History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 10

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 10
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 10

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).

"Indeed, I have had sufficient reason to be convineed that this principle, exeellent as it is in itself, is sometimes even carried too far by the Indians, and that not a little ineonve- nience is oceasioned by it. A few instances will make this bet- ter understood than any explanation 1 could give.

"In the year 1765, 'the great body of Christian Indians, after having remained sixteen months at and near Philadelphia, were permitted to return to their own country, peace having been concluded with the Indian nations who still continued at war, notwithstanding the pacification between the European powers.

"They resolved to open a path through the wilderness, from the frontier settlements beyond the Blue Mountains, directly to Wyoming, on the Susquehanna. This path they laid off and cut, as they proceeded, two, three, or four miles at a time, according to the nature of the ground and the convenience of water, bringing up their baggage by making two or more trips, as they had no horses to carry it. Having arrived at the Great Pine Swamp, then supposed to be about fourteen miles wide, it was found very difficult to cut a passage, on account of the

Pleckwelder

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

thickets and of the great number of fallen trees which encum- bered it; they were, besides, unacquainted with that part of the country. Several old men, however, took the lead and un- dertook to be their guides. After a tedious march of near two weeks, attended with much labor, they brought the party across the swamp to the large creek which borders it upon the oppo- site side. There they found a very steep mountain, through which no passage could be found, either above or below.

" Discouraged at the prospect before them, they saw now no alternative but to return by the same way they had come, and take the route by Fort Allen to Nescopeck, and so up the Sus- quehanna to Wyoming, a distance of nearly one hundred miles round. In this difficulty it fortunately struck their missionary, Mr. Zeisberger, that a certain Indian named David, who was one of their party, and had followed them all the way, was ac- quainted with that part of the country, and might, perhaps, be able to point out to them some better and shorter- road. He soon found that he was not mistaken, David was perfectly ac- quainted with the country and knew a good road through which the party might easily pass; but not having been ques- tioned on the subject, had hitherto kept silenee, and followed with the rest, though he knew all the while they were going wrong.

"A dialogue then took place between him and the missionary.

" ZEISBERGER .- ' David, you are acquainted with this country, perhaps you know a better road and a shorter one than that which we are going to take ? '

" DAVID .- ' Yes, I do; there is such a course which we may easily get through, and have a much shorter distance to travel.' "Z .- ' What, David; we are all going wrong, and yet you are with us?'

" D .- ' Yes, it is so.'

" Z .- ' And yet you said nothing, and followed with the rest, as if all had been right?'

"D .- ' Yes, the guides are older than I, they took the lead, and never asked me whether I had any knowledge of the eoun- try. If they had inquired, I would have told them.'

' Z .- ' Will you now tell them ?'

' D .- 'No, indeed; unless they ask me. It does not become an Indian to instruct his elders.'"

" At the instigation of Mr. Zeisberger, the question was then asked him, when he immediately told them they must all return to a certain spot, six miles back, and then direct their course more to the northeast, which would bring them to a gap in the mountain, where they could pass through with great ease. They did so, and he followed them, and being now de- sired to take the lead, he did it, and brought them to the very spot he had described, and from thence led them all the way to Wyoming. This difficult part of the road in the swamp has been since called David's Path, and the state road now passes through it."

This anecdote was told me by Mr. Zeisberger himself, whom I have never known to say anything which was not strictly true. I, therefore, give it full credit, the more so, as I have myself witnessed two similar instances.

"The first happened in the year 1791. I had parted by acci- dent from the company I was with, and lost my way in the woods. I had with me an Indian lad about twelve or thirteen years of age, and wished him to take the lead, to which, how- ever, he would not consent. We were at last found by our party, who had gone in search of us. I complained to them of the boy for not doing what I had bidden him ; but they ans- wered that he had done right, and 'that it did not become a boy to walk before a man, and be his leader.'

