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 41

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 41
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 41

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A cold winter setting in, and the means of sustenance at Sandusky being very scant, one hundred or more of the con- verts had asked and obtained leave to go back to the towns in the valley for provisions. At the same time warriors were sent to the Ohio to rob and murder the whites, with intent thereby to exasperate the borderers who were in the American interest, and incite them to cross the Ohio, and pursue the raiders to the Tuscarawas towns, where it was expected they would fall in with the Christian Indians gathering corn and dispatch them. Thus was the Williamson expedition planned in reality by the British at Detroit and Sandusky.

On account of the weather during the month of February, 1782, being unusually fine, the scalping savages were astir at a much earlier season than was their custom. The party of war- riors from Sandusky crossed the Ohio above and below Mingo town, near what is now Steubenville, committed some murders and took many captives on Raccoon and Buffalo creeks, Wash- ington county. The incursions of the Indians later in the spring was anticipated by the settlers along the border, feelings of alarm and great exasperation became general, and they began organizing the expedition under Colonel Williamson, which afterward perpetrated the unfortunate excesses at Gna- denhütten.

The early period at which those fatal visitations of the In- dians took place, led to the belief among the settlements that the murderers were either Moravians or that the warriors had their winter quarters at their towns on the Tuscarawas. The borderers came to the conclusion that a quick and spirited ex- ertion was necessary to save their country, and hastened the preparations for marching against the Indian towns. A party of warriors discovering Williamson's expedition organizing, immediately thereafter attacked the house of Robert Wallace, upon Raccoon creek, in the northern part of Washington county, during his absence, and carried off his wife and three children. Wallace, upon his return home in the evening, finding his wife and children gone, his home broken up, his furniture destroyed, and his cattle shot and lying dead in the yard, immediately alarmed the neighbors, and a party was raised that night, who started early next morning in pursuit; but, unfortunately, a snow fell, which prevented their coming up with the savages, and the men were obliged to return. With their prisoners, consisting of Mrs. Wallace, her little son Robert, two and a half years old, and another son ten years of age, and an infant daughter, and what plunder they could carry off, the savages made their way toward the Ohio; but finding the mother and her infant somewhat troublesome, they were tomahawked and scalped. The two boys were carried to Sandusky, where the elder died.

About the time of the attack upon Wallace's house, John Car- penter was taken prisoner, from the waters of Buffalo creek, in the same county, by a party of six Indians-two of whom call- ed themselves Moravians, and spoke good Dutch-and hurried across the Ohio. His two horses, which they took with him, nearly perished in swimming the river. The savages, as well as their captive, suffered severely before reaching the Muskin- gum. The two Moravians Indians treated their prisoner with particular indignity. In the morning, after the first day's

journey beyond that stream, Carpenter was sent out to bring in the horses, which had been turned out in the evening, after be- ing hobbled. The animals had made a circuit and fallen into the trail by which they came the preceding day, and were ma- king their way homeward. He immediately resolved to at- tempt an escape. This was a very hazardous undertaking, as, should he be retaken, he well knew the most cruel tortures awaited him. However, he made the effort and was successful -coming in to. Pittsburgh by the way of Forts Laurens and McIntosh.

Near to and on the west side of the Ohio river, the Indians impaled the body of Mrs. Wallace and her infant child on trees near the trail by which they knew the settlers' expedition would take on its way to the Indian country. Arriving at Gnadenhutten, these warriors found the Christian Indians at work in their cornfields, getting together the grain they soon intended to carry to their starving brethren in the north-west. They informed them of the murders they had committed. The Christian Indians becoming alarmed for their own safety, remon- strated with the warriors for stopping at their town, and warn- ed them off. Before leaving the town, the warriors bartered, among other things, the dress they had taken from Mrs. Wal- lace, to some young and thoughtless Indians girls, for some pro- visions. The Christian Indians, upon the departure of their unwelcome guests, called a council at Salem, for the purpose of deliberating upon the proper course to pursue. At this meeting, it was agreed to remain and continue gathering the corn, and if the whites from the settlements came in pursuit of the mur- derers, to trust to the fact of their being known as Christian and peaceable Indians, for their safety. As they had by this time secured the crop of corn, it was agreed to begin prepara- tions for the return, and the day of starting was fixed. While these poor creatures were busily engaged in getting ready to carry succor to their famishing brethren on the Sandusky, feel- ing perfectly safe, conscious of their innocence of any cold- blooded acts that were inflaming the settlements east of the Ohio, the Williamson party was on its march toward their towns.

