USA > Ohio > Defiance County > History of Defiance County, Ohio. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, etc.; military record; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; farm views, personal reminiscences, etc > Part 10
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Mr. Alder, in his narrative, states that he was personally acquainted with Tecumseh, and that he heard an Indian once boasting how many white scalps he had taken. Tecumseh, the great chief, turned on him and said "he was a low, mean Indian; that more than half the number of scalps were those of women and children. Tecumseh said he had killed forty men with his own hands in single combat, but he had never taken the life of a woman or child." Tecumseh seems to have possessed, for a savage, many fine traits. To save his country was honorable and high- ly patriotic. He was a man of fine intellect, brave, fearless, and of pure integrity. He would ask nothing but his right, and would submit to nothing that was wrong. This great chief was born three-fourths of a century too late. With his talents for organization, seventy five years earlier he would have rivaled Pon- tiac, and have done much to keep the pale faces east of the Ohio. It is not definitely certain whether the projected Indian confederacy originated with him. Whether it did or not, it must be conceded that he evinced great talents in carrying it forward: and the skill of Gen. Harrison was more than once baffled by the persistence of this great chief. When Proctor was about to retreat to the Thames, Tecumseh, hav- ing penetrated his designs, looked upon the British Commander with scorn. The manner of the death of the chief will, probably, ever remain unsettled. The Prophet, who accompanied the renegade Shaw-
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
nees under the lead of Tecumseh to the British serv- ice in Canada, after the war returned to Wapako- netta, and went West of the Mississippi, with a large number of his tribe, in 1828, and died, in 1833, in Kansas, with cholera.
By a treaty, held at the Maumee Rapids, in 1817, by Gen. Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur, the Shawnees were given a reservation around Wapako- netta, in the name of Blackhoof, and along Hog Creek of ten miles square, and in 1818, at the treaty of St. Mary's, twenty-five square miles, to be so laid out that Wapakonetta should be the center. At the same treaties, the Shawnees and Senecas in what is now Logan County, in and around Lewistown, received a reservation of forty square miles. The founder of the latter village is believed to have been the chief John Lewis, who married Mary, the Indian sister of the captive Jonathan Alder. The Shawnees continued to reside on these reservations until their final re- moval west of the Mississippi. None of the band of Tecumseh was included in the schedule of names ap- pended in the treaty of 1817 at the Maumee Rapids, nor at St. Mary's. They had forfeited all right to protection by the Government of the United States, having joined the British in 1812.
As the Wapakonetta band was, at the time of re- moval, within the limits of Allen County, the names of the Shawnees of that reservation are as follows: "Qua-tu-wa-pee, or Capt. Lewis, of Lewistown, forty square miles. Tracts at Wapakonetta divided among the following: Blackhoof, Pam-thee or Walker, Pea-se-ca or Wolf. Shem-an-itaor Snake, Athel-wak- e-se ca or Yellow Clouds, Pem-thew-tew or John Perry, Ca ca-lawa or End of the Tail, Que-la-we War Chief, Sa-ca-chew a. We-rew-e-la, Wa-sa-we-tah or Bright Horn, Otha-ra-sa or Yellow, Tep-e-te-seca, New-a-he tuc-ca, Ca-awar-icho, Wa-cat-chew-a, Silo- cha-he-ca, Tapea or Sanders, Me-she-raw-ah, To-lea- pea, Poc-he-caw. Alowe-meta-huck or Lalloway or Perry, Wa-wel-ame, Ne-me-cashe, Ne-ru-pene-she- quah or Cornstalk, Shi-she, She-a-law-he, Nam-ska- ka, Wa-cas-ka or David McNair, Sha-pu-ka-ha, Qua- co-wuw-nee, Neco-she-cu, Thu-cu-scu or Jim Blue Jacket, Cho-welas-eca, Qua ha-ho, Kay-ketch he- ka or William Perry, Sew-a-pen, Peetah or Davy Baker, Ska-poa wah or George McDougal, Che-po cu-ra, She-ma or Sam, Che-a-has-ka or Captain Tommy, General Wayne. Tha-way, Ohawee, We-a-re-cah, Captain Reed, Law-ay-tu-cheh or John Wolf, Te-cn- tie or George, Ske-ka-cump-ske-kaw, Wish-e maw, Muy-way-mano-treka, Quas-kee, Thos-wa, Bap-tis-te, May.we-ali-upe, Perea-Cumme, Chock-ke-lake or Dam, Kewa-pea, Ega-ta-cum-she-qua, Wal-upe, Aqua- she-qua, Pemata, Nepaho, Tap-e-she-ka, La-tho-way- no-ma, Saw-a-co-tu or Yellow Clouds, Mem-his-he-ka,
