USA > Ohio > Auglaize County > History of western Ohio and Auglaize County, with illustrations and biographical sketches of pioneers and prominent public men > Part 11
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In this connection it will be necessary to record a portion of the incidental history of the Maumee Valley prior to and fol- lowing the date of August 20th, 1794.
The white captives held by the Indians in that section of the state, have contributed many pages to the history of those times.
CAPTIVITY OF OLIVER M. SPENCER.
Colonel Spencer, who commanded a regiment in the revo- lutionary war, emigrated from New Jersey in 1790, and set- tled at Columbia, building a house near the fort on the hill. One of his sons, Oliver M. Spencer, a lad of eleven years of age, left Columbia on the 3d of July, 1792, for Fort Washington, to participate in celebrating "the glorious 4th." On the seventh the boy, with four others, started in a canoe to return up the river. The persons with him were a Mrs. Coleman, Mr. Jacob Light, and a drunken man whose name is unknown. They were, when well on their way, fired on by two Indians in ambush on the river bank; the intoxicated man was killed and Light wounded. The latter and Mrs. Coleman jumped into the river and escaped, but young Spencer was captured and hurried into the wilder- ness. The party crossed Buck creek in what is now Clark county, Ohio, and soon after forded Mad river, striking thence in a northwesterly direction to the Great Miami. After cross-
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ing this stream, probably not far from the present location of Sidney, Ohio, the boy was taken to the Auglaize, down which river he was conducted to its confluence with the Maumee, which place, "the Glaize," was reached "a little before noon on the 30th of July." Here, on the opposite side of the river last mentioned, he was left in charge of an old widowed squaw occupying a bark cabin near its bank. Concerning her family we have some inter- esting particulars.
"There was a dark Indian girl (an orphan) two years older than Spencer, and a half Indian boy, about a year his junior, both her grandchildren. The mother of the girl and boy was then the wife of George Ironside, a British Indian trader, living at a trading station on a high point directly opposite the grand- mother's cabin, a few hundred yards above the mouth of the Auglaize. The boy was reputed to be the son of Simon Girty, and was very sprightly, but, withal, passionate and wilful, a per- fectly spoiled child. The grandmother called him Simo-ne; that is Simon.
"About the twenty-first day of July, the old squaw took the boy prisoner on a visit to a Shawnees village located farther down the Maumee. They were kindly received by an Indian acquain- tance, whose wife, a very pleasant and rather pretty woman of twenty-five, set before them, according to custom, some refresh- ments, consisting of dried green corn boiled with beans and dried pumpkins, making, as the youngster thought, a very excellent dish, indeed. After spending a few hours with this family, they went to pay their respects to Blue Jacket, the most noble in appearance of any Indian Spencer had ever before seen. His person was about six feet high, was finely proportioned, stout, and muscular ; his eyes large, bright, and piercing; his forehead high and broad; his nose aquiline; his mouth rather wide; and his countenance open and intelligent, expressive of firmness and decision. He was considered one of the most brave and accom- plished of the Indian chiefs, second only to Little Turtle, of the Miamis and Buckongahelas, of the Delawares. He had signalized himself on many fields of battle, particularly in the defeat of Colonel Hardin's detachment in Harmar's campaign, and that of General St. Clair on the previous fourth of November. He held, as the boy was told, the commission and received the half-pay of a brigadier-general from the British crown.
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"On the day of their visit to Blue Jacket, this chief was ex- pecting what, to him, was distinguished company; it was none other than Simon Girty, accompanied by a chief of a neighbor- ing village - the Snake (Snake town was situated on the site
SIMON GİRTY.
of the town of Napoleon, Henry county, Ohio) a Shawnee war- rior. In honor of the occasion, Blue Jacket was dressed in splen- dor; had on a scarlet frock, richly laced with gold, and confined around his waist, with a parti-colored sash; also, red leggins and moccasins, ornamented in the highest style of Indian fashion. On his shoulders, he wore a pair of gold epaulets, and on his arms broad silver bracelets; while from his neck hung a mas-
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sive silver gorget, and a large medallion of his majesty George III. Around his lodge were hung rifles, war-clubs, bows and arrows, and other implements of war, while the skins of deer, bear, panther, and otter, the spoils of the chase, furnished pouches for tobacco, or mats for seats and beds. His wife was a remark- ably fine looking woman; his daughters, much fairer than the generality of Indian women, were quite handsome; and his two sons, about eighteen and twenty years old, educated by the British, were very intelligent.
