USA > Ohio > Ashland County > History of Ashland County, Ohio > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101
An attempt was made to track the Indians and it was thought they went east, but as they had three hour's start they were not pursued. The bodies of Copus, Tedrick and Shipley were buried in one grave a few rods from the cabin and a monument now marks their grave.
Stretchers were made upon which to carry the wounded and the march of the whole party to Beam's blockhouse was commenced. As it was late in the day when the start was made, they only went a short distance until they stopped for the night. By that time the number of the party had increased to about a
-
LUTHERAN CHURCH, JEROMEVILLE
OLD STAGE TAVERN. JEROMEVILLE
97
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY
hundred, and pickets were thrown out to guard against surprise. The march was resumed the next morning, the route being up the valley to Mifflin, thence west along a trail now known as the Mansfield-Wooster road, and then down to the Beam blockhouse, the distance being about thirteen miles, where they arrived in safety in the evening.
Several weeks afterwards a squad of soldiers, accompanied Henry Copus, a son of James Copus, to the cabin, and on the way, some distance from the house, they discovered the missing soldier (Warnock) sitting against a tree dead. They buried him near where he was found. They also found the bodies of two Indians, which were left to their fate.
Mrs. Copus and children remained in the blockhouse about two months and were then taken to Guernsey county where they lived until the close of the war, when they returned to their home on the Blackfork and where Mrs. Copus reared the family and lived to a good old age, beloved and respected by her neighbors and friends. Sarah Copus, the daughter, became Mrs. Vail, and lived to be present at the unveiling of the monument, September 15, 1882, erected to the memory of her father and the soldiers who were killed in that awful tragedy at that humble cabin in the wilderness, September 12, 1812.
Among the incidents of the fight, it is stated that Copus and an Indian fired at each other simultaneously, the former receiving a mortal wound and the latter being killed instantly. Copus did not fall when he was shot, but staggered back across the room to a table, from which he was assisted to the bed. He told his wife that he could not live and that she would have to rear the children as best she could.
A number of times while the battle lasted the savages tried to take the cabin by storm, but the soldiers had taken the precaution to barricade the door and windows with puncheons removed from the floor.
George Launtz, the soldier who had an arm broken by a bullet, caught sight of an Indian peeping around a tree and, taking deliberate aim, fired and had the satisfaction of seeing the savage bound into the air and then roll down the hill, dead. Another redskin, who had been shot, fell in the yard. His groans were heard as he attempted to crawl away, but a well directed bullet from the cabin put an end to his suffering.
Forty-five scoopouts where fires had been were afterwards found in the cornfield, where the Indians had roasted corn and from that it was taken that there had been forty-five savages in the assault. Of that number nine were carried away by the Indians when they retreated, which, with the two bodies found later, made their loss eleven killed and wounded.
During the greater part of the battle the Indians fought from ambush, taking refuge behind the trees on the hillside in front of the house.
The same day of the Copus battle, the cabins of Newell, Cuppy and Fry, farther east, were burned and the Indians, who attacked the Copus family, were supposed to have been the incendiaries, as they went in that direction. Those families were at the Jerometown blockhouse.
After the close of the war a number of Indians returned to this county. Sarah Copus, the girl who had seen the Indians lurking around the day before the attack was made on their home, did not seem to be in favor with the savages.
98
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY
Going to the hill beyond the spring one day after the family had returned from Guernsey county, she saw one hiding behind a tree. She ran towards the house, the Indian pursuing her almost to the door. They said the girl "knew too much" was too observant of them and their actions.
Tom Lyon, an ugly old redskin of the Delaware tribe, in a conversation with Mrs. Copus in 1816, admitted he knew all about the attack on their cabin, but denied that he took part in it.
After the times became more secure the settlers returned to their homes, but affairs were more or less troublous until the close of the war.
STORY OF KANOTCHE.
The principal object of the Indians in killing the Zeimers was plunder. Frederick Zeimer was wealthy, as wealth was rated in the pioneer times, and it was supposed that he kept considerable money in the house. The news of the massacre soon spread over the country. Although there was neither telegraph nor telephone in those days, yet news spread and flew-
"Like heath-bird, when the hawks pursue."
