USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th > Part 8
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expedition, however, was not interrupted. Nine miles below Rivière aux Boeufs, now known as French Creek, having been so named by Washington in 1753, they came to a large boulder nearly twenty-two feet long by fourteen feet wide, covered with rude Indian inscriptions, which was sub- merged during high water. It was re- garded by the natives as an "Indian God," and held in superstitious reverence. Here a second plate was buried, which has never been found. Water and time have nearly obliterated the figures, Celoron passed a village of Loups at or near the present site of Pittsburgh, which he pronounced the finest on the river. He was now in the Ohio proper, and soon reached Chiningue,- afterwards known as Logstown, a place of fifty cabins with its 'usual mixture of tribes. Colonel Croghan, who was sent to the Ohio Indians by Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, in August, 1749, says in his journal, that "Monsieur Calaroon, with two hundred French soldiers, had passed through Logstown just before his arrival," and was told by the inhabitants that the object of the expedition "was to drive the English away, and by burying iron plates, with inscriptions on them, at the mouth of each remarkable creek, to steal away their country."
Celoron found some English traders at Chiningue whom he compelled to leave. He sent a message by them to Governor Hamilton, under date of August 6, 1749, that he was surprised to find English traders on French territory, it being in contravention of solemn treaties, and he hoped the Governor would forbid them trespassing in the future. Celoron also made a speech in which he told the Indians that he was on his way down the Ohio to whip the Twightwees (Minmis) and Wyan- dots for trading with the English. But the Indians were becoming suspicious and unfriendly. The Iroquois and Abenaki who had accompanied the expedition, re- fused to proceed farther, and destroyed the plates which, bearing the arms of the
French king, had been attached to the trees.
The expedition seems to have passed the present site of Steubenville on the 12th, and, as no mention is made of Mingo town, it is presumed it had not been settled, al- though this is not conclusive, in fact, they may have passed Mingo during the night, as they arrived at the mouth of Wheeling Creek early on the 13th. Here they buried their third plate, the translation of whose inscription may serve as a sample of the whole :
"In the year 1749, of the reign of Louis the 15th, King of France, we, Celoron, commander of a detach- ment sent by Monsieur the Marquis de la Gallisoniere, Governor General of New France, to reestablish tran- quility in some Indian villages in these cantons, have buried this plate of lead at the mouth and on the north bank of the river Kanououara, which empties into the easterly side of the Ohio river, otherwise Belle Riviere, this 13th day of August, as a monument of the renewal of the possession we have taken of the said river Ohio, and of all those which empty into it, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers, as enjoyed, or ought to have been enjoyed, by the Kings of France preceding, as they have there maintained themselves, by arma and by treaties, especially those of Ryswick, Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle."
The expedition continued its voyage on the 14th, and arriving at the mouth of the Muskingum the next day, a fourth plate was buried, on the right bank of that river. That plate is now possessed by the An- tiquarian Society of Massachusetts. A fifth plate was buried at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, in Virginia, where it was discovered in 1846. The expedition renched the month of the Great Miami on August 31st, where the sixth and last plate was buried. This plate has never been dis- covered.
On September 1st, the party started up the Great Miami on its homeward journey. They arrived at the Miami village of De- moiselles on the 13th. This was after- wards known as Laramie's Creek, the earliest English settlement in Ohio. It was destroyed by General Clark in his expedition of 1782. General Wayne rebuilt it several years after. After a week's rest,
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the French burned their canoes and, ob- taining ponies, made the portage to the Maumee, and reached the French post of Kiskakon, afterwards Fort Wayne, on the 25th. Here the party divided, one portion going overland to Detroit, while the others descended the river in canoes. Celoron returned to Detroit via Lake Erie, reach- ing there on November 10th, having made an estimated journey of 1,200 leagues, or 3,600 miles.
