USA > Ohio > Coshocton County > History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881 > Part 34
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He died of small-pox on the tenth of Novem- ber, 1778. Where his remains are resting no man knows; the plowshare has doubtless often furrowed his grave, but his name lives. Few men have done more for his race, especially for the Delaware nation, and few men labored more faithfully or zealously than White Eyes to bring the aboriginal tribes of the Great West under the influence of civilization and Christianity.
The death of White Eyes caused deep sorrow throughout the Indian country, and many em- bassies were sent from the West to condole with the Delawares.
The Christian Indians of the Tuscarawas valley and the Moravian missionaries every- where realized that in the death of White Eyes they had lost a true friend. And no less did the friends of the American cause realize that in the death of this noble chief they too had lost a valued, unfailing friend! And lastly, the Dela- ware nation had good reason to deplore the death of Captain White Eyes, than whom it would be difficult to find one who was more stead- ily and heartily devoted to their interests.
A hundred years ago, there were six or more Indian villages within the present limits of Coshocton county, all being Delaware towns, except a Shawanese village on the Wakatomika, in the present township of Washington, and Mus- kingum, five miles up the Tuscarawas from its mouth, which Captain Trent's journal calls a Mingo town. The Delawares were divided into three tribes, known as the Wolf, the Turkey and the Turtle tribes. The Wolf and the Turtle tribes were the most numerous here, if indeed there were any of the Turkey tribe here at all, before the arrival, in 1776, of a chicf and ten fam- ilies of that tribe from Assununk, a town on the Ilockkocking. The two villages up the Wal- honding (the Monsey towns) were occupied by the Delawares of the Wolf tribe. Wingenund, the chief at White Woman's town, like Captain Pipe, made himself conspicuously infamous at the burning of Colonel Crawford.
Killbuck, son of Netawatwees, was a chief who rendered himself somewhat conspicuous by his opposition to the Moravian missionaries.
Killbuck, grandson of Notawatwees, sometimes called Gelelemend, was also prominently identi- fied with the interests of the Delawares that for- merly occupied the territory now constituting Coshocton county. The former was but of small importance, but the last named was a man of consideration and influence, and of generally commendable deportment. He favored the of- forts of the Moravian missionaries; took a de- cided stand in favor of peace, and of the Ameri- can cause against the British. Gelelemend was a wise, sagacious, able chief. He bore an irre- proachable character, and lived an exemplary, useful life, adhering to the last to the Christian faith as taught by the Moravians. Killbuck,
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(Gelelemend,) was born in 1737, near the Lehigh Water-Gap, now in Northampton county, Penn- sylvania, and died at Goshen, a Moravian town on the Tuscarawas river, situated within the present limits of Goshen township, Tuscarawas county, in the year 1811, at the age of seventy- four years.
While some of the Delaware chiefs of this locality acquired infamous notoriety, it can be truthfully said of Gelelemend that he attained to most honorable distinction, and died greatly esteemed.
Netawatwees was the head of the Turtle tribe of the Delaware nation. His first capital was situated at the mouth of Gekelemukpechunk, (Still Water creek,) and bore the unpronounce- able Indian name of the creek. It was situated on the north bank of the Tuscarawas river, in what is now Oxford township, Tuscarawas county, and occupied the outlots of the present village of Newcomerstown. He was an advo- cate for peace, an ardent friend of the colonies, and devotedly attached to the cause of Christian missions, and to Moravian interests. His sym- pathy with the Moravian canse was manifested by large donations of land for the promotion of said cause. In 1775, Netawatwees and a grand council of the Delawares decided to abandon their capital and found a new one farther down the river. This decree was carried into effect by selecting the junetion of the Tuscarawas and Walhonding rivers as the site, and by founding the town of Goschachunk, which was henceforth to be the capital of the Delaware nation.
Lichtenau, built by the Moravians, was located near to the capital of the Delaware nation, in def- erence to the repeatedly expressed wishes of Netawatwees. He thought that the evil conse- quenees which had formerly grown out of the proximity of heathen villages were not any more to be expected, since so large a portion of the nation had become christianized; and moreover he held it to be his duty to afford his people every opportunity to hear the gospel preached. He often visited Lichtenau, taking great interest in its progress, and hoped for success.
