USA > Ohio > Morgan County > History of Morgan County, Ohio, with portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 10
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*Alfred Mathews in the History of Washington county.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY AND THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
When the question was put as to whether it was expedient to form a con- stitution and State government at that time, only Ephraim Cutler, of Washing- ton County, voted in the negative.
By far the most important work of the convention was the defeat of a pro- vision authorizing slavery in the State. In spite of the ordinance of 1787 such a measure was introduced, and came near being adopted by the committee having charge of preparing a bill of rights. But here Ephraim Cutler, the son of the author of that famous clause in the Ordinance of Freedom, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the territory," interposed, and; by the aid of other wise inen, defeated the measure.
The convention, which met upon the 1st, adjourned on the 29th of November, having completed its work and formed that instrument which stood for half a century as the fundamental law of the State of Ohio. The constitution was never submitted to the people either for approval or disapproval, but became a law solely by act of the convention a fact somewhat remarkable, since the convention had been called by Congress without having taken the opinion of the inhabitants upon the question. Ohio was first recognized as a State by Con- gress February 19, 1803. Its first legis- lature met on March 1, 1803, and the formal organization of the goverment took place two days later. The legis- lature continued to meet at Chillicothe until 1816 (with the exception of two sessions, 1810-11 and 1811-12), which were held at Zanesville), when Column- bus became the capital of the State.
PROGRESS OF THE MARIETTA COLONY-NEW SETTLEMENTS FOUNDED.
The winter of 1788-89 was long and
severe. The Ohio River froze up in December and no boats passed either to or from Marietta till March. Pro- visions were scarce, and the game had been mostly killed off in the surround- ing country by the Indians, so that wild meat was procured with difficulty. Before navigation was resumed many of the people lived for weeks with little or no meat and without bread, their food consisting of boiled corn, or coarse meal, ground in hand-mills. In 1790 the inhabitants of the county suffered again from scarcity of food. Small pox prevailed at Marietta early in 1790, and at Belpre in 1793. But in spite of all drawbacks the settements slowly but surely gained in strength and pros- perity.
In the winter of 1788-89 an associa- tion of about forty members was formed at Marietta for the purpose of forming a new settlement, and the Belpre colony was the result. The set- tlers began moving to their farms in April, 1789. The outbreak of Indian hostilities found the settlement with but two strongly built log blockhouses. In January, 1791, eleven more were built, making thirteen in all. They were arranged in two rows, along the river, and the whole was inclosed by palisades. The defence when complete was styled " Farmers' Castle." and the United States flag was raised upon one of the principal blockhouses, where sentries were posted at night, ready to discharge a small cannon in case of aların. About two hundred and twenty persons inhabited the garrison, seventy of whom were able-bodied men. Later in the war (1793) two other garrissons, known respectively as Goodale's and Stone's, were built in the vicinity of the castle, which had been found too
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
small to accommodate all who required its shelter.
Waterford settlement on the Mus- kingum was begun in April, 1789, by a second association, consisting of thirty- nine members, who in accordance with the Ohio Company's resolutions," were to receive lands for settling. A part of the company were to locate on Wolf Creek, about a mile above its mouth, for the purpose of erecting mills. " The main body of the donated lands," says Ilildreth, "lies on the east side of the Muskingum; and that portion of it bordering on the river was divided into lots of ten or fifteen acres each, for the purpose of making the settlement more compact, and the inhabitants near to each other for mutual assistance and defense in times of danger from the Indians; while the other portion of the hundred acres was located at a greater distance." These lots com- menced where the town of Beverly now stands, and extended down the river about two miles.
On the west side of the Maskingum, in a bend of Wolf Creek known as the peninsula, another village was laid out in lots of five acres each. For the pro- tection of the settlement two block- houses were built, one on the east and the other on the west side of the river. After the commencement of hostilities Fort Frye, on the east side of the Mus- kingum about half a mile below the site of Beverly, was erected. It was completed in March, 1791.
