USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 7
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the purpose of discovering their purpose and strength. This resulted in the battle of Tippecanoe, November 7, 1811, at which battle the Indians were defeated, but not greatly dispirited, as they still relied greatly upon the looked for war between the United States and Great Britain, when they would have the powerful aid of the British forces.
Tecumseh was not present at that battle, and the Indians were under the command of his brother, the imposter Prophet. By this defeat the power which the Prophet had been exercising over his Indian followers was largely destroyed, and he was never afterward in much favor.
The War of 1812.
The war which had long been threatening between the United States and Great Britain suddenly flamed into activity, and war was declared on the part of the United States against Great Britain on June 18, 1812. This was the opportunity the discontented and turbulent Indians of the northwest had long been waiting for. Tecumseh had before that time, and in anticipation of it, concluded his alliance with the British forces, and the forces under him were already well prepared to join in active warfare. He was at the head of all the Indian forces in the northwest and was by far the ablest war chief of his times and the ablest war chief which the Indian race has produced of which we have any accurate knowledge, unless it may be the great Pontiac of a half century before. He at once commenced a vigorous onslaught on the frontier military posts and frontier settlers, and with terrible effect
Affairs went badly against the American forces for the first year after the declaration of war. On July 17, 1812, Lieutenant Hanks, in command of Mackinac, was compelled to surrender the garrison. consisting of fifty-seven effective men, to the forces under the British commander at St. Joseph's, a British post near the head of Lake Huron.
On August 15 following, the massacre of the garrison at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) occurred, at which time between fifty and sixty United States sol- dier were mercilessly murdered and the fort destroyed. This terrible slaugh- ter, in which the treacherous and blood-thirsty Black Hawk was engaged, was followed the next day (August 16) by the cowardly and ignominious sur- render of General Hull at Detroit of about fifteen or sixteen hundred troops to a greatly inferior number of British and Indians under General Brock of the English army.
The Northwest Overrun.
By the time of September, 1812, the entire northwest, with the exception of Fort Harrison on the Wabash and Fort Wayne on the Maumee had been overrun and was in possession of the British and Indians, and these two forts were both besieged by hordes of savages. Fort Harrison, with but fifty or sixty men, under Captain Zachary Taylor (then a young officer in the United States army and afterward president of the United States), was hero- ically defended and the Indian hordes repelled. A like brilliant defense was made at Fort Wayne. The garrison was small, the Indians were in great
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numbers, the captain in command of the garrison was dissipated and incom- petent and was summarily deposed from command, which then devolved upon one Lieutenant Curtis, a young officer in the United States army, who, by his heroic defense of the fort during the two weeks of unremitting siege has recorded his name permanently in the annals of his time.
It was just at this discouraging and perilous time that General Harrison was appointed commander of all the forces in the northwest. He at once took most heroic measures to raise the siege at Fort Wayne and strengthen that garrison, and also to strengthen the garrison at Fort Harrison on the Wabash. This he accomplished, and thereafter was able to maintain the lines of the Wabash and Maumee as the frontier between the American forces and the allied British and Indians. All beyond to the northwest was in possession of the enemy.
But disasters to the American forces were not yet ended. On the 21st of January, 1813, General Winchester, who was in command of the forces on the Maumee, was defeated at the battle of the River Raisin by the combined forces of General Proctor and Tecumseh, and about seven hundred of his troops captured or destroyed, many of them being massacred after they had surrendered.
General Harrison was at the headquarters of the army at Upper San- dusky when he first heard that General Winchester, who was in command of the forces on the Maumee, intended to make an important military move- ment, the nature of which, however, he could not learn. No important offensive movement was contemplated by him at that time. On receiving this information he at once ordered forward all the troops then at Upper San- dusky, about three hundred strong, and took a horse and rode to Lower Sandusky (Fremont) in all haste. Such was the energy with which he pushed forward over the terrible winter roads that the horse of his aid-de- camp failed and died under the exertion. At Lower Sandusky he learned that on the 17th of January Colonel Lewis had been sent forward from the Rapids to the River Raisin in command of over six hundred troops, which was almost the entire available force on the Maumee. General Harrison's mind was filled with forebodings, and, ordering the troops at Lower Sandusky forward to the Rapids, he again pushed forward to that place, where he arrived early on the 20th. Here he learned that General Winchester had gone for- ward to join his command at the River Raisin. There was nothing that could be done but wait for the troops which he had ordered forward from the San- duskies, which were floundering along as best they could through the swamps of the wilderness. He did not have to wait long before he received the appalling news of the battle at the River Raisin, which was one of the most disastrous of all our Indian wars.
