USA > Ohio > History of the state of Ohio > Part 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
As soon as additional canoes could be provided, the party ascended the Cuyahoga to " an old town about one hundred and forty miles distant from Pittsburgh, which had been for- saken by the Ottawas." Here the forest, which had been unbroken from the mouth of the river, was cleared, and the recent growth was easily removed, allowing them to plant corn. Their encampment was on an elevated plain east of the river, about twelve miles from its mouth, and received
401
SETTLEMENT AT PILGERRUH.
the name of Pilgerruh, or Pilgrim's Rest.6 "Here," as Loskiel narrates, "they regulated their daily worship in the usual manner, reëstablished the statutes of the congregation, and God blessed their labors. August the 13th, they partook of the Lord's Supper for the first time on this spot, which to them was the most important and blessed of all festivals.
"In externals, God granted them his gracious assistance. Brother Zeisberger, having given information of the arrival of the Indian congregation at the Cuyahoga creek to the governor of Pittsburgh, and brother Shebosch having been at that place to endeavor to procure provisions, Messrs. Duncan & Wilson were so kind as to provide a sufficient supply, trusting them for a great part of the payment. Con- gress likewise ordered a quantity of Indian corn and blankets to be given them.7 They also found means to purchase several necessary articles from traders passing through on their way from Pittsburgh to Detroit, and as they had an opportunity of going by water to Sandusky and Petquotting, they easily procured Indian corn from those places. The two hundred dollars which they received for their houses and fields on the river Huron, enabled them to make their pay- ments good. In hunting deer, bears, and moose-deer, they were remarkably successful. The congregation at Bethlehem had charitably collected a considerable quantity of different articles to supply the necessities of the Christian Indians ; but these having been detained on the road, did not arrive at Pilgerruh till August, 1786, when they were equally divided
6) "Within the present limits of Independence, Cuyahoga county."- Howe's Hist. Coll., 120.
7) Lieut. Col. Harmar, then in command at Fort McIntosh, was directed to furnish the Christian Indians with five hundred bushels of Indian corn, one hundred blankets and other necessaries. The supplies were not deliv- ered, however .- Americun State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. ii., p. 373. 17*
402
HISTORY OF OHIO.
among all ; the children even received their share, and the whole congregation expressed, in the most lively terms, their sincere acknowledgments to their kind benefactors. Salt was not so easily procured here as on the river Huron, the salt springs being a great way off."
The summer and winter passed without material change in the situation and prospects of the little community. In October, 1786, John Heckewelder returned to Bethlehem, leaving David Zeisberger and William Edwards in charge of the congregation ; and on the 10th of November, "a new and spacious chapel was consecrated : but the Indians only furnished themselves with frail huts, hoping soon to reach the Muskingum. In this they were destined to disappointment. Every day added to the exposure and danger which would attend a removal thither ; and towards the close of the year 1786, Captain Pipe sent a message, urging them to remove westward to the Petquotting or Huron River. Another message from the Delawares, was a pressing invitation to Sandusky. Thus a dilemma was presented to the leaders of the congregation. While their own inclination was decidedly in favor of a speedy occupation of their former seats on the Muskingum, they were advised by Gen. Richard Butler, the Indian Agent of the United States, to remain for the present on the Cuyahoga, and the Indians insisted on their removal to localities still more remote. The dispositions and final action of the missionaries, with the attending circumstances, are thus stated by Loskiel :
" Accustomed to venture their lives in the service of the Lord, they were unconcerned as to their own safety, and if that alone had been the point in question, they would not have hesitated a moment to return to the Muskingum : but they durst not bring the congregation committed to their care,
403
THE MORAVIANS LEAVE PILGERRUII.
into so dreadful and dangerous a situation. They rather thought it their duty to sacrifice every other consideration to the welfare and safety of their flock, and therefore, after mature deliberation, resolved to propose to them, that they should give up all thoughts of returning to the Muskingum for the present, but at the same time not remain on the Cuyahoga, but rather seek to find some spot between that river and Petquotting, where they might procure a peaceable and safe retreat. This proposal was solemnly accepted, first by the Indian assistants, and then by the whole congregation. Soon after this, the following message arrived from a Dela- ware chief to Brother Zeisberger: 'Grandfather ! having heard that you propose to live on the Muskingum, I would advise you not to go thither this spring. I cannot yet tell you my reason ; nor can I say whether we shall have war or peace, but so much I can say, that it is not yet time. Do not think that I wish to oppose your preaching the word of God to the Indians. I am glad that you do this; but I advise you for your good. Go not to the Muskingum.'8 This message tended to confirm the people in the above mentioned resolution, which was undoubtedly the most prudent at the time; and in the beginning of April, some Indian brethren set out, with a view to seek a place for a new settlement, and found one much to their mind.
