report of a gun. An old chief then told him that, according to their custom, this one, who would not obey commands, had been killed.
Biggs was made a Kickapoo and treated with marked kindness. He describes the character of the Illinois Indians as being entirely different from that of more eastern and northern tribes-milder, more amiable and much fonder of fun. A young squaw of the household took a great fancy for him, and was not slow to betray it. She very tenderly combed out the captive's hair, and then queued it with ribbons. The chief then gave him a regimental blue cloth coat, faced with buff, a fine beaver hat and a new ruffled shirt-all taken from officers they had killed-and made him put them on and strut across the ground ; when "the funny Indian" said he was a pretty man and a big captain.
His humane captors carried their civility so far as to offer him a wife, which, on account of having one already, Biggs says he declined. The tawny lady, however-the same who had combed out his hair-did not conceal her partiality. We quote the love scene, as follows:
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CACASOTTE THROWS FOURTEEN ROBBERS OVERBOARD.
" When the Indians were about to take me to another village, she came up and stood at the door, but would not go in. I discovered the Indians laughing and plaguing her-she looked in a very ill humor; she did not want them to take me away. They immediately started from the cabin, and took a tolerably large path that led into the woods, in a pretty smart trot; the squaw started immediately after them; they would look back once in a while, and when they would see the squaw coming, they would whoop and laugh. When they got out of sight of the squaw, they stopped running and traveled in a moderate walk. When we got about three miles from the town, they stopped where a large tree had fallen by the path, and laid high off of the ground ; they got up high on the log and looked back to see if the squaw was com- ing ; when the squaw came up she stopped, and they began to plague her and laugh at her ; they spoke English. They talked very provok- ingly to the squaw ; she soon began to cry.
" On arriving at their destination that evening, he found her again posted at the door of the cabin at which he lodged, and her Indian friends making themselves merry at her constancy and want of success. The incorrigible white man, when reminded by his companions that he would be accepted if he chose to offer himself, parried the proposal by replying, ' I reckon not.'" He adds, " she stayed two days and three nights before she returned home ; I never spoke a word to her while she was there. She was a very handsome girl, about eighteen years of age, a beautiful, full figure and finely featured, and very white for a squaw." It has been asserted that nothing is so uncertain as the female except the male.
CACASOTTE THROWS FOURTEEN ROBBERS OVERBOARD.
During the last part and the first part of the present century, the West was very much infested with fugitives from justice and lawless des- peradoes. The intercourse between St. Louis and New Orleans was es- pecially dangerous. Goods were carried by barges and keelboats, and as they were very richly laden, they were considered glorious prizes, and were laid in wait for by bands of robbers. A very large and desperate gang, commanded by Culbert and Majilbray, had their nest at Cotton- wood Creek, where they carried on an extensive system of piracy.
In 1787 a richly-laden barge, belonging to Mr. Beausoliel, of St .. Louis, was on her way from New Orleans and was carried by a stiff breeze
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safely past Cottonwood Creek. The baffled robbers immediately dis- patched a company of men up the river for the purpose of heading. The manœuvre was effected in the course of two days, at an island which has since been called Beausoliel's island. The barge had just put ashore. The robbers boarded. The men were disarmed, guards were stationed in every part of the vessel, and she was soon under way. Mr. Beausoliel gave himself up to despair. This vessel would have shared the fate of many others that had preceded it, but for the heroic daring of a negro, who was one of the crew.
Cacasotte, the negro, was a man rather under the ordinary height, very slender in person but of uncommon strength and activity. The color of his skin and the curl of his hair alone, told that he was a negro, for the peculiar characteristics of his race had given place in him to what might be termed beauty. His forehead was finely moulded, his eyes small and sparkling as those of a serpent, his nose aquiline, his lips of a proper thickness ; in fact, the whole appearance of the man, joined to his known character for shrewdness and courage, seemed to indicate an uncommon character. Cacasotte, as soon as the robbers had taken possession of the barge, danced, sang, laughed and soon in- duced his captors to believe that they had liberated him from irksome slavery, and that his actions were the ebullitions of pleasure. His con- stant attention to their smallest wants and wishes, too, won their con- fidence ; and whilst they kept a watchful eye on the other prisoners, they permitted him to roam through the vessel unmolested and un- watched.
