USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume One > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32
After this tragic event Mary Harris, it is said, found another Indian husband, and removed west about the time that Captain Pipe and the Wolf tribe of the Delawares migrated from the Muskingum Valley to the Sandusky in 1777-1779. It is further related that the memory of the unfortunate and probably innocent "new comer" was perpetuated in the name of "New-Comers Town, " the village to which she fled and where she was overtaken by her pursuers, and that when Netawatwees.
243
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
chief of the Delawares, took up his abode at that place (1760), he retained the name of the town as it corresponded to the English meaning of his own. Such in short is the story of Mary Harris. It has been told and retold until the original truth is doubtless much worn and mutilated.
After this digression, we proceed with the thread of Gist's Journal. Gist's trail now leads through Coshocton County, passing (near) Dresden, to Licking Creek on to a "great swamp," the locality of Licking reservoir, known as the "Great Buffalo Swamp." The next point was the "Hock-Hockin"-also known as French Margaret's town-"a small town with only four or five Delaware families," now Lancaster, Fairfield County; thence to Maguck, with ten Indian families, on the Pickaway plains between Scippo Creek and the Scioto, three and a half miles south of Circleville. Gist was now entering the territory of the Shawnees. Proceeding south to Harrickin Tom's or Hurricane Town, he veered to the west and reached the Scioto. On this river, which he calls Sciodoe, Gist stopped at a Delaware town of about twenty families, lodging "at the house of an Indian whose name was Windaughalah, a great man and chief of this Town and much in the English interest." Gist continues, "he entertained us very kindly and ordered a negro man that belonged to him to feed our horses well." This chief was prominent in the subse- quent French and Indian War and was the father of the famous head chief and warrior of the Delawares, Buckongehelas. Here a council was held and the Indians invited to Logstown. An interesting stop
t
244
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
was made at the Shawnee Town, "Old Lower Shawnee Town," (Portsmouth) mouth of the Scioto. Gist calls it Shannoah Town, located on both sides of the Ohio, containing about "300 men on the south side and 100 men on the north side with a kind of State House of about 90 feet long with a light cover of bark in which they hold their councils." Ten days were spent here and great councils were held in the "state house." Croghan, Montour and Gist made speeches, urging the Indians to the English side and inviting them to Logstown. The chiefs replied at much length, brief extracts of their speeches being given by Gist in his notes. An "extraordinary kind of a festival" was held during the stay of the Gist party, at which many curious and beastly customs were witnessed. Gist's route from Shawnee Town, by his journal, is somewhat difficult to follow, even on the maps of his time; accord- ing to Darlington's notes, he passed through the present counties of Scioto, Adams, Highland, Fayette, Madison, Clarke and Champaign, to West Liberty in Logan County. There he crossed Mad River, which he mistook for the Little Miami, thence to the Twightwee Town or Pickawillany, also designated as Piqua. In this journey of one hundred and fifty miles from Shaw- nee Town to Piqua, Gist closely observed the country, "all the way," he says, "is a fine, rich, level land, well timbered with large walnut, ash, sugar tree, cherry trees, etc .; it is well watered with a great number of little streams or rivulets, full of beautiful natural meadows, covered with wild rye, blue grass and clover. and abounds with turkey, deer, elk and all sorts of game, particularly buffaloes, thirty or forty of which
HUTCHIN'S OHIO MAP.
Portion representing Ohio from the map of the "Western Parts of Virginia," made by Thomas Hutchins in 1776 and published in London, 1778. From the original map now in the Congressional Library, Washington, D. C. Engraved from a photograph taken for the History of Ohio.
244
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
was made at the Sh • ЧАМ ОГНО ЗИІНЭТИН PUHOld Lower Shaww
Town." (Ps Prismouth may Sciolgo Gist
con gemt Isaigito ont mort 8; nobnod mi bodailduq bas
about go feet long with a light cover of beide in wh
and great council were held in the " state boul they hold their councils." "Tan days were spent/
Croghan, Mantour and Glet made speeches, un
notes. An "extraordinary kind of a festival" extract of their speeches being given by Gist in Logitown. The chiefs replied at much length, I the Indian- to the Engush side and inviting theu
held during the stay of the Cast party, at which m curious and beastly customs were witnessed. G route from Shawnee Town, by his journal, is some. difficult ro follow, even on the maps of his time; ao ing to Darlington's noter, he passed through the pr counties of Scioto, Adame, Highland, Fayette, Mad
County, There he crossed Mad River, which Clarke and Champaign, to West Liberty in I
mistook for the Little Miami, thence to the Twig Town or Pickawillany, ho designated as Pique this journey of one hundred and fifty miles from $ nee Town to Piqua Giet clovely observed the cou "all the way, he says, "in a fine, rich, level well timbered with large walnut, ash, sugar free, trees, etc .; it is well wallred with a great numb little streams or rivulers, full of beautiful na meadows, covered with wild rye, blue grass and cl and abounds with turkey, deer, elk and all som game, particularly buffalow, thirty or forty of
1
FRIE
I. JAKE
Ortawas
Mouni Fort
Soh Lack Town
On away Old Fort
Thank
Mapky Small
Beavers Town
TheEnghh Tintel
from the longest-
Town
¿Bra
EDelaware T.