Columbus at Mercy of the Foe.
The battle was fought on January 21, the defeat was complete and over- whelming, and Winchester's army was practically destroyed. This left the region of the Maumee entirely open to be overrun by the victorious British
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FRANKLIN COUNTY COURTHOUSE, HIGH AND MOUND STREETS.
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and Indians, and it was expected that they would soon make their appearance at the Rapids. A council of war was at once held and it was determined to withdraw the remaining troops to Portage river, about twenty miles east from the Maumee. Here a camp was established, and the troops, which were strug- gling forward, as well as the remnant of General Winchester's command, were concentrated. Within a few days such a force had been assembled as to enable General Harrison to move back to the Maumee. He did not, how- ever, resume possession of the old camp, Fort Miami, which had been occu- pied before by General Winchester's command, but a better place was selected some distance up the river from the old camp and on the south side of the river, where a strong fort was erected which was named Fort Meigs in honor of the then Governor of Ohio.
It was the intention to concentrate a force at Fort Meigs sufficient to maintain it against all attacks which might be made, but on account of the terrible roads through the wilderness the expected recruits from Kentucky and southern Ohio did not arrive until the fort was besieged by the entire forces under Proctor and Tecumseh.
On the 1st day of April, 1813, the fort was invested on every side and an active siege was at once begun. The siege was carried on with great vigor, the Indians being incited to bravery by the promise of the monster General Proctor to deliver General Harrison into their hands should the siege be suc- cessful and the fort taken. However, after nine days of constant bombard- ment and conflict, the siege failed and the British and Indian forces with- drew. Immediately after the British and Indians had withdrawn from the Maumee, General Harrison hastened in person to southern and central Ohio to urge forward the troops that were being collected to meet and repel the British and Indian forces and drive them beyond the boundaries of the United States.
It was under these anxious and harassing circumstances that General Harrison came to Franklinton and held the conference with the chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanese and Senecas. The principal chiefs of these tribes had remained true to their obligations and neutrality under the Treaty of Greenville, but so many had been lured away from their tribal obligations by British pay and British bribes and promises, and such was their strength when commanded and guided by that able and energetic Tecumseh, that it became necessary for General Harrison to know as exactly as possible what proportion of the military strength of the powerful tribes would remain neutral or if necessary join with the American forces. The chiefs assembled not only assured him that they would remain true to their obligations, but if called upon would join with the American forces against the British.
They were not called upon to take an active part in the war, but as a matter of fact several of the chiefs of these four great tribes, with a consid- erable number of their warriors, of their own volition accompanied General Harrison in his campaign, which ended in the decisive battle of the Thames. Chief Tarhe (the Crane), grand sachem of the Wyandots, whose village was then near Upper Sandusky, Wyandot county, and who was spokesman for all
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the tribes at the conference at Franklinton, although seventy-two years of age, went with General Harrison on foot, with a number of his warriors, to Can- ada and was present at the battle of the Thames, although he took no active part in that battle.
This conference or council at Franklinton enabled General Harrison to know what he could depend upon as to these four neutral tribes and greatly relieved him from uncertainty and anxiety, and also greatly relieved the frontier settlers from the apprehension and fears with which their minds and . hearts were filled.
What the Tarhe-Harrison Conference Secured.
From the date of that conference the tide turned strongly in favor of the American forces. The English and Indians were again in force along the Maumee, and in July, 1813, again besieged Fort Meigs, but it had been so strengthened and reinforced that they made no assault upon it, but retired after a few days-Proctor by water to Sandusky bay and the Indians through the forest to Sandusky river. This demonstration was quite formidable, both by land and water. Fort Stevenson, at the mouth of the Sandusky river, where the city of Fremont now stands, was first besieged. On July 31, 1813, the British approached Fort Stevenson by water and landed about five hun- dred British troops, with some light artillery, while Tecumseh, with about two thousand Indians, besieged the fort on the land side.
