History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 8

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

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COLONEL GEORGE ROGERS CLARK'S EXPEDITION.

In July and August, 1780, Colonel George Rogers Clark organized an expedition and marched against the Indian towns on the Little Miami and Mad rivers, with an army of about a thousand men, all Kentuck- ians, to chastise them for their marauding excursions into the settle- ments south of the Ohio River. They, too, crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Licking, and erected two block-houses on the first day of August, upon the ground now occupied by Cincinnati. The march was resumed the next day, and on the sixth day of August they arrived at the site of an Indian town (called Old Chillicothe), on the banks of the Little Miami, which had been set on fire and destroyed by the Indians, in anticipation of Clark's arrival with his infuriated Kentuckians. After cutting down the growing corn, and finding no enemy, the expedition proceeded to the large Indian town called Piqua (the birthplace of Tecumseh), situated on the Mad River, about five miles west of the present city of Springfield. The Indians, concealed in high grass in a prairie adjoining the town, made an attack, and a desperate battle ensued, which resulted in the death of twenty Kentuckians and as many Indians, and the flight of the latter. Piqua was utterly destroyed, and about five hundred acres of growing corn were cut down there and in the vicinity of the site of " Old Chillicothe," which was situated within the present limits of Greene County. Colonel Clark's army then started on their return march, and on arriving at the mouth of the Licking was disbanded. Colonel Ben- jamin Logan was the second officer in rank. There seems to be good reason to believe that the infamous Simon Girty had command of three hundred Mingoes in the Piqua battle.

GENERAL DANIEL BRODHEAD'S EXPEDITION.

To guard against the recurrence of predatory incursions into the fron- tier settlements east of the Ohio River, and to avenge the cruelties and atrocious barbarities of the savages, General Daniel Brodhead, in April, 1781, organized a force of about three hundred effective men, at Wheel- ing, with which he marched to the Muskingum River. The result of this campaign was the taking of the Indian town situated at the " Forks" of said river (now Coshocton), with all its inhabitants, and the capture of some prisoners at other villages. Among the prisoners taken were six. teen warriors who were doomed to death by a council of war, and accord- ingly dispatched, says Doddridge, with spears and tomahawks, and afterwards scalped ! A strong determination was manifested by the sol- diers to march up the Tuscarawas to the Moravian towns and destroy them, but General Brodhead and Colonel Shepherd (the second officer in rank) prevented this contemplated outrage. The famous Lewis Wetzel killed, in cold blood, a chief who was held as a hostage by General Brod- head ! Other atrocities were committed by the infuriated men on their return march, who were resolved to adopt the most sanguinary measures, if necessary, to prevent in the future the murderous incursions of the savages into the frontier settlements.

The border wars of this period were prosecuted on both sides as wars of extermination, and the cruelties and barbarities perpetrated by the Indians had produced such a malignant spirit of revenge among the

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

whites as to make them but little less brutal and remorseless than the savages themselves. Some of their expeditions against the Indians were mere murdering parties, held together only by the common thirst for re- venge; and it is not likely that any discipline calculated to restrain that pervading feeling, or that would be efficient in preventing or even check- ing it, could in all cases have been enforced. It is certainly unfortunate for the reputation of General Brodhead that his name is thus associated with the murder of prisoners; but it is highly probable that he never sanctioned it, and could not have prevented it.

General Daniel Brodhead's home was in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He entered the Revolutionary army as & Lieutenant-Colonel, his com- mission bearing date July 4, 1776 ; was engaged in most of the battles fought by General Washington's army, until early in 1779, when, on receiving a Colonel's commission, he was placed in command of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment. On March 5, 1879, he was appointed to the command of the "Western Military Department" (succeeding General McIntosh), with head-quarters at " Fort Pitt." This position he retained until 1781, when he was succeeded by General John Gibson, who was himself succeeded by General William Irvine, September 24, 1781.

In 1789, General Brodhead was elected Surveyor-General of Pennsyl- vania, an office which he continued to hold until 1799, when he retired to private life. His death occurred at Milford, Pennsylvania, November 12, 1809. He was one of four brothers, who all rendered essential serv- ices during our Revolutionary struggle.

