History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 32

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams
Number of Pages: 896

USA > Ohio > Ashland County > History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 32

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).

Armstrong and many others were loth to leave the hunt- ing grounds of their youth- the graves of their fathers --- the homes of their race. So Major Kratzer determined that Armstrong and his people should be removed to Urbana, as before described.

At the time James Copus, John Coulter, and Eben- ezer Rice, first met Armstrong, he appeared to be about sixty-five years of age; was a small man, slightly stooped, rather dignified and reticent; dressed in full Indian cos- tume, and appeared to advantage. He had two wives ; one an old squaw, by whom he had James and Silas, and probably other children. He married a young squaw about 1808, by whom he had children. He frequently visited the first cabin of James Copus, where he made sugar the first spring after his arrival.

James and Silas often shot at a mark, with bows and arrows, with James and Wesley Copus, in the sugar camp. They also amused themselves by hopping, wrest- ling, and other boyish sports. Armstrong had two In- dian servants or slaves, both deaf. They were of some other tribe. Armstrong appeared to be a harmless old chief, and treated his pioneer neighbors very kindly. At his request. James Copus preached a number of times to the Greentown Indians. After Douglas removed the In- dians, Captain Armstrong settled with the Delawares in the Upper Sandusky region, and never returned to Greentown. The boys, James and Silas, frequently came back. The old chief was a good Indian doctor, and could talk very good English.

His descendants -- the Armstrongs -- intermarried with the Delawares and Wyandots, and finally removed, in 1828-29, west of the Mississippi.

It is believed that Captain Armstrong was born in Pennsylvania, of white parents, and was captured, wheni quite young, and adopted by the Delawares, and, becom- ing a leading warrior, was promoted to the office of chief.

There is a current legend among the pioneers of Creen township, that Armstrong received his name, when a young man, from a successful contest with a black bear, just prior to his promotion to the chiefship. It runs thus: "Pamoxet was in the forest, hunting. He met and wounded a large black bear. The ferocity of the animal was aroused. It rushed upon him, and, in an erect pos- ture, seized his left arm and commenced to lacerate it. His gun being emptied, he seived a bowlder, and when the bear began to gnaw his arm, he used the bowlder upon its head. He soon compelled it to desist, and it feli dead at his feet. The Indians immediately recognized his heroic conduct, and called him Captain Strong Arm, or Armstrong."

He died about the close of the war of IS12-15, on the Delaware reserve.

THOMAS LYONS.

When the pioneers of iso3 y begin to sedle in what are now known as Green and Mifflin townships, in this county, they found a well, ioan, aged Delaware, by the

---

I3I

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY. OHIO.

name of Thomas Lyons. From conversations held with James Cunninghamn, Peter Kinney, James Copus, Lewis Oliver, and John Coulter, it was learned that Lyons was born in New Jersey, near the Delaware line. It was im- possible to gather from him any definite idea of the date of his birth. When interrogated on that subject, his response generally was. "One hundred fifty years." In conversation with others concerning the length of a year, "Tom" considered the winter and the summer each a year. That would make him about seventy-five years of age, in 1810. Most of the settlers, however, concur in the opinion that he was the oldest Indian they had ever met. He was probably near one hundred years old when he left the country.

Lyons informed Judge Peter Kinney that he was at the massacre of Wyoming, in 1778. Colonel John But- ler, at the head of eleven hundred Mohawks, and a few white tories who had joined the British, entered the lovely valley of Wyoming, in northern Pennsylvania, July 2, 1778. Most of the strong men were then away on distant duty, and families and homes found defenders only in aged men, tender youths, resolute women, and a few trained soldiers and friendly Delawares. These were marched up the valley to drive back the invaders, but the savage Mohawks soon put them to flight, a large portion being slain or made prisoners. A few escaped to a fort near Wilkesbarre, where families for long dis- tances around had fled for safety. The invaders soon appeared before the fort. They were sweeping onward towards the Susquehanna with resistless fury, carrying carnage and death in their train. The night after the battle, the yells of the infuriated savages echoed through the forests, and death seemed impending over the be- leagured refugees within the little fort. An agony of suspense rested upon all during the slowly passing hours of that dark and dreary night. Morning came, but con- trary to expectations, the leader of the savages (John Butler) appeared near the foit and offered terms of safety to the inmates if they would surrender. The gates were thrown open, and most of the families were permitted to return to their homes. . During the day the Mohawks scattered up and down the valley. Before sunset, all the inhabitants were doomed. Scarcely had the shades of night appeared, before their burning dwellings threw a lurid ghire over forest and field, and the work of death began. The terrified people fled to the mountains and the forests to escape the hatchet and fix scalping knife; but, alas: the red fiends, led by the inhuman But- ler, lett that fair valley blackened with the ruins and . cinders of the homes of the pioneers, while their bodies, scalped and mutilated, were scattered through the forest, to become food for wild beasts.

