USA > Ohio > Pioneer history : being an account of the first examinations of the Ohio valley, and the early settlement of the Northwest territory ; chiefly from original manuscripts > Part 37
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459
CAPTIVITY OF DANIEL CONVERS.
spoken during the whole ceremony; yet doubtless many sincere but simple prayers were offered up from the heart to Him who has compassion on the red man as well as the white, in the day of his calamity. The sacrifice " offered in -faith," was accepted; and the sick woman soon after was restored to health.
While they were at the head of the rapids, young Con- vers saw Colonel M'Kee, who had a trading house at that place, and who informed him of the freedom of the two Choates, taken prisoners at the massacre of Big bottom. The fore part of July they left the bay and went up a little above Detroit, apparently to attend a council of Indians, who had assembled to the number of nearly a hundred. For some weeks before this time Daniel had been quite ill with the fever and ague, brought on him from his exposures to the sickly, damp air of the bay shore, and the change in his diet, from the nourishing food of the settlers at Waterford, to the meager fare of the Indians, composed of fresh fish and the flesh of muskrats, without any salt or farinaceous matter, as they raised no corn. His Indian father and mother did all they could with their simple remedies to cure him, but without much benefit.
While at this new camp, he one day strolled along the shore of the river, a little above the town, and fell in com- pany with a white man, unloading hay from a raft, who, learning his captive condition, told him of an Indian trader, named James Van Sheicke Riley, who lived at Saginaw bay, but was then in Detroit, to purchase goods; and if he could find any means of acquainting him with his situation, he would aid him in regaining his liberty. On the night of the 14th of July, the Indians were to have a grand dance. Just as the drums were beating the evening roll call, and the flag was lowered in the fort of Detroit, he strolled away from the encampment, and passing through a field of rye, which partly concealed him, succeeded in reaching the house of a Frenchman, who could talk some English. On
460
ESCAPE OF DANIEL CONVERS.
making known to him his condition and wishes, he kindly concealed him in his chamber, until notice could be sent to Mr. Riley, which he did by his son. He came to him soon after dark, and arranged the plan for his rescue.
While they were in the loft of the Frenchman's house, several Indians came into the room below, in search of the fugitive. The owner of the house stoutly denied having seen any such person as they described. Young Convers now expressed his fears, in a low whisper, that there was no chance of escape; but Riley, who was a stout, athletic man, with an oath, bid him not to fear, for he could whip a dozen Indians, and had often done so in their drunken fro- lics. After a while they departed, and the trader went away, saying that at daylight he would send a young, active Frenchman, with a horse, and have him taken into the fort. The night passed quietly, and at early dawn a man on horseback appeared at the door, behind whom he mounted, and making a rapid circuit round the land-side of the fort, came up to the gate just as the guard were throw- ing it open. His conductor took him to another Frenchman, who concealed him that day in his barn. A lad, the son of his protector, who could speak English, French, and some of the Indian tongues, came and spent the day with him; bringing him food, and cheering him with his lively prattle. In the course of the day, his friend Riley made known the the escape and hiding place of the young American cap- tive, to Major Smith, the commander of the fort (then a British post), who that evening sent his own son, about the age of Daniel, to conduct him to the garrison hospital, where his declining health could be restored, and would also afford a safe retreat from the Indians, whose perseve- rance in search of the runaway, for two or three weeks, was unceasing. But all their inquiries were fruitless, as no one betrayed him, or gave the least hint where he was. As they could hear nothing of him, his Indian father and
461
CONVERS RETURNS HOME.
mother thought he was killed, as they would not believe he would run away from them, and sincerely lamented his loss.
Mr. Riley, who so generously aided in planning his res- cue, some time after returned to the state of New York, and was for several years a postmaster in Schenectady. Young Smith was very assiduous and devoted to the welfare of his Yankee friend, whose pale face and hollow cheeks won deeply on his sympathy. He furnished him with a suit of his own clothes, in place of the Indian dress which he still wore, and brought him wine and other nice things from his father's table. Invigorated by this generous diet, and aided by the attention of the English surgeon, in about four weeks, the health of his protege was fully res- tored, when his sparkling eyes and lively conversation fully repaid him for all his trouble. While secreted in the hospital, Thomas Shaw, one of the prisoners taken at Big bottom, called to see him. It was near the middle of August, when one of the few vessels, which at that day navigated Lake Erie, was about to sail for Niagara. In this vessel Major Smith procured for him, and paid the expense of, a passage down, at the same time charging the captain to treat him kindly, and giving him a letter to the commander at Fort Erie, with instructions to send young Convers on, from post to post, until he reached the United States. Shaw went down with him, in the same schooner, to Niagara, where they arrived in about a week.