Wadkatawinikre Town
New Tomà Iảm Tươi
Hill Town
mo
ach
Hockhoclang
Sinto River
Free Stone
Coal
Tan
Read ings St Joseph to Label
thing but Miss mall Ochs & Collars the Soul and Timber an aronordinary
ươm Di . Viann Fort tr thị Low a . Vhơn moc lown the Youngy is led's rish abounding in locums ot Water , and fun Tumber . But in mam Plain the Road
Quatuming Shaningo
Rich | Lod Land
Root
Bv
245
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
are frequently seen feeding in one meadow, in short, it wants nothing but cultivation to make it a most delightful country."
The party crossed the Great Miami on a raft of logs, swimming their horses after them, and entered Pickawillany in as imposing a manner, as possible, with colors flying and the guns firing. The Piankeshaw chief, Old Britain, alias La Demoiselle, kindly received them, inviting them to his own house "and set our (English) colors upon the top of it." All the traders and white men gathered to welcome the embassy. Gist writes: "This town consists of about four hundred families and daily increasing, it is accounted one of the strongest Indian towns upon this part of the continent." He then at some length describes the different tribes of the Twightwees, or Miamis, their government, strength, etc. Great councils were held in the "King's House." The usual speeches were made and Old Britain and the great men were presented with "clothes and paint shirts."
While the exchange of courtesies was in full blast there suddenly arrived in town a delegation of four Ottawa Indians from Detroit, an embassy in behalf of the French; they marched in under the French colors and were conducted to the "Long House" and a council was summoned to hear what the French emissaries had to say. The "Pyankeeshee King" set up both the French and English colors in order to appear impartial at the hearing. The Ottawa delegates offered "two small Caggs of brandy that held about seven quarts each and a roll of tobacco of about ten pounds weight." With this as a preliminary "tip"
246
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
the Ottawa orator presented the claims of France, and eloquently urged the Twightwees to ally themselves with their brothers in Canada.
Curious conclave on the banks of the Big Miami, in the Ohio capital of the western savages, a sort of miniature and mimic Field of the Cloth of Gold in which France and England contended in their respective displays of power and prodigality for the allegiance of the Indian tribes, as more than two centuries before, the Courts of England and France met in the vale of Andreu and exhibited their rival splendors in order to win the favor of Spain.
Each nation had its hearing before the Pickawillany council, in which the Twightwee chiefs and "big men" sat as judges over the rival claimants. The speeches in brief are reported by Gist, especially the reply of the Twightwee orator who closed by addressing the Ottawas thus: "We have been taken by the hand of our brothers, the English, and we assure you that in that road we will go; and as you threaten us with war in the Spring, we tell you if you are angry, we are ready to receive you and resolve to die here before we will go with you; and that you may know that this is our mind, we give you this string of black wam- pum."
The presents from Detroit were refused and returned, the French colors taken down and the four Ottawa delegates being dismissed, took their leave of the town and set off for the French fort on the Maumee where they reported that the French friendship had been rejected in the council-house at Piqua and their hostility defied by the Miamis. Gist's party, after the French
247
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
leave taking, was invited to a "feather" dance at the king's house, a sort of masque ball as described in his journal.
