USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 9
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Girty's one great fear was of capture by the Americans, and he always endeavored to ascertain from prisoners what might be in store for him should he be captured by them. It seemed as though the idea of falling into the hands of his countrymen was a terror to him.
"The last time I saw Girty," writes William Walker, "was in the summer of 1813. From my recollection of his person, he was in height five feet six or seven inches; broad across the chest ; strong, round, compact limbs; and of fair complexion. To any one scrutinizing him, the conclusion would forcibly impress the observer, that Girty was endowed by nature with great powers of endurance."
"No other country or age," says Butterfield, "ever produced, perhaps, so brutal, depraved, and wicked a wretch as Simon Girty. He was saga- cious and brave; but his sagacity and bravery only made him a greater monster of cruelty. All of the vices of civilization seemed to center in him, and by him were ingrafted upon those of either. He moved about through the Indian country during the war of the Revolution and the Indian war which followed, a dark whirlwind of fury, desperation and barbarity. In the refinements of torture inflicted on helpless prisoners, as compared with the Indians, he 'out-heroded Herod.' In treachery he stood unrivaled. There ever rankled in his bosom a most deadly hatred of his country. He seemed to revel in the very excess of malignity toward his old associates. So horrid was his wild ferocity and savage- ness, that the least relenting seemed to be acts of positive goodness- luminous sparks in the very blackness of darkness."
Of Girty's bravery there is ample testimony. He became involved in a quarrel at one time with a Shawnee, caused by some misunderstand- ing in trade. While bandying hard words to each other the Indian by innuendo questioned his opponent's courage. Girty instantly produced a half-keg of powder, and snatching a firebrand, called upon the savage to stand by him. The latter, not deeming this a legitimate mode of settling disputes, hastily evacuated the premises.
The last picture that we have of Simon Girty is shortly before his death. "I went to Malden," said Mr. Daniel, "and put up at a hotel kept by a Frenchman. I noticed in the bar-room a gray-headed and blind old man. The landlady, a woman of about thirty years of age, inquired of me : 'Do you know who that is?' On my replying 'No,' she replied, 'it is Simon Girty.' He had then been blind about four years." "
This ended the career of the last of the three notorious Girty broth- ers, the ablest of the three and the one who caused more suffering among the hardy pioneers than the other two together. A large part of his history belongs to us, but it is not a record of which we can be proud.
CHAPTER V THE HARMAR AND ST. CLAIR CAMPAIGNS
Although the war with the mother country was practically ended by the Yorktown surrender in October, 1781, the Paris treaty was not officially signed until the 3d of September, 1783. About four months later Washington resigned his commission and retired to private life. The boundaries of the new republic were Florida on the south, the Mississippi River on the west and the middle of the Great Lakes on the north. "The federal republic is born a pygmy, but a day will come when it will be a giant, even a colossus," said the Spanish representative at the Paris negotiations. His statement has proved to be really prophetic.
East of the Alleghenies the war actually ended, but in the great trans-Allegheny country it continued in a desultory way for a dozen years. At times this conflict was most sanguinary. Great Britain had specifically promised to withdraw her troops from Detroit and the Mau- mee country, as well as her other posts, but she neglected and refused to comply. When demand was made of her commanders, refusal was made, claiming that possession was being retained to compel payment of the claims of loyalties against the colonies. The real purpose was undoubtedly to retain the loyalty of the savages in the hope that the new government might not prove lasting. It was true that some of the southerners had attempted to offset the value of slaves impressed into the British service against claims due from them.
The Indians were undoubtedly apprehensive of their future. The Quebec Act of 1774, with its provisions prohibiting white settlements within this region, had always been objected to. The new American government, with its hands occupied by many serious questions, was very reluctant to enter into a struggle with the Indians of the Northwest Territory of which Ohio was then a part. But the frontier was grad- ually advanced westward by venturesome backwoodsmen and the gov- ernment was drawn in by the necessity of supporting them. There was no well developed plan. Many of the leaders were adverse to spreading westward; they were as strong anti-expansionists as is our American today. They were quite content to permit the red man to rove the for- ests in peace. They did not covet the lands of the Indians. They endeavored to prevent settlers from encroaching upon them. But back- woodsmen are naturally aggressive. They revert in a sense to primeval conditions. Rough, masterful, aggressive, and even lawless, they feared not the red man nor were they intimidated by the wrath of the govern- ment. Once established in a location, they freely appealed to the govern- ment for help. Then it was that the men east of the Alleghenies, whose fathers or grandfathers had also been frontiersmen, rather grudgingly came to their help.
