USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 16
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The muffled drum, the funeral salute, an- nounced that a great soldier had fallen, and even enemies paid their mournful tribute to his memory. The sun of Indian glory set with him ; and the clouds and shadows, which for two hundred years had gathered around their destiny, now closed in the starless night of death.
We give a letter narrating an account of this action, written by Gen. Wayne to the Secretary of War, and dated "Camp, southwest branch of the Miami, six miles advanced of Fort Jefferson, October 23, 1793."
'The greatest difficulty which at present presents, is that of furnishing a sufficient escort to secure our convoy of provisions and other supplies from insult and disaster, and at the same time retain a sufficient force in camp to sustain and repel the attacks of the enemy, who appear desperate and determined. We have recently experienced a little check to our convoys, which may probably be exag- gerated into something serions by the tongue of fame, before this reaches you. The fol- lowing, however, is the fact, viz. : Lieut. Lowry, of the 2d sub-legion, and Ensign Boyd, of the Ist, with a command consisting of ninety non-commissioned officers and privates, having in charge twenty wagons be- longing to the Quartermaster-General's de-
partment, loaded with grain, and one of the contractor's [wagons], loaded with stores, were attacked early on the morning of the 17th inst., abont seven miles advanced of Fort St. Clair, by a party of Indians. Those gallant young gentlemen-who promised at a future day to be ornaments to their profes- sion-together with thirteen non-commis- sioned officers and privates, bravely fell, after an obstinate resistance against superior num- bers, being abandoned by the greater part of the escort upon the first discharge. The savages killed or carried off about seventy horses, leaving the wagons and stores stand- ing in the road, which have all been brought to this camp without any other loss or damage, except some trifling articles.
LITTLE TURTLE, who name has been mentioned in the preceding pages, was a distinguished chief and counsellor of the Miamis, by whom he was called Meshekenoghqua. He commanded the Indians at St. Clair's defeat. We annex a sketch of him from Drake's Indian Biography.
A Chief who Never Sleeps .- It has been generally said, that had the advice of this chief been taken at the disastrous fight after- wards with General Wayne, there is but little doubt but he had met as ill-success as General St. Clair. He was not for fighting General Wayne at . Presque Isle, and inclined rather to peace than fighting him at all. In a
council held the night before the battle, he argued as follows : "We have beaten the enemy twice, under separate commanders. We cannot expect the same good fortune always to attend ns. The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps; the night and the day are alike to him. And during all the time that he has been marching upon
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our villages, notwithstanding the watchful- ness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something whispers me, it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace." For using this language he was reproached by another chief with cowardice, which put an end to all further discourse. Nothing wonnds the feelings of a warrior like the re- proach of cowardice, but he stifled his resent- ment, did his duty in the battle, and its issue proved him a truer prophet than his aeeuser believed.
A Wise and Humane Indian Chief .- Little Turtle lived some years after the war in great esteem among men of high standing. He was alike courageous and humane, pos- sessing great wisdom. "And," says School- craft, "there have been few individuals among aborigines who have done so much to abolish the rites of human sacrifice. The grave of this noted warrior is shown to visitors, near Fort Wayne. It is frequently visited by the Indians in that part of the country, by whom his memory is cherished with the greatest respect and veneration."
When the philosopher and famous travel- ler, Volney, was in America, in the winter of 1797, Little Turtle came to Philadelphia, where he then was, and he sought im- mediate acquaintance with the celebrated chief, for highly valuable purposes, which in some measure he effeeted. He made a voeabu- lary of his language, which he printed in the appendix to his travels. A copy in manu- script, more extensive than the printed one, is in the library of the Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania.
Having become convinced that all resistance to the whites was vain, he brought his nation to consent to peace and to adopt agricultural pursuits. And it was with the view of soliciting Congress and the benevolent Society of Friends for assistance to effect this latter purpose that he now visited Philadelphia. While here he was inoculated for the small pox, and was afflicted with the gout and rhenmatism.