Wolf Creek mills, the first in the ter- ritory, according to Dr. Hildreth, were erected the year the Waterford settle-
ment was begun, by Colonel Robert Oliver, Major Hatfield White and Cap- tain John Dodge. The mills (a grist- mill and sawmill) were built during the year 1789, but were not completed and ready for operation until March of the following year. The crank for the sawmill was made at New Haven, Conn., transported across the moun- tains on a packhorse to Sumrill's Ferry, and brought thence by water. The stones, of conglomerate rock, were quar- ried in Laurel Hill, near Brownsville, Pa., and were used more than fifty years. They were not suitable for grinding wheat, but served well for grinding corn, of which, it is said, the mill would grind a bushel in four minutes. About the mill there grew up a settlement of about thirty people, all of whom fled to the neighboring blockhouses when the news of the Big Bottom massacre reached them. The mill was resorted to by the people of Marietta and Waterford both before and after the war, and for many years did a thriving business. During the Indian war it was not suffered to lie idle. Parties of twenty or thirty men sometimes went up with their grain in boats, a part of them marching by land to watch for Indians. While the mill was in operation sentries were posted round about to give warning of danger, but during the whole war the mill was undisturbed by the savages.
But one other settlement was founded under the auspices of the Marietta colonists prior to the Indian war-the ill-fated colony at Big Bottom, of which we shall proceed to speak in the following chapter.
*See chapter on the Ohio Company.
CHAPTER VI.
THE INDIAN WAR-1790 TO 1795.
PRIMARY CAUSES OF THE WAR-DECLARATION OF THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 CONCERNING THE IN- DIANS-A PEACE POLICY CONTEMPLATED-ITS FUTILITY-PREPARATIONS FOR A TREATY-THE WHITES ATTACKED IN THE NIGHT AT DUNCAN'S FALLS-THE TREATY MADE AT FORT HARMAR IN JANUARY, 1789-DISSATISFACTION AMONG THE INDIAN TRIBES-ATTACK ON THE OHIO COM- PANY'S SURVEYING PARTY-JOHN GARDNER'S ADVENTURE-WAR CONSIDERED INEVITABLE -- GENERAL HARMAR'S UNSUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION-MEIGS' JOURNEYS TO DETROIT-THE COLONY AT BIG BOTTOM-MURDER OF THE SETTLERS-TWELVE PERSONS KILLED AND OTHERS CAP- TURED-TWO MEN ELUDE THE INDIANS AND WARN THE NEIGHBORING SETTLEMENTS-ALARMING CONDITION OF THE SETTLERS-INCIDENTS AND ADVENTURES-A SCOUT KILLED-DEATII OF MATTHEW KERR-AN INDIAN KILLED AT DUCK CREEK-RELIGIOUS EXERCISES INTERRUPTED BY AN ALARM OF INDIANS-A SKIRMISH-NICHOLAS CARPENTER AND THREE OTHERS KILLED NEAR MARIETTA-ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT-WHAT WASHINGTON THOUGHT OF IT-THE INDIAN CONFED- ERACY-EVENTS OF 1792-3-DISAPPEARANCE OF MAJOR GOODALE-THE SAD FATE OF THE ARMSTRONG FAMILY-THE COLONY FORMED AT OLIVE GREEN IN 1794-THE MURDER OF ABEL SHERMAN-THE INDIAN SILVERHEELS -- A SON AVENGES HIS FATHER'S MURDER-CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR-WAYNE'S VICTORY-THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE, AUGUST, 1795- PEACE AND PROSPERITY.
- WIE earliest English-speaking col- ony in the northwestern territory was founded under favorable auspices. The pioneers were, as we have seen, welcomed to the banks of the Musk- ingum by an influential chief and sey- eral warriors of the Delawares : the land to which they came had been ceded by the Indians to the government, and sold by the latter to the Ohio Company. As far as the treaties could make it so, the title of the whites to the land was absolute and indisputable. But, chiefly for causes for which they were in no way responsible, the inhabitants of Washington County soon found them- selves involved in a war with the sav- ages, which proved to be long and bloody.
no doubt, was jealousy on the part of the savages at the encroaching settle- ments. Then, too, the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky had become peopled by a class of whites who acted upon the theory still adhered to in some sections of our country that only dead Indians are good Indians.
The Virginians, whom the savages called the "Long Knives," were the hated enemies of the red men ; and the hatred engendered by long years of border warfare, in accordance with the natural bent of the Indian character. was extended to the entire race. Again. the savages had witnessed the cruel and inhuman butchery by the whites of the innocent Moravians and other acts of treachery performed by those pro-
The primary cause of the Indian war, fessing friendship. The treaties that
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
had been made were unsatisfactory and imperfectly comprehended. The Brit- ish, who still had posts in the North- west, sought by every means to rouse the ire of the savages against the Americans, and so prevent settlements in the Ohio Valley. Savage warfare did not cease with the close of the Revolution, but continued here and there on the frontiers with ahnost no cessation. It was estimated that in the seven years preceding the Indian war, which began in 1790, and on Ohio soil in 1791, fifteen hundred people were captured or killed by the Indians on the borders south and west of the Ohio River, and that two thousand horses, and other property to the value of fifty thousand dollars, were stolen.
