USA > Ohio > Ohio annals : Historic events in the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Valleys, and in other portions of the state of Ohio > Part 12
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times, and if after guiding an army of white men there to put down his rival, Captain Pipe, and thwart his machinations against the colonies, the great chief died of small-pox in the midst of that army, after it had built the fort, the spot where Fort Laurens stood should be remembered by Ameri- cans as the grave of White Eyes, although General Meln- tosh says his army did not reach the Tuscarawas for nine days after White Eyes died, if DeSchweinitz's date (No- vember 10, 1778), is correct. Captain Pipe, his rival chief, on hearing of his death, declared at Sandusky, in the midst of the British Indians, that White Eyes was a great man, but having sought the ruin of his country, the Great Spirit took him away in order that the Indian nations might be saved. In after times Congress awarded to his widow and family the use of a portion of the four-thousand acre Schoenbrunn tract, below New Philadelphia, and about 1798 she and two daughters came to Zeisberger's mission, at Goshen, and enjoyed it for a time. Her grave is said by some to be at the Goshen cemetery, but other accounts say she and her daughters removed with the Christian Indians west, on the breaking up of Goshen mission, about 1823-4. She is described by those who knew her as a woman of no- ble and commanding appearance.
Fort Laurens covered about half an acre, and the parapet walls were crowned with pickets made of the split halves of the largest trunks of trees, which accounts in part for the inability of the Indians to capture it, although they had as many warriors besieging it as they had at the siege of Fort Pitt in Pontiac's war of 1763, if we believe Dod- dridge. Portions of the earth-work can yet be pointed out (1875). In close proximity to this fort, Colonel Boquet, in 1764, erected his stockade fort, which may be designated Fort Tuscarawas, and portions of which were visible when the Ohio Canal was constructed, and the spot is yet discerna- ble. Fort Laurens was the first fort erected west of the Ohio by order of the American Congress. The other forts theretofore, and since erected on Ohio soil, were :
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Fort Junandat, Sandusky Bay, by the French, in 1754; Fort Gower, now in Athens County, by Lord Dunmore, in 1774; Fort Harmar, now in Washington County, by the United States, in 1785; Fort Steuben, now Steubenville city, by the United States, in 1784; Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, by the United States, in 1789; Fort Campus Martius, now Marietta, by the United States, in 1791 ; Fort Dilies, Ohio River, now in Belmont County, by the United States, in 1790; Fort Hamilton, now a city of that name in Butler County, by the United States, in 1791; Fort Jeffer- son, now in Darke County, by the United States, in 1791; Fort St. Clair, now in Preble County, by the United States in 1791; Fort Recovery, now in Darke County, by the United States, in 1791; Fort Defiance, now in Defiance County, by the United States, in 1794; Fort Deposit, now in Lucas County, by the United States, in 1794; Fort Greenville, now in Darke County, by the United States, in 1794; Fort Laramie, now in Shelby County, by the United States, in 1794; Fort St. Mary's, now in Mercer County, by the United States, in 1794; Fort Piqua, now in Miami County, by the United States, in 1794.
In the war of 1812 the following forts were erected : Fort Miami, on the Maumee, by the British; Forts Sandusky, in Erie County; Stevenson, in Sandusky County ; Seneca, in Seneca County; Meigs, in Wood County; Amanda, in Allen County; Ball, in Seneca County; Findlay, in Han- cock County; and McArthur, in Hardin County, all in Ohio.
COLONEL JOHN GIBSON, COMMANDER AT FORT LAURENS-HIS FIGHT WITH LITTLE EAGLE,
The man who caused the greatest terror among the hos- tile Indians west of the Ohio, from 1774 to 1782, was Colonel John Gibson, a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was born in 1740 at Lancaster. His first service was in
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General Forbes's expedition against the French and In- dians, after which he became a trader at Fort Pitt, and at the mouth of Beaver Creek, where he and two others were captured by the Indians, who took him to Virginia, on the Kenhawa, where they intended to burn him, but were pro- vented by a squaw who adopted him. He remained some time among the Indians, but returned to Fort Pitt in time to take an active part in Dunmore's war of 1774, and at Camp Charlotte, seeing the great Logan, one of whose rela- tives he had married, he took the liberty of immortalizing Logan by "working up " that famous speech. In the revo- lutionary war he commanded the seventh Virginia regi- ment, served in New York, New Jersey, and the western department, and visited Schoenbrunn on the Tuscarawas, as a government agent, on his way to carry the great con- gress six-foot peace belt to the Indians. At Schoenbrun he remained several days conversing with Zeisberger, ob- serving closely all that passed, witnessing an Indian bap- tism, on the evening of which be and the holy man sat up until midnight discussing religion.