Col. Williamson's party consisted of about ninety men and were hastily collected together. They rendezvoused and en- camped the first night at Mingo bottom, in what is now Jeffer- son county, and the next morning, the 3d of March, 1782, started upon their march, passing up Cross creek. Each man furnished with his own arms, ammunition, and provision, many of them having horses. On the evening of the second day's march they arrived within one mile of the middle Moravian town, and en- camped for the night. Thus, on the very day previous to the one fixed for the departure of the Christian Indians, March 7, 1782, and while they were engaged in binding up their packs, the white party made its appearance, having been in the for- ests the night before, within sight and hearing of Gnadenhüt- ten. On their way to the town a detachment that was to go in from the north met a young half-breed, Joseph Shabosh, who was out early in the morning to catch a horse. Young Sha- bosh was struck down and scalped while begging for his life on the grounds of his being a Christian and the son of a white man. From the spot of Shabosh's death the detachment went to the river bank, from where they expected to get a view of the town, and on the way passed Jacob, a brother-in-law to Shabosh, who was in the standing corn tying up some sacks re- cently filled. Although they passed within thirty yards of him he was not discovered. He recognized some of the whites, having seen them in the party that took the Christian Indians from Schönbrunn the preceding fall to Fort Pitt, whence they were released by the commandant and returned home, he hav- ing been one of those taken. Jacob was about to hail a man he knew, when the sharp crack of a rifle checked him, and the next instant he beheld one of his brethren drop in his canoe. This so alarmed Jacob that he fled out of the field and into the forest and did not stop until several miles away, where he re- mained for twenty-four hours.

The Williamson party seeing a number of the Indians in a cornfield, on the opposite side of the river, sent a detachment of sixteen men, two at a time, in a large sugar trough, for want of a canoe, over the river, it being very high. They hailed the Indians as friends and shook hands all round, and then advised them to stop work, recross to the town, and prepare to return with the whites to Fort Pitt, declaring that upon reaching there they would be at once supplied with everything they needed. This being pleasing news to the ears of the Indians they at once repaired with the whites to the town.

While these transactions were going on at Gnadenhütten, John Martin and his son, Christian Indians, were on the west

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HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

