USA > Ohio > Allen County > History of Allen County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part One > Part 5
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The great valley of the Maumee was, it is seen, a part of this ancient battle-ground between the Indian tribes, the French and the English. It is now the home of millions of people, whose only contest is for advancement. Schools, churches and factories take the place
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of the camp, the fort and the wigwam. Where once the beaver had his undisputed dam in marsh and swamp, the farmer grows his crops in peace and contentment. The same skies hang above, and the same sun warms the land,
but how different the product! Her great men and noble women have made history, have carried the burden and scattered the mists, and to-day no more fitting home can be found on old Earth than the valley of the Maumee.
CHAPTER III
INDIAN OCCUPATION
The Life Story of Simon Kenton-Simon Girty, the Renegade-Gen. Anthony Wayne, the "Chief Who Never Sleeps" -- Celebrated Treaty of Greenville-Gen. Arthur St. Clair- St. Clair's Defeat-Tecumseh, the Most Gifted American Indian-Tecumseh's Death ---- Tecumseh's High Ideals of Justice-The Indian of To-Day-Haskell Institute-Car- lisle Indian School-Logan's Speech-Villainy of the Government's Indian Agents- Sprague's View of the Indian and His Destiny.
It is not a difficult task to imagine Allen County, and all of Ohio, the home and happy hunting grounds of the red man of the forest. The time is not so far back on the page of his- tory. This county once abounded in game of all kinds, and the means of easily acquired sub- sistence. Over what are now the clean farms, the villages and the city, "the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer" and "the council- fire glared on the wise and the daring."
The men who fought their way to civiliza- tion in the wilderness of Ohio have a lasting place in our hearts. All honor to the scout, the guide, the Indian fighter and the pioneer ! They blazed the way through the forest, brake and fen; they crossed the stream, and fixed the mountain path, and their sons and daugh- ters live to bless the soil to-day.
The Indian is gone from our country, pushed aside by that relentless tide of ever- advancing civilization. "It is an edict issued from the Court of Progress, that ferocious Titan who strides from East to West, that the Indian shall disappear, shall be remanded to the past, shall evanish."
But not so the names of those who stood the shock of battle.
SIMON KENTON.
Among those who sacrificed a life-time to the cause of civilization, none stands out so plainly upon the horizon of liberty and law as Simon Kenton, the intrepid scout and friend of the white man. In the early days of Indian occupation it was very necessary that some brave spirit protect and guide the lonely set- tler. Simon Kenton was born to this duty, and no man in any avenue of life ever per- formed his part with greater fidelity.
Leaving his early boyhood home in Vir- ginia, April 6, 1771, after an unfortunate quar- rel with a rival for the hand of a worthy young woman, Simon Kenton traveled to Kentucky. Here he became interested in all that aided the settlers in their struggles with wild nature and the still wilder red man of the forest. Through the long fight of the pioneers for possession of the soil, Kenton was ever the leader, and his services as scout and spy, at the head of every force sent against the cruel savages, were never fully recognized or rewarded. True, a tardy acknowledgment of his services to the country came in 1824, when the government granted him a pension of $20 per month. He was then
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69 years old, and was living quietly on his little farm in Logan County, Ohio, near. Zanes- field.
In his various expeditions against the Indians, Kenton passed much time in Allen County, Ohio, then an unorganized part of the State. He was often sent on secret missions by officers of the army to learn the location and strength of Indian tribes and Indian vil- lages. On one occasion, being sent by Colonel Bowman to learn the strength of a town on the Little Miami, he was captured, thrown prone upon the ground and made to stretch his arms to their full length. The Indians then placed a strong pole across his breast, extending to either hand, and another at right angles from head to foot. His wrists and ankles were fas- tened with thongs to these poles, and then he was fastened to a sapling near by. So tight were these fastenings made that he could not move hand or foot. The Indian boys and women slapped, cuffed and kicked him all the while. After many hours of suffering he was tied to the back of a fine young colt, and Ma- zeppa-like, turned loose in the forest. The colt ran through bushes and underbrush, then quieted down and traveled along with the other horses.
