History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 5

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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To return to General Butler's party. The banks of the Licking were afterwards a favorite resort for the hunt- ers of the party, to hunt buffalo. Further up the Ohio an enormous beast of this kind had been killed. Gen- eral Butler writes that its head weighed one hundred and thirty-five pounds, that in life it must have stood over

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OIHO.

six feet high, and that its total weight was at least fifteen hundred pounds.

The country between a point six miles below the Lick- ing and the mouth of the Great Miami is thus described:

"One mile from this is a bar of sand in the middle of the river; the channel is on the north shore. Here are the dreadful effects of a tornado on the hill ; on the north side, from the top down, every tree and the surface of the earth has been washed or blown off. On the south shore there is about four acres of land, the timber of which is totally blown down, which I think will be suffi- cient for mills part of the season, as it comes out of a hilly country ; it has thrown out a great body of gravel, etc., which forms a kind of Presque Isle, on the south side of the river. Two miles below this comes in a small creek, just above which is most excel- lent land on the face of a beautiful hill. The river is beyond description, deer and turkey sporting before and on each side in great abundance-saw above twenty deers before twelve o'clock. Put in to dine about eleven o'clock about twelve miles below Licking creek.

"Sailed at half past one o'clock, the wind ahead. Here is some very fine lands covered with pine, ash, and other rich timber. Pushed on to the Great Miami, above the mouth of which I ordered the whole to encamp about five o'clock in the evening. I went out with Ma- jor Finney to examine the ground for a post."

The general was instructed by a resolution of Congress to plant a military station at any eligible point between the Miami and Muskingum rivers; and although recom- mended by General Clark, who was at a little fort a few miles below, to select a site beyond the Great Miami, he preferred to remain on the east side, in accordance with his instructions, and chose a spot on the higher ground, afterwards on the farm of the Hon. John Scott Harrison, which was cleared, and the erection of four block-houses and a quadrangular work begun October 25, 1785. Within three days two block-houses were "in a tolerable state of defense, and a third well forward." The party, and the troops with it, commanded by Major Finney and Lieutenant Doyle, were subsisted mainly on bear's nieat, buffalo and other game October 30 one Captain John- ston, a settler from below, proposed to have a road marked from Lexington to the fort. which Generals Clark and Butler warmly seconded. A store-house was presently built for the goods brought to facilitate negotiations with the Indians. Chimneys were built of stones .picked up in the neighborhood. November 13th General Parsons, another of the commissioners for Indian affairs, arrived from above, with a boat-load of salt provisions; and there were several other arrivals the same day, of people bound to the falls of the Ohio and other points.

The fort here erected was called "Fort Finney," in honor of the gallant major who commanded the garrison. The following description of it, by Judge Hall, though probably colored somewhat, for his Romance of Western History, is no doubt sufficiently near the facts to warrant its quotation here :

In the eye of a military engineer the fort would hardly have deserved that name, as it was a temporary structure, intended only to protect its

small garrison against a sudden attack by an Indian force. It was composed of a series of log houses opening upon an interior area or quadrangle, with a block house or citadel in the centre, while the outer sides, closely connected, permit a square inclosure or rampart, without apertures, except a single entrance and a few loop-holes from which to discharge fire-arms. The whole presented the appearance of a single edifice, receiving light from the centre and forming barracks for the gar- rison, as well as breastworks against a foe. The forest was cleared away for some hundreds of yards around, leaving an open vista ex- tending to the water's edge, while a few acres enclosed in a rude fence and planted with corn and garden vegetables, for the use of the soldiers, exhibited the first rude attempt at agriculture in that wild and beautiful region.