Here he staid four weeks, waiting for a passage, boarding in the mean time with a Mr. Seacorn, who kept a tavern, and urged him to stay all winter and go to school, but the commander of the post advised him to go on. From this station he was sent to Cattarque, on the Canada shore of Lake Ontario, since called Kingston, and from there on to Montreal, and St. Johns. The British officers at all the posts uniformly treated him with kindness. At St. Johns, they were at dinner, when the sergeant of the guard handed them his letter of passport. They directly invited him in
462
KIND TREATMENT OF CONVERS.
and seated him at the table; giving him a glass of wine, accompanied with kind words and smiling faces It was a season of festivity, when the generous cheer had softened their hearts. An order was drawn on the commissary for stores to take him through the wilderness to Castleton, in Vermont. Fortunately a party of horse dealers, who had been with a drove to St. Johns, were now ready to return to Vermont, and he went on with them. From Castleton he traveled to his relations in Killingly, Connecticut, but did not get back to Marietta until February, 1794.
Amid the bloodshed and gloom that darken the atro- cities of the Indians, and for many years kept the pioneers in a constant state of watchfulness and fear, there now and then appears a bright spot like a star in the opening clouds of a dreary night. The humanity displayed by the British officers, among whom our prisoners were thrown in the war of 1791, as well as in the preceding hostilities in Kentucky, as testified by Boone, Kenton, and others, deserves our no- tice and highest commendation. Colonel Convers testifies to the uniform humanity with which he was treated, and the utmost deference paid to his condition and wants at every post which he visited. Their reception of him was not only humane, but kind, and gentlemanly. Such con- duct from the subjects of a nation whom we had so long been in the habit of considering our enemies, cannot be too highly applauded, and should never be forgotten.
463
STRENGTH OF THE GARRISON.
CHAPTER XXII.
Strength of the garrison. - Watchfulness of the settlers. - Hamilton Kerr. - Spies at Waterford. - 1793. - Adventure of Judge Devoll. - Abundance of wild game .- Schools. - Religious worship. - 1794 .- Increase of the settlement. - Amusements. - Abel Sherman killed .- Condition of the set- tlement. - 1795. - Sherman Waterman killed. - Settlers leave their garri- sons. - Salt springs. - Value of salt. - Company formed to manufacture salt. - Description of the works .- Two of the salt makers lost in the woods. - Sufferings by cold and hunger. - Great change in the condition of the country.
THE Indians, after their failure in the attack on the gar- rison in 1791, made no other serious attempts to break up the settlements as they had threatened to do. They proba- bly discovered that they were inadequate to any successful assault on a well garrisoned post, with block houses and pickets, without the aid of artillery, and this they could not command. They therefore ceased to send out large war parties against the whites, but continued to harrass them by small bands of four or five warriors, who killed their cattle, and otherwise annoyed them, by constantly keeping them on the watch, when abroad at their work in the field. Their attention was also called off by inroads which were made into their own territories by bands of white men from Kentucky, after the defeat of the army under General St. Clair. This victory gave them great confidence in their own powers, and for a time threatened to overwhelm the frontier settlements. But the gradual assembling of another army, and the posts erected near their own frontiers, served in some measure to check their incursions, and damp their hopes of finally driving their enemies south of the Ohio.
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464
WATCHFULNESS OF SETTLERS.