"Girty wore the Indian costume, but without ornament, upon this occasion; and his silk handkerchief, while it supplied the place of a hat, hid the unsightly scar in his forehead, caused by the wound given him by Captain Joseph Brant. On each side; in his belt, was stuck a silver-mounted pistol, and at his left hung a short, broad dirk, serving occasionally the uses of a knife. He made many inquiries of Spencer ; some about his family and the particulars of his captivity, but more of the strength of the different garrisons, the number of American troops at Fort Washington, and whether the President of the United States in- tended soon to send another army against the Indians. He spoke of the wrongs he had received at the hands of his countrymen, and, with fiendish exultation, of the revenge he had taken. He boasted of his exploits, of the number of his victories, and of his personal prowess; then, raising, his handkerchief, he ex- hibited, to his youthful listener, the deep scar in his forehead ; said it was a saber cut which he received in the battle of St. Clair's defeat, adding that he had sent the damned Yankee officer who gave it to hell. (Of course, this was all false.) He ended his talk by telling Spencer that he would never see home again; but, if he should turn out to be a good hunter and a brave warrior, he might one day be a chief. The captive boy then re- turned, with the old squaw, up the river.
"Young Spencer remained with the old squaw until the next February, when, near the close of the month, he and the Indian family proceeded down the river some four or five miles, and engaged in sugar-making. While thus employed, a messenger arrived at their camp, and privately informed the old Indian woman that the British Indian agent from Detroit had arrived at the Grand Glaize; that the boy had been purchased by him :
8 HAC
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and that he (the messenger) had been sent to conduct him to the Point - that is, to "the Glaize." The young prisoner, the next morning, was on his way with the man who had been sent to get him, greatly excited at the prospect of being released from captivity.
"It was a pleasant morning on the last day of February, 1793; that young Spencer bade adieu to his Indian friends. The sun, just rising, seemed to shine with unusual splendor; never be- fore, as he thought, had it appeared as bright and beautiful. The captive had been at first 'as one that dreamed,' scarcely crediting the fact that he was no longer a prisoner; gradually, however, as he left his late dwelling farther and farther be- hind him, he became assured and conscious of the truth that he was indeed free; he was as a consequence, like a bird loosed from his cage or a young colt from his stall; to suppress his feelings or restrain his joy, would have been almost impossible. He laughed, he wept, he whistled, he shouted, and sung by turns. Never had he moved before with step so elastic-now skipping over logs, jumping, dancing and running alternately, while his messenger, a Frenchman (whose name he found on inquiry to be Joseph Blanch), sometimes stopped and looked at him in- tensely, as if suspecting he was more than half crazy.
"By degrees, the boy became more temperate; his extreme joy gradually subsided. He now confined the expression of his happiness to singing and whistling, which he kept up almost without intermission until the Auglaize was reached, when step- ping into a canoe, and crossing that river, in a few minutes he entered the hospitable dwelling of Mr. Ironside. This gentle- man received him with more than usual kindness, and congratu- lating him upon his srelease from captivity very heartily, intro- duced him to Matthew Elliott, the assistant British Indian agent, and to a Mr. Sharpe, a merchant of Detroit, who had accompanied Elliott to the Auglaize. Elliott received young Spencer with considerable hauteur, and with a look that spoke that his notic- ing him was a condescension, notwithstanding, as the boy after- ward learned, he had been sent by the express order of Governor . Simco, of Canada, to effect his ransom and convey him to De- troit.
"As if such service as rescuing Spencer was degrading, El- liott pretended that, being at Auglaize on public business he had
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accidentally heard of the captive, and, actuated wholly by motives of humanity, had procured his release, for which he had agreed to pay one hundred and twenty dollars. The wife of Ironside now kindly invited the boy to breakfast; but Elliott, objecting to the trouble it would give her, ordered the Frenchman to take him over to James Girty's, where, he said, their breakfast would be provided. Girty's home was one of the two log houses be- fore spoken of as within a small stockade at "the Glaize." There his brother Simon made his headquarters while at that place; the other house being occupied by McKee and Elliott, occa- sionally, while on the Maumee. James Girty's domicil served the double purpose of a living-room and store. Girty's wife soon furnished Spencer and the Frenchman with some coffee, wheat bread, and stewed pork and venison, of which the boy ate with great gusto, it being so much better than the food to which he had lately been accustomed; but he had not more than half breakfasted when James Girty came in.
