USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vo. I > Part 5
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The Armstrong reservation is founded on the treaty which provided that 640 acres of land should be set apart for Robert Arm- strong, a captive of the Wyandots. in recognition of his services as interpreter and guide to United States officers. The president located this reservation on the west side of the river, near the
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
Fort Ball Military reservation, so with the second Fort Ball or the McCulloch reservation. A grant of 640 acres was made by the treaty of Miami of the Lake for the use of the children of William McCulloch, and located north of and joining the Arm- strong reservation, near Fort Ball. This William McCulloch was employed by Gen. Harrison as interperter. and while engaged on duty at Fort Meigs was struck by a cannon ball and killed. The land was parcelled out to his seven children (vide History of Tiffin and Pioneer History). The Armstrong tract of 640 acres was patented October 12. 1823; Armstrong sold 404 acres to Jesse Spencer October 29, same year.
The John Walker reservation is a tract of 640 acres in Seneca township, just west of the Van Meter grant, was bestowed upon the Wyandot woman, Catharine Walker, and her sons, John and William.
The removal of the Indians was effected in the fall of 1831, when they started in two divisions for their Neosha and Cowskin reservations. The division in charge of General Brish and Martin Lane traveled by river to the Missouri river, and there waited for the second division, under Herrin and Hart, who made the trip overland. They met near the mouth of the Missouri, April 26, 1832. The Senecas then numbered 510 strong.
By the treaty of MeCutchenville, January 19. 1832, between the United States and the Wyandots of Big Spring reservation, twelve square miles in Big Spring township and twelve square miles adjoining were ceded to the United States.
The proclamation authorizing the sale of the various reserva- tions ceded in 1831, was made under date November 13, 1832, by Andrew Jackson.
In this proclamation the location of the Seneca reservation as well as that of the Wyandots was given.
This treaty ended the habitation of the Wyandots in Seneca county, and led to the treaty of Upper Sandusky in 1842. by which they relinquished title to the last large Indian reservation in Ohio.
In 1832 the lands formerly claimed by the Senecas and Wyan- dots were surveyed, offered for sale under the president's proclama- tion, and were bought by white men-pioneers of Seneca county. whose descendants largely are the residents of those lands today.
References have been made in other chapters of this work to the Indians who inhabited the county prior to the white settle- ment and for some years later, until their removal to the west. This chapter will give short biographies of some of the most prominent.
Hard Hickory was a large, noble looking man, and nearly half white, about six feet high, had little chin whiskers, was very
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
straight and muscular, spoke English well, and was highly re- spected. He had a large nose, and was about fifty years old when they left.
Good Hunter was of medium height, had a melancholy look. most always drooped his head, walking or sitting, but had a sharp eye, and was considered smart. Ile was a full-blood Seneca, a little gray, about fifty years old, and took the place of Seneca John after he was killed.
SENECA JOHN.
Seneca John was a splendid looking Indian, strictly honest. as many of the Senecas were, was very straight, square shouldered, and had a frank, open, noble look. He carried a silver ring in his nose, and one in each ear. He wore a fur hat and broadcloth coat, cut Indian fashion, with a belt, and a silver band three inches wide on each upper arm. He was a stylish man, and of command- ing bearing. He lived near Green Springs when he was executed, then about thirty-eight years old.
Seneca Steel was a small Indian, very active, but there was nothing otherwise uncommon about him. Seneca John, Com- stock and Coonstick were his brothers.
Tall Chief was a tall, noble looking specimen of an Indian, sober and honorable. Seneca John, Steel, Coonstick and Comstock were nephews of Tall Chief.
Pumpkin, the Taway Indian, was about six feet high, and as savage and ill looking as he was tall. George Heck, in his rela- tions, speaks of this red skin as one of whom even Indians were afraid. He killed Mrs. Snow, on Cold creek, during her husband's absence.
The Senecas captured this terrible savage, brought him to Snow for sentence; but the white man feared to avenge the mur- der of his wife and child, so that Pumpkin was allowed to go free. Some short time after this cannibal quarreled with a Wyandot, and of course killed him. £ Ile was then arrested by the Wyandots, who placed him on a log, and there six tomahawks were buried in his brain.