Ash-e-lu-kah, O-hip-wah, Tha-pae-ca, Chu-ca-tuh, Na-ka-ke-ka, Thit-huc-cu-lu, Pe-la-cul-he, Pe-las-ke, She-sho- lou. Quan-a-co, Hal-koo-ta, Laugh-she-na, Cap-a wah, Ethe-wa-case, Que-he-thu, Ca-pia, Thuca- trou-wah or the Man Going Up Hill, Mag-a-thu, Te- cum-te-qua, Tete-co-patha, Kek-us-the, Sheat-wah, Sheale-war-son, Hagh-ke-la, Aka-pee or Heap Up Anything, Lamo-to-the, Ka-sha, Pan-hoar Peaitch- tham-tah or Peter Cornstalk, Capea, Shua-gunme, Wa-wal-ep-es-shec-co, Cale-qua, Teto-tu, Tas-his-hee, Nawe-bes-he-co or White Feather, She-per kis-co-she- no-te kah, She-makih, Pes-he-to, Theat-she-ta, Mil- ham-et-che, Cha-coa, Lawath-ska, Pa-che-tah, Away- baris-ke-caw, Hato-cuino, Tho-mas-hes-haw-kah, Pe- pa-co-she, Os-has-he, Quel-co-shu, Me-with-a-quin, Agnepeh, Quellime." The foregoing contains the names of all males at Wapakonetta in 1817, being 126. Each person was allowed about five hundred acres, and if the tribe had remained and become civil- ized farmers, and cultivated their lands, would have been a wealthy people by this time.
THE SALE OF THEIR RESERVES.
In the year 1831, Hon. John McElvain, Indian Agent for the Shawnees and Senecas of Ohio, was instructed by the Department at Washington to ap- proach those tribes on the question of disposing of their reservations and removal west of the Missouri, and it was done through James B. Gardner as Special Commissioner. The Shawnees had put little confi- dence in the integrity of Mr. Gardner, and entered into the proposed consultation with reluctance, Col. John Johnston, of Piqua, the old agent, who had served the Shawnees and other tribes included in his agency for over thirty years, had been removed by the President in consequence of his political opin- ions. This greatly grieved the Shawnees, for they had formed a very warm attachment for the old agent. He had been an honest, faithful and conscientious officer, and managed his department with strict econ- omy and uprightness. During his official career he had handled vast sums of Government money, and never applied a dollar to private uses above his regu- lar compensation. He did not speculate, as is the modern custom, in spoiled beef, nor submit to be sub- sidized by venal speculators in provisious, goods or furs, notwithstanding which, such was the heat of party rancor that the President removed him and ap- pointed a partisan in his place.
The Society of Friends, at a very considerable ex- pense, introduced farming among the Shawnees, built a grist and saw mill at Wapakonetta, when Col. Johnson was made the almoner of a female Friend in Ireland to the amount of £100 sterling, to be ex- pended in stock and implements of agriculture among
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HISTORY OF, DEFIANCE COUNTY.
the Indians of his agency, which trust was faithfully executed. Acts such as the preceding, with the ac- counts transmitted through the Delawares of the just and humane government of the Quakers in Pennsyl- vania toward the primitive Indians, had made them repose great confidence in persons of their society. By such acts the Shawnees were induced upon the paths of civilization, and had made fair progress in clear- ing, improving and cultivating their reservations.
At that time (1831) a large proportion of them were living in good log cabins, surrounded by culti- vated fields and orchards, and were in possession of horses, cattle and swine in large numbers. They were peaceful in their intercourse with the whites, and had commenced to educate their children in the Quaker schools. In the midst of their prosperity and peace, Commissioner Gardner sent a message to the Shawnees at Wapakonetta, informing them that he would be there in a few days to make proposals for the purchase of their lands. This was the first in- timation of the kind that had reached their ears since they had entered upon their reservations, which the Government and declared they should occupy for an indefinite term of years. The message greatly sur- prised and alarmed them, for they had always dreaded such a contingency, guided by the history of the past, though they did not expect it so soon, having been so repeatedly assured by the Government that they should forever remain upon and own their lands, without being molested by any one. Having full faith in the guarantees of the Government, they had been induced to improve their lands and change their mode and manner of life. The message of Gardner produced great confusion of mind and un- certainty of purpose. The chiefs consulted their Quaker friends, as to the proper steps to be taken. It seemed almost incredible that the Government in- tended to thrust aside the plighted faith of the nation, and dispossess this handful of helpless Indians of so small a tract of land. Their Quaker friends advised them to refuse to sell or part with their lands.