Small bands of Wyandots and Shawnees in particular continued to invade Kentucky and Western Pennsylvania with the loaded rifle and uplifted tomahawk. British emissaries, and especially the renegades heretofore mentioned, were the chief instigators of these war parties of savages. With all these provocations the American government still hesitated to make open war against the Indians of Ohio. Although the Northwestern Territory, "a vast empire larger than any country in
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Europe save Russia," had become the public domain of the confederated states, the aboriginal inhabitant, and the one actually in possession, had still to be dealt with. This must be done either by purchase or conquest. The Iroquois claim to these lands, which was disputed by the Ohio Indians, was extinguished by the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1785. This treaty caused great dissatisfaction among the Ohio Indians, for they refused to acknowledge that the Six Nations could deed away the lands occupied by them. An American commissioner, by the name of Eph- raim Douglas, was sent to the Indians residing in Ohio in 1783 to con- clude treaties with them. Carrying a white flag of peace he passed some days with the Delawares on the Sandusky River, and then journeyed to the Wyandots, Ottawas and Miamis along the lower Maumee. This was in the month of June. From there he passed to Detroit, where he met representatives of many other tribes. Long talks were indulged in to convince them that the war was over. These Indians were perfectly willing to give their allegiance to whichever nation promised them the most presents, so it appeared. As the Americans at this time had not learned how to deal with these simple inhabitants of the forests, their allegiance was still retained by the British in most instances, and many lives were sacrificed as a consequence.
It now remained for the American government to make settlement with the Ohio tribes and this was what it was attempted to do in the council held at Fort McIntosh in January, 1785. By a treaty entered into between United States Commissioners and the chiefs and sachems of the Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa, and Wyandot Indians at Fort McIntosh on the Ohio River below Pittsburg, the limits of their terri- tory as agreed upon were the Maumee and Cuyahoga rivers, on the west and east respectively. Within this territory the Delawares, Wyan- dots, and Ottawas were to live and hunt at their heart's pleasure. They were authorized to shoot any person other than an Indian, whether a citizen of the United States or otherwise, who attempted to settle upon these exempt lands. "The Indians may punish him as they please," was the exact language of the treaty. On their part the Indians recognized all the lands west, south, and east of these lines as belonging to the United States, and "none of their tribes shall presume to settle upon the same or any part of it." Reservations were exempted by the United States as a tract six miles square at the mouth of the Maumee, for a military post. Three chiefs were to remain with the Americans as hostages until all American prisoners were surrendered by the savages. In a treaty made the following year at Fort Finney, at the mouth of the Great Miami, the Shawnees appeared in their "war paint and feath- ers" and assumed a rather bellicose attitude. They finally recognized the sovereignty of the United States and accepted an allotment of lands between the Great Miami and the Wabash rivers. This treaty, as have others among the white races, proved to be merely a scrap of paper, for the Shawnees immediately disregarded it.
It was some time after the independence of the Colonies was achieved before a definite government was adopted for the Northwestern Terri- tory. Army officers and discharged soldiers were clamoring for the lands which had been promised them. Thomas Jefferson evolved a scheme for the creation of the vast territory into a checkerboard arrangement of states, to which fanciful names were assigned. Our region narrowly escaped being a part of Metropotamia. Some of its neighbors would have been Cherronesus, Assenisipia, Illinoia, Pelisipia, Polypotamia, and Michigana. The ordinance was passed but never really went into effect, for it was soon afterwards superseded by the famous Ordinance of 1787.