The ordinance of 1787, which estab- lished the Northwest Territory, con- tained in one of its articles the follow- ing declarations :
"The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without consent; and in their property, rights and liberty they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars author- ized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made for preventing wrong being done to them and for preserving peace with them."
To carry out this peace policy Gov- ernor St. Clair was charged with the duty of making a treaty as soon as practicable after arriving in the terri- tory, for the purpose of confirming former treaties and establishing friendly relations with the Indians. Anticipat- ing the arrival of the governor in June, 1788, a party of thirty men, under com- mand of Lieutenant McDowell, was sent
from Fort Harmar to the falls of the Muskingum, since known as Duncan's Falls, to make preparations for the ap- proaching treaty. They took goods for presents to the indians, and provis- ions, and were instructed to erect a council-house and cabins to protect the men and shelter the goods. On arriv- ing at the spot (which the Indians had selected for the council) the soldiers found quite a number of Delawares assembled there; also a band of about twenty savages, composed of Chippe- was and other outcasts of different tribes. During the night of July 12th the sentries who were guarding the tent containing the goods were fired upon, and two of them killed and others wounded. The Indians, who designed the robbery of the tent, were defeated in their purpose and retired with a loss of one killed and one wounded. On the same night the colored servant of Major Duncan, a trader, who was await- ing the arrival of the tribes in order that he might traffic with them, was killed and scalped.
The Delawares protested that they were entirely innocent of any part in the attack, pronounced the dead Indian a Chippewa, and seizing and binding six of the offenders gave them into the custody of Lieutenant McDowell to await punishment. On the next day a reinforcement arrived from Fort Har- mar, which took charge of the pris- oners and carried them back to the fort. They were kept for some thne in irons, but finally escaped. The large boat of the Ohio Company was sent up to the falls, and the troops, with the goods and provisions, were carried back to the fort.
The treaty was delayed several months by this occurrence. The In-
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THE INDIAN WAR.
dians in the meantime began to mani- fest symptoms of hostility, and mur- mured against the improvements which the settlers were making. They con- tinued to linger in the vicinity and scoured the woods for miles around, hunting and killing off all the game they could, leaving it to rot upon the ground, "to keep it," as they averred "from the white hunters." A council was held of the Ottawas and Chip- pewas, who opposed making a treaty, and declared themselves for war unless the whites would remove south of the Ohio. The Delawares, however, con- tinued their professions of friendship, and the Wyandots and Six Nations sided with them, telling the dissatisfied tribes that if they fought the white men they must not expect aid from the Delawares and their friends. Captain Pipe, a Delaware chief, dined with General Putnam at Marietta and with the officers at Fort Harmar on several occasions.
In September Gyantwahia, the Corn- planter, a leading Seneca chief, accom- panied by about forty warriors, arrived at Fort Harmar, escorted by Captain Ziegler and a company of soldiers from Fort Pitt. It was expected that he would have great influence in consum- mating a treaty, from his authority in the councils of the Six Nations, his in- telligence and his friendliness toward the American government. In Decem- ber, 1788, the Ohio Company voted to give one mile square of the donation lands "to the Gyant wahia and his heirs forever" as a testimonial of their ap- preciation of the value of his services.
In November a son of the celebrated Brant, who was at Duncan's Falls with two hundred warriors, sent a request to Governor St. Clair that the conference
be held at that place rather than at Fort Harmar. On the refusal of the governor Brant and his warriors retired to their towns and used their influence to keep the Shawnees from Fort Harmar. Very few of them were present when the treaty was made.
December 13th about two hundred Indians from different tribes arrived at the fort. They came from the north, along the west bank of the Muskingum, some of them mounted and bearing the United States flag at the head of the column in token of friendship. As they approached the fort they saluted it by firing their rifles in the air. "The salute," says Dr. Hildreth, "was re- turned by the cannon and musketry of the soldiers for several minutes, sound- ing so much like a real engagement of hostile bands that the old officers at Campus Martins were quite animated with the sound. A guard of sokliers with music escorted them into the gar- rison in military style, which much pleased the chiefs, who expressed their thanks to the governor in a set speech at their cordial reception." The gov- ernor replied, welcoming them in appro- priate words, and expressed the hope that the treaty might soon be finished.
