Ohio annals : Historic events in the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Valleys, and in other portions of the state of Ohio, Part 6

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 6


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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Roundthaler, the biographer of Heckewelder, gives the following facts touching Heckewelder's stay at the Tusca- rawas (near the present Bolivar), in 1762. After being thirty-three days on the way, he and Post arrived at Tus- carawas (the Indian town), on the Muskingum, and entered the cabin Post had built the year before, singing a hymn.


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The cabin stood about four rods from the stream, on the east side of the river. No one lived on that side, but on the west side, a mile down the stream, resided a trader named Thomas Calhoon. Farther south was the Indian town called Tuscarawas, of about forty wigwams. A mile still farther down the stream a few Indian families had set- tled. Eight miles above the cabin was another Indian village. [This was probably on or near the site of the present Bethlehem, in Stark county]. Wild ducks were in abundance, but then having no canoe, Post and his com- panion had to wait until they flew near the shores to shoot them. Wild geese were still more difficult to get. Pheas- ants and squirrels were worthless in the summer. Of fish they had plenty, but the manner in which they were forced to prepare them, rendered them disgusting; so Post and Heckewelder lived principally upon nettles, which grew in abundance in the bottoms. They resolved to make a canoe, and having finished one, used it to procure game and to bring down cedar wood from up the river for the purpose of making tubs and other articles for the Indians.


After Post left, Heckewelder was compelled to hide his books to prevent the Indians seeing him reading or writing, they believing that whenever the whites were engaged in reading or writing, it was something concerning their ter- ritory, and that the writing of the whites was the cause of robbing them of their lands. Having got a canoe, he was enabled to bring down five and six ducks at one shot, but the Indian' boys borrowed and lost his canoe before many days. The nettles becoming too hard to eat, Heckewelder waded the river and went to the cabin of the trader, Cal- hoon, to procure something to eat.


In a short time the wife of the chief Shingash died, which was announced by the most dismal howlings of the women of the town. Heckewelder, Calhoon, and four In- dians carried her to the grave. The body was covered with ornaments, painted with vermillion, and placed in a coffin, at the head of which a hole had been made, that the


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soul might go in and ont. On arriving at the grave, the deceased was entreated to come out of the coffin and stay with the living. The coffin was then lowered, the grave filled up, and a red pole driven in at its head. A great feast was then made and presents distributed around, Cal- hoon and Heckewelder each receiving a black silk hand- kerchief and a pair of leggins. For three weeks a kettle of provisions was carried out every evening to the grave to feed the departed spirit on its way to the new country. Mr. Calhoon invited Heckewelder to come and stay with him, which he finally did on account of sickness.


Post had not been gone three weeks when it was circu- lated that he never intended to return, and that his sole purpose in coming there was to deliver the Indian country into the hands of the whites. The Indians said the tribe would not permit him to return if he wished to do so, and Heckewelder was then warned by friendly Indians to leave the country. One afternoon one of Calhoon's men called for Heckewelder to lock his door and come over immedi- ately to Calhoon's, which he did. Calhoon told him that an Indian woman had come and requested him to take the other white man from his cabin, that he was in danger there. The next morning two of Calhoon's men went over to the cabin, found it broken open, and from appearances two In- dians had waited there all night to kill Heckewelder. He never saw his cabin again. King Beaver advised him to hasten his departure out of the country or his life would be taken. He was three weeks on the way to Fort Pitt, being worn down with the fever. After recovering he proceeded on to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.


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TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE LENAPE, OR DELA- WARES.


Heckewelder, in his history of the Indian nations, records a tradition of the Leni Lenape, placing them on the western part of the American continent, from whence they migrated eastward, and arriving at the Mississippi or " River of Fish," they joined forces with the Mengwe, otherwise called Mingoes, or Iroquois, and afterward "Five" or "Six Nations." Dis- covering the country east of the Mississippi to be inhabited by a powerful nation of stout men, who had large cities on the principal rivers, the Delaware, Potomac, Susquehanna, and Hudson, well fortified, entrenched, and ditched, the Lenape (since called Delawares), and Iroquois or Mingoes, asked leave to pass through the country eastward, which being granted by the Alligewe or Alleghany Nation, they penetrated east over the Alleghany mountains, but the Alli- gewe, seeing their great numbers, withdrew the permission to pass through; whereupon a war ensued between the Lenape and Mingoes, or Iroquois, or Monseys, on one side, and the Alligewe on the other, which finally terminated in the extir- pation of the Alligewe, and their forts, cities, and entrench- ments fell into possession of the conquerors, known as the Lenape and Mengwe, or Delawares and Iroquois.


