USA > Ohio > Miami County > Piqua > The first century of Piqua, Ohio > Part 21
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Incident to these trying times we will insert copies of the following etters which are of a number preserved by Stephen Johnston's grand- laughter, Mrs. Graffiin, of Piqua :
Dear Stephen: You had best have packed up in the best manner possible all the skins on hand at the store in packs marked and numbered carefully in the usual way. I shall have them brought in by the returning wagons and transfered via Cincinnati and Pittsburg to Gen'l Mason. Any time this month will do to pack them.
Yours,
JOIIN JOHNSTON.
And in a letter from Stephen Johnston to his wife, ( then in Piqua) ated Aug. 24, 1812, (just four days before he was killed), the following ill be of interest :
We have about 400 Indians here; their intentions are very suspicious. I have moved all the public goods into the garrison so that I am now unincumbered by that business and if it were not for Mr. Stickney's illness and having to attend to his depart- ment I would leave this place for the present, as the trading es- tablishment with Indians is at an end for the time being.
On the evening of Aug. 28, 1812, Stephen left Ft. Wayne for Piqua, it was murdered by Indians of the Potawatomie tribe and his scalp
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sold to the British. His remains were later brought in and buried in the cemetery at Upper Piqua, a history of his death still being discernible on the stone. Col. Johnston was in constant danger during this war period, but fortunately escaped death in every instance. Being so well acquainted with the traits of the Indians, and held in such high regard by the principal chiefs, he was continued as agent for the government for many years, and was a central figure in nearly all subsequent treaties in Ohio.
When his farm at Upper Piqua was made the government agency, and while for several weeks in the summer of 1812 it was Gen. Harri- son's frontier headquarters, a stockade, or heavy log fence, was placed around the premises, enclosing several acres.
COL. JOHNSTON'S HOME AT UPPER PIQUA IN 1846
His large brick house was also begun in this year, but was not com- pleted until 1814. It stands on the east bank of what is known as John- ston's prairie, just above a large spring, and about 90 feet south-east of the original log structure which had been their home. This log cabin was afterward used as a government store-house, and later as a school- room.
The brick agency house and the old log barn are still standing in good condition, the farm now being owned by Mrs. J. W. Morris, who takes great interest in keeping these buildings in as near their old-time grandeur as is possible.
In tracing the life of Col. Johnston down through the succeeding years of usefulness in the early progress of our town and county, we find him always identified with the projects of welfare and improvements
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He was one of our early township trustees; was instrumental in erecting the first subscription school and Methodist church at Upper Piqua in 1816, after presenting the church an acre of ground for that purpose ; was one of the founders of the Episcopal church in Piqua, and as canal commissioner was instrumental in forwarding that project to the satisfaction of our Piqua merchants. The course of the canal chan- nel through Dayton was left almost entirely to his judgment, and the extension north was for a time under his personal supervision.
Besides attending to his large farm and the matters relating to the agency, he was often called upon to undertake special projects where a man of his ability and experience was required. Thus in the Piqua Gazette of Oct. 18, 1821, we find this notice :
John Johnston, of Miami county, and Samuel Marshal, of Shelby county, appointed by the state legislature, commissioners to lay out and survey a new state road from Wapaghonetta at the head of navigation on the Auglaise river, to Ft. Meigs on Miami bay, Lake Erie, report that they have finished the work, and are under obligation to a number of Shawanoe Indians, and also Mr. Francis Duchoquet, the U. S. interpre- ter, who accompanied the party to and from Ft. Meigs. This road when completed will be the nearest route from Dayton to Ft. Meigs by 20 miles, and the whole distance from the town of Piqua to Ft. Meigs, 109 miles.
In the same paper under the date of May 28, 1825, a letter to the editor for publication from Col. Johnston gives an account of the trial and conviction of John Bridge, John T. Bridge, and Andrew Sawyer for the murder of Logan and family (nine persons) of the Seneca tribe, in March, 1824. They were sentenced to be hung at Fall creek, Madison county, Ind., on June 3rd next.
This is the third Indian "Logan" in our history of the north-west territory, all of whom were of different tribes, and not in any way related.
In 1832, we find the following letter from Gen. Vance to Col. John- ston at Upper Piqua :
Washington City, July 5, 1832.
