USA > Ohio > Coshocton County > Historical collections of Coshocton County, Ohio : > Part 14
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The militia now tried to criminate the Indians, charg- ing that despite their peaceful professions they were war- riors, and had taken part in the war against the Amer- icans ; that they had harbored and fed, in their towns, British Indians on their march to the American frontiers ; that their horses were, many of them, stolen; that their houses, in their appliances, and their clothing gave evidence that they had helped to plunder the farms and attack the settlements ; that, at any rate, they kept a half-way house for marauding Indians and received stolen goods.
The prisoners appealed to the knowledge of the soldiers themselves as to the general public friendship for the whites; to the efforts they had made successfully for years to keep the nation of which they were part from joining with the British Indians; they explained the necessity which compelled them to entertain British Indians, but showed that they had, at the same time, persuaded many a war- party to turn back; and, further, that when the American general, Brodhead, had come into their country, on his ex- pedition against Goschachgunk, they had furnished his army too with provisions; they admitted often receiving articles of clothing and utensils from other Indians for entertain-
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ment; and reminded their captors that they were civilized Indians, dressing like the whites, working their horses like them, and using the same household utensils, mechanical tools, and agricultural implements.
But these explanations were not accepted. A council of war was held. The officers, unwilling to assume the responsibility, agreed to submit the question to the men. They were, accordingly drawn up in line; Colonel Will- iamson stepped forward, saying: "Shall the Moravian Indians be taken prisoners to Pittsburgh or put to death ? All those in favor of sparing their lives advance one step and form a second rank." Thereupon sixteen (some reports say eighteen) men stepped out of line, leaving an immense majority for the sentence of death.
The mode of execution then created some debate. It was at one time proposed to set fire to the houses in which the captives were and roast them alive; but it was finally determined to kill them and get their scalps as trophies of the campaign. On the 8th of March, the captives (twenty- nine men, twenty-seven women, and thirty-four children) were placed in the " slaughter-houses," as they were desig- nated-the males in one, the females in another-and then butchered with tomahawks, mallets, war-clubs, spears, and scalping-knives. Only a part of the militia were engaged in this dreadful work. Others were gathering up the plun- der and making preparations for the march to another town. After the massacre all the houses of the village were burned. The Indians in the second town got timely alarm and fled. Two lads escaped-the one having received a blow that only stunned him, and the other having been scalped. The whole nuniber killed was ninety.
The Rev. Philip Doddridge, a Presbyterian minister, who lived in Western Virginia, where many of Williamson's troops lived, speaking of this massacre, says :
" Should it be asked what sort of people composed the band of murderers of these unfortunate people, I answer that they were not miscreants and vagabonds. Many of them were men of the first standing in the country-many of them men who had recently lost relations by the hands
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of the savages. Several of the latter class found in the houses of the murderers articles which had been plundered from their own houses, or those of their relations. One man, it is said, found the clothes of his wife and children who had been murdered by the Indians a few days before ; yet there was no unequivocal evidence that these people had any direct agency in the war. Whatever of property was found with them had been left by the warriors from the regions beyond in exchange for provisions. When attacked by our people they might have defended them- selves, but they did not. They never fired a single shot. They were prisoners, and had been promised protection. Every dictate of justice and humanity required that their lives should be spared. The complaint of their villages being half-way houses, if well founded, was at an end, be- cause the people had been removed to Sandusky the fall before. It was, therefore, an atrocious and unqualified murder. But by whom committed? By a majority of the campaign ? For the honor of my country, I hope I may safely answer this question in the negative. It was one of those convulsions of the moral state of society in which the voice of the justice and humanity of the majority is silenced by the clamor and violence of a real minority. Very few of our men imbrued their hands in the blood of the Moravians. Even those who had not voted for sav- ing their lives, retired from the scene of slaughter with horror and disgust. Why then did they not give their votes in their favor? The fear of public indignation re- strained them from doing so. They thought well, but had not heroism enough to express their opinion. In justice to the memory of Colonel Williamson, I have to say that, although at that time very young, I was personally ac- quainted with him, and from my recollection I say that he was a brave man, but not cruel. Had he possessed the authority of a superior officer in the regular army, I do not believe that a single Moravian Indian would have lost his life. But he possessed no such authority. He was only a militia officer, who could advise, but not command. His only fault was a too easy compliance with popular opinion
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and popular prejudice. On this account his memory has been loaded with unmerited reproach."