Nobody knew better than the French that if they wished to hold this valley, they must do more than plant leaden plates and affix the royal arms to trees. A test of strength was at hand, and both sides be- gan making preparations. The French worked industriously to complete their chain of forts from Niagara to the Ohio, and the English began sending out expe- ditions of observation. Canada had a new governor-general, in the person of Marquis de Duquesne de Menneville, an able com- mandant, and Robert Dinwiddie a native of Scotland, was governor of Virginia. He 'had an eye on the Western country, and in 1753 Capt. William Trent was sent on a mission to the French and Indians, and he penetrated as far as Piqua without result. At this time Major George Washington appears on the scene. He was just past twenty-one, and the governor, with an un- conscious gift of prophecy, remarked to him, "Faith, you are a brave lad, and if you play your cards well you shall have no canse to repent of your bargain." A com- mission was issued to Washington to re- pair to Logstown, on the Ohio, and inform himself where the French forces were posted or building forts, to proceed to such point, deliver a letter of remonstrance from the governor, and demand an answer thereto. He was also to inquire into the strength of the French, what assistance they were likely to get from Canada, and what were their pretensions. Four English traders had already been arrested by the French for carrying on contraband busi- ness in the Ohio country, which had been going on more or less ever since 1749.
They were sent to France as prisoners, where they were finally released at the intercession of the British ambassador, the two nations being nominally at peace. Washington followed what has since been known as Braddock's road to the Monon- gahela Valley and took with him Chris- topher Gist, Van Braam, a French inter- preter, and Jolin Davidson, an Indian interpreter, with four Indian traders. He met the Indian chiefs at Logstown and, accompanied by three of them and a hun- ter, set out to Fort La Boeuf, now Water- ford, Pa., on foot. In his journal he relates the following interesting incident :
"I took my necessary papers, pulled off my clothes, and tied myself up in a watch cout. Then I took my gun in hand, and pack on my back, in which were my paper and provisions. I set out with Mr. Gist fitted in the same manner, on Wednesday, the 26th of December. Tho day following, just after we had passed a place called Murdering Town, we fell in with a party of French Indians who had lain in wait for us. One of them fired at Mr. Gist or me, uot fifteen steps off, but missed. We took the fellow into custody and kept him antil about 9 o'clock at night, then let him go, and walked on the remaining part of the night, without mak- ing any stops, that we might get the start so far as to be out of their pursuit next day, since we were well amsured they would follow our track as soon as it was light, We continued traveling the next day until quite dark, and got to the river, which I expected to have found frozen, but it was not; the Ice I suppose had broken up above, for it was driving in vast quantities. There was no way for getting over but on a raft, which we set about building with but one poor hatchet, and finished just before sun-setting. This was a whole day's work: we next got it launched, then went aboard and set off, but before we were half over we were jammed in the ice in such a manner that we expected every moment our raft to sink, and ourselves to perish. 1 put ont my setting pole to try to stop the raft, when the rapidity of the stream threw it with so much violence against the pole that it jerked me out into ten feet of water, but I naved myself by catching hold of one of the raft logs. Notwithstanding all our efforts we could not get to ahore, but were obliged, as we were near an island, to quit our raft and make for it. The cold was so severe that Mr. (jist had all his fingers and some of his toes frozen, and the water was so shut up that we found no difficulty in getting off the island in the morning, and went to Mr. Frazier's. As we intended to take horses, and it taking some time to find them, I went up to the mouth of the Youghiogheny to visit Queen Aliquippa. I made her a present of a watch, coat and a bottle of rum, the latter of which she thought the better present of the two."