COLONEL ARCHIBALD LOCHRY'S EXPEDITION.

In the early summer of 1781, Colonel Lochry, the County Lieutenant of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, was requested by Colonel George Rogers Clark to raise a military force, and join him in his then contem- plated military movement against Detroit, and the Indian tribes of the Northwest generally. The mouth of the Big Miami River was first named as the place of general rendezvous, but was subsequently changed to the " Falls of the Ohio." Colonel Lochry raised a force of one hun- dred and six men, who, on the 25th of July, "set out for ' Fort Henry' (Wheeling), where they embarked in boats for their destination." They passed down the Ohio River to a point a few miles below the mouth of the Big Miami, where, having landed, they " were suddenly and unex- pectedly assailed by a volley of rifle-balls, from an overhanging bluff, covered with large trees, on which the Indians had taken position in great force." The result was the death of Colonel Lochry and forty-one of his command, and the capture of the remainder, many of whom were wounded, some of the captured being killed and scalped while prisoners ! This occurred August 25, 1781, and such of the captured as were not murdered, died, or escaped, did not reach their homes again until after the peace of 1783, when they were exchanged at Montreal, and sent home, arriving there in May, 1783. The murder of prisoners was alleged to be in retaliation for the outrages committed by Brodhead's men a few months before; and it has been said that this treatment of Lochry's men was one of the provocations for the brutal murder of the Moravian Indians, on the Tuscarawas, in 1782.

COLONEL WILLIAMSON'S EXPEDITION.

The wife of William Wallace, and three of her children, also John Car- penter, all of Washington County, Pennsylvania, were captured by the Indians in February, 1782, and carried off. Mrs. Wallace and her infant were found, after having been tomahawked and scalped ! The frontiers- men were greatly exasperated, and at once organized an expedition of nearly a hundred men to pursue and chastise the murderers. On arriving at the Tuscarawas River, and finding the Moravian Indians there, in con- siderable force, gathering corn at the villages from which they had been forcibly removed, by British authority, the preceding autumn, to the Sandusky Plains, for alleged favoritism to the American cause, the con- clusion was soon reached that they had found the murderers of Mrs. Wallace and her child, and at once made prisoners of those at Gnaden- hütten and Salem, to the number of ninety-six. The Indians at Shon- brun made their escape, on hearing of the capture of those at work at the other villages. It has been stated that some clothing was found with

those Indians that was identified as that of the murdered friends of some of Williamson's men ; but even if that were so, it did not prove that these Indians were the murderers, or had even aided or abetted the mur- derers.

Colonel Williamson, on March 8, 1782, submitted the fate of his help- less captives to his excited men. The alternative was whether they should take them to " Fort Pitt," as prisoners, or kill them. Eighteen only voted to take them to " Fort Pitt," the others voted to butcher them, and "they were then and there murdered in cold blood, with gun and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, and bludgeon and maul !" Two only escaped. There are many details of this atrocious massacre- this infamous butchery of an innocent people-but we omit them. His- tory characterizes it as an atrocious and unqualified wholesale murder- as a terrible tragedy-a horrible deed. Would that it could be blotted from our history ! Colonel Williamson opposed the massacre, but could not control his men.

COLONEL CRAWFORD'S SANDUSKY EXPEDITION.

Soon after the return of the murderous expedition of Colonel William- son, an expedition against the Wyandot villages, on the Sandusky Plains was determined upon, their destruction being deemed essential to the pro- tection of the frontier settlements east of the Ohio. Nearly all of Colonel Williamson's men volunteered, and recruiting went on so rapidly that by the 25th of May four hundred and eighty men rendezvoused at the Mingo Bottoms, three miles below the present city of Steubenville. An election for commander of the expedition was held there, when it was found that Colonel William Crawford was elected, having received 235 votes, while 230 were cast for Colonel David Williamson. The latter gentleman was then promptly and unanimously chosen the second officer in rank. The entire force was composed of mounted men, who, following the " Williamson trail" to the Tuscarawas, passed rapidly on to the San- dusky. On reaching a point three miles north of Upper Sandusky, and a mile west of the Sandusky River, within the present limits of Wyandot County, a battle ensued (known as the battle of Sandusky, fought June 4-5, 1782), followed by the defeat of Colonel Crawford and the loss of over & hundred men in killed and prisoners. Colonel Crawford was captured and tortured to death in a slow fire, accompanied by circum- stances of barbarity unparalleled in the annals of Indian warfare. Some historians have misapprehended the purpose of the Crawford campaign. We think it clearly established that the design was not the pursuit and chastisement of the Moravian Indians, but the destruction of the Wyan- dot villages of the Sandusky Plains, and for the reasons above stated. The details of this disastrous expedition are so well known to the general reader that we omit them.

