Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th, Part 13

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

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY

was lying at the edge of the water. They I think I have done pretty well." In had already surrendered all their weapons, another house, where mostly women and under promise that they would be returned children were tied, Judith, an aged and pious widow, was the first victim. After this party had finished, as they thought, they retreated a short distance, but, on returning to view the dead bodies, they found one of them, named Abel, sealped and mangled, attempting to raise himself from the floor. Him they dispatched, and having set fire to the house, went off shout- ing and cursing. on their arrival at Fort Pitt. Reaching the town they found the inhabitants already confined preparatory to the slaughter, which was being arranged with as much coolness and deliberation as an ordinary feast. Having coralled their prey, the whites from professing friendship began to abuse the Indians, charging them with the responsibility of the border raids, pointing to pewter plates, cups, spoons, tea Sixty-two grown persons were slain in this massacre, one-third of them being women, the remainder being children. Among the incidents in the first house was that of a boy named Thomas. He was knocked down and scalped, but only stunned, and on recovering and looking around saw auother boy named Abel, alive but scalped, with blood running down his face. Thomas laid down as if dead, when a party came in and finished Abel by chop- ping his head with a hatchet. Thomas afterwards crept over the dead bodies to the door, and on getting ont hid himself until dark, when he made his way to San- dusky. A boy who was in the house with the women, got down into the cellar with another boy, where they lay concealed un- til the butchery was over. After dark they tried to get ont through a window. One succeeded, but the other stuck fast, and the building being set on fire he was bnrued to death. The two who escaped made their way to Sandusky. One of the whites took home with him a boy of eight years whom he brought up to manhood, when he re- turned to his tribe. So far as is known, these are the only ones who escaped the massacre in addition to the young man in the cornfield, although Mr. Hunter, in his Pathfinders, tells a romantic story of a young man named John Haverstock, who joined Williamson's force at Mingo, fall- ing in love with a beautiful Indian maiden named "Sweet Corn" whom he found in the fields at Gnadenhutten, saved her life at the risk of his own, and married her, from whom the Haverstock family, of Bel- kettles, etc., as evidence of their robberies. It was useless to explain that they had bought these articles from the whites then- selves. It was the fable of the wolf and lamb over again, and when the bloody dress of Mrs. Wallace was recognized, there was no further need of witnesses, and the un- fortunates were ordered to prepare for death. They begged a short interval for preparation, and while they were saying their last prayers their captors discussed the manner in which they should be slain. Some favored burning them alive, while others were willing to allow merey to the extent of killing them first and then burn- ing them after scalping. Williamson ap- pears to have been in favor of saving the captives, but his authority over the motley crowd was limited, and the most he could accomplish was to submit the matter to a vote. But eighteen out of the hundred favored sparing the lives of the prisoners, and they retired from the scene, calling the Ahnighty to witness that they washed their hands of the terrible crime about to be com- mitted. It has always been difficult to get exact details of the terrible affair. Heck- welder says that the number killed ex. ceeded ninety, all of whom except four were killed in the mission houses, they having been tied there and knocked in the head with a cooper's mallet. One man, taking up the mallet, began with an Indian named Abraham and continued knocking down un- til he counted fourteen; he then handed the mallet to one of his fellows and said, "My arm fails me; go on in the same way;

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mont County, and the late W. T. Campbell, were descended. The white renegade, Simon Girty, now comes to the front urg- ing the Indian tribes to avenge the massa- cre. He cared nothing for the Gnaden- hutten Indians, but as agent of the British viewed the slaughter with satisfaction, as it enabled him to stir up the spirit of re- venge on the part of the tribes. And his task was not difficult. Although the Will- jamson raiders were allowed to march home without interruption, yet all along the border the tomahawk and the fire- brand were soon busy. So far from the expedition striking terror into the savages the effect was just the opposite. While the warriors looked rather contemptuously on the Moravians, yet they were their rela- tives, and their slaughter called for bloody vengeance. Scalps taken were carried to the scene of the massacre, dried, painted red or black inside, with the picture of a bullet or hatchet in another color. to indi- rate how its owner died. A bunch of fag- gots on the smooth side represented deatla by fire. No human being resided in that valley for a number of years; the bones of the martyrs lay scattered around, and the spring blossoms of the fruit trees planted by the villagers exhaled their fragrance only for the benefit of the solitary wan- derer-the beast of the forest. Ninety years after, a monument was erected on the spot, bearing the following inscription: "Here triumphed in death ninety Christian Indians, March 8, 1782."