In the year 1822, Good Spring's mother and three other squaws were executed on a charge of witchcraft. It appears that during the summer of that year a peculiar disease attacked the Senecas, and they attributed their troubles to those four unfortunate women. They were condemned to die, and while waiting, proceeded to Lower Sandusky for whisky, with which they returned to hold their last orgie. During their drunken fit, they called on the execu-
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
tioner to end them, when Jim Sky-the drone of the reservation- advanced with a pipe tomahawk upraised, and striking each of the old women in the head, declared that the witches were gone.
Wiping Stiek, referred to in the history of Fort Seneca garri- son, was a Cayuga chief. who possessed all the noble qualities of his race, without any of the bad ones.
She-a-wah, or John Solomon, who signed the treaty for the Wyandots in 1818, moved from Big Spring in 1832, and joined the leading band of Wyandots at Upper Sandusky, where he remained until after the removal of the tribe in 1842. He returned to Wyandot in 1849, and made the place his home until his death in 1878. The pioneers who assembled at Shoch's Woods, Eden town- ship, September 1, 1877, saw this tall old chief for the last time. There he made his last speech.
La-wa-tu-chef (John Wolf) was a Shawnee of some note. Col. John Johnson hired of him a trading at Wapakoneta, and he often accompanied the Colonel on his trading trips in the forest among the different tribes.
Wa-the-the-we-la, or Bright Horn, was another noted chief, who was present when Logan was wounded in the contest with Winemac in 1812.
Peter Cornstalk was a chief in succession to his father, who was assassinated at Point Pleasant. This Peter was a fine speci- men of the Indian.
Henry Clay, son of Captain Wolf, was educated under the supervision of Col. John Johnson, at Upper Piqua, at the expense of the Quaker Friends. £ He afterwards became a leading chief.
Way-wel-ea-py was the principal speaker among the Shawnees at the time of their removal. It has been said that he was an eloquent orator, grave, gay or humorous, as occasion required.
Quasky, his elder son, was the successor to Blackhoof. He possessed many of the qualities of his distinguished father and he went west with his people in 1832, and was living in 1853. He, like his father, was a fine speaker.
The chief Blue Jacket, it will be remembered, commanded the Indian army at the battle of "Fallen Timber," in 1794, and, with much reluctance, signed the treaty with Wayne, at Greenville, in 1795. He was very bitter in his feelings toward the "Long Knives," who were rapidly settling upon the lands that formerly belonged to the red man. His feelings were quite as intense as those of Tecumseh, though he did not possess his abilities for organ- ization. As a matter of prudence, he did not join Tecumseh in the war of 1812. He is supposed to have died at Ottawa village, down the Auglaize, just prior to the treaty at Maumee Rapids, in 1817. It appears that Gens. Cass and MeArthur, in that treaty,
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
made provision for his family at Wapakoneta, in which James. George and Charles Blue Jacket received each about 1,000 acres in the reservation.
. Quilna, another chief, was actually popular among the white pioneers. HIe shared in all their sports and industries; was as : good a workman as he was a hunter.
Little Fox, a brother of Pht, was an irreconsilable. Up to the departure of this Indian for Kansas, he could not believe that he was doomed to leave Ohio.
Turkeyfoot, a peculiar formation, just as broad as he was long, was a savage capable of entertaining and practicing the most diabolical ideas. At times he would induce himself to believe that he was on good terms with the whites, and while in such a mood he would make a circuit of all the white settlements.
Beaver, a young Delaware chief, who, with his band, made his home with the Shawnees, was a favorite of Gen. Harrison. He it was who executed Little Blue Jacket, in July, 1813, when that emissary of Proctor was on his way to assassinate Gen. Harrison, at Fort Seneca.
One of the most noted chiefs was the venerable Blackhoof- Cul-the-we-ka-saw-in the raids upon Kentucky sometimes called Blackfoot. He is believed to have been 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 bathed in the salt water. He was present, with others of his tribe, at the defeat of Gen. Braddock, near Pittsburg, 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 experience were only equaled by the force and desperate bravery with which he carried into operation his military plans. He was the inveterate foe of the white men, and held that no peace should be made, nor negotiation attempted except on the condition that the whites should repass the moun- tains, and leave the great plains of the west to the sole occupancy of the red men. He was the orator of the tribe during the greater part of his long life.
