Biographical and historical memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio. Embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the county and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy families and individuals, Part 6

Author:
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 642

USA > Ohio > Muskingum County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio. Embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the county and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy families and individuals > Part 6

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HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

and Lake Erie; the Shawnees were found previous to the arrival of the colony of New chiefly in the valleys of the Scioto and Mad Englanders, at the mouth of the Muskingum, rivers, and at a few points on the Ohio river in April, 1788, but were not permitted to do so. and elsewhere in small numbers; the Miamis The fact therefore remains that the settlement were the chief occupants of the valleys of the at Marietta was the first permanent one within Little and Great Miami rivers; the Mingoes the present limits of Ohio, all others having were in greatest force on the Ohio river about been but temporary, by reason of the compul- Mingo Bottom, below Steubenville, and at sory dispersion of the settlers elsewhere and other points on said river; also on the Scioto the destruction of their huts. After these river, and at a few places between the Ohio events, settlements were rapidly established in river and Lake Erie, the Ottawas occupied many portions of what is now the State of Ohio. the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky In 1750, Christopher Gist, an agent of the rivers; and the Chippewas, small in numbers, "Ohio Land Company," which had been or- were chiefly confined to the southern shores of ganized in 1748 by the Washingtons, one or Lake Erie. By the treaty of Fort McIntosh, two of the Lees, and other Virginians and formed in 1785, the Ottawas, with the Wyan- some Englishmen, came over the mountains dots and Delawares, were assigned to the from Virginia, and crossing the Ohio at or be- northern section of what is now the state of low the "Forks" (now Pittsburg), passed over Ohio, and west of the Cuyahoga river, having to the Tuscarawas river, which he descended relinquished by the terms of said treaty what- to its junction with the Walhonding. From ever of claims they had to other portions of the thence he traveled down the Muskingum, fol- territory that now constitutes our state.

lowing an Indian trail to the mouth of the

The first treaty establishing boundaries in Wakatomaka (now Dresden, Muskingum Ohio between our governmentand the Ohio In- county), where there was an Indian town. He dians was entered into at Fort McIntosh, in Janu- then followed the Indian trail across the Lick- ary, 1785. This was followed on May 20, 1785, by ing river to King Beaver's town, situated on an ordinance of Congress which provided for the head waters of the Hockhocking river, the first survey and sale of the public lands about equi-distant from the present cities of Lan- within the present limits of Ohio. Under that casterand Columbus. The trail he followed must ordinance the tract known as "the Seven have led him near the "Big Lake," as the Indi- Ranges," was surveyed and sales effected at ans called it, now the "Reservoir," a famous New York in 1787 to the amount of $72,974. fishing resort, situated in the counties of Lick- The tract of the Ohio Land Company was sur-

ing, Fairfield and Perry. In this exploring ex- veyed and sold pursuant to the provisions of pedition Gist was joined at the Walhonding by an ordinance of July 23, 1785; and Fort Ha- George Croghan, and probably by Andrew mar, situated at the mouth of the Muskingum Montour, a half-breed, son of a Seneca chief, river, was built during the next year, for the who often acted as an interpreter between the protection of the immigrants that might settle whites and Indians. They crossed the Scioto upon it. The title to the Ohio Land Company's and traveled on to the Great Miami, which

purchase was not perfected until October 23, Gist descended to the Ohio, and voyaged down 1787, and until then settling upon the public said stream to a point fifteen miles above the lands was discouraged and indeed forbidden "Falls," from whence he traveled through by the government; but, notwithstanding, a Kentucky to his home in Virginia, where he number of settlements were made between the arrived in May, 1751. This was probably the time of the treaty of Fort McIntosh, in Janu- first visit of white men to this section.

ary, 1785, and the perfecting of the title of the Upon representations made to Governor Ohio Land Company, in October, 1787. These Dunmore of outrages that clearly indicated a were principally along the Hockhocking and hostile disposition of the Indians toward the Ohio rivers, and were broken up by military whites and a determination to make war upon force and the settlers dispersed or driven east them, that functionary, in 1774, commissioned of the Ohio river. Settlements that were at- Colonel Angus McDonald and authorized him tempted at the mouth of the Scioto and other to organize the settlers of the Youghiogheny places were prevented. Proclamations by Con- and Monongahela rivers for the defense of the gress were issued against settling upon the pub- frontiers. Lord Dunmore, knowing Michael lic domain as early as 1785, and enforced by Cresap to be a man of courage, energy and military power when disregarded. It is prob- force of character, personally tendered him a able that hundreds of families had attempted captain's commission with a view to the to settle permanently west of the Ohio river immediate enlistment of a force for co-opera-

HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

tion with the troops rapidly organizing by panion he found in John Heckewelder, of McDonald west of the Alleghenies. Captain Bethlehem, who was then engaged at some Cresap accepted the commission and entered mechanical employment. In March, 1762, they upon his duties promptly. Such was his pop- started for their western mission, Heckewelder ularity, that more than the required comple- being then a youth of only nineteen years. ment of men were recruited in a very short After thirty-three days of weary horse-back time, and at once marched to join the com- travel, they arrived at the Muskingum (now mand of McDonald, the ranking officer of the called the Tuscarawas), and with expressions expedition. The combined forces, numbering of gratitude for their protection during their four hundred men, after a dreary march through long and perilous journey, they at once took the wilderness, rendezvoused at Wheeling, possession of the cabin built by the self- some time in June. The invasion of the coun- sacrificing missionary the preceding year. try of the Ohio Indians was their purpose. In Other appropriate devotional exercises signal- pursuance of their object, they went down the ized their safe arrival in the wilderness of the Ohio in boats and canoes to the mouth of the Muskingum, which, however, was then to be Captina creek, and from thence they pursued the scene of their missionary operations for a their march to the Indian towns at and near the very brief period. They cleared some ground mouth of the Wakatomaka creek (now Dres- around their cabin and cultivated corn and den), a point about equally distant from the vegetables for their subsistence, but before the present city of Zanesville and the town of autumn months had gone by; the jealousy and Coshocton, both on the Muskingum river, Jon- hostility of the Indians rendered their condi- athan Zane being the chief pilot of the expedi- tion not only unpleasant but unsafe, and the tion. About six miles from Wakatomaka, a mission had to be abandoned, the missionaries force of forty or fifty Indians lying in ambush, returning to Pennsylvania.

gave a skirmish, in which two of McDonald's

Ten years later, (1772,) Rev. David Zeis- men were killed, and eight or nine wounded, berger renewed the attempt to establish mis- while the Indians lost one or more in killed and sions on the Upper Muskingum. The first several wounded. When McDonald arrived at settlement, station, or village that he founded the chief Wakatomaka town, he found it evacu- was called Schonbrun, meaning a "beautiful ated, and the whole Indian force were in clear spring," and was situated on the west side ambuscade a short distance from it, which of the Muskingum, two or three miles from the being discovered, the Indians sued for peace. present town of New Philadelphia, the county A march to the next village, a mile above the seat of Tuscarawas county. The second mission first, was effected; a small skirmish ensued in station was established later in the year 1772, which some blood was shed on both sides. and was called Gnadenhutten, that is "tents of The result was the burning of the towns and grace," and was situated on the east bank of the destruction of their cornfields. There was the Muskingum, seven miles below Schonbrun. the usual perfidy on the part of the Indians, In this year Rev. John George Jungman located and really nothing substantial was accom- as a missionary at Schonbrun, and in 1773, Rev. plished, when the expedition returned to John Roth, also a missionary, commenced his Wheeling, taking with them three chiefs as cap- labors at Gnadenhutten.

tives, or hostages, who were sent to Williams- In 1776, the Moravians, under the lead of burg, the seat of the colonial government of Rev. David Zeisberger, established the town Virginia. This expedition was designed only and mission station of Lichtenau, within two to give temporary protection to the frontier miles of the "Forks of the Muskingum" (now settlers, and was preliminary to the Dunmore Coshocton); and in 1780, Salem, situated on expedition to the Pickaway Plains, or "Old the west bank of the Muskingum, about five Chillicothe," towns, near the Scioto, later in miles below Gnadenhutten, was established year. under the leadership of the same indefatigable In 1761, Rev. Christian Frederick Post missionary. Rev. John Heckewelder was its visited the Delaware Indians, living on the carly minister, and it was here in July, Upper Muskingum River, and took the pre- 1780, he entered into the married relation with liminary steps to establish a Moravian mission- Sarah Ohneberg, a teacher at the Muskingum ary station among them. After building mission stations. Revs. Adam Grube, Edwards, a cabin he went to Pennsylvania to find a Senseman, and others were missionaries at the suitable associate, one qualified to teach the above named villages at various times.