In the summer of 1872 (some ninety years after the mas- sacre), ten thousand citizens of the Tuscarawas valley assembled at Gnadenhutten to witness the unveiling of a handsome monument erected through the efforts of the "Gnadenhutten Monument Society" to the memory of the Christian Indians who fell the unresisting victims of the Williamson expedition.
After some excellent music by an immense band of trained singers, accompanied by instrumental music, the Rev. Dr. De Schweinitz, Bishop of the Moravian Church of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, delivered an oration of rich historic interest and rare beauty of expression.
At the close of the oration, amid music of suitable sort, four Indians of the Delaware tribe, two of them lineal de- scendants of the massacred Indians, stripped the canvas, and exposed to full view the monument. This is of gray stone, with base and die and shaft, in all about thirty-five feet high. On the die is the inscription : "Here perished ninety Christian Indians in 1782," and on the base the simple legend, "Gnadenhutten."
The assembly having been dismissed for dinner (basket and otherwise), was again summoned to the stand, and the exercises of the afternoon opened by a hymn in the Dela- ware language, sung by the Indians and their missionary, the Rev. Mr. Riennecke, from Canada.
Brief addresses were made by Mr. Riennecke and each of the Indians, and Rev. Wm. E. Hunt, Presbyterian minister from Coshocton, Ohio, made a few remarks congratulating the Monument Society upon the accomplishment of its work, declaring that the monument belonged to the whole Christian world, and would not only commemorate the Christian virtues of the deceased, but speak to all coming generations of the undying fame of all who do and suffer for the Master.
After a few remarks by Rev. Mr. Harmon, pastor at Gnadenhutten, the benediction was pronounced by Bishop De Schweinitz, and the assembly thus dismissed.
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Among those present were many of the dignitaries of the Moravian Church, such as Bishop De Schweinitz and his brothers Francis and Mier, Dr. Riennecke, the Wollfe brothers, and others; but the thousands present witnessed the interest of the whole people of the Tuscarawas valley, and especially those of classic and Christian taste and feeling, in the secluded spot now marked so unmistakably, and even hitherto well known, by all interested in the annals of heroism and the legends of the Christian faith.
CURIOUS STORIES TOUCHING CAPTIVES RECLAIMED BY BOUQUET.
Sherman Day's History of Pennsylvania gives the fol- lowing curious facts :
" Among the captive children surrendered to Colonel Bouquet, at the 'Forks of the Muskingum,' was one whom no one claimed at the time the people were summoned to the fort for the purpose of identifying and reclaiming their lost ones, and whose after-history is full of romance. In 1756, the wife and child of a Mr. John Gray, living near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, had been taken by the Indians. When Gray died, he willed one-half of his farm to his wife, and the other half to his child, in case they should ever return from captivity. The wife soon got away from the savages, returned home, and, finding her husband's will, proved it, and took possession of the farm. She went to look for her daughter among the Bouquet captives, but, failing to recognize her, was persuaded to claim as the missing daughter the unclaimed little girl above spoken of, and thus secure the whole farm. Taking her home with her, she brought up the strange child as if her own, care- fully keeping the secret. The girl grew up as the daughter of John Gray, married a man named Gillespie, and took the Gray estate. This changed hands several times up to the year 1789, when some of the collateral heirs of John Gray obtaining information about the spurious Jane Gray, com- menced suits to recover the land, being some four hundred acres of the best land in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania. After legal contests, running through forty-four years, the case was disposed of against the reputed daughter, and the
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property reverted to the brothers and sisters of the original John Gray.
"At the time of the reclamation, one woman failing to recognize her lost child was lamenting her loss, and telling how she continued still to sing every evening the favorite hymn of the lost child. 'Sing it now,' said the sympa- thizing officer, and she sang : 4
' Alone, yet not alone am I, Though in this solitude so drear ; I feel my Savior always nigh, He comes my every hour to cheer.'