In the clanish days of Scotland, whenever a chieftain, upon a sudden emer- gency, wished to summon his clansmen, a swift and trusty bearer was sent with a "fiery-cross" and ran with it to the next hamlet, and it was from there taken by relays until the news and summons were spread from district to district. Ways and means to send news from one place to another have been devised and used in all ages of the world, and the pioneers were as resourceful in this respect as they were vigilant and brave in the defense of their country and their homes, and the news of the Zeimer massacre flew as upon the "wings of the wind," and the settlers were soon aroused to a sense of the dangers which environed them.
Upon news being received at Wooster that three suspicious-acting Indians had been seen in the vicinity of Odell's Lake going eastward, with the Tuscarawas county as their probable destination, Captain Mullen's militia company was ordered out and pursued them, and arrived at New Philadelphia the day after the Indians had been captured.
Soon after the report of the Zeimer massacre had been received at New Philadelphia, it was learned that three Indians, supposed to be the Zeimer murderers, had been seen going down the Shoenbrun trail, whereupon Captain McConnell called out the New Philadelphia militia, and traced and followed the redskins down to Fern Island, where they were captured and taken to New Philadelphia and lodged in jail.
As Captain Mullen's Wooster company was approaching New Philadelphia from the west, John C. Wright, then a Steubenville lawyer, rode into town on horseback from the east. He saw an excited crowd of people on the public square, and upon inquiry, Sheriff Henry Laffer explained the situation to Mr. Wright, that the Indians who had murdered the Zeimers were confined in the jail, and that a company of militia from Wooster was then coming down High street to wreak vengeance upon his prisoners. Judge Wright, looking at the
99
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY
case from a legal standpoint, declared that the prisoners should not be punished without a trial. He suggested to Sheriff Laffer that an alarm be sounded and the citizens called out. To this Sheriff Laffer replied that the people were so excited and exasperated over the news of the massacre that he feared they would side with the soldiers and put the Indians to death. "Is there no one to stand by you to prevent such a murder?" inquired Judge Wright. "None but Captain McConnell, who captured them," replied the sheriff. He also added that one of the Indians, Kanotche, had admitted that he was the slayer of Kate Zeimer, which had still further incensed the people against the prisoners. The three men, Wright, Laffer and McConnell, took their stand at the jail door and declared if the prisoners were taken, it would be over their dead bodies. Parley, threats, entreaty and remonstrance ensued, but the men retained their position. Finally, Captain Mullen ordered his men to fire upon them, but this they refused to do. The militia company finally gave way and abandoned the project of lynching the murderers.
The Indians were kept in jail until Governor Meigs instructed Lieutenant Shane, then recruiting for the United States army, to take the Indians with his men to the rendezvous at Zanesville. From Zanesville, the Indians were taken to the western part of the state, where under the terms of a cartel, they were released as prisoners of war, the charge of murder not being placed against them. While enroute from Zanesville to the west, the Indians and their military escorts stopped over night at Newark, where an attempt was made to poison the prison- ers. .On account of the atrocities and murders committed by the redskins, an avenging feeling had been aroused against them. The attempt to poison them at Newark was made principally on account of Kanotche, the avowed slayer of Kate Zeimer.
John C. Wright, who figured so conspicuously in this New Philadelphia incident, was later a judge of the supreme court of Ohio, and served in congress from. 1823 to 1839. He died in February, 1861, while a delegate to the peace congress in Washington. Judge Wright was for several years the editor of the Cincinnati Gazette. He wrote an interesting account of the capture of the Indians at Fern Island and the subsequent attempt to release and lynch them at New Philadelphia.
From that article the facts in this sketch are taken.
The following is taken from a "Seymour" massacre story recently published :
"A short distance from the house they met Billy, who had come to see if help was needed, and took him a prisoner, but he escaped from them one night and by accident met Philip, who, after burying the body of his parents, sister and friends, had gone in search of revenge.
