USA > Ohio > Scioto County > Scioto sketches; an account of discovery and settlement of Scioto County, Ohio > Part 2
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The volume, from which this extract was taken, con- tains Lewis Evans's Map of 1755, improved by
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Pownall, in the light of later discoveries. From this map, we learn that Necunsia Skeintat is the tributary of the Scioto, now known as Paint Creek, and that the Cuttawas country is the valley of the Catawba River in the Carolinas inhabited by the Catawba Indians. This tribe waged constant war with the Shawnees, Iro- quois, and other northern tribes. The map describes a "common Path to the Cuttawas Country." This path was known as the Warriors' Path. It led from the Shawnee village, at the mouth of the Scioto River, south to the north fork of the Kentucky River, known as Warriors Branch, thence up this river and through Cumberland Gap. The Ouasioto Mountains are the ridges in southeastern Kentucky, and the adjoining parts of West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee, ex- tending from the headwaters of the Kentucky River to and beyond the Kanawha River. The Gap of Ouasioto was the name applied to the pass through which this trail crossed the mountains .* Moville is a variant form of Mobile.
The Indian population in Scioto County was very small when the white man first entered it. The Indians preferred the prairie country, in central and northern Ohio, to the rough hills and densely forested valleys of Scioto County. That region was merely a summer hunting ground for the tribes that occupied villages to the north and south of it. In fact, there were but two Indian villages of importance on the Ohio River, one, the Shawnee village at the mouth of the Scioto, and the other, Logstown. Yet, the existence of the many mounds and other earthworks, and the plentiful supply of stone axes and flint arrowheads, strewn over the fields, give evidence that at some time, before the com- ing of the white man, the Ohio Valley had been popu- lated by tribes that were numerous.
*The Wilderness Trail, by Charles A. Hanna, Vol. 2, pp. 125-259.
III THE FIRST WHITE WOMAN IN SCIOTO COUNTY
Before the Revolutionary War, many tribes of In- dians roamed over the region which now constitutes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia. As the home of the Indian was transitory, and his tent, food, and clothing were supplied from the game of the forest, he could live only where the game was abundant. To properly understand our pioneer history, it must be borne in mind that the Indian was a traveler over exten- sive ranges. The same tribes would wander over the country about Detroit, along the Maumee or Sandusky rivers, thence down the Miami or Scioto to the Ohio, and into what is now Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas.
One reason for their wanderings is due to the game supply. Constant hunting in one locality will drive out the game. The Indians required many wild animals to supply them with meat, clothing, and tents. In order to keep themselves provided with these necessities, they were obliged to move whenever game became scarce. Sufficient game to feed, clothe, and shelter them indefi- nitely did not exist within any limited area. Another reason, for their wandering, is that the Indian is, by nature, nomadic. In this respect, the Ohio Valley In- dians were not different from the Indians west of the Mississippi. The tribes now in northern Canada often pitch their tents for the winter three or four hundred miles from their summer camps. Even while on good
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hunting and trapping grounds, they will roam exten- sively. Among the tribes, that wandered north and south of the Ohio River were Wyandottes, Shawnees, Miamis, and Delawares.
A very small colony of white people had made a settlement, prior to 1755, in what is now Montgomery County, Virginia. The place was called Draper's Mead- ows. On July eighth of that year, a band of roving Shawnees from the Scioto River attacked and destroyed this settlement. They burned the settlers' homes, mur- dered four of the inhabitants, wounded four, and cap- tured four adults along with some children .* Among those taken prisoner, were Mary Ingles and her two boys, one of whom was two and the other four years of age. The age of Mrs. Ingles was about twenty-three. Other prisoners were Mrs. John Draper and Henry Leonard.
The Indians collected horses, firearms, ammunition, and goods of light weight that could be taken with them, and set out for the village at the mouth of the Scioto. They followed the general courses of the New, Kanawha, and Ohio rivers to the Shawnee village at the mouth of the Scioto, where they arrived in August 1755. On the journey, Mrs. Ingles gave birth to a daughter. Shortly after reaching the Indian village, all the prisoners, except Mrs. Ingles, were forced to run the gauntlet. The spoils of the raid were divided among the Indians. In accordance with the custom of the Indians, the prisoners were then separated. One of Mrs. Ingles's boys was taken to Detroit, the other somewhere to the interior, and the infant was left with her.
