Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 7

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020

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"One day a dark man with swarthy counte- nance riding a very fine horse dismounted at our house and went into my father's office. I wanted to go in and see him but for some reason was * * not allowed to. After some time * I saw him come out, mount his horse and ride rapidly away. I was struck by the man and asked my mother, 'Who is that ma?' She said it was 'Lit- tle Turtle,' the great Indian chief. * *

* This most acute and sagacious of Indian states- men was it is said even a polished gentleman. He had wit, humor and intelligence. He was an extensive traveler and had visited all parts of the country and became acquainted with the most distinguished men. * *

"As he rode away from the house in the declin- ing sun, I might without any violent stretch of imagination have seemed to see the last great spirit of the Indian race leaving the land of his fathers looking for the last time upon the beau- tiful valleys of the Miamis and bidding farewell to each hill and wood and stream forever." ( Mansfield's Memories, p. 22.)

Little Turtle died at Fort Wayne, Indiana, strangely enough of the gout, on July 14, 1812.

Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea, the celebrated chief of the Mohawks, was born on the banks of the Ohio in 1742. His father was a full blooded Mohawk of the Wolf tribe, and his grandfather one of the five sachems who attended the court of Queen Anne in 1710. Sir William Johnson

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VIEW FROM NEWPORT BARRACKS IN THE "THIRTIES."

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whose relations with his sister Molly Brant, the brown Lady Johnson, are too well known to need rehearsal here, took a great interest in him and sent him in 1761 to the school at Hanover, New Hampshire, under the charge of Eleazer Whee- lock, which subsequently became Dartmouth College. While here he translated portions of the New Testament into the Mohawk language, and at a later time he translated the Book of Common Prayer into the same tongue.

He was present at the battle of Lake George in 1755, although but thirteen years of age, and was with Johnson in the Niagara campaign in 1759. He also took part in Pontiac's War in 1763, and in 1774, when upon the death of Sir William Johnson his son Guy became the Indian superintendent, Brant was made his secretary. At the opening of the War of the Revolution he was in England and volunteered his services to assist in quelling the rebellion. He received a colonel's commission and took an active part in numberless fierce raids against the colonists, and was said to have been at the massacre at Cherry Valley. This statement was disputed after- wards by his son who claimed to have proved that he was not present at this time. After the war he endeavored to form a confederacy of In- dians to prevent what he regarded as a spolia- tion of the Indian lands, but in this he wa's un- successful and finally he threw his influence on the side of a permanent peace.

In his later years. he became a consistent be- liever in the Christian religion and collected funds for the purpose of building a church on the Indian reserve on the Grand River in Canada. This was the first church erected in Upper Can- ada. He died on his estate at the old Brant mansion, Wellington Square, Canada, November 24, 1807, and rests under a handsome mauso- leum near the church which was built by the in- habitants of the vicinity in 1850. On the slab that surmounts it is the inscription "In commem- oration of the chief and of his son John," who became prominent as the principal chief of the Six Nations after the death of his father and died a member of the Canadian Parliament. A monument to the memory of Brant, the main fea- ture of which is a statue of heroic size, was erect- ed in Brantford, Canada, in 1886. Thirteen bronze cannons were given for the statue by the Canadian government. "As a warrior he was cautious, sagacious and brave ; as a diplomat and courtier, adroit and accomplished ; and as a friend chivalrous and faithful. His humanity toward a captive or a fallen foe is too well established

to admit of doubt, nor has the purity of his private morals ever been questioned." The fore- going statement is written by William L. Stone, his biographer, and is not to be accepted entirely without question. Brant's children and de- scendants became quite prominent people in Can- ada.

Two Indians with whom the whites came much into contact in the carly, days of the settlements in Ohio were Bohengeehalus and Captain Pipe, both war chiefs of the Delawares! Bohengeeha- luis or Pacanchichiles was esteemed as one of the greatest warriors among the Indians. He took part in the treaty at Fort Finney and at Green- ville in 1795, and in the later years of his life was constant in his friendship for the Americans. His name is signed to the treaty at Fort Finney, -Bohonghelass. Judge Burnet describes a visit to his home made during the early years of his law practice in the Northwest Territory at which time the visitors were entertained by a game of football :

"He selected two young men to get a purse of trinkets made up, to be the reward of the successful party. That matter was soon accom- plished, and the whole village, male and female, in their best attire, were on the lawn; which was a beautiful plain of four or five acres, in the cen- ter of the village, thickly set in blue grass. At each of the opposite extremes of this lawn, two stakes were set up, about six feet apart.