But he was not to live to see much more ac- complished for his people in the valley of the Muskingum. Nor did he live long enough to see
the end of the war waged between the colonies and the mother country, in the result of which he was so deeply interested. Nor did he live long enough to witness the return of that peace which he had so zealously and perseveringly ad- vocated, and so ardently desired.
This great chief of the Delaware nation died at Fort Pitt before the elose of the year 1776; and in his death the cause of peace-the cause of the colonies-the canse of missions-the cause of christianity lost a true, faithful, devoted friend. Few, very few, of the chiefs of the Dela- ware nation died more sincerely regretted than Netawat wees.
Many of the Indians of all these tribes were friendly to all whites until the breaking out of the war with Great Britain, when they left the country to join the forces of the king, and destroy the whites who occupied their country. They considered them then their enemies, and acted accordingly on all occasions, save where personal friendship, so strong in the Indian, developed itself, and in many instances, saved the lives of those in danger.
The manners, customs, feasts, war parties and daily life of these sons of the forest, form inter- esting chapters in aboriginal history. The char- acter of the Indians was largely the result of their lives. They judged and lived by what the senses dictated. They had names and words for what they could hear, see, feel, taste and smell. They had no conceptions of abstract ideas until they learned such from the whites. Hence their language was very symbolical. They could see the sun in its brightness, they could feel his heat; hence they compared the actions of a good man to the glory of the sun, and his fervent energy to the heat of that body. The moon in her bright- ness, the wind in its fury, the clouds in their majesty, or in their slow, graceful motion through a lazy atmosphere; the grace and flight of the deer; the strength and fury of the bear; the rush or ripple of water as it coursed along the bed of a river, all gave them words whose expressive- ness are a wonder and marvel to this day. They looked on the beautiful river that borders the southern shores of our State, and exclaimed, "O-he-zo!" beautiful; on the plaeid waters of the stream bordering the western line of Indiana,
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and cjaculated, " Wa-ba," a summer cloud moving swiftly; on the river flowing into Lake Erie, and said, "Cuy-o-ga " (Cuyahoga), crooked; and so on through their entire vocabulary, each name expressive of a meaning, full and admirably adapted to the object.
The Indians in Olfio, the tribes already men- tioned, had learned a few things from their inter- course with the whites on the borders of Western Pennsylvania, when they were first seen by the pioneers of Coshocton county. Their cabins or wigwams were of two kinds-circular and par- allelogram. The former, the true wigwam, was in use among the Ottawas when the whites came to their country. It was made of a number of straight poles driven firmly into the ground, their upper ends being drawn closely together ; this formed a kind of skeleton tent. The squaws plaited mats of thongs, bark or grass, in such a manner as to render them impervious to water. „These were spread on the poles, beginning at the bottom, and extending upward. A small hole was left for the egress of smoke from the fire kindled in the center of the wigwam. Around. this fire, mats or skins were spread, on which the Indians slept at night, and on which they sat during the day. For a door they lifted one end of the mat, and crept in, letting it fall down be- hind them. These tents were warm and dry, and generally quite free from smoke. Their fuel was nearly always split by the squaws in the fall of the year, and sometimes kept dry by placing it under an inverted birch-bark canoc. These wigwams were casily moved about from place to place, the labor of their destruction and construe- tion being always performed by the squaws-the beasts of burden among all savage nations. The wigwam was very light, and casily carried about. It resembled the tents of to-day in shape, and was often superior in point of comfort and pro- teetion.
