History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881, Part 40

Author: Hill, Norman Newell, jr., [from old catalog] comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A. A., & co., Newark, O., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 854

USA > Ohio > Coshocton County > History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881 > Part 40

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Rev. David Zeisberger died at Goshen, in the Tuscarawas Valley, November 17, 1808, having attained the ripe age of eighty-seven years and seven months. He left no issue, and the name has no living representative as a missionary, or even as a Moravian Christian. Mrs. Zeisberger remained at Goshen until August 11, 1809, when she removed to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where she died September 8, 1824, aged eighty years, six months and twenty-one days.

A marble słab in the Goshen cemetery bears the following epitaph :

DAVID ZEISBERGER, who was born 11 April, 1721, in Moravia, and departed this life 17 Nov., 1808, aged 87 years, 7 ino. and 6 days. This faithful Servant of the Lord labored among the American Indians as a Mis- sionary, during the last 60 years of his Life.

REV. JOHN HIECKEWELDER.

Rev. John Heckewelder (or, as it was origin- ally written, John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewel- der), was born at Bedford, in England, March 12, 1743, his father having fled thither from Moravia, a province of Austria, in order to avoid persecu- tion, and where he might enjoy religious free- dom. John was sent to the parochial or secta- rian schools, first at Buttermere and afterward at Fulncek, where the chief object was the ineulca- tion of moral and religious principles and thor- ough indoctrination into the truths of christian-

ity as understood and taught by the Moravian church, which has, in an eminent degree, always held secular learning subordinate to religious knowledge. With that denomination Bible teach- ings and the study of the sacred classics have, in a special sense, ever been esteemed of paramount importance. To create in the pupil's mind an overpowering interest in matters pertaining to the life to come, was the all-in-all in the Mora- vian system of education, the chief object and purpose of Moravian schools. To make Chris- tians (in the highest sense) of every student-to establish a thoroughly religious congregation in each one of their literary institutions-to infuse into each individual pupil the missionary spirit, and dedicate him to mission labors in heathen lands, was the beginning, the middle, and the end of their purpose-their main object-the princi- pal aim at their seats of learning.

Such being the ideas always kept prominently before the pupils in Moravian educational insti- tutions, it is not surprising that he who is the subject of this sketch should have become, in early life, deeply imbued with the genius of christianity-that he should have entered into the spirit of Christ's gospel. and during his school years have yielded readily to those favorable in- fluences and instructions-and entered enthusi- astically, zealously, during his young manhood, into the mission field, and remained therein a faithful laborer for half a century, even to old age. And to the end of his life he cherished grateful recollections of the impressions made upon his mind. and of the religious instruction imparted to him while at these schools by his affectionate, devoted, Christian teachers.

In 1754, when eleven years of age, John Hecke- welder, in company with his parents and about forty other Moravian colonists, sailed for Amer- ica in the ship Irene, which arrived at the port of New York, April 2, when the immigrants dis- embarked and started for Bethlehem, the Mora- vian village on the Lehigh river, in Pennsylva- nia, all arriving there April 20, 1754. Just before the Irene sailed, Count Zinzendorf, the then head of the Moravian church, went on board and gave his parting blessing to those who had embarked for the new world. In a paternal manner he implored the young lad, John Heckewelder, to

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make it his principal aim to prepare himself for preaching the gospel among the heathen; and then placing his hands upon his head, the pious and devout Christian count invoked a special blessing upon him.

John attended school at Bethlehem for two years, making good progress in his studies, and then went to Christian Spring, a small Moravian settlement nine miles north of Bethlehem, where he was employed somewhat at "field labor and other manual occupations." He, however, also, meanwhile enjoyed opportunities which were not neglected, for improving himself during his leisure hours, having the benefit of the instruc- tion of two Moravian teachers, Messrs. Zeigler and Fries, both reputed to possess good scholar- ship. Ilis parents, while he was at this place, were called to serve a mission station on one of the Spanish West India Islands, where they soon died, and he, in 1758, returned to Bethlehem and engaged himself as an apprentice to learn the art of making cedar-wood ware-to be a cooper, in short. Here four years more of his life were spent, learning a trade and pursuing his studies diligently, when he was chosen by the mission- ary, Charles Frederick Post, as an assistant in the mission work in the Tuscarawas valley, in 1761, as has been already related.