Washington met the French officers and secretly learned their intentions and de- signs, and returned to Virginia with a store
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of information that was very valuable to the colonists. The publication of Washing- ton's journal aroused the colonists to an appreciation of the fact that if they were to secure hold on the Western country, they must be about it. Governor Dinwiddie wrote to the Board of Trade that the French were building a fort at Venango, Pa., and that in March 1,200 or 1,500 troops would be ready to descend the river with their Indian allies. Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, brought the matter before the legislature, but that body did nothing. New York appropriated £5,000 to help Virginia out. The latter colony was alive. The assembly voted £10,000, and six com-' panies of volunteers were raised, Col. Joshua Fry appointed colonel, and Wash- ington lieutenant-colonel. Two five-gun batteries were sent forward, thirty guns, and eighty barrels of gunpowder, had been forwarded from England, and every prep- aration made for an active campaign. Capt. William Trent had pushed ahead with one company to prepare the road through the wilderness and construct a fort at the forks of the Ohio. Ensign Ward had been sent ahead with men and tools for this purpose, and on the 6th of January, 1754, met Washington and Gist returning from their French expedition. Ward had a force of forty men, and work was pro- ceeding slowly on the fort, when on April 16th, a strong force of French and Indians appeared before the unfinished structure. They had sixty batteaux and three hundred canoes, with a formidable train of artillery. Ward was summoned to surrender, and as resistance was futile he submitted, on con- dition that he be allowed to go back home with sufficient supplies to carry him out of the wilderness. This was granted, and Ward went up the Monongahela to meet Washington. This is considered the be- ginning of the French and Indian War, which for six years bathed the frontiers in blood and ended with the extinction of the French power east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio.
Colonel Washington left Alexandria on
April 2nd with two companies and reached Wills Creek, where Cumberland now stands, on the 17th. Had he been earlier he could not have changed the result on the Ohio, as the French had a thousand men and would have annihilated his com- mand. As he was preparing to resume his march, he learned of the affair at the Forks, and, on consultation with his offi- cers, it was decided to send back to Penn- sylvania, Virginia and Maryland for rein- forcements. Another company having joined him, he advanced with his small force towards the mouth of Redstone and sat down to wait for further help. He reached Little Meadows on May 9th, where he learned that the captured fort, which had been strengthened and named Fort Duquesne by the French, had been rein- forced by 800 men. He moved on to the Youghiogheny, reaching there on May 18, and six or eight days later received a message from Half King that the French were moving to attack him. As his force was totally inadequate to meet the enemy in the open field, he selected a favorable spot, known as Great Meadows, where he cleared away the underbrush and threw up a temporary fortification which he is said to have called a charming field for an en- counter. From Mr. Gist and some friendly Indians Washington learned that an ad- vance force of about fifty Frenchmen were within a few miles of his encampment. He determined to lose no time waiting for the others to come up. Capt. Adam Stephens had been detached with seventy-five men to watch them, and Washington, with a party of about forty, started out before daylight on the morning of the 28th, and about dawn the foes discovered each other. The French seized their arms and Washington opened fire. In the conflict, the French commander, M. Jumonville, was slain, with ten of his men, and twenty-two were captured. Wash- ington had one killed and three wounded. Thus ended Washington's first battle.
When intelligence of this affair reached Contrecoeur at Fort Duquesne, he pre- pared to move in force on Washington's
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little army. The latter were not idle. Ex- into the fort. The defenders had only a few presses were sent back for reinforcements worn-out horses and provisions for four or five days. Surrounded by a numerous enemy, it was only a question of time when they must surrender at discretion. It was a rainy day, but desultory firing was kept up, with little effect. In the evening, the French asked for a parley, but Washington fearing some trick, declined, when the re- quest was repeated with a guarantee of safety for the messenger. Captain Van Braam was sent three times before the French offered terms acceptable to Wash- ington, who was already exhibiting his qualities as a strategist. Finally, by agree- ment, the garrisou marched out of the fort with the honors of war, taking all they pos- sessed except artillery, and started for home. It was not a very promising Fourth of July, but nobody then suspected the future significance of that date. It is said that Indians attacked the colonists on the homeward route and plundered their bag- gage, whereupon Washington ordered everything to be destroyed except what the men carried on their backs. and artillery, and the fortifications were strengthened. Gist was sent back to have Pennsylvanians bring up the artillery, but he was unsuccessful. On June 10th he was joined by Captain Mackay with a company of South Carolina troops, whom he placed in command of the fort, and with his Vir- ginia troops, the swivels, a few wagons and stores, he started for Redstone. It is seen how the brunt of this expedition fell upon the Virginia troops; if they had been prop- erly supported by the other colonies, sub- sequent history would have been different, Washington would have been victorious, and there would have been no Braddock disaster. For the time being, French con- centration was to win against Anglo-Saxon