USA > Ohio > Darke County > History of Darke County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 5
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The French became jealous of the rising favor shown to the English traders by their former friends and in June, 1752. Charles Langdale, a Frenchman from Michilimackinac, led a hand of some two hundred and fifty Chippewa and Ottawa Indians against the trading station at Pickawillany. This party rowed past Detroit, crossed the western end of Lake
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Erie, turned up the Maumee and continued up the St. Mary's branch to the old Indian portage. They appeared suddenly and unexpectedly on the morning of June 21st before the stockade at Pickawillany. The warriors were absent on their summer hunt, leaving only the chief and twenty men and boys with eight white traders who could be depended upon to defend the place. As a special mark of disfavor these northern savages boiled and ate Old Britain who had shown marked preference for the Frenchman's foe. When the Miami chiefs returned, it is said they retaliated by eating ten French- men and two of their negroes.
By some historians this is regarded as the opening engage- ment of the French and Indian war, inasmuch as the parties engaged represented the opposing nations, contending on dis- puted soil and kindling a conflict which was destined to scourge the frontier with blood and fire for over forty years.
The time was ripe to fortify the forks of the Ohio. This important step was delayed, however, on account of the con- tending claims of jurisdiction over this territory by the gov- ernors of Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 1753. while these disputes were in progress, the French Governor of Canada sent a mixed force to seize and hold the upper branches of the Ohio. This was the signal for decisive action and Gover- nor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent Major George Washington to remonstrate against this move. Washington was courteously received by the French commander, but his message was re- ferred to the Governor-General of Canada and the new posts established were held awaiting the action of the latter official.
On July 3. 1754. Washington, while moving towards the forks of the Ohio with a force of some three hundred men, was intercepted by a force of French and Indians three or four times as large at Great Meadows. An engagement followed which lasted from noon till dark, when Washington capitu- lated on favorable terms. The French now built Fort Du Quesne at the forks of the Ohio and prepared to actively resist the English. The Indians, having a natural love for war and realizing their dangerous position, soon allied themselves ac- cording to inclination and fancied interest. The Northwestern tribes mostly joined their interests with the French, while the six nations favored the English.
From a frontier skirmish the conflict developed into an in- ternational war. England sent General Braddock over with a large army of regulars, drilled and disciplined in the field tac-
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tics of Europe, but practically ignorant of the mode of war- fare of the American savage and unwilling to take the advice of the frontier soldiers, who alone knew the nature of their foe. This magnificent army was reinforced with troops from Virginia and proceeded against Fort Du Quesne. When near this post the army was suddenly attacked from ambush by a mixed force of Canadian French and Indians on July 9, 1755. An obstinate fight followed with success long in doubt, but the British were finally forced to give after great slaughter and the loss of their commander. Colonel Washington was aide to Braddock on this campaign and rendered valuable services. Had his advice been followed perhaps the day might have been saved and the war shortened.
During the opening years of the conflict the French and their allies won victory after victory, and thus attracted the wavering alliance of many tribes. Even some of the Iroquois deserted the British as they saw them defeated time after time, but when the scales finally turned they resumed their old alliance.
In 1758 the British gained the ascendency, taking Louis- burg, and Fort Du Quesne, two of the most cherished strong- holds of the enemy. In 1759 Wolfe, by a bold and hazardous stroke, reduced Quebec, the backbone of Canada and seat of government of the French. This was the climax of the struggle on the American continent that won for the Anglo- Saxon the supremacy in the new world and deprived France of her American possessions. Measured by results, it has proven to be one of the most decisive struggles in recent his- tory. The valley of the Ohio was not destined to be governed from Quebec, neither were the language, laws, customs and religion of a Latin race to be engrafted on the hardy stock of the virile pioneers and mould the destiny of a budding nation. In 1760 the surrender of Montreal virtually ended the war on the continent but the conflict continued two or three years on the ocean. A treaty of peace was signed at Paris in 1763, and nearly all the French possessions east of the Mississippi passed into the hands of the British. At this time the Mo- hawk Valley in New York and the Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania formed the outskirts of connected English set- tlements. Beyond were the scattered homes of the hardy. reckless, and venturesome bordermen, always exposed to savage caprice, but forming a protective fringe to the older settlements.