There has been considerable effort to palliate this horrible massacre, and espe- cially to discredit the comments and con- clusions of Rev. Dr. Doddridge, the early historian of this valley, to the effect that the expedition was an irresponsible one. that "each man furnished himself with his own arms, ammunition and provisions," that "the murder of the Moravians was in- tended," that "no resistance from them was anticipated," that "in the latter end of the year 1781, the militia of the frontier came to a determination to break up the Moravian villages on the Muskingum, " and

that "it (the massacre) was one of those convulsions of the moral state of society, in which the voice of the justice and hu- manity of a majority is silenced by the clamor and violence of a lawless minority."

This whole matter has been thoroughly investigated by William M. Farrar, of the State Arehæological Society, who sustains Dr. Doddridge in every particular. It is very probable that the latter secured most of his data from James Marshel, lieutenant of Washington County, Pennsylvania, at the time of the massacre, who would have had the ordering out of a regular military expedition had there been any such. About 1779, Colonel Marshel moved to Charles- town, Va., now Wellsburg, where he died in 1829. For years he was the neighbor of Dr. Doddridge, and when the latter's his- tory was published, in 1824, they were inti- mate personal friends. Mr. Farrar also disposes of the Carpenter and impalement stories referred to later. That a strong public sentiment along the border palliated, if it did not attempt to justify the massa- ere, is undoubtedly true, although there 'were not wanting indignant protests, but eastward, as the details became known, the expression was one of almost universal horror. Whether Williamson held a com- mission as militia officer at the organiza- tion of the expedition is uncertain, al- though he did soon after. He was chosen commander after they had rendezvonsed at Mingo, and that was his real authority. As Mr. Farrar says:

"The expedition was neither infantry uor cavalry, mounted nor dismounted, but a mixed crowd made up from that reckless and irresponsible element usually found along the borders of civilization, boys from eighteen to twenty years of age. who joined the expedition from love of adventure, and partly of sneh well known characters as Capt. Sam Brady, of West Liberty, Va., aad at least one of the Wetzels from near Wheeling, who from their experience and well known bravery as frontiersmen, are said to have exercised very great influence in deciding the fate of the Indians.

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Each man provided his own horse, arms and provisions, and it was noisy, turbulent and disorderly from the start, and the authority exercised by Williamson over it, abont equivalent to that usnally conceded to the leader of an ordinary mob. Who suggested that the question whether the Indians should be killed or taken prisoners to Fort Pitt be submitted to a vote is not known, but the fact that he did so, only serves to show the extent of Williamson's authority. He is represented, by those who knew him personally, as a man of naturally pleasant and agreeable disposition, six feet in height, rather fleshy in his makenp, of florid complexion, and of 'too easy a com- pliance with public opinion,' as Doddridge says."

The story concerning John Carpenter is that about the time of the Wallace tragedy or very soon thereafter, he was captured on the waters of Buffalo Creek by six In- dians, two of whom spoke good Dutch, and called themselves Moravians; that he was carried a prisoner to the middle Moravian town. where, among other things, he saw the bloody dress of Mrs. Wallace, which was said to have inflamed the spectators to the point of massacre. Now, John Car- penter was among the first, and, with the exception of Maxwell, already mentioned. possibly the first settler west of the Ohio River. He lived for several years on Buf- falo Creek, ten or twelve miles east of the river, but becoming familiar through his Inmuting expeditions with the rich lands on this side, and foreseeing that the Indian titles would soon be extingnished, deter- mived to seenre a claim here. Accordingly. in the sunumer and fall of 1781. he cleared a piece of land and built a cabin at the month of Short Creek (afterwards the Bayless property). While thus engaged in September, he received warning of the sec- ond attack on Fort Henry, and hastily re- moved his family to the east side of the river to a place of safety. When the field was clear Carpenter returned to Ohio, and finishing his work late in the fall, went back to his home on Buffalo Creek with a full