After his return to Bethlehem he assisted in establishing the new mission of Friendenshutten, and for nine years made himself extensively use- ful there and at other. mission stations, and as an instructor in schools. In the spring of 1771 he ac- companied Rev. David Zeisberger to the mission staton on Beaver river, in western Pennsylvania (now in Lawrence county), called Friedensstadt, where he remained a year, and then accompanied Zeisberger to the Tuscarawas valley, as heretofore As the results of these labors seemed encourag- ing, and promising success, a second embassy was resolved upon. The ambassadors chosen this. time were Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, Col. Timothy Pickering, and Governor Beverly Randolph. Mr. Heckewelder's acquaintance with the language and character of the Indians, and his high per- sonal reputation among them, it was thought might be of essential service to the embassy in their negotiations with the Indians ; he was there- fore attached to it as an assistant ambassador. stated. The chief incidents of his career, so far as they were connected with the mission stations from 1772 to 1798, when he entered actively upon his duties as the "agent of the society of the United Brethren for propagating the gospel among the heathen," have been presented in the sketch of Rev. Zeisberger. Between those years he was almost constantly engaged in the perform- ance of mission work at various points, generally in company with Rev. David Zeisberger at Lich- tenau, at points in the Tusearawas valley, at | They left Philadelphia April 27, 1793, for the

Salem, Captives' Town, New Gnadenhutten, Pil- gerruh, or Pilgrim's Rest, New Salem, and at the Watch Tower, and in rendering services, as a civilian, by holding councils, forming treaties, acting as an assistant ambassador, and sometimes as interpreter.

The expedition of General Harmar, in 1790, and that of General St. Clair, in 1791, having failed to subjugate the unfriendly Indian tribes in the West, and the western settlements still being liable to attacks from marauding parties, it became a matter of the first importance with the Federal Government to secure peace by negotia- tion, if possible. With that object in view the Rev. John Heckewelder, who was thought to be a discreet man, and enjoying a high degree of publie confidence, was appointed by General Knox, then Secretary of War, as an associate am- bassador with General Rufus Putnam, of Marietta, with authority to form treaties of peace with various Indian tribes in the West. Instructions were issued to them on the 22d of May, 1792. By arrangement they met at Pittsburgh near the last of June, and reached Fort Washington on the 2d of July, on their way to Post Vincennes, on the Wabash, where they arrived on the 12th of Sep- tember. Here, on the 27th of said month, a treaty of peace was concluded and signed by Put- nam and Heckewelder, and by thirty-one chiefs of the tribes from the upper and lower Wabash, Eel river, Cahokia, Kaskaskia, St. Joseph's river, and from Lake Michigan. After a liberal distri- bution of presents the commissioners started, on the 5th of October, with sixteen chiefs for Phila- delphia, where they arrived early in February, Heckwelder having been absent nearly nine months.

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Miami of the Lakes (now Maumee), where they were to meet the Indian chiefs of the northwest in council, to agree upon terms of peace, if possi- ble. To this end their fruitless labors were pro- tracted until about the middle of August, when the ambassadors returned to Philadelphia, Mr. Heckewelder reaching his home at Bethlehem on the 25th of September, after an absence of five months.

In 1797 Mr. Heckwelder twice visited the Tus- carawas valley, extending his journey to Marietta. In 1798 he traveled as far to the northwest as the river Thames, in Upper Canada, in the interest of the Moravian mission station of Fairfieldl. About midsummer of this year we find him again in the Tuscarawas valley rebuilding Gnaden- hutten, as already stated.

Rev. John Heckewelder was elected an associ- ate judge of Tuscarawas county upon its organi- zation in 1808, and served as such until 1810. when he resigned his position of " superintendent of the missions west of the Ohio river," and also the judgeship, and returned to Bethlehem, Penn- sylvania, to close his days in quiet retirement, after having served the missionary cause with ability and fidelity for almost half a century.