In the meantime, the traders and others having claims on the Indians demanded immediate payment, and commenced offering the chiefs large bribes to induce them to sell, expecting to get their dues in that way, regardless of the fate of the poor Indians. In this way, the advice of the Quakers was over- looked, and the Indians induced to part with their improvements and wild lands. In a few days, Gardner notified the chiefs to meet him on a fixed day at Wapakonetta, and from that time until his ar. rival the utmost confusion. grief and alarm prevailed among the Shawnees. The head men met him in general council, when, through a new interpreter, Gardner delivered a long harangue, "describing the
difficulties in the way of taxation, making roads, and the like, that were about to overtake them; adverting to the fact, also, that mean white men would soon ruin them with bad whisky; that white men would collect debts from them under their laws by seizing property, while an Indian's oath would amount to nothing; that white men would turn their horses in the Indian's grain field, and Indians be beaten by white men without remedy; and in this way continued to alarm their fears until he had produced a desire in his hearers to remove to the wilds of Kansas where they could feast on buffalo, elk and other wild game without working as the whites did. If they would consent to sell their lands and go West, the Great Father, President Jackson, would make them rich in a new and splendid country, which would never be within the limits of any State, where they could live by hunting! (How fallacious!) If they would sell their reservations in Ohio, the Government would give them 100,000 acres of beautiful land, adjoining the tract of fifty miles square which Gov. Clark, of Missouri, had ceded to their Shawnee brethren in 1825, and upon which they were now living, and for which the Government would make them a general warranty deed, in fee simple, forever; and further proposed that if they would part with their lands, they should have all that they could be sold for, over and above the cost of surveying and selling them, and the cost of removing and feeding them at their new homes, for one year after their arrival in that country, and as their friends, the Quakers, had erected a grist mill and saw mill for them at Wapa- konetta, free of cost, the United States would build, at their own expense, good mills in their new coun- try, in lieu of those they had in Ohio, and pay the Indians in cash the amount of what good men might adjudge their improvements to be worth, to enable them to improve their new homes, and that they should have new guns, and tools of every description, and all their lands would bring over 75 cents per acre the Indians should have, which would be placed in the United States Treasury, and five per cent interest paid them annually until they desired to draw the whole sum."
This address greatly divided the Shawnees; those having improvements desired to remain, while the idle and dissipated, influenced by the bribes and whisky of the traders, desired to sell and remove, and were largely in the majority. After considering the matter a few days, word was conveyed, by a few of the chiefs to the Commissioner at Columbus, to come on and close the contract. He attended, as requested, and renewed the same offer as before, and urged them to sell, saying they should listen to the white people, because they were wiser than the red people, as they
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
were wiser than the blacks. Way-wel-eapy, a noted chief and orator of the Shawnees, replied to Mr. Gardner on the difference of the races in mental capa- city, and " denied that the Great Spirit had made any mental distinction between the white, the red and the black people. He thought the Great Spirit had created all men alike, of the same blood; but if he did, as his friend, Mr. Gardner, had said, create them so very different that one race was so much superior to the others, how had he found out that it was his own race that was so much wiser than others? He thought if there was any difference, it was very likely that it was the Indians who had the most sense given them." He then said the Shawnees had agreed to sell their lands if he (Gardner) would give the amount offered at the former council, and, in addi- tion, would pay their debts-which was common in Indian treaties. The Commissioner said he would have an additional clause attached to the sale, " bind- ing the Government to pay all their debts," and leave the chiefs to determine the just amount of their in debtedness, and "the Government would pay it out of its own money." The chiefs then formally signed the treaty, without having it read prior to doing so.
In interpreting the new sale, they were terribly deceived. Gardner had refused to employ the old French interpreter, Francis DuChequate, who under- stood the Shawnee tongue perfectly, and had long been an employe of Col. John Johnston. What motives actuated the new Commissioner it is difficult to determine. When the Indians finally obtained a copy from the department at Washington, they found that they had been grossly deceived and wronged.