This was the state of things that the negro desired. He laid his plan before his master, who, after a great deal of hesitation, acceded to it. Cacasotte then spoke to two of the crew, likewise negroes, and engaged them in the conspiracy. Cacasotte was cook, and it was agreed be- tween him and his fellow conspirators that the signal for dinner should be the signal for action. The hour of dinner at length arrived. The robbers assembled in considerable numbers on the deck, and stationed themselves at the bow and stern and along the sides, to prevent any rising of the men. Cacasotte went among them with the most uncon- cerned look and demeanor imaginable. As soon as he perceived that his comrades had taken the stations he had assigned them, he took his position at the bow of the boat, near one of the robbers, a stout, herculean man, who was armed cap-a-pie.
Everything being arranged to his satisfaction, Cacasotte gave the preconcerted signal, and immediately the robber near him was strug- gling. in the water. With the speed of lightning he went from one robber to another, and in less than three minutes he had thrown four-
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CACASOTTE THROWS FOURTEEN ROBBERS OVERBOARD.
teen of them overboard. Then, seizing an oar, he struck on the head those who attempted to save themselves by grappling the running boards, then shot, with the muskets that had been dropped on deck, those who swam away. In the meantime the other conspirators were . not idle, but did great execution. The deck was soon cleared, and the robbers that remained below were too few in number to offer any re- sistance. Having got rid of his troublesome visitors, Mr. Beausoliel deemed it prudent to return to New Orleans, and after that the barges went in company and well armed with swivels.
CHAPTER XI.
PIONEER WOMEN-THEIR TRIALS AND HEROISM.
The mothers of our forest land, Stout-hearted dames were they ; With nerve to wield the battle brand, And join the border fray. Our rough land had no braver, In its days of blood and strife, Aye, ready for severest toil, Aye, free to peril life.
The history of our western border may well be deemed a record of woman's trials, privations and heroic deeds. We have already given numerous instances of all these. We have now to add a few more. How tender, shrinking women ever had the heart to expose themselves, as they did, to all the Protean perils of the savage wilderness, is the marvel of the present day. They seemed to be richly and peculiarly endowed to suit the times and the localities in which their lots were cast. We may be sure it was not for themselves that they thus cheerfully gave up home, society, and all the blessings of peace and quiet, to brave the savage wilds, to patiently endure its perils and privations, and to challenge the fierce assaults of wild beasts and of still wilder and more ferocious human foes. Ah, no: it was for those they loved. That solves the mystery.
Man's love is of Man's life a part, 'Tis Woman's whole existence.
It was wonderful! The constant dread by day and the consuming care by night-even though women were ever environed by extraordi- nary hazards-was utterly unselfish. It was felt but for those most dear to them, and thus the sufferings of their soul might be termed the soul of their sufferings, since it was through the tender, devoted and unsel- fish woman's heart that the chiefest agonies were inflicted. Especially were their innocent and helpless children the objects of unceasing care and anxiety, for these seemed to be the peculiar objects of savage hate
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TOUCHING NARRATIVE OF MASSY HARBISON.
and malignancy, and were used by fiendish tormentors to wring and agonize a mother's or a sister's heart, and to stir it down to its deepest depths. But let us now group together only a few from the very many examples of the heroism and sufferings of pioneer women, and first we give
THE TOUCHING NARRATIVE OF MASSY HARBISON.
On the return of my husband from General St. Clair's defeat, and on his recovery from the wound he received in the battle, he was made a spy, and ordered to the woods on duty, about the 22d of March, 1792. The appointment of spies to watch the movements of the sava- ges was so consonant with the desires and interests of the inhabitants, that the frontiers now resumed the appearance of quiet and confidence. Those who had for nearly a year been huddled together in the block- houses, were scattered to their own habitations, and began the cultivation of their farms. The spies saw nothing to alarm them, or to induce them to apprehend danger, till the fatal morning of my captivity. They re- peatedly came to our house to receive refreshments and to lodge.
On the 15th of May my husband, with Captain Guthrie and other spies, came home about dark and wanted supper; to procure which I requested one of the spies to accompany me to the spring and spring- house, and William Maxwell complied with my request. While he was at the spring and spring-house, we both distinctly heard a sound like the bleating of a lamb or fawn. This greatly alarmed us and induced us to make a hasty retreat into the house. Whether this was an Indian decoy, or a warning of what I was to pass through, I am unable to de- termine. But from this time and circumstance, I became considerably alarmed and entreated my husband to remove me to some more secure place from Indian cruelties. But Providence had designed that I should become a victim to their rage, and that mercy should be made manifest in my deliverance.