Rev. John Heckewelder lived more than twelve years after his direct and active connec- tion with western missions was dissolved in 1810, his death occurring January 31, 1823, having at- tained to the ripe age of almost 80 years. But those twelve years of comparative retirement, although they embraced the period of his old age and infirmities, were not by any means years of idleness and uselessness. His biographer, Rev. Edward Rondthaler, says that " he still continued to serve missions and the mission cause in an 'efficent way, by giving to the public needed in- formation pertaining to them, and imparting much useful information relative to the language, manners and customs of the Indians." He wrote extensively during his retirment, some of the productions of his pen being intended for the public generally. Among his published works are his " History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States," and his " Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians." The former of

these works was written in 1819, at the repeated request of the President of the American Philo- sophical Society, and was published under the auspices of the historical and literary committee of said society, a society of which he was an hon- ored member. The last named work was pre- pared by him in 1821, when he had reached the age of more than 77 years. . In this paper he ex- pressed the opinion that the " Crawford expe- dition to the Sandusky, in 1782, was organized for the purpose of destroying the remnant of the Moravian Indians on said river." The author of "Crawford's Campaign againt Sandusky " (C. W. Butterfield), clearly refutes that charge against Col. Crawford, by testimony that conclusively shows the object of the expedition to have been " the destruction of the Wyandot Indian town and set- tlement at Sandusky."

The life of Rev. John Hcekewelder was one of great activity, industry, and usefulness. It was a. life of vicissitudes, of perils, and of wild, roman- tic adventure. How it abounded in hardships, privations, and self-sacrificing devotion to the in- terests of the barbarians of the western wilder- ness ! How earnestly, persistently, faithfully, zealously, he labored to propagate that gospel which was the chief inspiration of the exalted he- roism that characterized his eventful life! Un- selfishly he exposed himself to danger ; disinter- estedly he toiled to bring wild and barbarous tribes into the enjoyment of the blessings of civ- ilization and of Christianity. It would indeed be difficult to over-estimate the importance or value of the labors of Rev. John Heckeweker in the various characters of philanthopist, philosopher, pioneer, teacher, ambassador, author, and Christ- ian missionary.

Rev. John Heckewelder was a gentleman of courteous and easy manners, of frankness, affa- bility, veracity ; without affectation or dissimula- tion ; meek, cheerful, unassuming; humble, un- pretending, unobtrusive; retiring, rather taci- turn, albeit, when drawn out, communicative and a good conversationalist. He was in extensive correspondence with many " men of letters," by whom he was held in great esteem. Throughout his long life he was the red man's constant and faithful friend, having gone forth a pilgrim, while yet in his young manhood, in the spirit of

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enthusiastic heroism, unappalled by danger, un- wearied by fatigue and privation, and undismayed by prospective toils and self-denials, to put forth his best efforts to ameliorate their condition and bring them under the benign influences of a no- ble, elevating, purifying, Christian civilization.

CHAPTER XXIV.

FIRST WHITE OCCUPATION.

Mary Harris-Christopher Gist-George Croghan-William Trent-James Smith-Bouquet's Army -Chaplain Jones- David Duncan-Murder at White Eyes-William Robin- son-John Leeth-Brodhead's Army-John Stilley-The Moravians-The Girtys and Others-Heckewelder's Ride.

THE early white occupation of Coshocton county comprises an interesting period in her history, and could it be fully treated would make a large volume by itself. The foot of the white race pressed its soil at least sixty years before any permanent white settlement was made, and white people in great numbers passed into and across it long before they came to stay. The cause of this was no doubt the multiplicity of Indian towns along the Muskingum and its tribu- taries. In peace these towns were frequented by white hunters and traders; in war large num- bers of white captives were brought here from Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, and either kept here or taken on further west to the Wyan- dot and Shawnee towns; and when the Mora- vians began their operations among the Indians, white people were almost continual residents among the Christian Indians in this county.

It is the aim of this chapter to give an account of the white occupation of this county prior to the first permanent settlement ; and in doing this, it is not expected that all white persons who set foot on the soil of the county will be mentioned, for it is believed that many-perhaps hundreds- white hunters and captives either passed through or resided temporarily at the Muskingum vil- lages, of which history makes no mention.

The valleys of the Tuscarawas and Muskingum were famous; stirring and blood-curdling scenes were enacted therein during the half century prior to the first white settlement. The first

white occupant of this territory of which history makes mention, was Mary Harris, the heroine of the " Legend of the Walhonding," in 1740.

