USA > Ohio > Ohio's progressive sons; a history of the state; sketches of those who have helped to build up the commonwealth > Part 2
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SUNDOWN ON LAKE ERIE, AT CEDAR POINT, OHIO
energetic preparations for the settlement of their land; while throughout the border prov- inces numerous bands of sturdy husbandmen eagerly sought to dispose of their farms and superfluous stock for the purpose of providing the means to establish themselves in a new home on the fertile borders of the river of whose beauty they had heard so much. But be- fore these extensive arrangements were finally completed an Indian conspiracy was dis- covered, which for a time seriously threatened to deprive England of a large portion of that territory which she had so lately acquired from the French by right of conquest. Taking advantage of the existing feelings among the Indians against the European intruders, Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawas, a warrior of extraordinary courage and sagacity, formed the daring scheme of uniting numerous tribes of the Northwest into one common confederacy, having for its end a simultaneous massacre of the English at all points. The organization of the formidable conspiracy, notwithstanding the difficulties they had to encounter in reconciling existing enemies, was at length successfully effected, and one by one the Chippewas, Delawares, Mingos, Wyandots and Mi- amis united with the Ottawas and arranged in secret the details of the uprising. All this time the Eng- lish traders were received with apparent friendship. The hardy pioneers, whose axes were already heard ringing through the forest aisles of the wilderness, reposed after their daily toil in fancied security. The slender garrisons which occupied the strategic points abandoned by the French, kept careless
A LOG CABIN
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watch and not a single whisper warned them of the terrible danger by which they were threatened. Around the forts at Michillimacinac, Detroit, Le Boeuf, Vinango, Presque Isle, on the Mau- mee and on the Wabash, at Sandusky, Fort Pitt, Niagara and other stations of inferior note, hordes of fierce warriors were silently gathering. Simultaneously, in the spring of 1763, they fell upon the traders throughout all the region of the Northwest and barbar- ously murdered two hundred of them, including their servants. Nearly at the same time nine English forts were surprised and captured, and many of the garrisons put to death with all the horrors attending Indian warfare.
Fort Michillimacinac was taken by surprise and nearly one half of the garrison was killed. The remainder, stripped and plundered of all they possessed, were made prisoners of war. Previous to this the troops at Detroit had barely escaped a similar fate. The surprise of the latter post was attempted by Pontiac in person. Failing in his object through the vigilance of Major Gladwin, the commander, he turned the assault into a siege, and from the 9th of May until the beginning of December held it closely surrounded, notwithstanding the efforts made by Amherst to relieve it. The garrison at Fort Miami, on the Maumee, was also over- powered by a treacherous act of the Indians, while the loss of the post at Presque Isle led, on the 18th of June, to the fall of Fort Le Boeuf. Fort Pitt was likewise surrounded by the sav- ages, whose vigilance prevented the famished garrison from procuring the supplies they so much needed. The frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia were steeped in blood : the homes of the settlers were burned to the ground ; the stock driven off and their fields laid waste. It was an awful period of terror, distress and confusion, and for many months those who had as yet happily escaped the ferocious onslaught slept in their clothes with ready hands upon their weapons. Finally an expedition was organized for the relief of Fort Pitt. It consisted of two shattered regiments of regulars, the command of which was given to Colonel Bou- quet. He reached Bedford on the 25th of July. Marching along the new road opened by the troops under General Forbes, he was attacked on the 5th of August by a large force of In- dians near Bushy Run, a small tributary of the Monongahela. For two days the Indians continued the contest with unusual vigor and resolution, but though the troops were at first thrown into confusion, they were rallied by the gallantry of their officers and finally suc- ceeded in routing the enemy with considerable loss.