Colonel Crawford was born in Orange County, Virginia, in 1732 (now Berkley County, West Virginia). He and General Washington were of the same age and were intimate friends from early life until Crawford's death, both being engaged while young men in the same pursuit, that of land surveyors. Both were officers in Braddock's disastrous campaign in 1755; both were officers in Gen. Forbes's army, in 1758, which successfully marched against Fort Du Quesne. Colonel Crawford served as a captain in Dunmore's war, in 1774-recruited a regiment for continental service -became Colonel of the Seventh Virginia Regiment-was in the Long Island campaign, also in the retreat through New Jersey, and partici- pated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. In 1778 he had command of a Virginia regiment in the vicinity of " Fort Pitt," and built Fort Crawford, sixteen miles above the " Forks of the Ohio." He also par- ticipated in the erection of Fort McIntosh and Fort Laurens, and ren- dered other valuable services. He removed to "Stewart's Crossings" (now Connelsville) in 1769, it being the point where Braddock's army crossed the Youghiogheny River, in 1755, and where he frequently re- ceived the visits of his old friend, General Washington, whose land agent he was. And here he lived when he took command of the ill-fated San- dusky expedition. Colonel William Crawford possessed the highest qualities of true manhood, and justly ranked as a hero among the heroes of those heroic times !

Colonel David Williamson, the ranking .officer after the capture of Colonel Crawford, took command of the defeated, demoralized, retreating forces, who were pursued by the victors, at least thirty miles, and dis-

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

played considerable ability as such, particularly at the battle of Olen- tangy, which was fought June 6th, during the retreat, at a point now in Whetstone Township, Crawford County, about five miles southeasterly from Bucyrus. Colonel Williamson lived in Washington County, Penn- sylvania, and died there, after having served it in the capacity of sheriff. We repeat the statement to his credit, that he was personally opposed to the murder of the Christian Indians, but could not prevent it.

GENERAL GEORGE ROGERS CLARK'S EXPEDITION.

In the autumn of 1782, soon after the battle of Blue Licks, and in re- taliation upon the Ohio Indians, for that and other marauding and mur- derous incursions into Kentucky, General George Rogers Clark, with a force of over one thousand men, marched against the Indian towns on the Miami River. One division of the army was under command of Colonel Logan, and the other was commanded by Colonel Floyd. The two divisions marched together from the mouth of the Licking to a point near the head waters of the Miami River, now in Miami County, and there destroyed some Shawanese towns and other property, including Loramie's store, which was at the mouth of Loramie's Creek, within the present limits of Shelby County. Ten Indians were killed and a num- ber of prisoners taken.

General George Rogers Clark was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, November 19, 1752. He commanded a company in the right wing of Dunmore's army in 1774, and settled in Kentucky in 1776. In 1778 he led an army into the Northwest and conquered it. He served under Ba- ron Steuben in 1780, during Arnold's invasion of Virginia, and rendered other valuable military services. He was also a legislator, and served as a commissioner in making treaties with the Indians at Fort McIntosh, in 1785;and at Fort Finney in 1786. General Clark was a man of ability, of skill, energy, enterprise, and of wonderful resources. He died at Locust Grove, near the Falls of the Ohio, in February, 1818.

COLONEL LOGAN'S EXPEDITION.

In 1786 Colonel Benjamin Logan crossed the Ohio River at Limestone (now Maysville), with four hundred men or more, and marched to the Mack-a-cheek towns on Mad River, to chastise the Shawanese there, who were intensely hostile to the Kentuckians. The result of the campaign was the burning of eight of their towns, all of which were situated within the present limits of Logan County; also the destruction of much corn. Twenty warriors were also killed, including a prominent chief of the nation, and about seventy-five prisoners were taken. Colonel Daniel Boone, General Simon Kenton, and Colonel Trotter were officers in this expedition. The first two named rendered valuable services in Dun- more's expedition, and afterwards, and the latter also made a good pio- neer and war record.