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Fearing the encroachments of the English, the destruction of their fur trade, and the curtailment of their supplies of food and firearms, the savages formed a confederacy under the leadership of Pontiac, a crafty Ottawa chief, and planned the simultaneous capture and destruction of all their forts west of the Alleghany mountains. The eloquence of this resourceful chief stirred the latent resentment of the northern tribes and fanned their savage fury against the English invaders to a white heat. The friendship and active co-operation of the French were counted upon in this desperate coup but the sav- ages soon realized that they too divided their allegiance. Although acknowledged subjects of the English by recent treaty, they still deceived the Indians with the hope that the Great French King would surely send them aid. The plot against Detroit was revealed, but before the middle of the summer of 1763, all the posts except Niagara, Fort Pitt and Detroit had been taken. Early in 1764 Pontiac again laid siege to Detroit, but the handful of stubborn English held out against great odds and finally wore out the patience of the Great Chief, who now sought peace and withdrew his dispir- ited warriors. While Pontiac was conducting his campaign in the lake region, the Delawares and Shawanese furiously assaulted the scattered frontier settlements in western Penn- sylvania. Fort Pitt was attacked and the defenseless border settlers were forced to flee or be butchered by their infuriated foes. In order to counteract these movements, subjugate the Indians and force them to acknowledge the sovereignty of England, General Gage of the Colonial army sent Colonel Bradstreet with a large force against the lower lake tribes of Ottawas, Chippewas and Wyandots, and Colonel Bouquet against the Delawares and Shawanese near the forks of the Muskingum. Bradstreet proceeded toward Sandusky and met with indifferent success, but Bouquet, by decisive action, caused the tribes against whom he had been sent to deliver up a large number of prisoners and make arrangements for peace.
England now attempted a new policy in reference to her newly acquired western and northern lands, with a view of retaining them for the benefit of the crown and thereby ex- cluding the American colonists from settling them. Peaceful relations with the Indians. the extension of the fur trade and the safety of the colonies were the reasons assigned for this policy. To Sir William Johnson was entrusted the task of
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carrying out this policy of conciliation. In the spring of 1764 he kindled the council fire at Niagara and induced the tribes to make peace separately, thus accomplishing the disruption of the great confederation formed by Pontiac.
By a treaty at Easton, Pennsylvania, the English had en- gaged not to settle west of the mountains. Colonel Bouquet at Fort Pitt endeavored to enforce the provisions of this treaty, but Colonel Michael Cresap and the agents of the Ohio Company eagerly tried to trade with the Indians and to es- tablish the settlements planned before the war. The eager frontiersmen were not to be easily restrained, however, and soon began to cross the mountains and irritate the Indians. In order to conciliate the latter, Colonel Johnson, the British Indian agent. held a treaty with them at Fort Stanwix (Rome, New York) in 1768, at which all the country south of the Ohio to which the Iroquois had any claim was transferred to the British for $6,000 in money and goods. It was further stipulated here that the Ohio river should be the boundary betwen the red and white man. This region was being explored but it was twenty years before the lines of emigra- tion were directed north of the Ohio.
The opening of the Revolution in the east soon attracted attention in that direction. The west was also the scene of conflicts of momentous import. The hardy Scotch-Irish moun- taineers of the border states pressed into Kentucky, and the region from Pittsburg to the southwest was the scene of great activity. Boone, Harrod, Logan and other pioneers built for- tified stations near the upper Kentucky river and the romantic days of old Kentucky were ushered in. The Ohio Indians did not consider themselves bound by the treaty of Fort Stanwix and were not disposed to allow this valuable portion of their ancient domain to be quietly taken from them. When they saw the white emigrants floating down the Ohio in constantly increasing numbers they decided to dispute their advance. The murder of the relatives of Logan, a prominent Mingo chief, hastened hostilities.
Matters soon assumed such a serious turn that the Earl of Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, called out the mili- tia, and raised an army to check the hostile demonstrations in territory claimed by that colony. The troops were finally collected in two divisions, one of some fifteen hundred men under Dunmore, the other of some eleven hundred men under General Andrew Lewis. The former collected at Wheeling.