Croghan presented the Miamis with gifts to the value of £100-$500-and formed a treaty of alliance in the name of the governor of Pennsylvania with the Twightwees and the Weas, while the "Piankeshaw King" promised Gist that the chiefs of the various tribes would attend the coming meeting at Logstown to make a treaty with Virginia. A formal farewell was given the English party at the close of their two week's stay. Old Britain had remained true to his sobriquet. He was still English in his proclivities; poor fellow, that loyalty cost him most dear as we soon shall see. It is not required that we follow the return route of the three agents. Croghan and Montour found their way back through the Ohio country. Gist returned by way of the Lower Shawnee Town, mouth of the Scioto, where he reported to his Indian friends there the excellent results of the Pickawillany negotiations. At this welcome news there was great feasting and speech-making, and the Delawares and Shawnees, "made an entertainment in honour of the late peace with the Western Indians."
Gist now crossed the Ohio, and attended only by a boy companion, abandoning the idea of reaching the falls (at Louisville) because of the Indian hostility in that region, slowly found his way back across the rivers and over the mountains of Kentucky and Virginia, and after many privations and perils reached the Yadkin on May 18, 1751. But there was no one to welcome the wanderer home. The Indians, during
248
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
his absence, had ravaged that section and massacred some of the inhabitants, frightening away those who were able to escape. Gist's home was silent and vacant, but his family was safe in a settlement on the Roanoke, some thirty-five miles distant, to which place they had taken timely flight. Christopher Gist's journey, the first one recorded of an Englishman through Ohio, was ended.
While Gist was slowly wading streams and climbing mountains back to Carolina, Croghan and Montour had returned to Pennsylvania and reported to Governor James Hamilton the result of their negotiations at Pickawillany. The governor immediately authorized these two agents to return to Logstown and further clinch the Indian alliance by another distribution of goods, this time to the amount of £700,-$3,500- pro- vided by the Pennsylvania council. Montour and Croghan thus loaded arrived at Logstown (May 18, 1751) the very day Gist reached his deserted home on the Yadkin. At Logstown the Indians had gathered in great numbers, from the Six Nations, the Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Wyandots and others. They wel- comed the English gift-bearers by firing guns and rais- ing the English flag.
But Croghan and Montour were not to have the field to themselves undisputed, for only two days after their advent, there arrived from the head-waters of the Ohio, the statesman-scout, Joncaire, with a French associate and forty anti-English Iroquois warriors. Joncaire, with the wit of a Frenchman and the eloquence of an Iroquois, had a hearing before the assembled Indians and urged them to repudiate the English and
249
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
expel the colonial traders from their country, "other- wise they would be visited with the displeasure of Onontio-the Governor of Canada." A Six-Nation chief, friendly to the English, replied flatly refusing the demands of the French messenger. A day later Croghan, Montour acting as interpreter, addressed the Indian convocation to which many Shawnee and Delaware Indians had come from the Ohio villages. Goods were freely distributed and the Beaver chief of the Delawares and the chiefs of other tribes responded. They would remain steadfast to their English Brothers whom they advised should lose no time in "building a strong house on the River Ohio."
The successful negotiations with the Indians at Logstown by Croghan and Montour was most grati- fying to the Pennsylvania governor and council. The agents were well paid and special privileges were granted them. This Logstown gathering of May, 1751, was really but the preparation for the greater meeting held at the same place a year later, and to which the Ohio tribes had been so earnestly invited. At this later meeting (May, 1752) three commissioners of Virginia were present besides Croghan, Gist, Trent and Montour. The main object of the council was to obtain from the Indians a confirmation of the Lancaster Treaty of 1744, by which, according to the Virginians, the Indians had ceded to the King of Great Britain, the right to all the land in the Virginia colony, a very ndefinite cession. The Indians, especially the Ohio nes, subsequently claimed not to have so understood he agreement. After much speech-making and plaus- ble explaining by the Virginians, the chiefs acknowl-
250
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
edged themselves satisfied and consented to colonial settlements south of the Ohio in the territory claimed by the Virginians, and further granted them permission to erect a fort at the Ohio forks. The leading diplomat in this transaction was Montour, for whose services the Ohio Company allowed ample compensation in money and in addition offered him a thousand acres of land to live on if he would remove to Virginia. That he equally pleased the Indians in his inter-racial dealings, was evidenced by the fact that a few months after this Logstown conference the Six Nations, with much ceremony, chose him as one of their counsellors and gave him a seat at their state conferences when convened at the Onondaga council house.
The English interests seemed now to be in the ascen- dency and the Ohio Company was paving the way for a full fruition of its plans. Gist had made two survey- ing trips for them respectively west and south of the Ohio, during one of which, Washington Irving relates an old Delaware Sachem, meeting Gist, propounded a puzzling question; "the French," said the sachem "claim all the land on one side of the Ohio, the English claim all the land on the other side-now where does the Indian's land lie?" To which Irving properly adds, Poo Savages! Between their "fathers" the French and their "brothers" the English, they were in a fair way o being most lovingly shoved out of the whole country.
