Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th, Part 12

Author: Doyle, Joseph Beatty, 1849-1927
Publication date: 1973
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 584

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Creek. There was but a moment for de- cision. Taking his rifle in his left hand, and grasping his reins with the other, he urged his horse to the front of the bluff and leaped down the hill. It was a daring but successful chance. The noble steed with its rider went crashing through the underbrush and reached the bottom of the hill safe and sound. McColloch dashed across the creek and shouted defiance in response to the baffled cries of rage and dis- appointment which reached his ears.

By this time the Indians had become dis- couraged, and fearing they would be cut off by reinforcements, they concluded to retreat, so after burning all the honses and killing the live stock, they left as silently as they had come.

Capt. Andrew Swearingen, who was in command at Holliday's Cove when word came of the attack on Wheeling, collected fourteen volunteers and embarked in a large canoe. The night was dark and foggy, and fearing they might unknowingly pass Wheeling, they ceased rowing and drifted with the current. When daylight came, they found they had not made the distance expected and plied their oars vigorously. Soon they saw the blaze from the burning houses, and were uncertain whether the fort itself were not a heap of smoking ruins. Colonel Swearingen, Captain Bil- derback and William Boshears volunteered to reconnoiter, and proceeding continu- ously soon reached the fort. It was still uncertain whether the Indians had de- parted or were lying in ambuscade, so the boatmen were cautiously guided into the fort, and a subsequent examination re- vealed the fact that they had indeed gone. The battle ground presented a grewsome sight. The twenty-three men who had been shot the preceding day were lying dead, many of them barbarously butchered with the tomahawk and scalping knife. Up- wards of three hundred cattle, horses and hogs wantonly killed were lying around, the houses with their contents in ashes, for the settlers had not time to remove even their clothing to the fort. Of course, crops

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY

were all destroyed, and the settlers had scanty fare that winter. Inside the fort not a man was killed, the loss of life occur- ring during the ambuscade. The Indian loss was estimated at about one hundred. This was as much one of the battles of the Revolution as any contest on the Atlantic Coast, and for bravery and results accom- plished the record is second to none. Shortly after, Captain Freeman came from the East and took command in this section, and was slain in an ambuscade below Wheeling. Like Braddock, he knew noth- ing of Indian warfare, and declined to take advice.

General Hand marched from Fort Pitt in February, 1778, against Cuyahoga, to capture arms and supplies said to have been sent there from Detroit, but stopped at Salt Licks in what is now Mahoning County, after killing and capturing a few squaws. From this, it was called the "Squaw Campaign."

All through this year there is direet evi- dence that Governor Hamilton was stirring up the Indians to border raids, with a measure of success. General McIntosh was appointed by Washington to the command of the Western Department, and came to Fort Pitt in May. He built a fort at the mouth of Beaver and called it Fort Me- Intosh, and in October headed an expedi- tion to the Tuscarawas, where he con- structed Fort Laurens. The next year it was attacked by the Indians, and after a futile attempt to hold it the fort was aban- doned and Melutosh relieved at his own request.

In the meantime, there was a man who was studying over a project which meant something more than the raiding of a few Indian towns in reprisal for border out- rages, which at best afforded but tempo- rary relief. It was to strike at the fountain head, rednee the British forts in the West. ern country and not only break the main- spring which was moving the savages, but conquer the country for the Americans. who thus far had only the most shadowy title to it. This man was George Rogers

Clark, a Virginian, then living at Harrods- burg, in the Kentucky country. As early as 1777 he had sent a couple of young hun- ters to Vincennes on the Wabash to ascer- tain just how strongly the French settlers in that section were attached to the Brit- ish, to whom they had been subject since the treaty of 1763, although he disclosed nothing of his plans to them or to any- body else. They brought back word that the feeling was lukewarm at best, although they had a wholesome awe of the American backwoodsmen, concerning whom they had heard dreadful tales. That was all Clark wanted to know, and it being impossible to raise a sufficient force for his purpose from the scanty population of Kentucky, he started back to Virginia to lay the matter before Patrick Henry, the governor. Henry took up the project, but Virginia's re- sources were already taxed in the revolu- tionary struggle, and the peril of sending sneh a little army into the wilderness on such conditions were manifest. Then the matter could not be brought before the Assembly, for absolute secrecy was neces- sary. Finally Henry authorized Clark to raise seven companies of fifty men each, advanced some money, and gave him an order on the authorities of Pittsburgh for boats and supplies. Thomas Jefferson, George Mason and George Wythe agreed in writing to do their best to induce the legislature to give each soldier three han- dred acres of the conquered land if they were successful. Ile was to take his men solely from the frontier countries beyond the Blue Ridge, The ostensible object of the expedition was the relief of Kentucky. He had great diffienlty in getting men, local jealousies and the feeling that soldiers were needed more in the East than in Ken- tueky hindered him greatly. But he worked along amid all discouragements and, in May, 1778, he left Redstone, touching at Pittsburgh for supplies and came on down the river in clumsy flatboats. He had one hundred and fifty volunteers, with a nm- ber of settlers for Kentucky. On May 27 he reached the falls of the Ohio, where the