Soo-de-nooks, son of Black Chief, murdered John Barnet's half brother in October, 1830; was brought before a council of the Wyandots (of which tribe both were members), and sentenced to banishment. while his property was to become common to the tribe. This sentence was vetoed by the tribe, and all men over twenty-one years of age assembled to try the case. There were 112 votes in favor of capital punishment and twelve in favor of the sentence of the council. Three Christian and three heathen Indians were
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
appointed to carry out the new decision, viz. : Silas Armstrong. Joe Enos, Francis Cotter, Lump-on-the-head, Soo-kuh-guess and Saw-yan-wa-hoy. These savages fired at the murderer, and Soo- de-nooks went to the country of all bad Indians.
Grey Eves was a regular Methodist minister -- a pure Wyan- dot, and an uncompromising opponent of the sale of the Big Spring and other reservations until after the majority agreed to sell. when he also acquiesed. In 1843, he moved west with the tribe, under Chief Jacques.
The Wyandot chief, Roundhead, had a village on the Scioto in the southwest corner of Hardin county, where the town of Round Head was subsequently laid out. At what. precise date the Indians started this village is not known, but about the year 1800 Maj. James Galloway, of Greene county, visited them at this point. and says that there was then quite a number of apple trees in the vil- lage, and that the Indians raised many swine. Some of those trees, said to have been planted by this old chief, are yet standing. Roundhead, whose Indian name was Stiahta, was a fine looking man. He had a brother named John Battise, a man of great size and personal strength. He was well remembered by the pioneers of the Miami and Scioto Valleys, on account of possessing an enor- mous nose, which resembled in size and hue an immense blue potato full of indentations, and when he laughed it shook like jelly. He lived at a place called Battisetown some miles west of his brother's village, joined the English in 1812, and was killed at the siege of Fort Meigs. In 1807 Roundhead was present with Tecumseh and other chiefs at a council held at Springfield, Ohio. between the whites and Indians to settle a difficulty which arose over the killing of a white man named Myers, a few miles west of Urbana. The execution of Leather-lips, a well known Wyandot chief. which took place twelve miles north of Columbus, Ohio, in 1810, on the charge of witchcraft, was intrusted by Tecumseh to Roundhead. who. at the head of six braves, came from Tippecanoe and did the deed.
The celebrated Mingoe chief, Logan, with a band of followers. had a village in the southeastern part of Hardin county as early as 1778. It is probable that he moved from the lower Shawnee towns on the Scioto, where his cabin stood in 1774. to this point. soon after Lord Dunmore's campaign. The exact location of this village is not known, some old settlers claiming that it stood in the vicinity of "Grassy Point." Col. John McDonald, in his bio- graphy of Simon Kenton, when telling of his capture in 1775, says: "As the Indians passed from Wapakoneta to Upper San- · dusky, they went through a small village on the river Scioto, where then resided the celebrated chief, Logan, of Jefferson memory. Logan, unlike the rest of his tribe, was humane as he was brave. At his wigwam, the party who had the care of the prisoner, stayed
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HISTORY OF SENECA . COUNTY
over night." From this account, it seems they also remained the succeeding day and night, not leaving for Upper Sandusky until the second morning after their arrival at Logan's village.
Joseph Tequania, a half-brother of Tequania, who was killed by Peter Pork. was born about 1755; was a commissioned officer in the French Canadian service. and one of the most polished resi- dents of Seneca county even up to 1831, when he went west with his tribe. This man belonged to the Catholic church, and, with one of his sisters, would proceed long distances to attend services. dressed in a red vest, white ruffled shirt. leggings, hair braided, fancy shawl and some jewelry. With all his refinement, he looked down upon his less fortunate brother Indians, and sometimes hated them for the little they did know.
Strong Arm Tequania, son of the twin-sister of Tequania, the victim of Peter. Pork and known as the One-Eyed Medicine Woman, was, like his mother, very benevolent, and much liked by the settlers.
Tequania. or Strong Arm, murdered in 1829 by Peter Pork, was the twin-brother of the medicine woman of the tribe. £ Each of them was born with only one eye; both were extra good Indians, and great friends of their white neighbors.
Good Springs was a young savage, corresponding with the modern dude of white communities. His mother was executed in 1822 for witchcraft, and after the deed was done by Jim Sky. this fellow feared to meet the murderer.