side of the river, observing from an eminence, the Indians of the town and the white men walking together and conversing in a friendly manner. Martin sent his son over to the town while he went to Salem to apprise the brethren at that place of what was going on. The Salem Indians sent two of their own men with Martin to Gnadenhütten, where the Williamson men appointed a party of their own number to go with these Indians back to Salem, and assist in bringing those at the lower town to Gnadenhutten. When the main body of the Salem Indians arrived at the river bank, opposite Gnadenhüt- ten, they discovered blood in the sand and on a canoe that was lying at the edge of the water. They had already given up their guns, axes and knives, being assured that the same would all be returned when they arrived at Fort Pitt. Being taken over to the town they found the inhabitants confined, prepara- tory to the slaughter that was to take place. The whites now ceased calling them friends and Christians, and charged them with being enemies and warriors. In proof of this averment the whites pointed to the pewter plates, cups, spoons, tea ket- tles, pots, basins, &c., and declared it all stolen property from the settlers. They also seized the Indian horses, and pointed to the brands thereon as further evidence that all this property had been stolen from the border families. Finding all this property in their possession, together with the bloody dress that was recognized as having belonged to Mrs. Wallace, they were told to prepare for death, and the execution was fixed for the next day. In rerutation of the charges, the Indians ac- counted for the brands on the horses by offering to produce their own branding irons, which were used for the purpose of enabling them to identify their own horses. In regard to the other property, they insisted that the most of it was brought by the missionaries from the Pennsylvania missions, and the balance bought from traders who had from time to time visited the towns. Finding all efforts to save their lives fruitless, they begged for a short time to prepare for death. While they were at their devotions their captors discussed the manner of putting them to death. Some were in favor of burning them alive, and some of killing first, then burning the bodies after scalping. The commander, Williamson, became powerless, in the excited and frenzied condition of his men, to whom had been exhibited the bloody dress of Mrs. Wallace, which operated on their minds, as, history tells us, the bloody robe of Cæsar, when shown to the Romans by Antony, operated on their minds. All Wil- liamson could do was to submit the matter to a vote, as proposed by the most excited of the men. Upon taking a vote, those who were in favor of saving the Indians and taking theni to Fort Pitt were invited to step out to the front, which was re- sponded to by but eighteen out of about one hundred in all (some accounts put the number at three hundred), the residue voting to kill, scalp and burn the captives. It has never been settled whether Williamson voted or not, the presumption being, from the fact of his being commander, that he did not vote. Those of the men who voted against death then retired from the scene, at the same time calling upon the Almighty to witness that they washed their hands of the crime about to be perpetrated. The victims were then asked if they were ready to die, and, the answer being in the affirmative, the work of death commenced. Heckwelder says that the number killed exceeded ninety, all of whom, except four, were killed in the mission houses, they having been tied there (according to Heckwelder's version), and there knocked in the head with a cooper's mallet. One man, he says, taking up the mallet, began with an Indian named Abraham, and continued knocking down until he counted fourteen; he then handed his mallet to one of his fellows, saying, "My arm fails me; go on in the same way; I think I have done pretty well." In another house, where mostly women and children were tied, Judith, an aged and pious widow, was the first victim. After they had finished they retreated a short distance, but, on returning to view the dead bodies, and finding one of them named Abel, although scalped and mangled, attempting to raise himself from the floor, they despatched him, and, having set fire to the house, went off shouting and cursing.

Of the number killed sixty-two were grown persons, one- third of whom were women, the remainder being children. Two youths, who were knocked down and shut up in the first house, escaped death. One named Thomas, was knocked down and scalped, but being only stunned, after a while recovered, and on looking around he saw Abel alive, but scalped, with blood running down his face. The lad quickly laid down as if dead, and had scarcely laid a minute, when the party came and finished Abel by chopping his head with a hatchet. Soon after they went away, Thomas crept over the dead bodies to the door, 15-B. & J. COS.

and on getting out, hid himself until dark, when he made his way to the path leading to Sandusky. The other lad, who was in the house where the women were, raised a trap-door and got down into the cellar with another boy, where they lay con- cealed during the time the butchery was going on. After dusk, they attempted to get out through a window opening in the foundation of the house. The first succeeded, but the second stuck fast, and was burned alive, the house being set on fire soon after the poor little fellow got fast. The two who escaped, afterwards made their way to Sandusky, having fallen in with the Schoenbunn Indians in their flight.

One of Williamson's party saved a little boy of eight years old, took him home, and raised him to a man, when he left and returned to his tribe.

In Zeisberger's version of the massacre, as detailed by his biographer, it is reported as occurring on the 8th of March. He says that the victims were tied, some singly, and others two and two, dragged to the appointed house, and then tomahawked and scalped. When the men and boys were all killed, the wo- men were brought out, taken to the other house, and dispatch- ed in the same manner. He states that Christiana, a widow, who was well versed in the English language, appealed to Col. Williamson, as she was being led away, and he replied: "I have no power to help you." She was killed with the others. The massacre being over, Williamson and his men returned home to the Ohio and Monongahela, with the scalps and about one hundred horses. In the valley, all was desolation. Not a warrior was afterward found to be following Williamson to pick . off his men on their way to the Ohio, which they reached on the 10th of March, two days after the massacre, unmolested. Within a radius of twenty-five miles around the three burned towns, not a human being was known to be alive, while but two or three days' march out on the Sandusky there were, perhaps, a thousand warriors, and they knew of Williamson's expedition having marched west from the Ohio, but no warriors intercept- ed him going or coming. That was part of the British policy matured at Detroit, of having these peaceable Indians massacred by excited American borderers, in order to bring over to the British side all the Indian tribes united against the colonists. How completely it succeeded will be seen.

