USA > Ohio > Ashland County > History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 34
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
They remained at Spipestown some days. This vil- iage was named after a leading warrior and chief who resided there, and was much esteemed by his people. From this village they corteared along the old trail to
Moravians m 1;38 from the Fastetwas. Sie Hechewelle munitie
1
139
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
Upper Sandusky, the principal town and headquarters of the Wyandot warriors. When they came in sight of the village, the scalp halloo was again given, and large numbers sallied out to meet the warriors. George was again spared the pain of running the gauntlet.
He was given to an old squaw who had some time be- fore lost a son on an excursion to the Pennsylvania border. She was the reputed mother of seven sons, ail brave warriors and noted among the Wyandots. His sister was claimed by another warrior, and was given to an Indian family in Lower Sandusky to be taught the manners and duties of a squaw. George remained at Upper Sandusky with his new mother, who treated him with much tenderness. He attracted a good deal of at- tention, and soon formed an acquaintance with the In- dian youths of his village. He was clothed and babited in all respects as an Indian, and soon learned to talk their language, and became accustomed to their mode of preparing food, and their bark wigwams or huts. He was taught the use of the bow-their gymnastic exer- cises-wrestling-foot-racing --- playing ball and other sports, and soon became contented with his new mode of life. He occasionally met his sister, who was equally fortunate in securing a good Indian mother, who did not require her to perform all the druidgery of a conimon squaw.
It was the custom of the Wyandots, in the spring of the year, to scatter to various points in the forest, in small bands, to make sugar. The first year or two after George had been captured, he was required to assist in gathering the sap in small bark buckets to be evaporated in brass and copper kettles by the squaws. Never relishing hard work, he disliked his new vocation. The water was caught in bark vessels prepared for the pur- pose, and when it flowed freely, the task of gathering it was quite laborious. After worrying several days in a vain effort to keep pace with the flow of sap, George conceived a plan of relieving a portion of his toil. When he emptied the vessels, he slightly perforated the bottom and a large share of the sap escaped. In this way his toil was reduced, to the confusion of the squaws, who were unable to penetrate the mystery. A discovery of his trick would have resulted in many stripes; but fortunately, the difficulty was not solved.
The following autumn the Indian mother and father of George, and a number of Wyandots were encamped near Snipestown. An incident occured that made a very strong impression upon George. It was this: The Indians brought in a white boy who had been captured on the borders of Pennsylvania. The poor little captive was offered to an Indian woman whose son had been killed by the "Long Knives," in lieu of her child. She scornfully rejected the proposition, declaring "Me no take white rebel for my son." Upon consultation, the little boy was ordered to be executed, and the time and place fived. Sometime in the afternoon, on the day prior to the time appointed, George and a number of In- dian boys were playing a little distance from his mother's Imt. She called him to her and told him the white boy was to be killed the next morning, and he should not be
so merry. This reproof arrested his sport. His sympa- thies were deeply moved. The next morning the captive was bound to a log to be slain. At this time, a number of Delawares were encamped not a great distance from Snipestown. They somehow learned the Wyandots had determined to execute the rejected prisoner, and a war- rior conceived the idea of rescuing him. He hurrried into the Wyandot camp, and coming to the place where the prisoner was bound, struck the cords by which he was fettered, with his tomahawk, and severing them, carried off the boy, to the astonishment of the Wyandots. The boy afterwards escaped and returned to his friends.
When George reached the proper age, he was adopted after the manner of the Wychdets, passing through all their ceremonies, and was given an Indian name, Ha-en- ye.ha. or my brother, which he retained. During the period of his indoctrination into Indian customs, modes of hunting and fishing, he often accompanied his Indian parents and other members of the tribe through the north part of what are now Richland, Ashland and Wayne counties ; and sometimes nearly to Beaver county, Fenn- sylvania, during which excursions he learned the naiues of the streams, all the good camping points, the best springs and the principal resorts of game. In fact, he became a thorough woodsman, an accomplished hunter, and an Indian in taste, dress and habits. Snipestown was a favorite Indian village, and he spent a large share of his captivity there, occasionally visiting Upper and Lower Sandusky and Cranestown with the warriors and hunters.
