History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 11

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 11

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Following in the track of the fugitive Wendats, the allied tribes pushed their conquests westward. In 1639 they destroyed a town of the Hurons, and in 1642 cut off all communication between that tribe and the French. They renewed the war in 1646, boldly attacked the French and their allies, slew the great Montag- nais chief, Piskaret, and fell with all their force upon the Hurons. That tribe abandoned its smaller towns and fortified the larger ones, but its strongholds were carried by storm. Part of the discomfited Hurons fled down the Ottawa to seek French protection, and were pursued to the very suburbs of Quebec. Another Huron division, the Ahrendas, surrendered and were incorporated with the Senecas. Others took refuge on the Manitoulin Islands, but were pursued thither and obliged to fly to the Chippewas, of Lake Superior. They were saved from the fierce clutches of their enemies only by a stubborn battle fought near the promon- tory above the Sault Ste. Marie, now known as Point Iroquois. The fugitives thus rescued were the Tiontates of the Hurons After going to the country of the Chippewas they encountered and were defeated by the Sioux. Returning toward their old haunts, they halted on the island of Mackinac, gathered around them the remnants of their tribe, and eventually descended to Detroit where, by their sagacity and valor they succeeded in restoring the waning fortunes of the Wen- dats, and regaining their ascendancy over the surrounding Algonquins. They con- tinued to participate in the wars of the period, which, according to their tradition, culminated in a desperate battle, fought in canoes on Lake Erie, in which all or nearly all the warriors engaged on both sides perished.

The tide of Iroquois conquest by no means terminated with the dispersion of the Hurons. The allied tribes next drove the Algonquins from the Ottawa, and in 1651 nearly annihilated the Attikamegnes. In the same year they attacked the French settlement at Three Rivers, and slew its governor. They fell upon the Neutral Nation, west of Niagara, and erushed it. Then they made peace with the Freneb and announced at Quebec that they were going to make war on the Eries who already held captive their great chief Anneneraos. In August, 1654. Father Simon Le Moine, as an ambassador of the French governor, presented to them fonr hatchets as symbols of good wishes for this new adventure. By this present, Le Moine says, he " wiped away the tears " of all the young warriors for the death of their captive leader. The decisive struggle followed soon, 'and was soon over.

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

In the year 1655 the Iroquois, using their canoes as scaling ladders, stormed and carried the Erie strongholds, fell like tigers upon their defenders, and butchered them without mercy.28 The Eries seem to have been utterly dispersed, and were scarcely more heard of in history. The Shawnees, probable next neighbors of the Eries, were driven south and scattered to the winds. Having cleared Ohio of its inhabitants the Five Nations regarded and kept it as a hunting ground.

Turning eastward, they next crushed the Tiogas, Abenakis and Susqnehan- nas, placed half of Long Island under tribute, and asserted their supremacy ou Massachusetts Bay. Then they resumed their career of western conquest. A map attached to Baron La Hontan's Voyages and Adventures in North America be- tween 1683 and 1694 has a line drawn across the country south of Lake Erie, ap- parently about thirty miles from the lake, representing " ye way that ye Illinese march through a vast tract of ground to make war against ye Iroquese : The same being ye Passage of ye Iroquese in their incursions upon ye other Savages, as far as the river Missisipi." The annals of the Jesuit Missionaries say the victorious Iroquois attacked the Chicktaghicks, or Illinois and Miamis, encampcd together on the Maumee in 1680, killed thirty and captured three hundred prisoners. But the defeated clans rallied, ambuscaded the retiring victors and retook their prisoners.

The extent of these later conquests of the Iroquois has been much disputed, one side being represented by Governor De Witt Clinton and the colonial histo- rian Colden, the other by President William H. Harrison. The first, says Bald- win, rely too much on the Iroquois accounts, the other too much on the traditions of the western Indians, but "it seems to be well settled that the Iroquis continued to occupy a considerable portion of Ohio at will.''29 Colden's history 30 maintains that they had subdued the Illinois in 1685, and is full of their wars with the Miamis. A French memoir of 1787 says they bad attacked the Miamis and Illinois at Fort St. Louis, founded by La Salle near the Mississippi, had there encountered La Salle himself, had captured many prisoners, and had threatened the extermina- tion of the tribes of that region. They had ranged over the whole of Ohio, and scoured the country south and west of it. Ofthe Delawares, whose westward move- ment had brought them into southeastern Ohio, they had not only made subjects but " women." 31 About the year 1700 " Messieurs les Iroquois," as La Hontan calls them, were at the climax of their power. Their conquests were vaguely re- tained, and their dominion was loose and flexible, but such as it was it extended over New York, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the northern and western portions of Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Northern Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, part of New England and a large part of Upper Can- ada.32 In Ohio they held not only admitted sovereignty, but actual legal oc- cupancy extending over most of the territory which now constitutes the State. 33 Both the Shawnees and the Delawares were their tenants at will.