After this dreadful disaster, Tom Lyons and several other friendly Indians fled to their Delaware friends, on the Tuscarawas and the branches of the Mohican. Tom Lyons dwelt among the Moravians some time at Gnad- denhutten, and continued to revisit that favorite spot of the Christian Dolarvares to the close of his life. When Colonel Crawford invaded the Sandusky country in 1782, Thomas Lyons, Thomas Armstrong, Billy Mon-

tour, Thomas Jelloway and a number of the Delawares are believed to have had a village on the Clear fork, about one mile west of the old Lewis block-house, in Richland county. The name of this town was German, and signified clear, light or transparent. It was Hell- town. In German the word "heil" signified light or clear. The name probably originated from some Penn- sylvania captive, as the village on the Clear fork or Clear water. Upon the approach of Colonel Crawford, the inhabitants of the village fied, and when his army returned from its disastrous defeat, Armstrong and his associates located a new village called Greentown, on the banks of the Black foik, and the stream was known to the surveyors and early settlers as Armstrong's creek. This village was the home of Lyons, when Andrew Craig, James Copus, the Coulters and Olivers came into the township in 1808-'9-'ro.

It has been asserted that Thomas Lyons was a chief. He was only a warrior. On a few occasions he related his military achievements. He had been in many bat- tles on the border, and taken many scalps. When un- der the influence of " fire water" be related many acts of extreme cruelty, and a few of his barbarities, inflicted upon the wives and children of the border settlers. Like most of his race, he delighted in the excitements of war, and was easily induced to join his red brethren in their attempt to expel the pale faces from the beautiful hunting grounds of Ohio. When Harmor, St. Clair and Wayne invaded the Indian country of the northwest in 1791-'2-'3-4, Tom Lyons joined Captain Pipe, Ann- strong and other Delaware chiefs in an effort to expel the invaders. On one occasion, while stopping a night with AHen Oliver, father of Lewis and Daniel, in Green township, he gave a very graphic description of the bat- tle of "Fallen Timbers." Lyons, Pipe, Armstrong, Montour, Baptiste Jerome, and other ;Greentown and Jeronietown Indians were in the fight. Lewis Oliver, now eighty-one years of age, relates the conversation thus:

Allen Oliver .- "You say you were at the battle with Wayne. What do you think of Wayne as a white chief?" Tom Lyons. "Him be great chief. He be one devil to fight. Me hear his dinner horn-way over there go toot, toot ; then way over here it go toot, toot - then way over other side, go toot tost. Then his soldiers run forward -- shoot, shoot ; then run among logs and brush. Indians have got to get out and run. Then come Long Knives with pistol and shoot, shoot. Indians run, no stop. Old Tom sec too much fight to be trap -- he run into woods -- he ren like devil- he keep run till he clear out of danger. Wayne great fight --- brave whhe chief. He be one devil."

Mr. Lewis Oliver states that while "Old Tom" was going through this description of the Gght, he gesticu lated, grimaced and expressed as much emotion as if he had been in the midst of the battle. In fact. terror was evinced in the whole of the mimic battle he was then fighting over. Add to this the fact that he was perimaps the ugliest Indian ever seen by the border settlers, and some idea of his emotions may be gleaned. Mr. Oliver

132

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

thinks he was "about six feet high, quite lean -- very like a mummy in the consistence and color of his skin, with a long protruding chin, some missing teeth, short upper lip, a low forehead, a protruding crown, jet eyes, very fierce and piercing, and wore a dress, never very tidy nor clean." This was old "Tom Lyons." The war-like fire of his youth had ceased to blaze. He was now an old man. He had long since given up the idea of driving back the pale faces. At this period, 1817-12, he was quite friendly to the new settlers. He had no wife. His two sons, George and James, occasionally visited the pioneers. George had the reputation of being a cruel and ill-tempered Indian; though he never molested the pioneers. Before the war of 1812, Tom Lyons, as I am informed by Mrs. James Irwin, daughter of Judge Peter Kinney, often came to her father's house in great haste, requesting him to hurry to Greentown and enforce quiet among the Indians, who were quarreling, and evinced an inclination to scalp each other. Mr. Kinney was then a justice of the peace, and was quite an influential man among his red-skinned neighbors.

