History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 21

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

USA > Ohio > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 21

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Council adjourned.

August 8th, afternoon. The medals, silver ornaments, etc., were delivered. No material or other than complimentary conversation took place.

August 10th. In council. Present as before. The Red Pole, a Shaw- anee chief, spoke as follows :-

You, my uncles, the Wyandots; my grandfathers the Delawares, and all you nations present; you see, we are now here from all parts of this great island. You happily accomplished the good work before we the Shawanees arrived: I thank you all for it. I now present to your view the wumpum given to me by our elder brother, now become our father. He gave it to us from his heart, and I hope you will, for the future, view him as our true father. We must, for the future, live in harmony with him, and one another. The Great Spirit gave us this land in common; he has not given the right to any one nation to say to another, this land is not yours, it belongs to me.

Father! I have heard everything which has been here transacted. Peace is firmly established. It affords me satisfaction and happiness that the hatchet is cast away for- ever. I have reason to believe that the mischief which has been lately done has been committed by a small party of Shawanees, who have been in the woods a long time hunt- ing. It grieves us much that while we are here accomplishing the good work of peace, some of our own people are yet deaf to our advice. And to convince you that we will never permit such practices, I now offer to leave with you, my aged father, as a hostage, and proceed immediately, myself, to call home those people, and take measures to prevent their future misconduct { have just returned from an absence of two years, to the southward, and in that period, my young men, uncontrolled by their other chiefs, have fallen into bad practices ;- but they shall have an immediate end.

All my brothers present! As the peace is now entirely completed, and as our father; of the Fifteen Fires, has adopted us, as his children, and called us by that name; I now tell him, in presence of you all, that we, the Shawanees, do acknowledge the Fifteen Fires as our father ; and that henceforth we will always regard him as such. [A white string.]

You, my uncles, and grandfather, have settled with our father, the boundary line, in a manner which meets my entire approbation. I am perfectly satisfied with it; and it appears you had our common interest in view.

Father! As all the nations are now present, they can never hereafter deny their own work, nor say, that other people acted for them, without authority. I, therefore, recom- mend to them to fulfil, strictly, their agreements, and adhere religiously to their engage- ments. [A belt.]

The General arose and spoke as follows :-

Children, all you nations, listen! By the seventh article of this treaty, all the lands now ceded to the United States, are free for all the tribes now present, to hunt upon, 80 ong as they continue to be peaceable and do no injury to the people thereof. It is therefore, the common interest of you all, to prevent any mischief being done upon those hunting grounds. Those people who have committed the last outrage on our peaceable inhabitants, had been hunting on those grounds, and, after finishing their hunt, proceeded to the commission of the bad actions of which I have complained. These practices for the reasons I have already given you, must have an immediate end.

The Red Pole has behaved like a candid, honest man, in acknowledging the errors of his people, and in promising to restrain them immediately. He has done more; he has offered to leave his own father as a hostage, until he can inform me of his having called them home. But I will not separate him from his old father ; I will depend upon his honor for the performance of his promise. [A white string to the Red Pole. ]

All you, my children, listen to me! The great business of peace so long and ardently wished for by your great and good father, General Washington, and the Fifteen Fires, and I am sure, by every good man among you, being now accomplished; nothing re-

mains but to give you a few words of advice from a father, anxious for the peace and happiness of his children. Let me earnestly exhort you, to restrain your young people from injuring, in any degree, the people of the United States. Impress upon their minds the spirit and meaning of the treaty now before us. Convince them how much their future welfare will depend upon their faithful and strict observance of it. Restore to me, as soon as possible, all my flesh and blood which may be among you, without dis- tinction or exception; and receive now from my hands the ten hostages stipulated by the second article to be left with me, as a security for their delivery. This unequivocal proof of the confidence that I place in your honor, and in the solemn promises you have made me, must satisfy you of my full persuasion of your sincerity. Send those ten young men to collect your prisoners; let them bring them to me, and they shall be well re- warded for their trouble. I have here a particular account of the number remaining among you, and shall know when they are all restored.

