Century history of Delaware County, Ohio and representative citizens 20th, Part 7

Author: Lytle, James Robert, 1841- [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Biographical publishing company
Number of Pages: 926

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In 1682 William Penn, the great Quaker. who believed that the rules of justice applied to dealings with the Indians as well as other races, came to the American shore. Instead of seeking to eject the Delawares from their lands by sheer force of superior prowess, he

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

met them in friendly intercourse and negoti- ated with them a treaty by which he bought their lands, and by which both parties agreed that the same moral law should apply to both races alike. This treaty was kept unbroken by the Delawares for sixty years. So favorable was the impression made upon them by Penn's fairness that the name "Quaker" came, with them, to be synonymous with "good men."

At the time of the treaty with Penn, how- ever, or shortly afterwards, the Delawares were brought into subjection to the Iroquois. At the Lancaster treaty in 1744. in the presence of a large assembly of tribes, the Iroquois de- nied the right of the Delawares to sell their lands. "Canassatego, an Iroquois chief, up- braided them in public council for some for- mer act of this kind. Speaking in a strain of mixed irony and arrogance, he told them not to reply to his words but to leave the council in silence. He peremptorily ordered them to quit the section of country where they then resided and to move to the banks of the Sus- quehanna." Accordingly, the Delawares, cowed into submission, left the banks of the Delaware where their home had been for many years and turned to the West, from which, according to their traditions, they had formerly come. It is said that at the opening of the Revolution the Delawares shook off the Iro- quois yoke and that, a few years later, at a public council, the Iroquois admitted that they were "no longer women."

The Delawares first settled on the Susque- hanna, in their western migration. Here, how- ever, they were subject to the constant in- trusion of the white settlers, as well as the aggressions of the Iroquois. Proceeding west- ward they took up their abode along the Muskingum, and later on the Auglaize in Northwestern Ohio, and while here they took part in the various wars which have been men- tioned in the preceding chapter. They were represented at St. Clair's defeat and at the battle of "Fallen Timber," and afterwards participated in the treaty at Greenville. They were faithful to the United States during the War of 1812, resisting all the overtures of

the British to again take up arms against the Americans.

From Ohio they removed to the White River, a branch of the Wabash, in Indiana. Later, as the advancing frontier of civiliza- tion encroached upon their territory, they ceded their lands and removed, for the most part, to a tract in Missouri which had for- merly been granted to them jointly with the Shawnees by the Spanish. From here they again migrated to Kansas, locating on the Kansas and Missouri rivers. Finally, they re- moved to Indian Territory, where they now reside, and occupy a reservation in conjunction with the Cherokee Nation. Their present number is about 1,750. In the War of the Rebellion the Delawares enlisted one hundred and seventy-two men for the Union army, out of a population of two hundred males. They officered their own companies and made good soldiers in every respect.

It was to the tribe of the Delawares that the band of Moravian converts belonged, whose shameful massacre at Gnadenhutten is one of the foulest blots that stains the annals of our early history. The Moravian Mission- aries, Count Zinzendorf and Heckewelder, had labored with great success among the Indian tribes. Their first converts were made in New York and Connecticut. Owing to the preju- dice of the English, however, in 1747 the mis- sion was transferred from Shickomico, in Dutchess County, New York, to Bethlehem on the Susquehanna. Here was established an Indian colony, free from all the savage vices that characterized the other Indian tribes. They cultivated the land and abstained from participation in the Indian wars that raged all along the frontier from Quebec to New Orleans. It was the misfortune of these Delaware Indians to fall under the suspicion of the English as being in sympathy with the French. Their doctrines of peace met with little response from the other Indian tribes or even from the rough white settlers on the border. In conse- quence they were subjected to constant perse- cution from both the whites and the red men. Forced from the Susquehanna they took up

