History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 2

Author: R. Sutton & Co.
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 427

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On returning to Greenland in the spring they found Eric had recently died, and Lief being the eldest son came in possession of the estate and patriarchal office. His younger brother, Thorwald, then obtained the vessel, and with thirty companions visited Vineland, and passed the winter in the huts built by his brother. In the spring part of the com- pany explored the coasts, but repaired to the old quarters in Vineland to pass the winter. Explorations were made the following summer, until on the high land bordering an inlet Thorwald determined to make his abode. Natives were discovered here of dusky color and small stature, resembling the Esquimaux of Greenland. Some of those found in canoes were made prisoners, and cruelly murdered by the Northmen. One escaped, who fled to his people and aroused them against the Northmen. The savages approached in canoes, and, surprising the company of Thorwald, a fight ensued, in which Thorwald was mortally wounded, while his companions escaped. The chief was buried on the promontory which he had chosen for a home. His survivors passed the winter in fear of the savages, and in the spring returned to Greenland.

Eric's third son, Thorstein, hearing of the death of his brother, sailed for Vineland with twenty-five companions and his young wife Gudrida, to whom he had been married only a few weeks. They were driven upon the desolate shore of Greenland, where they suffered dreadfully until spring. Thorstein and many of his companions perished by contagion, and the young wife with a few of the company remained to carry home the body of her husband.

During the next summer a rich young Norwegian, named Thorfin, visited Greenland, wedded Gudrida, and in company with five other young men and their wives sailed for Vineland to plant a colony. They landed near the spot where Lief had passed the winter, and founded a colony, with which Thorfin and Gudrida remained about three years, when they sailed for Norway. After several voyages they settled in Iceland, living in unrivalled style until the death of Thorfin. Gudrida then went with her son, who was born in Vineland, on a pilgrimage to Rome, where she related her adventures to Pope Benedict, and returned to enter a convent. Her son Snorre became master of his father's estate and the ancestor of a long line of descendants, one of whom was Albert Thorwaldsen the great Danish sculptor. Thorfin's colony was joined by two brothers, Helgi and Fiombogi, with thirty followers. They were Icelandic chieftains who fitted out the expedition in Greenland, and per- mitted Freydisa, the daughter of Eric, to accompany and share the profits of the voyage. As she was deceitful and of a fiery temper, it was hoped by Lief and his family she would permanently remain in Vineland, but she soon became such a firebrand in the colony, that find- ing her life in peril she returned to Greenland.

Such is the story of the Icelandic chronicles. Where was Vineland ? The stony land with snow-capped mountains was doubtless Labrador, while the flat, wooded land was as undoubtedly Newfoundland. The time given of the rising and setting of the sun at the winter solstice, indicates a point between Boston harbor and Narragansett Bay as the site of Vineland. The best informed students believe Thorfin and Gud- rida landed and lived on Rhode Island, and that the mysterious stone tower at Newport was built by these Norwegian colonists. No positive (17)

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

traces of the colony are found after the departure of Freydisa. The sagas and eddas of Iceland give glimpses of it for a few years, but even these allow it to fade away. They do tell us that Gudlief traded be- tween Iceland and Ireland about the year 1030; that while sailing west- ward a strong wind swept his ship to the southwest; that after many days he and his crew saw land, and on entering a harbor were made prisoners by a dark-colored people who came from the woods in great numbers. Taken to the forest they were met by a white chieftain, who addressed them in Icelandic, procured their release, and advised them to depart at once as the dark natives were cruel to strangers. He refused to tell his name, but inquired about Snorre and other persons of Iceland. He then took a gold ring from his finger, and requested Gudlief to present it to Thurida, the sister of Snorre. Gudlief did as requested, and it was believed the white chief was Bjorn, a famous Ice- landic bard, who had been a lover of Gudrida, and left his country in 998 .* Tradition speaks of other voyages to the new world; one by Prince Madoc of Wales, which lays claim to the chronicles of that country for its foundation. It has been believed by some students that Madoc, a son of Owen Gwynneth, became disgusted with domestic con- tentions about the rightful successor to his father, and went on a voy- age of discovery during the reign of Henry the Second of England, and going westward from Ireland discovered a fruitful country in 1170. After his return he sailed for the same land with ten ships and a colony of men, women, and children, and was never heard of afterward. It has been observed by travellers that light-colored Indians were met by them who had many Welsh words in their language. Humboldt gave the tradi- tion a hearing, and Southey made it the theme of a poem. The Norsemen found the land peopled by a race of savage dwarfs or Esquimaux, and here America passed from view, and lay hidden from the gaze of Euro- peans for a period of nearly three hundred years. During that period mighty changes had occurred in Europe. Wonderful intellectual, moral, and physical activity manifested itself about the middle of the fifteenth century. Trade was linking Europe in. bonds of mutual sympathy and interest, when the printing press appeared to revolutionize society and inaugurate the era of scientific research and maritime discovery.

