The history of Madison County, Ohio, Part 24

Author: Brown, Robert C; W.H. Beers & Co., pub
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1180

USA > Ohio > Madison County > The history of Madison County, Ohio > Part 24

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On a map accompanying Marquette's journal, published in 1631, the " Chaouanons " are located on the Ohio, near the Mississippi, while on his original manuscript map they are placed a long distance cast of that river, in the region of what is now the Ohio. In 1700, Father Gravier speaks of this tribe as living on a river which is evidently the Tennessee. On De l'Isle's map, published during the same year, they are located near the mouth of the 'Tennessee, and a tribe which he calls " Outonigauha " are placed on the head-waters of the great rivers of South Carolina. From a report of an investigating committee of the Pennsylvania Assembly, made

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in 1755. we find that at least a portion of this band living in South Caro- lina had come to Conestoga, Penn., by leave of the Susquehanna Indians, about 1698, and four years previously a portion of the same tribe had set- tled among the "Minsis," on the Delaware River.

From time to time other straggling parties continued to join their brethren in Pennsylvania, until they finally became very numerous and powerful. In 1700, William Penn visited their chiefs at Conestoga, and the same year the Council of Maryland resolved "that the friendship of the Susquehannock and Shawnee Indians be secured by making a treaty with them, they seeming to be of considerable moment and not to be slighted."

In 1710, John Senex published a map, which indicates villages of the " Chaouanons " on the head-waters of South Carolina, but places the main body along the upper waters of the Tennessee, which probably locates them too high up that river. About 1715, the Cherokees and Chickasaws ex- pelled them from their numerous villages on the Lower Cumberland, for we find on a map published by H. Moll, in 1720, that the lands formerly occu- pied by the " Chaouanous " was then in possession of the " Charakeys," in- dicating the abandonment several years before of the last Shawnee village in the Cumberland and Tennessee Valleys, and their gradual withdrawal to . the north side of the Ohio River. According to Ramsey, a straggling band of this tribe moved from Green River, Kentucky, where they were tempo- rarily residing, to the Wabash country, as late as 1764. Some time prior to 1740, a portion of this tribe lived for a period a short distance from the fort at Mobile, Ala., as M. De Bienville, the commandant of the fort in that year, speaks of their abandonment of their village at that point. Another offshoot found a home in Alleghany County, Md., at a place now known as Oldtown, on the Potomac River, while still another lived in the neighborhood of Winchester, Va.

That a portion of this tribe also lived in Florida is evident, as the cele- brated chief of the Shawnees, Catahecassa. or Black Hoof, was born in that country, and often spoke of bathing and fishing in the salt water ere the migration of his band to the Ohio Valley. He was a man of sagacity and experience, of fierce and desperate bravery, and well informed in the tradi- tions of his people. He occupied the highest position in his nation, was present at the defeat of Braddock, in 1755, and was engaged in all of the Ohio wars from that time until the Greenville treaty in 1795. He stood about five feet eight inches in height, and lived to the great age of one hundred and ten years, dying at Wapakoneta, Auglaize Co., Ohio, in 1831.

After the expulsion of the Shawnees from the valleys of the Cumber- land and Tennessee Rivers, their appearance in history is rare until about the middle of the eighteenth century, as they were doubtless scattered through the interior of what is now Ohio and Indiana, living by right of suf- france in the territory which their forefathers owned ere their defeat and dis- persion by the Five Nations. On a map published in London, England. in 1752, by Emanuel Bowen. a " village d' Chaonanou " is located about mid- way between the mouths of the Kanawha and Scioto Rivers, on the north side of the Ohio. In the meantime the Shawnees of Pennsylvania had become the most numerous, and important portion of that nation, but owing to the agressiveness and encroachments of the whites. they were gradually crowded from their lands and homes. About 1750, they began to turn their faces

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toward the setting sun, and in a few years were re-united with their brethren in the valleys of the Muskingum and Scioto Rivers. This tribe from Penn- sylvania is known in history as the Delawares, which title they derived from the river and bay of that name, upon which they lived. In the war of 1755, these tribes became the warm allies of the French, were a terror to the border settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and glutted their revenge at Braddock's defeat, almost annihilating the English in that fatal battle.

Within the period of the struggle for possession of Ohio, the following tribes were the recognized owners of the lands now contained within this State : Shawnees, Wyandots, Delawares, Mingos (of Ohio), Miamis, Sacs, Senecas (of Sandusky), and Munsees, who were an offshoot of the Delawares. The Ottawas, Pottawatomies and Piankeshaws, were around Detroit and along the Maumee River, while the Eel River Indians, Kickapoos and Weas, were in the Wabash country, and the Chippewas on the Upper Lakes. Two confederacies of Indians were opposed to each other in the war for suprem- acy of the Ohio country, viz., the Miami Confederacy, and the Iroquois, or Six Nations. The former were composed of the following tribes : Shawnees, Wyandots, Miamis, Ottawas, Sacs and Pattawatomies, who were also joined at times by the Delawares, Chippewas, Weas, Eel River Indians, Kicka- poos, Munsees, and other tribes of the Wabash. The Iroquois, who were known by the English as Mingoes, comprised the following tribes : Oneidas, Onondagas, Mohawks, Cayugas, Senecas and Tuscaroras, which confederacy was called the Six Nations. In the early history of these latter tribes they were but five in number, but subsequently being joined by the Tuscaroras, of Carolina, their appellation of the Five Nations was dropped, and ever afterward they were known in history as the Six. Nations. This last con- federacy laid claim to Ohio along Lake Erie by right of conquest, while the claims of the Miami confederacy were based upon original ownership, which was always recognized by the Americans after they came into posses- sion of the country, the English, alone, recognizing the claims of the Six Nations, as opposed to the French and Americans. Previous to 1792, the Senecas, with some Indians from other tribes of the Six Nations, located on the Sandusky River. and they were recognized by the United States in the treaties made with the Ohio tribes subsequent to that date.