"The men played against the women; and to countervail the superiority of their strength, it was a rule of the game, that they were not to touch the ball with their hands on the penalty of forfeiting the purse; while the females had the privilege of using their hands as well as their feet ; they were allowed to pick up the ball and run and throw it as far as their strength and activity would permit. When a squaw succeed- ed in getting the ball, the men were allowed to seize, whirl her round, and if necessary, throw her on the grass for the purpose of disengaging the ball, taking care not to touch it except with their feet.

"The contending parties arranged themselves in the center of the lawn-the men on oite side and the women on the other->each party facing . the goal of their opponents. The side which succeeded in driving the ball through the stakes, at the goal of their adversaries, were proclaimed victors, and received the purse, to be divided among them.

"All things being ready, the old chief came on the lawn, and saying something in the Indian

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI

language not understood by his guests, threw up the ball between the lines of the combatants and retired; when the contest began. The parties were pretty fairly matched as to numbers, hav- ing about a hundred on a side, and for a long time the game appeared to be doubtful. The young squaws were the most active of their party, and most frequently caught the ball; when it was amusing to see the struggle between them and the young men, which generally terminated in the prostration of the squaw upon the grass, before the ball could be forced from her hand.

"The contest continued about an hour, with great animation and various prospects of suc- cess ; but was finally decided in favor of the fair sex, by the herculean strength of a mammoth squaw, who got the ball and held it, in spite of the efforts of the men to shake it from the grasp of her uplifted hand, till she approached the goal, near enough to throw it through the stakes.

"When the contending parties had retired from the strife, it was pleasant to see the exultation expressed in the faces of the victors, whose joy was manifestly increased by the circumstance that the victory was won in the presence of white men, whom they supposed to be highly distin- guished and honored in their nation."

This was at the Ottawa town on the Auglaize, and probably took place in the last year or so of the century. We shall hear more of this Indian chief when the story of the settlement is told.

After the battle of Fallen Timbers the story is told that Bohengeehalus, who was disgusted with the conduct of the English in refusing to take part in behalf of the Indians, proceeded to as- cend the river for the purpose of entering into a treaty of peace with the victors. The officer of the day at the British fort hailed them and stated that Major Campbell, the commandant, wished to speak with him. The Indian's reply was "in that case let him come to me." He was told that he would not be permitted to pass the fort unless he complied with the request. "What shall prevent me?" was the quick response. The officer thereupon pointed at the guns which were trained upon the river. "I fear not your can- non," replied the Indian. "After suffering the Americans to insult your flag without daring to fire upon them, you must not expect to frighten Bohengeehalus." (The visit of this chieftain to Ludlow's Station and also another visit to Fort Washington are described elsewhere.)

Captain Pipe was a celebrated rascal in his early days who found it to his interest to reform in later life. He was the leader of the war

party of the Delawares, but was more remark- able for his intriguing than for his fighting. He first came into prominence in opposition to the Moravians and his town on the Walhonding be- came the center of the disaffected Delawares. It is largely due to his influence that the sus- picions of the British were directed against the Moravians, and he it was who brought the mis- sionaries before the commandant at Detroit. He acted with great duplicity in this matter, but strangely enough although in command at the time of the burning of Crawford he succeeded in impressing the Americans with his friendly intentions. He was present on the Muskingum at the time of the arrival of the first party at Marietta and welcomed the newcomers. Gen- eral Harmar speaks of him as a "manly old fel- low and much more of a gentleman than the gen- erality of these frontier people." He took an active part in the conference at Fort Finney, and also in that of Fort Harmar, and in his later years was conspicuous for his friendship for the whites. He seems to have discovered that what- ever satisfaction might be obtained from slaugh- tering them could not be compared with the pleasure of swindling them in trade.

Other Indians who were conspicuous for their acquaintance with the whites in their early days were Blue Jacket, a Shawanee, Cornstalk, "one of the best Indians ever born in the Ohio Val- ley," White Eyes, Mesass, a Chippewa, and Tarkee the Crane, a Wyandot.