"The latter seated himself opposite Spencer, and said to him : 'So, my young Yankee, you're about to start for home?' The boy answered, 'Yes, sir; I hope so.' 'That,' he rejoined, 'would depend upon his master, in whose kitchen he had no doubt the youthful stranger should first serve a few years' apprentice- ship as a scullion.' Then, taking his knife, said (while sharpen- ing it on a whetstone) : 'I see your ears are whole yet; but I'm greatly mistaken if you leave this without the Indian ear-mark, that we may know you when we catch you again.' Spencer did not wait to prove whether Girty was in jest or downright earnest ; but, leaving his meal half finished, he instantly sprang from the table, leaped out of the door, and in a few seconds took refuge in Mr. Ironside's house. On hearing the cause of the boy's flight, Elliott uttered a sardonic laugh, deriding his unfounded childish fears, as he was pleased to term them; but Ironside looked serious, shaking his head, as if to say he had no doubt that if Spencer had remained Girty would have exe- cuted his threat. The boy soon started down the Maumee, and reached Detroit on the 3d of March, 1793, when he was delivered to Colonel Richard England, the officer in command of that post."
"After living in Detroit a year, he was ransomed and sent to his relatives in New Jersey. After living with them two years he returned to Cincinnati, where he resided until his death.
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He became a preacher of the gospel in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was cashier of the Miami Exporting Company for many years, and held many offices of trust and responsibility. He died at Cincinnati on the 31st day of May, 1838."
NARRATIVE OF JOHN BRICKELL'S CAPTIVITY AMONG THE DELAWARE INDIANS.
(From American Pioneer, Vol. I, p. 43)
The following narrative was written especially for the "American Pioneer," and is inserted in this connection from the fact that he was with the Indians at the time they defeated St. Clair, and when they were defeated by Wayne. He was a wit- ness from the other side of the line, which makes his narrative doubly interesting :
I was born on the 24th day of May, 1781, in Pennsylvania, near a place then known as Stewart's crossings of the Youghio- gheny river, and, as I suppose from what I learned in after life, about four miles from a place since called Beesontown, now Union- town, in Fayette county. On my father's side I was of Irish, and on my mother's of German parentage. My father died when I was quite young, and I went to live with an elder brother on a pre-emption settlement, on the northeast side of the Allegheny river, about two miles from Pittsburgh.
On the breaking out of the Indian war, a body of Indians collected to the amount of about one hundred and fifty warriors, and spread up and down the Allegheny river about forty miles, and by a preconcerted movement made an attack on all the set- tlements along the river for that distance, in one day. This was on the 9th of February, 1791. I was alone, clearing out a fence row, about a quarter of a mile from the house, when an Indian came to me and took my ax from me and laid it upon his shoulder, along with his rifle, and then let down the cock of his gun, which it appears he had cocked in approaching me. I had been in habits of intimacy with the Indians, and did not feel alarmed at this movement. They had been about our house almost every day. He took me by the hand and pointed in the direction he wanted me to go; and although I did not know him, I concluded® he only wanted me to chop something for him, and went without reluctance. We came to where he had lain all night, between two logs, without fire. I then suspected something was wrong,
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and attempted to run; but he threw me down on my face, in which position I every moment expected to feel the stroke of the tomahawk on my head. But he had prepared a rope with which he tied my hands together behind me, and thus marched me off.
After going a little distance we fell in with George Girty, a son of old George Girty. He spoke English, and told me what they had done. He said, "White people had killed Indians, and that the Indians had retaliated, and now there was war, and you are a prisoner, and we will take you to our town and make an Indian of you; and you will not be killed if you go peaceably, but you try to get away and we won't be troubled with you, but we will kill you and take your scalp to our town." I told him I would go peaceably and give them no trouble.