supply of wild game for his winter provi- sion. He then took a pair of horses and started to Fort Pitt in order to secure a supply of salt, and while on his way was captured, taken to the Moravian town, and started from there in charge of two of his captors, from whom he escaped and made his way back to F'ort Pitt, but all this took place two months or more prior to Febru- ary 17, 1782, when the Wallace cabin was destroyed, and the family carried off. We may add, that he returned to Short Creek the following summer, where his cabin was afterwards strengthened into a small block- honse, known as C'arpenter's fort. Que day, while at work in bis garden, he was fired at by an Indian in the woods and severely wounded. The Indian attempted to scalp him, but Mrs. Carpenter, a strong, resolute woman, came to the rescue, and made such vigorous resistance that her husband escaped into the cabin and the Indian fled. In 1801, Edward Carpenter, the oldest son of John Carpenter, took a goverment contract from Steubenville to the Wills Creek crossing of the Zane traet in Guernsey Connty, where the National Road could be reached. which is now the main connty road leading from Stenben- ville westward. During the progress of his work he entered a quarter section of land in Section 26 of Township 11, range 6, where he resided until he died, January 12. 1828. His son, Edward, lived there until March 22. 1882, when he died at the age of eighty years. He gave the facts to Mr. Farrar, as related above, and is certainly better authority than simply vague reports frequently started by interested parties.

The story of finding the dead body of Mrs. Wallace impaled near Mingo, which so excited the settlers that they became frenzied, is another of those apocryphal tales of later origin. The Wallace cabin stood a short distance north of what was known as Briceland's cross roads, and the Indians committing the outrage reached it by crossing the Ohio River at the mouth of Yellow Creek, und following a trail along the dividing ridge between the waters of

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King's Creek on the south, and those of Travis Creek ou the north, and after kill- ing the stock, plundering and burning the cabin, they retreated by the same route, taking Mrs. Wallace and her three children with them. The child proving an inenmi- brance to rapid travel, an Indian attempted to take it from her to kill it, but she re- sisted so vigorously that he became enraged and cleaved her skull with his tomahawk. The bodies of mother and child were care- fully hidden, that they might not aid pur- suit, and were not discovered until several years afterwards. This was, of course, some twenty miles north of Mingo, so the bodies could not have been discovered by the Williamson crowd, even if they had been impaled as stated. In fact, at this time, Robert Wallace supposed his wife was still alive and a prisoner among the Indians, and he knew no better until nearly three years later, when an Indian trader who had been among the Wyandots at San- dasky, learned that his younger son, Rob- ert, was still living, the elder having died, and that the mother and baby had been killed before reaching the Ohio River. From a letter dated October 21, 1782, more than eight months after the capture, it ap- pears that Wallace, believing his wife to be alive, was making efforts through Gen- eral Irvine to find out where she was and effect her recovery. He finally found the younger boy, and ascertaining from him the locality where the mother and child had been killed, searched for and found the re- mains, which he disinterred and reburied in the graveyard at Cross Creek Village. In 1792 he married Mary Walker, having five children, and died in 1808. His son, Robert, died in 1855 at the age of seventy- seven years.

Mr. Farrar has collected considerable testimony to show that this raid had been planned for months previous, and when it was over the participants did not come home rejoicing as soldiers from a glorious war, but quietly, if not secretly, and few of them would ever converse on the subject. We will conelnde this painful subject with

the following from Mr. Farrar's article: "A gentleman born in 1796 said that he was present at Burgettstown, Pa., in Aa- gust, 1812, upon the day when volunteers were raised to march to Detroit to repel the British and Indians reported to be marel- ing on the frontiers in consequence of Hull's surrender of the post at Detroit. It was a day of great excitement, and called together a large crowd of people from the surrounding country. Among other sights that drew the attention of a boy of sixteen years, he came across a crowd being enter- tained by an old man much the worse for liquor, who was singing maudlin songs, when some person said, 'Now, Unele Sol, show us how they killed the Indians.' At once the old fellow's whole manner changed from the gay to the grave, and he began cursing the cowards who killed women and children. Presently he ran forward, mak- ing motions as if throwing a rope over the heads of those in front of him, and then runuing backwards as if dragging an ob- ject after him, seized the large stick held in his hands, and began beating an imagi- nary object, all the time howling and curs- ing like a demon, when somebody pulled him away, saying it was a shame. My in- formant learned that Uncle Sol had been at the Moravian massacre, and when in his enps woald show how they killed the In- dians, but when sober could not be indneed to open his mouth on the subject. The men concerned in the affair returned to their homes, where many of them lived to a good old age and spent exemplary lives. a number having become ruling elders and leading members in the churches at Cross Creek, Upper Buffalo and other places. And it is a curious fact that in the great religious movement that swept over west- ern Pennsylvania during the latter part of the eighteenth and beginning of the nine- teenth centuries, many of these men were active and leading participants, and that the great religious movement had its origin at Vance's Fort and among the same men with whom the Moravian massacre origi- nated. But time has drawn the veil of

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oblivion over their names, and nothing conkl now he gained by removing it."