It is truly wonderful, how small were the number of lives lost by the Waterford settlement, placed as they were on the extreme frontier, and at a distance of twenty miles from any assistance. War parties often passed by them on their way to western Virginia, and frequently without disturbing them. They had no ancient grudge against the colonists of the Ohio company to revenge, as they had against the Virginians; the former having uniformly treated them with kindness, before the breaking out of the war. They sent no expeditions into the Indian country to destroy their villages and crops, but remained peaceably at home attending to the cultivation of their lands, and when the Indians came about them, seldom pursued them. They felt no ill will toward the savages, and only armed to keep possession of their farms, and defend themselves against their attacks. It was with them a war of defense, and one which would never have taken place, but for the cruel and unjust treatment of them by the lawless hunters and bor- derers, of the frontiers of Virginia, and Kentucky. When war parties came round the settlements, they generally found the inhabitants on their guard. If in the fields at work, they always saw two or more sentries placed in the edge of the woods, watching for their approach, while the guns of the laborers, fifteen or twenty in number, were placed under the care of a sentinel, in a spot where they could seize them in a moment. In going to, and returning from their labor, flank guards marched on each side, to give notice of any ambuscade. A guard was kept day and night in the watch tower of the fort, who from his lofty post had a wide range over the district around. The spies or rangers daily traversed the woods for eight or ten miles distance, and immediately returned to give notice if they discovered any signs of Indians, within the circuit of their range, Over foes who were so habitually and constantly watchful, it was difficult for the savages to gain an advantage; and they seldom made an attack where the chances of success
465
RANGERS AT WATERFORD.
are doubtful. At night they sometimes approached the burning log heaps, in the adjacent clearings, and were dimly seen by the sentinel flitting around or past the flames. On these occasions they now and then snatched a burning brand from the heap within the range of rifle shot from the garrison, for the purpose of kindling a fire for themselves, at a more safe distance in the woods.
On one of these occasions when William Sprague was sentry, he saw and fired at an Indian, who dropped the brand and ran. The moccasin tracks of the two Indians who visited Marietta so often, one with a remarkably large and the other with a small foot, were several times seen in the plowed fields at Waterford. It is a very singular fact, that during the period of the war, no conflict took place between the white rangers and the Indian scouts, although they were daily abroad in the woods, and must often have been near each other. Hamilton Kerr one day, as he was ranging the forest a few miles east of Marietta, came un- expectedly upon an Indian at the distance of about eighty yards. He was a fine, tall fellow, who stood leaning on his rifle, with his back towards him, apparently in dee) con- templation. Kerr instantly stopped, and as he raised his rifle to his face, cocked it. The click of the lock warned the Indian of his danger ; his practiced ear knew that sound from every other. Without even turning his head, he dashed off like a stricken deer behind the trees, and was seen no more. The rangers at Waterford for the first year, were Neal McGuffy and William McCullock. In subsequent years, William Newel, Andrew McLure, and John White, acted in this capacity.
McGuffy was an eastern man and a soldier. He was a lieutenant in the army of the United States during the revolutionary war; a very brave man, and distinguished for his heroism at the battle of Germantown ; possessed great coolness and intrepidity in times of danger, and was of es- sential service to the Waterford settlement during the 30
466
ESCAPE OF JUDGE DEVOLL.
period of hostilities, He died at that place some years after the peace.
William McCullock was brought up on the frontiers of Virginia, near Wheeling, and from his youth acquainted with Indian warfare. He came to Waterford about the time the war began, and was employed as a ranger. After the peace he married a daughter of Isaac Zane, whose mother was an Indian. She was said to be a superior woman for intelligence and beauty. He settled at Mad river, on lands given him by Mr. Zane, who owned a large tract presented him by the tribe into which he was adopted. At the time of the late war, he joined the American troops as a volun- teer, and was killed at the battle of Brownstown, greatly lamented by the army.
Narrow escape of Judge Devoll and son.
Mr. Devoll and his son, Gilbert, jr., were both celebrated as expert fishermen, especially in that branch of the art called " spearing," or " gigging." It was practiced in a light canoe, with one man in the stern as steersman, while the sportsman stood in the bow with a slender pole, made of tough ash wood, sixteen feet in length, to one end of which was attached an iron with three prongs, like a trident, six or eight inches in length, the points armed with sharp barbs. This simple instrument an active man would throw to the distance of thirty or forty feet, and pierce a fish at every cast. It required much practice of the eye to judge of the right direction in which to make the throw, as the angle of refraction of the rays of light, reflected from the fish in the water, was very different from that of an object in the air. It also required great muscular strength and quickness of action to give the spear sufficient projectile motion. In the hand of an experienced fisherman it was an instrument of sure and fatal destruction to the finny race. At the period of the arrival of the colonists on the shores of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, their waters abounded in fish, to an
467
ESCAPE OF JUDGE DEVOLL.
extent and number that one of the present day would hardly credit.