"Shortly after he had gone into the woods he met Kate's betrothed on his way to claim his bride. Deep indeed was his grief at the death of his love. He too, vowed vengeance. On the same night that Billy came to them they saw a light shining up from a deep ravine and on stealing up they saw three Indians sitting by the fire. Each took his man, Billy taking the center one, for two of them were at the Seymour massacre and this one had tried to toma- hawk him when he was taken prisoner. They fired together. Two fell over dead and the other mortally wounded. After some time they went into the
100
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY
camp. The wounded Indian knew them and told Philip he had helped to kill his parents. The other of the two was the one who had killed Kate. On his finger was her ring and by his side was her scalp."
A Moses who attempts to lead the public through a wilderness of history should be better informed and not flounder in a sea of inaccuracies. The above quotation shows that the writer is as ignorant of the facts as he is of the or- thographer of the name Zeimer. If Kanotche had been killed, as stated by the writer of the article from which the quotations are taken, the New Philadelphia and Newark incidents could not have occurred. Judge Wright's statement is correct beyond a doubt and is fully substantiated by other historical accounts.
Billy Bunting remained at the Ruffner cabin all night the night of the Zeimer massacre, and when neighbors went to look for him the next morning they found him milking the cow, unaware that Mr. Ruffner had been killed. No Indians were killed in that vicinity, except the two at Zeimer's and those who fell in the Copus battle a week later, and Billy Bunting was not there at that time. "Billy Bunting" was Levi Bargaheiser, who afterwards became a prominent citizen of Sharon township, where he died December 26, 1868, aged seventy-seven years.
The man who was said to be engaged to Kate Zeimer-called Henry Martin by McGaw was Jedediah Smith, who came to Richland county and entered land in Washington township in the spring of 1812. A month or more before the Zeimer massacre, Mr. Smith had gone to his home in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and did not return to Ohio until 1816, and therefore could not have killed the slayer of Kate, as he was not here at the time.
As two of the five Indians were killed by Martin Ruffner at the time of the massacre, and three were captured a week later at Fern Island, none of the party was left in the Blackfork valley, and no Indian was killed there during the interim between the Zeimer massacre and the Copus battle.
While confined in the jail at New Philadelphia, Kanotche gave the particu- lars of the Zeimer massacre to Judge Wright and Sheriff Laffer. Kanotche had wonderful descriptive powers, considering his limited knowledge of the English language, and narrated the incidents of the bloody tragedy with dramatic effect. He was one of the most cruel, revengeful and vindictive of his tribe. Instead of feeling remorse over his bloody deeds, he took delight in narrating them. After the removal of the murderous trio to the west, it was stated that Kanotche met his death by the hands of one of his own race.
THE CAMPAIGN AND SAD FATE OF COLONEL WILLIAM CRAWFORD
The Rev. Joshua Crawford, now pastor of the Methodist church at Perrys- ville, contributes the following sketch of the campaign and cruel death of his late kinsman, Colonel William Crawford.
"My attention has been called to an article concerning the exact spot where stood the stake at which Colonel William Crawford was burned by the Indians
101
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY
in 1782. I can throw no new light on the subject and only know it was by the Big Tymochtee, near a grove. I have never visited the place, but presume the grove has long since disappeared and every landmark save the lay of the land and the stream. It is reasonable, however, that those who from long residence nearby have kept a tab on the spot should make a much better guess than those unfamiliar with it. I am not a descendant of Colonel Crawford, but belong to his kindred, the family lines coming together in his grandfather five generations back of myself. His tragic death has been much talked of in the numerous Crawford circles. There are a few legendary tales of the battle which are some- what different from written history, especially from 'Dodridge's Notes' as transcribed in Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio. There were several
members of the Dye and Leet families among the troops who intermarried with the McIntires and Bradens, ancestors of my mother, and some of whose descend- ants yet live southeast of Galion; and also with the Hiskeys, who once resided south of Lexington, in Richland county. It is said that Major Leet differed with the other officers of the council of war held the night the retreat commenced. He proposed that instead of returning over the same route they had come they should cut through the enemy's lines, go southward to a point somewhere in the present Marion county, then turn eastward and strike the Owl Creek trail and take that to the forks of the Muskingum, now Coshocton. and from thence over the route of Bouquet's army to Mingo Bottom. The council decided against him. Leet was self-willed unto stubbornness and when the retreat was ordered, his command being a part of the rear, he, with ninety men, broke away from the main body, carried out his project and reached the place of ren- dezvous before the others. Young John Crawford, the son for whom the Colonel went back to search was with this ninety and got home safely.