Lief Erickson came to the American continent at the midnight of the world; Columbus came at the first faint gleam of the dawn. With the revival of learning, which the crusades were chiefly instrumental in producing, a knowledge of the theories and demonstrations of the Arabian astronomers concerning the globular form of the earth came to Europeans. Intelligent mariners convinced the Genoese merchants of the truth of this theory, but the clergy opposed it with vehemence, until the clash of Reason and Faith produced two hostile parties arrayed in bitter controversy. Reason triumphed, and the Genoese merchants fur- nished ships for the navigators to go westward in search of India.

It was at this period that Christopher Columbus, by birth a Genoese, appealed to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain for sufficient patronage to enable him to fit out an expedition to make a westward search for India. He was successful through the sympathy of Isabella, and on Friday, August 3, 1492, set sail from Palos with three vessels, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina, carrying with him letters from the Spanish sovereigns to the Grand Khan of Tartary. Days and weeks passed by until the discovery of land on the night of October 11. On the next day the vessels were laid to, awaiting the dawn. Wooded shores were in view; the perfume of flowers was wafted by the land breeze, and birds of gorgeous plumage hovered about the vessels. It was the triumph of Columbus, for as Mr. Irving has said, "The great mystery of the ocean was revealed." At sunrise Columbus and his companions landed from small boats, and found a number of men and one woman, with skins of

* Touching the reality of these Norse discoveries, we cite the following passages from Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. ii. pp. 269-272 :-

" We are here on historical ground. By the critical and highly praiseworthy efforts of Prof. Rafn and the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen, the sagas and documents in regard to the expeditions of the Norsemen to Newfound- land, Nova Scotia, and Vineland, have been published and satisfactorily commented upon. . . The discovery of the northern part of America by the Norse-

men cannot be disputed. The length of the voyage, the direction in which they sailed, the time of the sun's rising and setting are accurately given. . . . . While the Caliphate of Bagdad was still flourishing, . America was

. discovered about the year 1000 by Lief, the son of Eric the Red, at a latitude of 41º north."

dark copper color, watch their movements for a time, and then flee in alarm to the deeper shades of the forest. These inhabitants had watched the approaching ships from dawn with awe and apprehension, believing them to be monsters of the sea. When they saw the white men come ashore, in dress of gaudy colors, with shining lace and glittering armor, they supposed them to be superior beings whose abode was the skies. The Europeans, too, were astonished at the naked people with dusky skins, painted in a variety of colors and devices. The men were with- out beards, and both sexes wore long black hair falling about the shoul- ders and bosoms in profusion. By degrees the alarm of the savages gave way, and they approached the Europeans, giving signs of amity and good will. They were the natives of San Salvador, but Columbus, believing he had reached an island of Farther India, called the inhabi- tants Indians, a name since applied to all the natives of America.

The purpose of this review is accomplished, as it is only to serve as an introduction to the history of the savages or American Indians.

THE INDIANS.

We have already adverted to great changes having occurred in Europe during the period intervening between the discoveries of Lief and Columbus, the Cabots, and Vespuccius. As great changes had evi- dently occurred among the nations of North America. The weak bands of dwarfed Esquimaux found by the Norsemen had evidently given way before the stronger, hardier, and nobler race encountered by the Euro- peans. The weak Esquimaux were either annihilated or driven to the frozen regions of the north, and abundant evidence existed showing great migrations had occurred from part to part of the continent, in which half civilized barbarians were expelled from fertile districts by savages, while savage regions had in turn been colonized by sun wor- shippers from Central and South America, whose art remains tell of a rude civilization. It is certain that in South America native empires flourished which would compare favorably with those of the Eastern world. From the Rio Grande to the Isthmus of Panama an empire flourished whose people and rulers displayed many of the nobler virtues, some of the civilized arts and sciences, and whose laws evinced as pro- found respect for the great principles of morality as those of the most civilized nations of Europe. That empire was exerting a softening influ- ence among the rude tribes of the north, when the civilized murderers and robbers from Spain, under Cortez, made their appearance, over- turned the empire, and extinguished the light whose glimmerings were visible in the darker regions of the north. Professedly Christian them- selves, they barred the advance of a civilization which was more practi- cally Christian than that of the conquering robbers.