" She had sung thus far, when the daughter, having her sight quickened by the old sound, rushed forward, and the joy of the restoration was complete."
DESCRIPTION OF THE HUNTING-SHIRT.
Among the carliest settlers of Coshocton county, as else- where in the West at the same time, the hunting-shirt was almost universally worn. For the information of our younger readers, we append a description :
" This garment was a kind of loose frock, reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more when belted. The cape was large, and sometimes handsomely fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of a different color from that of the hunting-shirt itself. The bosom of this dress served as a wallet to hold a chunk of bread, cakes, jirk, tow for wiping the barrel of the rifle, or any other necessary for the hunter or warrior. The belt, which was always tied behind, answered several purposes, besides that of holding the dress together. In cold weather the mittens, and sometimes the bullet-bag, occupied the front part of it. To the right side was suspended the tomahawk, and to the left the scalping-knife in its leathern sheath. The hunting- shirt was generally made of linsey, sometimes of coarse linen, and a few of dressed deer-skins. These last were very cold and uncomfortable in wet weather."-Doddridge's Notes.
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THE HOUSES AND FURNITURE OF THE PIONEERS OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.
The house was built of logs laid one upon another, all being notched, so that the end and side logs would hold each to the other. The roof was made out of boards split out of short blocks or pieces of logs, called " clap-boards." The cracks between the logs were stopped with clay. A door was made by sawing or cutting the logs on one side of the house, so as to make an opening about three feet wide. The opening was secured by upright pieces of tin- ber, three inches thiek, into which holes were bored into the ends of the logs, for the purpose of pinning them fast, and helping to keep the logs in their place. The door was made of clap-boards, such as were on the roof. At one end was the fire-place, made of a few stones, and the chim- ney, formed of sticks daubed over with mud. There was a little opening that could be covered by a board for a window, or sometimes an opening covered over with a piece of greased-paper or rag.
As to the furniture, there was a table made by splitting a log and putting some sticks for feet on the rounded side. A few chairs were sometimes made in the same way. Some wooden-pins were driven into the logs, whereon to lay clap- boards for shelves for dishes, etc. A forked-stick was set in the floor, which was either made of split-logs, called "puncheons " or of earth, and into the fork of this one end of a stick was put, the other going into the log in the side of the house. Upon the rest thus made some sticks were placed, the other end of them going in between the logs which formed the wall of the house. Into these wall- logs were driven a few wooden-pins, whereon were hung the gowns of linsey belonging to the women, and the hunt- ing-shirts of the men. Usually two small forks or bucks' horns were fastened up, whereon rested the rifle and shot- pouch, etc. Not a nail nor a piece of glass was anywhere used. A wooden latch for the door was made, and a string of leather or flax ran through a hole in the door to the outside, and when " outsiders " were not wanted this string
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was pulled in. The " lateh-string out " was thus the sign of hospitality. The table-ware consisted of a few earthen- ware or pewter dishes, and an iron pot or skillet, or both, and some wooden bowls or trenchers, or perhaps a few gourds, made up the kitchen and table furniture. A hand- mill or a mortar and pestle to prepare the grain for cooking was a housekeeping utensil found in some families, but many did not command these, and one served sometimes for several neighbors. The most " fore-handed " men that came into the county had for some years little or nothing better than these things.
LOUIS PHILIPPE AT COSHOCTON.
Among the accepted traditions of Coshocton is one that old Colonel Williams kicked out of his tavern the above- named famous Frenchman, who, having been compelled to flee his own country, was traveling in America about the close of the last century.
Louis was on the throne when G. W. Silliman visited Paris, and he reported upon his return that the king, in an interview, had spoken of his travels in the Western country, and stated that he had been very shabbily treated at a tavern at the forks of a river, whose landlord was de- scribed in such way as to satisfy Silliman that it must have been Williams.
