History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 6

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 6

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goal is almost certain to be adopted into one of the families of the tribe and treated with the greatest kindness. In many in- stances youths left their adopted parents with regret, when peace procured them ransom, and we have in our own county two notable instances of permanent adop- tion into the tribe, as we shall see further along.

But we have been digressing from the course of our narrative. The missionaries saw from Arun lel's house the party of fourteen warriors, with their prisoners, ap- proach from the east, having come from Fort McIntosh. As soon as they had crossed the Sandusky River, to which the village lay adjacent, they were told by the captain of the party to run as hard as they could to a painted post, which was shown them. The youngest of the three imme- diately started without a moment's hesita- tion, and reached the post without a single blow; the second hesitated for a moment, but recollecting himself, he also ran as fast as he could and reached the post unhurt ; but the third, frightened at seeing so many men, women, and children, with weapons in their hands ready to strike him, kept begging the captain to spare his life, say- ing that he was a mason and would build him a large stone house or do any other work he should choose. "Run for your life," cried the chief to him, "and don't talk now of building houses." But the poor fellow still insisted, begging and praying to the captain, who, at last, fearing the consequences, and finding his exhor- tations vain, turned his back upon him and would not hear him any longer. Our mason now began to run, but received many a hard blow, one of which nearly brought him to the ground, and which, if he had fallen, would have decided his fate. He, however, reached the goal, not with- out being sadly bruised, and besides he was bitterly scoffed at and reproached as

*Heckewelder's Indian Nations.

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

a vile coward, while the others were hailed as brave men, and received tokens of uni- versal approbation.

Hon. Isaac Knapp, a pioneer of the county, and for many years an honored citizen, has related an incident in this con- nection which locates the gauntlet track, and contrary to the impression given by Heckewelder, indicates that having passed the savage lines and reached the goal did not insure to the prisoner absolute safety from injury until the disposition of his case by the council.

Some time before Wayne's campaign, three sisters and two brothers named Da- vidson were captured by a war party in Kentucky and brought to Lower Sandusky as prisoners. All were ordered to run the gauntlet. The brothers were stout, active men, and both succeeded in getting through without a scratch. John, the elder brother, seemed to be a mark of particular hatred. When he had reached the post exhausted and breathless, he sat down upon a log, hav- ing passed, as he supposed, the ordeal of his captivity. But an old squaw, dissatisfied with his easy escape, walked up behind, struck a tomahawk into his shoulder, and left him. The sisters were then ordered to run, but they refused, begging to be tomahawked where they sat. This conduct on their part probably made the sentence upon the whole family more severe. At a consultation of the chiefs and warriors it was decided to hold the prisoners as slaves. They were taken to Canada, where a Brit- ish trader paid their ransom. Mr. Knapp afterwards became acquainted with these persons and knew them well. They set- tled in northern Kentucky. He obtained from them a minute description of the bends of the river, the lay of the ground, and the surrounding hills, from which he was enabled to locate the gauntlet track. According to the description, the lines of the savages extended from the site of the

block now occupied by Wagner's store, to the Kessler House corner. The council was probably held on the site of the Buck- land block.

In general the treatment of prisoners by the Indians was not so severe as is popularly supposed. There were, of course, exceptions, among which the melancholy fate of Colonel Crawford is prominent. But few were burned, and nearly all who acted bravely were treated with kindness. We should not forget that the events which are grouped together in this chapter oc- curred during a state of active war, in which the Indians were fighting for the maintenance of the forest, and were en- couraged by British agents with British gold. Affairs at Lower Sandusky, during the long period of border war, extending from the opening of the Revolution to the celebrated victory of Wayne, possess a peculiar interest. This was an important military centre, and every narrative relating to the place is a glimpse into the enemy's camp. For many years before the first settlement of Ohio, a war both offensive and defensive was waged between the Ohio tribes and the frontiersmen of Pennsyl- vania and Virginia, and the Kentucky borders. When humanity is made an element of comparative consideration in the conduct of that war, the burden of shame hangs over the graves of our own countrymen. The contest itself could but be one of most barbarous cruelty on both sides, for the Indians were fully persuaded that it was the design of the whites to destroy their hunting grounds and ultimately exterminate them, while the borderers looked upon the Indian as little better than a wild beast, and a pest to be exterminated by any means what- ever. They attributed to him no rights which civilization was bound to respect.