We may digress a moment to follow the fate of one of the authors of this massacre. It will be remembered that the first blood shed was that of Joseph Shabosh, who was tomahawked and sealped by Charles Bnil- derback. He was a Virginian, and settled near Carpenter's fort at the mouth of Short Creek in this county. He was with Crawford's army, but came home safely. Seven years after, in 1789, his cabin was attacked by Indians, and Bnilderback and his brother captured. His wife hid in the bushes, but Builderback was ordered to call her by name, or they would kill him then und there. He did so, and she kept silent, but being warned of her husband's fate if she did not respond she came out, and the two were carried off, the brother having escaped. Near the Tuscarawas the Indians separated into two bands, one tak- ing Builderback towards Gnadenhntten, and the other going with his wife farther up the stream to where Uhrichsville now stands. Shortly after the others came up, and one of them threw into her lap the scalp of her dead husband. She swooned away, and when she recovered the scalp was gone. She was taken to the Miami Valley, where she remained nine months, but was finally ransomed and returned to her Jefferson County home. In 1791 she married John Green and removed to Fair- field Connty, where she died in 1842, giving birth to the first white child in that county. Builderback's body was found a short dis- tance from where he had killed Shabosh. It was terribly mutilated, and it was the evident intention to burn him alive, but the pursuit was too close to permit it. Sha- bosh's relatives had been following Buil- derback for seven years, and the last direct victim of the massacre paid retributive jns- tice for the murder of the first.

If the anthors of the outrage at Gnaden- hutten imagined that their action would strike terror into the Indian tribes, or that the massacre of their peaceful relatives would be viewed with indifference by the

warriors they were soon destined to dis- cover their mistake. The infuriated Dela- wares, Shawnnese and Wyandots made the border n perfect inferna. Crossing the Ohio large and small bodies penetrated into Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania carrying destruc- tion and death in their most terrible forms. The little forts or blockhouses which dotted the country were crowded with re- fugees. In some places a single blockhouse with n cabin outside constituted the whole fort. The fields were worked by parties guarded by sentinels, and everybody wns prepared for instant combat. The horrible sights connected with Indian warfare, the terrible strain from which there seemed no prospect of release could not fail to have its effect, even on those settlers inclined to peace and justice. "It would seem" says Doddridge, "that the long continuance of the Indian war had debased a considerable portion of our population to the savage state of our nature. Having lost so many of their relatives hy the Indians, and wit- nessed their horrid murders and other de- predations upon so extensive a scale, they became subjects of that indiscriminating thirst for revenge which is such a promin- ent feature in the savage character."

Such a condition of things conkel not con- tinue. The border must be defended or abandoned, and the only way to accomplish the former was the organization of an ex- pedition into the Indian country of such character and strength as would be able to infliet such punishment on the savages as would stop the border raids. To this end General Irvine called a conference of lead- ing men at Fort Pitt on April 5, for devis- ing a general plan of operations that would be effective. Cornwallis had surrendered. and the war in the east was virtually ended. bnt in the west the contest raged with as much virulence as ever. There was talk of patroling the river front from Pittsburgh to Wheeling, and a project was broached of a large body of settlers emigrating to Ohio and setting up a new state as a barrier to future raids. The futility of both of these schemes was obvions, and the matter fin-

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ally narrowed down to an organized ex- pedition against Sandusky. Dr. Doddridge characterizes this "as a second Moravian campaign, as one of the objects was that of finishing the work of murder and plunder with Christian Indians at their new estab- lishment on the Sandusky. The next object was that of destroying the Wyandot towns on the same river." In this statement the worthy clergyman has allowed his right- eons indignation to get the better of his judgment. There is no evidence of an in- tention to repeat the Gnadenhntten tragedy so far as peaceful Indians were concerned, although doubtless there were not a few in the party with whom the life of an Indian, whether Christian or otherwise, would not have been safe for a moment. But the ex- pedition in contrast with the previous one, was of a military character, ordered by the military authorities, and intended to break the military power of the enemy, so that the border might have peace and security.