Many times during his captivity the Indians suffered for food. After the hunting seasons, when they had plenty of venison and hominy, bear's oil and sugar, they lived extravagantly. For many weeks their chief occu- pation was visiting, dancing and feasting, which cod- tinued until their stores of provisions were consumed. At this point, the hunters and warriors were compelled to sally forth to renew their stores of venison and bear's meat. On many occasions George and his Indian mother were so neatly starved that they were compelled to gather the old bones about their wigwam, crack and reboil them for soup, after they had been bleaching in the sun and air for many months. These messes were, to hin, very savory, and quite a luxury, at such periods.
The Indian women were very industrious, and. hocd the corn, chopped the wood, did all the cooking, built the camp fires, and, in fact, were literally slaves for their red-skinned lords. They made sugar in the spring, fried out the bear's oil, jerked the venison and buffalo meat, pounded and prepared the hominy and parched corn for the haughty warriors.
Towards the close of the Revolutionary war George often accompanied the warriors to the borders, but was always very reticent about the mischief done during those excursions. In fact, he had been so thoroughly indoctrinated in Indien secresy, that very little, it any thing. could be kamed of him concerning the warlike speditions of the Handets. He was at several Indian consultations at frankstown, some four miles north of the present site f Upper Sandusky. He there met the
---------
الط
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
noted Simon Girty and several British agents. Their council-house was of bark, and was seventy-five or one hundred feet long and perhaps twenty feet wide. Tarhe, or as he was sometimes called, King Crane, was rising into influence and power as a chief among the Wyan- dots. He there met many other chiefs and warriors, and learned the particulars of the capture and execu- tion of Colonel William Crawford by the Delawares, be- ing, himself, too young to witness that battle.
When he was about twenty years of age, he obtained a sort of furlough to hunt in the east, near the Ohio river, and stealthily visited his old home. He was then a complete Indian, in dress, language and manners ; and loved the nomadic life of his people. His parents of- fered every motive for his return to civilized lite, but in vain. He determined to return to the liome of the red man. This was in the fall of 1786. He had then been with the Indians about twelve years.
In 1789-90 active hostilities were carried on between the Indians and the settlers in West Pennsylvania, Vir- ginin, and Kentucky. It is believed that George Foulks accompanied the Wyandots and Delawares against Har- mar and St. Clair, though he was always silent on the subject. In 1790 the Wyandots were very anxious on the subject of war then approaching. They feared the "Long Knives" --- Sarayumigh, would prevail. One of their prophets or medicine men, took a lot of charcoal, and pounding it into a sort of powder, placed it upon a piece of bark, and then drew a rude map of the country, its rivers, lakes, Indian trails, and the probable route of the invaders. They then took a flint and steel and fired a piece of punk and applied it to the points where Harmar and his army would be most apt to attack the Indian territory. The fire gradually spread from the points ignited. The Indians watched it attentively. When the charcoal ceased to burn, the Indians formed into a double file and simultaneously fred their guns. After which they stood quietly watching a dark cloud that was floating over. In a few seconds, the sound of their guns was distinctly heard in the clouds. The Indians regarded this as a good omen and shouted over the result, stating that the white warriors would not succeed that year. They at once began to prepare for war. The result is too well known for repetition. Disaster inet the frontier soldiers at every point.
About the year 1,88, George Foulks was persuaded to marry a Wyandot woman, and fully identify himself with the fortunes of his people. He had two children by his Wyandot wife; but, like Jonathan Alder, finally tired of the Indian mode of living. His people were so frequently involved in war with the whites that there was great danger of final extermination. Looking the whole field over, he concluded to abandon the Wyandots and return to civilized life. The Wyandot warriors discov- ered by his manter that something was wrong, and watched his motions closely. The real difficulty was, the lodians insisted that he should become a real war- rior, and accompany them against St. Clair and Wayne. He declined to do so, and shyly departing from his wig. · wam, took the most direct route for his old home in
Washington county, Pennsylvania. The warriors soon discovered his desertion, and several of them took the trait and gave chase. Suspecting this, he traveled with the utmost speed, and when about exhausted, and likely to be overtaken in crossing a principal stream on the route, he concealed himself beneath driftwood, thrusting all but his head under the water. While in this retreat, several of the warriors walked on the drift, and gave utterance to their indignation, saying they would punish him severely if they caught him, for the perfidy of de- serting his tribe. The sound of their voices gradually died away and all became quiet. He cautiously emerged, and finding the warriors had disappeared, proceeded on his way, and finally reached his old home in safety. Tic was soon noticed by Brady, Sprott, McConnell and other scouts in the government employ, and had some adven- tures. He did not enter very zealously, however, the field against the Wyandots. He had always been treated by then as if he had been born amongst them, and was a real Indian. After the battle of Fallen Timbers, and peace had been declared, the Wyandots frequently re- turned to hunt, fish, and sell their peltry in the city of Pittsburgh. After his return home be married a daugh- ter of Henry Ullery, and located near the present site of the village of Darlington, in Beaver county, Pennsyl- vania.
