Ohio annals : Historic events in the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Valleys, and in other portions of the state of Ohio, Part 5

Author: Mitchener, Charles Hallowell, ed
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Dayton, Ohio : Thomas W. Odell
Number of Pages: 380


USA > Ohio > Ohio annals : Historic events in the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Valleys, and in other portions of the state of Ohio > Part 5


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).


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" These young women then led me up to the council house, where some of the tribe were ready with new clothes for me. They gave me a new ruffled shirt, which I put on, also a


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pair of leggins done off with ribbons and beads, likewise a pair of moccasins, and garters dressed with beads, porcu- pine quills, and red hair-also a tinsel laced cappo. They again painted my head and face with various colors, and tied a bunch of red feathers to one of those locks they had left on the crown of my head, which stood up five or six inches. They seated me on a bear-skin, and gave me a pipe, tomahawk, and polecat-skin pouch, which had been skinned pocket fashion, and contained tobacco, killegenico, or dry sumach leaves, which they mix with their tobacco,-also spunk, flint, and steel. When I was thus seated, the In- dians came in dressed and painted in their grandest man- ner. As they came in they took their seats, and for a con- siderable time there was a profound silence-every one was smoking, but not a word was spoken among them. At length one of the chiefs made a speech, which was delivered to me by an interpreter, and was as follows:


" My son, you are now flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone. By the ceremony which was performed this day, every drop of white blood was washed out of your veins; you are taken into the Caughnewago nation, and initiated into a warlike tribe; you are adopted into a great family, and now received with great seriousness and solemnity in the room and place of a great man. After what has passed this day, you are now one of us by an old strong law and custom. My son, you have now nothing to fear; we are now under the same obligations to love, support, and de- fend you, that we are to love and defend one another; there- fore, you are to consider yourself as one of our people."


At this time I did not believe thiis fine speech, especially that of the white blood being washed out of me ; but since that time I have found that there was much sincerity in said speech ; for, from that day, I never knew them to make any distinction between me and themselves in any respect what- ever until I left them. If they had plenty of clothing I had plenty; if we were scarce, we all shared one fate.


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" After this ceremony was over, I was introduced to my new kin, and told that I was to attend a feast that evening, which I did. And as the custom was, they gave me also a bowl and wooden spoon, which I carried with me to the place where there were a number of large brass kettles full of boiled venison and green corn ; every one advanced with his bowl and spoon, and had his share given him. After this, one of the chiefs made a short speech, and then we began to eat.


"The name of one of the chiefs in this town was Tecan- yaterighto, alias Pluggy, and the other Asallecoa, alias Mohawk Solomon. As Pluggy and his party were to start the next day to war, to the frontiers of Virginia, the next thing to be performed was the war dance, and their war songs. At their war dance they had both vocal and in- strumental music-they had a short, hollow gum closed at one end, with water in it, and parchment stretched over the open end thereof, which they beat with one stick, and made a sound nearly like a muffled drum,-all those who, were going on this expedition collected together and formed. An old Indian then began to sing, and timed the music by beating on this drum, as the ancients formerly timed their music by beating the tabor. On this the warriors began to advance, or move forward in concert, like well disciplined troops would march to the fife and drum. Each warrior had a tomahawk, spear, or war-mallet in his hand, and they all moved regularly toward the east, or the way they intended to go to war. At length they all stretched their tomahawks towards the Potomac, and giving a hideous shout or yell, they wheeled quick about, and danced in the same manner back. The next was the war song. In performing this, only one sung at a time, in a moving posture, with a toma- hawk in his hand, while all the other warriors were en- gaged in calling aloud ' he-uh, he-uh,' which they constantly repeated while the war song was going on. When the war- rior that was singing had ended his song, he struck a war- post with his tomahawk, and with a loud voice told what


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warlike exploits he had done, and what he now intended to do, which were answered by the other warriors with loud shouts of applause. Some who had not before intended to go to the war, at this time were so animated by this per- formance, that they took up the tomahawk and sung the war song, which was answered with shouts of joy, as they were then initiated into the present marching company. The next morning this company all collected at one place, with their heads and faces painted with various colors, and packs upon their backs, they marched off, all silent, except the commander, who, in the front, sung the traveling song, which began in this manner : ' hoo caugh-tainte heegana.' Just as the rear passed the end of the town, they began to fire in their slow manner, from the front to the rear, which was accompanied with shouts and yells from all quarters.