Some of the earlier outrages perpetrated against the Indian race by the white, were

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

of the most perfidious character. While we are reading that cruel page of Ohio his- tory describing the tortures inflicted upon Colonel Crawford at Upper Sandusky, let us not forget the treacherous blows by which, previously, the kindred of Logan's tribe fell at Yellow Creek, or the expedition of Captain Williamson, which culminated in the cold-blooded murder of the Mora- vian Christians and the burning of their bodies. The whites took few prisoners, but the rifle industriously, often treacher- ously used, dispatched many brave war- riors on both sides of the Ohio. Revenge is a part of the Indian nature, and the tribes were not slow to retaliate every wrong, and full-measured retaliation it was. It is estimated that on the frontiers, south and west of the Ohio River, during the seven years preceding the outbreak of the war on the Ohio colony at the mouth of the Muskingum, the Indians killed and took prisoners fifteen hundred people, stole two thousand horses and other property to the value of fifty thousand dollars *. After the general war began in 1791, the annual destruction of life and property was much greater, until its close in 1795. Probably more captives were brought to Lower Sandusky than to any other place in Ohio. This was a retreat where prisoners were brought and dis- posed of, many being sent to Detroit and Canada. So far as is known, not a soli- tary prisoner was tortured here at the stake, and in a majority of cases captives who had passed the gauntlet safely and bravely were treated kindly. It should be remembered that this was in the heart of the Indian country, and a point which had never been visited by a military expedi- tion of whites. Under these circum- stances the events which we have narrated and are about to narrate can have no other effect than to create charitable ideas

*Colonel Barker s Reminiscences,

of Indian character, cruel as some of these occurrences might seem, did we not know the subjects were prisoners of bloody and relentless war.

Among the notable characters who were brought to Lower Sandusky as captives were Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone. The former having been captured in 1778, was taken first to Piqua, where he ran the gauntlet; from there he was taken to Old Chillicothe, where he spent several days with Logan. He was sentenced to the stake at Wapitomika, but Logan, assisted by Girty and a Canadian Frenchman, suc- ceeded in having the decision of the coun- cil reversed. Kenton was then sent to Lower Sandusky and from here taken by water to Detroit .*

The fact that Daniel Boone was brought through Lower Sandusky while in cap- tivity, is a fact worthy of mention because of the celebrity of that unequalled hero of border annals. The name of Boone is familiar and dear to every boy, and his heroic adventures interest, even in the years of more prosy manhood. In the proud old Commonwealth of Kentucky the name of Boone and the story of his life is more familiar than any other char- acter in American history. In the winter of 1778 Captain Boone, while with a party of salt-makers on the Licking River, was captured by Shawnee warriors who took him to Chillicothe and from there to Lower Sandusky on the way to Detroit, where Governor Hamilton, the British com- mander, was encouraging Indian depreda- tions by paying liberal premiums for scalps and prisoners. The Governor took a great fancy to Boone, and offered liberally for his ransom; he was an object of par- ticular interest among the officers at the garrison. But the Shawnees had also taken a special liking to the old hunter and said he must become one of them,

* McDonald's Western Sketches.

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

and be a great chief. He returned with the Indians to Chillicothe, and remained with the tribe several months.

It will be seen from these incidents that the Shawnees and other tribes made the Sandusky River a highway to Detroit, but probably none but the Wyandots brought their prisoners to Lower Sandusky for sen- tence and the infliction of penalties.

Those of the captives whom the Indians took a liking to, on account of bravery or other qualities which they par- ticularly admired, were the only ones adopted into the tribe; other prisoners were either made slaves, as in the instance of the Davidson family above noted, or taken to Detroit. It should be noted to the credit of the Wyandots that they rare- ly burned prisoners at the stake. Colonel Crawford was captured by the Delawares and sentenced by a Delaware council, so that the Indians in whom we are especially interested are free from the odium of that savage sentence.