After three days of this kind of travel, the band arrived at Chillicothe, now Old Town, on the Little Miami in Green County, where he was made to run the gauntlet. This was a most trying ordeal, as the line of warriors, men, women and children, armed with knives, clubs and tomahawks, extended a quarter of a mile. But he reached the goal without a fatal blow.
A council of war was then held to decide whether they would burn him at the stake or carry him to the other villages. After the speeches were made, the vote was taken. It was done by means of a war club which was passed from one to the other in solemn council, and those who voted to burn him hit the ground a violent blow with the club, and those who voted to carry him to the next village simply passed the club to the next warrior. A teller was appointed to count the votes. He was not to be burned at the stake then, but carried on to another village on the Mad River.
On another occasion his life was saved by that renegade, Simon Girty, who, in 1775, left the people of his own race and took up his abode with the Indians. That was the noblest act of Girty, whom all nations despised as a traitor and distrusted as a man. Girty and Kenton had been companion scouts in the Dun- more expedition, and thus they had become warm friends.
On leaving Virginia, after the unfortunate event already referred to, Kenton had changed his name to Butler. When Girty was told by his captive that his name was Simon Butler, he at once recognized his old' friend, and at great peril to himself, saved Kenton from a terrible death by fire.
Kenton was now allowed to go free, though not to leave the tribe. He was again placed in thongs, and by a vote of the war council he was, in spite of all Girty could do, condemned to die at the stake. He was at once seized and hurried off to the northward. On this march he was struck with an ax by an Indian and his arm broken. At a village on the Scioto, where they halted, Kenton saw the cele- brated Mingo chief, Logan, the murder of whose relatives had caused the Dunmore's War. Logan was an eloquent speaker and his speech on the death of his friends has become common property of all who love justice and liberty.
Logan treated Kenton kindly and told him that it was the plan to carry him to Sandusky and burn him there. But Logan really secured his safe conduct to Detroit where, it was ar- gued, the British commander, wanted to talk to him about Kentucky, information of which the latter greatly desired. After a short time he secured his release from Detroit, and in company with two other men, made his way back to Louisville in safety. This journey through the unbroken forest required 30 days, and it was fraught with constant danger. Only the consummate skill of a backwoodsman like Kenton could have accomplished it.
From this time on he took part in many campaigns, and was a most valuable aid to Wayne's army, always leading the scouting party in front of the army. He was made a
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major by General Wayne and commanded a troop of 150 cavalrymen. He fought in all of Wayne's great battles, except in the battle of the Fallen Timber. In 1805 Kenton was made general of militia. He was in the thick- est of the fight of the battle of the Thames, ill Canada, where Proctor was overcome, and in which Tecumseh fell, shot by Johnson.
Kenton, in 42 years, since he came to Ohio and Kentucky from Virginia, had run the gauntlet, according to the historian Marshall, 13 times, and three times had been tied to the stake to be burned.
Prof. R. W. McFarland, the distinguished mathematician and scholar, in his excellent sketch of Kenton, closes thus: "And in these 42 years the battles, sieges, skirmishes, raids, marauding excursions, alone, or in company with others, are numbered by the score not to say by the hundred, and most probably his career has never had a parallel on this conti- nent, or on any other. 'His like we ne'er shall see again.'"
The great scout died April 29, 1836, on his farm at Wapatomica, in Logan County, Ohio, and was there buried. After 50 years his re- mains were taken to Urbana, Ohio, and there he sleeps today, amid the scenes of his earlier and eventful life.
The following account of his personality and of his tomb is quoted from Professor Mc- farland's "Simon Kenton":
"Personal Characteristics .- In Collin's 'History of Kentucky,' edition of 1847, P. 393, we find this: 'The following is a description of the appearance and character of this remark- able man, by one (McDonald), who often shared with him in the dangers of the forest and the fight. General Kenton was of fair. com- plexion, six feet, one inch in height. He stood and walked very erect; and in the prime of life weighed about one hundred and ninety pounds. He never was inclined to be corpulent, although of sufficient fullness to form a graceful person. He had a soft, tremulous voice, very pleasing to the hearer. He had laughing gray eyes, which appeared to fascinate the beholder, and dark, auburn hair. He was a pleasant, good humored and obliging companion. When ex- cited, or provoked to anger ( which was seldom
the case), the fiery glance of his eye would al- most curdle the blood of those with whom he came in contact. His rage, when roused, was a tornado.