While these consultations were being held at Wapakonetta, the Lewistown Shawnees became great- ly troubled and confused. They were filled with ap- prehensions for the future, and sent for their old friend and adopted son, Jonathan Alder. They sent him special word, and desired him to come up im- mediately. "He rode to the village, and they said they were about to sell their reserve, and, if he wished, they would give him a portion of the land. The Indians thought, perhaps, they could give him about one mile square. They had offered him land a number of times before that, provided he would come and live on it; but, as he had lived a long time with them and thought he would rather live among his white neighbors, and did not wish to raise his family in their midst, he had declined their offers; but now, as they were going to sell, they thought they would give him some land, to which they thought he was justly entitled. They had always contended that he was entitled to a portion of the reserve, as the Gov- ernment had failed to give him any land. They said that in two weeks they would have a meeting to
transact business, and there would be a motion to strike off a part of the reserve for him, and that, to this end, all the male Shawnees would be permitted to vote, and they desired him to be present. He re- . mained a few days, visiting with his old friends, and then returned home. In the course of a month he again visited the village, and was informed that a motion to strike off a portion of land to him had been put, and failed. The Indians had debated and parleyed over it for two weeks, and the young men who had grown up since he had left the Shawnees, and knew nothing about him, had nearly all voted against the measure, and defeated it. Old Shawnees stated, however, that a resolution to give him land beyond the Missouri had been adopted unanimously, on the condition that he would go with them out, but they did not ask him to settle it until it suited him- self and children. He reflected over the matter, and concluded that their reserve was so distant it would never do himself or children any good, and declined to go as proposed."
In this manner, the tall and winter of 1831-32 were spent in fruitless parleys. Gardner, in the spring of 1832, pressed the sale of their lands to a hasty issue. The chiefs hesitated to sign the transfer (desiring to pay all their just debts) until Gardner attached a special provision for that purpose to the treaty. In the meantime, the traders secured a recog- nition of all their pretended and just debts, and a bond for $20,000 was drawn up and signed, acknowl- edging the justness of their claims against the nation (?), which bond was indorsed by the Commis- sioner, and the books containing their claims were publicly burned. Almost as soon as the treaty was closed, it was rumored that they had been badly cheated, and that the bond just given would be paid out of the result of the sales of their reserve, instead of, as they supposed, by the Government. Upon learning the truth concerning the matter, John Perry, an aged and influential chief, wept like a child, and declared that his people " were ruined."
A delegation immediately visited Washington City, to see Gen. Lewis Cass, then at the head of the department, concerning the sale. Upon procuring a copy of the treaty, their fears were fully realized. The debts due the traders, the charge of erecting new mills and other expenses were all to be deducted (?) from the proceeds of the sales of their lands, and the President declined to rescind the treaty and rectify the wrong that had been perpetrated! An estimate of the value of their property was made, and it was shown that Gardner had actually wronged them out of $120,000. Gen. Vance, then a Member of Con- gress, upon the refusal of the department to grant redress, made application to Congress, stating their
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
losses at $100,000; but finally McDuffy, of South Carolina, reported a bill for $30,000 in fifteen annual payments, for their Ohio lands. The amount of lands ceded about Wapakonetta, 66,000 acres, and 40.300 acres at Lewistown, which, at $2 per acre, would amount to the sum of $212.600; but including their improvements, mills, etc., were probably worth double that amount. Yet, we are gravely told that the United States has fully paid for every foot of land purchased of the Indians in Ohio! Is there to be no day of retribution ? no day of settlement ?
At that time, the Shawnees had large numbers of cattle, horses, hogs and other property, which they could not take with them. They sold most of their cattle, hogs and other property, and purchased cloth- ing, wagons, guns and provisions, and settled their private debts with their neighbors. and got ready to leave; but their annuity of $3,000 was not paid until November, 1831, and the consequence was that they suffered greatly for food during the winter of 1831- 32.
THE FINAL REMOVAL.
The time for their removal arrived, and David Robb and D. M. Workman were appointed Sub- agents for their removal. For some months before their final departure, the young men of the Shawnees, and the middle-aged who had not abandoned their old customs, were engaged in a round of dissipation brought on by the mean tricks of wicked traders to cheat the Indians out of every dollar's worth of prop- erty they could obtain. Whisky, that bane of the Indian, was largely distributed among the Indians by traders; in fact, all decency was violated by the wretches who dealt in fire-water. The better portion of the Shawnees were engaged, for weeks, in relig- ious ceremonies, dances and amusements prepara- tory to their departure. They carefully leveled the graves of their dead, and removed all traces of the same.