The council-fire was lighted the next day, but the deliberations proceeded so slowly that it was not until the 9th of January that all the articles of the treaty were arranged and agreed to. During this time Governor St. Clair was ill with gont, and was carried by the soldiers in a chair to the council daily. General Richard Butler was present as a commissioner at the treaty : also the venerable Moravian mission- ary, Rev. John Heckewelder, who had labored for years among the Dela wares on the Tuscarawas and was beloved and
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
respected both by the Christian and heathen Indians of that tribe. Ile spoke their language with fluency, and his presence was of great weight in the council. Three interpreters were pres- ent-Nicholson, Williams and La Chap- pelle.
Two treaties were made, both on the 9th of January, 1789. The first was with the sachems and warriors of the Six Nations, and was signed by twenty- four of their chiefs. It renewed and confirmed previous treaties and re-estab- lished the boundaries of the territory of the Six Nations, as fixed by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, October 22, 1784. A distinct article was attached to the treaty which provided that if any murders were committed, either by the whites or the Indians, the guilty persons should be given up to the proper authorities to be punished accord- ing to law ; and if any horses were stolen the owners should reclaim them if found. For confirming and renew- ing the treaty the Six Nations were given presents in goods to the value of $3,000.
The second treaty was between Gov. ernor St. Clair and the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pot- tawatomies and Sacs, confirming and extending the treaty of Fort McIntosh (Jannary, 1785). The Indians agreed to give over to Governor St. Clair, as soon as they conveniently could, all white prisoners then in their hands. The boundaries of their lands were fixed the same as by the treaty of Fort McIntosh, and they were forbidden to sell to any foreign power. They were granted permission to hunt on lands ceded to the United States so long as they conducted themselves peaceably ; white men were forbidden to settle in
their reservation ; trade with the Indians was to be permitted and encouraged, under regulations, etc.
But what matters it to state the pro- visions of a treaty which was so soon to be disregarded and annulled by the Indians? At the time it gave great satisfaction. The people of Marietta banqueted the chieftains ; speeches were made and Governor St. Clair was pre- sented with a congratulatory and landatory address. Peace seemed se- cure, but the hope was illusive.
Dissatisfaction began among thie dif- ferent tribes-some complaining that they were not represented at the treaty; others that young warriors and not chiefs had acted without anthority, while one tribe complained because they had received no presents. When Indians seek canses for complaint they usually find them without difficulty.
Border warfare against the " Long Knives " of Virginia and Kentucky was renewed with the opening of spring. On the 1st of May, 1789, a settler of Washington County, Captain Zebulon King, of Belpre, who had gone into his clearing to work, was shot and scalped by two Indians. Alarm and uneasiness prevailed in all the settlements through- ont the summer. In the month of August, at Meigs' Station, a small stockade near Belpre, two boys were killed while hunting for the cows in the woods near their home.
On the 7th of August John Mathews, the Ohio Company's surveyor, while engaged in his work in what is now Lawrence County, with a party of as- sistants, was attacked by the Indians and narrowly escaped death. Six sol- diers and a corporal attended the sur- veying party as a guard. The attack was made on their camp in the morn-
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THE INDIAN WAR.
ing in daylight. Patchen, one of the surveyor's assistants, was killed, and all the soldiers except the corporal shared his fate. Mathews and three of his men fled and made their way to the river, where they opportunely fell in with a boat and assistance. The corporal, who had remained concealed while the Indians plundered the camp, joined Mathews and his companions on the same day. It was supposed that the attacking Indians were Shawnees.
they cut his hair and painted his face. The second night was rainy, and the thongs which bound his hands having become slightly pliable, Gardner re- solved to free himself from them and escape. After several hours of careful working he succeeded in his purpose, and grasping his rifle (which one of the Indians had appropriated to his own use) he left the camp without awaken- ing his slumbering guardians. He traveled rapidly during the following day, and at night slept in a hollow log. The next day he came to Wolf Creek, which he followed down to the mills and accounted to his friends for his mysterious disappearance. He suffered much from hunger, eating nothing from the time of his last supper with the Indians until he arrived at home, for though he had his riffe and saw some game, he could not kill anything, as the Indians had robbed him of powder and bullets.