"This evening I was invited to another sort of dance, which was a kind of promiscuous dance. The young men stood in one rank, and the young women in another, about one rod apart, facing each other. The one that raised the tune, or started the song, held a small gourd or dry shell of a squash in his hand, which contained beads or small stones, which rattled. When he began to sing, he timed the tune with his rattle-both men and women danced and sung together, advancing toward each other, stooping until their heads would be touching together, and then ceased from dancing, with loud shouts, and retreated and formed again, and so repeated the same thing over and over, for three or four hours, without intermission. This exercise appeared to me at first irrational and insipid; but I found that in singing their tunes, they used ya ne no hoo wa ne, g.c., like our fa sol la, and though they have no such thing as jingling verse, yet they can intermix sentences with their notes, and say what they please to each other, and carry on the tune in concert. I found that this was a kind of wooing or courting dance, and as they advanced, stooping with their heads together, they could say what they pleased


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in each other's ear, without disconcerting their rough music, and the others, or those near, not hear what they said.


"Shortly after this I went out to hunt, in company with Mohawk Solomon, some of the Caughnewagas, and a Dela- ware Indian that was married to a Caughnewaga squaw. We traveled about south from this town, and the first night we killed nothing, but we had with us green corn, which we roasted and ate that night. The next day we encamped about twelve o'clock, and the hunters turned out to hunt, and I went down the run that we encamped on, in com- pany with some squaws and boys to hunt plums, which we found in great plenty. On my return to camp I observed a large piece of fat meat; the Delaware Indian that could talk some English, observed me looking earnestly at this meat, and asked me, 'what meat you think that is?' I said I supposed it was bear meat; he laughed, and said, ' ho, all one fool you, beal now elly pool,' and pointing to the other side of the camp, he said, 'look at that skin, you think that beal skin ?' I went and lifted the skin, which appeared like an ox-hide; he then said, 'what skin you think that?' I replied that I thought it was a buffalo hide; he laughed, and said, 'you fool again, you know nothing, you think buffalo that colo ?' I acknowledged I did not know much about these things, and told him I never saw a buffalo, and that I had not heard what color they were. He replied, 'by and by you shall see gleat many buffalo: he now go to gleat lick. That skin not buffalo skin, that skin buck-elk skin.' They went out with horses, and brought in the remainder of this buck-elk, which was the fattest creature I ever saw of the tallow kind.


" We remained at this camp about eight or ten days, and killed a number of deer. Though we had neither bread nor salt at this time, yet we had both roast and boiled meat in great plenty, and they were frequently inviting me to cat when I had no appetite.


"We then moved to the buffalo lick, where we killed several buffalo, and in their small brass kettles they made about half a Imshel of salt. I suppose this lick was about


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thirty or forty miles from the aforesaid town, and some- where between the Muskingum, Ohio, and Scioto. About the lick was clear, open woods, and thin white-oak land, and at that time there were large roads leading to the liek, like wagon roads. We moved from this liek about six or seven miles, and encamped on a creek.


"Though the Indians had given me a gun, I had not yet been permitted to go out from the camp to hunt. At this place Mohawk Solomon asked me to go out with him to hunt, which I readily agreed to. After some time we came upon some fresh buffalo traeks. I had observed before this that the Indians were upon their guard, and afraid of an enemy; for, until now, they and the southern nations had been at war. As we were following the buffalo tracks, Solomon seemed to be upon his guard, went very slow, and would frequently stand and listen, and appeared to be in suspense. We came to where the tracks were very plain in the sand, and I said, it is surely buffalo tracks; he said, 'hush, you know nothing -may be buffalo tracks, and may be Catawba.' He went very cautious until we found some fresh buffalo dung; he then smiled, and said 'Catawba can not make so.' He then stopped and told me an odd story about the Catawbas. He said that formerly the Catawbas came near one of their hunting camps, and at some distance from the camp lay in ambush ; and in order to decoy them out, sent two or three Catawbas in the night past their camp, with buffalo hoofs fixed on their feet, so as to make artificial tracks. In the morning, those in the camp followed after these tracks, thinking they were buffalo, until they were fired on by the Catawbas, and several of them killed; the others fled, collected a party and pursued the Catawbas; but they, in their subtlety, brought with them rattlesnake poison, which they had collected from the bladder that lies at the root of the snake's teeth; this they had corked up in a short piece of a cane stalk; they had also brought with them small cane or reed, about the size of a rye straw, which they made sharp at the end like a pen, and dipped them