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families who were with him formed a set- tlement, afterwards named Louisville, in honor of the French king who had lately become our ally. Here Clark disclosed the object of the expedition, and some deser- tions was the result, but the remainder, with a number of Kentuekians, hailed the adventure with enthusiasm.

Clark, having weeded out all the incom- petents, left the falls on June 24th with four companies aggregating less than two hundred men, but each man a host. He rowed down the river to the mouth of the Tennessee, where he met a small party of American hunters, who gave him valuable information and undertook to guide him to the towns. On the evening of July 4th, after n rapid march through the wilder- ness, the party reached the Kaskaskia River. They waited in the woods until dark and then marched along the river, stopping within a mile of the town. The towns- people appear to have heard some rumor of an approaching force, but paid no atten- tion to it, although Rocheblave, the com- mander, when he heard of Clark's gather- ing in Kentucky, wrote to Detroit for rein- forcements, and also to be replaced by a commander of English birth, as the In- dians were uncertain, and the Frenchmen awed by reports of the ferocity of the back- woodsmen. Hamilton could not send rein- forcements, but by the aid of Indians and creoles he had a respectable little army, three times the size of Clark's. An un- usual exercise of generalship was neces- sary if anything was to be accomplished. Under cover of darkness Clark crossed the river and approached Kaskaskia, sur- rounding the town with one division of troops and lending the other up to the walls of the fort. A dance was in progress, and the sentries had left their posts to join it. A prisoner showed Clark a postern gate by the river, and, entering the fort. like Cyrus of old, he approached the revelers. While he was leaning silently against a doorpost watching the revelers, an Indian lying on the floor looked up and, seeing the stranger, sprang to his feet ut-

tering a war whoop. The dancing sud- denly ceased, the women screamed, and the men rushed for the entrance. Clark did not move, but bade them "On with the dance," but to remember that they now danced under Virginia and not Great Bri- tain. At this instant the French officers were seized, the streets secured, the people ordered to remain in their honses on pain of death, and by daylight everybody was disarmed. The French waited in silent terror. which Clark took no pains to dimnin- ish. Next morning a deputation of leading men enlled on Clark to beg for their lives, being willing even to go into slavery to save themselves and families. Clark saw his chance and embraced it. Although he had the people terrified, he knew that with- out their help he could not expect to hold the country with his little force. So he ex- plained that it was not their design to enslave the people, and if they wished to become loyal citizens of the new republic they could do so, and the others might depart in peace. There was a prompt and enthusiastic response, led by the priest Pierre Gibault, to whom Clark had given immediate permission to open his church. Cahokia, a neighboring town, was next reached, and there was no trouble here, as the inhabitants had heard the news from Kaskaskia and were ready to acknowledge the new regime. Gibault volunteered to go to Vincennes and win over the people there, in which he was entirely successful, and an empire was gained without the loss of a man. But getting was not keeping, as Clark soon realized. He was in the midst of an unfriendly Indian country subject to British influence from Detroit, the terms of his men were expiring and they wanted to go home. By offering special inducements one hundred of them were persuaded to enlist for six months longer, and he suc- ceeded in enlisting enough creoles to bring his four companies up to their original strength. By a mixture of firmness and conciliation he finally seenred a favorable treaty with the Indians, and for a time at least there was peace in that country.