Such were some of the changes, some of the advances made by the savages of the western world before their contact with Europeans. Traced from the civilization to which they were capable of rising back to barbarism, their origin fades away until it is lost in the long night of human ignorance. On numerous facts and discoveries, as numerous theories of their origin have been founded. Remains of fortifications, idols composed of clay and gypsum, and a Roman coin have been dis- covered. Again, a Persian coin was found in Ohio; a piece of silver, dated in the year 600, in New York, and split wood and ashes thirty feet below the surface in the same State. A finely-gilded silver cup in an Ohio mound, and two ancient swords, a helmet and shield bearing Greek inscriptions carrying them back to the time of Alexander the Great in a tomb of South America, are some of the facts on which stand different theories of the origin of the western nations. One theory claims they came from Phoenicia, another from Egypt, another from Hindoostan, and again from China. Then comes another theorist, who insists and demands that we believe them the descendants of the "Lost Tribes of Israel," without pausing to show us that any of those tribes were lost instead of being amalgamated by merging with other nations .*

* James Adair, after residing among the Indians for forty years, published a work in 1775, in which he advocates a Jewish descent, on the grounds of the fol- lowing facts and characteristics of the Indians :-

1. Their division into tribes. 2. Their worship of Jehovah. 3. Their notion of a theocracy. 4. Their belief in the ministration of angels. 5. Their language and dialect. 6. Their manner of counting time. 7. Their prophets and high priests. 8. Their festivals, fasts, and religious rites. 9. Their daily sacrifice.

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

Again, it is maintained they are the products of nature, and had their origin on the continent where found, and this has the traditions of the natives on its side. "The land you sleep on is ours; we sprung out of the earth like the trees, the grass, and the flowers," said a Micmac chief in Nova Scotia to Colonel Cornwallis of the British army. "My father is the sun, and the earth is my mother. I will recline upon her bosom," said Tecumseh at the great council of Vincennes, as he seated himself upon the ground. Some of these theories are evidently strained, while many of the resultant conclusions are far fetched or even fanciful. Biology and ethnology have wandered back and back along the lines of man's descent, until they find themselves surrounded by savagery and barbarism on every hand. Still they have not despaired, but with a courage born of a love of truth and knowledge are groping slowly along in the midst of that darkness which envelops the origin-not of the American Indian alone-but of the whole human race. Searching un- remittingly without a theory to sustain or a creed to support, we may expect honest enthusiasm and research to increase the knowledge of all, rather than labor for the support of a theory too soon embraced by either the few or the many.

Turn, then, from the question of their origin, wrapped, as it is, in the mantle of antiquity, and view them from the standpoint of their condi- tion at the advent of the whites. Let us look at some of their charac- teristics, customs, and modes of life. At the period of discovery, or during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the natives of the present domain of the United States would appear to have all sprung from the same original stock, except, perhaps, a few tribes along the gulf coast. With broad faces, they had prominent cheek bones, dark,.heavy eyes, jet black hair, and skin of a dark copper color. A hundred dialects were spoken, but these all obtained from a common root. Of taciturn dispo- sition, they possessed great fortitude and would endure great suffering without an exhibition of emotion. With a simple form of government, their laws were so generally observed that transgressions were exceed- ingly rare. Their theology was as simple as their government, for they simply believed in a great Good Spirit and a great Evil Spirit, cach supreme in its sphere, and then deified the sun, moon, stars, fire, water, wind, and every object or natural agency which appeared superior to themselves. Their only written language was rude picture writing on rocks, bark of trees, or skins of animals. Historical records and legends were transmitted from the memory of father to son, and so on down the lineal generations. Their dwellings were huts made of poles leaning to a common centre, and covered with bark or the skins of beasts. The men engaged in war, hunting, and fishing, while the women, true to all primitive ideas of their station, were fit only to perform all drudgery in common with that of the household. They bore all burdens during journeys, erected the tents or wigwams, prepared the food and clothing, wove the bed mats, and planted, cultivated, and gathered the crops of corn, beans, and tobacco wherever these were cultivated. In winter the skins of animals served the purpose of clothing for men and women alike, while in summer the men wore only a wrapper about the loins. They were sometimes tattooed in imitation of some object, and coloring matter being injected in the punctures rendered the ornamentation per- manent. They generally ornamented their persons by the use of the claws of bears, the pearl of shells, and the plumage of birds. Their money was little shell tubes, fastened to belts or strung on thongs of deers' hide, and called wampum. These collections were used in trade, in treaties, and as tokens of friendship. Their weapons were bows and arrows, tomahawks or hatchets, war clubs, and scalping knives. Shields of bark and corselets of hide were sometimes worn for protection. The civil governor of a tribe was called a sachem, and the military leader a chief. Proud and haughty, they had great respect for personal dig- nity and honor, until it was offensive to ask a chief or sachem his name,