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proceeded down the Ohio and crossed to the Seioto plains. Lewis' division, composed of Virginia backwoodsmen, pro- ceeded along the Great Kanawha, intending to cross the Ohio and join Dunmore. On October 10, 1774, however, Lewis was intercepted at the mouth of the Kanawha by the com- bined Indian forces under Cornstalk, the famous Shawanese chief. A spirited all-day battle ensued, in which the back- woodsmen adopted the tactics of the savages, flitting from tree to tree and fighting hand to hand. The Indians were about equal in numbers to the whites and had among them some of their best chiefs and warriors. They had found their superiors in the "Longknives," however, and were forced to retreat across the Ohio at dusk, taking their dead and wounded with them.
This was probably the most severe whipping ever admin- istered to the Red Men at the hands of the whites. A treaty was soon consummated in which the Shawanese agreed to surrender all prisoners ever taken in war, and to cease hunting south of the Ohio. Besides driving them back to their re- treats and causing them to sue for peace, this engagement showed the temper of the Americans, and, no doubt, deterred the Indians from harassing the hardy and adventurous pio- neers who held the land beyond the mountains during the Revolution.
Considering the encouragement given to the Indians from the British in the north and the failure of Dunmore to take part in this engagement, along with the magnificent conduct of the backswoodsmen, this might be regarded the opening conflict of the great contest between the mother country and her colonies. No doubt it nerved many a patriot for the great battles in the south during the Revolution and will always be looked to with patriotic pride by coming generations of Americans.
In 1774 the Quebec Act, establishing civil government in the northwest, was passed by Parliament. By its provisions De- troit, then a place of some fifteen hundred inhabitants, was made the capital of this immense territory, north and west of the Ohio river. and Henry Hamilton was appointed lieuten- ant-general with civil and military powers. Upon assuming office in 1775 he proceeded to use heroic measures in dealing with the Americans, employed the notorious renegades, Simon Girty. Alexander MfcKee and Mathew Elliott, and sent war parties against the border. To check these incursions.
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George Rogers Clark, a dashing young surveyor, who had been appointed commander of Kentucky militia by Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia, was sent on a secret expedition against Kaskaskia. With some one hundred and seventy-five men he proceeded from the Falls of the Ohio to a point oppo- site the mouth of the Tennessee river and followed the trail to Kaskaskia, which place he took by a bold stroke on July 4. 1778. He then proceeded to subdue the neighboring tribes and sent Captain Helm with a guard to hold Vincennes. Gov- ernor Hamilton then advanced from Detroit by the Maumee and Wabash, with a mixed force, enlisted some savages, pro- ceeded to Vincennes and, with their assistance, dislodged Helm on December 17th. Early in February, 1779, Clark left Kaskaskia with about one hundred and sixty men, made a hazardous forced march across the frozen and inundated plains ยท of the Illinois country, and, after great hardships, appeared before Vincennes. With his brave and determined men he invested the town on the night of February 23d, and forced Hamilton to surrender on the 24th.
The whole country along the Mississippi and Wabash was now in the possession of Virginia. This state anticipated the results of Clark's expedition by creating the county of Illinois in October, 1778, and now claimed by conquest what she had formerly claimed by virtue of her colonial charter. This con- quest was the death blow to British ambition in the country between the mountains and the Mississippi. Hamilton was planning to lead the united western and southern tribes and. with the assistance of the terrible Iroquois, drive the Ameri- . cans beyond the Ohio, thus making that beautiful and well- known stream the ultimate boundary between Canada and the United States. Especially does the significance of this con- quest appear when viewed in the light of the Quebec Act. which aimed to establish interior colonies dependent upon a government on the St. Lawrence, instead of on the Atlantic coast. This act also deprived the colonies of their charter lands in the west and was one of the causes of the Revolu- tion. During the years 1777 and 1778 the Indians attacked the new Kentucky stations established by Boone, Harrod and Logan.