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But Hamilton was not idle. A proposed expedition to Fort Pitt had been thwarted by Clark's movements, and now he pro- posed to recapture Vincennes. He missed no efforts to stir up the Indians, and on October 7 left Detroit with one hundred and sixty-seven regulars, which force was soon increased by accessions from the sav. ages, so that when he reached Vincennes he had in all about five hundred men. Vin- cennes was not reached until December 17th, Hamilton's force having come by Lake Erie and the Maumee River, and then portaged to the Wabash, down whose waters he had floated. In the face of this force Helm, the commander, was promptly deserted by the creole militia, and being left with only two Americans surrendered. on condition that they should be treated with humanity. This agreement was kept, although the Indians plundered the fort and one house. The light-hearted French quickly transferred their allegiance to their present rulers, and Hamilton, with his five hundred men, felt very secure with Clark 240 miles away in the wilderness with only a hundred reliable soldiers. He was also near Detroit, his base of supplies, while Clark had no base whatever. Had he marched across the country he might have annihilated Clark, but the difficulties at that season seemed insuperable, and the idea that Clark would come his way never entered his head. But he did not know his man, and allowed the Indians to go home, as well as the Detroit militia, retaining thirty-four British regulars, forty French volunteers, and a dozen white Indian leaders, in a mixed company of about one hundred and sixty. He expected to take the field in the spring with over a thousand men, with artillery, reconquer the Illinois country and take Kentucky.

Clark knew he could not contend with the force that Hamilton proposed heading in the spring, and determined to forestall him. He learned that the Vincennes gar- rison had been reduced to eighty men, so gathering together a force of one hundred and seventy men he started, on February

7th, overland for that place. He had pre- vionsly equipped a row galley with four small cannon and sent it to patrol the Ohio and Wabash, being the first gunboat on those rivers. We have not space to give a description of that march, it will be found in Roosevelt's Winning of the West. They had no tents, and waded or swam swollen streams, sometimes obstructed by ice, and in a little over a week reached the overflowed lands of the Wabash. As in the first expedition absolute secrecy was neces- sary, and as they were now near Vincennes they dared not fire a gun. The high water had driven away the game from the low- lands, and on the morning of the 20th the men had been withont provisions two days. Clark kept up the spirits of his men, and one of the hunters killing a deer helped them out somewhat. Then they waded for three days in water often up to their chins, while the weak and famished were carried in canoes. Then there was a march of four miles through water, many on emerging falling flat on their faces from exhaustion, but, after much weary work, at last they saw the fort and town two miles away, which they hailed with as much joy as the crusaders did Jerusalem. A duck hunter having been captured gave the information that there was no suspicion of any enemy at hand, but that two hundred Indians had just come to town. This would make a force four times that of Clark's. He de- cided on a boll course, and sent the pris- oner back to town with a message to the people to remain in their houses, and at sundown marched directly towards his foe. trusting to the dusk to conceal his numbers. He besieged the fort that night, and the next morning summoned it to surrender. While waiting for a reply, Clark's men took the opportunity of getting breakfast, the first for six days. Hamilton asked a three days' truce, which was refused, and the fort surrendered in the afternoon, with seventy-nine men. The Americans beld this country until the close of the war, and scoured it forever by the treaty of 1783. Clark risked his life and fortune in this

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enterprise, and the only reward he ever received was a sword voted by the Virginia Legislature, which, it is said, he indig- mantly threw away.

In his army was a soldier named John MeGuire, originally of Winchester, Va., who never returned. His widow, Mary Mc- Guire, moved to Jefferson County in 1798 and settled on what is now the Infirmary farm, afterwards moving to the West, where she died, leaving a number of descen- dants here.

Col. Daniel Brodhead succeeded Melu- tosh in command of the Department of the West, and conducted an important cam- paign up the Allegheny against the Iro- quois, in which several from this section took part. The following year, 1780, the Delaware Indians joined the British and planned two raids along the border. One division crossed the Ohio below Wheeling and took a large number of prisoners, but being alarmed at reports of concentration of settlers, a retreat was determined upon, it being first resolved to murder all their male prisoners. The unfortunate men and boys were lashed to trees and brutally tomahawked and scalped in the presence of their wives and families, whose cries and tears were mingled with their dying groans. Such events us this were well cal- culated to create a frenzy along the border which did not discriminate when the victim was a friendly Moravian or a merciless foe. To check these outrages Colonel Brodhead began preparing for an expedition to the Muskingum. There were projects of a more extensive one to Detroit, which would have effectually checked the border raids could it have been carried ont, but that was beyond the resources of the colonies. To facilitate operations Colonel Brodhead concluded to call on the small garrisons at Fort Henry and Holliday's Cove, but the season wore away without anything being accomplished. However, in April, 1781, a force of three hundred men was gathered at Wheeling, and making a rapid march, surprised the Indians on the Muskingum where Coshocton now stands. Sixteen cap-