They lived as friends for hundreds of years, but feuds hav- ing arisen among them, the Lenape took possession of the lands watered by the Hudson, Potomac, Delaware, and Susquehanna, and the Mengwe took possession of the lands along the great lakes. The lands along the Delaware be- came the center of the Lenape possessions, but the whole of that nation did not settle there, many remaining west of the mountains, and on the Mississippi, and some beyond that river. Those of the Lenape or Delawares, who reached the Atlantic coast, divided into three tribes, two of which, the Turkey and Turtle tribes, settled between the coast and


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mountains, and extended their settlements beyond the Po- tomac, south. The third tribe, Wolf, or Minsi, afterward corrupted into Monsey, lived back of the two other tribes, and being the most warlike, watched the movements of the Mengue or Iroquois, and in course of time extended their settlements to the Hudson on the east, and west beyond the Susquehanna, and north as far as the heads of that river and the Delaware, while south they penetrated portions of New Jersey, and along the Lehigh, in Pennsylvania.


From these three tribes, in the course of time, sprung many others who took tribal names, and located in different localities, but all looked up to the Lenape as parent tribe, and it was proud to call all these collateral tribes, such as the Mahiccani or Mohican, the Nanticokes, &c., grand- children.


Becoming thus very powerful, the Mengwe or Iroquois, along the great lakes and St. Lawrence, began to be fearful of the Lenape power, and sought to weaken them, by in- volving the Lenapes in a war with the Cherokees of the south. To effect which they killed a Cherokee, and laid a Lenape war club by his side, then charged the murder on the Lenape tribe. This exasperated the Cherokees to war against the Lenape, but the trick being exposed the Cherokees and Lenape united to exterminate the deceitful Mengwe or Iroquois. About that time the French landed in Canada, and the Iroquois being hemmed in by the French on one side, and the Lenape or Delawares on the other side, sought peace, and proposed a confederacy called the " Five Nations Confederacy" for the purpose of driving out the French from their country. This was between the fifteenth and sixteenth century, and the Delewares and Iroquois, af- ter many battles between themselves, effected peace and established the confederacy. The crafty Iroquois then pro- posed to the Delawares to abstain from war with the French, and appear as mediators between the French and Iroquois, as a measure of Indian diplomacy. The Delawares in good faith accepted the trust as neutrals and peace-makers, or as


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the Iroquois termed it, they became women for the good of the confederacy. The Mahiccani or Mohicans, relatives of the Delawares, were also ensnared into becoming women, and were bound not to go to war, but act as peace-makers between the Iroquois and their enemies.


The Delawares having accepted their new functions a feast was celebrated, and all the nations invited thereto, including delegates of the Dutch emigrants who had set- tled in what is now New York. The ceremony over, of being placed in the situation of "the women," the Dela- wares became cousins of the Mengwe, and the Mohicans be- came nephews, the hatchet was buried, and it was agreed that if any nation attacked the Delawares the Mengwe should repel them. The peace belt was laid across the shoulders of the peace-makers, and all foreboded future tranquility.


But no sooner had the Mengwe or Iroquois vassalized the Delawares into the humilitating position of women, than they began their machinations to destroy their power. They induced the Cherokees to declare war, and march against the Delawares, at the same time sending runners to their camps advising them of the approach of the Chero- kees, and promising to assist the Delawares in their expul- sion. Instead of rendering such assistance, they reproached the Delawares in the face of the enemy as "women," as cowards, and held back from the fight until the Delawares were overpowered and defeated, when the Mengwe at once assumed to be their superiors, avowing that they had con- quered and reduced them to vassalage. These avowals were made to the English and other Europeans who by this time had planted colonies along the Atlantic coast, and in a few years had such effect as to induce the latter to believe them. The Delawares and their kindred tribes were yet sufficiently strong to have crushed out the treacherous Iroquois, but their attention was attracted by the landing of Europeans along the Atlantic coast, from New England to Virginia, and their wonder at the ships sailing up the outlets of their


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large rivers, filled them with premonitions of the presence of their great Manitou, or Supreme Being, and hence the Iroquois escaped the punishment merited for their perfidy.