In 1779 he commanded for a time the garrison at Fort Laurens (near the present Bolivar), and although it was invested by over seven hundred Indian warriors for six weeks, and had but about one hundred defenders fit for duty, such was their fear of Gibson, the " Long Knife," that they never attempted an assault, but running short of pro- visions they made that the excuse for moving off. Colonel Gibson soon after proceeded to Fort Pitt and assumed com- mand thereof. A party of Delawares and Mingoes, who were of the Indian army investing Fort Laurens, having tried but failed to ambush Colonel Gibson on his way to Fort Pitt, revenged themselves by going to the Ohio border, crossing to the Monongahela country, and killing seven white settlers. Gibson, being apprised of the murders, took a sufficient force from the fort and pursued the sav- ages. Accidentally he met a few Indians under "Little Eagle," Mingo chief, near Cross Creek, who, seeing Gibson,
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gave the yell and fired at him, the ball perforating his coat but doing no harm. Gibson was so near the chief, that raising his sword he cleaved " Little Eagle's" head from his body in an instant. Two other savages were slain on the spot, the residue fleeing to the forest. Gibson returned to Fort Pitt, and, as tradition says, took "Little Eagle's" head with him, to offset the hole in his coat. IIe became more than ever the terror of the warriors, by whom he was called " Long Knife," and ere the war closed the term " Long Knives" was applied to the Americans generally. Colonel Gibson's fame by this adventure excited the envy of other officers, and when he projected an expedition against the north-western tribes, the inability of the Gov- ernment to furnish supplies, and the machinations of lead- ing men against him, cansed the total failure of the expe- dition. When he learned of the expeditionists in William- son's band, threatening death to the Moravian Indians, he sent a runner to warn them, but it came too late. This ex- cited the borderers against him, and they charged Gibson with treason to them, and when a portion of Williamson's men returned to Fort Pitt to kill the Moravian Indians on "Smoky Island," Gibson's life was endangered to such an extent that he was compelled to keep within the fort. He remained at Fort Pitt during the war. In 1790 he was a member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention, and in 1800 was made secretary of the Indiana territory. After- ward he retired to private life, and died in 1822, near Brad- dock's field, Pennsylvania.
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NUMBER OF WARRIORS AT FORT LAURENS, AND ELSEWHERE-1779.
Colonel Morgan, Indian agent in 1779, was told by Dela- ware chiefs that the Indian army investing Fort Laurens in January, 1779, numbered but 180, composed of Wyandots, Shawanese, Mingoes, and Monseys, and four (scallawag) Delawares, with John Montour and his brother.
This is contradicted by the missionaries' record at Lich- tenau, for on passing that place they counted about 700 on their way up the Tuscarawas, and on the east bank of the river they paraded opposite the fort to show their strength, when one of the garrison counted 847 painted warriors. The missionary and the soldier could not both have lied five hundred on one subject at the same time when they were fifty miles apart, and strangers to each other.
Moreover, the number of warriors in the northern and western tribes in 1779 were at that time reported upon by Morgan to the government as follows : Delawares and Mon- seys, 600; Shawanese, 400; Wyandots, 300; Mingoes, 600; Senacas, 650; Mohawks, 100; Cuyugas, 220 (called by Mor- gan Cuyahogas); Onondagas, 230; Oneidas and Tuscarawas (he meant Tuscaroras), 400; Ottowas, 600; Chippewas (of all the lakes), 5,000; Pottawatomies, 400; Miamies, 300; and smaller tribes, 800; total, 10,000 warriors; which he says they could have concentrated at one point on the fron- tier in a few weeks, if necessary.
At the second investment of Fort Laurens in the summer of 1779, Morgan says there were present 40 Shawanese, 20 Mingoes, and 20 Delawares, who were induced by Delaware chiefs to move off without firing a gun ; thus the Delawares saved Fort Laurens.
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BUCKSKIN CURRENCY AT FORT LAURENS.
Heckewelder relates that in 1762, when he and Post were at Post's cabin, he dare not be seen by the Indians while writing or reading a book, they suspecting it had reference to taking their land.
In 1779, they had the same antipathy to paper money, believing that it meant "steal" on its face. Hence, when they sold anything to the Fort Laurens garrison, there being no hard money there, they were paid in buck and doe-skin certificates, which they passed to the traders for whisky, ammunition, &c.