"'In his dealing he was perfectly honest ; his confidence in man, and his credulity were such that the same man might cheat him twenty times, and, if he professed friendship, might cheat him still.'
"The correctness of this description could be affirmed by all who knew the man; and in addition to this description, he had a sense of justice and fair play which nothing could turn aside. In the course of the War of 1812, some friendly Indians came to the vicinity of Urbana on legitimate business, and some men, inexper- ienced in the matter of Indian warfare, pro- posed to kill these men, considering all Indians bad. Kenton attempted to dissuade the men from so high-handed a measure, but his words, apparently not having the desired effect on them, he grasped his rifle and took his position in front of the Indians, and in his impressive and emphatic manner declared that whoever at- tacked the Indians would do it over his dead body. It is sufficient to say that the Indians were not further molested.
"As before stated, his long contest with the Indians had taught him the value of quick de- cision and instantaneous action; and these things he had so long practiced that they be- came a part of his nature. I will give one in- stance outside of the domain of war. In the spring of 1807, my father and eight or ten other men, with their families, left the counties of Bourbon and Harrison, Kentucky, for homes in the Mad River Valley. Simon Kenton was employed by the company to pilot them to their destination, and to procure them a supply of fresh meat daily from the forest. He gave his instructions for the day each morning, before he started out for the hunt. One morning, with gun on shoulder he started, and by some inadvertence stumbled over a wagon tongue and fell sprawling to the ground. One of the party broke into a hearty laugh. This enraged Ken- ton, and quick as lightning he pointed his gun and pulled the trigger, but the fall had knocked the powder out of the pan, and the gun was not discharged. Kenton immediately begged par-
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don for his hasty action, and asked the man never to do so again, lest in a moment of anger he might do what everybody would regret. My father was a witness to this incident and told me of it years before Simon's death.
"Monument .- This is a substantial struc- ture, seven or eight feet high and over four feet square at the base; and in every way is a most befitting memorial of the dead. In the forests of Ohio Kenton had confronted Indians, bears, wolves and panthers. On the south face of the monument is carved, life-size, the head of an Indian chief, decked out in regular savage style; on the west face is the head of a bear, as life-like as stone can be, and appearing as if the head had just been thrust through the face of stone; on the north side is the head of a wolf similarly carved; and on the east side is the head of a panther. The design is by J. Q. A. Ward, the celebrated sculptor, now of New York, but a native of Urbana. His grand- father originally owned the land on which Ur- bana is built, and for many years the elder Ward and Kenton were intimate friends."
SIMON GIRTY.
The world hates a renegade. It despises the man who turns against his own flesh and blood, and stands ready to slay the mother who gave him birth. Such a man, or fiend, was Simon Girty, once the friend of the white man. From his own people he turned and took up his lot with the Indian. His bloody work was done in Ohio, and especially in North- western Ohio. Doubtless in many parts of this county of Allen, Girty tracked to death his white victims, or danced with his dusky companions around the helpless victim at the burning stake.
Simon Girty was born in Northwestern Pennsylvania, of an intemperate father and an unworthy mother. He had three brothers, one older than himself. The three younger boys had been taken captive by the Indians, and thus became possessed of the savagery of the Indian himself. Simon was the most wicked of the three thus reared among the wild life of forest. He preferred to live with the savages
rather than his own people. He took an active part in Dunmore's War in 1774, and here he met Simon Kenton, and the two young men soon became fast friends. On February 22, 1775, at Fort Pitt (Pitts- burg), Girty was commissioned a cap- tain in the militia. But his real sympathies were all the while with the Indians. Finally in company with about 14 others, Girty de- serted Fort Pitt, where the militia was sta- tioned, and started out for a reign of terror among the settlers of the wild frontier. They spread false news of the defeat of the Ameri- cans and the death of Washington. After, much injury and suffering which he inflicted upon the helpless pioneers, Girty started for Detroit. On his way he was captured by the Wyandottes. The Senecas demanded that he be given up to them because he was an adopted son of their race and had now taken up arms against them. But the Wyandottes held him, and finally al- lowed him to go on to Detroit, where General Hamilton, the commandant, gave him a royal welcome. Girty was now given a kind of work which suited his nature exactly,-he was paid a regular salary to incite the Indians to bloody deeds among the unprotected settlers. His name became a household term for terror all along the Ohio, from Pittsburg to Louisville. He often came up into Ohio, and here, in Al- len County, he did his deeds of darkness. At the Indian village of Wapatomica, in Logan County, Girty found his old friend and compan- ion scout in Dunmore's War, Simon Kenton, tied to the stake and condemned to death. Girty recognized Kenton, and, after much par- ley and a personal appeal to his Indian friends, saved Kenton's life. This appears to be the one
bright spot in Girty's dark career. Kenton af- terward bought a small farm near this scene of his deliverance, and lived here until his death. But Girty's numberless acts of torture and even of murder cling to his name, and his one good act is almost forgotten. He persecuted the set- tlers of the valley and the missionaries, who had worked so zealously among the Christian Indians of the Moravian settlements.