disintegration. But we are anticipating. While cutting the road to Redstone, under Gist's superintendence, Washington kept his scouts well forward and knew what was going on among the enemy. He learned that on June 28th, a French and Indian force aggregating eight hundred to one thousand men had left Fort Duquesne, The French destroyed Fort Necessity, as Washington's intrenehments were called, and went back to Fort Duquesne, burning Gist's home and, as de Villiers said, "de- stroyed all the settlements they found." under command of M. Coulon de Villiers, half brother of Jumonville, bent on exter- minating their foes. They proceeded up the Monongahela in large canoes, reaching the mouth of Redstone a few miles above Gist returned with Washington. He was one of the most noted pioneers of that day, being a native of England and studying for the Anglican priesthood, but becoming a surveyor, a settler, and what we would call a promoter. He died in the South, about 1770. Pittsburgh, where they encamped. Washi- ington called a council of war, in which it was decided to fall back on Great Meadows, and, if possible, retreat over the moun- tains. On arriving there they concluded that would be impossible, so they decided to remain. Villiers supposed Washington The events just related brought matters to a crisis, and although war had not been formally declared between France and England, the British government decided to take a hand. On February 20, 1755, Ed- ward Braddock, an English officer, with two regiments, not a very large force to subdue even a savage empire, landed in Chesapeake Bay. He had been appointed commander-in-chief of all the British forces in America, colonial and otherwise, and at his request a conference of colonial was retreating homeward and was about to return to Fort Duquesne, when he was apprised by a deserter of the conditions at Great Meadows. He put the traitor under gnard, with promise of reward or death as his story should prove true or false, and pushed ahead. On July 3d the enemy ap- peared, and opened fire on the fort at long range. Washington formed his men out- side in hope of drawing his foes from the woods, but this not succeeding he withdrew
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governors was held at Alexandria, Va., at which were planned three separate expe- ditions against the French. It looked as though the much needed concentration of British strength was at last to be accom- plished. He took personal charge of the expedition to Fort Duquesne, and the mournful details of that disastrous venture are too well known to need repetition here. They are familiar to every schoolboy. Braddock was a brave soldier, and in a dif- ferent field might have made a different reputation. But he had a contempt for his provincial associates and still more for his foe. He would listen to no suggestions from Washington, who was his aide, and in command of the provincials, and con- sidered the practice of sheltering behind trees, as practiced by whites as well as In- dians in frontier warfare, as simple cow- ardice. He is said to have been shot by one of his own soldiers, having with his sword cut down a provincial who was be- hind a tree, and not until then were the remnant able to take any steps towards saving themselves. On the night of that mournful July 9th, Washington gathered up the scattered fragments of the little army, and conducted its retreat in such good order that he was not followed. The body of Braddock was taken along, and on the 15th it was buried by torchlight, Washi- ington reading the burial office.
Although one or two local expeditions checked the ravages of the savages, yet Braddock's defeat left the French in com- plete possession of the Ohio Valley, which, however, they were only to hold for a little over three years longer.
William Pitt became prime minister of Great Britain in 1757, and his vigor and ability soon made themselves manifest in American affairs. Early in 1758 an Eng- lish fleet of one hundred and fifty sail with 12,000 troops arrived, and with 20,000 men furnished by the colonies, and the forces already in the country, there was an aggregate of 50,000 men, the largest army yet seen in the New World. Three simultaneous expeditions were planned,
one against Louisburg, on the island of Cape Breton, another against Ticonderoga and Crown Point in New York, and a third against Fort Duquesne. The first expe- dition captured Louisburg, the second was repulsed, but subsequently captured Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario where Kings- ton now stands, and General Forbes started from Philadelphia for Fort Du- quesne, being joined en route by Washing- ton with six Virginia regiments, making a force of 7,000 men. They left Carlisle in July, but roads hnd to be cut across the mountains, and progress was slow. Major Grant, who, with a small force, pushed ahead of the main army, met with a mis- fortune almost equal to that of Braddock, but fortunately there were reserves behind, as was not the case with Braddock's expe- dition. The main army moved steadily for- ward, and as it approached Fort Duquesne Indian runners reported that "they were as numerous as the trees in the woods." This so frightened the French that they burned the fort, including their magazines and barracks, and took to their boats, "some up the Allegheny and some down the Ohio. Washington took charge of the abandoned and destroyed fort on Novem- ber 25, 1758, and proceeded to reconstruct it under the name of Fort Pitt, England's new premier, who in a single year liad re- versed the entire situation. A portion of the retreating French halted at Venango until the summer of 1759, when the fall of Niagara made their position untenable, and they left the valley forever. The Anglo- Saxon had come this time to stay. The fol- lowing year General Moncton made a treaty with the Indians at Fort Pitt, ob- taining their consent to build military posts in the wilderness. Quebec had already fall- en, and the capture of Montreal in 1761, and the treaty of Paris in 1763, ended for- ever the dream of a great French empire in America.