On the night of the 21st of May two of the spies, Mr. James Davis and Mr. Sutton, came to lodge at our house, and on the morning of the 22d, at daybreak, when the horn blew at the block-house, which was within sight of our house and distant about two hundred yards, the two men got up and went out. I was also awake, and saw the door open and thought, after I was taken prisoner, that the scouts had left it open. I intended to rise immediately, but having a child at the breast, and it being awakened, I lay with it at the breast to get it to sleep again, and accidentally fell asleep myself. The spies have since informed me that they returned to the house again, and found that I was sleeping ;
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that they softly fastened the door and went immediately to the block- house, and those who examined the house after the scene was over, say that both doors had the appearance of being broken open.
The first thing I knew from falling asleep, was the Indians pulling me out of bed by my feet. I then looked up and saw the house full of In- dians, every one having his gun in his left hand and tomahawk in his right. Beholding the danger in which I was, I immediately jumped to the floor on my feet, with the young child in my arms. I then took a petticoat to put on, having on only the one in which I slept ; but the In- dians took it from me, and as many as I attempted to put on, they suc- ceeded in taking from me, so that I had to go just as I had been in bed. While I was struggling with some of the savages for clothing, others of them went and took the children out of another bed, and immediately took the two feather beds to the door and emptied them.
The savages immediately began their work of plunder and devasta- tion. What they were unable to carry with them, they destroyed. While they were at their work, I made to the door, and succeeded in getting out with one child in my arms and another by my side ; but the other little boy was so much displeased by being so early disturbed in the morning, that he would not come to the door.
When I got out, I saw Mr. Wolf, one of the soldiers, going to the spring for water, and beheld two or three of the savages attempting to get between him and the block-house ; but Mr. Wolf was unconscious of his danger, for the savages had not yet been discovered. I then gave a terrific scream, by which means Mr. Wolf discovered his danger and started to run for the block-house. Seven or eight of the Indians fired at him, but the only injury he received was a bullet in his arm, which broke it. He succeeded in making his escape to the block-house. When I raised the alarm, one of the Indians came up to me with his tomahawk as though about to take my life ; a second came and placed his hand before my mouth and told me to hush, when a third came with a lifted tomahawk and attempted to give me a blow ; but the first that came raised his tomahawk and averted the blow, and claimed me as his squaw.
The commissary, with his waiter, slept in the store-house near the block-house. And upon hearing the report of the guns, came to the door to see what was the matter, and beholding the danger he was in, made his escape to the block-house ; but not without being discovered by the Indians, several of whom fired at him, and one of the bullets went through his handkerchief, which was tied about his head, and took off some of his hair. The handkerchief, with several bullet holes in it, he afterwards gave to me.
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The waiter, on coming to the door, was met by the Indians, who fired upon him, and he received two bullets through the body and fell dead by the door. The savages then set up one of their tremendous and terrifying yells, and pushed forward and attempted to scalp the man they had killed ; but they were prevented from executing their diaboli- cal purpose by the heavy fire which was kept up through the port holes from the block-house.
In this scene of horror and alarm I began to meditate an escape, and for that purpose I attempted to direct the attention of the Indians from me and to fix it on the block-house, and thought if I could succeed in this I would retreat to a subterranean cave with which I was acquainted, which was in the run near where we were. For this purpose, I began to converse with some of those who were near me respecting the strength of the block-house, the number of men in it, &c., and being informed that there were forty men there, and that they were excellent marksmen, the savages immediately came to the determination to retreat, and for this purpose they ran to those who were besieging the block- house and brought them away.
They then began to flog me with their wiping sticks, and to order me along. Thus what I intended as the means of my escape, was the means of accelerating my departure in the hands of the savages. But it was no doubt ordered by a kind Providence for the preservation of the fort and the inhabitants in it ; for when the savages gave up the at- tack and retreated, some of the men in the fort had the last load of ammunition in their guns, and there was no possibility of procuring more, for it was all fastened up in the store-house, which was inaccessible.
The Indians, when they had flogged me away with them, took my oldest boy, a lad about five years of age, along with them, for he was still at the door by my side. My middle little boy, who was about three years of age, had by this time obtained a situation by the fire in the house, and was crying bitterly to me not to go, and making sore com- plaints of the depredations of the savages. But these monsters were not willing to let the child remain behind them; they took him by the hand to drag him along with them, but he was so very unwilling to go, and made such a noise by crying, that they took him up by his feet and dashed his brains out against the threshold of the door. They then scalped and stabbed him, and left him for dead. When I witnessed this inhuman butchery of my own child, I gave a most indescribable and ter- rific scream, and felt a dimness come over my eyes, next to blindness, and my senses were nearly gone. The savages then gave me a blow across my head and face and brought me to my sight and recollection again. During the whole of this agonizing scene I kept my infant in my arms.
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