"The second occurrence of the like kind took place in the year 1798. I was on a journey with two young Indians round the head of Lake Erie. Neither of these Indians having ever been in the country we were going to, they received their instructions of others before their departure. The leader, how- ever, having once mistaken a path, we traveled several miles in a wrong direction, until at last I discovered the mistake by our having Owl creek on our left, when we ought to have had it to our right. I observed this to Christian, the young Indian in the rear, who coinciding with me in opinion, I desired him to run forward to the leader, who was far ahead of us, and to bring him back; but the lad answered that he could not do it. I asked him the reason. 'It is,' said he 'because I am younger than he is.' 'Will you then,' replicd I, 'take my message to him, and tell him that I desire him to return to this place, where I will wait for him ?' The young man immediately con- sented, went forward to the leader and brought him back, upon which he took an eastward course through the woods to Owl creek, and after crossing it fell into our right path." *

$ Extract from "History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations."

The same venerable writer also speaks of filial affection and respect among the Indian tribes (and having particular refer- ence to those of Lenni Lenape), as follows :

"It is a sacred principle among the Indians, and one of those moral and religious truths which they always have before their eyes, that the Great Spirit, who created them and provided for them so abundantly with the means of subsistence, made it the duty of parents to maintain and take care of their children until they should be able to provide for themselves, and that having, while weak and helpless, received the benefits of main- tenance and protection, they are bound to repay them by a similar care of those who are laboring under the infirmities of old age, and are no longer able to supply their own wants.

"Thus a strong feeling of gratitude towards their elders, in- culcated and cherished from their earliest infancy, is the solid foundation on which rests that respect for old age for which Indians are so remarkable, and it is further supported by the well-founded hope of receiving the like succors and attentions, in their turn, when the heavy hand of time shall have reduced them to the same helpless condition which they now commis- erate in others, and seek, by every means in their power, to render more tolerable. Hence, they do not confine themselves to acts of absolute necessity; it is not enough for them that the old are not suffered to starve with hunger or perish with cold, but they must be made, as much as possible, to share in the pleasure and comforts of life. It is, indeed, a moving spectacle to see the tender and delicate attentions which, on every occa- sion, they lavish upon aged and decrepit persons. When going out hunting, they will put them on a horse or in a canoe, and take them into the woods to their hunting ground, in order to revive their spirits by making them enjoy the sights of a sport in which they can no longer participate. They place them in particular situations where they are sure that the game they are in pursuit of will pass by, taking proper measures, at the same time, to prevent its escape, so that their aged parents and friends may, at last, as our sportsmen call it, be in at the death. Nor is this all; the hoary veterans must all enjoy the honors of the chase. When the animal thus surrounded is come within the reach of their guns, when every possibility of escape is precluded by the woods all around being set on fire, they all, young and old, fire together, so that it is difficult to say whose ball it was that brought the animal to the ground. But they are never at a loss to decide, and always give it in favor of the oldest man in the party. So, when the young people have dis- covered a place where the bears have their haunts, or have resorted to for the winter, they frequently take with them, to the spot, such of the old men as are yet able to walk or ride, where they not only have an opportunity of witnessing the sport, but receive their full share of the meat and the oil.

"At home the old are as well treated and taken care of as if they were favorite children. They are cherished and even caressed; indulged in health and nursed in sickness; and all their wishes and wants are anticipated. Their company is sought by the young, to whom their conversation is considered an honor. Their advice is asked on all occasions: their words are listened to as oracles, and their occasional garrulity, nay,, even the second childhood, often attendant on extreme old age, is never, with Indians, a subject of ridicule or laughter. Rc- spect, gratitude, and love, are too predominant in their minds to permit any degrading idea to mix itself with these truly honorable and generous feelings.

"And yet there have been travelers who have ventured to assert that old people, among the Indians, are not only neg- lected and suffered to perish for want, but that they are even, when no longer able to take care of themselves, put out of the way of all trouble. I am free to declare that among all the In- dian nations that I have become acquainted with, if any one should kill an old man or woman, for no other cause than that of having become burdensome to society, it would be consid- ered as an unpardonable crime; the general indignation would be excited, and the murderer instantly put to death. I cannot conceive any act that would produce such an universal horror and detestation. Such is the veneration which is everywhere felt for old age."

