USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve and early Ohio > Part 12
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"I am one of the embers of an almost extinguished race. The grave will soon be my habitation. The winds of three score and ten years have whistled through my
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branches, and the Great Spirit is calling me to the spirit land."
"My people are like the scattered stalks that re- main in the field when the tempest has passed over it."
"The Great Spirit has ordained us for the forest, and our habitation is in the shade. We pursue the deer for our subsistence, but they are disappearing before the pale faces, and the red-man must starve or leave the graves of his fathers, and make his bed with the setting sun." This ended the once powerful race of Indians in Richfield.
Black Bird, an Ottawa Chief, of The Reserve, thus discoursed of his people :
"I feel as well as you, for our poor brethren buried in sorrows and in tears, and enshrouded as to their future prospects in gloom. It is enough to break down the stoutest spirits. I wish to know the result of the treaty made in 1836; and I ask what profit have we de- rived from converting our valuable soil, and beloved native home into specie? Nothing, and worse than nothing. Our people have been divided and sub-divid- ed. Some have fled to Canada to find shelter under the British Crown. All forms of vice and wickedness have been brought upon us, and resulting in ruin to both body and soul, as a result of the treaty. Our people have indulged in the excessive use of intoxicating liquors which has caused much discontent and discour- agement and has proved a serious obstacle in the way of improving their condition ; which did not exist prev- ious to the treaty. This treaty was made thru the ignorance of our people. They have been cheated out of their lands by the crafty and cunning management
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of the pale faces. Land enough was not left our people on which to spread a blanket. True some of our people were pious and good but they were not wise."
"I have only learned to express my thoughts bet- ter and in a stranger language. I have always felt for my people as I do now-and have loved my country and my brethren as far back as my memory extends."
"To remain in ignorance I could no longer endure, and be contented. I was much troubled in my heart. The more I reflected the more clearly I saw the condi- tion of my beloved country, and the doings of the whites to my countrymen. Everything spoke a sad language to me, as my reasoning powers became ma- tured and stronger. In solitude I sat on the shores of the Michigan, while the glorious sun sinking in the vast region of waters darted his radiant beams upon the sleepy expanse, as in the days of boyhood I sat upon the banks of the Muskingum, with my little companions enjoying our beloved forest home."
Of the Seneca Chief, Peter Wilson, Mr. Bissel, of Twinsburg, who so lovingly educated him at his own expense at the Twinsburg Institute, says :
"That the quality of his eloquence, the unusual power of his intellect and the force of his delivery, re- sembled in a marked manner those of Daniel Webster." Gen. Bierce relates of him: "At the celebration of the completion of the N. Y. & E. R. R. Wilson was present and delivered one of the most interesting addresses that was made on that occasion. Mr. Loder, Superintendent of the road, remarked that he would cheerfully ex- change what skill he had in engineering for the elo- quence of Peter Wilson, the Seneca Chieftain."
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Logan the Mingo, Lagon the Chief, had his home, or at least one of them, at "Mingotown," on the muddy Cuyahoga. Much has been said and written of him, but among all things the words of Thomas Jefferson will bear repeating :
"I may challenge the whole orations of Demos- thenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if Europe has furnished any more eminent, to produce a single passage superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo Chief, to Lord Dunmore, when governor of this State."
"I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he enter- ed Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat ; if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my country-men pointed as they passed and said-
"Logan is the friend of the white men."
I have even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relatives of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called upon me for revenge. I have sought it ; I have killed. I have glutted my vengeance; for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a 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." The cry of Logan has become almost immortal. It has been ringing down the years of time, centuries do not dim it, and it will continue to
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ring and sound down the aisles of ages, carrying with it the unmistakable sense of the white man's cruel per- fidy, unfaithfulness and crime to Logan the Mingo, "Logan the white man's friend", Logan, the untutored savage. A historian of the state has called him "Logan the demon," but if he later became a demon it was a white man that made him so. It was a case of a savage practicing love, mercy, charity and helpfulness on the one side, on the other, a rude civilization bearing Christ's banner, inscribed thereon "As ye would have done unto you, do ye so even unto them," and yet, prac- ticing savage cruelty and crime, and the white man's bad faith.