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The main factor in the passage of this measure was the famous Manas- seh Cutler, representing the Ohio Company. This ordinance in its wise provisions ranks close to the Constitution, being preferred by the con- vention at the same time. The most marked and original feature in its provisions was the prohibition of slavery after the year 1800. On July 27, 1887, Congress passed the ordinance by which the Ohio Company was granted a million and a half acres, and a little more than twice as much was set aside for private speculation, in which many of the most prominent personages of the day were involved. This was the Scioto Company. They paid two-thirds of a dollar an acre in specie or certifi- cates of indebtedness of the government.
The Ohio Company was the first real attempt to settle Ohio, and this company had its full share of troubles. The lands granted were on the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. As Senator Hoar has said: "Never did the great Husbandman choose his seed more carefully than when he
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planted Ohio; I do not believe the same number of persons fitted for the highest duties and responsibilities of war and peace could ever have been found in a community of the same size as were among the men who founded Marietta in the spring of 1788, or who joined them within twelve months thereafter." Many of the settlers were college graduates, bearing classical degrees from Harvard and Yale. Arthur St. Clair was appointed the first governor of this new territory, and Winthrop Sargent was named as secretary. The ordinance required that the gov- ernor, to be appointed by Congress, must reside in the district and must be the owner of 1,000 acres of land. Governor St. Clair came of a distinguished Scotch family and had a distinguished career in the Revo- lution. He did not actively enter upon his duties until the summer of 1788.
The continued influx of white settlers and the creation of settlements was most unpleasing to the tribesmen of the Ohio country. With unerr- ing intuition the chiefs realized that this encroaching tide of whites meant the eventual displacement of the red men. The settlers lived
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
in constant fear of their depredations because of the small number of soldiers stationed in the country. They numbered less than one-tenth of the warriors that could be assembled by the Ohio Tribes. They paid scant adherence to the treaty obligations assented to by them. They watched the Ohio River with especial care, since most of the immi- grants entered by that avenue. A great council of the tribes was held at Detroit in the summer of 1788 at which the Six Nations gathered with the western Indians to devise means for mutual defense. The tribes of the Maumee region were here represented, together with other Ohio tribes. But nothing seems to have been definitely determined at this gathering.
The American authorities were aroused by the threatening condi- tions and hastened to make new treaties with the Indians, the matter being left to the discretion of Governor St. Clair. Some two hundred delegates of the delegated tribes accepted invitations to assemble at Fort Harmar in the autumn of 1788, but it was not until January that the treaty was completed. Much complaint was made of the actions of the Thirteen Fires, as the Colonies were called, as to the ways in which the red men had been deceived and cheated. Among the chiefs signing the treaty were Dancing Feather, Wood Bug, Thrown-in-the-Water, Big Bale of a Kettle, Full Moon, Lone Tree, Falling Mountain and Tearing Asunder. It was signed by the Wyandots, Delawares, and Ottawas, among others, But they were not the head chiefs. The Shawnees and Miamis remained away. They were even at that time committing depredations. A considerable sum of money was paid to the Indians as a consideration for certain concessions. It required only a few weeks, however, to demonstrate the insincerity and treachery of the Indians, for their maraudings began anew with the opening of another spring. Gen. Joshia Harmar, with a small body of troops, made a detour of the Scioto River, destroying the food supplies and huts of the hostile savages wherever they were found. Only four of the Indians, so he reported, were shot, as "wolves might as well have been pursued." Recourse was finally had to Antonine Gamelin, a French trader, who was highly esteemed by these aborigines. His long intercourse, honest deal- ing and good heart had given him universal popularity among the tribes. Much as they liked him, and always avowing their faith in him, the Indians passed him on from tribe to tribe, with no answer to the speech of invitation until he arrived on the Maumee among the Miamis. Here the chiefs were outspoken. "The Americans," they said, "send us noth- ing but speeches, and no two are alike. They intend to deceive us. Detroit was the place where the fire was lighted; there is where it ought first to be put out. The English commander is our father since he threw down our French Father; we can do nothing without his appro- bation." When Gameline returned he reported the situation as hope- less. Other traders arriving brought the information that war parties were on the move. The ultimate results were three formidable cam- paigns against the Indians of the Maumee region. They thus become of intense interest to those residing in that section today.