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY

their abode on the waters of the Muskingum. Here, as before, they addressed themselves to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture and graz- ing. They were allowed to remain unmolested until the war for independence broke out. When this occurred they found themselves be- tween Fort Pitt and Detroit, a British and an American stronghold. They could not under- stand the struggle and refused to join the war- like parties that passed through their territories or to ally themselves with either of the belliger- ent forces. Their attitude only served to create suspicion. The white frontiersmen, accus- tomed only to the savage side of the Indian nature, could not understand that any other could exist. The Indians themselves were, for the most part, incapable of appreciating the doctrines of peace and non-resistance believed in and adhered to by these innocent Moravian converts. At length a Wyandot war party, no doubt instigated by the white renegades, Girty, Elliott and McKee, appeared on the Muskingum and compelled the peaceful Dela- wares to remove to Sandusky. Many of their cattle and hogs were killed and the inhabitants of three towns, numbering between three and four hundred, were removed, leaving behind the fields which they had cultivated and the homes and chapels which they had erected.

After living at Sandusky for a year the Delawares were permitted to return to the Muskingum. The settlers on the Monon- gahela looked on this return as a hostile movement. The British posts at the Maumee. Detroit and Michilimacinac had not yet been surrendered, and it was known that the Indian tribes throughout the Northwest still mani- fested the most bitter hostility towards the white settlers, shown later by the fierce strug- gles with St. Clair and Wayne. Almost any kind of a pretext would have sufficed, how- ever, to provoke an attack on the Moravians, in view of the prejudice which existed against them. On their return to the Muskingum a company, headed by Colonel Williamson, de- termined to exterminate them. Gnadenhutten, Salem and one or two other settlements were taken. "Under deceitful promises the Indi- ans gave up all their arms, showed the whites

their treasures, and went unknowingly to a terrible death. When apprised of their fate, determined upon by a majority of the rangers, they begged only time to prepare. They were led two by two, the men into one and the women and children into another 'slaughter- house,' as it was termed, and all but two lads were wantonly slain. * Some of Williamson's men wrung their hands at their cruel fate and endeavored, by all the means in their power, to prevent it, but all to no pur- pose.'

It was shortly after this inhuman massacre that the ill-fated expedition of Colonel Craw- ford against the Wyandots took place. Per- haps aroused to the fiercest spirit of revenge by the massacre of their brethren, even though they could not sympathize with their spirit, the Wyandots apparently sought to wreak ven- geance on Colonel Crawford and party. Aiter completely routing them and capturing Colonel Crawford with a number of the party, they burnt Colonel Crawford at the stake after sub- jecting him to the cruelest tortures that all their devilish ingenuity could devise.

The Indians probably had several villages within the present limits of Delaware County. Little is known regarding any of them, how- ever, beyond what is stated by Howe in his History. Two villages are there mentioned as having been located mostly within the pres- ent limits of the City of Delaware and belong- ing to the Delaware Nation. One of them occupied the ground near what is now the east end of William Street and on the Delaware Run. It is probable that the spot on which Monnett Hall now stands was once dotted with Indian wigwams. The other village was in the west end of the present city. A corn field of 400 acres is said to have been cultivated. There is also a tradition that a battle was once fought on the Delaware Run between the Delawares and the Shawnees. It is known that the red men were attracted to the vicinity of Delaware in vast numbers by the famous sul- phur spring located on what is now the Uni- versity campus. This spring was called "Medi- cine Waters" by the Indians. There was also a village belonging to the Mingoes located a

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

short distance north of Delaware in Troy Township.

RELATIONS BETWEEN SETTLERS AND INDIANS.

Delaware County was included within the territory ceded to the United States under the terms of the famous Greenville treaty, made on the end of August, 1795. It was not long after that time that the permanent location of the Delawares and other tribes in Delaware County ceased. With the coming of the white man and the alienation of their title to the land, they betook themselves further north to the territory that was reserved for them. They often visited the county afterwards, however, to hunt and to fish in its streams, and to trade with the white settlers, and many interesting experiences with them were related by the early pioneers. Their intercourse with the whites was, almost without exception, of a friendly character, though it is said that many of the early settlers entertained towards them an inveterate hatred and did not consider it really criminal to kill them. "They brought cranberries, maple sugar (sometimes mixed with meal) and molasses in coon-skins, to sell to the whites. * Cranberries were a great article of commerce with the Indians and a drove of fifty ponies, laden with this fruit, has been seen to pass through Delaware at one time, going to Columbus and other points south." They would resort to any de- vice to satisfy their native thirst for "fire- water." It is related that an Indian came late one evening to the house of Colonel Byxbe, Delaware's founder, and demanded that a keg which he had with him should be filled with whiskey. Mrs. Byxbe was the only occupant of the house at the time. She went to the room used as a bar ( the house itself being a tavern). struck a light and suddenly dis- covered that she was surrounded by about twenty natives of the forest. On the promise of the red men that they would leave the place quietly, however, when the purpose of their coming had been accomplished, the fearless woman led the way to the cellar where she 4