tured warriors were scalped by direction of a council of war, and the following morn- ing an Indian called from the opposite side of the river for the "big Captain" (Brod- head), saying he wanted peace. Brodhead sent for his chief, who came over under a promise that he should not be killed, but it is said that when he got over he was tomahawked by the notorious Indian fighter Lewis Wetzell. After destroying a village a short distance below, the army started homeward up the Tuscarawas River towards Fort Pitt with twenty pris- oners, all of whom were killed by the sol- diers, except a few women and children, who were afterwards exchanged. Thus the massacre of the previous year was avenged.

On his return, Brodhead stopped at the Moravian villages of New Schonbrunn, Gnaddenhutten and Salem, in what is now Tuscarawas County, and advised them in view of their dangerous position to break up their settlements and accompany him to Fort Pitt, but they declined. It is said that a party of militia had resolved on destroy- ing these villages, but were prevented by Brodhead and Colonel Shepherd, of Wheel- ing. Many of these same men came out with Williamson the following year, and satiated their thirt for blood.

In the summer of 1781 Colonel Lochry conducted a small expedition for the pur- pose of joining General Clark in the reduc- tion of Detroit. It went down the river in boats, and shortly, below the mouth of Big Miami, was attacked by Indians from the shore. Colonel Lochry and forty-one of his command were killed, and the remainder captured, some of them being killed and scalped while prisoners. Among the mem- bers of this expedition were Capt. Thomas Stokely, the father of the late Gen. Samuel Stokely, of Steubenville, and Ensign Cyrus Hunter, great-grandfather of the late Will- iam H. Hunter, also of Steubenville, both of whom were among those who escaped with their lives. Captain Stokely gave an account of the affair to his son, M. S. Stokely, who in turn related it to Mr. Hun- ter. Captain Stokely was wounded by the

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volley fired by the sunvages just after the rectly in the pathway of hostile forces from boat landed, but fearing he would be killed both sides, and charged with furnishing provisions to each in turn, which indeed they were obliged to do. In August, 1781, a force of three hundred warriors, accom- panied by a British officer, appeared at their towns, and after remaining there a month compelled the Moravian mission- aries and all their followers to go back with them to Sandusky. The object of this mave was to enable the hostile tribes to reach the border without being observed and reported. This was noticed by General Brodhead, who took increased precautions. A raid was made on Wheeling in Septem- ber, supposedly by the same force that ab- ducted the Moravians, but beyond the burn- ing of Colonel Zane's house it was unsne- cessful. if he showed evidences of disability, he as- sumed to be sound and was permitted to accompany the Indians on their march to Detroit. On the way, however, they camped and made preparations to burn him at the stake. Stokely was tied to the stake and the fire lighted, when he made the Masonic sign of distress. He was imme- diately taken from the stake and permitted to accompany the Indians. However, with Captain Boyd, he succeeded in making his escape, and a year after appeared before the council of war in Philadelphia, and it is recorded in the Archives of Pennsyl- vania that the two men "appeared before the council and, stating that they were refugees, were given provisions and cloth- ing to aid them on their way to West- moreland County." The Masonic sign as a means of relief from Indian tor- ture is questioned by historians. Dr. Egle says he has heard of but one au- thentie case of an Indian recognizing the Masonie sign; this was a Canadian Indiau. The grandson of Captain Stokely says that he had always understood from his father's with the party that massacred Colonel Lochry and his soldiers was a Canadian Indian, and if the Canadian Indians were Masons, the story has foundation. Besides, it is known that the Indians that slaugh- tered Lochry and his men at the month of the Miami were commanded by a white man, perhaps a British officer sent ont from Detroit, for the British officers at Detroit kept in touch with all the patriot expedi- tions by means of Indian spies.