Several minor expeditions, accompanied by comparatively unimportant results, we leave unnoticed. Those of Colonel Edwards to the Big Miami in 1787, and of Colonel Todd to the Scioto Valley in 1788, before the organization of the " Territory Northwest of the River Ohio," were of this class.

FIRST TREATIES ESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES.

The first treaty establishing boundaries in Ohio between our Govern- ment and the Ohio Indians was formed at Fort McIntosh, in January, 1785.

This treaty was followed on May 20, 1785, by an ordinance of Congress, which provided for the first survey and sale of the public lands within the present limits of Ohio. Under that ordinance the tract known as the Seven Ranges was surveyed, and sales effected at New York, in 1787, to the amount of $72,974. The tract of the Ohio Land Company was sur- veyed and sold, pursuant to the provisions of an ordinance of July 23, 1785; and Fort Harmar, situated at the mouth of the Muskingum River, was built during this and the next year, for the protection of the immi- grants that might settle upon it. The title to the Ohio Land Company's purchase was not perfected until October 23, 1787, and until then, settling upon the public lands was discouraged and indeed forbidden by the Government; but, notwithstanding a number of settlements were made between the time of the treaty of Fort McIntosh, in January, 1785, and

the perfecting of the title of the Ohio Land Company in October, 1787. These were chiefly along the Hockhocking and the Ohio rivers, and were broken up by military force, and the settlers dispersed or driven east of the Ohio River. Settlements that were attempted at the mouth of the Scioto, and other places, were prevented. Proclamations by Con- gress were issued against settling upon the public domain as early as 1785, and enforced by the military power when disregarded. Hundreds of families probably had attempted to settle permanently west of the Ohio River, previous to the arrival of the colony of New Englanders, at the mouth of the Muskingum, in April, 1788, but were not permitted to do so. The fact, therefore, remains that the settlement at Marietta was the first permanent one within the present limits of Ohio-all others being but temporary, by reason of the compulsory dispersion, previously, of the settlers elsewhere, and the destruction of their huts.

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

ARCHAEOLOGY.

"And did the dust Of these fair solitudes once stir with life And burn with passion ? Let the mighty mounds That overlooked the rivers, or that rise In the dim forests, crowded with old oaks, Answer. A race that long has passed away Built them ; a disciplined and populous race Heaped with long toil the earth, while yet the Greek Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms Of symmetry, and rearing on its rock The glittering Parthenon." BRYANT.

WHILE philology attests the great antiquity of a spoken language and biology the long development of organized life, paleontology pro- duces silent records carrying man far back into the pliocene period of geology-back to the very portals of the miocene period through which he may have entered that age in which his traces abound. Time, with iconoclastic disposition, may alone be responsible for the destruction of older silent records, thus enshrouding the history of man in the night cloud of high antiquity. While satisfactory proofs are wanting to estab- lish his existence during the miocene period, it may be claimed with plausibility that this period was fitted and conditioned for his produc- tion and existence. The tertiary, which was the birth-day of mammals, might well be also the birth-day of man, for if he did not appear simul- taneously with the mastodon and mammoth, he at least found a contem- poraneous existence. Geology abounds with evidences of the fitness of the conditions of the mammalian period for the production and mainte- nance of the higher forms of life. It was a period of life and beauty, rivalling, if not excelling, the most enchanting dreams of a sylvan age. With a tropical climate, its forms of animal life were manifold and often colossal; with birds of rare and brilliant plumage and sweet enchanting song. These inhabited forests, blossoming with beauty or stooping with ripening fruit.