Near the junction of the Killbuck and Wal- honding rivers, about seven miles northwest of the present town of Coshocton ('Forks of the Muskingum'), lived, as early as 1750, Mary Har- ris, a white woman. She had been captured in one of the colonies, by the Indians, between 1730 and 1740, being at the time of the capture a girl verging into womanhood. Her beauty captivated a chief, who made her his wife, in the Indian fashion of that day.

The Indian tribes were being crowded back from the eastern colonies, and the tribe of Custa- logo had retired from place to place before the white frontiersmen, until about 1740 it found a a new hunting ground in this valley, where the white woman became one of the inhabitants with her warrior, and where they raised a wig- wam which formed the nucleus of an Indian town near the confluence of the streams above named. Mary Harris had been a sufficient time with the Indians to have become fascinated with their nomadic life and to have entered into all its romantic avenues. She generally accompanied Eagle Feather, her husband, to all the buffalo, elk and bear hunts in the valley, and whenever he went off with a war party to take a few scalps, she mixed his paint and laid it on, and plumed him for the wars, always putting up with her own hands a sufficiency of dried venison and parched eorn to serve his purpose. She was es- pecially careful to polish with soap-stone his " little hatchet," always, however, admonishing him not to return without some good, long-haired scalps for wigwam parlor ornaments and chig- nons, such as were worn by the first class of In- dian ladies along the Killbuck and the Walhond- ing. So prominent had she become that the town was named "The White Woman's Town," and the river from thence to the "forks of the Muskingum " was called in honor of her, "The White Woman's River."

In 1750-51, when Christopher Gist was on his travels down the Ohio valley, on the look-out for choice farming lands, for the celebrated "Vir- ginia Land Company," in which the Washing- ton's were interested, he tarried at " White

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Woman's Town " from December 14, 1750, until January 15, 1751, enjoying in part its Indian fes- tivities with Mary Harris, who told him her story; how she liked savage warriors; how she. preferred Indian to white life, and that she thought that the whites were a wicked race, and more cruel than the red man.

In her wigwam the white woman was the mas- ter spirit, and Eagle Feather was ignored, except when going to war, or when she desired to ac- company him on his hunting expeditions, or was about to assist at the burning of some poor cap- tive, on which occasions she was a true squaw to him, and loved him much. All wentalong as mer- rily as possible until one day Eagle Feather came home from beyond the Ohio with another white woman, whom he had captured, and who he in- tended should enjoy the felicities of Indian life on the Killbuck with Mary in her wigwam, who, however, did not see happiness from that stand- point. Forthwith from the advent of the new comer, as Mary called her, into that home, it was made somewhat unpleasant for Eagle Feather. Mary Harris' puritan idea of the marital rela- tion overriding the Indian idea of domestic vir- tue. Hence, Eagle Feather, when he tendered any civilities to the "new comer," encountered from Mary all the frowns and hair-raising epi- thets usually applied by white women to white men under similar surroundings, and he became miserable and unhappy. Failing to appreciate all this storming around the wigwam, he remind- ed Mary that he could easily kill her; that he had saved her life when captured; had always provided for her bear and deer meat to cat, and skins of the finest beasts to lie upon, and in re- turn she had borne him no papooses, and to pro- vide for her shortcomings in this respect he had brought the "new comer " home to his wigwam to make all things even again, as a chief who died without young braves to succeed him would soon be forgotten. So saying he took the new captive by the hand, and they departed to the forest to await the operation of his remarks on Mary's mind. Returning at night and finding her asleep on her butlalo skins, he lay down be- side her as if all were well, at the same time motioning the "new comer " to take a skin and lie down in the corner.

He was soon asleep, having in his perturbed state of mind partaken of some whisky saved from the last raid into Virginia. On the following morning he was found with his head split open, and the tomahawk remaining in the skull-crack, while the "new comer" had fled. Mary, simu- lating, or being actually in ignorance of the mur- der, at once aroused " The White Woman's Town " with her screams. The warriors were soon at her wigwam, and comprehending the situation, at once started in pursuit of the fleeing murderess, whom they tracked to the Tuscarawas, thence to an Indian town near by, where they found her. She was claimed as a deserter from " The White Woman's Town," and, under the Indian code, liable to be put to death, whether guilty of the murder or not. She was taken back while Gist was at the town, and he relates in his journal that, on December 26, 1750, a white woman captive who had deserted, was put to death in this man- ner: She was set free and ran off some distance, followed by three Indian warriors, who, over- taking her, struck her on the side of the head with their tomahawks, and otherwise beat and mutilated the body after life was extinct, then left it lying on the ground until night, when one Barney Curran, who lived at " The White Woman's Town," obtained and buried the body, in which he was assisted by some Indians.