Here ends traditional, and veritable history begins as to the Delawares, Mohicans and their tribal relations, coming to the valleys, under consideration in this book. But be- fore following them across the Alleghanies, a few incidents may be in place.


THEIR FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH LIQUOR.


'An old intelligent Delaware Indian related to Hecke- welder, that a great many years previous, when men with white skins had not yet been seen in the land, some Indian runners reported that a large house of many colors was sailing up the coast toward the bay (New York). The chiefs assembled at York Island, and after seeing it stop, the hunters were sent out for game, and the women ordered to prepare victuals, as a sacrifice to the great Manitou. Other runners reported the strange creature to be filled with human beings of a different color from that of the Indians. Soon a man dressed in red came ashore with several of his color, bowed to the chiefs, and having drank some liquid out of a hackback, presented some to the chiefs, . who passed it among themselves, and were about to return it untasted, when a chief jumped up, and declaring it an insult to the great man to return the liquid without tasting, swallowed a portion, soon staggered, fell, went to sleep, was laid out for dead by his fellow chiefs, then awoke and induced them to partake, and all became drunk, and so remained for some time, during which the great man and his attendants returned to his house (ship), and when the Indians became sober, he again returned to land with beads, axes, hoes, and other articles as presents, after which he departed, telling them by signs he would return the coming year. On his second visit next season the Indians were 5


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much rejoiced, and wore the axes and hoes hanging to their breasts as ornaments, and the stockings given them they had made tobacco-pouches of. The whites then showed them how to cut down large trees with the ax, and to ent- tivate the ground with the hoe. Having gained the friend- ship of the Indians, the whites asked for so much ground for a garden spot as the hide of a bullock would cover. This being granted, the whites ent the hide into a thin long rope, not larger than a child's finger, and drawing it out in a circular form, closed the ends, and the hide thus encom- passing a large piece of land, they took possession. The Indians were surprised at the cunningness of the whites, but assented to the survey, and they lived contentedly for a long time.


After a while the whites successively asked and obtained more land on each request, until the Indians became con- vinced that the whites wanted all their land and refused further grants. They referred to the deception of the bul- lock's hide, and remarked that the land they first conceded to raise greens on was planted with great guns instead, and strong houses were put up on it. Finding the Lenape and Mahiccani averse to more grants, they forcibly took posses- sion of the whole island (New York Island), and proceeded to the Mengwe country, formed a league with them, and obtained from the treacherous Iroquois or Five Nations, a grant of all the Delaware lands, which they claimed to own by right of conquest when they made women of the Lenape, as heretofore related. This treaty is claimed to have been made by the Hollanders (who settled on Manhattan Island) with the Iroquois or Mengwe.


Then the Gengees or Yankees arrived at Machtitschwannc (Massachusetts), and possessed themselves of the choice lands, and on protest being made by the Indians, war was made upon them, and such Indian prisoners as were taken, were carried off in ships to sea, and sold as slaves, or drowned, as none ever came back. Those not captured were driven away, one tribe beyond Quebec, others dis-


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persed in small bodies, some to Pennsylvania, while others went to the West and mingled with tribes there.


In Pennsylvania they were disturbed in like manner by the Swedes and Dutch, to whom they had given meat, and land to live upon. Finally the good miquon (William Penn) came and brought the Delawares words of peace and good will. They lived on the Lenape hittuck (Delaware River) contentedly until he died, when the strangers-land traders and speculators-began by fraud and force to get their lands in that part of the country. To accomplish their object, the strangers sent for the Mengwe (Iroquois) to meet them in council at Lachauwake (Easton), and take the Lenape "by the hair and shake them well." The Mengwe came, told the Lenape or Delawares, and Mahiccani or Mohicans, that they had been made women, had no land, and must be gone out of the country to Wyoming, where they might live.