But Wyandot captives were not secure against the liability of torture, as is shown by the following incident, which also proves the kind-heartedness of Arundel and Robbins, the two English traders, and the susceptibility of Crane, the great war chief, to flattery.

In the spring of 1782, a young man was brought captive from Fort McIntosh to Lower Sandusky, where he heroically passed the gauntlet ordeal. Crane ad- mired his bravery and sent him to Half King at Upper Sandusky, to be adopted into his family in place of a son who had been killed the preceding year while at war on the Ohio. The pris- oner having arrived at Upper Sandusky, was presented to Half King's wife, who refused to receive him, which, accord- ing to the unwritten law of the Wyandots, was a sentence of death. The prisoner was returned for the purpose of being tor-

tured and burned. Preparations for the dreadful event were made near the village ; warriors, squaws, and children gathered from all directions to witness the terrible execution. It fortunately happened that the two traders, Arundel and Robbins, were present, and, shocked with the hor- ror of the act about to be perpetrated, re- solved to make an effort to prevent it. They offered the war chief a liberal ran- som for the prisoner's life, which he re- fused, saying that it was an established custom among them that when a prisoner had been offered as a present and was re- fused, he was irrevocably doomed to the stake, and no one could save him. Besides, the chief further declared the numerous war captains who were on the spot had it in charge to carry out the execution. Fail- ing to move the great war chief by offers of money, they appealed to his vanity, which proved the vulnerable point of his character. "But," answered the generous but wily traders, "among all these chiefs you have mentioned, there is none equals you in greatness; you are considered not only the greatest and bravest, but at the same time the best man in the nation." The chief looked up with an expression of pride and gratification. "Do you really believe what you say ?" he queried. " In- deed we do," answered the traders. The object was accomplished. Without an- other word the great war chief blackened himself, and, taking knife and tomahawk in hand, forced his way through the crowd to the unhappy victim at the post. Crying with a loud voice, " What have you to do with my prisoner ?" he cut the cords with which the prisoner was tied. The chief took him to his house, which was near Mr. Arundel's, and from there sent him with a safeguard to the commander at Detroit, who gave him his liberty .* This incident

* Heckewelder's Indian Nations.

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY

clearly shows the supremacy of Crane among the Wyandot chiefs.

We have spoken more than once in the preceding pages of the custom among the Indians of adopting into their families young men to whom they took particular liking. An instance of this kind is re- corded by Finley as having occurred in 1786. Robert Armstrong, a young lad of four years, was captured near Pittsburgh, and brought here through the wilderness. He was adopted into an Indian family and grew up a perfect Wyandot .* But the most notable instances of this kind were the capture and adoption of the heads of two families, some of whose descendants are yet living in the county, and to whom were granted reservations in the treaty of Maumee Rapids, spoken of in a succeed- ing chapter.

The narrative of the Whittakerst is a story possessing the elements of ideal ro- mance. We give the outline, to which our imaginative reader can supply fic- titious coloring to suit his own taste, and thus complete the picture. In about the year 1780, two brothers, Quill Whit- taker and James Whittaker, in company with another young man, left Fort Pitt one morning on a hunting expedition. They wandered a considerable distance from the fort, intent upon securing game with which to gratify their friends, but at an unexpected moment a volley of rifle balls rattled among the trees. One took mortal effect in the body of the young man; another passed through the hat of Quill Whittaker, who saved himself by flight; a third ball shattered the arm of James, the younger brother, and in a few minutes he was the prisoner of a band of painted Wyandot warriors. After several days' hard travelling, the Indians, with their