A council-house was put up to accommodate the Indians, who gradually gathered in and about it; and, while awaiting the arrival of others to hold a pow-wow over the proposed treaty, and being supplied with rum and whiskey by the commissioners, they soon became „drunken and troublesome, and importunate in their demands. Finally, by the last of January, after a great deal of difficulty, the representatives of various tribes were got together at the fort, in numbers reported by General Butler as forty-seven Delawares, eighty-three Wyandots, and three hundred and eighteen Shawnees, four hundred and forty-eight in all, counting all ages and sexes. It was a large number to be dependent mainly on the supplies of the Government. No Wabash Indians were present, on account of hostility inspired by the British. The American traders and the Kentucky peo- ple, strange to say, seemed also opposed to a treaty, and did what they could to prevent it. Those Indians who came were in bad temper, and at times haughty and dis- respectful. Out of an incident arising from this spirit Judge Hall, the voluminous and entertaining writer, formerly of Hamilton county, has woven a romantic story, which is thus prettily told in a chapter of his Romance of Western History, entitled, The War Belt: A Legend of North Bend:

An apartment in the fort was prepared as a council-room, and at the appointed hour the doors werc thrown open. At the head of the table sat Clark, a soldier-like and majestic man, whose complexion, eyes, and hair all indicated a sanguine and mercurial temperament. The brow was high and capacious, the features were prominent and manly, and the expression, which was kcen, reflective, and ordinarily cheerful and agreeable, was now grave almost to sternness.

The Indians, being a military people, have a deep respect for martial virtuc. To other estimable or shining qualities they tuin a careless eye or pay at best but a passing tribute, while they bow in profound venera- tion before a successful warrior. The name of Clark was familiar to them : several brilliant expeditions into their country had spread the terror of his arms throughout their villages and carried the fame of his exploits to every council-fire in the west. Their high appreciation of his character was exemplified in a striking as well as an amusing manner on another occasion, when a council was heldl with several tribes. The celebrated Delaware chief, Buckinghelas, on entering the council-room, without noticing any other person, walked up to Clark, and as he shook hands cordially with him exclaimed. "It is a happy day when two such men as Colonel Clark and Buckinghelas meet together."

Such was the remarkable man who now presided at the council-table. On his right hand sat Colonel Richard Butler, a brave officer of the Revolution, who soon after fell, with the rank of brigadier general, in the disastrous campaign of St. Clair. On the other side was Samuel 11. Parsons, a lawyer from New England, who afterwards became a judge in the Northwestern Territory. At the same table sat the secre- taries, while the interpreters, several officers, and a few sokliers, sat around.

An lodian council is one of the most imposing spectacles in savage life. It is one of the few occasions in which the warrior exercises his right of suffrage, his influence and his talents, in a civil capacity ; and

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

the meeting is conducted with all the gravity and all the ceremonious ostentation with which it is possible to invest it. The matter to be con- sidered, as well as all the details, are well digested beforehand, so that the utmost decorum shall prevail and the decision be unanimous. The chiefs and sages, the leaders and orators, occupy the most conspicuous seats ; behind them are arranged the younger braves, and still further in the rear appear the women and youth, as spectators. All are equally attentive. A dead silence reigns throughout the assemblage. The great pipe, gaudily adorned with paint and feathers, is lighted and passed from mouth to mouth, commencing with the chief highest in rank, and proceeding, by regular gradations, to the inferior order of braves. If two or three nations be represented, the pipe is passed from one party to the other, and salutations are courteously exchanged, be- fore the business of the council is opened by the respective speakers. Whatever jealousy or party spirit may exist in the tribe, it is carefully excluded from this dignified assemblage, whose orderly conduct and close attention to the proper subject before them might be imitated with profit by some of the most enlightened bodies in Christendom.

It was an alarming evidence of the temper now prevailing among them and of the brooding storm that filled their minds, that no pro- priety of demeanor marked the entrance of the savages into the coun- cil-room. The usual formalities were forgotten or purposely dispensed with, and an insulting levity substituted in their place. The chiefs and braves stalked in with an appearance of light regard, and seated them- selves promiscuously on the floor, in front of the commissioners. An air of insolence marked all their movements, and showed an intention to dictate terms or to fix a quarrel upon the Americans.

A dead silence rested over the group; it was the silence of dread, dis- trust, and watchfulness, not of respect. The eyes of the savage band gloated upon the banquet of blood that seemed already spread out be- fore them; the pillage of the fort and the bleeding scalps of the Ameri- cans were almost within their grasp; while that gallant little band saw the portentous nature of the crisis and stood ready to sell their lives as dearly as possible.