May 20th was the date set for the meet- ing of the different members of the expe- dition at Mingo Bottom, but it was the 24th before all had gathered there for organi- zation. On the evening of that day John Rose, who had been sent by General Irvine as an aide to the commander of the expe- dition wrote to the General that they had four hundred and eighty men, gathered from Washington and Westmoreland coun- ties, Pennsylvania and the Virginia Pan Handle. Officer Rose, who was very reticent concerning himself had already rendered valuable service to the American cause dur- ing the Revolution, and rendered most efficient aid during this ill fated expedition. It turned out later that he was a Russian nobleman-Baron Gustavus H. Rosenthal, of Livonia,-who, having killed another in a duel had fled from Russia, and songht safety, first in England and then in Amer- ica. He entered the army as a hospital steward, but General Irvine becoming in- terested in him he was transferred and advanced, until, as a lieutenant, he became the aide of that officer. He served with fidelity until the close of the war, without

revealing his true name or rank, and then by permission he returned to Europe, was regarded with favor by the Emperor Alex- ander, and became Grand Marshal of the province of Livonia.

There was a lively contest for officers of the expedition, two hundred and thirty-five votes being cast for Col. William Crawford, as commander, and two hundred and thirty for David Williamson the leader of the previous expedition to Gnadenhutten. Will- iamson was second in command with the title of major, with Thomas Gaddis, John MeClelland and Major Brinton ranking offi- eers in the order named. We have two pretty full accounts of this expedition, the first by Dr. Doddridge, who no doubt got most of his information from participants, and one by C. W. Butterfield, published in 1873, in which is much new matter gleaned from official records and from notes kept by the Jate Robert A. Sherrard, of Steuben- ville.

Colonel Crawford, who commanded the expedition was a Revolutionary officer of high standing, and the special friend of Washington. Details having been ar- ranged early on the morning of Saturday, May 25, the ariny in four columns, began its march from Mingo Bottom, in the straightest direction, through the woods, for Sandusky, distant one hundred and fifty miles. The route lay through what are now the counties of Jefferson, Harrison, Tus- carawas, Holmes, Ashland, Richland and Crawford. The whole distance, except about thirty miles, was through an un- broken forest. The only indication of civil- ization-and that a very sad one-in all the region traversed, was the wasted mis- sionary establishments in the valley of the Muskingum. As the cavalcade moved up over the bluff, an almost dne course west was taken, striking at once into the wild- erness. now deepening and darkening around it. The army progressed rapidly at first, moving along the north side of Cross Creek, which had already received its name. After leaving what is now Steu- benville Township, it passed through the

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present townships of Cross Creek and delusive belief that his expedition had not Wayne, Jefferson County, and German Township, Harrison County, to the summit where the town of Jefferson now stunds. The Panhandle Railroad follows this trail for about fifty miles. From this point n straight course would have led them into what is now Carroll County, but their horses had tired under the heavy loads in the hills and swamps, so they inelined southward into a more level although a more dangerous country. This alternative was accepted by Crawford with great re- Instance, as his policy was to avoid Indian trails, relying for success upon effecting a surprise. Otherwise, he would Imve fol- lowed "Williamson's Trail" from Mingo to the Muskingum, which led u considerable distance sonth, near where Smithfield and C'adiz now stand. Doddridge says he did follow this trail, but Butterfield shows otherwise, But he might as well have fol- lowed it, so far as surprising the Indians was concerned. They had their spies in the wooded hills overlooking Mingo from the day that the army began assembling, watch- ing every movement. They knew the pluns of the commander as they were tulked over in the conneils of war, and therefore the Indian forces at Sandusky were prepared for the onslaught. The Indians und Brit- ish in that battle were commanded by Capt. William Culdwell, Chief in command ; Cap- tuin Elliott, Captain MeKee, Captain Grant, Lieutenant Turney, Lieutenant (flinch, and Simon Girty.

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Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th, Part 13

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