Among the customs, or indeed common laws of the Indians, one of the most remarkable and interesting was the adoption of prisoners. This right belonged more particularly to the females than to the warriors of the tribes.

It was common for a mother to claim, from among the cap- tives, one whose life should be spared, and who should, by adoption, fill in her household, the place of her son who had fallen in battle.

It was well for the unfortunate prisoners, that this election

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

depended more on the voice of the mother than on that of the father, as innumerable lives were thus spared, of those whom the warriors, if left to their own desires, would have immolated. When once adopted, if the captives assumed a cheerful aspect, entered into their mode of life, learned their language, and, in brief, acted as if they actually felt themselves adopted, all hardship was 'removed, except such as was inseparable to the Indian mode of life.

Although the right was most frequently exercised by moth- ers to fill the places of their sons who had been slain, yet the privilege of adoption was often extended to female prisoners.

In their intercourse with the Indians, the white people were thoughtlessly trampling upon their religion, and their sacred rights. They were expected to look meekly on while the grave was robbed of its treasures, and the bones of their fathers were left to bleach upon the field. When exasperated by the cruel disrespect of their conquerors, and driven to deeds of ven- geance, there was little appreciation of the motives which in- fluenced them.

It was the Indian custom to bury with the dead their best clothing, and the various implements they had been in the habit of using whilst living. If it was a warrior, they placed his tomahawk by his side, and his knife in his shield; with the hunter, his bow and arrow, and implements for cooking his food; with the women, their kettles and cooking apparatus, and also food for all. Tobacco was deposited in every grave, for to smoke was an Indian's idea of felicity in the body and out of it, and in this there was not so much difference as there might be, between them and gentlemen of paler hue.

Among the Iroquois, and many other Indian nations, it was the custom to place the dead upon scaffolds built for this pur- pose, from tree to tree, or within a temporary enclosure, and underneath, a fire was kept burning for several days.

They had probably known instances of persons reviving after they were supposed to be dead; and this led to the conclusion, that the spirit sometimes returned to animate,the body, after it had once fled. If there were no signs of life for ten days, the fire was extinguished, and the body left unmolested, till de- composition had begun to take place, when the remains were buried.

In later years they allowed ten days for the flight of the spirit. Their period of mourning continued while the spirit was wandering; as soon as they believed it entered heaven, they commenced rejoicing, that it had reached where happi- ness dwelt forever. Sometimes a piteous wailing was kept up for a long time, but it was only their own bereavement that they bewailed, as they had no fear about the fate of those who died. Not until they had heard of Purgatory from the Jesuits, or endless woe from the Protestants, did they look upon death with terror, or life as anything but a blessing.

In regard to their burial rites, the words of the poet who has given metrical beauty to their legends, and added his own to their lofty enthusiasm, will suffice :

"Poet and historian have lavished their descriptive skill on the burial rites of Alaric, whose bones repose in the sandy bed of the Busentinus, but not less imposing was the funeral of Blackbird, the Ohama Chief, who was inhumed bestriding his war-horse in a hill sepulchre that overlooks the Missouri."

A tribe has been known to visit the spot which had been, in former times, the burial place of their people, though long deserted, and spend hours in silent meditation; and not till every hope had apparently died in their bosoms, did they leave the sod which covered the dust of any of their kindred, to the footsteps of the stranger.

CHAPTER VI.

INDIAN SUPERSTITION.

CHE Indians were superstitious in the extreme-believers in dreams and observers of omens.

No enterprise was inaugurated, nor journey commenced by them, without consultation of signs and portents, and in the most ordinary operations of life-the planting of their maize, or erection of their rude wigwams-critical attention was had to weather-sign, and to the position and supposed influence of the moon. In this last named peculiarity, however, they did not materially differ from many of the most substantial farmers in Pennsylvania at the present day.