When Captain Douglas and Cunningham removed the Greentown Indians, in the fall of 1812, Tom Lyons accompanied his people to Urbana *. A short time after the removal of the Indians, the Ruffner-Zimmer-Copus murders took place. The Greentown Indians were ` blamed for that invasion and those wanton assassina- tions.

After the war, a number of Greentown Indians re- turned and erected cabins on the site of their old village, and continued to hunt for six or eight years. Among these were Tom Lyons, Eilly Dowdce, Jonacake, Buck- wheat, and others not now recollected. Thomas Lyons visited his old friends in the neighborhood of Greentown, among others, Mrs. James Copus and her children, at the cabin where Mr. Copus had been killed. Mrs. Co. pus (as I am informed by Mrs. Sarah Vail, now seventy- six years of age, and daughter of Mrs. Copus, ) inquired of Tom Lyons whether he was present and helped the Indians kill her husband on that frightful morning. Tom Lyons said he was not; but he knew who did it, hut could not help it, as many strange Indians were along. He manifested many regrets over the tragedy; said, he and Mr. Copus were good friends. On that fatal day, the same band passed by Newell's, in Montgomery township, burned his cabin, and early next morning, through Carter's cornfield, to Cuppy's cabin, burned it; then to Fry's, and burned it; and continued on towards Sandusky. Several years after, Tom Lyons explained this adventure to Daniel Carter, sr., who was undis- turbed. He stated also, to Martin Mason, who originally had a mill where Leidigh's now stands, that he notified Fry and Cuppy several days before, to leave, which was speedily done, and their families were saved from torture and death.

This singular old Indian continued to hent in differ- ent parts of the county up to about the year 1823. He "Some authorities say Piquant. The latter place was the headquarters of the friendly Shesares, and possibly of dr: Jerome and Greentown Delawares,

often visited the pioneers on his way to and from Goshen, in Tuscarawas county. He, on several occasions, brought cranberries and a wild turkey which he had shot, to be dressed, stuffed and roasted by Mrs. Copus, after the manner of the whites. She always complied ; and when it was done, with many words of gratitude, "old Tom " would bundle it in his deer-skin pouch and proceed on his way to Goshen or to Sandusky, as the case might be.

He, on several occasions, accompanied by other In- dians, stopped at the shop of Solomon Urie, father of Colonel George W. Urie, in Orange township, to have their guns and tomahawks repaired. From there they proceeded to Mason's mill, to obtain meal and other provisions, in exchange for venison. Thence they would proceed to John Bryte's distillery, in Clearcreek, and then strike out through the forest.

About the fall of 1822, Lyous visited Mrs. Irwin, in Green township, for the last time. He had a strong attachment for his old friend, Peter Kinney. Almost as soon as he entered the house, he inquired if Mrs. Irwin had recently heard from Judge Kinney, who had re- moved to Illinois some years before. Mrs. Irwin says the poor old fellow put down his head, and muttered to himself : "My poor friend Kinney, I never see him any more, Peter Kinney was a good friend. Poor Pe- ter Kinney, I never see hint any more.""" After remain- ing a few hours, the old man departed. That was fifty- eight years ago. She says she never saw the old man again. He always behaved well at their house, and seemed to possess many good traits, although he had been reared amid the wilds of the forest, and among untamed savages. He never fully explained the reason that he received the name of Thomas Lyons. She thinks he had very little, if any, white blood in his veins. He at one time requested Judge Kinney to go with him to the Wyoming valley, in Pennsylvania, to act as his agent, where he said he owned a large tract of land, for which the Government had never compensated him. But, for some reason, Judge Kinney could not accompany him.

At a treaty, in 1814-17, territory six miles south of Upper Sandusky was set apart, as a reservation for the Jerometown and Greentown Indians. .A village was built there, called Pipetown, in honor of Captain Pipe, jr., who, in conjunction with Silas Armstrong, son of Captain Thomas Armstrong, was made a half-chief over the remnant of Delawares there located.