The world was full of life-life in its most majestic and gorgeous forms, and if it exists for the sole use of man, this would appear a proper moment to usher him into existence. Let this be as it may, he did exist contemporaneously with those greatest mammals, and has outlived their period. Leaving his stamp upon the pliocene age he has witnessed the death of the mammoth and mastodon, and alone has withstood the muta- tions and transformations of the intervening epochs of the glacial and alluvial periods. Man is old, and in his long descent through the ages his tracks become more and more distinct, until at last he paused from time to time and erected monuments to serve as mile posts along his advancing way. As each structure is better than each earlier one, they testify in silence of a regular improvement, a progressiveness in man. In silence, too, they testify of races now extinct, of builders who disap- peared, and of different degrees of civilization which were ruthlessly swept away before the furious tide of barbarians sweeping from the north. To these monuments-these mile posts-the antiquarian and

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

archeologist turns with searching gaze, and by patient research has learned to read the revelation they contain of the condition and fate of these ancient races.

One of these races, ancient in time and distinct in characteristic, once occupied the whole central portion of the United States. A lost race, destitute of a written language, their history is sought amidst their monuments, comprising mounds, inclosures, and implements, until, after patient research, something of the veil has been lifted which had en- shrouded in mystery a whole people, who had attained a condition of semi-civilization. Their disappearance was hidden in a long night of ignorance and oblivion, until the tireless student had mastered the silent language of the structures and implements which remained the monu- ments of the race. Leaving no name they have been denominated the "Mound Builders," because of the innumerable structures of this char- acter, which have withstood the fury of the northern hordes, the assaults of time, and outlasted the periods of the villagers and Indians. To these remains we must turn for the records of this race whose identity is lost. These remains may be classified as structures, implements, and orna- ments. The structures are again divided in two general classes, viz., inclosures and mounds, although of various forms and sizes. Of these structures over thirteen thousand are found in Ohio alone. The first class embraces all those works which are bounded by embankments or walls, and includes fortifications, sacred inclosures, and various other symmetrical works. The second class embraces the true mound struc- tures, which have been classified as sacrificial, temple, sepulchral, sym- bolical, and anomalous, as indicated by the purposes they served. The inclosures are often of great dimensions, generally constructed of clay, although sometimes of stone, and range from three to thirty feet in height, inclosing from one to four hundred acres of ground. Of this class over fifteen hundred are found in Ohio. They are generally regu- lar in form, comprehending the square, circle, parallelogram, ellipse, and octagon.

Inclosures have been classified as "Defensive" and "Sacred."

Defensive works are found chiefly occupying bluffs, headlands, or iso- lated hills in the vicinity of the largest valleys. Such elevations were chosen with care and strengthened with skill, thus affording excellent points for military works. The walls extend below the brow of the hill, and vary in strength and height according to the angle of declivity. The exposed sides are covered and protected by trenches and overlap- ping walls, the trench usually being outside the wall. The gateways appear at the most accessible points, and were guarded by overlapping walls, which were often attended by mounds suitable for both observa- tion and defence. Many of the defensive works occupy peninsulas, formed by the bends of streams, and consist of a line of ditches and embankments carried across the isthmus, and sometimes leading diago- nally from one stream to another. Fort Ancient being the most cele- brated and widely known of these fortifications is worthy a partial description here. Situated on the east bank of the Little Miami, in Warren County, Ohio, it is about thirty-three miles northeast of Cin- cinnati. Having been frequently and fully surveyed, much has been written descriptive of it until it has acquired great celebrity.

Located upon a terrace, it is difficult of access from the west. The Lebanon and Chillicothe road passes through it on the north, while to the south the descent is steep and winding. A few years ago the whole inclosure was covered by a primitive forest, full of undergrowth, con- sisting largely of blackberry bushes. A little over one hundred acres are thus inclosed by a line of walls about five miles in length. The embankment was constructed of a tough diluvial clay, rising from five to twenty feet in height, averaging about ten feet, and containing 628,800 cubic yards of excavation. The hill upon which it is constructed rises to a level plain, divided by a peninsula, with a summit two hundred and thirty feet above the level of the Little Miami. On the west is a precip- itous bank of two hundred feet, while on the east two ravines originate and diverging sweep around the hill and enter the river, the one above, the other below the works. On the verge of the ravines the embankment is raised, and, winding around the spurs, re-enters to pass the head of gul- lies at different places plunging into ravines from fifty to one hundred feet deep. The greatest strength and solidity occur at the points most exposed, until at the isthmus the walls rise to the height of twenty feet.

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History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 8

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

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