After Mrs. Ingles had settled down to the drudgery and monotony of life in an Indian camp, a party of French traders, voyaging down the Ohio, landed at the Scioto. Their stock of goods was selected with the
"The Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, by John P. Hale (1886).
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view of attracting the fancy of the Indians. Among the goods was a supply of check shirting, which met with instant favor among the Indians.
Mrs. Ingles was greatly distressed over the loss of her boys, she longed to return to Virginia, she realized that she was in the power of her captors, but the hope of escape was ever in her mind. She knew that oppo- sition to the savages meant a close guard, possibly her death, certainly that of her babe; therefore, this brave woman gave no indication of her thoughts, but created the impression that she was reconciled to her situation and willing to remain. The presence of the French traders gave her the opportunity to further her plans of escape.
Dressed deerskins are not well adapted for clothing because, when wet, they absorb water freely and stretch. When dried, they shrink and become very hard. The Indians much preferred that their shirts be made of cloth. As Mrs. Ingles was an excellent seamstress, the Indians traded with the Frenchmen for shirting, and Mrs. Ingles made the shirts. This pleased not only the Indians, but also the traders; for it enabled the latter to drive many good bargains. To show their apprecia- tion, the traders gave Mrs. Ingles sufficient material to renew her own clothing and to clothe her babe. The Indians were so happy in their new garments that they relaxed their vigilance over her movements. -
Mrs. Ingles remained at the mouth of the Scioto about two months and was then taken by the Indians to Big Bone Lick, Boone County, Kentucky. While there, she escaped and made her way back to her Vir- ginia home, arriving there about the first of December. In order to escape, it was necessary to leave her infant to the mercy of the Indians; but in mercy, the Indian was sadly lacking. The homeward journey of this woman, through a trackless forest, the difficulties she
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encountered, in fording streams, climbing mountains, and securing food, her sufferings from hunger and cold, form one of the most pathetic stories of pioneer history.
Nothing was ever heard of the younger of her two boys. The older was ransomed from the Indians by his father about twelve years after his capture. The customs of the Indian had been so indelibly impressed upon this boy, however, during the years of his boyhood, that it was with difficulty that his father was able to pre- vail upon him to return to the mother whom he had long since forgotten. For several years after his return, he clothed himself in the garb of the Indian and killed his game with bow and arrow.
Such were the hardships, which the first white woman experienced at the mouth of the Scioto River. While the bravery, hardihood, and will-power displayed by this woman are difficult for this generation to com- prehend, there is no doubt that, under equally severe stress and strain, ample proof would be forthcoming that the same fortitude still exists.
IV THE MENACE TO SETTLEMENTS IN OHIO
There were two accessible routes that led from the colonies into Ohio and Kentucky. One, through Ten- nessee and Kentucky by way of the Cumberland Gap, called Boone's trail, and known as the Wilderness Road; the other way was by the Ohio River. The latter route was preferable because the journey could be made in boats, with little effort, while over the Wilderness Road, travel by the laborious and slow pack train was a necessity.
But the hostility of the Indians at the mouth of the Scioto was so bitter that the Wilderness Road was the principal highway in the early days. While natural advantages in transportation routes favored settlements in the Ohio Valley, and in the interior of Ohio, in ad- vance of the settlement of the Kentucky interior, the Indian made such routes so dangerous that they were not utilized. Settlers from Virginia and Carolina en- tered Kentucky by the Wilderness Road, but settlers from Pennsylvania and New York could not safely enter either Ohio or Kentucky by the Ohio River. The Indian chief, Corn Planter, declared that the Ohio River should forever be the boundary between the Indians and the whites. The north bank of the Ohio was known as the Indian side.