Mary Harris insisted that the "new comer " killed her husband with his own hatchet, in re- venge for being brought into captivity, while she, as tradition gives it, alleged that Mary did the wieked work out of jealousy, and intended dispatching her also, but was defeated in her project by the flight of the "new comer." Be that as it may, Eagle Feather was sent to the spiritland for introducing polygamy among white ladies in the valley, and as to the "new comer," the town to which she fled was thence- forward called "Newcomer's Town " by the In- dians as early as 1755, and probably as early as 1751, when the "new comer" sought protection there. When Netawatwees, chief of the Delawares, took up his abode there, about 1760, he retained the name, it corresponding with his own in En- glish. When Colonel Bouquet, in 1764, marched down the valley and deposed Netawatwees, he re- tained the name on his map. When Governor

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Penn, of Pennsylvania, sent messages to the In- dians, in 1774, he retained the name in his official paper. When Brodhead, in 1781, marched to the " Forks of the Muskingum," and up the Tusca- rawas valley, he called it by the same name. In 1827, the good ohl Nicholas Neighbor, when he had laid it off in lots, saw that it would pay him to retain the old name, and did so, and it is yet known by the name of Newcomerstown.

Mary Harris married again, had children, and removed west about the time Captain Pipe and the Wolf tribe of Delawares removed to San- dusky, in 1778-79. Nothing is known of Mary Harris' history after her removal to Sandusky, but the river from Coshocton to the mouth of Killbuck is often called " Whitewoman," or " The White Woman's River."

Following Mary Harris came Christopher Gist, George Croghan, Andrew Montour and William Trent.

Captain Christopher Gist was sent out in 1750 to explore the country northwest of the Ohio river, in the interest of the Ohio Land Company, of which the Washingtons and other Virginia gentlemen were members. In his journal it is recorded that " he reached an Indian town, near the junction of the Tuscarawa - and White Woman, December 14, 1750, which contained about one hundred families, a portion in the French and a portion in the English interest." (This Indian town was probably situated at the mouth of White Eyes creek or possibly nearer to, or at the "Forks of the Muskingum.") Here Gist met George Croghan, an English trader who had his headquarters at this town; here, also, he met Andrew Montour, a half-breed of the Seneca nation, who, as well as Croghan, subsequently figured somewhat conspicuously in the colonial history of our country.

Captain Gist remained at this Indian village from December 14, 1750, until January 15, 1751. Some white men lived here, two of whose names he gives, namely, Thomas Burney, a blacksmith, and Barney Curran. Gist here, on Christmas day, 1750, conducted appropriate religious ser- vices, according to the Protestant Episcopal prayer book, in the presence of some white men,

and a few Indians who attended at the urgent solicitations of Thomas Burney and Andrew Montour. And this was probably the first public religious service (Protestant or Catholic), within the present limits of Coshocton county.

It is proper to say here, that Captain Gist's journal makes this village the scene of the kill- ing of "a woman that had long been a prisoner and had deserted, being retaken and brought into town on Christmas eve ;" also how " Barney Curran (an Indian trader, and who in 1753 was one of George Washington's escort on his mis- sion up the Allegheney river) and his men, assisted by some Indians, buried her just at dark."

There is given in the " Legend of the White Woman, and New Comerstown," an account of a case of punishment similar to the foregoing, the latter being the killing of a white woman (a cap- tive), charged with the murder of a chief named " Eagle Feather," and of desertion. Most likely these accounts relate to different transactions, the victims being different persons, who suffered death in different places for different offenses, that sort of punishment for such crimes being usual among the various Indian tribes.

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History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881, Part 40

Author: Hill, Norman Newell, jr., [from old catalog] comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A. A., & co., Newark, O., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & co. Number of Pages: 854

Author: Hill, Norman Newell, jr., [from old catalog] comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A. A., & co., Newark, O., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 854