Gist now removed his residence from the Yadki to the east bank of the Ohio at Shurtees Creek, short distance below the forks-meeting of the Monon gahela and Allegheny rivers-where he began th erection of a fortified trading-post.
251
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Colonel Thomas Cresap, residing at Oldtown, under- took to lay out the course of a good road from Will's Creek to the mouth of the Monongahela, and employed as his assistant a friendly Delaware Indian named Nemacolin and they together marked out the road to be followed. It was at first known as Nemacolin's Path. Owing to the friendly favor of the Indians, colonial traders were now rapidly increasing in number throughout the Ohio country. Indeed, the main element of danger to the progress of the colonists seemed not to be from the Indians or the French but from the jealousies and misunderstandings between he Pennsylvanians and Virginians as to the boundaries and extent of their respective charter rights, each province claiming a large part of the Ohio Valley ncluding the site of the proposed fort at the forks of he Ohio.
Meanwhile the French were emboldened to engage n violent measures in retaliation for the slow but tubborn advance of the English. Celoron, "fearless, energetic but haughty and insubordinate, "-as we have seen-had been made commandant at Detroit, ›y this time possessing a population of five hundred French, the largest Canadian settlement west of Montreal. It can easily be imagined with what atisfaction Celoron received orders from Quebec to pare no means in the attempt to drive the English raders from the Miami country. These orders came rom the Marquis de la Jonquiere, heartless, old and varicious, but of undoubted capacity and courage, ho (in 1749) had succeeded Galissoniere as governor f Canada. He spurned the claim that the Six Nations
252
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
were English subjects and offered rewards for the scalps of Croghan and other English traders. The latter, Jonquiere was informed, numbered at Pickawillany fifty or more and "were the instigators of revolt and source of all our (French) woes." Jonquiere was not permitted to witness the execution of his orders tc Celoron, for dying in March, 1752, the government of Canada passed into the hands of the Marquis Duquesne
Celoron though impatient to carry out the orders of his government, hesitated from motives of precau tion. The Detroit force was unequal to the under taking which at all hazards must be successful. The Miami Indians were welded to the English, whose traders sold them goods at lower rates than did the French and moreover the British agents distribute( gifts of rum and gunpowder with a more lavish hand The Pickawillany post was the capital of the Ohi Miamis and the commercial center of the colonia traders. Pickawillany, therefore, like Carthage of old must be destroyed.
Charles Langlade the officer chosen to direct th destruction, was one of the most courageous defender of the French cause in Canada, and had led a brillian and conspicuous career. He was the son of a Montrea French officer and a distinguished Indian woman, th sister of the principal chief of the Ottawas, known a King Missowaquet. Langlade was born at his father trading post at Michilimackinac, a place so extremel picturesque that it has not inappropriately been calle the "Venice of the Lakes." Charles Langlade wa thus "native and to the manner born," in the Frenc frontier and western Indian life. He lived with
253
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
handsome Indian woman by whom he had a talented son whom he thoroughly educated in the best Canadian schools. Through his mode of life and intimate asso- ciation with the Indians, Langlade acquired great influence over the tribesmen of the Lake region, especially the Ottawas, the tribe of his mother and "wife." As a boy, Langlade had learned the tactics of the war-path and was so valorous in the contests between the French and English that the Indians bestowed upon him the title of Akewaugeketauso, mean- ng a "military conqueror." In the Mackinac region Langlade gathered two hundred and fifty Ottawa and Chippewa warriors. Parkman in his brief account of this affair calls the latter Ojibwas, for the terms are somewhat synonymous, Chippewa being the popular adaptation of Ojibwa.