The cabins were more substantial affairs, and were built of poles, about the thickness of a small sized telegraph pole, but were of various sizes, and commonly, about twelve or fifteen feet in length. These poles were laid one on the other, similar to the logs in a cabin, save that, until the Indians learned that notching the point of con- taet near the end, from the whites, they were
held by two stakes being driven in the angles formed in the corners, and fastened at the top by a hickory or bark withe, or by a thong of buck- skin. The pen was raised to the height of from four to six feet, when an arched roof was made over it by driving at each end a strong post, with a fork at the upper end, which stood a conven- ient height above the topmost log or pole. A stout pole was laid on the forks, and on this was laid a small pole reaching down to the wall. On these rafters, small lath was tied, and over the whole pieces of linn bark were thrown. These were cut from the tree, often of great length, and from six to twelve inches in width. They were then cut into proper lengths to cover the cabin. At the ends of the cabin split timbers were set up, so that the entire cabin was inclosed except a small aperture at one end, left for a door. This was covered by a deer or bear skin. At the top of the cabin an opening was left for the smoke to escape, for all Indians built their fires on the ground in the center of the cabin or wigwam, around which they spread skins and mats on which to recline and sleep. The cracks between the logs were filled with moss gathered from old logs. When made, the cabin was quite comforta- ble, and was often constructed in the same man- ner by the pioneers, while making improve- ments, and used until a permanent structure could be erected.
Most, if not all the villages in this county were composed of huts constructed as above de- scribed, mingled perhaps with some of better construction, as they had learned of the whites how to build them. In addition to these huts at their capital or central town (Goschachgunk), they had, in the center of the village, as was their custom, a large council house, used for all public meetings of the tribe.
In regard to food, the Indians were more care- ful to provide for their future needs than their successors of the west are to-day. In the spring they made maple sugar by boiling the sap in large brass or iron kettles which they had ob- tained from the French and English traders. To secure the water they used vessels made of elm bark in a very ingenious manner. They woukl strip the bark in the winter season when it would strip or run, by cutting down the tree, and, with
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a crooked stick, sharp and broad at one end, peel the bark in wide strips, from which they would construct vessels holding two or three gallons each. They would often make over a hundred of these. They eut a sloping notch in the side of a sugar-tree, stuck a tomahawk into the wood at the end of the notch, and, in the dent thus made, drove a long chip or spile, which conveyed the water to the bark vessels. They generally selected the larger trees for tapping, as they considered the sap from such stronger and productive of more sugar. Their vessels for carrying the sap would hold from three to five gallons each, and sometimes, where a large camp was located and a number of squaws at work, using a half-dozen kettles, great quantities of sugar would be made. When the sugar-water would collect faster than they could boil it, they would make three or four large troughs, holding more than a hundred gal- lons each, in which they kept the sap until ready to boil. When the sugar was made, it was gen- erally mixed with bear's oil or fat, forming a sweet mixture into which they dipped their roasted venison. As cleanliness was not a reign- ing virtue among the Indians, the cultivated taste of a civilized person would not always fancy the mixture, unless driven to it by hunger. The com- pound, when made, was generally kept in large bags made of coon skins, or vessels made of bark. The former were made by stripping the skin over the body toward the head, tying the holes made by the legs with buckskin cords, and sew- ing securely the holes of the eyes, ears and mouth. The hair was all removed, and then the bag blown full of air, from a hole in the upper end, and al- lowed to dry. Bags made in this way would hold whiskey, and were often used for such purposes. When they became saturated they were blown full of air again, the hole plugged, and they were left to dry. Sometimes the head was cut off with- out stripping the skin from it, and the skin of the neck gathered in folds like a purse, below which a string was tied and fastened with a pin. Skin vessels are not indigenous to the natives of America. All oriental countries possess them, where the traveler of to-day finds them the rule. They are as old, almost, as time.
The Indians inhabiting this part of Ohio were rather domestic in their tastes, and cultivated
corn, potatoes and melons. Corn was their prin- cipal crop, and was raised entirely by the squaws. When the season for planting drew near, the women cleared a spot of rich alluvial soil, and dug over the ground in a rude manner with their hoes. In planting the corn they followed lines, to a certain extent, thus forming rows each way across the field. When the corn began to grow, they culti- vated it with wonderful industry, until it had ma- tured sufficiently for use. The cornfields were nearly always in the vicinity of the villages, and sometimes were many acres in extent, and in fa- vorable seasons yielded plentifully. The squaws had entire charge of the work. It was considered beneath the dignity of a brave to do any kind of manual labor, and, when any one of them, or any of the white men whom they had adopted, did any work, they were severely reprimanded for acting like a squaw. The Indian women raised the corn, dried it, pounded it into mealin a rude stone mortar, or made it into hominy. Corn, in one form and another, formed the chief staple of of the Indian's food. They had various legends concerning its origin, which, in common with other stories, they were accustomed to recite in their assemblies.
