USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th > Part 9
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As has been observed, although the French never became very good friends with the Iroquois, yet this very fact tended to give them a better standing with the other tribes, who began to depend on them for supplies and nmmnnition with which to fight their enemies, both white and red. They were also more politic in their deal- ings with the children of the forest than the English, affiliated with them, constantly gave them presents, catered to their de- sires, and were in every way more politie than their Anglo-Saxon brethren. The latter as a rule despised the red men, some of whom were proud and as quick to resent an insult as a white person. The traders for the most part were a brutal, unseru- pulous lot. who lost no opportunity to cheat an Indian, outrage his family, or
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even kill him in case of necessity. But various tribes urging them to unite in one above all, the great difference was in the character of the settlements and the num- ber of their inhabitants. As has been said, the French sovereignty was largely a loose chain of military posts scattered over an immense territory, with comparatively few regular colonists, probably not over 100,000 all told. Their encroachment on the Indian lands was so trifling as to attract little or no attention. But the Atlantic Coast, from Massachusetts to Georgia inclusive, was now occupied by what was then considered the large population of over a million peo- ple. And those people were not content to remain in statu quo. Shiploads were con- stantly arriving from Europe, and the stream so long kept back by the Appa- lachian Mountains was beginning to over- flow in a steady, resistless torrent. Al- ready the Ohio River was claimed to be the eastern boundary of the Indian coun- try, and as the advantages of the Western wilderness became apparent there was a scarcely concealed determination to go on and possess the whole land. The Indians could not fail to observe this, and when the help of their French allies was withdrawn there was added to their natural hatred of the English the conviction, amounting al- most to terror, that if they could not stop this torrent their fate must be the loss of all their homes, if not extermination. So the final termination of the long French War, instead of bringing peace to the Indian country, rather intensified the situation, and when its occupants learned that the King of France had ceded all their lands to the English, without even consulting them, their rage and terror was almost boundless. It is said that great crises always produce great leaders, and Indian history does not seem to prove any exception to the rule. Pontiac, the chief of the Ottawas, is credited with being the author of the most complete and compre- hensive combination of American Indians ever attempted, and his plans were worthy of a Cæsar or Napoleon. Before the close of 1762 he was sending messengers to the But although the siege of Detroit was
grand effort to drive out the English, the plan being to attack every post in the Western country simultaneously and de- stroy each, with its occupants, before out- side help could arrive. Early in 1763 the conspiracy materialized, Pontiac taking Detroit as his special work. On April 27 he gathered his warriors at the little river Ecorces, a few miles below the fort, and disclosed his plans. A few chiefs were to obtain admittance to the fort by stratagem, seek an audience with the commander, Major Henry Gladwin, and at a signal draw their tomahawks, rush for the officers, and strike them down, while the forces out- side, variously estimated at 600 to 2,000, were to rush in and overpower the little garrison of 160 men. The scheme failed, it is said, by the disclosure of a squaw, and Pontiac sat down to a regular siege, of a length unparalleled in Indian warfare, last- ing from May 1 to November 1. Appeals for help were sent eastward, and the first expedition for relief was attacked near the mouth of the Detroit River, beaten and scattered. A second expedition reached the fort, but in a sortie on July 31st the English were driven back with terrible slaughter. Another expedition was over- whelmed in a lake storm and seventy sol- diers drowned. Of course, the surrounding country was ravaged, and requisitions were made on Canadian farmers for provisions for which Pontiac gave promises to pay drawn on birch bark and signed with the figure of an otter, his totem, which primi- tive obligations were redeemed. Pontiac is said to have had a commissary and most of the machinery of a regular army. In- dian persistence, however, began to wane. Towards the latter part of the summer the tribes began to drop off, and by the middle of October only Pontiac's own tribe, the Ottawas, remained. So, the last of the month, he sullenly raised the siege and re- tired to the Miami country, where he en- deavored without success to stir up the tribes to a renewal of the war.