The banks of these streams, in the vicinity of the settlers, had for a long period been destitute of any permanent in- habitants, and were only visited occasionally by the sur- rounding savages, who had their villages on the heads and branches of the tributary streams. Under this immunity, the fishes had increased at an astonishing rate. This store, which would seem to have been providentially accumu- lating for the use of the new settlers, afforded no inconsid- erable portion of the animal food used by the inhabitants of Waterford, during the dark period of the Indian war. In the spring months, while the waters were turbid, great numbers were taken with the hook, on what were called " trot lines." In the summer and autumn, when the water was clear, the favorite mode was by spearing, and so plen- tiful were the fish, that in passing from Waterford to Ma- rietta in a canoe, Allen Devoll and David Wilson have oftentimes taken from four to six hundred pounds. They were also taken in this way during winter, through a hole cut in the ice, where the water was deep.
In one of his fishing excursions in the summer of 1793, Gilbert Devoll, with his son, Wanton, had proceeded up the river about four miles to the mouth of Olive Green creek, up the still waters at the outlet of which he was slowly pushing, by using the unarmed end of the spear as a setting pole, looking carefully ahead for fish, when he was suddenly startled by the snort of a horse, apparently only a few rods from the bank. In a moment after, it was answered by another. Knowing that there were no horses belonging to the garrison, he at once concluded they were Indian horses. Motioning to his son to keep quiet, he silently backed the canoe out of the mouth of the creek into the river.
The thick foliage of the overhanging branches of the sycamores, which lined the banks of all the streams, pro- tected them from the view of any one, unless placed near
468
SCHOOLS, RELIGIOUS WORSHIP, &c.
the edge of the bank. With his sight fixed on the shore, expecting every moment to see the swarthy visages and flashing eyes of the savages, with their rifles peering from the covert of the trees, he rapidly, but quietly, gained the opposite side of the Muskingum undiscovered, and hastening homeward to the garrison, gave notice of his alarm. The next morning an armed party, headed by the rangers, visited the spot, and found the ashes and embers of a recent fire, where a band of Indians had encamped, within a few rods of the creek. The horses no doubt discovered their prox- imity by the acuteness of their smell, being able to distin- guish between that of white men and Indians. The horses of whites have often been known to give notice of the vicinity of Indians in the same manner. The conclusion of the rangers was, that the Indians were either asleep, or out watching the garrison, at the time the horses gave the alarm, or they would hardly have failed to search for the cause. By such slender chances, or rather providential occurrences, the early pioneers often escaped with their lives, during the period of Indian hostilities.
Schools, religious worship, g.c.
During the larger portion of the time, especially in the winter, schools were supported and kept up, for the instruc- tion of children. Joseph Frye and Dean Tyler were liber- ally educated men, and were employed at different times as teachers. The lower stories of the block houses afforded suitable rooms; that in the north-east angle was chiefly devoted to public uses, and a sentry constantly posted in its lofty watch tower. Religious worship was kept up gener- ally on the Sabbath, under the guidance of Major Dean Tyler, who read a sermon from the works of some of the old standard divines, accompanied with singing and prayer. A large portion of the inhabitants attended these services, and especially when the Rev. Mr. Story came up from Ma- rietta, which he occasionally did, during the whole period
469
INCREASE OF SETTLEMENT.
of the war. These pastoral visits were made by water, attended by an armed guard, with two or three men as scouts on the shore, to give notice of any hidden foe in the woods. They were always made in safety, and must have been highly appreciated by the inhabitants, or they would not have undergone the labor and hazard of the voyage. A reverential respect was paid to the Sabbath by nearly all the inhabitants, which may be attributed to their early habits, being generally descendants of the puritans, and also to the wholesome laws of Governor St. Clair, who paid special and early attention to this subject, as well as to the suppression of profanity and immorality among the citi- zens under his charge. He truly acted the part of a father, as well as governor, of the infant colonies ; and his name and character ought to be far more highly esteemed and known, than they now are by the people of Ohio.