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into this poison, and stuck them in the ground among the grass, along their own tracks, in such a position that they might stick into the legs of the pursuers, which answered the design ; and as the Catawbas had runners to watch the motion of the pursuers, when they found that a number of them were lame, being artificially snake bit, and that they were all turning back, the Catawbas turned upon the pur- suers and defeated them, and killed and scalped all those that were lame. When Solomon had finished his story, and found that I understood him, he concluded by saying, ' you don't know, Catawba velly bad Indian, Catawba all one devil, Catawba.'


"Some time after this I was told to take the dogs with me and go down the creek, perhaps I might kill a turkey; it being in the afternoon, I was also told not to go far from the creek, and to come up the creek again to the camp, and to take care not to get lost. When I had gone some dis- tance down the creek, I came upon fresh buffalo tracks, and as I had a number of dogs with me to stop the buffalo, I concluded I would follow after and kill one; and as the grass and weeds were rank, I could readily follow the track. A little before sundown I despaired of coming up with them ; I was then thinking how I might get to camp before night. I concluded, as the buffalo had made several turns, if I took the track back to the creek, it would be dark before I could get to the camp; therefore I thought I would take a nearer way through the hills, and strike the creek a little below the camp; but as it was cloudy weather, and I a very young woodsman, I could find neither creek nor camp. When night came on, I fired my gun several times and hallooed, but could get no answer. The next morning early, the In- dians were out after me, and as I had with me ten or a dozen dogs, and the grass and weeds rank, they could readily fol- low my track. When they came up with me, they appeared to be in a very good humor. I asked Solomon if he thought I was running away, he said, 'no, no, you go too much clooked.' On my return to camp they took away my gun from me,


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and for this rash step I was reduced to a bow and arrow for nearly two years. We were out on this tour for about six weeks.


" When we returned to the town, Pluggy and his party had arrived, and brought with them a considerable num- ber of scalps and prisoners from the south branch of the Potomac. They also brought with them an English Bible, which they gave to a Dutch woman who was a prisoner; but as she could not read English, she made a present of it to me, which was very acceptable.


" When they killed a buffalo they would lash the paunch of it round a sapling, cast it into the kettle, boil it and sup the broth. They were polite in their own way, passed but few compliments, and had but few titles of honor. Cap- tains or leaders were the highest titles in the military line, and in the civil line chiefs or old wise men. No such terms as sir, mister, madam, or mistress, but in their stead, grand- father, father, uncle, brother, mother, sister, cousin, or my friend, were the terms used in addressing one another. They paid great respect to age, and allowed no one to attain to any place of honor among them, without having performed some exploit in war, or become eminent for wisdom. They invited every one that came to their houses or camps to eat, as long as they had anything to give, and a refusal to eat, when invited, was considered a mark of disrespect. In courting, it was common for a young woman to make suit to a young man, and the men generally possessed more modesty than the women. Children were kept obedient, not by whipping, but by ducking them in cold water. Their principal punishment for infractions of their laws or customs was degradation. The crime of murder was atoned for by liberty given to the friends or relations of the mur- dered to slay the murderer. They had the essentials of mili- tary discipline and their warriors were under good command, and punctual in obeying orders. They cheerfully united in putting all their directions into immediate execution, and by each man observing the motion or movement of his right


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hand companion, they could communicate the motion from right to left, and march abreast in concert, and in scattered order, though the line was a mile long. They could per- form various military maneuvers, either slow or fast, as they could run. They formed the circle in order to surround the enemy, and the semi-circle if the enemy had a river on one side of them. They could also form the large hollow square, face out and take trees; this they did, if their ene- mies were about surrounding them, to prevent being shot from either side of the tree. Their only clothing when going into battle was the breech-clout, leggins, and mocca- sins. Their leaders gave general orders by a shout or yell in time of battle, either to advance or retreat, and then each man fought as though he was to gain the battle himself. To ambush and surprise the enemy, and to prevent being am- bushed and surprised themselves, was their science of war. They seldom brought on an attack without a sure prospect of victory, with the loss of few men, and if mistaken, and likely to lose many men to gain a victory, they would re- treat, and wait for a better opportunity. If surrounded, however, they fought while there was a man alive, rather than surrender. A Delaware chief, called Captain Jacobs, being with his warriors surrounded, took possession of a house, defended themselves for some time and killed a num- ber of the whites. When called on to surrender, he said, ' he and his men were warriors, and they would all fight while life lasted.' Being told that they would be well used if they surrendered, and if not, that the house would be burned over their heads, he replied that he 'could eat fire,' and when the house was in flames he and his men marched out in a fighting position and were all killed."