From thence we traveled to the crossing of Big Beaver with scarce any food. These crossings were pretty high up, I sup- pose twenty or thirty miles from the mouth, and nearly in a line between Pittsburgh and New Philadelphia, on the Tuscarawas. We made a raft and crossed late in the afternoon and lay in a hole of a rock without fire or food. They would not make a fire for fear we had attracted the attention of hunters in chop- ping for the raft.
In the morning the Indian who took me delivered me to Girty and took another direction. Girty and I continued our course towards the Tuscarawas. We traveled all that day through hunger and cold, camped all night, and continued till about three in the afternoon of the third day since I had tasted a mouthful. I felt very indignant at Girty, and thought if I ever got a good chance I would kill him. We then made a fire, and Girty told me that if he thought I would not run away, he would leave me by the fire and go and kill something to eat. I told him I would not. "But," says he, "to make you safe I will tie you." He then tied my hands behind my back, and tied me to a sapling some distance from the fire. After he was gone I untied myself and lay down by the fire. In about an hour he came running back without any game. He asked me what I untied myself for. I told him I was cold. He said, "Then you no run away ?" I said, "No." He then told me there were Indians close by, and he was afraid they would find me.
We then went to their camp, where were Indians with whom I had been as intimate as with any persons, and they had been
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frequently about our house. They were very glad to see me, and gave me food, the first I had tasted after crossing Beaver. They treated me very kindly. We stayed all night with them, and next morning we. all took up our march toward the Tuscarawas, which we reached on the second day late in the evening. Here we met the main body of hunting families and the warriors from the Allegheny, this being their place of rendezvous. I supposed these Indians all to be Delawares, but at that time I could not distinguish between the different tribes. Here I met with two white prisoners, Thomas Dick and his wife Jane. They had been our nearest neighbors. I was immediately led to the lower end of the encampment and allowed to talk freely with them for about an hour. They informed me of the death of two of our neighbors, Samuel Chapman and Wm. Powers, who were killed by the Indians: one in their house and the other near it. The Indians showed me their scalps. I knew that of Chapman, hav- ing red hair on it.
The next day about ten Indians started back to Pittsburgh. Girty told me they went to pass themselves for friendly Indians, and to trade. Among these was the Indian who took me. In about two weeks they returned, well loaded with store goods, whisky, etc. After my return from captivity I was informed that a company of Indians had been there trading, professing to be friendly Indians; and that being suspected, were about to be roughly handled, but some person in Pittsburgh informed them of their danger and they put off with their goods in some haste.
After the traders came back the company divided, and those who came back with us to Tuscarawas, and the Indian who took me, marched on toward Sandusky. When we arrived within a day's journey of an Indian town, where Fort Seneca since stood, we met two warriors going to the frontiers to war. The Indian I was with had whisky. He and the two warriors got drunk, when one of the warriors fell on me and beat me. I thought he would kill me. The night was very dark, and I ran out into the woods and lay under the side of a log. They presently missed me, and got lights to search for me; the Indian to whom I belonged calling aloud, "White man! White man!" I made no answer, but in the morning, after I saw the warriors start on their journey, I went into camp, where I was much pitied on account of my bruises.
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On the next day we arrived within a mile of the Seneca town, and encamped for the night, agreeably to their manner, to give room for their parade or grand entrance next day. That took place about eight in the morning. The ceremony commenced with a great whoop or yell. We were then met by all sorts of Indians from the town, old and young, men and women. We then called a halt, and they formed two lines about twelve feet apart, in the direction of the river. They made signs for me to run between the lines toward the river. I knew nothing of what they wanted, and started; but I had no chance, for they fell to beating me so that I was knocked down, and everything that could get at me beat me, until I was bruised from head to foot. At this juncture a very big Indian came up, and threw the company off me, and took me by the arm, and led me along through the lines with such rapidity that I scarcely touched the ground, and was not once struck after he took me till I got to the river. Then the very ones who beat me the worst were now the most kind and officious in washing me off, feeding me, etc., and did their utmost to cure me. I was nearly killed, and did not get over it for two months. My impression is that the big In- dian who rescued me was Captain Pipe, who assisted in burning Crawford. The Indian who owned me did not interfere in any way.