Events were now tending rapidly to- ward an event which shocked even the blmuted sensibilities of the fierce border characters, and left a stain on the history of that period which will never be wiped out, the slaughter of the Christian Indians at Gnaddenhutten, about fifty-five miles west of what is now Steubenville. We have seen that they had been warned of their dauger by General Brodhead, but persisted in remaining in their homes, which were di-

When the Moravians were carried to Sandusky, their cattle, corn and other win- ter provisions were left behind. The mis- sionaries were taken to Detroit and tried as American spies, hnt were acquitted and returned to Sandusky. Shortly after this, David Williamson, a militia col- onel of Washington County, Pennsylvania. marched to the Muskingum to compel the removal of the missionaries, but found they had been anticipated by the other side. They captured a small party who had re- turned from Sandusky to gather some standing corn, and brought them to the set- tlements. They were immediately freed by General Irvine, who had been placed in command at Fort Pitt. The abandoned towns were made the resting place of war- riors going to or returning from the Ohio with scalps and prisoners, as well as small pursuing parties from the east, and a few Christian Indians escaped from Sandusky, a combination of circumstances not caleu- lated to encourage peace and good feeling. The winter of 1781-2 was cold, and provi- sions at Sandusky running short abont a hundred of the converts obtained leave to go back to the Tuscarawas for supplies. At the same time, hostiles were sent to raid the border, with the expectation that their pursners would follow them to the Tucara-

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was towns, when they would find the Chris- tian Indians gathering corn and dispatch them. It was a deep laid scheme, concocted by the British authorities to embroil the settlers with the Indians. In February, 1782, a party of warriors crossed the Ohio at Mingo and at the present site of Steubenville, and took a number of captives on Raccoon and Buffalo Creeks in Pennsyl- vania. Alarm and exasperation became general, and work was begun towards or- ganizing the expedition afterwards com- inanded by David Williamson. It was early in the season for raids of this kind, which created the belief that the raiders were either Moravians or warriors who had their winter quarters in their towns. The raiders attacked the house of Robert Wal- lace on Raccoon Creek during his absence, and carried off his wife and three children. Wallace, returning home and finding every- thing destroyed, his cattle shot and his family missing, raised a party of neighbors and started after the raiders, but a snow- storm hindered them from overtaking the savages, and they were obliged to return. The mother and infant were soon toma- hawked, and the two boys carried to San- dusky, where the elder died. Arriving at Gnadenhutten, they found the Christians gathering corn to carry to their starving brethren in the Northwest. Hearing the story of the warriors, the peaceful Indians became alarmed and ordered the unwel- come visitors away. Before going, the lat- ter bartered the dress they had taken from Mrs. Wallace to some young Indian girls for provisions. After their departure, the Christians called a council at Salem, when it was decided to remain and continue gath- ering the corn, trusting to their well known reputation for Christianity and peaceful- ness to insure their safety. It was agreed to begin preparations for the return with the corn for their famishing brethren on the Sandusky.

Colonel Williamson had gathered to- gether abont ninety men, who rendezvoused at Mingo Bottom on the night of March 2d, and the next morning started on their

march up Cross Creek. On the evening of the second day's march they arrived within a mile of Gnadenhutten and encamped for the night. Had they been a day later they would have found the place deserted, the Moravians were already binding up their packages for departure. On their way to the town on March 6th, the whites met a young half-breed, Joseph Shabosh, who had come out early in the morning to catch a horse. He was killed and scalped while pleading for his life on the ground of being a Christian and a son of a white man. The murderers proceeded towards the town, passing Jacob, a brother-in-law of Shabosh, who was in a cornfield tying up some sacks recently filled. He was concealed by the standing corn, although the whites were so close that he recognized some who were in the party who took the Christian Indians to Fort Pitt the preceding fall. He was about to hail a former acquaintance when he heard a rifle crack, and an Indian who was in a canoe on the river dropped dead. Jacob fled into the forest, where he con- cealed himself for twenty-four hours until the murderers had departed. The whites, seeing some Indians in a cornfield on the opposite side of the river, sent a detach- ment of sixteen men to induce them to come over. They approached them as friends, shook hands, and asked them to reeross to the town and prepare to return with the party to Fort Pitt, promising to supply them with everything needed. Put- ting faith in these promises, the Indians went back without hesitation. The net was not yet quite complete. From a hill across the river, Jolin Martin and his son, Chris- tian Indians, observed the friendly motions in the town, and the son went over, while the father went to Salem to inform the brethren there of what was going on. The Salem Indians sent two men with Martin to Gnadenhutten, when Williamson ap- pointed a party of whites to go back with them and invite all from the lower town np to Gnadenhutten. When the latter arrived opposite Gnadenhutten, they no- ticed blood in the sand and on a canoe that

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Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th, Part 12

Author: Doyle, Joseph Beatty, 1849-1927 Publication date: 1973 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 584

Author: Doyle, Joseph Beatty, 1849-1927
Publication date: 1973
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 584