Daniel Boone first entered Kentucky in 1769. Dur- ing the next few years, settlers came in rapidly. In 1783, the white population of Kentucky was estimated at twelve thousand. But the danger in Kentucky from
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Indian attack was so great; and so many settlers were murdered by the Indians, that the whites, under neces- sity, erected their cabins in stockades and had block- houses for protection. Between 1783 and 1790, more than fifteen hundred whites were killed or captured by the Indians in Kentucky.
The tribes that committed these depredations lived in Ohio along the Miami, Maumee, and Sandusky rivers. They would travel from their villages in central and northern Ohio to the Ohio River over well worn trails or down watercourses. Crossing into Kentucky, they would kill such settlers as they could, plunder and burn their homes, and return to the Indian towns. The presence of these Indian towns in Ohio made the settle- ment of central and northern Ohio more hazardous, even, than the settlement of Kentucky; and the move- ment of Indian war parties along and across the Ohio River, retarded the settlement of the region bordering on the Ohio River. For these reasons, Ohio was settled much later than Kentucky. Marietta was settled in the spring of 1788, under protection of a blockhouse known as Fort Harmar. Cincinnati was settled in the fall of the same year, under protection of Fort Washington. Gallipolis was settled in 1790 and Manchester in 1791. As we shall see, the existence of the Scioto River pre- vented early settlements between Gallipolis and Man- chester.
The name of the Scioto River is derived from the Indian word Seeyotoh, meaning Great Legs .* The Indians gave the Scioto this name on account of its many long tributaries. These branches extend for many miles east and west of the river. In the northern part of the state, they spread out like a fan over an extensive domain. Such conditions made the Scioto a favorite Indian highway.
*The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States.
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Between the Scioto and Sandusky rivers, there was a very short portage. This is well described by James Smith, who lived in northern Ohio from 1755 to 1759 as a captive of the Indians. In the narrative of his captivity, he thus describes the Sandusky-Scioto por- tage:
"This place is in the plains betwixt a creek that empties into Sandusky, and one that runs into Scioto; and at the time of high water, or in the spring season, there is but about one half mile of portage, and that very level, and clear of rocks, timber or stones; so that with a little digging there may be water carriage the whole way from Scioto to Lake Erie."*
That such was the means of communication between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, from time imme- morial, is shown by the reference to it in a report, dated October 30, 1718, from the governor of Canada to the Council of Marine at Paris. The governor thus de- scribes the route of the Indians of Detroit and Lake Huron to the Ohio River:
"They ascend the Sandusquet river two or three days, after which they make a small portage, a fine road of about a quarter of a league. Some make canoes of elm bark and float down a small river that empties into the Ohio."
Indian tribes could swiftly and easily paddle to the Ohio River in light canoes, not only from the vast area in central Ohio, drained by the Scioto, but from the Great Lakes. Its ease of access made the mouth of the Scioto a strategic point, at which the Indians could assemble to attack settlers coming down the Ohio. The lack of a fort, such as was erected at the mouths of the Muskingum and the Miami, gave the Indians the greatest possible freedom on the lower Scioto.
Easy portages also afforded communication from the Maumee and Wabash rivers to the Miami and from the Cuyahoga River to the Muskingum. It was by the Muskingum, Scioto, or Miami rivers that La Salle
* An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Col. James Smith (1799).
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descended to the Ohio River. This network of tributary streams, connecting the Great Lakes with the Ohio River, was under the control of the Indians. Settlers could not establish locations in Ohio until the Indians were subdued.
Burnet, in "Notes on The North-Western Terri- tory" (1847), has left us an excellent description of the perils that beset the pioneer who attempted to pass the mouth of the Scioto River:
"The pioneers who descended the Ohio, on their way westward, will remember while they live, the lofty rock standing a short distance above the mouth of the Scioto on the Virginia shore, which was occupied for years by the savages, as a favorite watch-tower, from which boats, ascending and descending, could be discovered at a great distance. From that memorable spot, hundreds of hu- man beings, men, women and children, while unconscious of im- mediate danger, have been seen in the distance and marked for destruction. The murders and depredations committed in that vicinity at all periods of the war, were so shocking as to attract universal notice; letters were written to General Harmar, from various quarters, calling his attention to the subject, and praying that measures might be taken, without delay, to check the evil. They informed him that scarcely a boat passed the rock without being attacked and in most instances captured; and that unless something were done without delay, the navigation of the river would necessarily be abandoned."