captive, reached a village within the pres- ent boundaries of Richland county, Ohio. Here the lines were formed and Whit- taker's bravery and activity tested on the gauntlet course. The boy, wounded as he was, deported himself with true heroism. The first half of the course was passed without a single scratch, but as he was speeding on toward the painted goal, an old squaw, who cherished a feeling of deep revenge, mortified by the captive's suc- cessful progress, sprang forward and caught his arm near the shoulder, hoping to de- tain him long enough for the weapon of the next savage to take effect. The pris- oner instantly halted, and with a violent kick sent the vicious squaw and the next Indian tumbling from the lines. His bold gallantry received wild shouts of applause along the lines. Attention being thus di_ -verted, he sprang forward with quickened speed and reached the post without ma- terial injury. Not satisfied that this favorite amusement should be so quickly ended, it was decided that the prisoner should run again. The lines for the second trial were already formed when an elderly and dignified squaw walked forward and took from her own shoulders a blanket which she cast over the panting young prisoner, saying, "This is my son; he is one of us; you must not kill him." Thus adopted, he was treated with all that kindness and affection which the savage heart is capable of cherishing.

It is a saying as old as the institution of voluntary marriage itself, that "those who are born to go together will marry under any circumstances," which is but a particular- ization of the general doctrine "that to live is but to follow the path made by fate." Those philosophers who entertain this belief might find in the second part of this narrative an applicable illustration in support of their theory.

About two years after the capture of

* History of Moravian Missions.

+From an interview of Hon. Homer Everett with Mrs. Scranton, daughter of James Whittaker.

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

Whittaker, another party of warriors made an incursion into Pennsylvania and cap- tured at Cross Roads, Elizabeth Fulks, a girl eleven years old, whom they carried into captivity and adopted into a family of the tribe. Both captives lived contentedly and happily, having adopted the manners . and customs of their wards. A few years after, somewhere in the vast expanse of the Northwestern wilderness, probably here on the Sandusky River, at a general council of their tribes, these two adopted children of the forest made each other's acquaintance. The brave boy who ran the gauntlet had become a well proportioned man, and the sweet, timid captive girl was now a bloom- ing maiden whose native beauty had never been destroyed by the torturing artifices of society dress. Perhaps this meeting occurred in the full light of an encourag- ing moon, while savage warriors were de- liberating cruel expeditions around a bright council fire in the distance. Who can think of the meeting being formal and re- served, or of a fashionable courtship? A marriage according to the customs of civil- ized life was at once arranged, and the couple, ardent in their love and happy in their expectations, set off for Detroit, where the Christian ritual was pronounced which made them man and wife.

The Indians seemed well pleased by this conduct of their pale-face children. They gave them a choice tract of farming land in the river bottom, and here Rev. Joseph Badger visited the family in 1806, where he found them living in perfect harmony with their Indian neighbors, but practicing the forms of civil- ized life .* Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker reared a large family, for whose education they

expended considerable sums of money. In 1808 a teacher was secured who came to the residence, which was a short dis- tance below the falls on the west side of the river, and instructed the older children. The oldest daughter was subsequently sent to school in Pittsburgh, at an expense of eight hundred dollars a year, and there qualified to teach the younger children.

Mr. Whittaker entered into mercantile business, for which he was well fitted. He established a store at his residence, one at Tymochtee, and one at Upper Sandusky. He accumulated wealth rapidly, having at the time of his death his goods all paid for and two thousand pounds on deposit with the Canada house where he made his pur- chases. At Upper Sandusky he had a partner, Hugh Patterson, with whom, in the year 1816, he drank a glass of wine and died in a short time afterwards, his death being attributed to poison in the wine. Pat- terson was largely indebted to him, and, it was discovered afterwards, had forged an order on McDonald, proprietor of the Canada house, for the two thousand pounds on deposit. Mrs. Whittaker, to whom a res- ervation was granted in the treaty of 1817, survived her husband many years, but as to the time and place of her death we are not informed. *

A few prominent acts of kind-hearted benevolence on the part of Mr. Whitta- ker can not be omitted. A short time be- fore the war of 1812, he went to the Mau- mee on business, and found among the Indians a young white woman who bore a strong resemblance to his own daughters. She was engaged at carrying wood and piling it up. Mr. Whittaker, after talking with her a short time, became convinced that she was preparing her own funeral pile, though herself ignorant of the fact.

* Whittaker's thorough adoption into the Wyan- dot tribe is shown by the fact that he joined their war parties. He was present at St. Clair's defeat and at the battle of Fallen Timbers .- McClung's Western Adventures.