Hon. John McIlvain accompanied the Lewistown Indians, and James B. Gardner those of Wapakonetta. The route was by way of Greenville, Richmond and Indianapolis. The Indians commenced to assemble in September, 1832, and mounted their horses, and such as had wagons seated themselves, while the Gov- ernment teams hauled their provisions and clothing. Many of them bade a sad adieu to the hunting- grounds and graves of their fathers. It was a country dear to the Shawnee. Their braves had met Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, and fought bravely to retain it. Now, the pale face was to be the owner, and cared not at their departure. They could only look to the Great Spirit for preservation and future protection. All things being ready, their "High Priest " in front, like the leaders in ancient Israel, "bearing the
ark of the covenant," consisting of a large gourd and the bones of a deer's leg tied to his neck, led the way. Just as they started, the priest gave a " blast of his trumpet," again indicative of the origin of the Shaw- nees, and then moved slowly and solemnly along, while the whole nation followed in like manner until they were ordered to halt and encamp in the evening; when the priest gave another blast, as a signal to stop, erect tents and cook supper. The same course was observed throughout the entire journey. The Shawnees who emigrated numbered 700 souls, and the Senecas who emigrated at the same time, 350. When they arrived at Greenville, they encamped at Tecumseh's point, and remained a da or two to take a final farewell of that place, so dear to their memo- ries as the home of their fathers and the scene of so many Indian assemblies and heroic exploits. They had before them a journey of over eight hundred miles, across the open prairies, in an uninhabited country.
About one-fifth of the tribe remained at Wapako- netta and among the Wyandots at Upper Sandusky, until the spring of 1833. The Indians arrived at their new home about Christmas, 1832. Gardner accompanied them to the Mississippi and turned back, when Joseph Parks, a half-blood Quaker, who had the job of removing them, conducted them safely to their new home. They at once proceeded to raise cabins, split rails and make fences, but were very short of provisions, and had to depend largely upon such game as they could find. The buffalo, so glowingly described by Gardner, were not there! What a sad joke to the poor Indian! How faithless have tricky white men always been toward the red man! Is it a matter of surprise that the Indian should resent it? Their first crops were raised in 1833-34, prior to which they suffered a good deal with cholera and the diseases of the country. New mills were erected, but not, as promised, at the Government expense (!), but out of their money! In these troubles they were greatly relieved by the good Quakers, who again established schools among them, and endeavored to teach them the arts of civilized life; in which they made rapid progress, and soon became surrounded with the comforts resulting from an agricultural life.
Just prior to and at the time of the removal of the Shawnees, a number of very noted chiefs resided at their principal towns -Wapakonetta, Shawneetown and Lewistown-and it will be interesting to give a short sketch of each.
THEIR GREAT CHIEFS.
The most noted chief was the venerable Blackhoof, Cut-the-we-ka-saw, in the raids upon Kentucky some- times called Blackfoot. He is believed to have been
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
born in Florida, and, at the period of the removal of a portion of the Shawnees to Ohio and Pennsylvania, was old enough to recollect having been bathed in the salt water. He was present, with others of his tribe, at the defeat of Gen. Braddock, near Pitts- burgh in 1755, and was engaged in all the wars in Ohio from that time until the treaty of Greenville, in 1795. He was known, far and wide, as the great Shawnee warrior, whose cunning, sagacity and ex- perience were only equaled by the force and desper- ate bravery with which he carried into operation his military plans. He was the inveterate foe of the white man, and held that no peace should be made, nor negotiation attempted, except on the condition that the whites should repass the mountains, and leave the great plains of the West to the sole oc- cupancy of the red men. He was the orator of the tribe during the greater part of his long life, and is said to have been an excellent speaker. Col. John Johnston says he was probably in more battles than any living man of his day, and was the most grace- ful Indian he had ever seen, and possessed the most natural and happy faculty of expressing his ideas. He was well-versed in the traditions of his people, and no one understood better their relations to the whites, whose settlements were gradually pressing them back, and could detail, with minuteness, the wrongs inflicted by the whites on his people. He remembered having talked with some of the aged chiefs who had been present at the treaty with Will- iam Penn in 1682. He fought the battles against Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, hoping to retain their country, but when finally defeated, in 1794, he de- cided that further resistance was useless, and signed the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, and continued faithful to its stipulations until his decease, which occurred in the summer of 1831, at Wapakonetta, at the advanced age of one hundred and twenty years. In an interview with the late Col. George C. John- ston, of Piqua, Ohio, in 1874, he informed the writer that he was in Wapakonetta at the time of his death and attended his burial, which he describes as fol- lows: "The Shawnees never bury their dead until the sun is in the tree-tops, late in the afternoon. On such occasions, they generally select six pall-bearers, who carry the corpse to the grave and place it there- in, the grave being two and a half or three feet deep. When the chief Blackhoof was buried, in 1831, it was in the Indian manner. The corpse was wrapped in a clean, new Indian blanket, and a large quantity of new fine goods, consisting of calico, belts and rib- bons, were placed about the deceased, who was laid upon a new, clean slab, prepared for the purpose; his gun, tomahawk, knife and pipe were by his side. All the Indians present were in deep distress, having
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