I have had an appropriation passed through the House, which I think will pass the Senate, giving the Shawanoes In- dians $2,000 per annum for 15 years, for an additional compen- sation for their reservation at Wapaukonnetta.
This method was thought more advisable than an appro priation of $20,000 in hand.
Yours respectfully, etc.
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This additional compensation was asked for by Col. Johnston, who took a special interest in this tribe, they having formerly lived on his farm at Upper Piqua, and who, just previous to their removal west, came down from St. Marys in a body to visit their old camping ground.
In 1842, Col. Johnston arranged a treaty with the Indians at Upper Sandusky by which these last tribes in Ohio were removed to the west the next year, and his long years of service to the government terminated.
His services had not been continuous, for there were short periods when politics ruled instead of justice, but his faithful Indians remained loyal to his guardianship and repelled any other authority.
Col. Johnston's wife died at their home at Upper Piqua July 24, 1840. This bereavement was the principal reason for the breaking up of the old home, and a few years later we find him living in Cincinnati with his daughter Margaret.
In June, 1849, his daughter Margaret died from cholera, and he then made his home with his daughter JJulia (Mrs. Jefferson Patterson) at their "Rubicon Farm," near Dayton. The deaths of his two sons, Capt. Abraham JJohnston at the battle of San Pasquale, Cal., in 1846, and Stephen, of the navy, in 1848, with this sad death of his daughter, were severe blows to the father, who had already suffered bereavement by other deaths in his family.
In visiting Piqua several years later he writes :
At Upper Piqua, May 31, 1855.
I have spent two weeks this day at a place once so dear to me, and now made so desolate by the hand of death. Much of my time has been spent in the cemetery among the monuments of my dear mother, brothers, wife and children.
I go back to Dayton this day and may never return here again until some surviving friends may bring my remains here to be deposited by the side of my beloved wife, Rachel.
In the winter of 1860-61, Col. Johnston was in Washington looking after some claims against the government, for supplies he had furnished the Indians after he had been succeeded by another agent, and here he died on Feb. 18, 1861.
His remains were brought to Piqua, and on Feb. 22nd were interred in the family lot at the Upper Piqua cemetery with military and Ma- sonic honors.
Thus ended the life of a remarkable man. Loved and reverenced by his Indian wards; highly esteemed by his neighbors and acquaintances,
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and listened to by statesmen and officials of the government in matters of public policy, he left a record of faithful service of which all citizens of Piqua, present or future, should be proud.
GEORGE C. JOHNSTON
Mr. Johnston has left us no written account of his many years' of trading among the Indians of Ohio and Indiana, but delighted in telling his experiences verbally. We must, therefore, in a measure depend on the memory of his auditors in compiling even this short sketch of his life.
He was born in the County of Fermanagh, north-west Ireland, Oct. 19, 1793, and came to the U. S. in 1817, landing in Baltimore. He ar- rived in Piqua by the Ohio river route on Dec. 27, 1817. We are under
GEORGE C. JOHNSTON
the impression that he was a relative of Col. John Johnston, for it was through the latter that he obtained his license to trade with the Indians of this locality. At first he was a partner of Nicholas Greenham in this trading business, but later bought the entire privilege. He usually made his headquarters at "Wapaughkonnetta," though his trading trips took him to nearly all the Indian villages of north-western Ohio and on the Wabash in Indiana.
His goods were brought overland in wagons from Cincinnati, and consisted principally of tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, blankets, shawls, right-figured goods, kettles, buckets, saddles, bridles, knives, powder,
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lead, gun-flints, and many colored beads. These he traded for furs and skins, or cash.
The furs were later sold to John Jacob Astor's agent at Ft. Wayne, and the deer-skins to any tannery that would buy them, they being so cheap that 50 cents would pay for a prime winter skin. Mr. Johnston never sold intoxicating liquors to the Indians, believing that nearly all the trouble from the red man resulted from its use. He is said to have dealt honestly with them, and he no doubt did, for he retained their friendship until parted by their removal across the Mississippi. He was adopted into the Shawanoe tribe, and they gave him the name of Nathe- the-wee-law. He was invited to many of their feasts and dances, in after years giving imitations of these dances and singing their songs to many appreciative audiences in Piqua.
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GEO. C. JOHNSTON'S POWDER-HORN AND INDIAN NOTE-BOOK
The only known record of his trading establishment is a note-book, in which are over 125 unpaid notes, signed by the different Indians, and representing a loss of many hundreds of dollars. The first note in this book is dated Nov. 8, 1829, and the last June 1, 1831, just prior to their removal west.