Capt. Pipe, whose village lay at the southern port- age between the Tuscarawas and the Cuyahoga, was a noted orator, "an old man eloquent". Whites who have heard his harangues to the Delawares have all testified that in one moment he could melt them all into tears, and the next, fill them with frenzy and the spirit of war.
All readers of history know that Pontiac was elo- quent and powerful in debate before all savages, yet, the first time he came before the lime-light of public opinion he came from his little Cuyahoga village and said to Major Rogers in his encampment where Cleve- land now lies-
"I stand in your path until tomorrow morning."
It is to be regretted that no effort has ever been made to save from oblivion the eloquent sayings of the orators of the red race of the Western Reserve.
We find another eloquent chief weeping on the banks of the Cuyahoga, above the graves of his sires,
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and as a gracious favor granted him by the U. S. War Department, whose prisoner he was· and from history thought worthy to name one of our country's wars-a war in which both Abraham Lincoln and U. S. Grant served-the Black Hawk War.
INDIAN RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS
It is very much to be regretted that the early set- tlers on the Reserve did not observe and keep a record of the festivals and dances of the Indians, here, at that time. But the fact was the pioneers were too busy with their own affairs to bother themselves with other peoples.
A few Indians yet remained in the Mahoning Val- ley up to about the time of the close of the last war with Great Britain. They were peaceful and did not disturb the Whites.
There was an Indian Village on the West bank of Pymatuning Creek. They were Chippewas, and their Chief, John Omic, was of a sour, savage disposition. The totem of this tribe was the venomous black rattle- snake called the Massasanga. This chief's son, Devil Poc-con, was hung in Cleveland, June 26, 1812, being one of, if not the first, criminal execution on the West- ern Reserve. The crime committed was the murder of two trappers, Buel and Gibbs. The strange part of the affair was that Devil Poc-con was tried in his father's name, Omic, sentenced in his name and hung in his name.
This feeble remnant of a once great tribe, abandon- ed their village on the banks of the Pymatuning, in the fall of 1810, and removed to the southern shore of Lake Erie.
"Burning the White Dog was their annual religious festival and to this they always invited white men. The
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sacrifice was offered each year, in a certain spot in the northeast part of the township and the country was hunted over to find a dog purely white for the offering. A pole was supported at either end by forked sticks set firmly in the ground; beneath it were placed wood and kindling for the fire. The dog was carefully bound with thongs, passed over the poles in such a way that the victim could be raised or lowered at will. Whiskey and food were also provided, and as the dusky band as- sembled, their weapons were stacked and a guard placed over them, so that no one in a moment of excitement should seize a weapon for retailation, or destruction. The fire was kindled, and as soon as everything was ready a circle of these swarthy men of the forest was formed, the red worshippers danced slowly around the altar, mingling their wailing songs with the beating of rude drums, the victim was lowered into the flames, then raised at intervals and thus tortured until life was extinct.
Attempts, it is said were made to Christianize them ; but at last, very many of them having fallen vic- tims to the smallpox, they thought the Great Spirit frowned upon them for staying here, so the survivors began their migrating in 1810.
"Slowly and sadly they climbed the distant moun- tains, and read their doom in the land of the Setting Sun."
THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS ON THE CUYAHOGA AND TUSCARAWAS.
"Ohio, I love thee for deeds thou hast done; Thy conflicts recorded and victories won; On the pages of history, beaming and bright, Ohio shines forth like a star in the night."
"Like a star flashing out o'er the mountains blue crest, Lighting up with its glory the land of the west; For thy step onward marching and voice to command, Ohio, I love thee, thou beautiful land." -Mary E. Kail.
The history of the Moravian Missions in Ohio is the history of civilization, the history of the advancing power of the whites, and the declining power of the red man as Lord of the unbroken wilderness.
Rev. Charles Frederick Post was the pioneer mis- sionary to the Ohio Indians. In 1761 he visited the Indians and built a cabin at Tuscaratown, on the Tus- carawas River.