Indians Descendants of Tartars .- At the time of Mr. Volney's interview with him for
information, he took no notice of the con- versation while the interpreter was com- municating with Mr. Volney, for he did not understand English, but walked about, pluck - ing out his beard and eye-brows. He was dressed now in English clothes. His skin, where not exposed, Mr. Volney says, was as white as his ; and on speaking upon the sub- ject, Little Turtle said : "I have seen Span- iards in Louisiana, and found no difference of color between them and me. And why should there be any ? In them, as in us, it is the work of the father of colors, the sun that. burns us. You white people compare the color of your face with that of your bodies." Mr. Volney explained to him the notion of many, that his race was descended from the Tartars, and by a map showed him the sup- posed communication between Asia and America. To this Little Turtle replied : " Why should not these Tartars, who resemble us, have come from America ? Are there any reasons to the contrary ? Or why should we not both have been in our own country ?" It is a fact that the Indians give themselves a name which is equivalent to our word indigine, that is, one sprung from the soil, or natural to it.
An Indian out of Place .- When Mr. Volney asked Little Turtle what prevented him from living among the whites, and if he were not more comfortable in Philadelphia than upon the banks of the Wabash, he said : "Taking all things together you have the advantage over us; but here I am deaf and dumb. I do not talk your language ; I ean neither hear, nor make myself heard. When I walk through the streets I see every person in his shop employed about something : one makes shoes, another hats, a third sells eloth, and every one lives by his labor. I say to myself, Which of all these things can you do ? Not one. I can make a bow or an arrow, catch fish, kill game, and go to war ; but none of these is of any use here. To learn what is done here would require a long time. Old age eomes on. I should be a useless piece of furniture, useless to my nation, useless to the whites, and useless to myself. I must return to my own country."
Col. John Johnston has given in his "Recollections," published in Cist's Advertiser, some anecdotes of Little Turtle.
A Companionable Indian .- Little Turtle was a man of great wit, humor and vivacity, fond of the company of gentlemen, and delighted in good eating. When I knew him he had two wives living with him under the same roof in the greatest harmony ; one, an old woman, abont his own age-fifty-the choice of his youth, who performed the drudgery of the house; the other, a young and beautiful creature of eighteen, who was his favorite ; yet it was never discovered by any one that the least unkind feeling existed between them. This distinguished chief died at Fort Wayne, about twenty-five years ago,
of a confirmed case of the gout, brought on by high living, and was buried with military honors by the troops of the United States. The Little Turtle used to entertain us with many of his war adventures, and would laugh immoderately at the recital of the fol- lowing :
A Tricky Prisoner .- A white man, a pris- oner of many years in the tribe, had often solicited permission to go on a war party to Kentucky, and had been refused. It never was the practice with the Indians to ask or encourage white prisoners among them to go to war against their countrymen. This man,
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however, had so far acquired the confidence of the Indians, and being very importunate to go to war, the Turtle at last consented, and took him on an expedition into Kentucky, As was their practice, they had reconnoitred during the day, and had fixed on a house, recently built and occupied, as the object to be attacked next morning a little before the dawn of day. The house was surrounded by a clearing, there being much brush and fallen timber on the ground. At the appointed time, the Indians, with the white man, began to move to the attack. At all such times no talking or noise is to be made. They crawl along the ground on hands and feet ; all is done by signs from the leader. The white man all the time was striving to be foremost, the Indians beckoning him to keep back. In spite of all their efforts he would keep fore- most, and having at length got within running distance of the house, he jumped to his feet and went with all his speed, shouting at the top of his voice, Indians ! Indians ! The Turtle and his party had to make a precipitate retreat, losing forever their white companion and disappointed in their fancied conquest of
the unsuspecting victims of the log cabin. From that day forth this chief would never trust a white man to accompany him again to war.
Kosciusko and Little Turtle .- During the presidency of Washington the Little Turtle visited that great and just man at Philadel- phia, and during his whole life after often spoke of the pleasure which that visit afforded him. Kosciusko, the Polish chief, was at the time in Philadelphia confined by sickness to his lodgings, and hearing of the Indians being in the city, he sent for them, and after an interview of some length, he had his favorite brace of pistols brought forth, and addressing the chief, Turtle, said-I have carried and used these in-many a hard-fought battle, in defence of the oppressed, the weak and the wronged of my own race, and I now present them to you with this injunction, that with them you shoot dead the first man that ever comes to subjugate you or despoil you of your country. These pistols were of the best quality and finest manufacture, silver mounted, with gold touch-holes.
