USA > Ohio > History of the Upper Ohio Valley, with family history and biographical sketches, a statement of its resources, industrial growth and commercial advantages, Vol. I > Part 3
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY.
From this time the prestige of the great chief Pontiac was eclipsed; his followers became disheartened and sued for peace.
The reader will please pardon us if we occupy a small portion of his time in briefly referring to the career and character of the chief- tain we have just named. Pontiac was an Ottawa chief whom the English first became acquainted with when a small force of their army was for the first time sent to take formal possession of the country in the vicinity of the upper lakes. On being informed of the approach of the English he collected his warriors together and set out to meet them. He indignantly demanded of them why they dared to trespass upon his territory, and haughtily insisted on being informed as to what their business was there. He was answered that they came on a friendly errand to assure peace with his nation, and to cultivate acquaintance. Pontiac replied: "I take my stand in the path you are following and here I will remain until morning," giving them to understand that they could not proceed further without his full permission. After a time and after due deliberation he permitted them to proceed, and with his followers accompanied them to Detroit, from whence he sent runners to the surrounding tribes urging them, as he had, to become friendly towards the English. For some time he was true to the whites and was their faithful friend, but afterward became their inveterate enemy. Drake, in his history of the Indians, speaks of his great executive ability as exceeding even those of Metacomet or Tecumseh. He proceeds to say: " In his war of 1763, which is justly denominated Pontiac's war, he appointed a commissary, and began to make and issue bills of credit, all of which he afterward carefully redeemed. He made his bills on notes of bark, on which was drawn the figure of the commodity he wanted, and another was the insignia or arms of his nation. He had also with great sagacity, urged upon his people the necessity of dispensing altogether with European com- modities, to have no intercourse with any whites, and to depend entirely upon their ancient modes of procuring sustenance." After the reduction of Canada, comparative peace reigned along the fron- tiers. The French being driven out of the country, the English com- menced the erection of forts at the most available points commanding the lakes and rivers. Rightly apprehending that the English, if not checked, or if an attempt to do so was not promptly made, would soon spread themselves over the whole country, the savages realized that a mighty effort must be made to prevent their advance. A con- federacy was therefore formed among the Shawnees, the tribes in the Ohio and its adjacent waters, the object of which was to attack at the same time all of the English posts and settlements on the frontiers. Their plan was skillfully formed after the most mature deliberation.
The Ohio valley as well as the frontiers of Pennsylvania were raided by scalping parties carrying death and devastation wherever they penetrated. The remote outposts were assailed, and out of eleven forts three only escaped capture - Detroit, Niagara and Fort Pitt alone remaining in the hands of the whites. The moving spirit
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY.
in this rising was Pontiac, and he commanded in person the united forces which attempted the capture of Detroit through stratagem. The success with which the savages met emboldened them to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, while it struck terror to the hearts of the settlers by reason of the barbarity practiced by the savages. The English commandant determined to take the most active meas- ures to arrest this tide of blood and desolation. Accordingly he dispatched Col. Henry Bouquet, a soldier who had seen much ser- vice both in Europe, and this country during the French war. At the time he was stationed at Philadelphia, from which place he marched with a force of about 500 men, and as already stated, after a fierce and hotly contested fight at Brushy Run he pushed on with his force to the Ohio valley, and in due time arrived at Fort Pitt. Here he was reinforced and now with a force of fifteen hundred men he took up his line of march on the third day of October, against the Indian towns on the Muskingum, which he reached near the forks of that river without opposition, and there dictated terms of peace to them.
Hutchins' in his Historical Account of Bouquet's Expedition, says: "Immediately after the peace was concluded with the Indians the king made him brigadier general and commandant of the troops in all of the southern colonies of British America. He died in Pen- sacola in 1767, lamented by his friends, and regretted universally."