The commissioners, without noticing the disorderly conduct of the other party or appearing to have discovered their meditated treachery, opened the council in due form. They lighted the peace-pipe, and, after drawing a few whiffs, passed it to the chiefs, who received it. Colonel Clark then rose to explain the purpose for which the treaty was ordered. With an unembarrassed air, with the tone of one accus- tomed to command, and the easy assurance of perfect security and self-possession, he stated that the commissioners had been sent to offer peace to the Shawanoes; that the President had no wish to continue the war; he had no resentment to gratify; and that, if the red men de- sired peace, they could have it on liberal terms. "If such be the will of the Shawanoes, " he concluded, "let some of their wise men speak."

A chief arose, drew up his tall person to its full height, and assum- ing a haughty attitude, threw his eye contemptuously over the com- missioners and their small retinue, as if to measure their insignificance, in comparison with his own numerous train, and then, stalking up to the table, threw upon it two belts of wampum of different colors-the war and the peace belt.

The chiefs drew themselves up, in the consciousness of having hurled defiance in the teeth of the white men. They had offered an insult to the renowned leader of the Long Knives, to which they knew it would be hard for him to submit, while they did not suppose he would dare to resent it. The council-pipe was laid aside, and those fierce, wild men gazed intently on Clark. The Americans saw that the crisis had arrived; they could no longer doubt that the Indians understood the advantage they possessed, and were disposcd to use it; and a com- mon sense of danger caused each eye to be turned on the leading com- missioner. He sat undisturbed, and apparently careless, until the chief who had thrown the belts on the table had taken his seat; then, with a small cane which he held in his hand, he reached as if playfully towards the war-belt, entangled the end of the stick in it, drew it towards him, and then, with a twitch of the cane, threw the belt into the midst of the chiefs. The effect was electric. Every man in council, of each party, sprang to his feet; the savages with a loud exclamation of astonishment, "Hugh!" the Americans in expectation of a hopeless conflict against overwhelming numbers. Every hand grasped a weapon.

Clark alone was unawed. The expression of his countenance changed to a ferocious sternness, and his eye flashed; but otherwise he was unmoved. A bitter smile was slightly perceptible upon his com- pressed lips, as he gazed upon that savage band, whose hundred eyes were bent fiercely and in horrid cxultation upon him, as they stood like a pack of wolves at bay, thirsting for blood, and ready to rush upon him whenever onc bolder than the rest should commence the attack.

It was one of those moments of indecision when the slightest weight thrown into either scale will make it preponderate; a moment in which a bold man, conversant with the secret springs of human action, may seize upon the minds of all around him and sway them at his will. Such a man was the intrepid Virginian. He spoke, and there was no man bold enough to gainsay him-none that could return the fierce glance of his eye. Raising his arm, and waving his hand towards the door, he exclaimed; ' Dogs! you may go!' The Indians hesitated for a moment, and then rushed tumultuously out of the council-room.

The decision of Clark on that occasion saved himself and his com- panions from massacre. The plan of the savages had been artfully laid; he had read it in their features and conduct, as plainly as if it had been written· upon a scroll before him. He met it in a manner which was unexpected; the crisis was brought on sooner than was intended; and upon a principle similar to that by which, when a line of battle is broken, the dismayed troops fly before order can be restored, the new and sudden turn given to these proceedings by the energy of Clark con- founded the Indians, and before the broken thread of their scheme of treachery could be reunited, they were panic-struck. They had come prepared to browbeat, to humble, and then to destroy; they looked for remonstrance and altercation; for the luxury of drawing the toils gradu- ally around their victims; of beholding their agony and degradation, and of bringing on the final catastrophe by an appointed signal, when the scheme should be ripe. They expected to see, on our part, great caution, a skillful playing-off, and an unwillingness to take offence, which were to be gradually goaded into alarm, irritation and submis- sion. The cool contempt with which their first insult was thrown back in their teeth, surprised them, and they were foiled by the self-posses- sion of one man. They had no Tecumthe among them, no master- spirit to change the plan, so as to adapt it to a new exigency; and those braves who, in many a battle, had shown themselves to bemen of true valor, quailed before the moral superiority which assumed the vantage-ground of a position they could not comprehend, and there- fore feared to assail.