"If this be true it solves the mystery of how Crawford and Knight were soon lost from the army for he kept on expecting to meet other troops and thus went too far. It is not known where Crawford was captured, but it was not, as some conjecture, near the place where the battle of the Olentangy was fought. It would have been sure death for them to have followed in the wake of the army, hence, after proceeding northward for a few hours they turned, going eastward in a straight line as nearly as possible. They may have been captured some- where in Vernon township, Crawford county. It is probable one more day of travel would have brought them to the track of the returning troops. They would have struck the old trail leading from Mohican Johnstown to Mohican Johns Lake, ( Lake Odell) near which the main body encamped on the night of the 7th of June.
"For many years public opinion has done Crawford and his army great injustice, seeming to regard the expedition as a wild and reckless raid without other motive than revenge and bloodshedding. To say that these brave men, 'hoped to murder the Moravian Indians before their beligerent friends could take up arms in their defense,' is false. To say that 'it was rash and undertaken and conducted without sufficient forces to encounter with any prospect of suc- cess the Indians of the plains,' is a reflection on the wisdom of those who planned the campaign.
"It never should be forgotten by true Americans that British officers who
102
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY
had the management of the war against our Revolutionary Fathers saw fit to hire savages to annoy our frontier and even condescended to pay a stipulated price for American scalps. They made Detroit a center to supply the Indians with arms and all other munitions of war and kept there a body of troops under Major De Peyster whose only purpose was to aid their savage allies. Under this inhuman stimulus the Indians made the whole frontier from Oswego, New York, to the mouth of the Great Kanawha, Virginia, red with the blaze of burn- ing cabins and the blood of innocent and peaceable settlers. There was scarcely a mile in that long stretch that had not witnessed some horrid deed of massacre. The fagot and scalping knife were spreading terror everywhere. Something had to be done to relieve this dreadful situation. An unauthorized foray had gone to Gnadenhutten and wreaked a bloody revenge on those Christ- ian Indians. It was wrong and I blush at the shameful cruelty of the affair, and yet I assert that these Indians were not half as innocent and lamblike as some prejudiced writers try to make them appear. The village was full of treacherous spies and even blood stained garments of massacred people were hidden there, and some of them died defiantly singing war songs instead of Christians hymns.
"The stronghold of Indians, (paid allies of Great Britain) was the region of Upper Sandusky. It was a strategetical point, because it was at the head of canoe navigation of both the Ohio river and the Great Lake regions. Supplies could be transported from Detroit through the lakes and up the Sandusky to a point where the portage was only two miles from thence over the Scioto to all the waters of the Ohio. The Crawford campaign was planned by General Irvine and submitted to General George Washington and received his approval. The design was to surprise and destroy or force a treaty from the Indians of this region before English help could reach them and thus put a check upon their cruel forays. That Gnadenhutten might not be repeated Colonel Craw- ford was chosen leader, with the understanding that the troops be permitted to vote for a leader, but if their vote had given it to Williamson the militia would have been sent home and the expedition temporarily abandoned. It was planned in secret and here was the fatal mistake. There were Tory sympathizrs on the frontier and even before the troops gathered at Mingo Bottom, British spies had carried the news to Indian runners posted along the border who hurried to every Indian village of the northwest and to Detroit. General Irvine had not calculated on the swiftness of these Indian runners nor the promptness of England to send aid to her savage allies.