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a failure, marked success had resulted else- where. St. Joseph, near the southern end of Lake Michigan, Michillimackinac, at the head of the Peninsula and commanding the straits of that name; Quiatenon, on the Wabash; Miami, on the present site of Fort Wayne, Ind .; Presque Isle, the pres- ent site of Erie, Pa .; Le Boenf, near the head of the Allegheny River; Venango, far- ther south, all fell into the hands of the sav- ages. Fort Niagara, on the east bank of the river of that name, proved too strong for assault, and the attack there wns soon abandoned. Ligonier, a small post forty miles southeast of Fort Pitt, was attacked, but held out until relieved by Colonel Bou- quet.
On May 27th the Indians appeared be- fore Fort Pitt, now considered the Gibral- tar of the West. On June 22d they opened fire, "upon every side at once," to which the garrison vigorously replied, shells from the howitzers bursting in the midst of the savages, greatly astounding and confusing them. However, they kept up the contest by every means known to savage warfare. They dug holes in the banks of the rivers for shelter with their knives, and from then on kept up a constant fire on the garrison. A modern army, with knowledge of rifle pits, could have done no better.
In the meantime, reinforcements were coming from the East, where the full extent of the border calamities were not yet known. Colonel Bouquet, of the British army, was ordered west, and reached Car- lisle, Pa., in June, where he learned of some of the disasters. He forged ahead with five hundred regnlars, and relieved Ligonier. On Angust 5 the army reached Bushy Run, a small stream twenty-five miles from Fort Pitt, where he was fiercely attacked by Indians. By a strategem the next day he drew the savages into an am- buscade and defeated them badly, although he lost abont one hundred and fifty men, nearly one-third of his force. He pushed on to Fort Pitt, which he entered on Au- gust 25th, the Indians having given up the siege.
Pontiac's grand scheme had not suc- ceeded, but came perilously near it, so far at least as temporary success was con- cerned. Detroit, Niagara and Pitt re- mained as oases hundreds of miles apart, while the whole border was exposed to savage raids. Hundreds of settlers flocked to the forts and protected posts, and far into the interior of Pennsylvania the skies were red with the flames of burning cabins, and the ground soaked with the blood of massacred inhabitants. Some of the fron- tiersmen are said to have continued their flight as far as Philadelphia, but this is probably an exaggeration.
The winter of 1763 was a terrible one, but in the spring preparations were inaugu- rated for two strong expeditions into the Indian country to bring the savages to terms. Col. John Bradstreet organized the first at Fort Niagara, and left there in July, 1764, with a force of over one thou- sand soldiers. As he coasted along the shores of Lake Erie he made treaties with the several Indian tribes, who were awed at least into a pretense of desiring peace. He reached Dertoit on August 25th, to the great joy of the garrison, which had been isolated for more than n year, and made preparations to retake the posts in the West and Northwest.
Colonel Bouquet, in charge of the second expedition, was not ready to leave Fort Pitt until October 3d, when, with a force of one thousand five hundred men, he marched into the Ohio country, entting a highway as he proceeded. Utmost precautions were taken to guard against surprise, and Col- onel Bouquet's journal of the march is inost interesting. His course was via Logs- town, Big and Little Beaver, and thence across the state to the Muskingum. He met numerous Indian delegations on the upper Muskingum, now the Tuscarawas, who made all sorts of exenses for their late treachery, charging it up to the rashness of their young men and the nations living west of them, to which he gave rather in- different replies. The final gathering was held on the Muskingum near the confluence
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of the Tuscarawas and Walhonding Rivers. Bouquet was in a position here to overawe the tribes and destroy their villages, as he was directly in the center of their country, a fact which they fully realized. He built four temporary redoubts, erected a store- house and other buildings, so the place pre- sented the appearance of a little town. Here he talked boldly to the Indians, and besides making a treaty of peace demanded the return of all white captives in their hands. This was a slow process, as the captives were scattered all over the coun- try, their possessors did not want to give them up, and the captives themselves, in many cases, were unwilling to return. It was the 18th of November before the work was finally concluded, and two hundred and six men, women and children delivered over to Colonel Bouquet, who on that day started on his return to Fort Pitt, traveling up the Tuscarawas to the site of the pres- ent town of Bolivar, thence via Sandy Val- ley to Yellow Creek, down that stream and up the Ohio to Fort Pitt, where the force arrived on November 28. The only loss in
this remarkable expedition was one soldier, killed on the Muskingum.