Indian children to read and write, and thus The forcible removal of the missionaries assist him in his missionary labors, This com- and of the Moravian Indians from the Musk-

HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

ingum to Sandusky, by Elliott an emissary of Dresden, Muskingum county; twenty-seven to the British, in September, 1781, and the murder King Beaver's Town, near the source of the of ninety-four of them who, in February, 1782, Hockhocking; forty to the lower Shawnees had returned to gather the corn they had raised Town, or the Sciota; twenty to Salt Town, near the previous season, terminated Moravian mis- the source of the Scioto; 190 northeast to sions for many years on the Upper Muskingum. Fort Miamis, now Fort Wayne, Indiana; a Until 1786 there were none within the present total distance of 426 miles.

limits of Ohio. During said year Rev. John

Years before the settlement of this country Heckewelder, and others, established a mission by the white man, there was an Indian trail on the Cuyahoga River, twelve miles from its from Grave creek on the Ohio river to the mouth, which was composed mainly of those Scioto towns. It was the route for Indians to who had formerly lived on the Muskingum, travel on their marauding expeditions in Vir- and who had spent the past few years at New ginia. No doubt many white captives passed Gnadenhutten, on Huron River, thirty miles over the route, never again returning to their north of Detroit. This mission station on the Virginia homes. From Renrock, Noble county, Cuyahoga, known in Moravian history as "Pil- it crossed the line of the county into Meigs grims' Rest," was abandoned in 1790, the mem- township, passing up Negro ridge, crossing bers returning to the vicinity of Detroit, and Meigs creek near Joseph Trainer's store, thence ultimately locating near the river Thames, past the present residence of Mr. Perley Se- where they built the town of Fairfield.

vall, the M'Cune farm, Rural Dale and cross-

The subsequent history of Moravian mis- ing the Muskingum river at Gaysport, thence sionary effort in Ohio belongs to territorial and by Union Hill across the Morgan county line. later times, but it may be here stated that The earliest route of travel in the southern Revs. Heckewelder and Edwards, in 1798, part of Muskingum county was the old Federal again established a mission at the Muskingum, or Indian trail. The name Federal trail was upon the site of Gnadenhutten; and in the given it by a portion of St. Clair's army who autumn of said year their fellow-laborers, Revs. were unable to obtain water transportation to Zeisberger and Mortimer, established another Fort Washington, passing over it in 1791. John upon the Schonbrun tract, and named it Goshen. F. Talley, an old settler in Muskingum county It was situated seven miles from Gnadenhutten, and an ex-surveyor of Morgan county, says: In where the venerated Zeisberger labored until 1820 the seventy-fourth mile tree was standing his death, in 1808, and where he and Edwards near the location of James M'Cune's barn in are buried. The Muskingum Moravian mis- Blue Rock township. This tree was marked sion stations were finally brought to a close in "Seventy-four miles from Grave Creek, 1791." the year 1823, the general government having In 1820, some vandal destroyed the mark with purchased at that time all the interests pre- his ax. From Gaysport to Rural Dale this viously acquired by the Moravians. trail was used by the settlers. Fallen timber

Rev. John Heckewelder was conspicuously had only to be removed, then it was a road for identified with our pre-territorial, our terri- wagons. About the year 1836, it was found torial, and state history, and has been called necessary to have the road established by law. one of the founders of Ohio. He was a man The county engineer and viewers, examined of talents, of character and integrity, and was the route and the road was laid out on the old one of the associate judges of Tuscarawas Indian or Federal trail.

county in 1808, 1809, and 1810, when he finally

"The latter part of June " ( 1788), says Hil- left Ohio, and returned to Bethlehem, Penn- dreth, a party of thirty men under the com- sylvania, where he died January 31, 1823, mand of Lieut, McDowel, of Fort Harmer, was having passed into the closing months of his sent up by water with provisions and presents eightieth year. His influence as a philanthro- of goods to the falls of Muskingum, in prepara- pist, philosopher, pioneer, teacher, author, dip- tion for the approaching treaty, which was ex- lomatist, statesman, ambassador, jurist, and as pected to be held with the Indians on the arri- a Christian missionary, was invaluable.

val of Gov. St. Clair. The place chosen for

An interesting appendix to Hutchins' his- this transaction is about sixty miles from the tory of Bouquet's Expedition describes five mouth, on the right bank of the river, where different routes from Fort Pitt through the the town of Taylorsville now stands. They Ohio wilderness. One of these was 128 miles were ordered up by Col, Harmer, to erect a to the forks of the Muskingum, at Coshocton; council house and build huts for the comfort six to Bullett's Town on the Muskingum ( Vir- of the men and the security of the goods against ginia township); ten to Wakatomaka, now the weather, This remote spot was selected

HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

by the Indians, in preference to Fort Harmer, this intrepid trapper are the same excepting in as being nearer their own homes, a well-known dates of his death. One places it in 1774, and and favorite locality and not under the influence another in 1794, the evidence being in favor of of a military post. They had commenced as- the first date. He came from Virginia to this sembling from the different tribes, especially place, and being on friendly terms with the in large numbers from the Delawares. Among Indians at the Old Town village, he was per- them was a band of Chippewas, and other In- mitted to remain by their chief, White Eyes, dians, outcasts from different tribes, amounting to hunt and trap and carry on a little trade to about twenty. On the night of the 12th with them. This continued for perhaps four of July, these desperadoes crept slily around years, when he discovered his traps had been the tent containing the goods and fired on the meddled with and some of his game stolen. sentries, ten in number, with the intention of This so enraged him that he resolved to watch plundering them. By this discharge two men and see, if possible, who the guilty party was, were killed and one or two wounded. The when he discovered an Indian taking game sentries returned their fire, and the rest of the from his trap, whereupon he shot the thief. guards running to their assistance, the Indians He continued to watch for some months, and retired without accomplishing their object. made it a point to shoot all Indians who One of the assailants was killed and one meddled with his rights. He found it necessary

wounded. The same night they killed and to keep himself concealed from them. They scalped a mulatto man, servant to Maj. Duncan, were not the friendly Indians of Old Town, but a trader who was waiting for the assembly of a hostile band who roamed on the west side of the tribes, with goods to barter for their skins the river. They were enraged, and sought an and peltries. The falls were soon after named opportunity to capture him. Duncan's place Duncan's Falls; which it retained until the slack- of abode was unknown to them, and when water improvement of the Muskingum oblitera- sometimes they saw him on one side of the river ted the rapids at this place. The next day, on and again on the other side, they watched to examining the dead Indian, the Delawares pro- see how he crossed and could find neither skiff nounced him to be a Chippewa, and that they nor boat. This was a great mystery and he had no knowledge of, or concern, in the attack. baffled them for a long time. Finally they dis- As a test of their ignorance, the Delawares covered he crossed the river on rocks with a came fearlessly into the camp, bringing with stout long pole, and his manner of crossing them their women and children. In addition was to skip from rock to rock with the aid of they seized upon six of the offending band, the pole, or lay it down from one rock to an- tied them with thongs and handed them over other where the water was deep and walk over; to the commandant of the troops, to be dealt then move the pole and so get across. This he with as they might deserve. They were brought generally did in the night. On the fatal night, down to Fort Harmer by the reinforcement two parties of the bravest Indian warriors, ly- which went up the next day, and kept in irons ing in ambush watching, saw him equipped for some time, but were finally allowed to es- with his gun and pole, leap lightly from rock cape, either by design or the carelessness of to rock, till he approached the main channel. their guards. The large boat belonging to the Here he placed his pole one end on each side Ohio Company was sent up, and the goods, of the channel, and had passed half way over, stores and troops transported to Fort Harmer when a volley from the Indians struck him and This untoward event postponed the treaty for he fell dead in the middle of the river. Next several months.

day his body was found one-half mile below,

Chalklly Frame, under date of August 4, 1887, on a gravelly ripple. This point was given the gave to the Ohio State Journal, this interesting name of 'Dead Man's ripple,' from the fact history: "Years before this fine valley was that the dead body of Duncan was found on it known to the whit man, a branch of the once and the falls at that place were called Dun- great Shawnee nation built Old Town, an In- can's falls because it was there that Duncan dian village on the site of Duncan's falls. For fell. years White Eyes, the chief, was' on friendly

After the death of Duncan his habitation terms with the white people, and rendered them was found up a small stream on the east side, assistance in his Indian way. The legendary a short distance below the .Dead Man's and historical interest of Duncan's falls has ripple.' The rock cave has ever since been more than interest imparted to it by the tragic known as Duncan's cave. On the island be- fate of the adventurous trapper who gave his tween the river and the canal, years ago, a gun name to this place. The different accounts of was found. The gun was purchased by Mr.

HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

Brelsford*, of Zanesville, a gunsmith, who

In nearly all parts of the county Indian relics shortened the barrel and put on a new stock, have been found, but it is thought that there as the old one was worthless, and took from it was no permanent Indian town within the a load of powder that had probably been put present borders of Muskingum, except that at in it by Duncan. The gun is at present owned Dresden previously referred to, and Old Town by Col. Z. M. Chandler, of the 78th regiment southeast of Duncan's falls. During the pioneer Ohio volunteer infantry, of the Ninth ward, days many Indians camped temporarily within Zanesville, who highly prizes it for itsgreat an- or passed through the county, but they were tiquity and being the gun, as is supposed, that for the most part friendly to the whites. Red was carried by the daring Duncan. Much of men became fewer and fewer as the years went this account of Duncan is gathered from the by, and finally they disappeared entirely before ' Indian Wars,' a small book published in Vir- the march of civilization. Some incidents in

ginia the beginning of this century."

which Indians figured will be referred to in the histories of some of the townships of the county.

*John Brelsford, since deceased.

Chapter III.

SETTLEMENT, REMINISCENCES, ETC.

F ROM an official source, the compiler de- of doubt rest upon the foregoing problematical rives the following account of titles in Ohio, expedition of Cavalier La Salle; but whether he which will be found to cover the whole voyaged down the Ohio or not at the time ground fully and explicitly: The territory that named, his name must ever be identified with now constitutes Ohio was first of all, so far as the State as one of its earliest explorers, if not we can judge, in the full possession of the race its discoverer, so far as the white race is con- of Mound-Builders; afterwards (but still in pre- cerned, as will be made apparent in the follow- historic times), its sole occupants and owners ing paragraphs. In 1679, this intrepid explorer for some centuries were unquestionably those accompanied by thirty-four Frenchmen, sailed Indian tribes or nations already named, and along the entire length of the southern shore probably the Eries and others that had been of lake Erie, in the "Griffin," a vessel of about subjected to expulsion or extermination. They, sixty tons burthen, which he had built in the as well as the Mound-Builders, held titles ac- Niagara river, above the "falls," and which quired probably by priority of discovery, by was the first vessel that ever unfurled a sail on conquest, by occupancy, or possession. Posses- said lake, or upon any waters within the present sory titles they might be appropriately styled. limits of Ohio.

It is stated by Parkman, and probably by

Again, in 1682, La Salle descended the other accredited historians, that the adven- Illinois and Mississippi rivers to the mouth of turous La Salle, in 1670, accompanied by a few the latter; and in 1684 he sailed past the mouth heroic followers, passed from Lake Erie south, of the Mississippi (which he intended to enter, over the portage into the Allegheny river, but failed), and along the Gulf of Mexico to perhaps by way of one of its numerous tribu- some point on the coast of Texas, and landing taries, and from thence down into the Ohio, there, became its discoverer. And it is upon which they descended as far as the "falls" of these three last named voyages, and upon the said river (at Louisville;) and that they were provisions of some European treaties, more therefore the first white men-the first of than upon the somewhat doubtfuland uncertain European birth-to enter upon the soil of Ohio; voyage of discovery by La Salle down the Ohio the first civilized men to discover and explore river to the "falls," in 1670, that France rested the territory that constitutes the now populous her title, claiming that the Upper Valley of the State. It must be admitted that some shades Ohio (at least the portion northwest of the

HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

Ohio river), was a part of Louisiana, thus charters granted to the colony of Virginia by acquired by La Salle for France, and held by James I, bearing dates, respectively, April 10, said power by right of discovery and possession. 1606; May 23, 1609; and March 12, 1611; also There was, of course, little controversy between upon the conquest of the country, between the Great Britain and France as to title northwest the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and the of the Ohio river, before the formation of the northern lakes, by General George Rogers treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, when and by which Clark, in 1878-79. But whatever the claim was certain matters in dispute between those govern- founded upon, the state legislature waived all ments were adjusted. And France not only title and ownership to it ( except to the Virginia asserted ownership and held possession of the Military district), and all authority over it, by territory that now constitutes Ohio, from the directing the representatives of said state time of the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, until the (Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lce, treaty of Paris, in 1763, by which peace was and James Moore) to cede to the United established between France and England, but States all right, title, and claim, as well of soil also exercised authority therein, and maintained as of jurisdiction, with the exception named, control over it by military force. And this, too, "to the territory of said state lying and being in defiance of titles set up by Great Britain, to the northwest of the river Ohio;" which was one of which being based upon treaties with accordingly done, March 1, 1784.

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio. Embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the county and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy families and individuals, Part 6

Author: Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 642

Author:
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 642