George Washington, who served as scout during the war of the Revolution, reached a ripe old age in 1822. During that year his squaw-Martha Washington-was condemned to death for witchcraft. The executioners entered her cabin, saw the old scout looking on at his doomed wife pounding hominy, and then without ceremony. Shane stepped forward. struck her with the tomahawk, and called upon Jim Sky to cut her neck.
In 1832 the Wyandots, under Chief Thomas Koon, resided in Jackson township and passed the whole season there hunting, kill- ing 107 deer, eleven bears, and thousands of small game. John P. Gordon, who then had a saloon at Risdon, sold them whisky at wholesale, and this, on one occasion. almost led to civil war among them. Nestlerode, acting under instructions of Koon, took their knives and whisky bottles from them, and sent them to camp. He. however, surrendered the whisky, and when their drunken fit was over returned them their knives.
Tarhe, or the Crane, named by the French Monsieur Grue, or Mr. Crane, was born near Detroit. in 1742, and died near Upper Sandusky, in 1818. his burial being attended by various tribes. He was always a remarkable Indian. His wife was a white girl named Sally Frost.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
Thomas Girty, son of the notorious Simon Girty (who fled from Ireland to escape the vengeance of the people, whom he be- traved), was the only one of this really vicious band of Girtys, who failed to continue notorious.
Simon Girty, or Katepa-Comen, son of Simon first. was made a prisoner during Braddock's war, was adopted by the Delawares, and died a drunken brawler. He had time to engage in those dis- graceful murders which marked the warfare of those times against the Americans. This white rascal died at Malden in 1815, where he resided, receiving a small pittance.
George Girty, another child of infamy, died without gratify- ing his murderous inclinations.
James Girty, the fourth son of Old Simon, was an officer in the British service. He was made a prisoner during Braddock's war, was a notorious criminal, as a thousand family histories in Kentucky and Ohio can tell, and died the death becoming so much cruelty.
Michael Girty, another son of Old Simon, born after his father's murder, and after the wife's union with his murderer, was the son of an Indian woman. This cut-throat served the British in Ohio some time, but in 1821 moved to Illinois, where he engaged in wholesale murder and rapine. In 1827 he was inter- preter for Gen. Cass, at the treaty of Bureau, subsequently aided Black Hawk, murdered the settlers at Indian creek, carried off the Hall girls and died in 1836.
William Hazle, whose father was a native of the north of Ireland, of Scotch descent, and an associate of the Girty boys, must be ranked with them in the social record, and hold the same place in the estimation of all good citizens.
Alexander McCormick, one of the traders, who resided at San- dusky for some years following the war of the Revolution, may be classed as an Irish-American of the Path Valley Tory type, but not so dangerous as Elliott, McKee, Girty, and others of that class.
Spicer was a small man, and had no education. Mr. Mont- gomery preached Spicer's funeral sermon. George Herrin, a half Mohawk, was interpreter, and gave the sermon in the Indian sentence by sentence. (Slow preaching.) One of Spicer's boys, Small Cloud, was a fine looking fellow, a half blood. He married Crow's daughter by his first wife. Little Town Spicer had three or four wives. Both these Spicer boys went west with the Senecas.
Whenever an Indian was buried they built a pen of poles about three feet high around the grave, and laid poles over the top. Before they left they carried these pens away and threw the poles over the bank. Crow was a great deer hunter, and shot many a fine buck after night.
About the year 1825, Coonstick, Steel and Cracked Hoof left
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
the reservation for the double purpose of a three years hunting and trapping excursion, and to seek a location for a new home for the tribe in the far west.
At the time of their starting, Comstock, the brother of the first two, was the principal chief of the tribe. On their return in 1828, riehly laden with furs and horses. they found Seneca John, their fourth brother, chief, in place of Comstock, who had died during their absence.
Comstock was the favorite brother of the two, and they at once charged Seneca John with producing his death by witcheraft. John denied the charge in a strain of eloquence rarely equalled. Said he, "I loved my brother Comstock more than I love the green earth I stand upon. I would give myself. limb by limb. piece- meal by piece-meal-I would shed my blood, drop by drop, to re-
EXECUTION OF SENECA JOHN IN 1828.
store him to life." But all his protestations of innocence and affection for his brother Comstock were of no avail. His two other brothers pronounced him guilty and declared their determina- tion to be his executioners.