filled their keg. after which they departed in accordance with their promise.

While Delaware County was never the scene of any of the great battles fought with the Indian tribes, while it was never so much as invaded by the red men with hostile pur- pose, after the coming of the white settlers vet the inborn savagery of the Indian nature could not but be a source of constant appre- hension to the pioneer so long as these natives of the forest remained in close proximity to his settlements. As we have said, the inter- course of the whites with the Indians was, for the most part, friendly; but, should circum- stances arise to call it forth there was always the danger that the white man might become the prey of the Indian's uncurbed savagery. An incident is related in the early history of Troy Township illustrative of the dangers which might arise. The Delawares and Wyandots, who frequented the locality. sent a war party into Pennsylvania to commit depre- dations upon the inhabitants. Among others, they captured a young white girl and started for their camp on Clear Run in Troy Town- ship. A party of whites, among whom were two brothers of the captured girl. organized to pursue them. They followed the Indians to a point on the Olentangy River north of Delaware, where the old stone mill is situated, but here they seemed to lose all trace of the Indian band. ' They were about to give up their pursuit as hopeless when one of the party happened to notice smoke ascending above the trees a mile or two farther north. Cau- tiously approaching the spot they suddenly came upon the savages and drove them into the woods, rescuing the captured girl un- harmed. This incident took place on what has since been known as the Crystal Springs Farm. owned by Mr. Chauncy Hills.

We have alluded to the hatred which many of the early settlers entertained towards the Indians. In this connection we quote two incidents related in "Howe's History." "One time, after the last war, a dead Indian was seen floating down the Scioto on two logs. lashed together, having his gun and all his accoutrements with him. He had been shot

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY

and the people believed the murderer was George Shannon, who had been in service considerably during the war, and who one time went out, not far from Lower Sandusky, with a small company. fell in with a party of warriors and had to retreat. He lingered be- hind until he shot and killed one. As soon as he fired, several Indians sprang forward to catch him alive, but, being swift on foot, he could easily keep ahead, when he suddenly came to an open field across which he had to run or be cut off. The Indians gained the first side just as he was leaping the fence on the other, and fired at him, one ball entering his hip. He staunched the blood by stuffing the hole with a portion of his shirt. that they might not track him, and crawled into the brush, but they gave up the chase, thinking they had not hit him, and being convinced of his superior fleetness. Shannon got into camp and was conveyed home, but he was always lame afterwards and fostered an unrelenting desire for vengeance towards the whole race, not excepting the innocent and the harmless. "As late as 1820 two Indians were mur- clered on Fulton's Creek (Thompson Town- ship). A party came down there to hunt, as was customary with them every fall, and Henry Swartz ordered them off. They replied, "No. the land belongs to the white man-the game to the Indian," and insisted that they were friends and ought not to be disturbed. A few days after two of their number were missing, and they hunted the entire country over with- out finding them, and at last found evidence of human bones where there had been a fire, and immediately charged Swartz with killing and burning them. They threatened venge- ance on him, and for several years he had to be constantly on his guard to prevent being waylaid. It was never legally investigated, but the neighbors all believed that Swartz, aided probably by Ned Williams, murdered and disposed of them in the manner the Indi- ans suspected. and at one time talked of driv- ing them out of the settlement. They were considered bad men and never prospered after- wards."