Smith remained in the Muskingum country until Octo- ber, when he was taken to the country bordering on Lake Erie, where he remained with the Wyandots hunting and fishing for several years. In 1760 he accompanied a war party into Canada, which was captured. The prisoners were confined at Montreal four months, when they were


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exchanged. Smith then returned to his home in Pennsyl- vania. He afterward accompanied Boquet's expedition to the Muskingum as a guide. He served as colonel of a Pennsylvania regiment in the revolutionary war, and sub- sequently removed to Kentucky, and served in the legisla- ture of that State.


CAPTIVITY OF JOHN MCCULLOUGH.


In July, 1756, John Mccullough, then a lad, was taken by some Delaware Indians in what is now Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and carried into captivity beyond the Ohio. He remained with them eight years. In his narrative of adventures, he relates that a great prophet appeared among the Indians on the Tuscarawas about two years after he (Mccullough) had been taken, which would be about 1758. This prophet was of the Delaware nation -had certain hie- roglyphics representing the probation human beings were subject to on earth, and the happiness or misery of a future state. While exhorting his hearers he wept like a child, and told them the only way to purify themselves from sin, was to take certain emetics and abstain from carnal knowl- edge of the different sexes- that as fire was not pure that was made by steel, they should quit the use of fire-arms, and when they wanted fire, should produce it by rubbing two sticks together, as they had done before the white people found out their country. He professed to have his instruc- tions from a higher power called Kecsh-she-la-mil-lang-up, who thought the red man into being. Mccullough states that he knew a company of the followers of the prophet, who had secluded themselves for two years -had quit the use of fire-arms, and lived in accordance with his rules, firmly believing that by so doing they would be able to drive the whites out of the country. But while the prophet and his followers were endeavoring to spirit the white peo- ple away, others betook themselves to a more speedy way


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of getting rid of then. They fell upon a number of traders at Mahoning, and after killing them took their beaver- skins and set off for a trading post on the Tusearawas, in the vicinity of the present village of Bolivar. An old In- dian named Daniel, cautioned the traders not to buy the skins, assuring them that the skins belonged to some mur- dered traders. They however purchased the furs through fear. The same evening old Daniel assured them they would all be killed by daylight next morning, which prediction was verified, and in the destruction of this trading establishment was frustrated for a time the second attempt of the English colonists to effect a settlement in the Tuscarawas valley.


CHRISTIAN POST'S FIRST VISIT TO THE TUSCARA- WAS, SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE.


The governor of the Pennsylvania Colony induced Rev. Christian Frederick Post, a Moravian missionary, to visit the Indians on the Ohio and its tributaries and deliver peace messages to them. He reached the Ohio in 1758, and the Tuscarawas in 1761, and on its north bank, in present Stark County (near the present Bolivar), erected the first house built in Ohio by white men, except such cabins as were put up by traders and French Jesuits. It is yet indi- cated by the chimney stones. Post having performed the business intrusted to him, returned to Bethlehem, and be- ing impressed with the belief that he could convert the red men to Christianity, he again returned to the Tuscarawas in 1762, accompanied by John Heckewelder, another mis- sionary of the Moravian church. They arrived in May at the spot whereon Post had erected his cabin in the year previous, and proceeded to mark out about three acres of ground, and clear the same, for a corn-field. The Indians, who had a large village on the opposite side of the river, about a mile south of Post's cabin, became alarmed when they saw the sturdy oaks of the forest falling by the ax of


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the white man. They sent word to Post to desist, and sum- moned him to appear before them at their council house the next day, when the great chiefs of the nation, with Tamaque (king beaver) at their head, would announce their decision, as to whether or not he should be permitted to go on clearing his field. Mr. Post was prompt in his attend- ance at the council house, when the speaker, in the name of the council, delivered to him the following address : (See Heckewelder's Narrative, page 61).