Thomas Lyons resided at Pipestown, in Marion county, in 1821-22-23, and in company with his son Tom, Billy Dowdee, and other Delawares, often hunted along the Wheistone of Olentangy. The ohl settlers along those streams the Sharracks, Beckleys, and oth- ers, were often visited by him in their cabin homes. Old Tom was very fond of repeating his war exploits along the Delaware, the Schuylkill, the Wyoming val. ley and other localities in Pennsylvania, before the re- moval of the Delatcare to the branches of the Moli can, in Ohio.

Old Thomas Lyons is believed to have died on this reservation, some time in the winter of spring of 1824.

133

HISTORY OF ASBLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

It is now believed that the stories of his assassination by white hunters, are destitute of foundation, and that the old warrior died a natural death.

CHRISTIAN FAST, SR.

As the full particulars of the capture of Christian Fast, by the Delawares of Sandusky, have never appeared in print, it may be interesting to the pioneers of west Penn- sylvania and Ohio to peruse a brief sketch of his life among the red men of the Tymochtec.

In the month of June, 1781, an expedition, composed of Indians and Canadians, destined to invade Kentucky, moved from their places of rendezvous at Detroit, the Sandusky, the Miami and the Wabash. The salient point of the campaign was the falls of the Ohio, or Louisville, then containing only a few cabins, and a sta- tion for soldiers to protect the scattered settlements of Kentucky against Indian invasion.

Colonel George Rogers Clark, the hero of Kaskaskia and St. Vincent, learning that an expedition, composed of British and Indians, was about to invade that region, stationed a small body of troops at the village of Louis- ville, to intercept the passage of war parties on their way to the interior of Kentucky. His command was soon inereased by the arrival of one hundred and fifty Penn- sylvanians and Virginians, under the command of Colo- nel Slaughter.

Colonel Archibald Loughery, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, raised a corps of about one hundred men, who volunteered to accompany General Clark on the ex- pedition. These volunteers embarked in boats at Wheel- ing, and moved down the river, in order to join the troops of General Clark at the falls of the Ohio. On the twenty-fourth of August, Colon-1 Loughery and his party passed the mouth of the Great Miami river, and soon afterward one of the beats was taken to the Ken- tucky side of the river, and a number of men, under the command of Captain William Campbell, went ashore for the purpose of cooking and eating some buffalo meat. The river was low, and the boat was fastenee near a sand bar. While on shore, Colonel Loughery's forees were attacked by a large body of Indians, and after a. brief resistance the small expedition was forced to sur- render. Forty men were killed. Colonel Loughery was made prisoner, tomahawked and scalped. Sixty of his men were captured and taken to Detroit. See Dillon's history of Indiana, pages 173 4.

For reasons never fully explained, the British expedi- tion, commanded by Colonel Byrd, on reaching the month of the Great Miami, changed its destination; and when the boats conveying his troops, cannon and mili- . tary stores, arrived on the Ohio river, instead of descend- ing its rapid current, turned up the stream, and ascended the Licking to its forks, where he linded his rien and munitions of war. It is probable the destination of Colonel Byrd' was changed in consequence of his ad- vanced Indian spies and scouts coming in contact with

the forces of Colonel Slaughter in their descent of the Ohio.

Some thirty-five or forty miles above the falls, the boats of Colonel Slaughter, which were conveying horses and a few soldiers, became separated from the main body of the expedition in the night. At daylight the ad- vanced boats drove an occasional stake near the shore, and attached written directions thereto, to guide the boats in the rear.

The boats thus abandoned being deprived of proper rations for the soldiers, had no alternative but to supply themselves with such game as could be obtained from the forest. Perceiving a buffalo heifer leisurely feeding a short distance from shore, the larger boat was sloved to a shoal and the beifer shot. It was hastily skinned, a fire was built, and the soldiers proceeded to prepare breakfast.

While in the act of cooking the flesh of the heifer, the party was attacked by Indians, who were probably drawn to the spot by the sound of the guns. The frightened soldiers, who had neglected to station pickets, fled to the boat which had been stranded on the shoal, just as the smaller boats were making toward the shore for breakfast. They were unable to shove the bont to the current, and the Indians rushed down the shore fir- ing into the boat, wounding and killing several of the men and horses.

All was consternation. Many of the soldiers endeav- ored to save themselves by. leaping overboard and attempting to swim to the opposite side of the river, but, on reaching it, were again fired upon. Among those who fled to the opposite shore was Christian Fast, a youth of about seventeen years of age, who had volun- teered as a cavalry-man, from what is now Fayette county, Pennsylvania, then a part of Westmoreland county.