Troops were stationed to guard the lines of communication, and the frontier had a breathing spell. The fruits of Pontiac's victories were all undone, and Pontiac, sullen and revengeful, retired to the Illi- nois country, where he tried to raise a new outbreak, but his charm was broken. He took to drink, and was assassinated by a Kaskaskia Indian, who buried his toma- hawk in his brain. It is said that the mur- derer was bribed to do the deed by a Brit- ish officer, the consideration being a barrel of liquor. Pontiac living was harmless, but his death infuriated some of the Western tribes, who carried on a relentless war against the Illinois Indians and, as Park- man says, "Over the grave of Pontiac more blood was poured out in atonement than flowed from the veins of the slaught- ered heroes on the corpse of Patroclus." Pontiac was buried on the west side of the Mississippi, near Fort St. Louis. No mon- ument marks his grave. He was a great man and a hero, though a savage.
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CHAPTER V
EXPLORING THE OHIO COUNTRY
Croghan's Visit to Mingo-Early Claims-Washington's Visit in 1770-The Logan Massacre-Bloody Reprisals-Dunmore's War and Logan's Last Speech.
Having acquired undisputed title to the Western territory, the English authorities were naturally anxious to know something about it, and also follow up the results of Colonel Bouquet's expedition in further conciliating the Indian tribes. Accord- ingly, early in 1765, Col. George Croghan was sent out from Fort Pitt, leaving there on May 15th with two batteaux, carrying a well equipped party. He was accom- panied by deputies of the Senecas, Shaw- anese and Delawares, and arrived at the mouth of Big Benver the next day, from which point his diary continues :
** About a mile below Beaver Creek we passed an old settlement of the Delawares, where the French in 1756 built a lown for that nation. On the north side of the river some of the stone chimneys are yet remaining; here the highlands come close to the banks, and con- tinue so for about five miles, after which we passed several spacious bottoms on each side of the river, and came to Little Beaver Creek, about fifteen miles below Big Beaver Creek. A number of small rivulets fall into the river on either side. From thenee we sailed to Yellow Creek, being about fifteen miles from the last mentioned creek; here and there the hills come close to the river on each aide. From thence we sailed from Yellow Creek, being about fifteen miles from the last- mentioned creek, and there the hills come close to the banks of the river on each side, but where are bottoms (glacial terraces) they are very large and well water, numbers of small rivulets running through them, falling into the Ohio on both sides. We encumped on the river bank, and find a great part of the trees in the bottoms are covered with grape vines. This day we passed by eleven islands, one of which being about seven miles long."
"Doubtless Brown's Island, four miles long.
For the most part of the way we made this day the banks of the river are high and steep. The course of the Ohio from Fort Pitt to the mouth of Beaver Creek inelines to the northwest; from thence to the two creeks partly due west."
The party seems to have encamped for the night between the foot of Brown's Island and Steubenville, possibly at the Half Moon farm or Holliday's Cove, for the diary continues :
"1;tb. At 6 o'clock in the morning we embarked, and were delighted with the prospect of a fine open country as we passed down. We came to a place called the Two Creeks (Ohio and Virginia Cross Creek ) about fifteen (twenty) miles from Yellow Creek, where we put to shore. Here the Seucens have a village on a high hank on the north side of the river. The chief of this village offered me his service to go with me to the Illinois, which I could not refuse for fear of giving him offense, although I had n sufficient number of deputies with me already. From thence we proceeded down the river, passed many large, rich and fine bottoms, the high lands being at a considerable distance from the river bank, until we came to Buffalo Creek, being about ten (five) miles below the Seneca village, and from Buffalo Creek we proceeded down the river to Fat Meat Creek (firave Creek), about thirty miles. The face of the country appears much like what we met with before; large, rich and well watered bottoms, then succeeded by hills pinching close on the river; these bottoms on the north side appear rather low, and consequently subjert to inundations in the spring of the year, when there never fails to be high freshein in the Ohio, owing to the melting of the snows. This day we passed ten fine islands, though the greatest part of them are small."
Colonel Croghan's account of his visit to the western country, and his return via Detroit and Niagara, is very interesting, but we must return to Jefferson County.