I now fervently pray to the Great Spirit, that the peace now established may be per- manent; and that it may hold us together in the bonds of friendship until time shall be no more. I also pray, that the Great Spirit above, may enlighten your minds, and open your eyes to your true happiness, that your children may learn to cultivate the earth and enjoy the fruits of peace and industry. [A white string.]

As it is probable, my children, that we shall not soon meet again in public council, I take this opportunity of bidding you all an affectionate farewell; and of wishing you . safe and happy return to your respective homes and families. [A string.]

Bu-kon-ge-he-las, a Delaware chief, spoke as follows :-

Father! Your children all well understand the sense of the treaty which is now con- cluded. We experience, daily, proofs of your increasing kindness. I hope we may all have sense enough to enjoy our dawning happiness. Many of your people are yet among us; I trust they will be immediately restored. Last winter our king came forward to you, with two, and when he returned with your speech to us we immediately prepared to come forward with the remainder. All who know me, know me to be a man and warrior; and I now declare, that I will, for the future, be as strong and steady a friend to the United States, as I have heretofore been an active enemy. We have one bad young man among us, who, a few days ago, stole three of your horses. Two of them shall this day be re- turned to you; and I hope I shall be able to prevent that young man from doing any more mischief, to our father, the Fifteen Fires.

Mash-i-pi-nash-i-wish, chief of the Chippeways, spoke as follows :- Father! I have heard, and understood all that you have said. I am perfectly satisfied with every part of it; my heart will never change. No prisoners remain in our hands, in the neighborhood of Michilimackinac. Those two Frenchmen present (Messieurs Sans Crainte and Pepin) can witness to the truth of this assertion.

Masass, a Chippeway chief, rose and spoke as follows :-

I have heard all the proceedings relating to this treaty. I express my perfect satis- faction at its happy conclusion. When I relate at home, the important event, my people will stretch out their arms towards you; and when I shall have informed them that you have promised to cherish them as your children, they will rejoice at having acquired new, and so good & father.

Council adjourned sine die.

It appears from a "return of the numbers of the different nations of Indians present at, and parties to, the treaty of Greenville," that there were one hundred and eighty Wyandots, three hundred and eighty-one Delawares, one hundred and forty-three Shawanees, forty-five Ottawas, forty-six Chippeways, two hundred and forty Pottawattamies, seventy- three Miamies and Eel Rivers, twelve Weas and Piankeshaws, and ten Kickapoos and Kaskaskias-making a total of eleven hundred and thirty.

Immediately after the signing of the treaty, General Wayne sent the following proclamation

To the Cherokees now settled on the head-waters of the Scioto.

Whereas, I, Anthony Wayne, Major-General, commanding the army of the United States, and sole Commissioner for settling a permanent peace with all the Indian tribes northwest of the river Ohio, having accomplished that great and good work, and having this day signed and exchanged articles of a permanent peace, with the Chippeways, Otta- was, Pottawattamies, Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanees, Miamies, Eel River, Weas, and Kickapoo nations of Indians:

Do, hereby, once more invite you, the Cherokees, residing on the waters of the Scioto, to come forward, immediately, to this place, and enter into similar articles of peace ; for which purpose, I now send Captain Longhair, a principal Cherokee chief, to conduct you to headquarters, where you shall be received in friendship, and treated with kindness and hospitality. Captain Longhair will give you the particulars respecting this treaty, as also those of a treaty of peace lately made between the United States and the Chero- kee nation, so that you now stand alone and unprotected, unless you comply with this last invitation.

Given at Headquarters, Greenville, 8d August, 1795. ANTHONY WAYNE.

In consequence of the above message, some of this party of Cherokees returned to Greenville, with Captain Longhair, and afterwards accompa-

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

nied him home, to their nation. The remainder promised to hunt peace- ably on the Scioto, until their corn was fit to gather, when they would quit this side of the Ohio forever, and return to their own country.