The Rev. John Heckewelder, then a youth of nine- teen years, arrived April 11, 1762, at the Post cabin, on the Tuscarawas River, and at once commenced upon the labors of his lifetime. In the spring of 1771, Rev. Dav- id Leisberger arrived at the chief town of the Dela- wares on the Tuscarawas, and is said to have preached the first Protestant sermon ever preached within the present limits of the State of Ohio.
In 1772, came the Rev. John Ettwein and the Rev. John George Jungman to the valley of the Tuscarawas.
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Schonbrunn, the Moravian Town, then contained more than sixty houses, well built of square timbers. A new Missionary town was built on the Tuscarawas, about eight miles below Schonbrunn, and was named Gnaden- hutten. To this new town came, in 1773, the Rev. John Roth and the Rev. John Jacob Schmick. The first white child born in Ohio, so far as is known, was born in this town, July 4, 1773, and was named John Lewis Roth.
In 1777, the Rev. Wm. Edwards came to Gnadden- hutten. In 1780, the Rev. Gottlob Senseman arrived and was located at New Schonbrunn, at the junction of the Tuscarawas and Coshocton Rivers, then called re- spectively, the Little Muskingum and Walhonding Riv- ers. The first marriage of the white race in Ohio was that of Rev. John Heckewelder to Sarah Ohneberg, a mission teacher, on July 4, 1780. The first church bell in Ohio was placed on the mission church at Schon- brunn, August 26, 1772.
The 4th of July has been a notable date in the his- tory of Ohio, and the Western Reserve. On July 4, 1773, the first white child was born in Ohio. On July 4, 1780, the first marriage of whites in Ohio was cele- brated. On July 4, 1796, Moses Cleveland and his party of fifty souls first landed on Ohio soil. July 4, 1796, the first permanent settlement on the Western Reserve was started, and last but not least, July 4, 1796, saw the first celebration of that natal date on the soil of the Western Reserve. Not only this, but the month of July seems to be the lucky month for Ohio ventures. The second survey of Ohio lands was made in pursuance of an act of Congress July 23, 1787. On July 13, 1787, the ordinance of Freedom, Ohio's Magna Carta, was passed
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by the United States Congress. On July 27, 1787, the Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Major Winthrop Sargent, made application for the Ohio purchase. The name of the new settlement, as Marietta, was adopted July 2, 1788. The Massachusetts colonists arrived at Marietta early in July, 1788. The first law proclaimed within the territorial limits of Ohio was proclaimed July 25, 1788. Adams county was organized July 25, 1797, Jefferson County, July 29, 1797, and Washington County, July 27, 1788.
Was this all an accident, or was it the hand of fate proclaiming to the universe that Ohio, the seventeenth state in the Union of States, was the cap sheaf which was in the future to hold together that union of states for all time and for all eternity.
It is not the purpose of this article to treat the Moravian Missions at length, only so far as they effect the history of the Reserve.
Complications arising out of the border wars and the war of the Revolution, were unfavorable to the growth and permanent success of these missions. Ly- ing on the Indian trails north, south, east and west, they were favorite places for warlike bands passing back and forth, to and from warlike excursions and bor- der depredations, to stop and rest, or refit. This excited the jealousy of the borderers who looked upon the mis- sions as aiding and abetting the common enemy. Nor were they regarded in any better light by the native tribes who could not understand any policy of neutral- ity or of peace. The warlike tribes accused the mis- sions of sympathizing and aiding the whites. This com- bination of circumstances was such as to bring censure
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upon them first from the Whites, and again from the people of their own race. To add to this trouble, the Americans and the British were carrying on a war which had already brought about the birth of the con- federacy of the thirteen states, under the name of the United States of America. The Americans accused the missions of favoring the British, while on the other hand, the British accused the missions of unduly favoring the Americans. This state of affairs could not last.
Capt. Mathew Elliott, an emissary of the British, in command of some three hundred hostile Indians under Capt. Pipe and other chiefs, suddenly appeared upon the scene. The Missionaries and their converts made no resistance, and the Tuscarawas Valley was cleared, and the captives marched to the neighborhood of Sandusky. The march to the north-west was taken up Sept. 11, 1781. After a march of twenty days, whose milestones were. those of suffering and priva- tions, they reached their destination on October 1, 1781. This place soon assumed the name of "Captives Town". The white missionaries were summoned for trial by the British Commandant at Detroit, on October 14, 1781. After trial and being found guiltless, the missionaries were allowed to depart, reaching "Captives Town" on the twenty-second day of November. This innocent and harmless people after being driven from their homes, their schools and workshops, their gardens and corn fields, were left by the British to starve.