It may be worth while to make a diver- sion here from the general history of this section to note what may be termed the first recorded incident in Jefferson County,
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certainly the first in which a white person was the leading figure. In the spring of 1755, during an Indian raid in eastern Pennsylvania a family named Jemison re- siding on Marsh Creek near Philadelphia had their home destroyed and the entire family were captured. The father and inother, with other relatives, were massa- cred by the redskins, but their daughter Mary was carried to Fort Duquesne, where she was given to two Seneca squaws. She was thirteen years of age at this time. The next day they started in a canoe down the river for their home at Mingo town. It will be remembered that Celoron does not mention Mingo in his journey down the Ohio in 1749, so the presumption is that the place was occupied by the Indians some time between that date and 1755, although this is not conelusive. She gives the follow- ing account of her journey down the Ohio:
** On the way we passed a Shawnee town, where I saw a number of heads, arms, legs and other fragments of the bodies of some while people who had just been burned. The parts that remained were hanging on a pole, which was supported at each end by a crotch stuck in the ground, and were roasted as black as a coal. The fire was yet burning, and The whole appearance afforded a spectacle so shocking that even to this day (1824) the blood almost curdles in my veins when I think of it. At night we arrived at a small Seneca Indian town at the mouth of a small river, which was called by the Indians Shenanje (Cross Creek) about cighty miles from the forl, where the two squaws to whom I belonged, resided; there we landed. Having made fast to the shore lhe squaws left me in their canoe while they went to Their wigwam in the towa and returned with a suit of Indian clothing, all new and very clean and nice, My clothes, -though whole and good when I was taken, were now torn in pieces, so that I was almost naked. They first undressed me and threw my rags into the river, then washed me clean and dressed me in the new suit they had just brought, in complete Indian style, and Then Jed me home and scaled me in the center of their wig- wam. I had been in that situation but a few minutes before all the squaws in the town came in to see me. I was soon surrounded by them and they inunediately set up a most dismal howling, crying bitterly and wring. ing their hands in all the agonies of grief for a deceased relative. Their tears flowed freely, and they exhibited nil the signs of real mourning. At the commencement of this scene one of their number began in a voice some- what between speaking and singing to recite some words. "
These were words of mourning for a brother who had been killed in Washing- ton's campaign of 1754 and acceptance of
the girl as a sister in his place. Mary Jemison was now formally adopted into the tribe. She was given the name of De-he- wamis, or "pretty girl," and lived with the Senecas at Mingo until after the capture of Fort Duquesne by the English. Fort Pitt was visited by her, and she relates her joy at again seeing her own people, but there appears to have been no desire to return to civilization. After living at Mingo for several years, probably until after the massacre of Logan's family in 1774, when Mingo town was deserted by the Senecas, she went with her companions to the Scioto country, and finally, having married an In- dian chief, removed to Genesee County, New York, the original home of the tribe, where she lived to be a very old woman. She could have returned to her people after Bonquet's march, but learning that she was to be given up to the whites in accordance with the treaty, escaped into the wilderness with her half-breed children and remained hidden until the search was over. The Six Nations gave her a large tract of land known as the Garden Tract, which pro- feeding was afterwards confirmed by the state of New York. In 1824 she related her experiences to. a visitor, who made notes of her story, which was afterwards pub- lished in book form.
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