We staid about two weeks at the Seneca towns. My owner then took himself a wife, and then started with me and his wife through the Black Swamp toward the Maumee towns. At Seneca I left the Indians I had been acquainted with near Pittsburgh, and never saw or heard of them afterward. When we arrived at the Auglaize river, we met with an Indian my owner called brother, to whom he gave me, and I was adopted into his family. His name was Whingwy Pooshies, or Big Cat. I lived in his family from about the first week in May, 1791, till my release in June, 1795.
The fall after my adoption there was a great stir in the town about an army of white men coming to fight the Indians. The squaws and boys were moved with the goods down the Maumee, and there waited the result of the battle, while the men went to war. They met St. Clair and came off victorious, loaded with the spoils of the army. Whingwy Pooshies left the spoils at the town and came down to move us up. We then found
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ourselves a rich people. Whingwy Pooshies' share of the spoils of the army was two fine horses, four tents, one of which was a noble markee, which made us a fine house, in which we lived the remainder of my captivity. He had clothing in abun- dance and of all descriptions. I wore a soldier's coat. He had also axes, guns, and everything necessary to make an Indian rich. There was much joy amongst them.
· I saw no prisoners that were taken in that battle, and be- lieve there were none taken by the Delawares. Soon after the battle another Indian and I went out hunting, and we came to a place where there lay a human skeleton stripped of the flesh, which the Indian said had been eaten by the Chippewa Indians who were in the battle, and he called them brutes thus to use their prisoners. During my captivity I conversed with seven or eight prisoners taken from different parts, none of which were taken from that battle, agreeably to my better impressions. One of the prisoners I conversed with was Isaac Patton by name, who was taken with Isaac Choate, Stacy, and others, from a block- house at the Big Bottom on the Muskingum. I lived two years in the same house with Patton. I think I saw Spencer once. I saw a lad, who, if I recollect right, said his name was Spencer ; he was with McKee and Elliott as a waiter, or kind of servant, and, if I remember right, he was at the rapids.
Patton told me an affecting anecdote about lsaac Choate's liberation. Choate was sitting in a melancholy mood soon after he was taken prisoner, his owner asked him what made him look so sorry? He said he could not help it, as he was thinking how his wife and children got along without him, and how much they thought after him. The Indian looked around and said, "I have a squaw and two children, and I would look sorry too if I were taken prisoner and carried away from them." The In- dian then rose and put his hand on Choate's head, and said, "Choate, you shall not stay away from them, I will let you go; but I will not turn you out, or the Indians may catch you; I will go with you," which word he made good by coming to the waters of the Muskingum with him, and then left him, telling him to go to his wife and children.
After my liberation I found Patton at the mouth of Duck creek, near the Muskingum. He repeated the anecdote about Choate's liberation, and said he got safely to his family.
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On one of our annual visits to the rapids to receive our · presents from the British, I saw Jane Dick. Her husband had been sold, I understood, for forty dollars, and lived at Montreal. He was sold because he was rather worthless and disagreeable to the Indians. When I saw her she lived at large with the Indians. She became suddenly missing, and great search was made for her, but the Indians could not find her. After my release from captivity I saw her and her husband at Chillicothe, where she and her hus- band lived. She told me how she was liberated. Her husband had concerted a plan with the captain of the vessel who brought the presents to steal her from the Indians. The captain concerted a plan with a black man, who cooked for McKee and Elliott, to steal. Mrs. Dick. The black man arranged it with Mrs. Dick to meet him at midnight in a copse of underwood, which she did; and he took her on board in a small canoe, and headed her up in an empty hogshead, where she remained till the day after the ves- sel sailed, about thirty-six hours. I remember that every camp and the woods were searched, for the Indians immediately sus- pected she was on board; but not thinking of unheading hogs- heads, they could not find her. I saw the black man at Fort Ham- ilton as I returned from capitvity, who told me how he stole Mrs. Dick off, which was in every particular confirmed by Mrs. Dick's own statement afterward. He also told me that there was a plan concerted between him and the captain to steal me off at the same time, "but," said he, "they watched you so close I could not venture it." This I knew nothing of until I was told by the black man, except that I observed the vigilance with which they watched me. They would not let me sleep alone as usual, nor even go to bring water without an Indian with me. It seems as if they were impressed with the idea of some maneuver- ing against them. Agreeably to my better impression, this hap- pened the summer before Wayne's campaign.
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