The cosmogony of the Iroquois resembled closely that of the Hurons. They worshiped Agreskoi, whom they honored with offerings of flesh and tobacco, and even with human sacrifice. They believed in spirits, and were particularly reverent to the presiding genii of maize, pumpkins and beans. The French missionaries succeeded in persuading them, or part of them, to worship God, whom the converts recognized under the name of Hawenniio, meaning " He is master." They buried

THE' IROQUOIS AND ALGONQUINS.

their dead temporarily, and every tenth year collected the remains in one long grave which they lined with furs, and variously decorated. Their captives taken in war were either adopted or tortured and burned at the stake. Their dress was mainly a breechclout for men and a short petticoat for women. Both sexes wore moceasins and leggings. Their huts were roofed with bark laid over an arborlike frame of poles.

The distribution of tribal bodies and fragments, in and outside of Ohio, caused by the whirlwind of Iroquois conquest, was somewhat promiscuous. A map pre- pared by Colonel Charles Whittlesey, and published in 1872,44 makes the following apportionment of the Indian occupation of the State from 1754 to 1780: To the Iroquois, and tribes of their adoption, Northeastern Ohio extending as far south as Wheeling Creek, and including the valleys of the Tuscarawas and Cuyahoga ; to the Wyandots and Ottawas the valleys of the affluents of Lake Erie west of the Cuyahoga as far as to the counties of Fulton and Henry ; to the Delawares the valley of the Muskingum; to the Shawnees the Scioto and its tributaries, including territory eastward to Raccoon Creek and westward to the counties of Brown and Highland ; and to the Miamis the western part of the State, including the valleys of the two Miamis and the Upper Maumee.

The Ohio Iroquois were mostly Seneeas who settled in the northern and eastern portions of the State. They dwelt on friendly terms with their neighbors and dependents, the Shawnees and Delawares, with whom they also intermarried. Those in Eastern Ohio were called Mingoes, a Pennsylvania corruption of the term Mengwe applied to the Iroquois nations by the Delawares. Among them were probably some portions of the conquered Andastes. The Cuyahoga River is supposed to have derived its name from a band of ('ayugas settled in that vicinity. Another portion of the Cayuga tribe emigrated to Sandusky.

In 1831 the Senecas sold their Ohio lands and removed to the Indian Terri - tory. Originally they were the largest and most westerly of the Iroquois nations. One of their principal chiefs was Red Jacket, of the Wolf tribe, whose original Indian name was Otetiani, meaning " always ready." He died in 1830. The most illustrious chief of the Mingoes was Tahgahjute, born a Cayuga, on the shores of the Susquehanna, and commonly known as Logan, of whom more will be said in a sub- sequent chapter.

The Miamis probably came to Ohio within the historical period. Together with their kindred the Illinois, they maintained a vigorous war with the Iroquois by whom, some writers elaim," they were not worsted. They were known to the Five Nations as Twightwees. Led by their noted chief Mishekoneqnah, or Little Turtle, they defeated Colonel Hardin's forces twice in October, 1790, and ronted General St. Clair's army a year later. In 1834-5 they were removed to a Govern- ment reservation in Kansas.