In September John Gardner, a young man from Massachusetts, who was at work clearing land in the Waterford settlement, becoming a little weary with his labor, sat down upon a fallen tree to rest. Four Indians and a white man suddenly appeared ; Gardner, sup- posing the Indians to be some of the friendly Delawares who were hunting in the vicinity, was not alarmed, but on the white man beckoning to him, approached the group. He was seized and bound and taken two or three miles During the year 1790 the Indians did not seriously molest any of the in- habitants of the Ohio Company's lands, but many reports reached them of out- rages south of the Ohio River and at the mouth of the Seioto. War was considered inevitable, and the settlers made the best preparations they could. In June of this year Major Doughty left the fort at the mouth of the Mus- kinguin, and, accompanied by 150 men, proceeded down the Ohio and com- meneed the erection of Fort Washing- ton, within the present limits of C'in- cinnati. A little later General Harmar arrived at that place with 300 men, and, with the addition of nearly 1,000 Virginians, Kentuckiaus and Pennsyl- vanians, led an expedition against the Indians on the Maumee, destroying up Wolf Creek to the Indians' camp, where he saw two or three horses, one of which he recognized as that of his neighbor, Judge Devol. The Indians then mounted and rode by turns, but forced Gardner to walk all the time. Their course led southwest to the waters of Federal Creek. During the mght he had no opportunity to escape, being securely bound to a sapling which the Indians bent over and forced him to lie upon. To the branches of the sapling they attached some cow-bells- stolen from the settlers' cows-so that any movement made by him would awaken his captors. During the second day the Indians conversed with him, promised him he should build their cabins, become a good Shawnee and have a Shawnee wife. During a halt ! several of their villages. His forces
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
were defeated with heavy losses on the 19th and 22d days of October. IFis campaign provoked instead of allaying the growing hostility. Ile returned to Fort Hammar in November. Meantime the British were furnishing arms and stores to the hostile tribes. Return J. Meigs, Jr., afterward governor, was sent to the governor of Detroit by General St. Clair, about the time Har- mar started, with a letter informing the British commandant of the proposed expedition. The letter stated that no British post would be molested, and asked that no supplies be furnished the hostile savages. Only a formal answer was returned. Meigs was told that it would be dangerous for him to return to Marietta through the wilderness by the route he had come, and with his companion, John Whipple, son of Commodore Whipple, made a long detour, going on a schooner to Presque Isle, whence they proceeded down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers by boat.
In spite of the unsettled condition of affairs the people of Washington County pursued their usual avocations during the year. An attempt was even made to extend the settlement at this time-a rash and foolhardy experiment.
The " Big Bottom," on the left bank of the Muskingum, in Windsor Town- ship, contains the largest body of level or bottom land on the river between Duncan's Falls and Marietta. The lower part is directly opposite Roxbury, and extends up five miles, with an average width of three-fourths of a mile.
Induced by the offer of donations to actual settlers by the Ohio Company, an association of men, principally young, ummarried and unacquainted with the dangers of frontier life and
the mode of Indian warfare, began, in the fall of 1790, a settlement by erect- ing a blockhouse a few rods from the river on the farm now owned and occu- pied by Obadiah Brokaw. About twenty rods from the blockhouse and a few rods further from the river Francis and Isaac Choate erected a cabin and commenced clearing a lot. Another of the company, James Pat- ton, and a hired laborer, Thomas Shaw, lived with them. About the same dis- tance below was an old clearing and a cabin, which had been made years be- fore under the laws of Virginia, which Asa and Eleazer Bullard had fitted up and occupied.
The residents of the stations, familiar with the wiles and treachery of tlie Indians, advised them to defer their settlement until spring, as by that time the question of war or peace would probably be decided. But the young men were impatient, and, confident of their own ability to protect themselves, went. Their blockhouse, sufficiently capacious to accommodate all of them in an emergency, was built of large beech logs, rather open and not well filled between, the completion of the work being left for a rainy day or a more convenient season. Another error was the neglect of any system of de- fense and the omission to regularly pt out sentinels. Thus, without system and under no constituted control, there was no provision made to repel an attack, and although the men were well armed their guns were permitted to stand in different parts of the house. The general interests appeared to be lost in the convenience of each indi- vidual. This indifference and fancied security at this time may in part be at- tributed to the expressed observation
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