Simon Girty returned to the Wyandott towns, from which his absence had been short, but sufficiently long to have ena- bled him, in disguise, to reach the border settlements, and, among his old acquaintances, start and hurry on the expedi- tion against the Moravian towns. On the Sandusky, at the present Fremont, Heckwelder and Zeisberger first heard of the massacre by a convert, who had run from Captives town to ap- prise them of the news that had just been brought in by a Wy- andot band of warriors, who had crossed the valley with bor- der scalps and stolen horses. This was evidently the party who had killed and impaled the child of Mrs. Wallace, sold her bloody dress at Gnadenhutten to the unsuspecting Indian con- verts, and then hid in the vicinity until the massacre previously planned was over, when they fled homeward to receive their scalp premiums at Detroit. At the captives' huts, where the residue of convert captives were who had not gone down to the death at Gnadenhutten, the news of the slaughter of their rela- tives had also come in by Jacob, who had escaped from under the floor of one of the burning houses, and fled to the San- dusky.

The news reached the warrior towns of the Shawanese on the Scioto and Miami, the Delawares, under Pipe, at Sandusky, Monceys, under Welenduvacken, on the Wabash, and other tribes, calling for a revenge in corresponding magnitude to the murders committed on their kin.

This was the kind of double life that Girty gloried in, first on the border, exciting the whites to kill the christian Indians and burn their towns in the valley; next at the warrior's towns, inciting them to revenge the deaths of those christians, and he lost no time in fanning the flame in their camp fires. At all their British camps a unanimous determination existed to take a bloody and two-fold vengeance on the Americans. A vow was made that no white man should ever have that valley for a home, but that it should remain uncontaminated by his presence through all time, and that the boundary line of future treaties with the whites should be the Ohio forever and ever.

To carry out their intentions, large bands of picked warriors started at once to raid afresh on the Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky borders, and each prisoner was to be taken to the place of massacre, and there dispatched by the tomahawk and fire brand until the two-fold vengeance had been consummated.

The massacre was a month old, and already the vengeance- taking warriors on the Ohio, and its eastern tributaries in

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Pennsylvania and Virginia, had sunk their hatchets into the skulls of many white borderers, who fought for life, and were killed in their tracks. These deaths were to be counted as no vengeance until the scalps were carried to the massacre ground, dried, painted red or blaek on the inside, with the picture of a bullet or a hatchet in another color, to indicate how its owner died. In like manner were the sealps of those whites who should suffer death by fire to be painted, but in lieu of the bul- let or hatchet, a bunch of faggots were to be represented on the skin side, indicative of the fire-death.

After the retreat of Crawford's army, which is recited in these pages, and the last of its stragglers and escaped prisoners had recrossed the valley of the Tuscarawas, it was not soon again visited by white men. Until 1785, the savage warriors after sealps, in fulfillment of the vow of vengeance, were its only hu- man inhabitants. In that year an escaped prisoner crossed the river at the massacre town and reached the Fort at Wheeling, but he reported that he saw no human being in the valley. The bones of the christian martyrs were scattered around, and the fruit trees planted by the missionaries were in bloom, but the limbs had been broken down by the bears, and the place had become the abode only of rattlesnakes and wild beasts.

INDIAN RETALIATION FOR THE MORAVIAN MASSACRE-THE FIRST ACTOR IN THE TRAGEDY, THE LAST VICTIM OF VENGEANCE.