It is not our purpose here to narrate the history of that assault. Suffice it to say here that Major Croghan, in command of the fort with but one hun- dred and sixty men in the garrison, successfully repelled the assault of the British and Indians and compelled them to retire after heavy losses. This brilliant victory was succeeded on August 10 by the celebrated and world renowned victory of Commodore Perry, by which the British fleet on Lake Erie was destroyed. This enabled General Harrison to move his army across Lake Erie to the Detroit river and to invade Canada.
On the 5th of October he was able to bring the allied forces under Proc- tor and Tecumseh to issue at the battle of the Thames, where a complete vic- tory was gained over the allied forces. Tecumseh was killed in that battle and Proctor ignominiously fled the field. His army was captured or destroyed. The battle of the Thames and the death of Tecumseh practically ended the war in the northwest, although the British still held a few small forts like Mackinac and St. Joseph's, around the head of Lake Huron; but these were powerless of any offensive operations.
The war, however, between the United States and Great Britain con- tinued in full force and destructiveness for more than a year after the battle of the Thames, during which time the commerce of both nations upon the high seas was largely ruined. In August, 1814, the British gained possession of the city of Washington and burned and destroyed all the public buildings and threatened further serious destruction. A year had now elapsed since the battle of the Thames, during which time quiet had reigned among the Indians in the northwest. The neutral tribes of the northwest remained
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favorable to the cause of the United States, and many of those who had served under Tecumseh a year before had become angered and embittered toward the British for want of their fulfillment of their promises so lavishly made before the war, and were anxious to assist in the war against their former allies.
The Greenville Conference.
In this situation the government authorized and directed General Har- rison and General Lewis Cass to meet the Indian tribes in conference at Greenville, Ohio, where the Treaty of Greenville had been concluded nine- teen years before. Accordingly, the commissioners met at that place with the chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanese, Senecas, Miamis, Pottawatto- mies and Kickapoos and concluded a treaty of peace as follows :
Article 2. The tribes and bands above mentioned engage to give their aid to the United States in prosecuting war against Great Britain and such of the Indian tribes as still continue hostile, and to make no peace with either without the consent of the United States. The assistance herein stipulated for is to consist of such number of their warriors from each tribe as the presi- dent of the United States, or any officer having his authority therefor, may require.
Article 3. The Wyandot tribe and the Senecas of Sandusky and Stony creek, the Delaware and Shawanese tribes, who have preserved their fidelity to the United States throughout the war, again acknowledge themselves under the protection of the said United States, and of no other power whatever, and agree to aid the United States in the manner stipulated for in the former arti- cle and to make no peace but with the consent of the said states.
Article 4. In the event of the faithful performance of the conditions of this treaty the United States will confirm and establish all the boundaries between their lands and those of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanese and Miamis as they existed previously to the commencement of the war. Thus the Franklinton conference was embodied in treaty form.
No call was made for Indian help under this treaty, as on December 24, 1814, the commissioners of the United States and the commissioners of Great Britain concluded the Treaty of Ghent, putting an end to the war. This sec- ond Treaty of Greenville was the last peace or war treaty ever entered into between the United States and any of the Indian tribes within the boundaries of the state of Ohio; and with the exception of an unimportant treaty con- cluded at Detroit the following year, the last made east of the Mississippi.
A Heroic Figure.
Tarhe, the Crane, knew every foot of Columbus and its vicinity, his cap- ital for a long period being at Lancaster, and the sentinel tower of his prophets and watchmen was that matchless piece of scenery, Mount Pleasant, that rises abruptly from and overlooks the beautiful Hock-Hocking valley. Mr. Emil Schlup, of Upper Sandusky, thus estimates his personal or moral char- acter and places him among the great characters of history, demonstrating
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that the soil of Ohio, while yet a wilderness, was capable of and did produce ment of great souls, as witness Tarhe, Cornstalk, Tecumseh and others. Of Tarhe Mr. Schlup says:
A Man of Noble Traits.