So abject had become the condition of these cap- tives, that on the day of the removal of the white mis- sionaries to Detroit, Schebosh, a native missionary, or-
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ganized a force to go back to the Tuscarawas towns to gather some of the corn planted at those places, for the relief of "Captives Town". The party was, however, captured by a force commanded by Col. David William- son and taken to Pittsburg under the belief that they were hand in glove with the hostile tribes around San- dusky. The great suffering endured by the women and children at "Captives Town" induced the Moravians to make one more effort to obtain corn from their aband- oned corn fields in the Tuscarawas Valley.
In pursuance of this resolution, about one hundred «and fifty left the village, hoping to reach the mission towns, secure the corn and hasten back to the relief of their starving brethren at "Captives Town". Upon reaching their destination, they divided their party among the three villages and proceeded at once to gath- er the corn as rapidly as possible, so as to be able to return without delay.
Hearing of the return of the Indians to the Tus- carawas towns, Col. David Williamson mobilized some ninety mounted men at Mingo Bottom, three miles be- low the present town of Steubenville, and by forced marches arrived at the vicinity of Gnadenhutten on the evening of March 5th.
Meeting Schebosh, a native missionary, a man of some education, of great native ability, and a man well liked and looked up to among the Moravians, they, in cold blood, killed him as well as another Indian and a woman. By treacherously promising protection they disarmed the Indians at Gnadenhutten and Salem.
The Indians at the latter place were brought to the former. The Indians at New Schonbrunn hearing of
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the capture of their brethren at the two other villages and suspecting treachery, at once made their escape.
Theodore Roosevelt said: "The history of the border wars both in the ways they were begun and in the ways they were waged, makes a long tale of in- juries inflicted, suffered, and mercilessly revenged. It could not be otherwise when brutal, reckless, lawless borderers, despising all men not of their own color, were thrown in contact with savages who esteemed cruelty and treachery as the highest of virtues, and rapine and murder as the worthiest of pursuits. More- over, it was sadly inevitable that the law-abiding bor- derer as well as the white ruffian, the peaceful Indian as well as the painted marauder, should be plunged in- to the struggle to suffer punishment that should only have fallen on their evil-minded fellows."
Here began, in this peaceful Mission Village, on the 8th of March, 1782, that massacre, which for pure devilishness and cool barbarity, is perhaps unequalled in the history of the Indian Wars.
The Indians at Gnadenhutten were bound, confined in two houses, and were well guarded. The Indians from Salem arriving, were also confined in the two prison houses, the males in one, the females in the other. The number thus made prisoners were esti- mated at ninety-six. Dr. Doddridge says: "Colonel Williamson put the question, whether the Moravian Indians should be taken prisoners to Fort Pitt or be put to death. Only eighteen men of the entire expedition voted in the interest of humanity and mercy. It makes us blush for shame when we realize what brutes these Indian hunters were." Loskiel, the historian of the
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Moravians, says : "It may easily be conceived how great their terror was at hearing a sentence so unex- pected. However, they soon recollected themselves and patiently suffered their murderers to lead them into the two houses." They declared that they were perfectly innocent of any crimes against the whites, and called upon God to witness their assertions. They declared they were perfectly willing to suffer death, "but as they had at their conversion and baptism made a solemn promise to the Lord Jesus Christ that they would live unto, and endeavor to please Him alone, in this world, they knew they had been deficient in many respects, and therefore wished to have some time granted to pour out their hearts before Him in prayer and to crave His mercy and pardon."
All night long ascended the prayers and hymns of these red-skinned, primitive Christians. Their suppli- cations, touching and child-like as they were, failed to touch the hearts of their executioners.