Drifting westward in their war with the Cherokees, the Delawares arrived in Ohio about the year 1700 and settled on the Muskingum In 1750 Gist found several of their villages on the east bank of the Scioto."6 one of them, perhaps, be- ing that which gave its name to the present city of Delaware. In 1741 the Mora- vian missionaries began to labor among them in Pennsylvania, making numerous converts. Later a general emigration took place, and by 1768 the tribe had ceased to exist east of the Alleghauies. In 1772 the Moravian Delawares formed a settle-

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

ment at Gnadenhütten-" Tents of Grace"- now in Tuscarawas County, where ninety of them were cruelly butchered by the whites in 1782. on alleged but groundless suspicion of having been concerned in certain ontrages in Pennsylvania. There is no darker blood-stain in the Ohio wilderness than this. By treaties of 1785-89 lands were reserved for the Delawares between the Cuyahoga and the Miami, and for the Christians of the tribe on the Muskingum, but causes of dis- content arose which induced the beneficiaries of these grants to transfer their set- tlements to Canada, on lands granted by the English government. In 1808 a few members of this tribe remained on the Muskingum, and a small band was settled on the Whitewoman Creek, near Sandusky. Their Canada settlement at Fairfield, on the Thames, was destroyed by the Americans in 1814. In 1818 they ceded all their lands to the United States and removed to Missouri, leaving only a small band in Ohio.

The Ottawas, although intimately associated with the Wyandots, appear to have been in most respects their opposites. Mr. Shea speaks of them as " great cowards." After their overthrow by the Hurons they fled to the islands at the month of Green Bay, and thence to the Sioux country beyond the Mississippi. Driven back eastward by the Sioux in 1660, they halted at Mackinac, where they became involved again with the Iroquois. After the settlement of Detroit part of them migrated to that vicinity, while another part, remaining behind at Mackinac, crossed to Arbre Croche. After 1672 they were in constant companionship with the Wyandots, by whom they were persuaded in 1747 to settle on the lower Man- mee. They took part in the last struggle of the French for Canada, and when it ended disastrously to their allies, their bold chief Pontiac, refusing to yield, organized.a supreme effort by all the western tribes to drive out the English. He stealthily laid his plans for a general massacre of the English garrisons and settle- ments in May, 1763. reserving for himself the attack upon Detroit. His intentions becoming known in time to prevent the surprise of the post, he placed it under siege and neglected no expedient known to savage warfare for its reduction. To obtain subsistence for his warriors he issued promissory notes written on birch bark and signed with the figure of an otter. All these notes were redeemed. The siege was raised after several months, and most of the tribes ceased their hos- tilities, but Pontiac remained unsubdued. Withdrawing to the Illinois country he instigated fresh hostilities and beld out for a time, but his followers dropped away from him, and he was obliged to submit, in 1766, to English rule. He was finally slain, while intoxicated, by an Illinois Indian at Cahokia, opposite St. Louis.

In 1836 the Ottawas at Maumee exchanged 49,000 acres of land for 36,000 on the Osage, whither two hundred of them removed while about the same number remained in Ohio. The Michigan branch of the tribe continued its settlements there, but accepted lands in severalty in lieu of reservations. The Canadian Otta- was on the Walpole, Christian and Manitoulin Islands have fused with their Indian neighbors of other tribes, and are generally. self supporting and prosperous.

The Shawnees are clustered, on the ancient maps, along the Scioto from its mouth northward to the Pickaway Plains, and also northeastwardly through the present counties of Clark, Champaign and Logan. Their Ohio settlements seem to have been resumed, after the Iroquois dispersion, by a discontented portion of

THE IROQUOIS AND ALGONQUINS.

the tribe which emigrated from Virginia about the year 1730. In January, 1751, Christopher Gist, a Virginia surveyor sent out to explore the Ohio woods, arrived as he says in his journal at a Shawnee town, " situated on both sides of the Ohio, just below the mouth of Scioto Creek, and containing about three hundred men. There were about forty houses on the south side of the river and about a hundred on the north side, with a kind of state house about ninety feet long, with a tight cover of bark, in which councils were held."38 At the time of Bouquet's expedition in 1764 the Shawnees had upon the Scioto about five hundred warriors. Pickaway County, which takes its name from their Piqua tribe, contained their most impor- tant villages, the largest of which, said to have been the residence of the Mingo Logan, was Old Chillicothe, now Westfall. Cornstalk, one of their famous chiefs, and his sister, known as the Grenadier Squaw, gave their names to two others. Another village, which occupied the present site of Frankfort in Ross County, is called Old Chillicothe, or Oldtown, by Squier and Davis. According to these writers a famous Shawnee village was situated there, grouped around one of the interesting works of the Mound Builders. In its old Indian buryingground numer- ous relies deposited with the dead have been found. Another Shawnee village was located about three miles north of Xenia,39 and doubtless bands of these restless wanderers sojourned for a time in many different parts of the State. Their multi- plied migrations and settlements have bewildered antiquarian research. Their most famous chief was Tecumseh, born near the present city of Springfield about 1768, and killed in Harrison's battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813. In 1831 the Ohio Shawnees ceded their lands to the United States and were removed to a Govern- ment reservation in Kansas, where, in 1854. the tribe numbered nine hundred.