At a private conference on the 12th August with the Miamies, Eel River, and Kickapoo Indians, the Little Turtle, in the name of the others, observed, that as they intended soon to depart and return to their respect- ive homes, he took this opportunity of repeating to the General, that he, himself, and the Indians with him, were perfectly acquainted with every article of the treaty ; that no part of it had escaped their serious and anxious deliberation ; that, in the early stage of the negotiation, he had not comprehended the moderation and liberality with which he was now convinced, it is dictated; that to this cause, and to a duty which he con- ceived he owed his country, must be attributed the opposition he exhib- ited on sundry occasions; that he was persuaded his father would not think unkindly of him for it, for he had heard him, with much pleasure, approve of the freedom with which he delivered his sentiments; that he was a man who spoke as he thought, and a man of sincerity ; and that he embraced this last occasion, to declare, that as he was fully convinced that the treaty was wisely and benevolently calculated to promote the mutual interest and insure the permanent happiness of the Indians, and their father the Americans, so it was his determined resolution to adhere, religiously, to its stipulations.

He asked for traders to reside at their different villages, and mentioned the names of some, who, from the confidence they had in their integrity, they wished might be licensed and continued by the United States, as traders among them ; he hoped (for the Weas particularly) that a fort would be immediately established at Quiatanon, and promised every assistance they could afford, to the establishment; that he, himself, would reside near Fort Wayne, where daily experience should convince his father of his sincere friendship; and that, as he intended to rekindle the Grand Council Fire at that place, by means of which, the different nations might communicate with each other as usual, he requested his father to give orders to the commandant of Fort Wayne, to inform him from time to time, of any measures which the Great Council of the Fifteen Fires might adopt, in which the interest of their children should be concerned; and he asked, that Mr. Wells might be placed there as a resident inter- preter, as he possessed their confidence, as fully as he did that of their father.

On the 9th September, a party of Shawanees, consisting of between sixty and seventy warriors, who had hitherto proved refractory and hos- tile, arrived at Greenville, with four prisoners,-three of whom they cap- tured on the 13th July, 1795, in Randolph County, Virginia. On the 11th, the General gave them audience, when Puck-se-kaw (or Jumper), one of their chiefs, spoke as follows :-

My father! I have been in the woods a long time; I was not acquainted with the good works which were transacting at this place, by you and all our great chiefs.

Last spring, when we were hunting peaceably, our camp on the Scioto was robbed ; we are very poor, and the mischief that has since been done, was in retaliation for the injuries we then sustained.

As soon as I received this belt, which you sent me by Blue Jacket, one of our great chiefs, and as soon as I was informed by him that the good work of peace was finished, I arose to come and see you, and brought with me these four prisoners. I now surren- der them up to you, my father, and promise, sincerely, that we will do no more mischief.

I hope, that for the future, we shall be permitted to live and hunt, in peace and quiet- neas. We were poor ignorant children, astray in the woods, who knew not that our nation, and all the other tribes of Indians, had come in and made peace with you. I. thank the Great Spirit for at length opening our eyes.

Father! We beg you will forgive, and receive your repentant children. These people, whom I now deliver to you, must plead our forgiveness, and vouch for our sincere inten- tion to alter our conduct for the future. [A white string. ]

At the close of this speech, the Indians retired from Greenville, and returned to their respective homes.

SURRENDER OF POSTS BY THE BRITISH IN 1796-DEATH OF GENERAL WAYNE.

Early in 1796, the British government surrendered the northern posts, including Fort Miami, built in 1794, by Governor Simcoe, at the foot of the Rapids of the Maumee, together with the town of Detroit, and the military works, both there and on the island of Mackinaw, in pursuance of the treaty negotiated by Chief Justice Jay, in 1793.