The latter, upon being spoken to, said he remembered the circumstance. That Louis had complained of the ac- commodations as very unbefitting a king, and that he had informed him that all the people in this country were sov- ereigns, and that, if he did not like what satisfied them, he could get out of the house, and he would help him out, as he then did, with the toe of his boot.
It is said, however, that, as a historical fact, Louis Phil- ippe was on shipboard, on his way back to France, before Williams kept any tavern at the forks.
In later years, there was living in Coshocton a somewhat famous character, who, when in liquor, always fancied himself "Andrew Jackson." It may have been that Will- iams' French king was a man of the same style.
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People who fancy that the importance of either Williams or the town may be increased thereby can still "hold the tradition," and possibly find some way of removing the little anachronism alleged in the case.
HOW TO RAISE A LARGE FAMILY.
One of the "old settlers," who had reared a very large family, though a comparatively very poor man, was asked how in the world he had done it. "No trouble at all," said the old man. " Commenced with a pot of mush, and as each child came, just put in a little more water and gave a few more stirs."
INDIAN STORIES.
"Indian stories," among many of the old settlers, were largely the stock in trade. A man was not much in the old-time bar-rooms, who could not tell some tall stories.
The fact is thoroughly established that after 1795 there were very few Indians within the territory afterward em- braced in Coshocton county. In Tuscarawas county, some years later, there were some of the Christian Indians ; but such as were found in the region of Coshocton were strag- gling bands, or sellers of game, or individual strollers.
For thirty years before 1795 the whites had been seeking to occupy the land, and the Indians struggling to maintain their hold; and about that time the whole upper Muskin- gum valley and the Tuscarawas valley were almost unin- habited, the two races having scourged each other out of them.
Despite all this, stories were told of how frightened the wives and children of the first settlers were, who could hear at night the Indians prowling about the huts and cabins in which they were sleeping.
One of the old fellows, who attached great importance to Indian experiences, was once, when somewhat set up with liquor, relating some wonderful things, when some one, interrupting him, asked him if there were many In- dians in the county when he came into it. Eying his questioner sharply, he answered, " Indians plenty ! I guess there were. Why, when I came, if a man got off the canal-
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boat and took a few steps into the woods, he would get shot just full of arrows." This a quarter of a century after the Indians were all removed !
BACKWOODS SPORTS.
In " house raisings," " corn huskings," " fox hunts," and " rifle matches," the carly settlers, who had no special in- terest in horse races or "fisticuffs," found largely their amusements. In some parts of the county, a custom pre- vailed in relation to observing Christmas and New Year's day that has been thus reported :
The country around was wild, and but little cultivated. A rifle was an indispensable article for house-keeping, even before the hewed-out log cradle, or the harrow made by taking a forked stick and driving some wooden pins in it. On the days above named, thirty or forty " neighbors " would come together, some of them coming for twenty miles, and, as noiselessly 'as possible, getting in a circle around a previously selected house, about two or three o'clock in the morning, they would all fire their rifles and simultaneously give a yell. The sequel of the matter was they were all invited into the house and furnished with something hot to eat or drink.
If our readers do not think they would have enjoyed that kind of sport, perhaps they might have enjoyed the follow- ing :
Weddings were big things in the pioneer days. The " neighbors " for twenty miles around would commonly be invited. The understanding was that those coming in by certain roads would gather at a designated place on each road, about two miles from where the wedding was to take place. And then for a race !
The mother of the groom was provided in advance with a supply of bottles of whisky, and as the foremost of the horsemen on each road came in he was presented by her with a bottle, and an elegant ruffler was placed upon the horse's neck, ornamented also with gay-colored ribbons. . When the horsemen were all in, the hills echoed and re-
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echoed the shouts of the people, who were braced for this by copious draughts from the bottles.
In the earlier days the amusements may have had more of what is now called " coarseness " than some of the mod- ern ones, but then they were generally more health-promot- ing, and, according to every testimony, full as " clean " as the latter.
Elements of evil could readily be found in either, and those not less than these had their true character beneath the exterior.
It is certain the social life of the people was not less joy- some than now. For a few years, there were not apples enough in the county for " a bee," but they after a time had a place.