In the fall of 1830 all the tribes in this vicinity were gathered at St. Marys, where they were outfitted by the government for their long trip, so Johnston removed his store to that point, and remained until they left.
Very few of the Indians could sign their names, so they made their mark, and the note was attested by some one present at the time, usually
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Geo. Moffett, Francis Duchouquet, or John Elliott, who was the govern- ment blacksmith at that time, but later removed to Piqua.
Of the Indians who could write their own names were Henry Clay, Martin Hardin, and George Bluejacket.
Clay and Martin were sons of Logan, the Shawanoe Chief, and were school-mates of the late Major Stephen Johnston, in Piqua about 1825. Geo. Bluejacket was a son of the old Chief Bluejacket, and was indebted to Col. Johnston at Upper Piqua for the small amount of teaching he was induced to accept.
Some years before his death Major Johnston gave us the personal history of many of the signers of these old notes, but space forbids fur- ther mention.
After his return to Piqua, Geo. Johnston bought a farm just north of town, and also built the brick homestead on the west side of Main street, between Greene and North. He was very fond of hunting, and for a long time was the champion wing-shot of Piqua, and never failed to bring in a full bag of game from his numerous hunting trips.
In Mrs. Louise Mckinney's sketch of Geo. Johnston, she tells of his experience in Washington city in 1855. While there on a business trip he met his old friend Sur-wan-nock, the head chief of the Delawares; he was accompanied by fourteen warriors. An actor by the name of Ward was playing at Carousi's theater, "The Merry Wives of Windsor." The old chief proposed to Mr. Johnston to accompany him to the theater, and he agreed to do so if Sur-wan-nock would furnish him a complete Indian dress. The old chief took him to his room, painted him carefully, did up his hair in Indian fashion, and furnished him a complete suit of buckskin, including leggings, moccasins, tomahawk, scalping knife and belt and a head-dress ornamented with buffalo horns, which gave him quite a ferocious appearance. In due time they appeared at the theater and the play went on-the Indians attracting much attention.
Mr. Johnston proposed to Sur-wan-nock that just before the curtain fell at the last act that they would rise and give the Indian war-whoop. At the right moment they arose and gave a shout and war-whoop, which produced a great sensation. After that the Indians had free tickets and the old theater drew large crowds.
Other reminiscences of Geo. Johnston might have been collected, but of those who best remembered nearly all are gone, so we must be content with what has been preserved before it is too late.
Mr. Johnston died at his home on Main street Jan. 11, 1876, and in his death Piqua lost her most interesting character in the matter of Indian vocabulary and tribal lore.
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FRANCIS DUCHOUQUET
Originally a French trader among the Indian tribes of Ohio, our first knowledge of him historically was when he ransomed Chas. John- ston, of Boteourt, Va., who was captured by being decoyed to the north shore of the Ohio in 1792, and taken to the Wyandot villages on the San- dusky.
His name is pronounced "Du-shick-et," and his Indian name was So-wah-quo-the, meaning "The Fork." He seems to have spoken the lan- guage of many tribes, for we next find him acting as interpreter for Col. Johnston at Upper Piqua.
In the many councils held here during the war of 1812, between the tribes of the border and the government commissioners, Duchouquet was relied upon unreservedly by both parties in their interchange of agree- ments, and it was no doubt through his efforts, second only to Col. John- ston, that these contracts with our thousands of restless Indians were so universally kept unbroken.
He was with Col. Johnston at the second treaty of Greenville in 1814, and from items in our early newspapers, he must have resided in or near Piqua as late as 1828. Between the years 1829 and 1832 he spent a large part of his time with Geo. C. Johnston at "Wapaughkonnetta," where he frequently attested the signatures of the Indians on notes given by them to Johnston. We read of him for the last time in 1832, and the sketch is taken from the Cumberland Civilian :
Died at Newman's hotel, on the 9th day of January last, Mr. Francis Duchouquet, in the 73rd year of his age. Mr. Duchouquet arrived here in company with two Quaker gentlemen and several chiefs of the Shaw- anoes tribe in Ohio on their way to Washington City. In consequence of ill health his company left him and pursued their journey. He was with this tribe for upwards of 40 years, and acted as agent or interpreter for them. In the war of 1812 he stood at the head of a party of friendly Indians who fought for this country under Gen. Harrison. He is the individual who rescued Col. Johnston, of Virginia, from being burnt at the stake by the Indians. It will no doubt be gratifying to his friends to learn that in his last illness he was well provided for, and attended by one of our most skillful physicians. His remains were interred on the following evening in the burial grounds attached to the Methodist Church of this town.