Shortly after he located, he was requested by a Mr. Castleman to go to Upper Sandusky and rescue his daughters from captivity. Two daughters of Mr. Cas- tleman, Mary, aged thirteen, and Margaret, aged nine, had been captured in a sugar camp near the banks of the Ohio river some years prior to the proposed rescue. The Indians had taken the captive girls to Greentown, on the Black fork, and sold the youngest to an English trader by the name of Mcintosh, while Mary was taken to Up- per Sandusky and adopted. Margaret was taken to Detroit, sent to school, and finally, through the traders, returned to her parents. Mary married a half-breed named Abram Williams, by whom she had two children, George and Sally. Williams loved fire-water, and, when under its influence, was jealous and very cruel to his wife. He often threatened to tomahawk her. Regard- ing her life as being in peril, she managed to convey word of her whereabouts to her parents, through the traders, who often visited Pittsburgh. George Foulks consented to attempt to rescue her from her perilous sit- uation. He passed. alone, through the dense forests, up the well-worn Indian trails to Upper Sandusky, where he met Williams, and proposed to take his wife home on a visit. Williams became angry and threatened to scalp Foulks if he attempted such an enterprise. Foulks de- sisted from further interviews with Williams. From bis long residence with the Wyandots, he had many confi- dential friends among the warriors. He, therefore, ze- sorted to stratagem. He proposed to an old' Indian if he would secretly take Mary away, he would give hin. a barrel of whiskey and a lot of trinkets. Vier some parking, the Indian consented the "fire water " was so tempting he could not resist. The warrior, in company with Mis. Williams, left the village without exciting sas
£
141
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
picion, and passed down the old Wyandot trail which ran very near the present site of Olivesburgh to Jerometown, while Foulks remained one day and then proceeded by a circuitous route to reach the same place. On arriving near Jerometown he gave a signal, and the Indian and Mrs Williams joined him in the forest. Fic had arranged with a trader for the whiskey and trinkets for the Indian upon his return. Foulks and Mrs. Williams continued along the trail near the present site of Wooster, and safely reached the residence of Castleman, in Washington county, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Williams regretted very much to leave her children, but an attempt to take them along would have proved fatal. She never met them again. Sally grew up and married a famous hunter by the name of Solomon Jonacake, who was well known to the pio- neers of Ashland and Richland counties. This was the last Indian exploit of George Foulks.
Some time after this, his Indian wife and two children are reported to have visited him in Beaver county, to in- duce him to return to the Wyandots. He declined to do so; but visited Pittsburgh and purchased a number of blankets and such other articles as would be useful in their wigwam, and presented them to the squaw with a horse to bear them to their home on the Sandusky, which she accepted and never returned.
Mr. Foulks .had a fine mill near Darlington, and after- wards became quite wealthy. He was a man of fine native abilities, and was often spoken of as a suitable person to be elected to the legislature or to fill any of the county offices. He, however, refused to accept any office, and steadily continued in business. During his captivity; he passed over the most valuable parts of what is now Richland county, and became acquainted with all the good agricultural locations. After the war of 1812, when the lands, in what is now Blooming-grove township, came into market, he entered eight or ten quarter sections, and induced his father in-law, Mr. UL- lery, to invest largely in lands. About the year 1830, Henry and George, sons of George Foulks, located near Rome, in Richland county. He had several daughters, some of whom yet survive. Jacob and William, broth- ers of George Foulks, also located in Blooming-grove. Jacob resided two or three miles northwest of Olives- ba gh. George Foulks died in Beaver county, Penn- sylvania, July 10, 1840, aged seventy-one years, and sleeps quietly in the cemetery near Darlington, where he lived many years, an influential and reputable citizen. Mrs. Foulks died at the residence of one of her sons in Richland county some years after his decease.