10. Their ablutions and anointings. 11. Their laws of uncleanness. 12. Their abstinence from unclean things. 13. Their marriages, divorces, and punishment of adultery. 14. Their severe punishments. 15. Their cities of refuge. 16. Their purifications and ceremonies preparatory to war. 17. Their ornaments. 18. Their manner of curing the sick. 19. Their burial of the dead. 20. Their mourning for the dead. 21. Their raising seed to a departed brother. 22. Their choice of names adapted to their circumstances and the times. 23. Their own traditions- the accounts of English writers and the testimonies which the Spanish and other authors have given concerning the primitive inhabitants of Peru and Mexico.

because it implied he was unknown. "Look at the papers which the white people keep most carefully" (land cession treaties), "they will tell you who I am," replied Red Jacket the great Seneca leader.

With these elevated conceptions of the dignity of the men, they yet degraded the women to the condition of abject slavery. They were at best but mere beasts of burden or objects of convenience. They were not permitted to participate in the national sports or amusements, and could only sit about the fires as silent witnesses of the war dances or the horrid orgies after victory. The husband held absolute control of the destiny of the wife, even holding her life in his power, until she was deprived of all those associations and refining influences which give society the beauty, charm, and sanctity of refined womanhood. The mental status of the Indian was everywhere the same. His body was subjected to his will, and taciturnity was judicious where a sharp weapon was the immediate answer to an unguarded or insulting word. Physi- cal endurance was a virtue, and insensibility to fear or pain was indica- tive of sturdy manhood. Surprise or suffering must not produce a tremor, as the blanched cheek indicated weakness or cowardice. Thus the nerves and muscles were schooled until steeled against pain or fear they became the servants of the will. "Coward !" exclaimed Pontiac when he saw one of his warriors startled by the discharge of English musketry at Detroit, and instantly cleaved his head with a tomahawk.

The mind of the Indian revealed something of a poetic cast, for with a simple language he would adorn whole ideas with poetic beauty. His forms and figures of speech supplied the lack of words. Still it may be well to observe that the speeches of the chiefs or sachems come to us in the phraseology of an interpreter.

While the Indians exhibited many of the nobler traits of human nature, yet generally speaking they were cruel and relentless savages, even at the time of English settlement. Still some few notable excep- tions were found in the nations which formed the Iroquois Confederacy, and occupied the present State of New York, and some of the tribes in the milder climate of the Gulf.

The Iroquois Confederacy deserves more than a passing notice. Com- posed of five large families, each wearing the dignity and title of a nation, and named respectively, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas; they were subdivided into tribes, each having a symbol or coat- of-arms, such as the bear, the wolf, or the eagle. This confederacy occu- pied a belt of country extending across the State of New York and from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, between the Adirondacks and Catskill Mountains. The form of their government excited the admiration of Europeans on account of its wisdom and strength, by whom they were styled the "Romans of the New World," because of many things held in common with the Romans, especially in military affairs. Here, as in old Rome, the soldiers were honored above all other citizens, until the warriors were possessed of all power. All action on the part of the civil authority, either of a nation or of the confederacy, was subject to review by the warriors, who called councils as they saw fit to pass upon any public measure. The civil authorities paid such deference to the military that they generally withheld decisions until the warriors could be consulted. Each nation being divided into several tribes, there were thirty or forty sachems in the league. These again had inferior officers under them, so that the civil power was widely distributed. Offices were conferred for merit, and held during good behavior. The confi- dence and esteem of the people were the only rewards sought by either civil or military officers. Each nation was a republic, independent touching its own domestic administration, but bound to all by ties of interest and honor. Each had a voice in the General Council, and possessed something of a veto power as a guarantee against centralism. The chief magistrate had power to "light the great council fire"-con- vene the council-by sending a messenger to the sachem of each nation with a summons to attend the council. IIe had a cabinet of six coun- cillors, who exercised advisory powers. In council he was the presiding officer, but had no power to control military affairs or dictate the inter- nal policy of a nation. Public opinion was the only despot possessing coercive power. Even in these councils women had a voice, for although they refrained from making speeches, the elderly women had a right to sit in council and exercise a negative or veto power on the subject of a declaration of war or a cessation of hostilities.