White Eyes is said frequently to have come near Fort Washington and viewed it from the neighboring hills. The wife of Colonel Strong, who was an officer at the fort, told Mr. Mans- field "that she had often met and conversed with White Eyes and other Indian chiefs. White Eyes told her he had often watched what was going on at the fort from what has since been the site of the old Cincinnati Observatory. On the brow of the hill, Mount Adams, there was then a very large oak tree which I have myself seen. It was in the branches of this tree that White Eyes concealed himself, looked down upon the fort and saw all that was going on." ( Mansfield's Memories, p. 21.)

Tecumseh belongs of right in any list of great men among the Indian tribes. Tecumseh or Te- cumthe was a chief of the Shawanees, born near the city of Piquatown about 1768. His first ex- perience in war was said to have been at the age of twenty in a fight with the Kentucky troops; he ran at the first fire. He afterwards took an active part and showed great courage in a cam-

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

paign which ended with the treaty of Greenville. About 1805 he started upon the scheme of con- . federating the Western Indians together for the purpose of exterminating the white people. His brother the Prophet, Ellskwatawa, born in 1775, had acted as chief of about one thousand war- riors of various tribes located near the confluence of the Tippecanoe with the Wabash. His ad- ministration was a complete failure, but Tecum- seh at this time took the reins of government, acting however in the name of his brother the Prophet. Tecumseh and his brother visited the tribes from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico ar- guing and discussing the right of the Indians to the lands. He was warned to desist by Gen. William Henry Harrison, then the Governor of the Northwest Territory, and in August, 1810, near Vincennes, in company with four hundred fully armed warriors, he had a quiet talk or con- ference with the governor. He was prolific in promises, but proceeded with his schemes. He made an address to the Creek nation gathered to the number of five thousand in Alabama, and told them that as an evidence of his might upon his return to Detroit he would stamp upon the ground and shake down every house in their country. Strangely enough about the time he should arrive at Detroit, came the earthquake of December, 1812, which convinced the affriglited Creeks of the truth of his statement. He had announced to them that the time to begin the war would be shown by the appearance of the arm of Tecumseh stretching across the heavens like fire. The appearance of the comet which had been foretold to him by the British com- pleted his argument. He was not present at the battle of Tippecanoe but his brother the Prophet superintended that battle from a safe distance. In the war of 1812 he commanded the Indian allies of the English and was finally made a brigadier-general in the royal army. He was killed at the battle of the Thames October 5, 1813, where he fought desperately, feeling from the beginning that he must fall. The manner of his death is not known to any degree of certainty although Col. Richard Malcolm Johnson had claimed for himself the distinction of having slain Tecumseh ; this however is upon insufficient evidence. A Canadian historian attributes to Tecumseh the preservation of Canada to the Eng- lish. The Prophet continued to reside in Can- ada until 1826 when accompanied by a son of Tecumseh and others lie settled beyond the Mis- sissippi. The time of his death is unknown.

The great chief of the Seneca Indians was

Cornplanter, or Garyan-wah-gah, who was born at Conewaugus on the Genesee River in 1732. He was a half-breed, the son of John O'Bail, an In- dian trader. He took part with the French strangely enough in the war against the English and was present at Braddock's defeat. Through- out the Revolutionary period he was an inveter- ate foe of the Americans and spread destruction over the frontier settlements of New York and Northern Pennsylvania. After the war was over he manifested a sincere friendship for the'Ameri- cans and together with Red Jacket was active in counseling and protecting them. He became an earnest promoter of temperance among his peo- ple and was the first temperance lecturer of the United States. He in his later years cultivated a farm on the Allegheny River. IIe died at the Seneca reservation in Pennsylvania on February 17, 1836.