The relief of Fort Pitt and their failure to make any impression upon the forts at Detroit and Niagara threw a gloom over the prospects of the confederated tribes, who now began to feel that their power was not equal to the accomplishment of their design. Cha- grined at having met with but partial success, and perhaps conscious that retaliation would inevitably follow, they grew suspicious of one another. The feuds, which union in a common cause had temporarily allayed, now broke out once more. Separating in anger. they depart- ed for their respective villages, leaving Pontiac with a few faithful followers to bear the consequences of the bloody project he had originated. A prize being set upon his head, he returned to Illinois, where he resided for several years, and where he finally met his death at the hands of an Indian while endeavoring to unite the tribes of that region in a new war against the whites. Two months after the relief of Fort Duquesne a proclamation was issued by the British Government regulating trade with the Indians and prohibiting an indis- criminate settlement upon their lands. This manifesto, in connection with an expedition under Bradstreet, which marched the following summer into the country bordering upon Lake Erie, and another under Bouquet, to the Indian town upon the Ohio, was productive of the most beneficial results. Treaties with the Indians were concluded shortly after.
The first attempt made by European people to occupy land on the banks of the Ohio River was made in 1766, eighteen years after several members of the Virginia House
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of Burgesses, as the Legislature of that English colony was designated, in connec- tion with certain London merchants, had obtained from the British Government the grant of land previously mentioned. In the spring of that year several families from the eastern side of the mountains, principally from Virginia and Maryland, crossed the divide, and selecting for themselves the most attractive and fertile spots on the banks of the Monongahela River, erected their log cabins and commenced clearing and planting the land. This they did with no recognition of the Indian prior right to ownership. These pioneers were of a low class, and it does not appear that they paid any attention to the English and Virginia gentlemen to whom the grant by the government had been made. They despised the Indians, made no effort to conciliate them, and, if any of them ventured to remonstrate they were met with coarse abuse and insults. It was natural that the Indians should feel aggrieved. By the French, whose allies they had been in their recent war with the British, they had been treated with courtesy and their rights respected, but by these English, as they designated all who spoke that language, it was plain they were going to be robbed and driven from their homes. Their agent protested against the conduct of those squatters, and General Gage,
GORGE OF THE CUYAHOGA RIVER, NEAR AKRON, O.
then Commander-in-chief of the British forces of the American colonies, issued a procla- mation denouncing their conduct, but they bade him defiance. Fearless alike of the hostility of the Indians or the commands of the military authorities they took up land wherever they chose, and occupied it.
In the meantime the stream of emigration continued to cross the mountain range and penetrate among the pleasant solitudes on either side of the Ohio River. Often traveling in large bands, these insurgent parties had in themselves sufficient strength to forcibly occupy any tract of land they fancied. It was entirely due to their license and these conditions which led to what in 1774 took the name of "Lord Dunmore's War," and which had its inception in the acts of an unprincipled desperado who called himself Colonel Cresap. On the 27th of April, 1774, this man, who had built his log cabin in the vicinity of the present city of Wheeling, and who devoted his time principally to the extermination of Indians, learned that two Indian families had arrived and camped a few miles higher up the river, where they were peacefully engaged trapping and hunting. With a gang of congenial characters he proceeded to the spot, attacked the unoffending people and murdered them all, remov- ing to his cabin their game and furs. Hearing of the location of another camp a few miles
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down the river, these white savages went there and murdered these Indians also. Shortly afterwards a party of Indians, peacefuly encamped some forty miles above Wheeling, were, by one of Cresap's gang, named Greathouse, with seven others, approached and by the most atrocious treachery murdered. In this most unprovoked and unwarranted massacre the entire family of an Indian chief named Logan, who had always been a friend of the white men, and whose name will always have an honorable place in history, was exter- minated. The news of this massacre soon reached the tribes throughout the Ohio Valley, and assuming that no such crimes could be perpetrated without authority from the British government, they called a council of war and decided to take immediate vengeance. The executive authorities of Pennsylvania and Virginia at once dispatched messengers to the settlements to warn the inhabitants, and the consternation became general. Many aban- doned all they possessed and fled across the mountains to their former home, while others sought refuge in the log house forts which they erected. It was in vain the Indian agents assured the chiefs that those murders were done by men who for perpetrating them had been outlawed, and were then fugitives from justice. The Indian war whoop could be heard in all directions, and those settlers who were unable to find timely shelter were
CUYAHOGA FALLS, NEAR AKRON, O.