John replied that he was willing to die and only wished to live until the next morning. "to see the sun rise once more." This request being granted. JJohn told them that he should sleep that night on Hard Hickory's porch, which fronted the east, where they would find him at sunrise. He chose that place because he did not wish to be killed in the presence of his wife. and desired that the chief, Hard Hickory, should witness that he died like a brave man.
Coonstick and Steel retired for the night to an old cabin
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
near by. In the morning. in company with Shane, another Indian, they proceeded to the house of Hard Hickory. The latter subse- quently related that a little after sunrise he heard their footsteps upon the porch, and opened the door just enough to peep out. He saw John asleep upon his blanket, while they stood around him. At length one of them awoke him. He arose upon his feet and took off a large handkerchief which was around his head, letting his unusually long hair fall upon his shoulders. This being done, he looked around upon the landscape and at the rising sun, to take a farewell look of a scene that he was never again to behold and then told them he was ready to die.
Shane and Coonstiek each took him by the arm, and Steel walked behind. In this way they led him about ten steps from the porch, when Steel struck him with a tomahawk on the back of his head, and he fell to the ground, bleeding freely. Supposing this blow sufficient to kill him. they dragged him under a peach tree near by. In a short time, however. he revived; the blow hav- ing been broken by his great mass of hair. Knowing that it was Steel who struck the blow, John, as he lay, turned his head towards Coonstick and said, " Now brother. do you take your revenge." This so operated upon the feelings of Coonstick, that he interposed to save him; but it enraged Steel to such a degree, that he drew his knife and cut John's throat from ear to ear, and the next day he was buried with the usual Indian ceremonies, not more than twenty feet from where he fell. Steel was arrested and tried for the murder in Sandusky county, and acquitted.
The grave of Seneca John was surrounded by a small picket enclosure. Three years after. when preparing to move them to the far west, Coonstick and Steel removed the picket fence and leveled the ground, so that no vestige of the grave remained.
John Carpenter was made captive by the Delawares (two of whom were Moravians and speakers of the Dutch language) in February, 1782, at Buffalo creek. Washington county, Pennsyl- vania, and carried into Ohio. He escaped subsequently and re- turned to Pittsburg. The same year Thomas Decker, Samuel Wells, a negro boy, were also captured. Timothy Dorman and his wife were captured near Fort Buchanan, and carried into the wilderness of Ohio, but there is no further account of them. About this time, also, the Delawares carried away the wife and three children of Robert Wallace, while he was away from home. They murdered Mrs. Wallace and her infant near the Sandusky river ; one of her boys died in the Sandusky country; the other was sold to the Wyandots about 1812. and was rescued by his father about 1815. Even in 1817 there were several captives among the Senecas and Wyandots, such as Spicer. Kuisely. Sarah Williams. Mrs. Castleman, Eliza Whittaker, Sally Frost, Van Meter and
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others referred to in the history of Ohio. Those who were carried away in their youth, were raised by Indian foster mothers, and became more Indian than the Indians themselves.
Sally Frost was a white girl, raised by a Wyandot woman after her capture, and survived Tarhe, her Indian husband many years, and was among the white pioneers of the Sandusky country.
Jonathan Pointer. was the name of a negro, who was captured in Virginia, taken to the Wyandot country, and who grew up here to be the slave of Tarhe. He was also Girty's servant, subsequent- ly Captain Pipe's servant, and again an employe of John Van Meter; was a fair interpreter. as well as renderer of sacred vocal music. While at the Van Meter place, he would interpret for preacher Stewart and others, but when Stewart's doctrine became enigmatical. Pointer would look as comic as a negro can look, and add : "I don't know meself whether that is so or not so." He was leader in all musical entertainments at the Mission church, even as he was at an Indian or pioneer dance.
Benjamin Franklin Warner was not a captive, but a citizen of the Seneca nation, having withdrawn from American civiliza- tion. He was married to a Mohican woman, named Konkepot. and with her came from Green Bay. Wisconsin. to Ohio, where he was hospitably received by the Senecas. In accompanying his Indian friends to the Neosha, Konkepot died near the mouth of the Missouri, leaving her child to Warner, who cared for the little Indian until he was able to enter life for himself. Warner was the man-of-all-work, liberal, sober. industrious and always agree- able.
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