1794.
In the course of the year quite a number of inhabitants were added to the garrison, being called in by the notice published and sent abroad into the neighboring states of there being one hundred thousand acres of land to be given away to actual settlers. The assembling of the army by General Wayne on the frontiers, occupied the attention of the Indians, and the colonists were not so often molested. They had also become more familiar with war, after a training of three years, and began to have more confidence in themselves, and less dread of their enemies. From the accession of so many additional families, the room within the garrison began to be straitened, and the inhabitants thought it best to send out a small colony, and erect defenses on the Muskingum, at the mouth of Olive Green creek, four miles above Fort Frye. In the spring of this year a block house was erected, with three or four cabins, and the whole inclosed with pickets. This station sheltered about thirty souls, and the names of the families were as follows, viz :
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AMUSEMENTS OF SETTLERS.
George Ewing, wife, and seven children ; among them was Thomas Ewing, then about four years old, and since distin- guished as one of our most eminent public men. Ezekiel Hoit, wife, and family of children ; Abel Sherman and wife, two sons, young men ; Ezra Sherman, and wife, also a son of Abel; Aaron Delong, wife and son, two daughters. Mathew Gallant, wife, and several children. Mathew was quite celebrated among the pioneers for his eccentricities and hardy exploits, some of which are related in the second volume of the American Pioneer.
Amusements of the carly settlers.
Games at ball of various kinds, with foot races, were their favorite sports, especially when celebrating the anni- versary of the 7th of April, which was strictly kept for many years by all the inhabitants. At these games both old and young zealously engaged. Dancing was another diversion much practiced by the youth, and encouraged by the elders, as affording a healthy exercise in which the females could also bear a part. No distinctions of family, or office, were then made ; all were on a level, and all ex- posed to the same dangers and privations, rendering them mutually dependent on each other, for aid and assistance. They were united in bonds of friendship like one great family, bound and held together in a common brotherhood by the perils which surrounded them. In after years, when each household lived separate in their own domicil, they looked back on these days with satisfaction and pleasure, as a period in their lives when the best affections of the heart were called forth and practiced towards each other. On festive occasions, such as Christmas and Newyear, they were so unfortunate as not to be possessed of a single violin in the garrison; while a few years later, nearly every keel boat and barge on the western rivers carried one or more fiddles, and every night the men amused themselves with a hornpipe on the deck of the boat, or by the camp fire.
471
ABEL SHERMAN KILLED.
This practice was no doubt introduced by the French boat- men from Kaskaskia and St. Louis, who were always fond of the dance, and the music of the viol. A pretty good substitute was, however, found on these joyous occasions, in the voice of an elderly man, who had been a sailor in his youth, and was familiarly known to the inmates of the gar- rison by the name of Uncle Sam Mitchell, or more briefly, " Uncle Sam." He was fond of a dram, and with the aid of the enlivening beverage, would keep up a strain of fine vocal music the whole night. When toward daylight he became a little drowsy, a kind word and another glass set all right again. He oftener tired out the dancers, than they him. The older married men amused themselves with a game at whist, and passed the time very agreeably on these evenings, over a bowl of hot whisky punch and a plentiful supper, at which the good wives sometimes joined, although they usually preferred their tea to any other enlivening drink. By the aid of such homely and simple pastimes, the five years confinement within the walls of the garrison passed cheerfully and rapidly away.
Abel Sherman killed by the Indians.
Early in June, 1794, a small war party, of three Indians, visited the Waterford settlement, for the purpose of plunder and scalps. One of their common modes of waylaying the inhabitants, was to take possession of the cows, which during the summer ranged in the woods, and found an abundant supply of food in the luxuriant growth of pea vine and buffalo clover, that grew spontaneously in the forests. In this instance, they kept the cows of the settlers at Olive Green, back in the hills, for one or two days, knowing that their owners would not fail to come out in search of them, and they could capture or kill them without danger to themselves. Among the cows was one belong- ing to Abel Sherman, a stout, resolute old man, of nearly sixty years. Against the advice of the other settlers,
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