Red Jacket was also a Sencea of the Wolf tribe. He was born near Geneva in 1751. His name was given to him because of a brilliantly embroidered scarlet jacket which had been pre- sented to him by an English officer shortly after the Revolution as the reward for his fleetness of foot. His Indian name was Sagoyewatha. His great influence with his people came from his elo- quent tongue as his activity on the war-path was never remarkable. Brant said that he was a cow- ard and gave him the name of cow killer and considered him not always honest. He took an active part at the treaty of Fort Stanwix where he established his fame as an orator. Throughout his whole career Red Jacket remained a thor- ough Indian. His hostility to Christianity never ceased and he regarded a missionary as the most serious enemy of his race. He not only depised the white people but their dress and language and everything that belonged to them. He was tall and dignified in appearance with fine eyes and majestie demeanor. In 1792 at the conclusion of the treaty between the United States and the Six Nations, Washington presented Red Jacket with a medal of solid silver, seven inches in length and five inches in breadth. On the reverse was en- graved the arms of the United States and on the obverse a device showing Red Jacket receiving the pipe of peace from Washington. This medal he prized very highly and with the scarlet jaeket wore it until the time of his death.

In 1810 he gave valuable information to the Indian agents of the plots of Tecumseh and the Propliet and in the war that followed he kept the Senecas on the side of the Americans. In his later years he became a confirmed drunkard and

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI

sank into mental imbecility and was finally de- posed by twenty-six of the leading men of his nation. He died in Seneca village, January 30, 1830. His remains were removed to Forest Lawn Cemetery near Buffalo in 1884. He has been called the last of the Senecas and has been celebrated in prose and verse by many writers and portrayed by at least four artists. His life was written by William L. Stone who speaks of him as follows : "Red Jacket's character was singularly contradictory. Lacking firmness of nerve, he nevertheless possessed remarkable ten- acity of purpose and great moral courage, and his intellectual powers were of a very high order. He was a statesman of sagacity and an orator of surpassing eloquence, yet he was capable of de- scending to the lowest cunning of the dema- gogue. But he was still a patriot, and loved his nation and his race, whose extinction he clearly foresaw, and continued to labor with all his en- ergies to put off the evil day."

John Logan was a chief of the Cayugas and bore the Indian name Tahgahjute; his English name was taken from that of the secretary of William Penn. Logan was brought up in friend- ly and familiar intercourse with the whites with whom he became very popular. He was finally chosen by. the Mingoes as their chief. In 1770 he removed to the Ohio where he became mnuch addicted to drinking. Four years later came the massacre of his family which resulted in the cele- brated speech of Logan which is still regarded as one of the best examples of Indian eloquence. In revenge for this outrage upon his people he took the war-path in person and for several months committed fearful, barbarities upon the whites. He himself took thirty scalps during the war. After the war was over he became very intemperate and in a fit of drunkenness knocked his wife down; supposing he had killed her he fled. He was followed by a troop of Indians who overtook him on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Mistaking their friendly purposes for a desire to avenge the death of his wife, he at- tacked them and was killed by a nephew in self defense at a point near Sandusky in 1780.

Pontiac the chief of the Ottawas was born on the Ottawa River in 1720. He was a son of an Ojibwa woman and became the chief of the three tribes, Ottawas, Ojibwas and Pottawattamies. His celebrated conspiracy is described at length at a later part of this volume. It was probably the most elaborately prepared and skilfully managed conspiracy of wide extent ever entered into against the whites by the Indians. Pontiac was

killed in 1769 in Cahokia, Illinois, by another Indian who had been bribed for the purpose.

TREATIES WITHI THE INDIANS.

The treaties which the English entered into with the Indians which became of importance in later years in the contests for the possession of the Western lands may be here briefly enumerated. It must be remembered that throughout the whole course of negotiations the Iroquois conquest of the Western tribes was taken for granted and that the Five Nations did not hesitate to sell nor the English to buy the title held by so vague a right.

Whatever may be the justice of the claim it seems clearly established that this confederacy pretended to own the whole country now em- braced in Kentucky and Virginia north of the Cherokee claim and all of what was subsequently the Northwest Territory except a small por- tion in Ohio and Indiana and Southwestern Illi- nois belonging to the powerful Miami confed- eracy.

It was in the year 1609 that Champlain made the fatal mistake of introducing the knowledge of gunpowder to the Iroquois in an attack in which he accompanied the Hurons against their ancient enemies. The French people never over- came the feeling of resentment felt by the Iro- quois at what they considered their unjustifiable part in this battle and at all times thereafter the natural sympathies of this great confederacy were with the English.