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As is well known, the English authorities discouraged settlers from emigrating be- yond the Alleghenies, and at a later date positively prohibited them going north of the Ohio, but that did not prevent numer- ous pioneer settlements in western Penn- sylvania and Virginia, and a few hardy ones had already begun to look over the river where a fertile soil, abundance of game and a wide field offered a tempting opportunity. The late W. H. Hunter, with a great deal of industrious research, has collected and published in the works of the Ohio Archeological Society, a great deal of information concerning these pioneers that would otherwise have sunk into obli- vion, and among other things relates an incident said to have occurred during this year, 1765. Jacob Walker, who had come from Maryland, made a tomahawk claim on the territory now occupied by the city of Steubenville. After aiding a Mr. Great- house clear three acres of land and plant corn, opposite the site of Steubenville, in Brooke County, Virginia, Walker crossed the river and deadened three trees at a point later known as Marsh's Spring, on North Seventh Street, denoting the centre of the claim. This was the first attempt ever made to settle the west side of the Ohio. The appended sketch of the life of Jacob Walker was written by his great- grandson, the information therein con- tained being handed down from generation to generation, and its authenticity is not questioned.
"In 1765 the site of Steubenville was a dense forest, and game, such as deer, tur- keys, hares, and wild hogs, was abundant. .Jacob also, during that year, bought of Mr. Greathouse a farm, paying sixteen rents an acre for it, there being four hun- dred acres, it being the farm now owned by .J. J. Walker. They deadened three trees at the spring by his house, which was the transfer. On account of trouble at Rich- inond, Va., he did not get a deed until 1785. During the summer of 1765 he built a cabin on his farm, it being about half way be- tween the present residence of .J. J. Walker
and that of his son, W. P. Walker, and that fall he returned to Baltimore and mar- ried Margaret Guthrie. In the spring of 1766 he bought a pony, and they started back to his farm, she riding the pony and he walking, bringing all they had with them. They arrived at the cabin in Au- gust ; he went in and tramped down the weeds and then helped her off the pony, took off the pack saddle and what other few things they had and told her this was . her home. He afterwards helped to build Fort Decker in what was later Mahan's orchard, below Mingo. They lived at the fort for seven years during the summer, and on his farm during the winter. As soon as the leaves came in the spring the Indians came also, and when he went out to plow or plant he got two soldiers to come with him from the fort, they hiding at each end of the field to keep the Indians from slipping up and shooting him. He worked all day without speaking to his team above a whisper. During his stay at the fort one day in the fall he came up to his cabin, having a little dog with him; he came to the spring first, and the little dog slipped up to the cabin. It came back, and by jumping in front of him and doing everything it could to keep him from going to the cabin, he thought of Indians, and went back to the fort and got some of the soldiers, returning in time to see nine In- dians slip away. Another time Captain Buskirk sent his son to mill on horseback with a sack of corn, also having a favorite dog, which followed him. It was a two days' trip, and on his return the dog was not with him; his father got very angry, and the son went back to look for the dog, and after he had been gone three days and no word from him, the captain sent Jacob Walker, Mr. Decker, and two soldiers, to see if they could find him. They went from the fort down the Ohio to the month of Cross Creek, and up Cross Creek, following the trail, and when they came to the mouth of Scioto Run, where it empties into Cross Creek, they found him; the Indians had laiu in ambush and caught him without
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shooting, and had split his head with a white men and some Indians, he left there tomahawk. The prints of their fingers in two ranoes, stopping to inspect lands entry : were plain on his neck where they had at different points. On the 22d we find this. choked him to keep him from hollering. They scalped him and took his horse. The party sent out, took him and buried him up " As it began to snow about midnight, and continued pretty steadily, it was about half past 7 before we left the encampment. At the distance of about eight miles we came to the mouth of Yellow Creek, opposite, of rather below which, appears to be a long bottom of very good land (Mahan fruit farins), and the ascent to the hills very gradunt. About cleven or twelve miles from this, and just above what is called the Long Island (Brown's), which, though so distinguished, is not very remarkable for length, breadth or goodnem, comes in un the east side of the river, a small creek, or run, the name of which I could not learn (King's), and a mile or two below the island on the west side comes in Big Stony (Wills) Creek, not larger in appearance than the other, on neither of which does there seem to be any large bottom or bodies of good land. About meven miles from the last mentioned ereck, twenty eight from our last encampment and about seventy-five from Pittsburgh, we came to the Mingo Town, situated on the west side of the river, a little above Cross Creek. This place con- tains about twenty cabins, and seventy inhabitants of the Six Nations. on the hill overlooking Cross Creek, on land that was or is owned by Silas MeGee. Jacob said, of all the sad sights that he ever saw, that was the saddest. The cap- tain lost his son, horse and dog; the In- dians killed his wife and the captain him- self later. After Jacob had left the fort and gone out to his farm, during the sum- mer season, the Indians would still come over the river and kill the settlers. At such times Jacob and his wife would take their three children and go away from their cabin. She would take a babe in her arms and sit down in the field, leaving John and Mary at a short distance covered with a quilt; Jacob sitting at a short distance with his gun. He was at the building of Fort Steuben ; he was at the battle between Cap- tain Buskirk and the Indians, and fought on Battle Run, west of Mingo, where Cap- tain Buskirk was killed, in Jefferson County, Ohio. He was at a council of war between Logan and Buskirk. Jacob Walker was appointed constable in 1797, at the first court held in Brooke County. He died about 1830, aged 94 years."