Having somewhat anticipated our narrative we propose to return and take up the thread of it so far as it is connected with the evacua- tion of Fort Du Quesne by the French and the erection of Fort Pitt. In November, 1758, the French learning of the approach of a formidable army under Gen. Forbes, became alarmed, and as they had been deserted by most of their allies, they determined to aban- don their fort. Before doing so, however, they placed the torch to all the buildings and a slow match to their magazine, whereupon the whole party took to boats and descended the Ohio. On the 25th of November, 1758, the English took possession of the blackened and defaced ruins of the fortress. With the fall of this post the struggle began between the French and English for the possession of the Ohio valley. The war between these two powers was concluded by the treaty of Fontainebleau in November, 1762. The banner of St. George now floated over what had hitherto been called Fort Du Quesne, but which the unanimous voice of those present named Fort Pitt, in honor of the able and eloquent premier of England, William Pitt. Bancroft in giving an account of this capture uses the following lan- guage: "Long as the Monongahela and Allegheny shall flow to form the Ohio, long as the English tongue shall be the language of freedom in the boundless valleys which their waters traverse, his name shall stand inscribed upon the gateway of the west."
Comparative quiet prevailed along the borders for some years after the treaty to which we have referred was entered into between Col. Bouquet and the Indians. A fixed and determinate boundary line was now desired, both by the English and the Indians.
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY.
In the beginning of the year 1766, a proposition was made by Gov. Franklin, of New Jersey, to the superintendent of Indian affairs, Sir William Johnson, that they should purchase a large body of lands sit- uated south of the Ohio river, with the intention of filling them with English settlers. In this enterprise it was stipulated that Gov. Moore, Gen. Gage, Gov. Franklin and Sir William Johnston, were to be joint and equal partners. The Five Nations, subsequently styled the Six Nations, after the admission of the Tuscarawas into their confederacy, claimed all this territory by right of conquest. The proposition hav- ing been approved by those interested, Gov. Franklin at once com- municated with his father, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who was then in London, to secure his influence and efforts in behalf of the contem- plated enterprise, at the same time requesting him to obtain a grant from the government. But the crown had made a previous grant of the same territory to the Ohio company and, moreover, they appear to have had some misgivings for a season as to the propriety of estab- lishing a colony so far inland. But their scruples were finally over- come and the company was formed under the name of the "Walpole Company," into which the Ohio company was merged about the year 1770, to which the royal sanction was given in the year 1772. The outbreak of the revolution destroyed both of these grants.
In the year 1768, under the authority of the British cabinet, a con- gress was appointed to meet at Fort Stanwix, to be composed of the governors of the several colonies and the Indians composing the Six Nations. In the latter part of September, of this last named year, twenty batteaus arrived at the fort laded with presents for the In- dians, and were accompanied by Gov. Franklin, of New Jersey, George Croghan and others. The day following, Gov. Penn and the commis- sioners of Pennsylvania arrived, the commissioners of Virginia already being on the spot. The Indian traders were also represented at this congress. These traders, during the war known as Pontiac's, had been robbed of their goods, and these representatives possessed a power of attorney authorizing them to seize upon and appropriate lands under a clause contained in the treaty of 1765.
It was the beginning of October before any great number of In- dians assembled, and the delay was causing a scarcity of provisions. Hence messengers were dispatched to hasten the gathering of the Indians. It was not until the latter part of the month that the con- gress was formally opened. A still further delay was occasioned of several days, owing to the indulgence of the Indians in a pow-wow or talk, so that it was not until the first days of November before they were ready to report a boundary line. This line began at the mouth of the Tennessee river, and followed the Ohio and Allegheny to Kit- tanning, thence it continued in a direct line to the nearest bank of the west branch of the Susquehanna river, and followed that stream through the Alleghenies, passing by way of Burnett's hills in the east- ern branch of the Susquehanna and Delaware, into New York, with its northern terminus at the confluence of the Canada and Woods rivers.
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY.