Young Fast was an expert swimmer. As the Indians rushed upon the men, he leaped over the opposite side of the horse boat, and struck out boldly for the Kentucky shore, which he reached in safety. Just as he was about to arise from the water and ascend the bank, twe or three Indians approached him, saying :

"Come on, brother, we will use you well, at the same time reaching out thicir hands in token of friendship.

Knowing the savage character of the red man, he doubted their pacific intentions, and speedily turning abont, storted for the middle of the river. He had scarcely got in motion, when they commenced to fire after him, a ball passing so near his head that it stunned him for a moment, by its concussion in the water, while an- other ball passed through the fleshy part of his thigh, making : painful wound, notwithstanding which, he suc- seeded in reaching the center of the river.

On reaching the main current, he found the boats had floated some distance from the stranded one from which be had fled, and he resolved to swing after and overtake a small horse boat which was a few lods in the road of the rest. After a vigorous exertion, aided by the offrent and a shower of bullets from shore, be reached the box. just as she surrendered. The Indians boarded it at

i i

134

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

once, and the prisoners were taken on shore, and the plunder secured.

After the prisoners had been deprived of all means of defence, the savages proceeded to strip them of such wearing apparel as they desired. In fact, the majority of the captives were left almost nude. The military suits with which the soldiers were clothed were deemed a God-send to these children of the forest. The appear. ance of the captives was most distressing; nevertheless resistance would have been rewarded with a cruel, linger- ing death by torture.

When the exulting savages had secured such plunder as they could carry away, it was put up in bundles and their new prisoners were compelled to pack it. The ' whole party proceeded through the forest in the direc- tion of Upper Sandusky. The level lands along the Ohio and the Miami, at that season, abounded in rank, almost impenetrable, weeds, briars and nettles. The journey was a severe ordeal.

Young Fast was small, had hair as black as a raven, dark eyes, and a swarthy skin; was exceedingly agile, and very slim and straight. His appearance pleased the Indians, and an old Delaware claimed him as his pris- oner. The leader of the band was old Thomas Lyons. . On the route to Upper Sandusky, which was principally up the Great Miami until they reached the portage, the poor prisoners endured many hardships and cruelties.

Having been deprived of their clothing, the nettles, briars, weeds and undergrowth made fearful havoc with their uncovered bodies, so much so, that on one occa. sion, after they had been some hours in the forest, young Fast put down his head and refused to proceed, telling his Indian master to tomahawk him. The old warrior took pity on him, and returned most of his cloth- ing. His wound was becoming quite painful. The old warrior assisted in dressing it until it healed.

After the war party had been two or three days in the forest, the Indians built a camp-fire and cleared a spot for a dance. The prisorers were all tied so as to pre- vent their escape. The savages engaged in the dance with much spirit, singing, hopping, leaping, brandishing their tomahawks and scalping knives, and grimacing in a most frightful manner. Their music was a sort of wail, between a shout and a moan, while a kind of time was beaten on a brass kettle by a warrior.

When the Indian dance had ended, the prisoners, one by one, were untied and requested to give an exhibition of their agility. With bodies torn and bruised, half famished for want of food, wearied with the journey, and almost nude, they endeavored to comply, knowing that a refusal would incur the hate and severity of their savage masters. When the time came for young Fast to dance, he felt it impossible to do so, in consequence of his painful wound, but fearing to incur the censure and vengeance of the warriors, he said to his comrades .: " Boys, I can't dance and run on my feet, but I can run on my bands." So, limping into the ring, when the In. . dian music began, he proceeded a few steps, and then springing upon his hands, he elevated his feet, and com- mented a sort of bear dance, accompanied by sundry

singular manceuvres on his hands, turning an occasional somersault, and yelling like an Jodian !

At first the savages seemed amazed at his perform- ances, but soon began to applaud by the most uproari- ous laughter and shouts, some of them actually rolling on the ground in their merriment. After he had passed around the ring in this gymnastic manner, several of the warriors who had been most delighted with his antics, put their hands on the ground and desired him to "do so more." He pointed to his wound and refused, say- ing, he was "too lame." His singular vivacity and good nature captivated the Indians, and from that time on, he was the hero of the party, and was no longer tied at night.

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.

History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 32

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros Publication date: 1880 Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams Number of Pages: 896

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams
Number of Pages: 896