FATHER FINLEY, THE ITINERANT.
On entering the Old Mound Cemetery, at Eaton, I was surprised to find there the monument to my old friend, Father Finley. I had not until then known the spot of his burial. To copy the inscription was a labor of love. On the north side it was : "Rev. Jas. B. Finley, died .September 6, 1857, aged 76 years, 1 month and 20 days ;" on the south side, " To the memory of Hannah, his wife, born in 1783; died in 1861." On the west side is an open Bible with the words : "There is rest in Heaven." The monument is a single shaft mounted on a pedestal and about twelve feet in height.
The young of this generation may ask, " Who was Father Finley ?" We reply, " One of the greatest of the itinerant Methodist ministers." He began his itinerant ministry in 1809, when 28 years of age. The scene of his labors was the then wilderness of castern and northern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western New York, and during his over forty years of service he personally re- ceived 5,000 members into the service of the Methodist Episcopal church. Dan- iels, in his " History of Methodism," thus sums up his life-work :
" Finley was eight times elected a member of the General Conference. He also served three years as chaplain of the Ohio Penitentiary. He was a man of great energy of character, of burning zeal, a powerful preacher, a popular man- ager of camp meetings and other great assemblies, at which, by the power of his eloquence as well as his tact and knowledge of human nature, he swayed the masses, and calmed the rage of mobs and ruffians.
"To his other labors he added, from his own experiences, those of an author- 'An Account of the Wyandot Mission,' 'Sketches of Western Methodism,' ' Life Among the Indians,' ' Memorials of Prison Life,' and his own 'Biography,'-a book abounding in wild adventure, hair-breadth escapes, backwoods wanderings, and such other wild experiences as appertained to the Western itinerants of that day."
I said Father Finley was an old friend. Yes, I. was in prison and he com- forted me. In 1846 he was chaplain of the Ohio Penitentiary, when he took me under his wing. I had arrived with a severe cold, and he cured me after the manner of the Wyandots, those simple people of the woods, among whom he had lived, prayed and sung. He brought out a heavy buffalo robe, and spreading it
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FATHER FINLEY. Indian Missionary and Itinerant.
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Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.
THE LOWRY MONUMENT. In the Mound Cemetery, Eaton.
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before the fire of his room, I laid on my back and toasted my feet for about two days ; thus the cure was effected, and so well that scarcely a single other has since invaded my premises. Those two days with the hunter were a rare social treat.
Wrote Doun Piatt : "A mean sinner makes a mean saint ; " this was more than forty years ago, but Donn never put in any claim for it as an original discovery. Father Finley was formed on a generous scale, and when he threw that strong, sympathetic spirit of his into the service of Christianity, there was enough of him to make one of the biggest sort of Christians. He was short, but strongly built, with a heavy, sonorous voice that went to the utmost verge of many a camp- meeting, stirring the emotions of multitudes to their inmost depths. He was frank, simple as a child, outspoken, fearless in denunciation of wrong, and when rowdies disturbed any meeting where he was, he was quick and effective in mus- cular demonstrations.
His autobiography is a valuable contribution to the knowledge of Western life in the beginning of this century, and gives an experience nowhere else so well told. From it we derive the following :
The Finleys were Presbyterians of Penn- sylvania. James' father, Robert W. Finley, was graduated at Princeton, studied for the ministry, and then sent as a missionary into the settlements of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, preaching and planting churches in destitute places. Here he mar- ried Miss Rebecca Bradley, whose father had lately removed from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and the year after, in 1781, James was born at his father's home in North Caro- lina.
Horrors of Civil War .- James was cradled and reared in war until well advanced in life. At the time of his birth the horrors of civil war raged with great fury; neighbor was massacred by neighbor. The Tories, urged by the British, tried to exterminate the Whigs. All of his mother's brothers, says Finley, were killed in this deadly strife. One fell at Gates' defeat ; another was murdered by four Tories near his own door-was shot with his own rifle ; another died on a prison ship. His father and congregation were waylaid and shot at on their way to church; one member was killed by a shot through a win- dow of his house while at prayer. His father received a ball through the clothes of his breast, just as he stepped out of his own door.