" Brother: Last year you asked our leave to come and live with us, for the purpose of instructing us and our chil- dren, to which we consented; and now being come on, we are glad to see you.


"Brother: It appears to us that you must since have changed your mind, for instead of instructing us or our children, you are cutting trees down on our land. You have marked out a large spot of ground for a plantation, as the white people do everywhere; and by and by another, and another, may come and do the same; and the next thing will be that a fort will be built for the protection of these intruders, and thus our country will be claimed by the white people, and we driven further back, as has been the case ever since the white people first came into this country. Say! do we not speak the truth ?"


Post had been a missionary among the Iroquois as early as 1745-was well acquainted with the language, manners, and customs of the Indians -had endured great hardships, and endangered his life many times in behalf of the religion he was now about to preach on the banks of the Tusca- rawas. Instead of being intimidated by the reproachful address just delivered to him, he replied to it in the follow- ing words, as reported by Heckewelder :


"Brothers : What you say I told you is true, with regard to my coming to live with you, namely, for the purpose of instructing you; but it is likewise true, that an instructor must have something to live upon, otherwise he can not do his duty. Now, not wishing to be a burden to you, so


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as to ask of you provision for me to live upon, knowing that you have already families to provide for, I thought of raising my own bread, and believed that three acres of ground was little enough for that. You will recollect that I said to you, that I was a messenger from God, and prompted by him to preach and make known his will to the Indians (heathen), that they also, by faith, might be saved, and be- come inheritors of his heavenly kingdom. Of your land I do not want one foot; neither will my raising a sufficiency of corn and vegetables off your land for me and my brother to subsist on, give me or any other person a claim to the land."


Post having retired for the purpose of giving the chiefs and council time to form an answer; this done, they again met, when the speaker thus addressed Mr. Post :


" Brother : Now as you have spoken more distinctly, we may, perhaps, be able to give you some advice. You say that you are come at the instigation of the Great Spirit, to teach and to preach to us. So also say the priests at De- troit, whom our Father, the French, has sent among his In- dian children. Well, this being the case, you, as a preacher, want no more land than one of those do, who are content with a garden lot for to plant vegetables and pretty flowers in, such as the French priests also have, and of which the white people are all fond.


"Brother: As you are in the same station and employed with those preachers we allude to ; and as we never saw any one of those cut down trees and till the ground, to get a livelihood, we are inclined to think, and especially as these, without laboring hard, yet look well, that they have to look to another source than that of hard labor for a mainte- nance. And we think that if, as you say, the Great Spirit wants you to preach to the Indians, he will cause the same to be done for you as he causes to be done for those priests we have seen at Detroit. We are agreed to give you a garden spot, even a larger spot of ground than those have at Detroit. It shall measure fifty steps each way; which,


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if it suits you, you are at liberty to plant thereon what you please."


To this proposition, Heckewelder says, Mr. Post agreed, and on the following day the lot was stepped off by one of the chiefs, named Captain Pipe, fifty steps square, stakes drove in at the corners, and Post went on with his work again. An Indian treaty being appointed at Lancaster that summer, Mr. Post prevailed upon a number of the Indians to attend with him, leaving Mr. Heckewelder at the missionary station, to instruct the Indian children. In a short time after Post's departure it became known to Heckewelder that the Indian nations were again taking up arms, at the instigation of the French, against the English. His situ- ation became very critical, but he found means of sending a letter to Mr. Post, at Lancaster, and receiving an answer, in which Post advised him to leave the country lest he should be murdered. In October he set out with some tra- ders for Pittsburg, and on the way met Mr. Post, accompanied by Alexander McKee, Indian agent, and apprised them of the dangers of going to the Indian town. McKee was going out to receive and provide for the white prisoners promised to be given up at the Lancaster treaty, and Post, considering himself safe under the protection of the Indian agent, they disregarded Heckewelder's counsel and pushed on, but soon returned, McKee without any prisoners, and Post only saved his life by flight through the woods. The same winter a number of traders were murdered by the Indians, and had it not been for the prudence of IIecke- welder, both he and Post would have fallen a sacrifice. Thus ended the first attempt of the Moravians to convert to Christianity the heathen of the Tuscarawas valley.




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