In the fall of 1778, Brigadier-General McIntosh of the Con- tinental Army built Ft. McIntosh (Beaver, Pa.), some thirty miles below Fort Pitt. He then proceeded with a force of one thousand men to attack Sandusky, but stopped upon
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reaching the Tuscarawas and built Fort Laurens (near Bol- ivar, Ohio). Both of these posts were afterwards abandoned, owing to frequent attacks, the severity of the ensuing winter, and the extreme difficulty of maintaining a sufficient garrison, leaving no American defenses in the west except Fort Pitt, Kaskaskia and Vincennes.
Late in May, 1779, Colonel John Bowman led an expedition of some three hundred Kentucky volunteers against the Shawanese village of Chillicothe on the Little Miami (near Xenia, Ohio). The Indians were surprised early on the morn- ing of the 30th, their town was burned and sacked and a large amount of plunder secured. The Americans lost eight men and secured one hundred and sixty horses. The aggressive- ness of the hardy pioneers, who had settled south and east of the Ohio, had gradually driven the Indians toward the northwest, so that by 1779 they had retreated in large num- bers to the headwaters of the Scioto, the two Miamis, and the watershed between these streams and the Maumee. This was a beautiful tract of land, with fine timber and rich meadows, affording ideal hunting grounds and fertile fields for the rem- nants of the dwindling tribes. Many of the discouraged Shawanese retreated across the Mississippi.
The principal seat of the ancient Miamis was at the junc- tion of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's, and from this important center trails radiated in many directions. It was well located with reference to the lake region and the headwaters of the Wabash and Miamis. Important villages were also located along the Maumee, on the headwaters of the Auglaize and the Great Miami, and on the portages between these streams. The Weas and Piankeshaws dwelt along the Wabash and were in intimate relation with the mother nation on the Maumce.
In the summer of 1780, Colonel Byrd, of .Detroit, invaded Kentucky, by way of the Miami and Licking rivers, with a mixed force of Canadians and Indians. He attacked and took Martin's and Ruddle's stations but soon abandoned the in- vasion. In order to retaliate for this raid, Colonel Clark raised a large force of frontiersmen, including Boone, Kenton and some of the most noted Kentucky fighters, crossed the Ohio and proceded against the Indians of the upper Miami valley. He destroyed the old Shawanese town of Piqua, the bovhood home of Tecumseh, on Mad river, and several other villages. together with considerable standing corn. This raid greatly
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discouraged the Indians and their British abettors at Detroit and brought security to the Kentuckians until the following year, when attacks on the exposed pioneer stations were re- newed. In April, 1781, Colonel Brodhead of Fort Pitt led an expedition against the Delaware tribes on the Muskingum, destroyed several villages, and killed and captured a few In- dians. In August, Colonel Lochry with a force of one hun- dred and seventy mounted Pennsylvanians, was surprised by a large body of Indians near the mouth of the Miami, while on his way to aid Clark in the west. Several of his men were killed and the balance captured.
The Moravians, a Christian sect of marked missionary zeal, who had followed the Delaware Indians from their former home in Pennsylvania, settled in the valleys of the Tuscar- awas and Muskingum rivers in 1768. Here they purchased small tracts from the natives, cultivated a portion of them, founded four substantial villages, and established places of worship under the leadership of Zeisberger and Heckewelder. They were peaceable and industrious, being opposed to war and aggression. Many of the neighboring Indians of various tribes were converted to their doctrines. Being on important Indian trails, leading from Fort Pitt and the frontier settle- ments to Sandusky and the northwest, their position became more hazardous as the American settlements advanced, on account of the opposing war parties which passed through their villages. Trying to be hospitable to all, they naturally incurred the suspicion of the turbulent frontiersmen. In 1781 Colonel Brodhead urged these Christian Indians to move to Fort Pitt in order to be under the protection of the Ameri- cans. This they refused to do, but later in the same year were forced to settle near Upper Sandusky by orders from the Brit- ish authorities of Detroit. The winter of 1781-82 was a hard one on the exiled Moravians and early in the spring a party of them returned to the towns of Ghadenhutten and Salem to harvest the corn left ungathered the previous fall. While engaged in this work, a band of some eighty or ninety militia- men under Colonel David Williamson stealthily captured and deliberately murdered ninety-six men, women and children, thus perpetrating one of the most pitiable and atrocious crimes of frontier history. Williamson's party was composed largely of the brutal and ruffianly frontier bordermen and their atro- cious deed caused a storm of protests from the better class along the border.