The Indians were always fond of amusements of all kinds. These consisted of races, games of ball, throwing the tomahawk, shooting at a mark with the bow and arrow, or with the rifle after its distribution among them, horse races, and other sports incidental to savage life. Their powers of endurance were remarkable, and astonishing ac- counts are often now told of feats of prowess ex- hibited by these aborigines. Of the animals hunt- ed by the Indians, none seems to have elicited their skill more than the bear. To slay one of these beasts was proof of a warrior's prowess, and dangerous encounters often resulted in the hun- ter's search for such distinction. The vitality of bruin was unequaled among the animals of the forest, and on this account, and because of the danger attached to his capture, made him an ob- ject of special hunts and fcats of courage.
The region of the Muskingum, and more es- pecially of the Wakatomaka, further south, was somewhat famous for bear hunting. Some of the pioneers yet surviving can relate astounding stories of their exploits in this line. The habit
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of these animals was to search out a hollow trec, or secure a warm clump of bushes late in the autumn, where they could remain three or four months, during the extreme cold of the winter, subsisting entirely on the fat of their bodies. They would emerge in the spring very lean, and when so were exceedingly ferocious. When searching out their places of winter solitude, they often left the impress of their feet on the bark of the tree they ascended, or on the grass in the lair they had found. The signs were easily discovered by Indians and expert bear hunters. They were then very fat, and were eagerly sought by the Indians for their flesh and fat. Sometimes they would ascend trees thirty or forty feet high, and find a good wintering place and take possession. Again they would as- cend the tree, if hollow, from the inside, and, finding a good place, occupy it. Then the hunt- ers would divide forces-one ascend the trec, and with a long pole, sharpened at one end, or wrapped with a rag or dry skin saturated with greese and set on fire, thrust the same down on the bear, and compel him to descend only to meet death at the foot of the tree from the arrow or bullet of the hunter below.
The skin of a fat bear was a great prize to an Indian. It made him an excellent couch on which to sleep, or a cloak to wear. His flesh was supposed to impart bravery to those who ate it, hence when dipped in sweetened bear's fat, it was considered an excellent dish, and one often offered to friends. Venison, prepared the same way, was also considered a dish fit for the most royal visitors; a hospitality always extended to all who came to the camp, and if not accepted the donor was sure to be offended.
The domestic life of the Indians was very much the same in all parts of America. Among the Northern Ohio tribes, marriage consisted simply of two persons agreeing to live together, which simple agreement among many tribes was never broken. Sometimes the young woman courted the young brave, much after the fashion of the white people during leap years. This cus- tom was considered quite proper, and favorably looked upon by the braves. In some localities the chief gave away the young woman to some brave he considered competent to support her in
the chase, a part of the domestic economy always devolving on the man. When the game was killed, the squaw was expected to cut up and pre- pare the meat for use, and stretch and tan the hide.
The marriage relation among the most of the tribes was held strictly by aHl, a variation from it on the part of the female meriting certain death.
The Wyandots and Delawares prided them- selves on their virtue and hospitality, and no authenticated case of the misuse of a female captive, except to treat them as prisoners of war, can now be quoted. They always evinced the utmost modesty toward their female captives. Respect for the aged, for parents and those in authority prevailed. When one among them spoke, all listened-never, under any circumstan- ces, interrupting him. When he was done, then was the time to reply.