Howe says: "With gun and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses, till not a sigh or moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within- all save two, two Indian boys escaped as if by a miracle, to be witnesses in after time of the savage cruelty of the whites toward their unfortunate race."
One of these devils seized a copper mallet and killed fourteen, then handing it to another, said, "My arm fails me, go on in the same way."
This is the foulest blot on Ohio's fair history, and it does not lessen the stain to say that it was commit-
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ted by Pennsylvanians and Virginians, and not by the natives of our own state.
Owing to the hostile position taken by the tribes around about the Moravians at "Captives Town," it was deemed expedient to move to another locality. An invitation to establish a mission on the Huron river was accepted, and a settlement commenced July 21, 1782, and the village named New Gnadenhutten. The few.Indians who remained at Captives Town after the removal to Huron river were driven out and dispersed by the orders of Captain Pipe, King of New Portage, who was an unrelenting enemy to the Moravians.
New Gnadenhutten did not flourish as a mission town on account of the continued persecution of the war-like tribes, and in the spring of 1786, Messrs. Heckwelder and Zeisberger abandoned their missions at New Gnadenhutten and embarked on two small boats at Detroit in company with their converts.
"They prayerfully committed themselves to the tender mercies of Lake Erie, with a view to pitching their tents somewhere on the banks of the Cuyahoga river." But before they reached the river, like Brad- street before them, they met with a terrific storm which compelled them to return to Put-in-Bay Islands for shelter. One of the vessels was named the Mackinaw, the name of the other is unknown. Here they remained until the storm ceased, when one of the vessels was found to be unseaworthy and was ordered back to De- troit by the owners. They then placed about one-half of the party on board of the remaining vessel, includ- ing the women, children and luggage. The remainder
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of the party was left in the woodlands on the shore in nearly a destitute condition, and with but a small sup- ply of provisions. They resolved however to follow their brethren, wives and children. In order to effect this, some constructed rude canoes and proceeded by water, while others traversed the lake shore on foot. It so happened that the entire party arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on the same day. After uniting in a brief religious service, they proceeded to- gether in charge of their apostolic leaders, Ziesberger and Heckewelder, up the river as far as Tinkers Creek where the French had established a trading post. Here the missionary pilgrims pitched their tents and named it "Pilgrim's Rest". This spot was on the site of an abandoned Ottawa village, on the east bank of the Cuy- ahoga River, in the Township of Independence, and some twelve miles from Cleveland. Soon huts were built, the land being already cleared. More land was cleared, ploughed and corn planted, so that by the last of June they were in good shape, and in comfortable circumstances once more. A chapel was erected, and at their first meeting therein, they celebrated the Lord's Supper. This was dedicated on the 10th of No- vember. Soon after Heckewelder left for a trip into Pennsylvania, and the Rev. Wm. Edwards filled the vacancy caused by his absence. Pilgrims Rest was not designed as a permanent location, but simply as a rest- ing place for a few years, as they still entertained the idea of again locating on the Tuscarawas. The United States recognized the claims of the much abused Mor- avians, and a resolution was adopted by Congress on August 24, 1786, just two months after they settled at
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Pilgrims Rest, inviting them to return to their homes in the Tuscarawas Valley, and pledging the good faith of the government, its protection, and aid in the shape of corn, blankets, axes and hoes as a donation, and ac- knowledgment of the wrongs they had suffered. The opposition of certain Indian tribes to their return, tak- en in connection with the fact that the Indians in the vicinity had become hostile, and their chief had threat- ened to exterminate every individual belonging to the mission. Capt. Pipe thus made his influence felt even here in their new home on the Cuyahoga. They then resolved to remove to Black River, west of the Cuya- hoga. The following spring, April 19, 1787, saw their removal. They stayed at Black River but three days, as the Indian Chief who ruled that particular local- ity, ordered them to depart without delay. Like Christ, they could say the "birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath no place to lay his head". Friendless, alone in a strange country, these red- skinned, Christian Pilgrims of the forest again took up their line of march to the Huron River, locating in Milan, Erie County, a few miles from the mouth of the Huron. This place they named New Salem. They re- mained here until 1791, when for better protection against the vicious red man, they again removed, this time to Canada.
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