(5)
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On May 25, 1782, an expedition of some five hundred Penn- sylvania and Virginia volunteers set out from the Mingo Bot- toms (near Steubenville, Ohio), under the leadership of Col- onel William Crawford to chastise the Indians of the San- dusky plaints (near Upper Sandusky, Ohio), who had been harassing the borders. On account of its location on one of the most traveled routes leading from Lake Erie to the Upper Ohio, and the ease of access from Detroit, this was a strategic center and a favorite rendezvous of the savages friendly with the British. Hearing of this move. the commandant of Detroit sent Captain Caldwell with a troop of Rangers, and Colonel McKee with some Canadians to intercept the Ameri- cans. The Indians, comprising many doughty warriors of the Delawares, Wyandots and Shawanese, met the Americans in a grove near Upper Sandusky on June 4th. Crawford dis- lodged the advance party from the timber. The Indians then took a sheltered position in the low, grassy ground, which surrounded the grove and were reinforced on the 5th by other tribes and the Rangers. The fight was continued and the Americans held their position throughout the day but were forced to retreat under cover of the night with a loss in killed. wounded and captured of some one hundred and fifty men. Colonel Crawford was captured, and on the following day Col- onel Williamson drove back the pursuing savages in a rain storm. The Indians, still smarting under the cowardly and inhuman massacre of their Moravian brethren, wreaked ven- gence on Colonel Crawford in lieu of Williamson, the real offender, by burning him at the stake. Simon Girty was with the savages and witnessed this, one of the most revolting tor- tures in the annals of Indian warfare. Partly because of its spectacular and revolting features, this was probably the most noted Revolutionary engagement within the territory later comprising Ohio. Crawford was an intimate friend and com- patriot of Washington during the Revolution and was highly esteemed by his people.
In August. 1782, Simon Girty was sent from Detroit with Caldwell and a party of Indians and British Rangers against Bryant's station near the upper Kentucky river. Failing to take this place they were pursued by a force of Kentuckians under Boone and other noted backwoodsmen, whom they de- feated in a hard fight at the Blue Licks. The Americans lost seventy men in this engagement and the Canadians only seven. Aroused at this raid, a thousand Kentucky riflemen
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assembled under Clark at the mouth of the Licking, crossed the Ohio and desolated the Miami valley. They destroyed an Indian town on the present site of Piqua, Ohio, also Upper Piqua (Pickawillany), three miles above, and burned Loramie's store, fifteen miles beyond at the head of the portage leading to the St. Mary's river. This punishment cooled the ardor of the savages who now began to realize the growing numbers and strength of the Americans. The frontiers of Pennsyl- vania and western Virginia were still harassed somewhat, but the close of the Revolution soon caused these incursions to abate.
After Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the Colonies she still retained possession of the principal lake posts, including Mackinac, Detroit, Niagara, Presque Isle, and those on the Sandusky and Maumee rivers, contrary to the express specifications of the treaty of 1783. To justify this policy, she pointed out that the United States had violated certain articles of this treaty referring to the payment of debts due British subjects and had even permitted the confiscation of many of her subjects' estates. The Americans contended that they had done all that they had promised in enforcing these provisions but that difficulty had arisen in trying to get the various states to change their laws to conform to the order recently inaugurated.
In the eyes of the mother country the new government was considered somewhat of an experiment and was to be con- fined, if possible, between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic. The great struggle had bound the colonies together in a com- mon cause, but that being over, they were loosely held by the Articles of Confederation until the adoption of the constitu- tion in 1787. Moreover, the lake posts were the receiving sta- tions for the very valuable fur trade and decided points of vantage for equipping the Indians and influencing them against the Americans.
The French had concerned themselves mostly with trade and religious propagandism during their ascendency and had purchased only small tracts about their posts from the natives. At the peace of 1763 these had been transferred to Great Bri- tain and finally, in 1783, to the United States. Congress, how- ever, regarded ali the lands north of the Ohio as forfeited on account of hostilities during the Revolution and by virtue of the British cession. Peace was accordingly granted to the
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