The Delawares, when first known to the whites, were in subjection to the Iroquois or Five Nations, who claimed to own the territory embraced in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and through the entire western country. The Delawares at that time inhabited a portion of the New Jersey territory and the eastern portion of Pennsylvania, and were held to be in such a state of vassalage to the Five Nations as to be incapable of carrying on war, or of making sales of lands without the consent of their con- querors. Nevertheless they did sell land to the English, which incensed the Iroquois or Five Nations against them. In July, 1742, a council was held at Philadelphia between the governor of the Pennsylvania colony and sundry chiefs of the Six Nations and Delawares, when Cawassatiego, a chief of the Six Nations accused the Delawares of perfidy. Ilis speech is preserved in McIntosh's Book of Indians, and is as follows :


"Cousins : Let the belt of wampum serve to chastise you. You ought to be taken by the hair of the head and shaken severely till you receive your senses and become sober. You don't know what ground you stand on, nor what you


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are doing. Our brother Onas' (the governor of Pennsyl- vania) cause is very just and plain, and his intentions are to preserve friendship; on the other hand, your cause is bad, your heart far from being right. We have seen with our eyes a deed signed by nine of our ancestors about fifty years ago for this very land, and a release signed not many years since by some of yourselves. But how come you to take upon yourselves to sell land at all? We conquered you, we made women of you; you know you are women, and can no more sell land than women; nor is it fit you should have the power of selling land, since you would abuse it. This land that you claim, has gone through your guts. You have been furnished with clothes, meat, and drink, by the goods paid for it, and now you want it again, like children, as you are. But what matters ! You sell land in the dark. Did you ever tell us that you sold them land ? Did we ever receive any part, even. the value of a pipe shank, from you for it? This is very different from the conduct our Six Nations observe in the sale of land. On such occasions they give public notice and visit all the Indians of the united nations, and give them all a share of the presents they receive for their lands. But we find you are none of our blood; you act a distinct part, not only in this, but in other matters; your ears are even open to slanderous reports about our brethren. Therefore, for all these rea- sons, we charge you to remove instantly. We don't give you liberty to think about it. You are women-take the advice of a wise man, and remove immediately. We assign you two places to go : either to Ugoman or Shamokin; you may go to either of these places, and then we shall have you more under our eyes, and shall see how you behave. Don't deliberate, but remove away and take this belt of wampum, which serves to forbid you, your children, and grand-children to the latest posterity, forever meddling in tand affairs; neither you nor any who shall descend from you, are ever hereafter to presume to sell any land."


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Soured and embittered against their conquerors, many of the Delawares retired to the country watered by the Sus- quehanna and Alleghany and their tributaries, and between 1742 and 1750 they reached the Tuscarawas and Muskin- gum. By the year 1768 they had nearly all settled west of the Ohio, and became released from their troublesome rela- tions, the Iroquois, until the breaking out of the American revolution.


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CHAPTER IV.


THE FIRST MILITARY EXPEDITION INTO THE VAL- LEYS IN THE YEAR 1764.


The first English military expedition into Ohio was made in 1764 by Colonel Henry Boquet marching an army of fifteen hundred men into and through what is now Tusca- rawas County to the forks of Muskingum, now Coshocton.


Its object was to punish and awe the Indians, and the history of that campaign is full of thrilling interest to the people at this day.


It will be remembered that the French evacuated Fort Pitt as well as all their forts in the Ohio and lake territory in A. D. 1758 by treaty with the English government. The Indians, however, were not satisfied. They were more friendly to the French than to the English rule over their hunting grounds, having received more presents, more ammunition and whisky from the French than they did wherever subject to English domination. They smothered their feelings until about 1762, when the great north- western war Chief Pontiac had a dream in which the great Spirit appeared to him and said he must arouse the nations and drive the English from the land, and " when you," said the great Spirit to him, "are in distress . I will help you." HIe sent the war belt to all the nations, assembled their warriors before all the British forts, with directions to put on friendly guise, and after getting access to their forts, to slay every man, woman, and child in each garrison and in


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the territory. There were twelve forts in the Indian terri- tory. Of these, nine were taken by Pontiac's strategy dur- ing 1762 and 1763, and the whites not put to death were carried into captivity.