" Meanwhile the Indian congregation of Pilgerruh, cele- brated Lent and Easter in a blessed manner. The public reading of the history of our Lord's passion, was attended with a remarkable impression on the hearts of all present. The congregation could not sufficiently express their desire to hear more of it, and it appeared as if they now heard this great and glorious word for the first time.
8) No one was more likely to send such a message than the noble-hearted Bockengehelas.
404
HISTORY OF OHIO.
"April 19th, 1787, the Christian Indians closed their residence at Pilgerruh, by offering up solemn prayer and praise in their chapels, which they had used but a short time. They thanked the Lord for all the internal and external blessings he had conferred upon them in this place, and then set out in two parties, one by land, led by Brother Zeisberger, and the other by water, with Brother Edwards. The latter were obliged to cross over a considerable part of Lake Erie. But before they had left the Cayahaga creek, a dreadful storm arose, the wind blowing from the lake. The waves beat with such violence against the rocks described above, that the earth seemed to tremble with the sound. The trav- elers thanked God that they were yet in safety in the creek, and being in want of provisions, spent the time in fishing. One night they fished with torches, and pierced above three hundred large fish of a good flavor, resembling pikes, and weighing from three to five pounds, part of which they roasted and ate, and dried the rest for provisions on the voyage. April 24th, the travelers by land, and the day following those who went by water, arrived at the place fixed upon for their future abode. It appeared like a fruitful orchard, several wild apple and plum trees growing here and there. They had never settled upon so good and fertile a spot of ground. The camp was formed about a league from the lake, which in these parts abounded with fish. Wild potatoes, an article of food much esteemed by the Indians, grew here plentifully. The brethren rejoiced at the thoughts of establishing a regu- lar settlement in so pleasant a country, especially as it was not frequented by any of those savages who had hitherto proved such troublesome neighbors.9
"But their joy was of short duration. April 27th, a
9) This was the fertile valley of the Black River in Lorain county.
405
SETTLEMENT AT NEW SALEM.
Delaware Captain arrived in the camp, and informed them that they should not remain in this place but live with them at Sandusky, adding, that they should consider it a matter positively determined, and not first deliberate upon it. He added, as usual, the most solemn declarations of protection and safety. The Captain assured them likewise, that the place appointed for their habitation was not in the vicinity of any heathen towns, but ten miles distant from the nearest. To the missionary, David Zeisberger, he had brought the following particular message. 'Hear, my friend, you are my grandfather. I am not ignorant of your having been formally adopted by our chiefs as a member of our nation. No one shall hurt you, and you need not have any scruples about coming to live at Sandusky.' He then delivered a string of wampum. Disagreeable as this message was to the Christian Indians, and though they represented to the Captain the malice, deceit and treachery of the Delaware Chiefs, which they had painfully experienced for these six or seven years past: yet after many serious consultations, they and the missionaries could not but resolve to submit to the will of the chiefs, lest they should bring new troubles and persecutions upon the mission. Their answer was therefore in the affirmative. Brother Zeisberger answered likewise the particular message sent to him to the same effect, yet, with this express condition, that all the other white brethren should have the same privileges granted them, and his suc- cessor in office enjoy the same rights.
"Nothing appeared in this affair so dreadful to the mis- sionaries as the prospect of being again subject to heathen rule and government. Yet they could not deny that it was more agrecable to their peculiar calling to live in the midst of those heathen, to whom they were to preach the gospel,
406
HISTORY OF OHIO.
and therefore write: 'We must be satisfied to live in the very nest of Satan, for it appears indeed, as if every savage Indian was possessed by a number of evil spirits, with whom we must be at war.'"'