In considering this statement of Burnet, it must be borne in mind that the Virginia shore is now the Ken- tucky side, and, also, that the mouth of the Scioto was then about a mile west of its present location. The lofty rock, mentioned by him, is the rock-capped hill directly opposite the present mouth of the Scioto. From the summit of that rock, the course of the Ohio for five or six miles is within plain view.
Atwater, in his History of Ohio, records that:
"It was a very hazardous business to navigate the Ohio River. Often were the boats taken by the enemy, and everyone on board, destroyed by the Indians."*
*History of the State of Ohio, by Caleb Atwater (1838).
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Such, in general terms, was the menace at the mouth of the Scioto River, and this not only prevented an early settlement there, but also prevented it over a vast area in southern Ohio. Here the Indians of Ohio made their final stand against the stream of immigration that was pouring into Kentucky and Ohio.
The treachery and savagery of the Indians, who waylaid the whites at the mouth of the Scioto, may be shown by two incidents, the type of many. In 1790 four men and two women, were descending the Ohio to Maysville. Their boat drifted with the current during the night. At daylight, they drew near the mouth of the Scioto. The lookout saw smoke ascending among the trees and aroused the party, because he knew that Indians were near. As the fire was on the Ohio shore, the boat was steered towards the opposite side. Two white men ran down the river bank on the Ohio shore and begged the people in the boat to rescue them from a band of Indians, from whom they asserted they had escaped. But those in the boat, fearing treachery, kept in midstream. It was well known to them that renegade white men often lived among the Indians; also, that white boys, if captured by the Indians while very young, and reared to manhood with them, absorbed the cunning of the Indian. The feigned distress of those on shore was so real, however, that the women and one of the men on the boat prevailed upon the others to go to the shore for the two men. Still, there was much misgiving, and during the discussion the boat drifted about a mile below the place where the white men were first seen on the bank. The travelers in the boat reasoned that if Indians were trying to decoy them ashore, the Indians were on top of the bank, out of sight in the brush, where their progress in following the boat would necessarily be slow; that there would be no danger if the boat merely touch the shore, without landing, thereby per- mitting the two men to jump on board, and immediately
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push away; that, should the Indians appear, the boat . could hastily put back from the shore. Such reasoning caused the boat to be turned towards the Ohio bank.
But after the boat left midstream, it lost the effect of the current and moved very slowly. This fact had not been taken into consideration. As the boat touched the shore, one of the boatmen leaped off, to be ready to quickly shove it back into the stream. Immediately, some Indians ran down from the bushes. That they had been running along the bank was apparent; for they were almost out of breath. They were able to reach the boat, however, because it lost headway when it left the current. They seized the boatman who had landed. Many other Indians came upon the scene at once and opened fire with their rifles. One of the women was killed. One of the men was severely wounded and another was killed. The Indians boarded the boat, scalped the dead, and possessed themselves of all prop- erty. One of the men, captured upon this occasion, was burned at the stake. Another was compelled to run the gauntlet and was condemned to death; but he escaped and made his way to the white settlements. The remaining man was ransomed by a French trader of Sandusky. The surviving woman was rescued by an Indian chief, after she had been tied to a stake to be burned to death. Later she was returned to her people.
The following day the same band of Indians at- tacked a flotilla coming down the river. This flotilla was composed of both freight and passenger boats. The Indians compelled their prisoners to row their boats for them, and they attacked so vigorously that the pas- senger boats abandoned the freight boats. The loss to this flotilla was a serious one as there were twenty-eight horses on the freight boats and merchandise worth seventy-five hundred dollars.