As the Six Nations claimed the title to the territory south of the Ohio river by right of conquest, they were emphatic in their refusal to recognize any boundary whatever, unless their claim was acknowl- edged. Besides the deed to the territory indicated they gave three other deeds at the same time-one to William Trent, representing the Indian traders as before mentioned, for an indemnity lying be- tween the Kanawha and Monongahela rivers, embracing the greater portion of the present state of West Virginia, another to the proprie- tors of Pennsylvania, for the Wyoming tract of land, and a third to George Croghan for previous grants, and about 1,300 acres of land on the Allegheny river. It is on this treaty rests the title by purchase to Kentucky, Western Virginia and Pennsylvania. Permit us here in passing to refer briefly to that wonderful organization known in his- tory as the Confederacy of the Six Nations, an organization which cannot fail to challege the admiration and scrutiny of the antiquarian and student as being one of the most unique and remarkable estab- tablished by an Indian race in North America, if we except the an- cient Aztec dynasty. The original tribes composing this confederacy were the Mokawks, the Onondagas, the Senecas, the Oneidas and Cayugas, and some time subsequent to the formation of the confed- eracy a sixth tribe was admitted, the Tuscarawas. The last, however, were not admitted to membership on an equal footing with the others, but occupied a subordinate position. The Six Nations extended the exercise of their authority and jurisdiction over a large portion of the territory of our country, embracing under their legislative control what are now the states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Ken- tucky, Indiana, Illinois, a portion of Michigan, and a portion of the Canadas. Their dignity and importance was in the order in which we have named the tribes which composed their Nation. Like the tribe of Judah which always occupied the fore front of the Lord's hosts, the Mohawks occupied the first and most prominent place in the council and the field.
At the time of the Saxon occupation of the great Ohio valley, the Six Nations dominated all the other tribes, none dared to withstand them in battle, or if they did, proved unsuccessful in coping with them, much less were they successful in opposing them in the execution of their plans and purposes. Tradition, itself now almost lost in the mists of obscurity, tells of a tribe of superior intelligence, but few in numbers, which was located in a portion of what is now Marshall county, in the state of West Virginia, which by some unfortunate cir- cumstance called down upon their devoted heads the ire of these pow- erful nations, who in the madness of their rage exterminated the last soul of them, razed their village and destroyed every last vestige of them as a tribe so completely, that even their name has been obliter- ated from the memory of mankind. Simultaneously, while one of the tribes of the Nation would attack the red men of New England, another would attack their brothers dwelling on the banks of the Ten- nessee, while another would carry death to the savages dwelling on the shores of the Mississippi. They were swift in execution, indom-
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY.
itable in energy and unyielding in fortitude. They claimed lordship over a territory extending from the Canadas to the distant Missis- sippi, and from the Appalachian chain of mountains to an indefinite line westward. But with the advent of the Saxon race their power gradually diminished, their prestige waned and their glory departed, and to-day the vanished remnants of their race have left behind them only a fast fading memory, which in the whirlpool and excitement of a utilitarian age, we fear, will be wholly submerged, or if it survives at all, will live only in the character of a myth.
The country immediately bordering on the waters of the Upper Ohio was not inhabited by the Indians unless at some exceptional points, and these very few in number; but their tribal towns and villages were for the greater part at a remove of some distance west of that river. As, for instance, the Shawnees dwelt in the territory embraced in the central portion of the present state of Ohio, extending west- ward into the present state of Indiana. The Delawares lived adja- cent to these on the Muskingum and the Cuyahoga, and the two tribes not infrequently united their forces and co-operated together both in war and council. The Ottawas inhabited the country lying to the northwest in the vicinity of the chain of the great lakes. There were a number of other tribes, not quite so prominent as the foregoing, such as the Chippewas, Wyandots, Pottowatomies and Miamis and in the same district of country others of still less note, all of whom con- tributed more or less to the disturbance and annoyance of the first settlers on the Ohio and its tributary streams. The Six Nations were located in the northeast along the shores of the Hudson and St. Law- rence rivers. That portion of western Virginia known as the Pan- handle was never the abode of the Indians. In their raids to the Monongahela and Cheat rivers to the eastward their trail was through this portion of the present state of West Virginia. Moreover, West Virginia was their hunting ground-a favorite resort where the choicest game was found in abundance-the elk, deer, bear, wild turkey and smaller specimens.