The posts were delivered to General Wayne, who had been authorized to receive them, by the President of the United States. As soon as he had performed that duty, and had made the necessary arrangements to have the works properly garrisoned and supplied, he embarked for Erie, on his way to the seat of government, very late in the season. Unfortu- nately, he was seized, on the passage, with a violent attack of gout in the stomach, which terminated his life, before the vessel reached the port of her destination. He was buried at Erie. When the body was disin- terred by his son, many years afterwards, for the purpose of being re- moved to the place of his nativity, the skin and flesh were sound, and exhibited no signs of decay. As the body had been committed to its mother earth without embalming, and without any other process in- tended to preserve it from decay, the condition in which it was found by his son, must have been the result of some antiseptic influence, exerted by the surrounding earth, which, in process of time, might have con- verted it into a mummy.

General Wayne was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in January, 1745, and was just completing the fifty-second year of his active life, when he was prematurely stricken from existence.

His father was a farmer, highly esteemed for the excellence of his private character, and for many useful services rendered the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania, particularly in the Provincial Legislature, and in several expeditions against the Indians. He had taken great pains to educate his son, at the Philadelphia academy, where he made very con- siderable proficiency in mathematics, in astronomy, and in other branches of useful science. The life and public services of this brave, accom- plished officer, are so fully stated, by the historians of his day, that it does not seem necessary, interesting as they are, to transfer them to this narrative. It may suffice, therefore, to say, that there was scarcely an important battle, or hazardous enterprise, from the beginning to the end of the Revolutionary struggle, in which he was not, more or less, dis- tinguished.

Before the Revolutionary war began, he was a deputy in the Provincial Congress of his native State; which assembled in 1774. In the same year, he was a member of the Provincial Legislature. In the year follow- ing, he was a member of the Committee of Public Safety. In the fall of the same year, he raised a corps of volunteers, who unanimously elected him their Colonel. He was in the unsuccessful attack on the British at Three Rivers, in Canada; where he was wounded. At the battle of Brandywine he was distinguished; in the succeeding battle of German- town he led his division into the thickest of the fight, received two wounds, and had his horse killed under him. For his gallantry in the subsequent battle of Monmouth, General Washington mentioned him in his official letter, with great approbation.

His desperate and successful attack on Stony Point, which gave him the name of " Mad-Anthony," and procured for him a gold medal from Congress, can never be forgotten. After distinguishing himself at the capture of Lord Cornwallis, he was sent by General Washington, to take the command of the troops in Georgia, where the enemy were making great headway. After some severe battles, he defeated, routed, and drove them from the State. For his bravery and important services on that occasion, he received the thanks of the Legislature, and was pre- sented with a valuable farm. His next military achievements were those in which he was employed in the Northwestern Territory, when death terminated his career.

It would be a pleasing task, and an easy one, to collect materials enough to form a volume of brilliant and useful deeds, achieved by that distinguished warrior, who shared largely in the confidence and friend- ship of Washington, from the commencement of the Revolution, to the close of his life; but the historians of his day have superseded the necessity of such a labor.

The Governor of the Northwestern Territory, who had accompanied the General to Detroit, and was present when the possession of the posts was delivered, proceeded immediately to establish a new county on the strait, to which he gave the name of Wayne; in compliment to the chief, whose victory at the foot of the Rapids, two years before, had hastened the execution of the treaty of 1793, by the British government. The seat of justice for the new county was established at Detroit, a garrison town, compactly built on very narrow streets, most of them not exceed-

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ing one rod in width, and completely inclosed by strong pickets. It was defended by a fort on the north, and by batteries on the margin of the strait. The citadel, for the accommodation of the commandant and his suite, was erected within the pickets, and was a spacious edifice, with an esplanade in front of sufficient dimensions to manœuvre a regiment of troops. The town was the most ancient on the upper lakes, having been settled by the French, as early as 1683; and it was the capital of Upper Canada, till it fell into the hands of the United States.