From 1794 to 1798, the western mail was carried
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from Pittsburg to Wheeling on horseback and thence by boats on the Ohio River, to Cincinnati. These boats were operated in relays, the exchanges of the mail be- tween the boats being made at Marietta, Gallipolis, and Limestone (Maysville). Great care was exercised to be secure against Indian attack. One precaution adopted was to keep in midstream. And so cautious were the pilots of these boats that there was but one attack upon them. This attack was made in November, 1794, and succeeded through schemes, similar to those used in many other instances, in luring the boat to shore. As the scene of the attack was near the mouth of the Scioto, it may be well to reproduce the account given of it by an early historian:
"The packet was ascending the Ohio, and happened to have several passengers on board, as they sometimes did, and had reached within a few miles of the mouth of the Scioto, on the Indian shore. The man at the helm saw, as he thought, a deer in the bushes, and heard it rustling among the leaves. With the intention of killing it the boat had approached within a few rods of the land, and the man in the bow had risen up with the gun to fire when they received a whole volley, from a party of Indians, who lay in ambush, and had made the signs to entice them to the shore.
One man was killed and another desperately wounded. Several of the row locks were shot off, and their oars for the time ren- dered useless. The Indians rushed down the bank and into the water, endeavoring to get hold of the boat and drag it to the shore. The steersman, however, turned the bow into the current, and one or two oars soon forced her into the stream, beyond the reach of their shot."*
During this attack, one of the boat's crew became so frightened that he jumped into the river, and an In- dian with his knife in his teeth swam after him. The white man had a narrow escape, but succeeded in swim- ming across the river. The pilots on the boat believed that he had been killed and did not wait for him. Later, he built a raft of driftwood, and floated to the nearest
*Pioneer History of Ohio, by S. P. Hildreth (1848).
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white settlement. Owing to the frequency of such occur- rences, the government determined to subdue the In- dian tribes north of the Ohio; for such a course would be the only way to make travel by the Ohio River safe.
V CAMPAIGNS AGAINST THE OHIO INDIANS
The Northwest Territory was composed of what is now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This Territory was wrested from France by Great Britain in 1763. In 1778, the Ameri- cans, under General George Rogers Clark, took the Territory from Great Britain. By the Treaty of Paris, entered into in 1783, the title of the United States to the Territory was confirmed.
After the close of the Revolutionary War, settlers were exceedingly anxious to settle within the North- west Territory. But before they could safely do so, it was necessary to conquer the Indian tribes and break up the bands of savages that made the mouth of the Scioto a rendezvous.
In 1790, General Harmar commanded an army upon an expedition north from Fort Washington to the Maumee River. He engaged the Indians in several battles, but was finally defeated and obliged to retreat to Fort Washington. His failure encouraged the Indians.
In September, 1791, General St. Clair invaded the same region. In November, he met with a most disas- trous defeat. His army suffered severely in casualties, and he retreated to Fort Washington. This defeat convinced the Indians that they could not be conquered.
President Washington now determined to admin- ister such a crushing blow to the Indians as would in- sure lasting peace. For this purpose, General Anthony
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Wayne was sent to Ohio. He reached Fort Washing- ton in April, 1793. At once, he began the work of organizing an army. In October, Wayne started north with this army. A fort was erected about eighty miles north of Fort Washington. This was called Fort Greenville. The army wintered there. Some of the forces were sent on a few miles farther north, where they built Fort Recovery. It was at this place that the Indians had defeated General St. Clair in 1791. This fort was attacked by a large force of Indians under Little Turtle, and here, the Indians, for the first time, met with a serious reverse.
In the summer of 1794, General Wayne went on to the Maumee River where he built Fort Defiance. Hav- ing established a line of positions, from which he could wage war upon his enemies, he prepared to attack. Be- fore giving battle, he made an effort to obtain a satis- factory treaty of peace. The Miami chief, Little Turtle, as the result of his experience with Wayne's soldiers at Fort Recovery, favored peace. In his speech for peace, he said:
"The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps. The night and the day are alike to him. We have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something whispers to me it would be prudent to listen to the offers of peace."
But the Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket, was confident that he could crush the army of General Wayne, and his decision was for war. The battle was fought on the banks of the Maumee, in a forest that had been swept by a tornado. Many trees had been leveled; and, from this circumstance, the battle is known as the battle of Fallen Timbers. The tops, trunks, and roots of the fallen trees gave the Indians favorable places for con- cealment. It was a good battle ground for the Indian to wage his method of warfare.
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