This is a very neat romance, but unhappily it is not historic truth. Judge Hall doubtless based his account upon the narrative of the event in the old Encyclopedia Americana, which in turn rests upon the notes of an old officer, who is said to have been present. These, how- ever, simply say that the Indian spokesman, "a tall, raw- boned fellow, with an impudent and villainous look," presented "a black and white wampum, to signify they were prepared for either event, peace or war. Clark ex- hibited the same unaltered and careless countenance he had shown during the whole scene, his head leaning on his left hand and his elbow resting upon the table. He raised his little cane and pushed the sacred wampum off the table, with very little ceremony."

Another officer who was in the garrison of Fort Finney at this time, but who may not have been in the council- room on this occasion, gives in his diary a slightly differ- ent narrative. This was Ensign (afterwards Major) Ebe- nezer Denny, whose military journal was published by the Historical society of Pennsylvania in 1860. He re- cords, under date of January 27, 1786:

Shawnees met in council house. The Ohio river they would agree to, nothing short; and offered a mixed belt, indicating peace or war. None touched the belt-it was laid on the table; Gen- eral Clark, with his cane, pushed it off and set his foot on it. Indians very sullen. Council broke up hastily. Some commotion among the Shawnees. Returned same afternoon and begged another meeting, when their old king, Molunthy, rose and made a short speech, presented a white string, doing away all that their chief warrior had said, prayed that we would have pity on women and children.

This account is repeated in most particulars by the re- port made by Ensign Denny to Colonel Harmar ten days afterwards; though in this he says nothing of Clark's con- nection with the incident. He writes in a long letter under date of February 8th:

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

The commissioners did not attempt to touch the string which was given, and without rising determined on an answer. Coun- cil was not broke up more than: fifteen minutes when a message came for the commissioners. After they had assembled, the chief took a white string and destroyed the whole of his former speech.

The exact truth is undoubtedly told in the journal of General Butler, who was really the chief personage in these transactions. It is a simple, straightforward, sol- dierly account, bearing every aspect of truth. According to this, after a rather defiant speech by Kekewepelletry, refusing hostages and other demands of the commission- ers, he closed by throwing upon the table a black string of wampum. The commissioners then held a confer- ence, and Butler stepped forward to reply, which he did at some length, concluding as follows:

We plainly tell you that this country belongs to the United States- their blood hath defended it, and will forever protect it. Their propo- sals are liberal and just ; and you, instead of acting as you have done, and instead of persisting in your folly, should be thankful for the for- giveness and the offers of kindness of the United States, instead of the sentiments which this string imparts and the manner in which you have delivered it. (I then took it up and dashed it on the table.) We therefore leave you to consider of what hath been said, and to determine as you please.

No such dramatic scene as the eulogists of General Clark have depicted appears to have occurred. The In- dians were, however, brought to terms only with difficulty, and after much negotiation and many presents; but at length, on the second of February, 1786, a treaty was signed which compelled the Shawnee Indians to acknowl- edge the supremacy of the United States over all the ter- ritory ceded by England at the close of the Revolution, allotted and defined the reservation of the Shawnees, and provided for hostages and the return of white cap- tives. Two whites named Pipe and Fox, and a little boy, were given up, and six young men of the Indians were left as hostages for the punctual fulfillment of the treaty.

CROGHAN'S VISIT.

The whites, however, as is well known to students of local history, were on the river and casually at this point many years before the military and diplomatic expedi- tions whose story is told.

In 1765 Colonel George Croghan came down the Ohio on an errand to Vincennes and Detroit, as commissioner for Sir William Johnson, to visit the French inhabitants at those points, and enlist their sympathies in behalf of the English, in the hope of obviating further Indian wars. He left an interesting journal of his voyage. Set- ting off from Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) on the fifteenth of May, in that year, with two batteaux and a considerable party of white men and Indians, he in a few days reached the region and made the following entries in his record.

29th. We came to the Little Miame river, having procceded sixty miles last night.