In theology, the natives were all believers in one Great Spirit. They firmly believed in his care of the world and of his children, though different theories prevailed among the tribes re- garding their creation. Their ideas of a divinity, as expressed by James Smith, a captive many years among them, are well given in the follow- ing story, preserved in Smith's Memoirs :
He and his eller Indian brother, Tecaughre- tanego, had been on a hunt for some time, and, meeting with poor success, found themselves straitened for food. After they had smoked at their camp-fire awhile, Tecanghretanego deliv- cred quite a speech, in which he recounted how Owaneeyo (God) had fed them in times gone by ; how he fed the white people, and why they raised their own meat; how the Great Spirit provided the Indian with food for his use; and how, though the prospect was sometimes gloomy, the Great Spirit was only trying them; and if they would only trust him and use means dili- gently, they would be certain to be provided for. The next morning Smith rose early, according to the Indian's instructions, and ere long killed a buffalo cow, whose meat kept them in food many days. This was the occasion of another speech from his Indian brother. This trust often led them to habits of prodigality. They solom provided for the future, almost literally fulfilling the adage: "Let each day provide for its own
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wants." They hunted, fished and idled away their days. Possessed of a boundless inheritance, ! they allowed the white race to come in and pos- sess their lands and eventually drive them en- tirely away. Their manner of feasts may also be noticed.
The following description is from the pen of Dr. Hill, of Ashland, Ohio. The Mr. Copus mentioned is the same who was afterwards mur- dered by the Indians.
" The ceremonies took place in the council- house, a building made of clapboards and poles, about thirty feet wide and fifty feet long. When the Indians entered the eouneil-house, the squaws seated themselves on one side of the room, while the braves occupied the opposite side. There was a small mound of earth in the center of the room, eight or ten feet in diameter, which seemed to be a sort of sacrificial mound The ceremonies began with a sort of rude music, made by beating on a small brass kettle, and on dried skins stretched over the mouths of pots, making a kind of a rude drum. The pounding was accompanied by a sort of song, which, as near as can be understood, ran : 'Tiny, tiny, tiny, ho, ha, ho, ha, ho,' accenting the last syllables. Then a chief arose and addressed them; during the delivery of his speech a profound silence pre- vailed. The whole audience seemed to be deeply moved by the oration. The speaker seemed to be about seventy years of age, and was very tall and graceful. His eyes had the fire of youth, and shone with emotion while he was speaking. The audience seemed deeply moved, and fre- quently sobbed while he spoke. Mr. Copus could not understand the language of the speaker. but presumed he was giving a summary history of the Delaware nation, two tribes of which, the Wolf and the Turtle, were represented at the feast. Mr. Copus learned that the speaker was the famous Captain Pipe, of Mohican Johnstown, the executioner of Colonel Crawford. At the elose of the address, dancing commenced. The Indians were clothed in deer skin leggings and English blankets. Deer hoofs and bears' claws were strung along the seams of their leggings, and when the dance commeneed, the jingling of the hoofs and elaws made a sort of harmony to the rude musie of the pots and kettles. The men danced in files or lines by themselves around the central mound, the squaws following in a com- pany by themselves. In the dance there seemed to be a proper modesty between the sexes. In faet, the Greentown Indians were always noted for being extremely serupulous and modest in the presence of one another. After the dance, the refreshments, made by boiling venison and bear's meat, slightly tainted, together, were
handed around. The food was not very palatable to the white persons present, and they were com- pelled to conceal it about their persons until they had left the wigwam, when they threw the unsavory morsels away. No greater insult could have been offered the Indians than to have refused the proffered refreshments, hence a little decep- tion was necessary to evade the censure of these untutored sons of the forest, whose stomachs could entertain almost anything."
Usually, and as to the great mass of them, the Delaware Indians entertained very friendly feel- ings for the whites. In their old home in l'enn- sylvania, from the day of Willian Penn's treaty down, they had received a treatment calculated to produce such feelings, and the influence of the Moravian missions among them tended to the same end. Far more Indian blood than white was shed about the forks of the Mus- kingum, and there is neither dark and bloody battle-field nor site of sickening family massacre within the limits of the county of Coshocton, so far as known. The numerous bullets found in after times, in the plowed fields near Coshocton, were doubtless from the volleys fired by the expe- ditions, or from the rifles of the early settlers, with whom shooting at marks was a grand pastime. At one time seven hundred Indian warriors from the West encamped near the town, many with rifles.
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