The Wyandots, after having rallied from the Iroquois dispersion, occupied the country north and west of Detroit, and ranged southward through the wilderness to the Ohio and beyond. In 1706 they penetrated to the Shawnees and Choctaws on these excursions. and encountered detachments of Cherokees then roving north- ward. One of these Cherokee bands joined them later in their settlements at San- dusky. In 1732 the Wyandots claimed the entire area of this State as their hunt- ing ground, and warned the Shawnees to shift their settlements south of the Ohio. Gradually the tribe centered at Sandusky prior to the colonial War of Inde- pendence.

The territory comprised within the present limits of Franklin County was visited and temporarily occupied by parties of Delawares, Mingoes, Shawnees and other tribes, but the Indians who held it in predominant possession during the historical period were Wyandots. Theirs were the cornfields planted in the meadow openings where Franklinton was built, and theirs the Indian village whose smoking lodges stood in the forest where now stands the city of Columbus. The Iroquois, apparently reconciled at last with their old antagonists, were also here, at least three of their villages being located within the present boundaries of the county.

The following anecdote of local occurrence, deemed to be illustrative of the character of the Ohio Wyandots, has been narrated :40

A party surveying on the Scioto above the site of Columbus, in 1797, had been reduced to three scanty meals for four days. They came to the camp of a Wyandot Indian, with his family, and he gave them all the provisions he had, which comprised only two rabbits and

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

a small piece of venison. This Wyandot's father had been murdered by the whites in the time of peace ; the father of one of the surveyors had been killed by the Indians in time of war.

The pathetic story of the murder of the Wyandot chief known as Leatherlips at his dwelling-place in the northern part of Franklin County has gained currency as authentic history. The order for this murder is said to have emanated direct from Tecumseh and his prophet brother at Tippecanoe and to have been executed by their emissaries. General Harrison entertained this opinion," which is sup- ported by one of Heckewelder's correspondents in his historyof the Indian Nations The following account of the tragedy is given in the autobiography of Rev. J. B. Finley, who was at the time a missionary among the Wyandot Indians :

During the summer of 1810, an event occurred, on the circuit adjoining the one which I traveled, of a tragical and melancholy character ; and, as I propose, in connection with my own biography, to furnish the reader with a cotemporaneous history of the times in which I lived, I will relate the circumstances connected with that event.

On the evening of the first day of June, six Wyandot warriors went to the house of Mr. Benjamin Sells, on the Scioto River, about twelve miles above the spot where now stands the City of Columbus. They were equipped in the most warlike manner, and exhibited, during their stay, an unusual degree of agitation.

Having ascertained that an old Wyandot chief, for whom they had been making diligent inquiry, was then encamped, at a distance of about two miles further np, on the west bank of the river, they expressed a determination to put him to death, and immediately went off in the direction of his lodge. These facts were communicated early on the ensuing morning to Mr. John Sells, who now resides in the village of Dublin, on the Scioto, about two miles from the place where the doomed Wyandot met his fate. Mr. Sells immediately proceeded up the river on horseback in quest of the Indians. He soon arrived at the lodge, which he found situated in a grove of sugar trees close to the bank of the river. The six warriors were seated in consultation at the distance of a few rods from the lodge. The old chief was with them, evidently in the character of a prisoner. His arms were confined by a small cord, but he sat with them without any manifestation of uneasiness. A few of the neighbor- ing white men were likewise there," and a gloomy looking Indian, who had been the com- panion of the chief, but now kept entirely aloof, sitting sullenly in the camp. Mr. Sells approached the Indians and found them earnestly engaged in debate.

A charge of " witchcraft " had been made at a former time against the chief by some of his captors, whose friends had been destroyed, as they believed, by means of his evil powers. This crime, according to immemorial usage of the tribe, involved forfeiture of life. The chances of a hunter's life had brought the old man to his present location, and his pursuers had sought him out in order that they might execute upon him the sentence of their law.