"Probably no other Indian chieftain was ever more admired and loved by his own race or by the outside world. He was either a true friend or a true enemy. Born near Detroit, Michigan, in 1742, he lived to see a wonderful change in the great northwest. Being born of humble parentage, through his bravery and perseverance he rose to be the grand sachem of the Wyandot nation. This position he held until the time of his death, when he was suc- ceeded by Duonquot. Born of the Porcupine clan of the Wyandots and early manifesting a warlike spirit, he was engaged in nearly all the battles against the Americans until the disastrous battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Tarhe saw that there was no use opposing the American arms or trying to prevent them planting corn north of the Ohio river. At that disastrous battle thirteen chiefs fell, and among the number was Tarhe, who was badly wounded in the arm. The Americans generally believed that the dead Indian was the best Indian, but Tarhe sadly saw his ranks depleted and at once began to sue for peace. General Wayne had severely chastised the Indians and forever broke their power in Ohio. Accordingly, on January 24, 1795, the principal chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, Ottawas, Sacs, Pottowattomies, Miamis and Shawnees met. The preliminary treaty with General Wayne at Greenville, Ohio, in which there was an armistice, was the forerunner of the celebrated treaty which was concluded at the same place August 3, 1795. A great deal of opposition was manifested to this treaty by the more warlike and turbulent chiefs, as this would cut off their favors on the border settlements.
Always Kept Faith.
"Chief Tarhe always lived true to the treaty obligations which he so earnestly labored to bring about. When Tecumseh sought a great Indian uprising, Tarhe opposed it, and awakened quite an enmity among the warlike of his own tribe, who afterward withdrew from the main body of the Wyan- dots and moved to Canada. The Rev. James B. Finley had every confidence in Tarhe, as evidenced in 1800, when, returning from taking a drove of cattle to the Detroit market, he asked Tarhe for a night's lodging at Lower San- dusky, where the Wyandot chief then lived, and intrusted him with quite a sum of money from the sale of cattle, and the next morning every cent was forthcoming.
"From 1808 until the war of 1812 Tarhe steadily opposed Tecumseh's treacherous war policy, which greatly endangered Tarhe's life, and it is claimed he came near meeting the same fate that Leather Lips met on June 1, 1810. He even went so far as to offer his services, with fifty other chiefs and warriors, to General Harrison in prosecuting the war against Tecumseh and the English under General Proctor. He was actively engaged in the battle on the Thames. So earnest was he in the success of the American cause, so sin-
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cere did he keep all treaty obligations, that General Harrison in after years, in comparing him with other chiefs, was constrained to call him 'The most noble Roman of them all.'
He Abjured Strong Drink.
"Tarhe never drank strong drinks of any kind nor used tobacco in any form. Fighting at the head of his warriors in Harrison's campaign in Can- ada at the age of seventy-two years is something out of the ordinary. Being tall and slender, he was nicknamed 'The Crane.' On his retiring from the second war for independence, he again took up his abode in his favorite town-the spot is still called 'Crane Town,' about four and one-half miles northeast from Upper Sandusky, on the east bank of the Crane run, which empties into the Sandusky river. Here, surrounded by a dense forest, he spent his old age in a log cabin fourteen by eighteen feet. Just south of the old cabin site are a number of old apple trees-likely of the Johnny Appleseed origin-the fruit being small and hard; a short distance south of the cabin is the old gauntlet ground, oblong and about three hundred yards long; to the westward from the village site is a clearing of about ten acres, still known as the Indian field and still surrounded by a dense forest. Here Tarhe died in his log cabin home in November, 1818. In 1850 John Smith, then owner of the land, had most all of the cabin taken down for firewood. At that time a small black walnut twig, about the thickness of a man's thumb, was growing in the northwest corner of the cabin, and is quite a tree at the present writ- ing-a living and growing monument to the memory of the great and good Wyandot chief."
The Chieftain's Widow.
"Aunt Sally Frost was Tarhe's wife when he died. To them one child was born, an idiotic son, who died at the age of twenty-five years. Sally had been a captive from one of the border settlements and refused to return to her people. After the death and burial of Tarhe, the principal part of Crane Town was moved to Upper Sandusky, the center of the Wyandot reservation, twelve miles square. Here the government at Washington paid them an annuity of ten dollars per capita until the reservation reverted back to the government in March, 1842.