The old town which was surrendered to the United States was entirely burnt down, in 1805, and was afterwards rebuilt on a new and more con- venient plan. It had been, for many years, the principal depot of the fur trade of the northwest, and the residence of a large number of Eng- lish and Scotch merchants, who were engaged in it, and was of course a place of great business. The greater part of the merchants engaged in the fur trade, both Scotch and English, had their domiciles at Detroit; and the nature of the trade was such as to require large amounts of cap- ital, in order to be profitable; because the great distance, and the im- mense extent of country, over which their furs and peltry were collected, rendered it impossible to turn the capital employed more than once in a year, and sometimes once in two years. The business was also extremely laborious and precarious. In some seasons their profits were enormously large; in others, they were small; and occasionally they were subjected to heavy losses.

During a large portion of the year they had to endure the fatigues and privations of the wilderness; and as often as they returned from those laborious excursions to their families and comfortable homes, they in- dulged most freely in the delicacies and luxuries of high living. Scarcely a day passed without a dinner party, given by some one of them, at which the best of wine and of other liquors, and the richest viands furnished by the country, and by commerce, were served up in great profusion, and in fine taste. Genteel strangers who visited the place, were generally invited to the houses, and their sumptuous tables; and although at this day, such a practice would be considered a breach of moral duty, as well as of good breeding, they competed with each other for the honor of drinking the most, as well as the best wine, without being intoxicated themselves, and of having at their parties the greatest number of intoxicated guests. This revel was kept up in a greater or less degree, during the season they remained at home, as an offset to the privations and suffering of their excursions into the wilderness.

Soon after the town of Detroit came into the hands of the Americans, most of those merchants removed, and established themselves at Sand- wich, in Upper Canada, where it was the universal custom to celebrate the birthday of the king. The General Court of the Territory being in session at Detroit, on the 4th of June, 1800, which was the birthday of his majesty, George III., the judges and the bar, and also the officers of the American garrison, with many of the principal citizens of Detroit, were invited to be present, and partake in the festivities of the occasion. The invitation was accepted, and about a hundred Americans joined in the festival. A spacious building, erected for a warehouse, was so ar- ranged as to accommodate between four and five hundred persons, with seats at the tables, at the same time. The entertainment was splendid ; the tables were richly and abundantly supplied with everything which appetite or taste could desire.

The loyalty of his majesty's subjects was evinced by every expedient in their power; and if a moiety of their prayers in behalf of their royal master had been granted, he must have lived a thousand years, and his shadow never have grown less.

During the evening much deference was paid, by the managers, to the feelings of their American guests. Next to the King, the President of the United States was drank; and among the residue of the toasts, there were several complimentary to our country and her distinguished states- men. By pursuing that liberal, respectful course, no bad feeling was excited; and although much wine was drunk, in proportion to numbers, yet the party, late in the night, separated in harmony and mutual good feeling. The American garrison, at Detroit, consisted of two regiments, commanded by Colonel Strong, who, in consideration of his great respon- sibility, and to relieve from duty as many of his officers as practicable, declined to be a guest, and remained at his post in the citadel.

At one party the court and bar became acquainted with the British

officers stationed at Fort Malden, and received a pressing invitation to visit them and spend a night at their quarters in the garrison. At the same time Captain Currie, of the John Adams, an armed vessel of the United States, politely offered to convey the party to Malden, and from thence to Maumee Bay. These invitations were accepted, and, as soon as the court had finished the business of the term, they and the bar sent their horses by land to the foot of the Rapids, and embarked for the British garrison. They were received by Captain McMullin, the com- mandant, and entertained with great hospitality. He gave them a fine supper, good wine, and excellent beds; which were seldom met with, by western travelers, in those early days of territorial improvement. In the morning, the party took leave, and returned to the vessel.

At that time the fort was in a very unfinished state, and no material or preparation was discovered for completing it. It was said, however, by the officers, that preparations were in progress for that purpose, and that it was the intention of government to put the works in a complete state for defence, without delay. Early in the afternoon, the brig cast anchor in the Maumee Bay, and the barge was let down and manned. Having taken leave of the officers, the party took their seats, and in a few hours were landed at the foot of the Rapids. The passage was pleasant, and the misery of wading through the deep mud of the Black Swamp was escaped.

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History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 21

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

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