As early as 1684 Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, is said to have held a treaty with the Five Nations at Albany at which time they placed themselves under the protection of the Britishi nation. They also made a deed of sale to the British government of a vast tract south and east of the Illinois River and extending across Lake Huron to Canada. The cession of 1701 is de- scribed later.

Again in September, 1726, the Senecas, Cayu- gas and Onondagas entered into a treaty with the English at the same place by which they con- firmed this cession and also granted a strip of land sixty miles wide along the southern bank of Lake Ontario including the post at Oswego and extending to the modern Cleveland on Lake Erie. These lands were conveyed in trust to England "to be protected and defended by his Majesty, to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs." It would be a matter of curious interest although of little practical importance to know

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

what the unfortunate Indians supposed this lan- guage to niean. There never was any question that the English assumed that the best way to protect these lands for the use of those for whom they held them in trust was to use them for the benefit of the trustee.

Another treaty was made between the Six Na- tions and the colonists at Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania, in 1744. At this conference all the con- federated tribes were represented except the' Mo- hawks and there were commissioners from Penn- sylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The confer- ence lasted from June 22 to July 4. The cele- brated interpreter Conrad Weiser acted for the English and the no less celebrated Madame Mon- tour for the Indians. By this an indefinite extent of land west of the Alleghanies was ceded to the English as well as the right to build a great wagon road from Pennsylvania through Lan- caster and York to the Potomac at William's Ferry then up the Valley of Virginia to Win- chester from which it was to follow an old In- dian trail still farther south. In 1748 at the same place the Twightwees for the first time en- tered into an alliance with the English.

Another treaty was made at Logs Town a trad- ing post seventeen or eighteen miles below the forks of the Ohio near the modern town of Economy. According to arrangement, Christo- pher Gist, Captain Trent and George Croghan and other representatives of the Ohio Company met the Indians at this point on June 9, 1752. The Indians most prominent here were the Shawanees and Mingoes and the purpose of the conference was to get these tribes to confirm the cession made at Lancaster. At first, although they recognized the treaty of Lancaster and the authority of the Six Nations to make it, they denied any knowledge' of the Western lands be- ing conveyed to the English by that deed and re- fused to have anything to do with the treaty of 1744. "However," said the savages, "as the French have already struck the Twightwees we should be pleased to have your assistance and protection ;" they therefore asked that the Eng- lish build a fort at the forks of the Ohio. The reference was to Langlade's attack on Picka- wvillany. The influence of Croghan and Montour, a son of the famous Madam Montour and a chief among the Six Nations, finally induced the In- dians to sign a deed confirming the Lancaster trcaty in its full extent and consenting to a set- tlement southcast of the Ohio.

In the following year William Fairfax had a conference at Winchester, Va., with representa-

tives of some of the Indian tribes. The treaty was concluded but such was the feeling of the Indians that Fairfax did not dare to mention either the Lancaster or the Logs Town treaty.

The conference held at Carlisle, in Septem- ber, 1753, between representatives of the Six Nations, the Delawares, Shawanees, Twightwees and Wyandots on the one hand and the com- missioners of Pennsylvania including Benjamin Franklin was more satisfactory. In reply to the Indians' complaint that their friendship for the English had brought upon them the enmity of the French, the English agreed to fortify trading stations at the forks at Logs Town and at the mouth of the Kanawha. A speech of one of the Indian chiefs at this time is worth quot- ing: "Your Traders," says he, ""bring scarce anything but Rum and Flour. They bring little Powder and Lead, or other valuable Goods. The Rum ruins us. We beg you would prevent its coming in such Quantities by regulating the Traders. We never understood the trade was to be for Whisky and Flour. We desire it may be forbidden, and none sold in the Indian Coun- try ; but that, if the Indians will have any, they may go among the Inhabitants and deal with them for it. When these Whisky Traders come, they bring thirty or forty Cags, and put them down before us, and make us drink,, and get all the Skins that should go to pay the Debts we have contracted for Goods bought of the fair Traders, and by this Means we 'not only ruin ourselves, but them too. These wicked Whisky Sellers, when they have got the Indians in Liquor, make them sell the very Clothes from their Backs. In short, if this Practice be con- tinued, we must be inevitably ruined. We most earnestly, therefore, beseech you to remedy it." (Western Annals, p. 149.)

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 7

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020