To illustrate the manner and the cunningness of the savages take the fort at Presque Isle, the present locality of Erie, Pennsylvania, as an example : One hundred and fifty Indians appeared in hunting, garb'with skins to sell. The commander of the fort went out a mile or so to look at the furs. Neither he or his guards ever returned, but the savages, each laden with a package of furs on his back, and his knife and a short rifle hid in his hunting frock, came to the fort, asking admittance to unload the furs the com- mander had purchased. Of course the gates were opened, the savages entered, and of all the garrison men, women, and children, but two are reported as having escaped. Other forts were taken by other devices, and the only three not taken were Ligonier, Bedford, and Fort Pitt. The white settlers were raided npon and killed, or carried off, and the whole frontier given up for a time to Indian massacre. The indignation of the colonial authorities was aroused. General Bradstreet marched up the lakes with three thous- and men. Other forces went out, and the Indians were driven back from the forts they had captured. Pontiac's war of extermination was a failure. Chagrined at the great Spirit for not assisting him, he made peace in 1766, became a drunkard, and wandered abont until 1769, when he was killed, near the present St. Louis, by an Illinois Indian in a drunken row, says tradition.


The Delaware, Shawance, and other Indians of the Ohio territory had been assigned by Pontiac to take Forts Pitt, Ligonier, and Bedford, and after his war was over in 1763 they still menaced these forts, and spread terror through- ont western Pennsylvania and Virginia. To punish these savages Colonel Boquet was ordered to march from Phila- delphia against the hostile tribes on the Ohio. Ilis force was one thousand five hundred men, three hundred of whom


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deserted at Carlisle, such was their fear of the savages who had destroyed Braddock's army at Bloody Run nine years before. Boquet was a brave and sagacious chieftain, and he pushed on with his force on Braddock's old trail, through Pennsylvania, until he got to Bushy Run, within four days march of Fort Pitt, in the month of August, 1763, where the combined Indian force of Delawares, Shawanese, Wyan- dots, &c., attacked and fought him for two days and nights, but were finally defeated, losing sixty of their best warriors and chiefs. The Indian army then raised the investment of Fort Pitt, and retired to their homes on the Tuscarawas, Muskingum, Scioto, &c., while Boquet with his shattered army proceeded to Fort Pitt, and were put to garrison duty, being too much ent up to follow the savages that year into Ohio.


At length, on the 3d of October, 1764, he marched from Fort Pitt with one thousand five hundred regulars and militia to the Muskingum country to punish the Delawares and Shawanese and other tribes.


The order of march was as follows: A corps of Virginia volunteers advanced in front, detaching three scouting par- ties ; one of them, preceded by a guide, marched in the center path which the army was to follow. The other two ex- tended themselves in a line abreast, on the right and left, to scour the woods on the flanks. Under cover of this ad- vance guard, the axmen and two companies of infantry followed in three divisions to clear the side paths and cut a road in which the main army and the convoy marched as follows: The front face of the square, composed of parts of two regiments, marched in single file in the right-hand path, and a Pennsylvania regiment marched in the same manner in the left-hand path. A reserve corps of grena- diers followed in the paths, and they likewise by a second battalion of infantry. All these troops covered the con- voy which marched between them in the center path or main road. A company of horsemen and a corps of Vir- ginia volunteers followed, forming the rear guard. The


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Pennsylvania volunteers, in single file, flanked the side paths opposite the convoy. The ammunition and tools were placed in the rear of the first column, which were followed by the baggage and tents. The cattle and sheep came after the baggage, in the center road, properly guarded. The provisions came next on pack-horses. The troops were ordered to observe the most profound silence, and the men to march at two yards distance from each other. By march- ing in this order, if attacked, the whole force could be easily thrown into a hollow square, with the baggage, provisions, &c., in the center.


From the day of starting to the 13th was occupied in reach- ing camp number twelve, by way of Logstown, Big Beaver, Little Beaver, Yellow, Nimishillen and Sandy creeks.


Colonel Boquet's journal says :


" Saturday, October 13, 1764. - Crossed Nenenchelus (Nimishillen) Creek about fifty feet wide, a little above where it empties itself into a branch of the Muskingum (meaning by this branch what is now Sandy Creek). A little further came to another small stream which was crossed about fifty perches above where it empties into the said Muskingum. Here a high ridge on the right and a creek close on the left forms a narrow defile about seventy perches long. Passing over a very rich bottom came to the main branch of the Muskingum about seventy yards wide, with a good ford a little below, and a little above is Tuscarawas, a place exceedingly beautiful in situa- tion, the lands rich on both sides of the river. The country on the north-west side being an entire plain upward of five miles in circumference, and from the ruined houses here appearing, the Indians who inhabited the place and are now with the Delawares are supposed to be about one hundred and fifty warriors." [Supposing each warrior to represent a family of five persons, the town would have numbered seven hundred and fifty Indians.]




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