In Colonel Morgan's journal is a certificate of the kind vouched for by Colonel Gibson in these words:
"I do certify that I am indebted to the bearer, Captain Johnny, seven bucks and one doe, for the use of the States, this 12th day of April, 1779.
" Signed,
" SAMUEL SAMPLE, "Assistant Quartermaster."
"The above is due to him for pork, for the use of the garrison at Fort Laurens.
" Signed,
"JOHN GIBSON, Colonel."
The ground upon which Fort Laurens was erected, and around which so many historical incidents are located, is now part of the farm of the heirs of Henry Gibler, de- ceased, in the first and second sections of township ten, range two, about ten miles due north from New Phila- delphia.
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CHAPTER VII.
HECKEWELDER'S GREAT RIDE.
When Girty, Elliot, and McKee deserted the American cause, and passed from Fort Pitt down the Muskingum, in the winter of 1778, they were followed to Goshocking (Coshocton) by twenty soldier deserters also, who spread terror at the Delaware Indian capital, and at the Moravian mission, Lichtenau, near by. They represented Washington as having been killed, the army dispersed, and the Ameri- cans coming west to kill all the Indians.
Captain Pipe called the Delawares to the council house, and in a violent speech urged the Indians to take up the hatchet against the colonies. Even the Indian converts at the mission Lichtenau were aroused, and many clamored for war.
Captain White Eyes replied to Pipe, and pronounced all these stories lies, at the same time asking the Indians to not take the war-path for ten days, and if word did not come in that time showing that these renegades were liars, he would go to war with his nation and be the first to fall. His eloquence stayed the torrent of Indian wrath let loose by Pipe, and all agreed to wait the time asked.
HIeckewelder was coming from Bethlehem with his ser- vant, John. Martin. They arrived at Fort Pitt jaded and worn, but learning the reports that had come up from the valley, at once started on horseback with peace messages and letters from General Hand, commander at Fort Pitt, to the Delawares, assuring them that all the stories were false, &c. Ile and John Martin reached Gnadenhutten at midnight of the second day, and learning there that the ten
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days would be up on the morrow, again mounted, without rest or sleep, and rode into Goshocking the next morning at 10 o'clock. The Delawares were painted and ready for the war-path. His old friends, and even White Eyes, re- fused to shake hands with him. Seeing the crisis, he stood up in his saddle, his hair flapping in the wind, and waved the peace letters over his head, telling the Indians that all those stories were lies; that instead of Washington being killed, the American army had captured Burgoyne's British army, and that instead of coming west to kill the Indians, the Americans were their true friends, and wanted then not to take any part in the war. White Eyes then spoke and calmed the Delawares, who put off their war plumes, except Pipe and his Monsey band, and thus was peace re- stored, and Zeisberger and his mission saved for the time from destruction.
This must have taken place early in the fall of 1778, for White Eyes, having had his life threatened by the Pipe party, left the valley for Fort Pitt, joined McIntosh's army and piloted it toward Fort Laurens in November.
COSHOCTON SETTLEMENT ABANDONED-ATTEMPT TO SCALP ZEISBERGER-SETTLEMENT OF SALEM, NEAR PORT WASHINGTON-1780.
The settlers at Lichtenau, near Coshocton, finding that the war parties from the Sandusky country, passed and re-passed their town so often in going to and returning from their depredations at the Ohio River, determined to abandon Lichtenau, and in April, 1779, Zeisberger, with a number of families set out for Schoenbrunn. Mr. Edwards also set out with the former inhabitants of Gnadenhutten for that place, while Heckewelder remained with the bal- ance at Lichtenau, and these three settlements had for a time comparative quiet.
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During 1779 a man named McCormick, living at San- dusky, having learned of a plot to capture Zeisberger, or bring in his scalp-and at the head of which plot was Simon Girty-found means to inform Heckewelder at Lichtenau. Zeisberger being then at Lichtenau, on a visit from Schoen- brunn, two guards were selected to conduct him back home via Gnadenhutten. When nine miles on the way back, which was, say two-thirds of the distance between the present Coshocton and New Comerstown, all of a sud- den Simon Girty and eight Mingoes of the Six Nations appeared before them in the path. Girty exclaimed to his Mingoes, " this is the very man we have come for; now act agreeable to the promise you have made." Two young Delawares, returning from a hunt, suddenly came into the path, and hearing Girty's words, stepped forward to defend Zeisberger and assist his two guards in case of need. Seeing which, and not wanting to raise any alarm among the Dela- wares, Girty and his band disappeared, and the missionary arrived safely at his town of Schoenbrunn, which he had located anew this year on the west side of the river in sight of old Schoenbrunn.