A Tory Major of the neighborhood by stratagem collected all the wives of the Whigs in one house, and hanged them by the neck until almost dead, in the vain attempt to ex- tort from them the places of their husbands' concealment. At the close of the war he returned to the neighborhood, when their sons took him out one night to a swamp, and gave him twenty lashes for each of their mothers whom he had hanged. Then they tarred and feathered him, dneked him in the swamp, and threatened if he did not leave the country in a month they would draw every drop of Tory blood ont of his body.
Kentucky Experiences. - In 1786 the Finley family removed to the Redstone country, near the headwaters of the Potomac, Vir- ginia, where his father preached for two years ; but Kentucky was the land of prom-
ise, and in the fall of 1788 they embarked with a party of others on the Ohio, and ar- rived at Maysville, when Mr. Finley removed his family to Washington, Ky., for the win- ter. James was then a lad of 7 years, and saw for the first time " that great adventurer. Simon Kenton, a child of Providence, raised for the protection of the scattered families in the wilderness."
That winter the Indians made great dep- redations and stole almost all the horses, so that the farmers were scarcely able to carry on their business. It was only a few years before that Kenton, going in pursuit with a party, was taken prisoner, and but for the intervention of Simon Girty, would have been burned at the stake.
The Finleys Help to Found Chillicothe .- The depredations of the Indians were so great that the family again removed. and to Cane Ridge, in Bourbon county. Mr. Fin- ley bought part of an unbroken eanebrake, cleared it, and opened up a farm. which he cultivated with the work of his slaves. Ile preached to two congregations-Cane Ridge and Concord-and started a high-school, the first of the kind in Kentucky, in which the dead langnages were taught. Several of his pupils became Presbyterian ministers. In the spring of 1796 Mr. Finley emigrated with a large part of his two congregations to the Seioto valley, and was a great factor in laying the foundations of Chillicothe (see Ross County), and James was thenceforth "an Ohio boy." He says in his early days they had to depend for their daily living upon the hunters and what they could kill themselves of the wild game. This gave him, an early love for the chase, so that before the age of 16 he had almost become an Indian in his habits and feelings.
In his father's academy he had studied the 'Greek, Latin and mathematics, and finally, by his request, studied medicine, and in the fall of 1800 took his degree, but with no design to practise it. " My recreations," said he, "were with the gun in the woods, and I passed several months in the forest
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surveying Congress lands for Thomas Worth- ington, afterwards Governor of the State." .
FINLEY ADOPTS THE PROFESSION OF A HUN- TER, AND SEEKS FOR A WIFE A WOMAN ADAPTED TO THAT SITUATION.
Having passed the winter of 1800-1801 in hunting, he was so enamored with its peace- ful enjoyments that he resolved on adopting a hunter's life, and by the advice of his mother chose a wife suited to that mode of living. The happy woman was Hannah Strane, and she proved a prize in that peril- ous venture which may ruin or save a mau- marriage ! " On the 3d day of March, 1801," he says, "I was accordingly married." How he got on he thus relates :
My father having bought land in what is now Highland county, I resolved to move and take possession. This section of the country was then a dense wilderness, with only here and there a human habitation. My father-in-law, being dissatisfied with his danghter's choice, did not even allow her to take her clothes, so we started out without any patrimony, on our simple matrimonial stock, to make our fortune in the woods.
Builds a Cabin .- With the aid of my brother John I built a cabin in the forest, my nearest neighbor being three miles off. Into this we moved without horse or cow, bed or bedding, bag or baggage. We gathered up leaves and dried them in the sun ; then, pick- ing out all the sticks, we put them into a bed-tick. For a bedstead, we drove forks into the ground, and laid sticks across, over which we placed elm bark. On this we placed our bed of leaves and had comfortable lodging.
The next thing was to procure something to eat. Of meat we had an abundance, sup- plied by my rifle, but we wanted some bread. I cut and split one hundred rails for a bushel of potatoes, which I carried home on my back, a distance of six miles. At the same place I worked a day for a hen and three chickens, which I put into my hunting shirt- bosom and carried home as a great prize. Our cabin was covered with bark, and lined and floored with the same material. One end of the cabin was left open for a fireplace. In this we lived comfortably all summer. Having no horse or plough, I went into a plum bottom near the house, and, with my axe, grubbed and cleared off an acre and a half, in which I dug holes with my hoe, aud planted my corn without any fence around it.