It may be interesting to the reader to learn the history of Elizabeth Foulks, who was captured with George, on the banks of the Ohio river. . is before stated, she was taken to Lower Sandusky, where she was adopted by a kind squats. As she grew to womanhood she became acquainted with a young man by the name of James Whittaker, who had been captured by the Maadets when a child, in Virginia, and adopted by them. .!!! his friends were killed. He had lost nearly all recol. lection of his parentage, and had become thoroughly initiated among the Indius, and had no desire to leave
them. Whittaker became much attached to Elizabeth, and she to him. They were finally married after the Wyandot custom. Whittaker became an influential trader and interpreter among the Indians. On one oc- casion a number of Cherokee, Shawnee, and Wyandet warriors captured an emigrant boat on the Ohio river with a number of pioneers, among whom were a Mr. Skyles and Johnston, with one or two others who were brought to Upper Sandusky. A French trader, M. Duchonquet, purchased Johnson of the Indians, and Skyles finally escaped.
A few days afterwards, the Cherokees appeared with a Miss Fiemming, who had been captured at the same time, and made preparations for her execution. The French trader took an interest in the fate of Miss Flem- ming, and invited Whittaker to accompany him to the Cherokee camp. He did so, and Miss Flemming recog. nized him as an old acquaintance. Whittaker had often visited, with the Indian hunters, her father's tavern near Pittsburgh. He was, therefore, very desirous of aiding her. Miss Flemming implored him to save her from death by torture, which was then impending. Whittaker tried to induce the Cherokees to release her for a consid- eration. They sternly refused. Whittaker determined to have Tarhe or King Crane, who was then the great Wyandot chief, intervene. Tarhe was at Detroit, and Whittaker took a small boat and hastened to see him. When he landed, Tarhe, with deep interest, heard his story. Whittaker said Miss Flemming was his sister, and was about to be killed by torture. He asked Tarhe to interfere for her rescue. The chief admitted that the enterprise was humane, and at once started for Sandusky and hastened to the Cherokee camp. The Cherokees were inflexible, and would not consent to release the prisoner, and heaped upon Tarhe charges of cowardice for interfering. The chief retaliated on the Cherokees for the inhuman attempt to torture a woman, and with- drew. The Cherokees were alarmed, and determined to kill their prisoner without delay. She was striped of her clothing, tied to a stake, and faggots placed around her, and left to suffer the horrors of impending death. She was to be burned early the next morning. Tathe ex- pected this, and to avert the tragedy took a number of young warriors, and at midnight entered the Cherokee camp. He found Miss Flemming tied to a stake. painted black and in a state of insensibility, moaning over her condition. Tarhe at once released her from her painful situation, re-clothed her and set her at liberty. An Indian whoop was then given, when the Cherokees were awakened and hurried to the spot. Tarhe told them he had rescued the prisoner, and that by the laws of conquest she was his property. Tarhe's war- riors were the most numerous, and the Cherokees quietly admitted that he had the advantage. They then ex- pressed a willingness to accept the offer of the day before six hundred silver brooches. Tarhe consented and by the aid of the aaders, furnished the broches, and Miss Flemming, clothed as a square, was returned to haut parents at Pittsburgh by two faithful Wyandet warriors.
!
- - 4+
1
1.42
HISTORY OF ASHLAND COURTY, OHIO.
Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker were employed as interpre- ter., at the treaties of 18:4-17 and at several other in- terviews between the whites and Indians. They are often mentioned for their humane acts by the Wyandots and Delatgares. They remained in the Indian country about Malden, Detroit and Upper Sandusky long after the war of. 1812. They had several children, sons and daughters. Some thirty years since a Miss Whittaker, daughter of Elizabeth, visited an uncle (Jacob Foulks) near Olivesburgh, and is said to have been a young lady of good education and fine address. The relatives treated her kindly and her visit was a pleasant one. Whittaker and his wife died many years since at Lower Sandusky, and their descendants are presumed to have gone west with the civilized Wyandots in 1842-3.