"When Crawford reached the Upper Sandusky country there were not less than five hundred Indians and one hundred and fifty British troops ready to meet him and others pouring in every hour. Simon Girty, an ingrate white man but an. Indian commander of no mean ability, and Captain Caldwell of the British army were on hand to plan the battle. A wooded knoll, since called Battle Island, was the key of the situation which was captured by Crawford's men after a sharp conflict. The enemy made several strenuous attempts to re- take it but were sorely repulsed.
"I shall not describe the battle for you readers are familiar with the details. It's Crawford legends of which I wish to write. There are many tales of the
103
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY
losses on each side. Captain Caldwell reporting to Major De Peyster, says: 'My lossess were very inconsiderable, one ranger killed and myself and two others wounded, and four Indians killed and eight wounded.' He estimated the American losses in killed and wounded at two hundred and fifty. Let me say right here that Crawford's army consisted of four hundred and eighty men, the finest marksmen in America.
"Being militiamen, they may have lacked in military consistency but they were not wanting in cool headed bravery, knowledge of Indian warfare and perfect marksmanship. They were not defeated nor demoralized. The only time of confusion was during the first few hours after the retreat commenced, when Indians and British opened a rapid fire in both front and rear. The fact that they fell back in two bodies one of ninety and the other of three hun- dred men, is evidence that they were not panic stricken and the enemy did not capture any except isolated parties and these isolations were probably due to Leo's disobedience of orders. The total loss of the Americans did not exceed seventy men and members of the troops even contended that they inflicted a heavier loss on the enemy than their own.
"Leet, a scout, (not the Major) who had afterward married a Dye, told his children many times that when Battle Island was first taken fifteen dead Indians were found; and he further said the next day he saw Girty riding back and forth among the Indians greatly excited while they were carrying away the dead and wounded. He also said that during the retreat when Butler's rangers and some mounted Indians were making dashes to cut out stragglers he saw three white men fall from their saddles who did not rise again. When the last dash was made near the Olentangy when Lieutenants Rose and Gunsaulus had placed a body of Americans in ambush and had-sent out a few men to act as stragglers and decoy the foe, when the enemy came dashing up, he said in all his war experience he had never seen so many saddles emptied in so short a time. The last little fight so severly punished the enemy that they did not fire another shot at the main body but contented themselves with picking up stray parties.
"I do not know what percent of the Dye, Leet and Braden tales are exagger- ation but I am sure that when the British and Indians undertook to retake the position they had lost that the unerring marksmen of the frontier did not send them back unpunished. Neither would they allow themselves to be hectored from daylight until two or three p. m. by an exulting foe and not occasionally empty a saddle. Crawford's men never admitted that they were defeated in battle and boasted that they would have made short work of the one thousand Indians, but it was the certainty of four hundred English bayonets and the boom of coming artillery that convinced them of the necessity of retreat.
"Another story I have heard is that in 1806 when the surveyors were busy laying off the lands of Wayne and Richland counties, Mrs. Hannah Crawford, widow of the colonel, visited the spot where her husband was burned and at that time there was no grass growing upon it. Her guide was Billy Crawford, said to be a nephew of her husband. My informant says she stayed over night with his grandmother, Mrs. Allison, in Harrison county, and a man by the name of McBride was her escort from there home.
104
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY
"Another legend claims that friends and relatives of Colonel Crawford swore uncompromising revenge against every Indian who helped handle the fagots that tortured him and that they carried this oath out to the letter. That they were with Harmer, St. Clair and Wayne marking these Indians and shoot- ing them at every opportunity and even made a hunt on the banks of the San- dusky for this bloody purpose. It is said the last one was shot in Holmes county in time of peace. Here is the Story :
"An Indian once came to a tavern in Killbuck, where under the influence of liquor he boasted that he was present at the burning of Colonel Crawford and said that after the Big White Chief had fallen that he and several other Indians jumped on him and cut his heart out and he had eaten a piece of the raw heart, and, smacking his lips, said it tasted good. Billy Crawford heard this boast and when the Indian left he followed him. Billy afterward admitted that he had killed him near Holmesville and buried the body and gun in a pile of stone. Years afterward the body was found, but such was the sympathy of the people for those who suffered from Indian outrages that nothing was ever thought about it.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.