General Harmar reported to General St. Clair many raids and mur- ders by the savages, and it was agreed between them, at a meeting held at Fort Washington, on July 11th, that Harmar should conduct an expedition against the Maumee towns, which were reported to be the headquarters of all the renegade Indians who were committing the depredations. Troops from Kentucky, New York, and from the back counties of Pennsylvania, were ordered to assemble at Fort Washington (now Cincinnati) on the 15th of September, 1790. The object of this
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
expedition was not only to chastise the savages, but also to build one or more forts on the Maumee and to establish a connecting line of refuge posts for supplies, from which sorties could quickly be made to intercept the savages. Actuated by what might be termed by the "peace at any price" partisans, a commendable spirit, but which we now know was the sheerest folly and really suicidal, St. Clair forwarded word of this expedition to the British commander, to assure him that no hostile intentions were held towards Detroit "or any other place at present in the possession of the troops of his Britannic Majesty, but is on foot with the sole design of humbling and chastising some of the savage tribes, whose depredations have become intolerable and whose cruelties have of late become an outrage, not only on the people of America, but on humanity."
The army under General Harmar, who was the highest ranking officer in the army, marched northward from near Fort Washington on the 4th of October, 1790. It was composed of almost fifteen hundred soldiers, of whom about one-fifth were regulars, and included an artil- lery company with three light brass cannon. The rest of his troops were volunteer infantry, many of whom were raw soldiers and unused to the gun or the woods, and some of them were indeed without guns that could be used. Between the "regulars" and the militia jealousy seemed to exist from the very start of the expedition. General Harmar was much disheartened, for at least half of them served no other pur- pose than to swell the number. They were poorly clad and almost destitute of camp equipment. Some of the men were too old and infirm for the contemplated duties. We have a detailed account of the march from day to day in Ebenezer Denny's Military Journal. It shows the hardships endured from the muddy roads, marsh lands, and lack of provender for the horses. The troops averaged nearly ten miles a day. On the twelfth day, says Denny, "passed New Chillicothe, at which Girty's home, on Glaze Creek (Auglaize) or Branch of the Omee (Mau- mee) one hundred and twenty-five miles." On the 17th a scouting detachment encountered a body of Indians, and quite a number of the Americans were killed. This was the first serious incident of the cam- paign. The rout was due "to the scandalous behavior of the militia, many of whom never fired a shot, but ran off at the first noise of the Indians and left a few regulars to be sacrificed-some of them never halted until they crossed the Ohio."
The Harmar expedition eventually reached a place near the head waters of the Maumee, and not far from Fort Wayne, Indiana. A large village of the Indians was destroyed, and the army then proceeded on. "The chief village," says Denny, "contained about eighty houses and wigwams, and a vast quantity of corn and vegetables hid in various places, holed, etc." Other nearby towns comprised a hundred or more wigwams with gardens and adjacent fields of corn. On the represen- tation by Colonel Hardin that he believed the town was again occupied by the aborigines, as soon as the army passed on, a detachment of "four hundred choice militia and regulars" was sent back on the night of the 21st. They encountered the Indians in strong force and, owing to the unreliability of the militia, were overwhelmingly defeated. Gen- eral Harmar then lost all confidence in his troops and started for Fort Washington, which fortress they reached about ten days later. Of his troops one hundred and eighty-three had been killed and thirty-one wounded. The loss of the savages must have been severe for they did not annoy the expedition on its retreat. One of the officers wrote that "a regular soldier on the retreat near the St. Joseph's River, being sur-
Vol. I-4
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
rounded and in the midst of the Indians, put his bayonet through six Indians, knocked down the seventh, and the soldier himself made the eighth dead man in the heap." The numbers of the savages were so great, however, that "while the poor soldier had his bayonet in one Indian, two more would sink their tomahawks in his head." The Indians were led by Chief Little Turtle, of whom much will be heard now. It was indeed a sad march for General Harmar back to Fort Washington.