It is no wonder that they looked with a jealous eye upon the en- croachments of the whites upon this portion of their domain and that they resented it by attempting to drive the aggressors away. Nor was the emigration which in 1769-70 began to set in, calculated to lessen their apprehensions, as it had now spread to the shores of the Ohio river. Hence, a feeling of restlessness and feverish uneasiness began to be manifested which increased in intensity during the suc- ceeding years, and finally having gathered head it burst forth in its fiercest fury, carrying with it death, destruction and desolation.
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY.
CHAPTER II.
THE ALARM ON THE BORDERS - THE KILLING OF TWO INDIANS BY THE WHITES - ATTACK UPON THE INDIANS AT CAPTINA -THE AFFAIR AT YELLOW CREEK -LOGAN ON THE WAR-PATH - LETTER OF EBENEZER ZANE - EXPEDITION COMMANDED BY COL. ANGUS MC DONALD - DUN- MORE'S CAMPAIGN - BATTLE AT POINT PLEASANT - DUNMORE ENTERS INTO A TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.
URING the early part of the year 1774 the tranquility which had prevailed along the borders in the interval be- tween this year and the year 1764, by virtue of the treaty entered into between the Shawnees and the Delawares and Col. Bouquet was now interrupted. Prior to the year 1774 numbers of persons were induced to settle and to seek homes in these western wilds upon and contiguous to the waters of the Ohio, where lands were cheap and easily ac- quired, many of which latter were held by no other title than that of a "tomahawk right." The peace and quiet which prevailed during the period mentioned had encouraged a great number of land jobbers in addition to the permanent inhabitants to flock into the new settlements, who took up large quantities of land amounting in the aggregate to many thousands of acres. The movements of these land jobbers in taking up and appropriating such large quantities of the best lands aroused in the settlers a desire to go and do likewise and the spirit of land speculation speedily became rife among them. This aroused the jealousy of the neighboring tribes which was intensified by the set- tlement and appropriation of land by the whites on the Virginia side of the river below the mouth of the Scioto which the Shawnees claimed as belonging to the Indians, the title to which, as they insisted, had never been parted with by them.
In the early spring of this year Col. Ebenezer Zane in company with others had left Wheeling and descended the river to the mouth of Sandy for the purpose of selecting and taking up land. It was while thus engaged that they received information that hostile acts were being committed against the settlers by the Indians in the way of thieving, plundering and robbing and that the lives of jobbers and settlers alike were in imminent peril, and advising them to return at once. This induced the immediate return of Col. Zane and his party as well as others absent on the same errand. Upon their arrival at Wheeling they were regaled with exaggerated stories concerning the hostile attitude of the Indians, expressing their fears that they would soon gather in force and fall upon and slaughter them.
In the excitement which prevailed conflicting views were enter- tained and urged. Some proposed to anticipate them in their move-
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY.
ments and at once inaugurate measures to surprise and attack them, thinking it probable that such prompt action upon the part of the whites would strike terror to their foes and paralyze their efforts. But others again, and Col. Zane among them, counselled modera- tion and prudence, and wisely sought to restrain the more precipitate. In the midst of the agitation which prevailed it was reported that a canoe containing two Indians was on the river a short distance above the settlement, and was approaching. This information served to inflame the indignant passions of the settlers, or at least that portion of them who harbored in their breasts resentment and revenge, and it was proposed to intercept them. Col. Zane, the proprietor of the settlement, strenuously objected to any overt act of hostility on the part of the whites, giving as a reason that the killing of these Indians would result in a general war, and that in itself it would be an atrocious act and nothing less than criminal murder, which would forever disgrace the names and memories of the perpetrators. But these humane and peaceful counsels were unheeded. His advice, counsels and arguments all proved to be in vain. In opposition to all efforts put forth to restrain them a party set out, whose thirst for blood could only be quenched by the slaughter of their intended vic- tims. Upon their return within a few hours subsequent to their depart- ure, upon inquiry made of them as to what had become of the Indians, at first their replies were evasive and unsatisfactory. They finally stated that the Indians had " fallen overboard." Their cool indiffer- ence, and especially the significance of their statement that the warriors had fallen overboard, produced the conviction in the minds of their hearers that the warriors had been wantonly murdered, and this con- viction was fully confirmed when the canoe was afterward found which was splotched with blood and pierced with numerous bullets. The result was as predicted -the tribes at once entered upon the war-path to avenge this as well as other acts of wanton provocation. The wise and discreet among the settlers condemned the act at the time in unmeasured terms and characterized it very properly as a wanton outrage and a gross and unjustifiable deed.