Such is the story of George and Elizabeth Foulks, as we have been able to glean from his acquaintances in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. The larger part of the narrative was obtained from Mrs. Robert Starr, formerly of Washington county, Pennsyl- vania, now a resident of Blooming-grove township, Rich- land county, Ohio, two miles west of the village of Lafay- ette, and aged about eighty-seven years. Her mind is quite clear. She was intimately acquainted with Mr. Foulks in his lifetime, and has heard him repeat the story of his adventures a great many times. Mr. Foulks also related many bunting exploits, the outlines of which have escaped recollection. All in all, he was an extra- ordinary character-a bold woodsman ---- a thrifty business man and a noted pioneer.
GENERAL REASIN BEALL.
A sketch of his life was originally published in the Wooster Democrat, March 9, 1843, and which gives a good many interesting items of history. We repubhsh it entire.
"To render the tribute of approbation to the merit and worth of departed friends, aral indulge in expres- sions of regret at the bereavement we experience in their death, has, in some form or other, been a custom from the earliest ages. Independent of the incentive to noble actions which such a practice holds forth to the minds of youth, there is, on the part of those who may be called to the performance of the service, a kind of pleasing melancholy, which alnost seems for the time to bring them again into the society of the friend whose final exit it is their misfortune to deplore.
"General Reasin Beali, who died at Wooster, Ohio, on the twentieth day of February, 1313, was born in Montgomery county, in the State of Maryland, on the third of December, 1769, and a few years thereafter ac- companied his parents to Washington county, in the State of Pennsylvania, where they made a permanent settlement. The exact time of this settlement is not . known, but it must have been some years before 1782. fo: in that year the father, Major Zephaniah Beall, was an officer in the unfortunate campaign made by a body of volunteer militia from western Pennsylvania, under
the command of Colonel Crawford, against the Indians of Upper Sandusky.
" At the age of fourteen years, Mr. Beall entered the office of the Hon. Thomas Scott, at one time a member of Congress, a gentleman of considerable note in the pub- lic affairs of Pennsylvania, and then prothonotary of Washington county. With that gentleman he remained until he was twenty-one years of age, and on quitting his employ, received the most flattering testimonials of good conduct.
"The privations and sufferings which were experienced by the hardy and intrepid pioneers who first undertock to tame the forests west of the Alleghany mountains, has no parallel in anything of the kind that has ever ex- isted. Favored with no government aid or protection, and without roads, other than such as they opened by their individual efforts, they had to scale a rugged moun- tain wilderness, of more than a hundred miles in extent ; and when arrived on the western waters they, for a long time, had to subsist mainly by the chase. But this was not all; the treaty of peace, which acknowledged Amer- ican independence, brought no peace to them. The In- dian nations, who espoused the cause of the British during the war, were not content to desist from their depreda- tions upon the western settlements, and such was the in- efficiency of the government under the confederation, that it was not until the new organization under the pies- ent constitution, that measures were taken to repel their incursions. In 1790 an expedition was fitted out, and marched against the Indians on the heads of the two Miamis. The command of this corps was given to Gen. eral Harmar. Mr. Beall served in the expedition as an officer in the quartermaster's department, and was with the army when a severe action was fought between a de- tachment under Colonel Harden and the Indians near Fort Wayne, in 1791. That expedition having failed of its object, the troops returned to the Ohio river, near to where the city of Cincinnati now stands, and Mr. Beall returned to his friends in Pennsylvania.
"Subsequently to this, General St. Clair marched a sec- ond force on the same route, and unfortunately met with an entire defeat. These repeated disasters determined the government to put forth all its energies in order to secure peace by the chastisement of the savages. On General Wayne's being appointed to the command of the northwestern army, Mr. Beall received a commission as ensign ; and after some time spent in the recruiting service, repaired to headquarters, then at Legionville, on the north bank of the Ohio, near the site of the present town of Economy, in Beaver county, Pennsylvania. It was in the campaign which succeeded that Mr. Beall became acquainted with General, then Captain, Harri- son, the late lamented President of the United States ; an acquaintance in which the mutual friendship of the parties seemed to be increased rather than diminished hy separation and time.
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.