"In the beginning of May, they with great joy welcomed two assistants in the work of the mission, sent by the con- gregation at Bethlehem, Michael Young and John Weygand, and soon after left a country so pleasing in every respect, with great regret, proceeding partly by water on Lake Erie, partly by land along its banks to Petquotting, where they encamped about a mile from the lake. Here they found that the greatest part of the message brought by the above men- tioned Captain from the Delaware chiefs was fallacious; for the place fixed upon for their residence was not above two miles from the villages of the savages. Our Indians therefore, and the missionaries, resolved not to go any far- ther for the present, lest they should be entangled in some snare, but to settle near Petquotting, and even to maintain their situation in opposition to the will of the Delaware chiefs. They then sought and found an uninhabited place situated on a river called also Huron, which empties itself into the lake at Petquotting, whither they all went in canoes on the 11th of May, and before night a small village of bark huts was erected. Hence they sent deputies to the chiefs to inform them of their resolution and their reasons for it, and obtained leave to stay at least one year in that place without molestation. They hoped also that during that period, circumstances might alter in their favor, and that they might perhaps be permitted to continue there longer.
"They therefore made plantations on the west bank of the river, and chose the east, which was high land, for their
407
STATION AT NEW SALEM.
dwellings. This place was called New Salem.10 Here they celebrated Ascension Day and Whitsuntide in the usual manner, meeting in the open air, and on the sixth of June, finished and consecrated their new chapel, which was larger and better built than that at Pilgerruh. They indeed wanted more room, for a larger number of heathen Indians attended their public worship here, than at the Cayahaga, and hardly a day passed without visits from strangers. June 9th, the whole congregation held a love-feast, for which flour had been sent from Bethlehem. A letter to the believing Indians from Bishop Johannes Von Wateville, was read to them on this occasion, and heard with much emotion. He had held a visitation in all the settlements of the Breth- ren in North America, but to his sorrow found it impossible to go to the Indian congregation, and was then on his return to Europe. On the same day the congregation at New Salem partook of the Lord's Supper, rejoicing in God their Saviour, whose gracious presence comforted their hearts in an inexpresible degree."
And here, with an enthusiastic narrative of the reclama- tion of "many of the poor lost sheep," and "the increase of the Indian assistants in grace and knowledge of the truth," the truthful chronicle of Loskiel draws to its close. "Ac- cording," he says, "to the accounts transmitted to the mid- dle of the year 1787, the missionaries were full of courage and confidence, and diligent in the work of God committed to them."
Although the limitation of Loskiel's narrative is contempo- raneous with the period to which this volume relates, yet we cannot resist the inclination to follow the subsequent fortunes
10) Near the north line of the township of Milan, Erie county.
408
HISTORY OF OHIO.
of the missions. For this purpose, Heckewelder will be our principal authority.
Three years after the settlement of New Salem, in the winter of 1789-90, the Ohio Indians joined a league of the Western savages against the United States, and it was determined at a general council to remove the Christian Indians and their teachers from Petquotting to Kegeyunk, now Fort Wayne, and that the former should then be re- quired to take part in the impending hostilities. Informa- tion of this plot was secretly communicated to Zeisberger by some friendly Indians, and the missionary Edwards was instantly despatched to Detroit, with a request that the British commandant would grant them an asylum. He readily consented, and in April, 1790, a vessel arrived at the Huron River, and the whole Indian congregation aban- doned their settlement of New Salem. They were at length removed to the river Thames, seventy miles northeast of De- troit, where a town was built and called Fairfield.