His conduct toward Colonel Crawford could only have been inspired by a monstrosity
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in human form, and when the Indians of the great West combined in one last effort, 1790- 94, to repel the ever-increasing tide of immi- gration, Simon Girty was found among the In- dians fighting against the whites. He assisted them at the battle of St. Clair's defeat, and, having captured a white woman, refused to give her up to the Wyandotte squaw who de- manded her, according to the Indian custom. But the warriors gathered around, and actually forced the white savage to give her over to the more humane Indian squaw.
He was present at the famous battle of the Fallen Timber, 1794, and did bloody work against Wayne's heroes. After this he is found in a trading-house, for a short time, at St. Mary's, Mercer County, Ohio. He then re- moved to Malden, Canada. Here he lived until his death, which occurred in 1815. He was to- tally blind for many years before his death, and a perfect sot. He had many defeats in his old age, and suffered very greatly; in fact he was a complete human wreck, despised by everyone. "He died without a friend and with- out a hope."
GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE.
This famous general was of good old Penn- sylvania stock, in which State he was born in 1745. Much of his history has already been narrated in other chapters. Like Washington he early accepted work as a surveyor, then a public office. He was made a member of the State Legislature, and of the Committee of Public Safety. He commanded a regiment in the Canadian invasion of 1775-76. At a most critical time he had full charge of the Ticon- deroga forts, and he manned them with great skill. For this and other meritorious work he was appointed brigadier general, and was in charge of a division of the army at Brandy- wine. Here it was that his skill and bravery saved the lives of so many by the successful retreat which he conducted. It is sometimes a mark of greater skill to handle men in a re- treat, when excited and repulsed, than to make a successful attack.
Because of his supreme caution and watch-
fulness, the Indians called him the "Chief Who Never Sleeps." But he was surprised at Paoli, and the lesson there learned he never forgot. It will be remembered that he commanded the right wing at Germantown, where General Agnew fell. He was also a valiant fighter at the battle of Monmouth Court House, noted as the only battle of the Revolution in which every one of the 13 Colonies had representatives fight- ing on the American side. The name of Mollie Pitcher will never be forgotten in connection with this battle. But the most famous exploit of his earlier career was the consummate plan and its execution in the storming and the cap- ture of Stony Point, July 15, 1779. Only a general of high order could have accomplished such a hazardous task. But he planned and then executed. Wayne was ever a man of ac- tion, the doing was with him the highest essen- tial. He further showed his remarkable ability in handling men in putting down the mutiny of troops at Morristown; and he had a most honorable part in the war in Virginia in 1781, the same year in which he quieted the mutiny. He served with distinction in Georgia in 1782, and was made a member of the ratifying con- vention of Pennsylvania in 1787.
After the fearful slaughter of the troops at Fort Recovery, and the utter overthrow of St. Clair, Washington at once selected General Wayne to lead the forces of the young republic against the crafty fighters of the Western for- ests. He was made major general in 1792, and in the autumn of 1793 he entered the Indian country with a strong force. He marched from Fort Washington (Cincinnati) to the present site of Greenville, where he built a strong stockade. The next summer he advanced to Defiance on the Maumee, where, as related in Chapter II., he built Fort Defiance. He built a second fort on the St. Mary's River.