No doubt these manifestations of disapproval upon the part of their acquaintances and neighbors instead of mollifying the tempers and dispositions of those who had been engaged in this affair, served only to exasperate them; for either on the evening of the same day or the day following (it is not clear which), the same party received intelligence that some warriors were encamped at the mouth of Cap- tina creek on the Ohio side of the river, about sixteen miles below Wheeling, upon whom an attack was made which resulted in the killing of one or two of the Indians. In this affair one of the whites was severely wounded, but was safely brought away by his comrades. Much confusion prevails as to the precise dates on which these occur- rences transpired, some historians fixing the time in the latter part of April, and others again in the latter part of May; but the weight of evidence seems to preponderate in favor of the latter part of April. However, this does not affect the reality of the events, and is more a
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY.
matter of idle curiosity than substance, as there is nothing in regard to which the human memory is more treacherous than the correct- ness of dates.
About the time of the happening of this affair at Captina, occurred the massacre (for by that name only can it be justly described), at the mouth of Yellow creek, a stream emptying into the Ohio river on the Ohio side about forty-two miles above Wheeling. A nervous feeling of dread existed among the settlers along the whole line of the frontier of that subtle and indefinable character which though felt cannot be fully explained. Their apprehensions led them to realize that they were standing on the verge of a crater which was liable, without a moment's notice, to burst forth in volcanic eruption. Such appears to have been the state of public feeling when the mur- derous assault and consequent destruction of life took place at Yellow creek, which was not only one of the most inexcusable, but one of the most unjustifiable acts ever perpetrated by the whites upon a deceived and unsuspecting foe, and for which they eventually suffered the direst vengeance.
It appears that in the latter part of April, 1774, a large body of In- dians were encamped just above the mouth of Yellow creek, on both sides of that stream. A person by the name of Daniel Baker, who had been in the habit of selling "fire water" to the Indians, resided on the Virginia side of the river. Under the pretext of protecting Baker and his family, one 'Daniel Greathouse, in command of a force of some thirty men, went to hisrelief. It is said that upon arriving in the vicinity of Baker's house he placed his men in ambush and crossing the river, under pretence of making a friendly visit, entered the In- dian encampment with a view really to ascertain their strength and position, intending, if his force was sufficient for the purpose, to cross to their side and attack them. The Indians, deceived by his appar- ent frankness and friendship, and not for a moment suspecting his motives, welcomed him into their midst and received him in the same spirit in which he professed to be influenced. He spent some time with them, mingling freely among them, but at the same time taking note of their numbers, position, etc. Having effected his purpose he recrossed the river and returned to his command, and reported that their strength and the weakness of his command precluded the idea of openly attacking them, and he therefore proposed to effect by stratagem what he could not otherwise accomplish. It was therefore arranged between Baker and himself, that the former should furnish free to such Indians as might cross the river as much "fire water " as they could drink, and thereby get as many of them drunk as he pos- sibly could. In this proposition it is said that Baker acquiesced and it was not long before he had the opportunity of carrying out his under- taking, as several Indians came over and were supplied with drink to such an extent that they became hopelessly intoxicated, except one - Logan's brother - but he, with the others, was shot down like so many brutes. It is however a redeeming trait in the characters of a large majority of those who were members of this expedition that they
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