When the war of 1812 broke out. there was great apprehension on the part of the set- tlers lest the county would be invaded by the Indians. The county itself, being just south of the Greenville treaty line, was one of the border counties. Accordingly steps were im- mediately taken by the inhabitants for its pro- tection. There seems to have been at least four block-houses erected within the limits of the county. One of these was at Norton, one in Kingston Township, another in Berlin Township and another in Delaware. Inas- much as it was nearest the border, the one at Norton was, perhaps, of most importance, and was the largest of any. It was known by the name of Fort Morrow, and was built in a dense forest unbroken for miles around. The fol- lowing description will undoubtedly be of in- terest.

"The fort consisted of two block-houses situated short distance from each other, in direction northeast by southwest. Between the two was the brick tavern of Nathaniel Wyatt. The whole was surrounded by a palisade of strong oaken timbers substantially set in the ground and then sharpened on the top. One of the blockhouses was built by the citizens of round logs. The first story was run up to a height of about eight feet, and the second was made to project over that of the first about four feet. The floor of this projection had small openings or port-holes thus enabling those inside to better defend against a close attack or attempt to set the structure on fire by the besieging party. The upper story con- tained embrastres so arranged that rifles could be discharged in any direction. The door was composed of three-inch plank. double barred across and upright. To test it, a volley was fired into it at short range. In the story below slept the children and above the grown people stood sentry. The other was built by the government and did not differ materially from that built by the citizens, except that the logs were hewn and the structure more com- pactly built." The words "Fort Morrow" were painted in great, red letters on one of the logs in the southwest corner.

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

The block-house in Kingston Township was located at the intersection of the north and south road, known as the Sunbury Road, with the Mansfield Road, the place being known as Starks' Corners. At the time of the war of 1812, there were no settlements to the north of the Kingston colony, and it was deemed ne- cessary to take this precaution against pos- sible incursions of the Indians. Its use never became necessary, however, save at the time of "Drake's defeat." when the settlers were scared into it for a brief period.

"Drake's defeat" was in itself responsible for the erection of the block-house in Berlin Township. After the panic caused by this rather ludicrous incident, the settlers there de- termined not to take chances for the future. Accordingly there was erected just south of where the roads cross near Cheshire, a struc- ture of hewed logs, the building having two stories the upper projecting over the lower, and being forty feet square. The only aper- ture in the lower story was closed by a door made of a double thickness of three-inch planks, barred and cross-barred. In the upper story were rifle embrasures and convenient openings in the floor of the projection which could be used for defence in case of a close attack. After the fort had been stocked with ammunition and provisions it offered a compar- atively secure retreat in the event of an attack from hostle Indians. There was at least one occasion on which most of the settlers betook themselves to it for protection from an expected onset, but the alarm proved to be groundless. The structure was afterwards used as a school- house.

The blockhouse in Delaware was located on the northeast corner of Sandusky and Wil- lianı Streets. The structure was not origin- ally intended for a blockhouse, being a one- story brick building which had been used for a store. Around this a high palisade of strong puncheons was constructed.

While it was no more than a matter of reasonable precaution that these various strongholds of defence should have been con- structed, yet there seems never to have been any real occasion for their use. The known

hostility of certain tribes, however, and their sympathy with the British, were amply suffi- cient to give ground for the apprehensions of the early settlers during the War of 1812. Living as we do in an age when civilization has long since thrust the red man far out to our western country, and in large measure tamed his savage nature, when it is difficult to even imagine our locality as an unbroken forest whose only human occupants were savages, we perhaps cannot appreciate the real dangers which our pioneer fathers encountered. and the real fearlessness which they exhibited when they took the first steps towards opening the way for the advance of civilization. The dan- gers, were, nevertheless, real, and their bravery as great as that which has characterized any effort ever put forth by human kind. Dela- ware County was never actually invaded and with the termination of the "second war for independence" the fear of Indian incursions, for the most part, ceased.

We have several times alluded to "Drake's defeat." This event, famous in local annals, was for years after its occurrence, mentioned by the inhabitants of the county in much the same manner as other localities will refer to the time of their "great flood." or fire, or hur- ricane, or some other equally disastrous visita- tion. While, as it developed. the Indians were in reality altogether innocent in the matter, yet, since it would not have taken place had it not been for the constant apprehension of Indian depredations, the narrative of its oc- curence would seem to properly belong in this somewhat brief account of the relations which the early settlers sustained towards the red men1.