The Indians thus far had kept in hiding and had not risked a battle. But Wayne soon learned that they had selected a place lower down the Maumee, at the Fallen Timber, and here it was that he inflicted upon them a most crushing blow, August 20, 1794. (See Chap- ter 11.)
General Wayne sent a message to the Brit-
7
GEN, GEORGE ROGERS CLARK
GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE
GEN. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON
GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR
GEN. JOSIAH HARMAR
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ish at the nearest station that their turn came next; all he wanted was an opening. But the British declined the honor, and kept quiet. He then took up his winter quarters at Greenville, and, in the following summer, 1795, the In- dians, now subdued and humble, came to Green- ville and entered into the celebrated treaty with General Wayne and commissioners of the United States. Twelve tribes with 1,200 war- riors and sachems were present, and they ceded to the government 25,000 square miles of ter- ritory, in Michigan and Indiana, besides a large number, of special tracts. For this land they received $20,000 in presents, and were promised an annual allowance of $10,000. This treaty ended the serious Indian troubles until 1812. General Wayne's name has been given to the fort he erected at the head waters of the Mau- mee, and to the growing and prosperous city of Fort Wayne, and to numerous places in the country. He died in 1796.
GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR.
This distinguished general was born in Scotland in 1734. His education was by no means neglected, and after a long course of in- struction he graduated from the University of Edinburgh. After his graduation, he joined the British Army as an ensign, and came to Amer- ica in 1758 with Admiral Boscawen. His ser- vice in the United States was very marked, es- pecially at Louisburg and at Quebec. In 1762 he resigned his position, and two years later took up his residence in Pennsylvania. He was prominent in the civil affairs of his home, and was greatly beloved by his neighbors. .
When the Revolutionary War broke out, his inclination towards the common people caused him to join the Colonial Army, and he was given the rank of colonel. The student of history well remembers his gallant services at Three Rivers, Trenton and Princeton, for which services he was raised to the rank of major general in 1777, and was at once placed in command at Ticonderoga. Burgoyne finally drove him from that stronghold, and although he was court martialed for losing that posi- tion, he was acquitted of any blame. Never-
theless he lost his command. He was too pa- triotic to give up the work of a soldier, so he remained in the army as a volunteer, and grad- ually arose to other important positions. He distinguished himself in the plans which ended with the surrender of Cornwallis. His broad. scholarship and statesman-like qualities made him a member of the Continental Congress,. 1785-87.
A still greater honor awaited him, viz. ; He was made president of that noted congress in- 1787. He was president also of the Pennsyl- vania State Society of the Cincinnati, and was the man who gave the name of that society to the great city on the Ohio River, viz .: Cin- cinnati.
In 1789 he was made the first governor of the Northwest Territory, and, in 1791, as the commander-in-chief of the United States Army, he led his forces against the Miami In- dians, and met with the most disastrous defeat in all the story of the early Indian warfare, at Fort Recovery, Mercer County, Ohio, Novem- ber 4, 1791.
Washington had commanded General St. Clair, not to risk an open engagement with the Indians until he was perfectly sure of his ground. It would seem that St. Clair dis- obeyed. these: orders and rushed into the thick- est of the fight without proper precautions. The defeat resulted in a most humiliating loss of power and the complete overthrow of his own military renown.
General Washington was said to have be- come greatly enraged at the news of St. Clair's defeat, and flying into a passion he used very strong language against the unfortunate gen- eral who had disobeyed his orders; but when St. Clair, disheartened, defeated and suffering from rheumatism, appeared before Washing -. ton, it is said that the great general relented and forgave him.
The committee of Congress, engaged to in- vestigate the defeat, exhonorated him, but St. Clair's heart was broken, and with great dis- appointment to himself and his friends, he re- signed his command in May, 1792, and in 1802 President Jefferson removed him from the gov - ernorship of the Northwest Territory.
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The last years of many a great man have been spent in poverty and neglect, and the life of St. Clair is no exception to this statement. There was no sustaining hand to lighten the burden of his rapidly increasing age; there was no fortune at his command. Friends did not come at his beck and call, and, after long years of suffering and unwarranted neglect on the part of the government, he died in 1818.
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