Thus closed the life of a pioneer of whom history quotes but a single paragraph, and we are glad to find and preserve even this short sketch of a man whose position was such that his influence used against the U.
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S. Commissioners in council would undoubtedly have placed Piqua in the arena of bloodshed during our second war with England.
LOGAN, THE SHAWANOE CHIEF
The mighty Logan, chief of the Mingoes, has been lauded for his eloquence and humanity in both song and story, but another chief of that name is not one whit less to be remembered for these same attributes of character and generosity. Our Shawanoe Chief Logan, spoken of so often by Col. Johnston, has been so confounded with the Mingo chief by historians that a short sketch of his life will not be out of place in this volume.
Logan, whose Indian name was Spemica Lawba (High Horse), was captured at the destruction of the Mac-o-chec towns by Gen. Logan in 1786.
This expedition started from the falls of the Ohio, and among the officers were Col. Robert Patterson, Col. Kenedy, Daniel Boone, and Simon Kenton.
Moluntha, the head chief, was brutally murdered by a Col. McGary after he had surrendered. His family were taken prisoners, one of these boys being our Logan, who at that time was about 16 years old. Gen. Logan took a great fancy for this young man, and on their return to Kentucky made him a member of his own family, in which he resided several years. After returning to his people he always went by the name of Logan, sometimes with the title of captain prefixed. Logan settled at Wapakoneta, but during the early part of the war of 1812, resided at Upper Piqua. He was always the friend of the Americans, and while here showed his integrity by taking the lead in several hazardous expedi- tions, one being the bringing of the women and children from Ft. Wayne, and another was when he accompanied Wm. Oliver to that post when it was beseiged, bringing back the report to Gen. Harrison at Upper Piqua.
Logan took an active part in behalf of the Americans as a leader of the Indian scouts, and in Nov., 1812, after returning to camp from a scouting expedition, was accused of infidelity to our cause by an officer of he Kentucky troops. Logan resented this implication, and to prove his allegiance, determined to capture and bring in some of the hostile Indians.
In this endeavor he was himself captured, and in the fight that oc- urred on his attempt to escape, was mortally wounded, but brought in y his companions
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He died after several days and was buried with military honors at Camp Winchester. Logan's dying request that his two sons, Henry Clay and Martin Hardin, (named for prominent Kentuckians), should be sent to Kentucky to be brought up and educated by Major Hardin, could not be fulfilled, so Col. Johnston brought them to Piqua, placed them in school, and boarded them with the Widney family near Upper Piqua. They soon returned to their tribe, and after their removal west Henry Clay became a chief, but both eventually became dissipated and quarrel- some.
Other noted Indians have spent portions of their lives in Piqua and the upper town, among whom we may mention Little Turtle, Black Hoof, Peter Cornstalk, Bluejacket, and Tecumseh, the latter spending a por- tion of his boyhood here after the destruction of the Piqua town on Mad river in 1780.
JOHN MCCORKLE
One of the most prominent and enterprising citizens of early Piqua was John McCorkle. His parents, soon after their marriage, removed from their old home in North Carolina to Tennessee. After several years of hardships in this region they continued their pilgrimage into the blue- grass country of Kentucky, but the rumors which reached them here of the fertile valleys north of the Ohio river finally decided them to again take up march into the unknown wilderness, and we next find them set tled in a small log cabin in the Miami valley of Ohio, and just below the old Indian town of Piqua.
This was late in the fall of 1805, and the next year Joseph, the father, made application at the land office in Cincinnati for a patent or the N. W. fractional quarter of Section 20, on the west bank of the Miami river.
John McCorkle was born Jan. 1. 1791, and was therefore nearly 15 years old when the family came to Piqua. He was given every educa tional advantage possible to children of that date, and as early as 1816 was prominent in the business interests of the community. At this date he built a carding and fulling mill on the west bank of the river jus north of our present Bridge street, and the next year enlarged the plan and installed machinery for grinding and pressing flax-seed, this being the first oil-mill in the county. In December, 1814, he was married to Margaret Walker, of Walkerville, near Cincinnati, and they became the parents of seven children.