So severe was the adverse criticism of the conduct of this expedi- tion by its commander that President Washington appointed a board of officers to act as a Court of Inquiry. Although the verdict of this court was an acquittal, the incident proved to be General Harmar's undoing. The real causes of the disaster probably were the incompetence of some of the officers and bickerings among others which caused distrust and
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disorder, and the general lack of discipline among the militia. As a result of this disaster General Harmar resigned his commission, but after- wards rendered good service as Adjutant-General of Pennsylvania in furnishing troops for General Wayne's campaign.
Another natural result of this defeat was an increase of anxiety and dread among the frontier settlers. They feared the over pacific policy of sending embassies to placate the savages, instead of strong military expeditions to crush them if they would not yield. The savages greatly rejoiced that they had been able to administer such a decisive defeat upon trained troops. They became bolder in their operations in the Maumee as well as in other parts of the Northwestern Territory. The year 1791 was ushered in with a sanguinary beginning. A horrible massacre was perpetrated by the Indians along the Muskingum at Big Bottom settlement. The frontiersmen again appealed for protection. The headwaters of the Maumee (Fort Wayne) had for several years
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appealed to Washington as the site for a fort to protect the surrounding country. This splendid location had been the chief seat of the Miami nation almost from time immemorial. It now became the paramount purpose to build a fort here and a chain of fortified posts between there and Fort Washington. In pursuance of this object St. Clair appointed a major general and received some general instructions as to what was expected from the new expedition of which he was placed in charge. From the government standpoint the expedition was not necessarily hos- tile, so that the pipe of peace was carried along in the same wagon as the grape and canister. And yet it was intended to be irresistible. In taking leave of his old military comrade, President Washington wished him success and honor and added this solemn warning :
"You have your instructions from the secretary of war, I had a strict eye to them and will add but one word,-Beware of a surprise! You know how the Indians fight. I repeat it Beware of a surprise."
Many delays happened to St. Clair before his army and supplies were assembled for the advance. He had planned to advance on the 17th of September, 1791. The army, as finally assembled, was about equal to that under General Harmar. This army of 2,300 "effectives," as they were called, was fairly well provisioned, and had some courageous offi- cers ; but it was sadly deficient in arms and the necessary accoutrements. In its personnel it was almost as poor as that of Harmar. Fort Hamil- ton was established near the site of the present city of that name. Fort Jefferson was created in Darke County, about six miles south of Greenville.
Cutting its way through the forests and building bridges over streams, the army advanced slowly, making not more than five or six miles a day. Although signs of Indians were frequently encountered, the army was not properly safeguarded against surprise in a country of such dense forests. St. Clair did not seem to realize the extreme danger of his posi- tion so far in the enemy country. By the time the footsore and bedrag- gled army reached the eastern fork of the Wabash about a mile and a half east of the Ohio-Indiana line, in Mercer County, it had dwindled to about 1,400 men. Here the army camped on the night before the battle, while "all around the wintry woods lay a frozen silence". Signs of Indians were now unmistakable. During the night there was picket firing at intervals, and the sentinels reported considerable bodies of the aborigines skulking about the front and both flanks. To the officers this was a matter of great concern, and scouting parties were sent out in the early morning. A light fall of snow lay upon the ground. The army lay in two lines, seventy yards apart, with four pieces of cannon in the center of each. Across the small stream, probably twenty yards wide, a band of 300 or 400 militia were encamped. These men met the first brunt of the battle.
There was no time for the terror-stricken soldiers to properly form to meet the impending onslaught of the savages, who quickly encircled the entire camp of the Americans. Protected by logs and trees, they crowded closer and closer. The heavy firing and the blood-curdling whoops and yells of the painted enemy threw the militia into hopeless disorder. They broke and fled in panic to the body of regulars, thus spreading confusion and dismay everywhere. The drum beat the call to arms at the first shots, and the volleys brought many casualties among the Indians, but their onward rush soon surrounded the entire camp and the outlying guards and pickets were driven in. Only now and then could fearful figures, painted in red and black, with feathers braided in their long scalp-locks, be distinguished through the smoke. "They
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