With this force of Indians, a small party of French oldiers, a few Canadians and Monsieur St. Orr as military aid, Langlade set out from Detroit in a fleet of many canoes. They paddled to the mouth of the Maumee, which they ascended to Fort Miami, whence he commander led "his greased and painted rabble hrough the forest to attack the stronghold of Demoi- elle and his English friends, gathered at his stockade. " t was on a June morning (1752) when the wild whoop- ng horde swooped down upon their prey. The squaws working in the surrounding corn-fields fled in terror. Most of the Indian men were absent on their summer unt. Only eight English traders were in the town and hese with Demoiselle and his tribesmen, then in the illage, made the bravest resistance possible, but they 'ere no match for the Ottawa and Chippewa allies,
ntr
th em ca le Fre wich
1
254
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
aided and directed by the French. It was a hideous and merciless onslaught. The besieging Indians ac- companied the rattle of the muskets with fiendish war cries. It was but the work of a few hours and Pickawillany was blotted out. Two of the traders escaped; one was stabbed to death; the others taken prisoners, plundered and sent to Governor Duquesne as evidence of the faithfulness with which the orders to destroy Pickawillany post had been executed by Langlade, "more savage than any Indian in the crowd." Fourteen of the Miamis were shot down, the Demoiselle among them. His body was cut up, boiled and eaten by the inhuman victors who doubtless had not for- gotten the repulse the Ottawa embassadors had received in the council house of the Piankeshaw king, Old Britain, at the time of their visit, while Gist and his party were guests at his "royal" house. The village was destroyed, the houses burned, though the stockade was not entirely demolished.
This tragic scene on the banks of the Big Miami, an event which might be called the preliminary blood- shed, if not the first battle of the French and Indian War, was being enacted while the peace conference was in progress at Logstown on the banks of the Ohio. in which conference the Indians were yielding to the English, the rights the latter had claimed in the Lan- caster treaty of 1744. In this conference (1752) as already noted, the Pennsylvanians and Virginians were represented by Croghan and Montour, Gist and Cap. tain William Trent.
At this point Captain Trent commands our atten tion. He was a native Pennsylvanian; in the late Kinį
255
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
George's War, he commanded four companies under Governor Clinton of New York and saw service about Saratoga. Governor Hamilton (Pennsylvania) appoint- ed Trent to civil and judicial office and employed him as messenger to the Ohio Indians. In 1750 Trent formed a partnership with George Croghan, who was his brother- in-law, and for six years the firm carried on extensive and lucrative trade with the Ohio Indians. In 1752 Captain Trent was employed by Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia as agent of that colony to attend the Logstown conference and while it was in progress he was dispatched with messages and presents to the Ohio Miamis. Of this ourney Trent kept a faithful diary, which journal, with nuch valuable additional and explanatory matter was published and edited some years ago by Alfred T. Good- nan, at that time (1871) secretary of the Western Re- erve Historical Society. From this journal of Trent und Mr. Goodman's annotations, we have obtained omewhat of our knowledge of the Pickawillany destruc- ion. In this Ohio journey of Captain Trent to Picka- villany or Picktown, as he calls it, he did not know at he time he set out, that the post had been destroyed nd depopulated. Trent followed mainly the previous oute of Gist, proceeding from Logstown (June 21), y way Muskingum and Meguck to the Lower Shawnee "own, where he was ceremoniously and noisily received. Iere two of the English traders, Thomas Burney and ndrew McBryer, who had escaped the massacre at ickawillany, appeared and told Trent of the French- liami invasion and the Pickawillany annihilation. rent in his diary relates the account as given by the aders, thus affording us the report of eye-witnesses.
1
256
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
At the Shawnee Town Trent held councils with the Shawnees and was requested by "Scaruneate, with some of the Six Nations" to accompany them to the vicinity of Picktown "to bring the remaining Twight- wees this way." Trent with "twenty-two men and boys, whites and Indians" set out for the site of Pick- town, which he reached (July 12). His party viewed the deserted village over which two French flags were flying. These were taken down and the English flag hoisted. The purpose of his mission had of course been defeated by the destruction of the post, and Trent returned to Shawnee Town, where further councils were held at which were present "Old Britain's wife and son with about a dozen women and children," refugees from the Pickawillany site. Many speeches were made and Trent says, the "old Pianguisha King's wife" got the following speech made to all nations in alliance with them, with a string of black and white wampum; "Brothers, the French have killed my hus- band. I am now left a poor lonely woman, with one son, who I recommend to the care of the English, Six Nations, Shawnees and Delawares, and desire they will take care of him." After proceeding to Logs- town, Trent says, "we gave the clothes, by advice of the Six Nations, in the following manner: The scarlet cloak to Old Britain's son, a young lad; the hat and jacket, with the shirt and stockings, to the Pian- guisha king; we clothed Old Britain's wife, and gave the rest of the goods to the young Pianguisha king the Turtle, and two more men of the nation, for the use of the Twightwees; and I persuaded an Indian trader to carry the goods for them, who promised to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.