"Cabin sites are plainly discernible in the old historic town, which was usually a half-way place between Fort Pitt and Detroit. Here in the early days Indian parties found a resting place when on their murderous missions to the border settlements. This was one of the 'troublesome' Indian towns on the Sandusky river that the ill-fated Colonel William Crawford was directed against in the spring of 1782. Traces of the old Indian trail may be seen meandering southward through the forest, where the warwhoop was fre- quently given and the bloody scalping knife drawn over many defenseless prisoners. The springs, just westward from the town site, are cattle tramped, but still bubble forth a small quantity of water, but likely not nearly so active
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as when they furnished the necessary water for the nations of the forest a century and more ago.
"On June 11, 1902, Mr. E. O. Randall, the able and efficient secretary of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, in company with the writer, gave the place a visit. Numerous locusts were chirping away at their familiar songs quite loud enough to drown out the voices of the intruders.
Tarhe's Friend, Jonathan Pointer.
"Jonathan Pointer, who had been a colored captive among the Wyandots and who was a fellow soldier with Tarhe in the Canadian campaign under General Harrison, returned with that celebrated chieftain to his home and stayed with him until the time of Tarhe's death, always claiming that he assisted in the burial of Tarhe on the John Smith farm, about a half mile southeast from his cabin home. Logs were dragged over the grave to keep the wild animals from disinterring the body. Jonathan Pointer was engaged as interpreter for the early missionaries among the Wyandots; he died in 1857. No memorial marks Tarhe's resting place. Red Jacket, Keokuk, Leather Lips and other chieftains have received monumental consideration from Amer- ican civilization; but Tarhe, the one whose influence and activity helped to wrest the great northwest from the British and the Indians, has apparently been forgotten. And how long shall it be so?
"Colonel John Johnson, who for nearly half a century acted Indian agent of the various tribes of Ohio and who made the last Indian treaty that removed the Wyandots beyond the Mississippi, was present at the great Indian council summoned at the death and for burial of Tarhe. The exact spot where the council house stood is not known, but a mile and a half north from Crane Town site are a number of springs bubbling forth clear water which form Pointer's run, that empties into the Sandusky river. They are still called the Council Springs and the bark council house was likely in this vicinity. Colonel Johnson, in his "Recollections,' gives the following account of the proceedings:"
Colonel Johnson's Recollections.
"On the death of the great chief of the Wyandots, I was invited to attend a general council of all the tribes of Ohio, the Delawares of Indiana, the Senecas of New York, at Upper Sandusky. I found on arriving at the place a very large attendance. Among the chieftains was the noted leader and orator Red Jacket from Buffalo. The first business done was the speaker of the nation delivering an oration on the character of the deceased chief. Then followed what might be called a monody, or ceremony, of mourning or lamentation. Thus seats were arranged from end to end of a large council house, about six feet apart, the head men and the aged took their seats facing each other, stooping down, their heads almost touching. In that position they remained for several hours. Deep and long continued groans would commence at one end of the row of mourners and so pass around until all had responded and these repeated at intervals of a few minutes. The Indians were all washed
OLD STATE CAPITOL AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN 1846
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and had no paint or decorations of any kind upon their persons, their countenances and general deportment denoting the deepest mourning. I had never witnessed anything of the kind before and was told that this cere- mony was not performed but on the decease of some great man. After the period of mourning and lamentation was over the Indians proceeded to business. There were present the Wyandots, Shawnees, Delawares, Senecas, Ottawas and Mohawks. Their business was entirely confined to their own affairs, and the main topics related to their lands and the claims of the re- spective tribes. It was evident, in the course of the discussion, that the pres- ence of myself and people (there were some white men with me) was not acceptable to some of the parties and allusions were made so direct to myself that I was constrained to notice them, by saying that I came there as a guest. of the Wyandots, by their special invitation ; that as the agent of the United States, I had a right to be there as anywhere else in the Indian country; and that if any insult was offered to myself or my people, it would be re-
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