Of the incredible folly and weakness which, in this direction, were universally exhibited by the otherwise self-reliant abor- igines, the gentle Heckwelder thus discourses :

"Great and powerful as the Indian conceives himself to be, firm and undaunted as he really is, braving all seasons and weathers, careless of dangers, patient of hunger, thirst, and cold, and fond of displaying the native energy of his character, even in the midst of tortures, at the very thought of which our own puny nature revolts and shudders; this lord of the creation, whose life is spent in a state of constant warfare against the wild beasts of the forest and the savages of the wilderness, he who, proud of his independent existence, strikes his breast with exultation and exclaims, 'I am a man "-the American Indian has one weak side which sinks him down to the level of the most fearful and timid being ; a childish appre- hension of an oecult and unknown power which, unless he can summon sufficient fortitude to conquer it, changes at once the hero into a coward.

"It is incredible to what a degree the Indians' superstitious belief in witchcraft operates upon their minds. The moment that their imagination is struck with the idea that they are bewitched, they are no longer themselves; their fancy is con- stantly at work creating the most horrid and distressing images. They see themselves falling a sacrifice to the wicked arts of a vile unknown hand, of one who would not have dared to faee in a fair combat, dying a miserable ignominous death, a death to which they would a thousand times prefer the stake with all its horrors. No tale, no tradition, no memorial of their courage or heroic fortitude, will go down with it to posterity; it will be thought that they were not deserving of a better fate. And (O! dreadful thought to an Indian mind) that death is to remain forever unrevenged; their friends, their relations, the men of their own tribe will seek the murderer in vain, they will seek him while perhaps he is in the midst of them unnoticed and unknown, smiling at their impotent rage, and calmly selecting some new victim to his infernal art.

"Of this extraordinary supposed power of their conjurers, of the causes which produce it, and the manner in which it is acquired, the Indians, as may well be supposed, have not a very definite idea. All they can say is, that the sorcerer makes use of a 'deadening substance,' which he discharges and conveys to the person whom he means to 'strike' through the air by means of the wind, or of his own breath, or throws at him in a manner which they can neither understand nor describe. The person thus stricken is immediately seized with an unac- countable terror, his spirits sink, his appetite fails, he is dis- turbed in his sleep, he pines and wastes away, or a sickness seizes him, and he dies at last a miserable victim to the work- ings of his own imagination.

"Such are their ideas and the melancholy effects of the dread they feel, of that supernatural power which they vainly fancy to exist among them. That they can destroy one another by means of poisonous roots and plants is certainly true, but in this there is no witchcraft. This prejudice which they labor under can be described to no other than their excessive ignor- ance and credulity. I was once acquainted with a white man, a shrewd and correct observer, who had lived long among the Indians, and being himself related to an Indian family, had the best opportunities of obtaining accurate information on this subject. He told me that he had found the means of getting into the confidence of one of their most noted sorcerers, who had frankly confessed to him that his secret consisted in excit- ing fear and suspicion, and creating in the multitude a strong belief in his magical powers. 'For,' said he, 'such is the credulity of many, that if I pick a little wool from my blanket and roll it between my fingers into a small round ball, not larger than a bean, I am by that alone believed to be deeply skilled in the magic art, and it is immediately supposed that I am preparing the deadly substance with which I mean to strike some person or other, although I hardly know myself at the time what my fingers are doing; and if at that moment I hap- pen to cast my eyes on a particular man, or even to cast a side glance at him, it is enough to make him consider himself as the intended victim ; he is from that moment effectually struck, and if he is not possessed of great fortitude, so as to be able to repel the thought and divert his mind from it, or to persuade himself that it is nothing but the work of a disturbed imagination, he will sink under the terror thus created, and at last perish a victim, not indeed to witchcraft, but to his own credulity and folly.'