In 1797, three separate tracts of four thousand acres each, including the sites of Gnadehutten, Schoenbrun and Salem were surveyed and laid off to the mission. In the spring of 1798, John Heckewelder and the Rev. Benjamin Mortimer repaired to Fairfield "by way of the Genessee county, Black Rock, Niagara, Grand River, and the Pinery in Upper Canada, to inform the congregation that the Congres- sional grant was perfected:" and thence, after a week's stay, Heckewelder and Edwards, with two young Indians, started for the Muskingum, to make the necessary preparations for a permanent settlement. Their route was by Detroit, Browns- town, River Raisen, rapids of the Maumee, Upper Sandusky, Owl Creek (now Vernon River) and the Forks of the Mus- kingum. In October, Zeisberger and Mortimer, with "a
409
THE MUSKINGUM MISSION.
large number of the Christian Indians from Fairfield," ar- rived on the Muskingum and founded Goshen. In 1804, a part of the Fairfield congregation removed to Petquotting, and renewed their missionary settlement, which the late Rev. E. Judson of Milan supposed to have been situated on the spot where Milan now stands. It was under the charge of Rev. Christian Frederic Dencke, but was relinquished in 1809, when the lands had been surveyed, and began to be appropriated by the whites. The Moravians returned to Fairfield.
David Zeisberger passed the remnant of his useful life at Goshen, Tuscarawas county, where he died November 7, 1808, aged 87 years, 7 months and 6 days. At the same place, in 1801, William Edwards had rested from his labors, aged about seventy. John Heckewelder, after remaining in the scenes of his early missionary life from 1801 to 1810, returned to Bethlehem, and became widely known as the author of the "Narrative of the Missions of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians," and of an "Account of the History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring States," besides many other publications. He died at Bethlehem on the 31st of January, 1823, aged seventy-nine years, and nearly eleven months.
The influence of the white settlements upon the Indian colony of the Muskingum was so unfavorable,11 that their
11) At the session of the Territorial Legislature for 1799-1800, an act was passed to protect the Moravian Indians from the traffic in intoxicating liquors. The missionaries were authorized to seize the same whenever brought within the Schoenbrun tract, and "do with it as they should think proper ; " and Heckewelder mentions that on one occasion " the missionary, Zeisberger, although then in his eightieth year, in his zeal for the cause in which he was engaged, took up an axe and stove the kegs so that the liquor ran into the river." The Moravian annalist adds, that "although this act 18
410
HISTORY OF OHIO.
spiritual guardians at length induced Congress to adopt such measures as would tend to the removal of the Indians, and enable the society to divest itself of the trusteeship in the land. On the 4th of August, 1823, an agreement or treaty was entered into at Gnadenhutten between Lewis Cass, then Governor of Michigan, on the part of the United States, and Lewis de Schweinitz, on the part of the Moravian Mis- sionary Society, as a preliminary step towards the retroces- sion of the land to the government. By this agreement, the members of the society relinquished their right as trustees, conditioned that the United States would pay six thousand six hundred and fifty-four dollars, being but a moiety of the money they had expended. The agreement could not be legal without the written consent of the Indians, for whose benefit the land had been donated. These embraced the remainder of the Christian Indians formerly settled on the land, "including Killbuck and his descendants, and the nephews and descendants of the late Captain White Eyes, Delaware chiefs." The Goshen Indians, as they were then called, repaired to Detroit for the purpose of completing the contract. On the 8th of November, they signed a treaty with Governor Cass, by which they relinquished their right to the lands, on condition that Government would pay them an annuity of four hundred dollars as long as they remained on the River Thames in Canada, or in lieu thereof, should they choose to return to the United States, secure to them a reservation of twenty-four thousand acres.
The trustees could not, however, divest themselves of all
of the missionary served as a check on some other disorderly people from their making similar attempts of bringing liquor to the town, yet, upon the whole, this aet of the Assembly became highly offensive, and was termed an infringement on the rights and liberties of a free and independent people; and, consequently, soon repealed."
411
THE MUSKINGUM MISSION.
the associations of the Muskingum Mission. It is interest- ing to observe, that the fourth article of the treaty secures in perpetuity to the Society of United Brethren, free from any condition or limitation whatever, "ten acres of ground, including the church called Beersheba, and the grave yard on the Gnadenhutten tract; also the church lot, parsonage house and grave yard in the town of Gnadenhutten,
and also the missionary house and grave yard at Goshen." These still constitute links between the period, when the message of the cross was announced in the depth of a wil- derness and amid the horrors of border warfare, and the passing era of material development and spiritual privileges.12
12) See Appendix No. X, for this final negotiation with the remnant of the Moravian congregation.
CHAPTER XXIV.