In 1818 he started a general merchandising store at the north-wes corner of Main and Water streets and was soon doing the largest busi
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ness in the town. Not only was he locally interested, but like others of sufficient means, he soon became interested in projects outside of Piqua, for in 1821 we find him, in conjunction with Chas. Murray and Wm. A. Houston, laying out the new town of St. Marys and advertising their lots in the Piqua Gazette.
Another notice in a later paper reads: John McCorkle of Piqua and John T. Barr of Baltimore bought that part of Fort Wayne known as the "Old Plat of Fort Wayne," at the first land sale there on Oct. 22, 1823, at $1.25 per acre. They later sold out to Judge Hanna.
McCorkle was also interested in politics, and as an orator was prom- inent in local town meetings and celebrations. In 1824 he was elected state representative from the district composed of the counties of Miami, Shelby, Logan, Hardin, Hancock, and Allen, and served from Dec. 6, 1824, to Dec. 5, 1825.
It was while holding this office that he appointed Stephen Rowan, a young clerk in his store, as midshipman in the U. S. navy, and who afterward became the celebrated Admiral Rowan.
Although McCorkle did not serve in the war of 1812, he was at that time major of the Miami County militia, and helped provide the necessary outfits for these men in their local scout and defense duties.
He was one of the signers to a petition for the first incorporation of the town, this act being consummated Jan. 7, 1823.
He was also an early member of the Episcopal Church, and was one of its officials when their second church was built in Piqua in 1827.
He sold his mill property to M. W. Ward in 1827, and sold his store :o Hilliard & Singer in June, 1829.
He died at his home in Piqua on July 25, 1829, and though less than 39 years old, he left a record of progressiveness and enterprise seldom ivaled in those early days of the town.
CHARLES T. WILTHEISS
Mr. Wiltheiss was born in Germany April 21, 1844. He was brought o this country when young, and spent practically all of his boyhood and nature life in Piqua. His father was an instructor in music and Ger- nan, but the sons received very little education in English. When the ivil war broke out Charles enlisted, but was rejected on account of his outh and the solicitations of his mother. His mind early reverted to cientific studies, with a special interest in archæology, in which he was he local authority for many years. His collection of prehistoric arti- acts was for a long time the largest and most complete of any in the tate.
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He was also active in the political life of Piqua, serving at different times as councilman, weigh-master, assessor, and dicennial land appraiser in 1890. He was elected an active member of the Ohio State Archæo- logical and Historical Society April 29, 1887, and was the founder and first president of local chapter No. 520, of the Agassiz Association, in 1888. He made many friends among the scientists of the U. S., and sent numerous contributions, in writing and specimens, to the Smithsonian Institute.
From an injury to his spine, which occurred many years ago, his brain finally became affected, and he was taken to the state hospital at Dayton in 1891. Here he remained over 18 years, dying on Aug. 3, 1909.
CHARLES T. WILTHEISS
This sketch would be incomplete were we to omit Henry Howe's tribute to Wiltheiss, given in his "Historical Collections of Ohio." Howe visited Piqua in the summer of 1886, on his second tour of the state, and from him we quote: On my arrival at Piqua I had the gratification of being taken in charge of by the oldest born resident, and to him I am under "ever so many obligations." This was Major Stephen Johnston so named for his father, a brother of Col. John Johnston. After dusk of a fine April evening he introduced me to the Social Exchange of Piqua located on the pavement in front of the tobacco and cigar store of Mr Chas. T. Wiltheiss. There I found a lot of antediluvians-old gentle
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men of the town lolling in chairs smoking and chatting over the affairs of the universe, Jupiter and his moons inclusive, which they often do there, amid the chirpings of the crickets and the amiable disputes of the katydids. Taking a chair and a cigar with them they answered my questions. One happened to be: Have you any curious trees about here? Oh, yes; something very remarkable. About two miles north be- tween the river and canal, an elm and a sycamore start out from the ground together, go up with embracing bodies and intermingled branches. The next day I walked thither with Mr. Wiltheiss, and found it such a great curiosity that I had it protographed for the engraving that is given and named it the "Wedded Trees of the Great Miami."
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