30th. We passed the great Miame river about thirty miles from the little river of that name, and in the evening arrived at the place where the Elephant's bones are found [ Big Bone lick], where we encamped, intending to take a view of the place next morning. This day we came about seventy miles. The country on both sides level, and rich bottoms well watered.

In penning the last remark Croghan had doubtless in mind a lively recollection of the broad, beautiful Cincin- nati basin which he had that day passed, He was taken

by the Indians nine days after the last entry cited, and carried by them to Vincennes.

SETTLEMENTS AND INCIDENTS.

Some years after this, it is related that three brothers, James, George and John Medfee, of Botetourt county, Virginia, set their longing eyes upon the Miami country, intending, if they found it as desirable in all important respects as was described to them, to settle the wild but very hopeful tract of which they had heard, opposite the mouth of the Licking-otherwise they would go on to the settlements on the Salt river, in Kentucky, where they had acquaintances from the Old Dominion. About the beginning of June, 1773, they set out for the wilder- ness west. Procuring canoes at the Kanawha, they floated down that stream with considerable velocity by reason of an enormous freshet-twelve feet, as the tradi- tions relate, above the great inundations of 1832 and 1847. It is supposed that it was this flood the height of which was marked, by these visitors or the Indians, upon a tree standing below Fort Washington, and which was pointed out by the latter as indicating the reach of the greatest height of the river they had known, either by personal experience or by tradition. Rushing out from the Kenawha upon the broad bosom of the Ohio, they were borne rapidly down that also. The mighty valley of the Beautiful River was full, almost from bluff to bluff; and when they arrived at the site of the future Losanti- ville and Cincinnati scarcely any tracts were in sight, below the heights, except water lots. Dismayed with the appearance of things, and not having the patience to wait for a more favorable season, they pushed on to their Kentucky friends, and, after a brief visit to their homes in Virginia, settled in the former State and became the heads of prominent Kentucky families. Such was the first abortive attempt at colonizing the Miami coun- try that is on record.

In 1780, the father of General William Lytle-who (the general) became afterwards a citizen of Williams- burgh and then of Cincinnati, lived here in very honor- able prominence for many years, and died in this city March 8, 1831-came down the river with the largest fleet of boats and company of immigrants that had been known to that time. It comprised sixty-three of the primitive craft then navigating the Ohio, conveying a number of men capable of bearing arms said to have been equal to one thousand, besides their women and children. About ten o'clock in the forenoon of the twelfth of April, the occupants of the boats which were leading espied an encampment of Indians on the north side of the stream, opposite the debouchure of the Lick- ing. Intelligence of danger was at once conveyed back to the fleet, and three large boats were directed to land above the camp, in a concerted order. Half the fighting men were to leap ashore the moment the boats should touch; and, stopping only to form in column, they charged the Indian village. The latter, however, in number variously estimated at one hundred and fifty to five hundred, did not wait for actual contact with their enemies, but incontinently fled, in their haste and disor-

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

der abandoning many of their poor valuables. They were pursued to Mill creek and up the valley to a point beyond the present locality of Cumminsville. Several Indians were mounted, and got away easily; the others were suffered to escape. The whites returned to their boats, and moved on to the mouth of Beargrass creek, now Louisville, where their projected settlement was effected.

The relation of Mr. John McCaddon, afterwards a res- ident of Newark, in this State, avers that he sailed down the Ohio in May of the same year, and afterwards, at Louisville, joined the expedition of George Rogers Clark against the Shawnees. Below the site of Cincin- nati a detachment of their force, which had chosen to march on the north side of the river, on account, they said, of more abundant game, while the main body kept to the Kentucky shore, became alarmed at the fresh signs of Indians, and took to their boats, intending to cross the river and rejoin their fellows, who had kept abreast of them. They had, however, got but a few yards from the bank when they were fired upon and thrown into confusion by a party of Indians; but before they reached the shore they heard the "scalp halloo" from the top of the hill, and knew that the Indians were in full retreat. It is probable that the wounded men of McGary's company, mentioned by Mr. McCad- don in his letter concerning the block-house, were hurt in this affair, since it was his command that was thus attacked.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 5

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666