EMBASSIES AND NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE OHIO TRIBES
THE student of diplomacy, either as an art or in its rela- tion to the events of history, will find no more suggestive field of inquiry, than is presented by the negotiations of the Indian tribes of North America. At the council fire, the loftiest qualities of their character have been conspicuous- self-control, courtesy, dignity, eloquence, and that instinctive sagacity, which is the first requisite of statesmanship. Of this, Jefferson seemed conscious, when he triumphantly rested his defence of the native race of the American continent, against Buffon's imputation of inferiority, upon the terse and touching speech of the desolate Cayuga warrior, Logan.
The present chapter will relate to the negotiations with the Ohio Indians, between 1768 and the Territorial epoch.
The American Revolution interrupted the dreams of power and wealth, in which the leading spirits of the Middle Colo- nies had indulged at the consummation of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, on the 24th of October, 1768. Sir William John- son, who conducted that negotiation, hoped to found a colony south of the Ohio ; the envoys of Pennsylvania exulted at the extinction of the Indian title between the Alleghanies and the Ohio River, as far north as Kittaning ; 1 while Virginia was no less gratified by a still more westward extension of
1) The northwest corner of Cambria county, Pennsylvania.
(412)
413
INDIAN NEGOTIATIONS.
her territorial occupation. Land speculation was the mania of that age, and the disbanded soldiery of the long wars with France, desired the widest possible range of selection in the location of their bounties.
The conference of Fort Stanwix only transferred the claim of the Six Nations of New York. The Delawares, who were seated upon the Upper Ohio, and the Shawanese, who had formerly occupied Kentucky, and now shared its range as a hunting ground with the Cherokees and other Southern In- dians, were no parties to the treaty. As has been shown, a prominent cause of the hostilities, which were terminated by Dunmore's expedition of 1774, was the dissatisfaction of the Shawanese with the settlement of Kentucky. The Delawares were more willing to transfer their villages to the west bank of the Ohio, for their name implies former removals westward, and experience had convinced them of the futility of any other than a passive policy.
There is but little doubt, that a condition of the treaty between the Shawanese of the Scioto and Lord Dunmore, besides the surrender of prisoners and plunder, made the Ohio River the boundary between themselves and the whites. But this agreement to abandon the lands south of the Ohio, did not probably include the Shawanese warriors and hunters of the Miami villages ; and it was only after many bloody campaigns, that the whole tribe acquiesced in a partition, which was more a trophy of conquest by the bold Kentucki- ans, than a treaty stipulation on the part of the Indians.
When Lord Dunmore concluded the treaty of Camp Char- lotte, he required the delivery of four hostages by the Shawa- nese, and also detained twelve Mingo prisoners. The latter were still imprisoned on the 9th of February, 1775, as, on that date, Dr. John Connolly wrote to Col. George Washing-
414
HISTORY OF OHIO.
ton, asking what should be done with them .? The Shawanese hostages seem to have been released in the summer, and would have been previously, if their tribe had more promptly surrendered the white captives which they held. A Will- iamsburg publication of Feb. 10, 1775, mentions that a few days before, Cornstalk, the chief of the Scioto Shawanese, arrived at the mouth of the Great Kenawha, where a Capt. Russell was then in command, and delivered to him " several of the old white prisoners, and a number of horses."
On the 12th of July, 1775, Congress organized an admin- istration of Indian Affairs. Almost simultaneously, an envoy of Virginia, Capt. James Wood, afterwards Governor of that State, was traversing Ohio, having been deputized by the General Assembly of Virginia to invite the Indian tribes to a council at Fort Pitt, on the 10th of September. While thus employed, he ascertained that the British commandant at Detroit, and one Mons. Baubee, a Canadian Frenchman, had distributed belts and wampum among seventeen Western tribes, with a message, that the Virginians were about to in- vade their country and attack them from two directions-by the Ohio and by the Lakes. Hamilton's only object in making such a statement, was to provoke a border war.
Capt. Wood, on the 22d and 23d of July, had a satisfac- tory interview with Newcomer,3 and other Delaware chiefs, at Coshocton ; and on the 25th, arrived at a " Seneca Town," where he found Logan, with some of the Mingoes who had been prisoners at Fort Pitt. They appeared very desirous to know his errand. He called them together, and made the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.