In March, 1780, Lichtenau was abandoned, and its occu- pants moved twenty miles up the river and built the town of Salem, near the present Port Washington, erecting among other buildings, a chapel of hewed timber forty feet by thirty-six, with cupola and bell, and in which chapel Heckewelder was married the same year.
After the evacuation of Lichtenau, Pipe and his band of Indians retired to Sandusky, and took up the hatchet against the colonies, under pay from the British comman- der of Detroit.
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GENERAL BRODHEAD'S CAMPAIGN TO COSHOCTON- 1781.
General Brodhead, with a military force, was sent out in 1780 to destroy the hostile Indian towns along the Muskin- gum and tributaries. Arriving in 1781 on the east side of the Tuscarawas, below Salem, he sent for Heckewelder to come over, and bring some articles of provisions. He in- formed Heckewelder that he was on his way against a band of hostile Indians at the forks of the river (Coshocton), and wished that any of the Christian Indians out hunting in that direction might be called in, as he did not wish to molest them. While at this camp a portion of his troops formed the plan of leaving camp to go up the Tuscarawas and destroy Gnadenhutten and Schoenbrunn. The plan was frustrated, and Brodhead marched on to White Eyes Plain, where an Indian prisoner was taken, and two other In- dians shot at but they escaped. He then by a forced march reached and surprised the towns at the forks of the Tusca- rawas and Walhonding, but, owing to high water, the In- dians on the west side of the river escaped, but all on the east side were captured without firing a shot. Sixteen In- dian warriors captured were taken below the town, toma- hawked and scalped, by directions of a council of war held in the camp of Brodhead. The next morning an Indian called from the opposite side of the river for the "big cap- tain," saying he wanted peace. Brodhead sent him for his chief, who came over under a promise that he should not be killed. After he got over a notorious Indian fighter, named Louis Wetzell, tomahawked him. The army then commenced their homeward march with some twenty pris- oners, but had not gone half a mile when the soldiers killed them all, except a few women and children, who were taken to Fort Pitt, and there exchanged for an equal number of prisoners held by the Indians. This sanguinary march was
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called "the Coshocton campaign," and many of the men in it, a year later, came out with Williamson and enacted the Gnadenhutten massacre.
Shortly after Brodhead's campaign eighty British Indian warriors arrived near Gnadenhutten and demanded the sur- render to them of Killbuck and other chiefs, whom the war- riors claimed were hid in the town, and whom they must have " dead or alive," alleging that these chiefs were coun- seling peace when their nations were at war. Being ad- vised that these chiefs had gone to Fort Pitt they scarched the town, and then sent to Schoenbrunn and Salem for the missionaries to come to Gnadenhutten and have a talk about it. The missionaries obeyed, and heard a speech from the head war chief, Pachgantschillas, alias Bockongahelas, alias Shingask, after which the Christian Indians replied, when the war chief proposed and the missionaries agreed to let every one at Gnadenhutten have his free will, either to go with the warriors or stay. The warriors then proceeded to Salem and made the same proposal, adding that those who did not go would be destroyed by those who professed to be their friends. One family agreed to go, and the war- riors returned to their homes at Sandusky, where Pipe, McKee, Elliot, and Girty had taken up their residences, and were continually sending out warriors to commit depreda- tions and murders. At Schoenbrunn, this year, the mis- sionary, Senseman, came near being captured by two savages while in his garden. At Gnadenhutten, Edwards and Young were shot at and narrowly escaped.
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THE BRITISH CAPTURE SCHOENBRUNN, GNADEN- HUTTEN, AND SALEM-DRIVE OFF THE INHABI- TANTS-HECKEWELDER, ZEISBERGER, &C., TRIED AS SPIES BUT ACQUITTED-PROOF OF THEIR GUILT AND PATRIOTISM.
In August, 1781, under directions of the British com- mandant at Detroit, one hundred and forty Wyandot war- riors, forty Monseys, and some straggling Ottawas and Mo- hieans, all under Pipe, Half King, Wingmund, two Shawa- nese, Captains John and Thomas Snake, Kuhn, a white man, then a chief, and Captain Elliot with two other white men appeared at Salem and remained a week in council. On the 25th of August they called the missionaries and con- verted Indians of the three towns to meet at Gnadenhutten and made known their intention of removing them to San- dusky and Detroit. All refused to go, but some of the timid were willing in case all went.