This, however, was the only instance among the many nations wherein

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women were treated with such consideration. The military leaders, like the civil officers, derived their authority from the people, and the army was composed of volunteers alone, for no conscriptive power existed anywhere. Custom bound every able-bodied man to do military duty, and he who shirked was branded a coward, and everlastingly disgraced by the only despotic power-Public Opinion. The army ranks were ever full, the war dance and amusement assemblies serving as recruiting stations, whereat the veteran warriors, painted and decorated, sang wild, weird songs of brave deeds while they danced in frantic measures about the public fires. Freedom was apparent everywhere, for so deep was their reverence for the inalienable rights of man that they abhorred slavery until it was too odious to even practise toward their captives of war.

This confederacy was probably formed about the beginning of the fifteenth century, and strengthened by union they had grown greater, and were constantly extending the boundaries of their empire. Like all unlettered nations, with an unrecorded history and obscure origin, they tinted their traditions by the supernatural and miraculous. It is the same old, old story, old as tradition, and chimerical as a dream.

The teeming East is the mother of historic myths, in which figure the divine grandeur of the founders of nations. Hear the same story float- ing down the years, borne by the breezes from Central Asia, from Paradise, from Eden, and from the garden, whispering of the root of languages, the germ of religion, and the basis of laws So, too, we find it illustrated in Hiawatha, the founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. Their tradition relates that this personage came from the serenity of the skies, and took up his abode with the Onondagas, then the most favored of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Onon- dagas occupied a central position, the Mohawks and Oneidas being on their east, and the Cayugas and Senecas to the west. Hiawatha taught them the beauty of friendship and good-will, and the advantage of the cultivation of the earth and fixed habitations. He was revered as the incarnation of wisdom, and was yet among them when fierce warriors came down like an icy blast from the land north of the great lakes, slaying every human being in their path. Hiawatha advised these nations to call a council of wise men to effect a confederacy to oppose the onslaught of the furious enemy from the north. His advice was heeded, and the chief men of the Five Nations, attended by their women and children, gathered on the bank of Onondaga Lake, and to each representative of the different nations was assigned a particular position and title. Here the dignified Mohawk met the fiery Seneca, and all awaited the presence of Hiawatha, who finally came across the lake in a mysterious canoe, accompanied by his beautiful daughter. As he and his child landed, and were ascending the shore, a strange sound was heard, resembling the rushing of the wind. In the distant sky a white speck was seen, which grew larger as it approached, in swift descent, the spot where was gathered the great assembly. As it neared the multitude it assumed the shape of a bird, and threatening to fall upon the council ground the people all fled except Hiawatha and his daughter. "Stand still, my child, it is cowardly to fly from any danger. The decrees of the Great Spirit may not be averted by flight," were the words in which he addressed his daughter. As he finished speaking, the bird, an enormous white heron, with extended wings, fell upon the child with such force as to crush her to the earth. So violent was its fall that its head was buried in the ground, and both bird and child perished. Hiawatha showed no sign of emotion; . not a muscle was moved by the awful calamity, but he calmly beckoned the warriors who came forward and plucked the white plumes of the dead bird, and each placing one on his head wore it as a commemorative decoration. This plume became the national ensign and memento of the origin of the union. On the removal of the body of the bird, no trace of the child was found. Hiawatha was moody for a time, but the people waited in silent reverence until he aroused himself, and proceeded to the discharge of duty. At the head of the council, guiding its action, he was seated on a mossy stone, clad in a wolf-skin mantle and a tunic of soft fur hung from his waist. He was without ornaments, but upon his feet were rich moccasins, while on his head was a cap formed of a band of soft deer- skin covered with the plumage of various birds. Near him sat the chief warriors and councillors of the tribe, who joined in the brief debates and listened to the wise words of Hiawatha.

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History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 2

Author: R. Sutton & Co. Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Number of Pages: 427

Author: R. Sutton & Co.
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 427