The council was of two or three hours' duration. The accusing party spoke alternately, with much ceremony, but with evident bitterness of feeling. The prisoner, in his replies, was eloquent, though dispassionate. Occasionally a smile of scorn would appear for an instant on his countenance. At the close of the consultation it was ascertained that they had reaffirmed the sentence of death which had before been passed upon the chief. Inquiry having been made by some of the white men, with reference to their arrangements, the cap- tain of the six warriors pointed to the sun and signified to them that the execution would take place at one o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Sells went to the captain and asked him what the chief had done. "Very bad Indian," he replied, " make good Indian sick - make horse sick - make die - very bad chief."

Mr. Sells then made an effort to persuade his white friends to rescue the victim of super- stition from his impending fate, but to no purpose. They were then in a frontier situation, entirely open to the incursions of the northern tribes. and were, consequently, unwilling to subject themselves to the displeasure of their savage visitors by any interference with their

THE . IROQUOIS AND ALGONQUINS.

operations. He then proposed to release the chief by purchase, offering to the captain for that purpose a fine horse of the value of three hundred dollars. " Let me see him," said the Indian. The horse was accordingly brought forward and closely examined, and so much were they staggered by this proposition that they again repaired to their place of consulta- tion, and remained in council a considerable length of time before it was finally rejected.

The conference was again terminated, and five of the Indians began to amuse them- selves with running, jumping, and other athletic exercises. The captain took no part with them. When again inquired of as to the time of execution he pointed to the sun, as before, and indicated the honr of four. The prisoner then walked slowly to his camp. partook of a dinner of jerked venison, washed and arrayed himself in his best apparel, and afterward painted his face. His dress was very rich, his hair gray, and his whole appearance graceful and commanding. At his request the whole company drew around him at the lodge. He had observed the exertions made by Mr. Sells in his behalf, and now presented to him a written paper, with a request that it might be read to the company. It was a recommendation, signed by Governor Hull, and in compliance with the request of the prisoner, it was fixed and left upon the side of a large tree a short distance from the wigwam.

The hour of exeention being close at hand, the chief shook hands in silence with the surrounding spectators. On coming to Mr. Sells, he appeared much moved, grasped his hand warmly, spoke for a few minutes in the Wyandot language, and pointed to the heavens He then turned from the wigwam, and, with a voice of surpassing strength and melody, commenced the chant of the death song. He was followed closely by the Wyandot warriors, all timing with their slow and measured march the music of his wild and melancholy dirge. The white men were all likewise silent followers in that strange procession. At the distance of seventy or eighty yards from the camp they came to a shallow grave, which, unknown to the white men, had been previously prepared by the Indians. Here the old man kneeled down and in an elevated bnt solemn tone of voice addressed his prayer to the Great Spirit. As soon as he had finished, the captain of the Indians kneeled beside him and prayed in a similar manner. Their prayers, of course, were spoken in the Wyandot tongue. When they arose, the captain was again accosted by Mr. Sells, who insisted that, if they were inflexible in the determination to shed blood, they should at least remove their victim beyond the limits of the white settlement. "No!" said he, very sternly and with evident displeasure. . . .

Finding all interference futile, Mr. Sells was at length compelled, reluctantly, to abandon the old man to his fate. After a few moments delay he again sank down upon his knees and prayed as he had done before. When he had ceased praying he still continued in a kneeling position. All the rifles belonging to the party had been left at the wigwam. There was not a weapon of any kind to be seen at the place of execution, and the spectators were consequently unable to form any conjecture as to the mode of procedure which the execu- tioners had determined on for the fulfillment of their purpose. Suddenly one of the war- riors drew from beneath the skirts of his capote a keen, bright tomahawk, walked rapidly up behind the chieftain, brandished the weapon on high for a single moment, and then struck with his whole strength. The blow descended directly upon the crown of the head. and the victim immediately fell prostrate. After he had lain awhile in the agonies of death the Indian captain directed the attention of the white men to the drops of sweat which were gathering upon his neck and face, remarking with much apparent exultation that it was conclusive proof of the sufferer's guilt. Again the executioner advanced, and with the same weapon inflicted two or three additional and heavy blows. As soon as life was entirely extinct the body was hastily buried and with all its apparel and decorations and the assem- blage dispersed. The Wyandots returned immediately to their hunting grounds and the white men to their homes. . . . The Wyandot Nation to whom the old chief belonged never afterward were reconciled to the tribe that killed him.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 11

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1202

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202