* Later events relating to this family are narrated in the sketch of Sandusky township.

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

He engaged to procure her freedom on condition she would never expose him in a lie. Having been informed of the probable fate which awaited her she readi- ly assented. At the dictation of her res- cuer she sat upon a log while he went to the assembled Indians and asked them what they were doing with that young woman, to which they replied that prepa- rations were being made for a dance that night, and that she was to be burned. He then told them that she was his daughter, and the strong resemblance between her and his family, with whom the Indians were slightly acquainted, convinced them that the statement was true, and out of re- spect they gave her up. Whittaker brought her home and gave a guide sixty dollars to conduct her to her friends, who lived down the Ohio river.

Near the time of the capture of Whit- taker, and probably later, a party of negroes were captured in Virginia and brought to the Sandusky River, where they were held as slaves. They were placed in charge of a peninsular tract several miles below the falls, which they cultivated for the Indians, no doubt to the great satisfaction of the squaws, upon whom devolved all menial labor. The peninsula became known as Negro Point, a name which it has retained ever since-a period of about a century.

There is a singular tradition relating to the first appearance of the honey-bee in the Northwest, which places that event within the field of our history. The late Mrs. Rachel Scranton, a daughter of James and Elizabeth Whittaker, is au- thority for the following statement, which was first published in 1860:

Previous to the time of Mrs. Whittaker's captivity, the honey-bee and the plantain were unknown to the Indians. While she and her brother George, who was also a captive, were yet children, and me- nial servants to the Wyandot tribe, they were hoeing corn in an Indian field, when they discovered a swarm of bees in a tree near by. They remembered some-

thing of bees at home and conjectured what they were. The idea of white people was instantly sug- gested, and they talked with one another as to whether this might not be a sign that white people would come soon. Their discovery was communicated to the Indians, who flocked to the tree in great numbers to see the wonderful insects. The suggestion was made by George and Elizabeth, that bees belonged to white people and stayed with them, and that prob- ably this was a sign that the pale-faces were coming, and would bye-and-bye have the country. None of the tribes had ever seen the insect before, and their superstitious minds were affected to such a degree that, with the Wyandots especially, it became a settled conviction that the Indians would be driven out and the whites would take their country.

The account continues :

Henceforth this tribe, yielding to what they con- sidered inevitable fate, felt and said it was useless to contend against the pale-faces, and became a peace- ful people. It is true they joined the other tribes to fight Wayne, but they refused to join the expedition until a confederation of all the other tribes of the Northwest plainly told them that if they did not send out warriors to fight Wayne, they unitedly would ex- terminate the Wyandots. There was no other way to save themselves, and they did send the best of their men to be slaughtered by "Mad" Anthony at the battle of Fallen Timbers.

This latter statement is probably incor- rect in fact, although there may have been such a local sentiment. In the open war, which was commenced on the Ohio Com- pany's settlement in 1791, and terminated with Wayne's victory, the Wyandots took an active and conspicuous part, a part which justifies assigning to them leader- ship from the beginning to the end of that cruel contest. The first attack on the Ohio settlers at Big Bottom, in 1791, was made by the allied warriors of the Dela- wares and Wyandots.

The Whittaker cabin and trading-house, which stood just above the head of the bay, was a usual stopping point for war parties when on their way from Lower Sandusky to Detroit with prisoners. The family always treated captives with the greatest kindness consistent with their sit- uation. Major Nathan Goodale, a promi- nent and valuable citizen of Belpre, the

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

second settlement in the Ohio Company's purchase, was captured by a band of Wy- andot warriors in 1793, while at work on his farm a short distance from the fort. They sprang out from the forest and seized him before he was aware of their presence, or could make any defence, threatening .him with death if he made a noise or re- sisted. After securing him with thongs they made a hasty retreat, intending to take him to Detroit and get a large ransom. They got along as far as Whittaker's house, when he could go no further, in consequence of sickness. Mrs. Whittaker, in relating the account afterwards, testified that he had received no ill treatment while in cap- tivity, and that he died at her house in a few days after he had been left there, of a disease like pleurisy .*

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 6

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040