After Hull's surrender in the War of 1812 there was nothing to prevent the Indians from making hostile raids on the northern frontier. Inasmuch as Delaware County was directly on the border, there was, as we have already men- tioned. ample occasion for dread on the part of the settlers. Lower Sandusky was threat- ened with attack, and a company was organ- ized by Captain William Drake, in the northern part of the county, to march to its assistance. On their first night out they encamped a few

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY

miles north of the settlement at Norton. Cap- tain Drake was something of a practical joker. It is probable, too, that he wished to test the courage of his men. After the men had all become securely wrapped in the embrace of Morpheus he quietly stole out into the bushes. Here he suddenly discharged his gun and came running frantically into camp crying, "Indi- ans! Indians!" at the top of his voice. A plat of ground had been designated the night be- fore on which the company would form in case of attack. Here the more courageous of the band attempted to draw themselves up in bat- tle array to resist the coming onslaught, the sentinels having previously taken up the cry of Indians, supposing that the original alarm proceeded from one of their own number.

Captain Drake, soon perceiving the con- sternation and confusion into which his ruse had thrown the company, and fearing that they might all disgrace themselves by a pre- cipitate flight, quickly proclaimed the hoax and attempted to quiet the panic which he had created. There was a lieutenant in the com- . pany. however, who, not waiting for any fu- ture developments or willing to risk even the chance of the most hasty investigations, took to his heels with all the expedition which the fear of being immediately scalped would na- turally occasion. In his mad flight the shouts of his companions attempting to recall him were transformed by his imagination into the blood-curdling warwhoop of Indian say- ages. As he increased the distance between himself and the others who endeavored to re- strain him, and the sound of their voices died away, it was only so much evidence that they had all succumbed to the tomahawk and scalp- ing knife of the red men. This, at any rate, was the story which he brought to the Radnor set- tlement at which he arrived at daybreak, his flight having taken him in this direction, al- though he had intended to make for his home south of the place where the company had en- camped for the night.

The horrible tale of wholesale massacre soon had its effect on the settlers at Radnor. The community was thrown into a panic and preparations were begun for immediate flight.

The story was communicated by each one to his neighbor, and, no doubt, lost nothing of its grewsome details in the telling. On foot, on horse-back, in wagons, by any method that offered the easiest and quickest means of escape, the people fled from their impending doom. The same scene was repeated in most of the other settlements to which the news of the "massacre" was communicated. The mob of frenzied fugitives struck Delaware just a little after sunrise. In their mad haste they did not take time to stop for the communica- tion of details but simply cried out as they rushed along, "The Indians are upon us!" While great alarm was immediately manifested in the village yet it is said that not a great number of the villagers joined in the flight. They at once betook themselves to the forti- fications, however, and took immediate steps to put the community in a state of defence. Scouts were sent out to ascertain the truth of the reports. At Norton they found the people quietly engaged in their usual occupa- tions. It was too late, however, to reach many of whose who had fled.

The demoralization spread to the eastern part of the county. Most of the settlers, not stopping to question the truth of the reports, prepared for flight. Swollen streams and vari- ous other obstacles, that, under ordinary cir- cumstances would have seemed insurmount- able, apparently offered no impediment to es- cape. Women, ordinarily timid, under the ex- citement of the hour, became brave as lions. Many ludicrous stories are related of incon- gruities on the part of the panic-stricken set- tlers in the preparations they made for flight. Articles of clothing and food were indiscrim- inately jumbled together. One woman, after wrapping a package of tallow candles in her silk dress stowed it away in the bottom of a wagon. The result can easily be imagined. Another, after the panic was over, found a bag containing pies, bread and various other articles of food together with a pair of old boots, in a confused mass, stored away for an emergency. \ family named Penry drove so fast that they bounced a little boy, two or three years old, out of the wagon, near Dela-

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Century history of Delaware County, Ohio and representative citizens 20th, Part 7

Author: Lytle, James Robert, 1841- [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago, Biographical publishing company Number of Pages: 926

Author: Lytle, James Robert, 1841- [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Biographical publishing company
Number of Pages: 926