At the massacre at Gnadenhütten, the first blood shed was that of a Christian Indian named Joseph Shabosh, who was tomahawked and scalped by Charles Builderback, one of Wil- liamson's men. He was a Virginian, who had settled in what is now Jefferson county, Ohio, near the mouth of Short creek. After the massacre he was out with Crawford's army, but es- caped the fate of Crawford and returned home. Seven years after, in 1789, he and his wife were captured by Indians near their cabin on the Ohio. When the Indians first attacked her husband and his brother, she hid in the bushes. The brother escaped; but as soon as Charles was tied, the Indians hunted, but failing to find her, they told Builderback to call her by name or they would kill him then and there. At his first call she would not answer, but when he called her again, and told her of his fate if she kept silent, the woman came out. The Indians then retreated west with the two captives. Nearing the Tuscarawas, they separated into two bands, one taking him toward Gnadenhütten, and the other, with Mrs. Builderback, came to the Tuscarawas higher up the stream, where they en- camped at an In lian town, probably "Three-Leg Town," near the present Urichsville. In a short time the other band came up, and an Indian threw into her lap the scalp of her dead husband. The sight so overcame her that she swooned. They laid her against a tree, and when she awoke the scalp was gone. They took her to the Miami Valley, where she remained a cap- tive nine months, but was finally ransomed and sent to her home up the Ohio. In 1791 she married John Green, and moved to Fairfield county, where she died in 1842, near Lan- caster, and is said to have given birth to the first white child born in Fairfield eounty. His eaptors knew Builderback, and had been watching for him for years, determined to take re- venge for the death of Shabosh, their relative, seven years be- fore, at Gnadenhütten. Some of his Ohio river friends, who pursued these Indians, found his body a short distance from the spot where he had killed Shabosh. His body was terribly mutilated, and it was evident to his friends that the Indians had intended burning Builderback at the massacre ground, but the pursuers were so elose after them that they abandoned burning him alive, and made their escape, after tomakawking and scalping him. He was the last white man known to have been in the massacre who paid the forfeit of his life for his connection therewith.

APPENDIX A.

ATTACK ON WHEELING FORT IN THE YEAR 1777.

From the Brooke Republican, Published in Wellsburg, July 8, 1833.

We are indebted to Mr. Abraham Rogers, a distinguished actor in the scene, and now a resident of this county, for the following particulars of the attack by the Indians in the year 1777, on Wheeling Fort, and the successful defense of the place by twelve men.

As an interesting incident connected with the early settle- ment of the country, and as a tribute of respect and gratitude

to the early and adventurous pioneers of the west, for their valor, perseverance and long suffering, it is due to their mnem- ory that it should be recorded, and find a place in the history of our country.

The fort was situated on the higher bank or bluff, not far. from the place, where the mansion house of the late Noah Zane, Esq., was subsequently erected. It covered between one-half and three-quarters of an acre of ground and was enelosed with a stockade eight feet high. The garrison at the time of the attack, including all who were able to bear arms, did not ex- ceed fifteen in number, and of these, several were between the ages of twelve and eighteen. The number of women and chil- dren is not known.

The first intimation the commandant of the fort (Col. David Shepherd) had of the approach of an enemy, was received the evening before the attack, from Capt. Ogle, who with Abraham Rogers, Joseph Biggs, Robert Lemon, and two others, who had just arrived from Beech Bottom Fort, on the Ohio, about twelve miles from Wheeling. Capt. Ogle, on his approach to Wheel- ing, had observed below that place the appearance of large volumes of smoke in the atmosphere, which he rightly conjec- tured was caused by the burning of Grave Creek Fort, by hos- tile Indians, and upon his arrival immediately communicated his suspicions to Col. Shepherd, but it was too late in the even- ing to reconnoitre. At a very early hour the next morning (first day of September) the commander of the fort sent two of his men in a canoe, down the river, to ascertain the cause of the smoke, and whether any Indians were in the neighbor- hood. These two men were massacreed by the Indians (on their return it was supposed) at the mouth of Wheeling creek, a few hundred yards below the Fort. In the meantime an Irish servant and a negro man had also been sent out to re- connoiter in the immediate vicinity. The Irishman was de- coyed, seized and killed by the Indians but the negro was per- mitted to escape, who on his return gave the first aların of the actual approach of the Indians. Capt. Ogle, on the receipt of this intelligence, accompanied by fifteen or sixteen of the gar- rison, leaving but twelve or thirteen in the Fort, immediately proceeded towards the mouth of the creek, in pursuit of the savages. The Indians were lying in ambush and permitted the Captain and his devoted followers to advance alniost to the creek, when a brisk and most deadly fire was opened upon theni. They fought bravely-desperately; but were overpowered by the number of the enemy, were all except the Captain and two others, killed and scalped.

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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 41

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