slaughtered and scalped without mercy. To retaliate, the Legislature of Virginia empow- ered the Governor to arm five hundred volunteer militiamen, who, having crossed the mountains for Wheeling, descended the Ohio River from that point in flatboats to the mouth of the Muskingum, and, ascending that river, they destroyed the Indian villages as far as Zanesville, killing many Indians, and thus confirming the Indian belief that the mas- sacres by Cresap and Greathouse were instigated by the authorities. It was now deter- mined that as halfway measures served but to exasperate the Indians to fiercer and more cruel treatment of the whites wherever the latter were exposed, a sufficient force to destroy them wholly should be recruited. Three thousand men, it was estimated, should be sufficient for this purpose, and this force was formed and divided into two bodies by the Governor of Virginia. One of these bodies, under the command of General Lewis, was directed to assemble at Fort Union, in Greenbriar County, and from there proceed down the Kanawha Valley to the mouth of the river and await the arrival of Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Vir- ginia, who, with the other body of nineteen hundred men, were to ascend the Cumberland Valley, in Maryland, cross the mountains to the Monongahela River, descend that stream until it reached the Ohio, and proceed down the latter in boats until it joined the first body
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under General Lewis at Point Pleasant. After undergoing much hardship on their march of one hundred and sixty miles, the force under General Lewis was met by a messenger, who reported that Lord Dunmore had resolved to land at the mouth of what is known as the Hocking River, and cross to the Indian villages on the Scioto, which was then the cen- ter of the Indian population, and where he would await the arrival of General Lewis.
The latter had encamped his command on the angle of land called Point Pleasant, formed by the Kanawha entering the Ohio River. Not counting on being attacked, although having plenty of time to do so, he made no provisions for defense. The Indians had stealthily watched his movements, and on the night of the 9th of October had approached as close to his encampments as possible without being discovered. The next morning at daybreak they poured into the troops a murderous fire of well-aimed bullets. The force of Indians was so large that it formed a heavy line. of battle from river to river, and that its fire was effective may be believed from the fact that of Lewis' division two Colonels, five Captains, three Lieutenants and more than one hundred of the rank and file were killed, while the wounded officers and men numbered one hundred and forty. This battle raged
OLD MAID'S KITCHEN CUYAHOGA FALLS
all during the day. The loss of the Indians was never known, but as the Virginians were all good marksmen they probably did equally as effective execution. This was evident by the retreat of the Indians during the night, and they did not appear again to attack either wing of the invading army. The lack of military skill exhibited by General Lewis was lamentable. Instead of fortifying the delta which he occupied during the eleven days previous to the Indian attack, he began the same quite uselessly afterwards. In a few days, leaving his wounded fully protected, he marched with the greater part of his command up the south bank of the Ohio to join Lord Dunmore at the mouth of the Hocking. The latter had arrived there safely, having descended the Ohio in boats. Arriving at the mouth of the Hocking, he passed up that river to its falls and from there directed his march to within three miles of the Indian towns on the Scioto and about seven miles south of what is today the county seat of Pickaway. There he constructed an entrenched camp, enclos- ing about twelve acres, with a strong breastwork of trees felled for the purpose. In the center of this enclosure he built a citadel of logs, surrounding it with a ditch and earth- works, the latter being so surmounted with timber as to render the place impregnable to a foe armed as were the Indians. In the center of the citadel was pitched the tent provided
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for the commanding General and his staff, and over it waved the English flag of the Gov- ernor of Virginia, who, in honor of his Queen, had named the fortification Fort Charlotte. Upon seeing these works, the Indian chiefs who had failed to completely destroy their enemy at Point Pleasant were effectually disheartened and, conscious that the junction of the two invading forces only remained to take place for a general attack to be made upon their villages, they sent into the citadel delegation after delegation for terms of peace. Lord Dunmore was as humane as he was brave and cautious. He was fully advised of the cause of the ward, and had therefore no desire to consign the aboriginal possessors of the soil to general slaughter. Nevertheless, he desired to assure the Indians that if they per- sisted in their retaliatory measures, they would certainly be exterminated. Receiving small detachments of their delegations, he had them recount their wrongs. As the most worthy example of those wrongs, the speech of the Indian chief Logan may here be preserved. Of it President Jefferson said, when entirely assured of its authenticity : "I may challenge all the orators of the Greeks and Romans to produce the equal of the speech of Logan."