In the townships largely peopled by New Englanders and Western Pennsylvanians, the singing-school afforded the diversion as well as often something better.
And then " sparking " was much in vogue-just the thing for a new country-said, indeed, to have originated there. The process was readily learned, generally practiced, and so familiar that old people never stop to inquire about it, but very young do, and for these let it be told how it was done.
The log houses in those days, it will be remembered, had but one room, or, if more, commonly but one with a fire- place. Bed time came, and the children crawled up a lad- der into the loft; the old folks went to bed in a quiet way in one corner of the room. The wood fire has been glowing and cracking all through the evening, but has pretty well burned out, and, " for sake of the old people," the frag- ments are drawn together and slightly covered over with ashes, and thenceforth there is only a dull red glow, with now and then a " spark " springing with a slight snap from the wood. Now was the time for the bashful lover and coy maiden, and then were carried on the love affairs, designated in one locality and set " sparking," and in another " court- ing," and in another " paying and receiving attentions," but, in one phrase or another, everywhere readily recognized and approved.
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CHAPTER XX.
MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS.
1. The Killing of Cartmill, " the Post-Boy." 2. Shocking Murders in Cosh- octon County. 3. Colored People in Coshocton County. 4. Fires in Ros- coe-An Incident and a Joke. 5. A Bundle of First Things. 6. Relics and Curiosities in Personal Possession. 7. Coshocton Wags in Early Days. 8. The Treasury Robbery. 9. Humor of the Crusade.
THE MURDER OF WILLIAM CARTMILL, THE POST-BOY.
THE whole Tuscarawas valley was excited in 1825 by the murder of William Cartmill. He was shot from his horse, while carrying the mail, at a point just beyond the line of Coshocton county, in what in those days was called " the Wilderness," near by a station on the Marietta and Cleve- land railroad, a few miles south of New Comerstown, now called Post Boy. Cartmill was a resident of Coshocton, a brother of Mrs. Richards, who died January, 1876. John Smeltzer, a trader of Coshocton, who had taken a drove of horses on east, was, at the time, on the road some miles be- hind the post-boy ; and it has always been the idea of many people in Coshocton that the assassin mistook his man, and, when killing the mail-carrier, supposed he was shoot- ing Smeltzer, and would get a considerable part of the price of the drove of horses sold by him. A man named Johnson, out hunting, was the first to discover Cartmell, and declared he was drawn to the spot by hearing the crack of a rifle. The mail-bag was rifled. The neighbors aroused by Johnson arrested him, and he was put into jail in New Philadelphia. The foot-prints on the ground just at the spot where the murder was committed were subse- quently measured, and did not tally at all with those made by him. While still in jail, he told the sheriff that he had just caught a glimpse of the murderer as he glided into the woods, and thought he would recognize him if he should see the man again. The entire male population of
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the locality where the crime was committed were requested to meet at the jail at a time appointed; and they having done so, Johnson carefully scanned each one, and finally selected out of the crowd one John Funston, declaring " that is the man." Funston at once sharply answered lıim, " You are a liar." He was, however, put into jail, and, after a trial and conviction, confessed the crime.
The murder took place on the 9th of September, 1825, and the execution upon the gallows in New Philadelphia was on the 28th of December in the same year. Of course Johnson was released.
The horse which Cartmill rode belonged to T. L. Rue, and J. W. Rue, of Coshocton, made a business trip on it the same Fall to Cincinnati.
By the way, Cartmill's sister, mentioned in the forego- ing, had a very peculiar experience in relation to the violent deaths of no less than three of her near family connections. Her brother's case is given above. Her first husband, John Markley, was killed on election day in 1816, at Coshocton, by a stab from the hands of a man with whom he had an altercation, and who came upon him unawares and escaped. Her son by her second marriage, Joseph K. Richards, had been in a saloon, and some words had passed between him and a man named Ward. Richards had left the place and crossed the street, when an injury was received (either from a stone thrown, or as a consequence of a fall directly after being hit with the stone), that caused his death. This oc- curred in the fall of 1868.
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