With the exception of an individual af- fray here and there, comparative peace reigned along the border for several years, and in the latter part of 1770 Col. George Washington, who had always taken great interest in the Ohio country, planned a trip to this region for the purpose of inspect- ing lands, with the view of locating claims at a later date. The Indian title to Ken- tucky had been extinguished at a conven- tion at Fort Stanwix, N. Y., in 1768, but nothing definite had been accomplished as to Ohio, if we except the somewhat indefi- nite cession of the Iroquois at Lancaster, Pa. He left Mt. Vernon on October 5, 1770, and arrived at Fort Pitt on the 17th, hav- ing had some Indian conferences on the way. On the 20th, with a party of eight
"Had we set off early, and kept constantly at it, we might have reached lower than this place today, as the water in many places ran very swift, in general more wo than yesterday. The river from Fort Pitt to Logs- town has some ugly rifts and shoals, which we found somewhat difficult to pass, whether from our inexperience of the channel or not i cannot undertake to say. From Logstown to the mouth of Little Beaver Creek is much the same kind of water; that is, rapid in some places. gliding gently along in others and quite still in many. The water from Little Beaver Creek to Mingo Town in general is swifter than we found it the preceding day and without any shallows, there being some one part or another always deep, which is a natural consequence, as the river in all the distance from Fort Pitt to this town bas not widened at all, nor do the bottoms appear to be any larger. The hills which come close to the river opposite to each bottom are steep, and on the side in view, in many places, rocky and eragged, but said to abound in good land on the top. These are not u range of hills, but broken and cut in two, as if there were frequent water courses running through, which, however, we did not perceive to be the ense. The river abounds in wild geese and several kinds of ducks, but in no great quantity. We killed five wild turkeys today. l'pon our arrival at the Miugo Town we received the very disagreeable news of two traders being killed at a town called the Grapevine Town, thirty eight miles below this, which caused un to hesitate whether we should proceed or wait for further intelli- gence.
"23d. Several imperfect accounts coming in, agree- ing that only one person was killed, and the Indians not supposing it to be done by their people, we resolved to pursue our passage till we could get a more distinct account of this transaction. Accordingly, about 2 o'clock, we set out with the two Indians, who were to accompany us in our canoe, and after about four miles came to the mouth of a creek (Buffalo) on the east side. The Cross Creeks, as they are enlled, are not large.
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that on the east side is the biggest. At the Mingo Town we found and left more than sixty warriors of the Six Nations, going to the Cherokee country, to proceed to war against the Catabas. About ten miles below the town we came to two other Cross (Short) Creeks; that on the west is the larger and called by Nicholson (the interpreter ) French Creek. About three miles or a little more below this at the lower point of some islands (Nisters), which stand contiguous to each other, we were told by the Indians that three men from Virginia had marked the land from heuce all the way to Redstone; that there was a body of exceedingly fine land lying about this place, and up opposite to the Mingo Town, as also down to the mouth of Fishing Creek. "
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