The circumstances attending the delivery of this speech we quote from Atwater's History of Ohio: "Though Logan would not attend in person Lord Dunmore's council, yet urged by the chiefs who were eager to be relieved of the presence of Dunmore's army, he sent his speech in with a belt of wampum to be delivered to Lord Dunmore by a faithful interpreter, and by the bearer of the wampum, as was the Indian custom, this speech was faithfully delivered to the commanding General, who received it seated under an oak tree that had been enclosed, and which still stands in a field seven miles from Circleville, in a southerly direction. As the wampum bearer spoke, the interpreter translated the speech, sentence by sentence, and as it was delivered it was written. Its authenticity is placed beyond the shadow of a doubt, and it of right belongs and forever will belong to the his- tory of Ohio. This speech is as follows :
"I appeal to any white men to say if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry and I gave him no meat ; if he came naked and cold and I clothed him not. During the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate of peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen, as they passed me, said, Logan is the friend of the whites. I had thoughts of living among you, but for the injuries done me by one man. Colo- nel Cresap, last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, sparing not even my women and children. There runs not one drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice in the beams of peace. But do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."
At this time General Lewis had marched up the southern bank of the Ohio to a point nearly opposite the mouth of the Hocking, from which he and his troops were ferried across by Lord Dunmore's flotilla, and although met by a messenger bearing a command of the latter, that he return with his force to Virginia. as peace was about to be concluded, he ordered their march toward the new fort. When within a few miles Lord Dunmore and his staff rode out to meet them, and had to pre-emptorily repeat his orders in person before Gen- eral Lewis consented to obey. Even then nothing but the dissimilarity in the relative strength of the respective commands compelled obedience. Lord Dunmore had more than twice the force under Lewis, and besides could with one word turn the whole body of the Indians upon him. Consequently, though smarting under their loss at Point Pleasant and urged by their feelings to revenge that loss on the Indians, the order of Lord Dunmore that
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they direct their march for home was obeyed. Lord Dunmore tarried for some time in his fort, and until he concluded very amicable arrangements with the Indians, when, with his command, he also returned to Virginia. This terminated the "Lord Dunmore War."