I cultivated this patch as well as I could with my hoe, and Providence blessed my labor with a good crop of over one hundred bushels. Besides, during the summer, with the help of my wife, I put up a neat cabin, and finished it for our winter's lodgings. For the purpose of making the cabin warm, I put -my corn in the loft, and now, if we could not get bread, we had always, as a good substi- tute, plenty of hominy. We had also plenty of bear meat and venison, and no couple on earth lived happier or more contented. Our
Indian friends often called and stayed all night, and I paid them, in return, occasional visits.
During the season several families settled in the neighborhood, and, when we were to- gether, we enjoyed life without gossip and those often fatal bickerings and back bitings which destroy the peace of whole communi- ties. Though we had but little, our wants were few, and we enjoyed our simple and homely possessions with a relish the purse- proud aristocrat never enjoyed. A generous hospitality characterized every neighbor, and what we had we divided to the last with each other. When any one wanted help all were ready to aid.
I spent the greater part of the winter in hunting and laying up a store of provisions for the summer, so that I might give my un- divided attention to farming. As we had no stock to kill, and could not conveniently raise hogs, on account of the wild animals, which would carry them off, we were obliged to de- pend upon the product of the woods. As the bear was the most valuable, we always hunted for this animal. This fall there was a good mast, and bears were so plentiful that it was not necessary to go from home to hunt them. About Christmas we made our tur- key-hunt. At that season of the year they are very fat, and we killed them in great abundance. To preserve them, we cleaned them, cut them in two, and after salting them in tronghs, we hung them up to dry. They served a valuable purpose to cook, in the spring and summer, with our bear, bacon, and venison hams. Being dry, we would stew them in bear's oil, and they answered a good substitute for bread, which, in those days, was hard to be obtained, the nearest mill being thirty miles distant. Another great difficulty was to procure salt, which sold enormously high-at the rate of four dollars for fifty pounds. In backwoods eur- reney, it would require four bnekskins, or a large bear skin, or sixteen coon skins, to make the purchase. Often it could not be had at any price, and the only way we had to pro- eure it was by packing a load of kettles on our horses to the Scioto salt lick. now the site of Jackson Court-house, and boiling the water ourselves. Otherwise we had to dispense with it entirely. I have known meat cured with strong hickory ashes.
Happy Times. - I imagine I hear the reader saying this was hard living and hard times. So they would have been to the present race of men ; but those who lived at that time enjoyed life with a greater zest, and were more healthy and happy than the present race. We had not then siekly, hysterical wives, with poor, puny, sickly, dying chil- dren, and no dyspeptie men constantly swal- lowing the nostrums of quacks. When we became sick unto death we died at once, and did not keep the neighborhood in a constant state of alarm for several weeks by daily bul- letins of our dying. Our young women were beautiful without rouge, color de rose, meen fun, or any other cosmetic, and blithesome
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without wine and fruit-cake. There was then no curvature of the spine, but the lasses were straight and fine-looking, without corsets or whalebone. They were neat in their appear- anco and fresh as the morning.
When the spring opened I was better pre- pared to go to farming than I was the last season, having procured horses and plough. Instead of the laborious and tedious process of working the land with a hoe, I now com- menced ploughing. Providence crowned my labors with abundant success, and we had plenty to eat and wear. Of course, our wants were few and exceedingly simple, and the products of the soil and hunting yielded a rich supply. Thus we lived within ourselves on our own industry, our only dependence being upon the favor of an over-ruling boun- tiful Benefactor. We spun and wove our own fabrics for clothing, and had no tax, no muster, no court, no justices, no lawyers, no constables, and no doctors, and, consequently, had no exorbitant fees to pay to professional gentlemen. The law of kindness governed our social walks ; and if such a disastrous thing as a quarrel should break out, the only way to settle the difficulty was by a strong dish of fisticuffs. No man was permitted to insult another without resentment ; and if an insult was permitted to pass unrevenged, the in- sulted party lost his standing and caste in society. Many a muss or spree was gotten up, in which the best of friends quarrelled and fought, through the sole influence of the brown jug.
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