"But men of such strong minds are not often to be found; so deeply rooted is the belief of the Indians in those fancied supernatural powers. It is vain to endeavor to convince them

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

by argument, that they are entirely founded in delusion and have no real existence. The attempt has been frequently made by sensible white men, but always without success."

More than a hundred years ago, while the Delawares still occu- pied portions of Pennsylvania, there was a Quaker named John Anderson, a traveling merchant among the Indians, known far and wide by them as "the honest Quaker trader." This man, knowing the almost unlimited confidence which the natives reposed in him, endeavored to convince them of the utter fal- lacy of their foolish superstition; but finding argument vain, at last requested that their most powerful sorcerers might be produced, and in presence of the tribe and the chiefs and the old men, might exercise on him the most potent spells of their magic, and if they should succeed in working harm upon him, never in so slight a degree, then he would not only acknowl- edge their supernatural power, but would pay a goodly amount of merchandise, of such kinds as Indians most eovet, in forfeit for his discomfiture. His only stipulation was that the conju- ror should be unarmed, and, to guard against the possibility of poison, that he should not attempt to approach nearer than a specified distance of about twelve feet.

The first magician, to whom this opportunity was offered, utterly refused to injure so good a man; one whom the Indians all loved for his uprightness ; No! the Great Spirit forbid that he should turn the terrible glance of the evil eye on the honest Quaker !

This most considerate and conscientious course was greeted with the warmest admiration and applause by the assembled Delawares, and caused them to regard the conjuror with more reverence than ever.

But another was found who was less conscientious, and who boasted that neither the distance of twelve feet, nor yet of twelve miles, could in the least interfere with the certain effect of his deadly spells.

So honest John Anderson brought out the enticing goods which he was to forfeit, and then stood firm and serene before the fearful man who claimed sueh wonderful powers. He was dressed and tricked out in a manner most infernal; covered from head to toe with a bear skin, black as jet, and closed to- gether just as it grew upon the animal. In addition to this were a pair of satanic horns upon the head, all intended to strike the victim dumb by its terrible appearance. But it had no such effect upon the shad-bellied Ajax. The spectators had implored him to desist from his fool-hardiness, as they thought it to be, and when he persisted they looked upon him with the profoundest pity, and some covered their eyes with their blankets to shut out the fearful sight, for they loved this man of integrity with a surpassing affection, and they would not that he should incur a fate so dreadful. It is barely possible that at this time, with all this commiseration, there may have floated through the red man's mind some consolatory visions of the delights of an Indian administration upon the personal effects of the upright Quaker, who so persistently courted his own doom, but, however that may have been, John Anderson boldly faced the diabolieal anties and gesticulations of the horned wizard, and never blenched through an interminable half-hour of wool-picking and contortions ; at the end of which the red trickster suddenly ceased his incantations, announeing that the pale face was impervious to them on account of having been accustomed to living on salted provisons, the salt having a repellant effect on that invisible substance, which was always so fatal in its effects when directed against Indians.

But though the chiefs and sachems and warriors saw with their own eyes the diseomfiture of their sorceror, and the tri- umph of the good Quaker-congratulated him on his miracu- lous escape, and gazing pensively upon the bright-colored mer- chandise as it now disappeared from their sight and was returned to the packages; yet their superstitious belief in the power of the conjuror had not diminished one iota.

Even in the administering of medicines to the sick, we are told by an old Moravian chronicler that these preparations were "mixed with superstitious practices, calculated to guard against the powers of witchcraft, in which, unfortunately, they have a strong fixed belief. Indeed, they are too apt to attribute the most natural deaths to the arts and incantations of sorcerers, and their medicine is, in most cases, as much directed against those as against the disease itself. * *

* * *

* There is a superstitious notion, in which all their physicians participate, which is, that when an emetic is to be administered, the water in which the potion is mixed must be drawn up a stream, and if for a cathartic, downward. This is, at least, innocent, and not more whimsical perhaps, nor more calculated to excite a smile than some theories of grave and learned men in civilized countries."

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 Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 10

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728