The chiefs assembled and discussed the question of kill- ing the missionary leaders and driving off the balance to Sandusky. The killing was rejected. On the 2d of Sep- tember, Zeisberger, Senseman, and Heckewelder were taken prisoners, and their watches with other articles taken from them. On the 7th Elliot took Heckewelder from Gnaden- hutten to Salem, and on the 8th other missionaries followed. On the 11th all moved off for Sandusky, leaving the three towns forsaken, many cattle and hogs and three hundred acres of corn behind. They arrived at Sandusky October 11, 1781, and were set to building bark huts.
On the 25th of October John Shebash and a party re- turned to Schoenbrunn to gather corn. On the same day the missionaries, Zeisberger, Edwards, Heckewelder, and Senseman, were taken to Detroit to be tried as spies, having been charged with holding correspondence with the agents
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of the American colonies, then in rebellion against the British government.
IIaving arrived at Detroit, Heckewelder, in his narrative, gives the following account of their trial and acquittal :
" It being by this time known in the town that the Mo- ravian missionaries had come in as prisoners, curiosity drew the inhabitants of the place into the street to see what kind of people we were. The few clothes we had on our backs, and these tattered and torn, might have induced them to look contemptuously upon us, but we did not find this to be the case. We observed that we were viewed with com- misseration. After standing some time in the street, oppo- site the dwelling of the commandant, we were brought be- fore him, where, with empty stomachs, shivering with cold, worn down by the journey, and not free from rheumatic pains, we had again to stand until we underwent a strict ex- amination. Being at length dismissed, Mr. Bawbee took us to the house of a private French family, which consisted of Mr. Tybout and wife, both elderly people, and having no children. We were told by Mr. Bawbee, who acted as agent for the Indian department, that we might make our- selves easy for the present ; and were not forbidden to walk about. We soon found ourselves in a good birth, for not only our landlord and his wife were obliging and kind to us, but we found many here who befriended us-even among the officers themselves. In other circumstances, than we at the time were, we might have found ourselves contented and happy ; but, knowing that our families were not only suffering from hunger and cold, were also kept excited, on our account, between hope and fear, and being so re- peatedly told by the savages that we never would be per- mitted to return to them again, added to which the reports we had heard while at the rapids of the Ohio, was still kept alive by the Indians who were daily coming in; all which produced great anxiety to us. Happy we were, therefore, that the day had come when our conduct while among the Indians was to be inquired into in a public place; and be-
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fore a council where the aceuser and the accused were to meet face to face. These were Captain Pipe and two of his principal counselors, for whom the commandant had been long waiting, and whom were now arrived.
" Accordingly, on the 9th day of November, we were con- ducted to the council house, where we found the con- mandant with Mr. Bawbee by his side, together with other gentlemen, and a great number of Indians with the Indian interpreters, seated or standing in their proper places. The Indians of the different tribes were separately seated, some to the right of the commandant, and the Delawares right before him, with Captain Pipe and his counselors in front. We four prisoners were placed by ourselves on a bench to the left; a war chief of each of the two divisions of Indians was holding a stick of three or four feet long with scalps on it, which they had taken in their last excursions against the people of the United States.
"The council being opened by the commandant signify- ing to Captain Pipe that he might make his report, he rose from his seat, holding a'stick with two scalps on it in his left hand, and addressed the commandant in a very remarka- ble and spirited manner with respect to the present war; and that of their fathers (the British) having drawn their children (the Indians) into it, &c., handing him, at the close of his speech, the scalps. Having seated himself again, a war chief of the other party rose in like manner with his scalp; and after concluding his address, he also handed it to the commandant, who, as before, gave it to the inter- preter standing behind him to put aside. This business being finished, the commandant addressed Captain Pipe to the following effect, viz .:
"'Captain Pipe, you have for a long time lodged com- plaints with me against certain white people among your nation, and whom you call teachers to the believing In- dians, who, as you say, are friends to the Americans, and keep up a continual correspondence with them, to the pre- judice of your father's (the British) interest. You having
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so repeatedly accused these teachers, and desiring that I might remove them from among you; I at length com- manded you to take them, together with the believing In- dians, away from the Muskingum, and bring them into your country; and being since informed that this had been done, I ordered you to bring those teachers, together with some of their principal men, before me that I might see and speak with them ; since that time these men, now sitting before you, have come in and surrendered themselves up to me without your being with them. I now ask yon, Captain Pipe, if these men are those of whom you so much com- plained, and whom I ordered you to bring before me?'
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