That Lord Dunmore, the last Royal Governor of Virginia, rendered himself excessively unpopular by ordering Lewis back is certain, and it hastened his final abandonment of the colony. He was compelled to seek refuge on a British vessel for protection from his own people. Whether his object while at Camp Charlotte was to make the Indians friendly to the English crown and unfriendly to the colonists in case of a war between the two countries, which so soon followed this campaign is not known with absolute certainty, but George Washington always believed that Lord Dunmore's object was to engage the Indians to take up the tomahawk against the colonists should war exist between the colonies and Eng- land. Six months previous to the treaty at Camp Charlotte the first revolutionary skirmish took place in the streets of Lexington, Massachusetts. From that time both parties steadily prepared for the contest which was plainly seen to be rapidly approaching. To alarm the fears of the disloyal colonies by the danger of a general border war, British emissaries were sent among the various Indian tribes to enlist their aid in the coming struggle. The Iro- quois, influenced by the son of Sir William Johnson, the former Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and by the arts of Colonel Guy Johnson, who had succeeded his deceased uncle as Indian Superintendent, at once declared in favor of England. Fearing the Western Indians would be brought over in a similar manner the Provisional Congress, during the year 1775, organized three Indian departments, over which commissioners were appointed for the pur- pose of maintaining friendly relations with such tribes which were disposed to remain neu- tral. Conferences with the Indians were also ordered to be held in each department, and the reason why Americans had resumed a hostile attitude against England was to be explained to the Indians by the means of an allegory. To bring the cause of quarrel down to the simple comprehension of the red men America was compared to a child ordered to carry a pack too heavy for its strength. The boy complained and for answer the pack was made a little. heavier. Again and again the boy remonstrated, but he had servants misrepresent the mat- ter to the father and the boy got continually a heavier burden, until, at last, almost broken backed, he threw off the load and said he will carry it no longer. In the midst of these prepara- tions for war a peaceful colony of Christian Indians were settled quietly at Schoenbrunn, on the Muskingum. As early as 1758, Charles Frederick Post, the indefatigable and sagacious Moravian, penetrated to the Muskingum and obtained permission from the Delawares, who had recently removed there, to settle on the east side of that river at the junction of its two forks, the Sandy and Tuscarawas. On the spot designated by the Indians, Post, in 1761, built a log cabin, and then returned to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to seek a suitable associ- ate who might teach the Indian children to read and write, while the former preached to the savages. This companion he found in John Heckewelder, who at the age of nineteeen, was released from an apprenticeship to a cedar cooper, for the purpose of joining Post on his benevolent errand. In March, 1762, the pair started on their hazardous journey, narrowly es- caping the blizzards of the Alleghenies, as well as the swollen streams, but encouraged by the hospitality of Colonel Bouquet and Captain Hutchins, then stationed at Fort Pitt, the adventurers crossed the Beaver River, assisted by Indians residing there. After a pilgrm- age of thirty-three days they arrived at their destination. They entered their cabin singing a hymn. Heckewelder, in his memoirs says that "no one lived near on the same side of the river, but on the other side, a mile down the stream, resided a trader named Thomas Cal- houn, a moral and religious man. Further south was situated an Indian town called Tus-
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carora, consisting of about forty wigwams. A mile still further down the stream a few families had settled, and eight miles above there was another luidian village."
Although the Indians had allowed Post to ereet his cabin, during his absence they had become suspicious, fearing that the missionary scheme was a mere pretense, in order to enable the white people to obtain a footing in the Indian country, and that in course of time a fort w uld be erected. When they observed Post marking out three acres of ground for a cornfield, and beginning to cut down trees, they were alarmed and ordered him to appear before them at the council house on the following day, and in the meantime to desist from doing any further work on the premises. On his appearance before them at the time appointed. the speaker. in the name of the council, delivered the following address: "Brother! Last year you asked our leave to come and live with us, for the purpose of instructing us and our children, to which we consented ; and now, being come, we are glad to see you. Brother! It appears to us that you must since have changed your mind, for instead of instructing us and our children, you are cutting down trees on our land ; you have marked out a large spot of
BLACK RIVER FALLS IN THE DRY SEASON ELYRIA, OHIO
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 those intruders, and thus our country will be claimed by the white people, and we driven farther back as has been the case ever since the white people came into this country. Say, do we not speak the truth?" In his answer to this address Post said : "Brother! What you said 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 as to ask of you provisions for my support, knowing that you already have families to provide for. I thought of raising my own bread : and believed that three acres of ground were little enough for that. You will recollect that I told you last year that I was a messenger from God, and prompted by him to preach and make known his will to the Indians. that they also by faith might be saved, and become inheritors of his heavenly king- dom. Of course, land I do not want a foot, neither will my raising a sufficiency of corn and
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