From 1755 to 1780, the following were the locations in a general way of the Ohio tribes. The Shawnees inhabited the country along the Scioto River and its tributaries, as far west as Greene and Clark Counties, running north to the Mackacheek towns of Logan County, and east, so as to include Raccoon Creek. This included the territory now comprised in Madison County, as well as that of Logan, Champaign, Clark, Greene, and all south and east of these counties to the Ohio River.

The Delawares and Munsees occupied the valley of the Muskingum, and east of that river, and as they bore tribal relations to the Shawnees, these tribes lived in friendship and harmony side by side.

The Mingoes (of Ohio) were settled along the eastern and notheastern portions of the State, including the valleys of the Cuyahoga, the Tuscara- was and Wheeling Creek, but like the other tribes were gradually pushed west into the territory occupied by their sister nations.

The Wyandots lived along the valleys of the Sandusky River, and

AQUILLA TOLAND, M. D. [DECEASED]

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around Sandusky Bay, on the southern shores of Lake Erie ; also the val- leys of the other streams flowing into the lake west of the Cuyahoga, but no further up the Maumee than Henry County. They also inhabited, in com- mon with the Shawnees and Delawares, the country between the Scioto and Muskingum Rivers. They claimed to have come from the north bank of the St. Lawrence River to the Peninsula of Michigan, and thence to the southern shores of Lake Erie. They had many legends as to their origin and ancestry, and were one of the leading nations of the Northwest.

The Miamis occupied the level country drained by the streams that formed the head-waters of the Maumee, Wabash and Great Miami Rivers, from the Loramie portage across to Fort Wayne, and down the Maumee Val- ley. They were noted for their fierce opposition to the Americans, and as the devoted allies of the English throughout the Revolutionary period.

The Ottawas, Pottawatomies and Piankeshaws were along the Maumee and around Detroit, while the Weas, Kickapoos and Eel River Indians were living in the valley of the Wabash.

Attempts to determine the number of persons comprising the Indian tribes in Ohio, and their exact location, have resulted in nothing better than estimates. It is supposed that, at the commencement of the Revolution, there were about six thousand Indians in the present confines of the State, but many of their villages were little more than movable camps. It will not be out of place, perhaps, to give from one of these estimates, the number of warriors that cach tribe could send to the front on short notice, during, and subsequent to, the Revolutionary war: Shawnees, 500; Wvan- dots, 300: Delawares and Munsees, 600; Miamis, 300; Ottawas, 600; Pottawattamies, 400; Mingoes (of Ohio), 600; Weas, Kickapoos and Piankeshaws, 800; total, 4,100.

The Six Nations of New York had an estimated war footing as follows : Mohawks, 100; Oneidas and Tuscaroras. 400; Cayugas, 220 ; Onondagas, 230; Senecas, 650 ; total, 1,600, while the Chippewas, of the Upper Lakes, were equal in strength to the Ohio tribes and Six Nations combined, making a grand total of 11,400 warriors, ready for battle whenever the toesin of war was sounded.

Throughout the period of white settlement in Kentucky, and subse- quently along the north bank of the Ohio, the clash of the contending forces was almost continuous ; in fact. we might say with truth, that the hatchet was seldom buried. The Indians were fighting for their homes, made sacred as the resting-place of their forefathers : the whites were determined to pos- sess these lands, peaceably if they could, forcibly if they must. Thus the issue stood between the two races, one of whom must go to the wall. There was an Indian village three miles above the mouth of the Kanawha River, and in 1756, Maj. Lewis led an expedition against it, which proved a failure. In 1764, Col. Boquet's expedition to the Muskingum Valley resulted in a temporary peace : and the Indian town of Wappatomica, a few miles above Zanesville, was destroyed by Col. McDonald ten years later. In 1778, Gen. Hand marched from Fort Pitt to attack the Indian town of Cuyahoga, but it ended so ingloriously that it is known in history as the " Squaw Cam- paign."

Two years previous to this last expedition, an event occurred which changed the current of thought. influenced the history of the world, and

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made necessary a new map of the North American Continent. This was the Declaration of Independence, whose clarion notes, that all men were created free and equal, and that governments derived their just powers from the consent of the governed, rang throughout the nations of the earth, caus- ing the spark of freedom to burn with hope in the hearts of oppressed hu- manity. The conduct of England, during the subsequent struggle, was hypocritical and treacherous. Her influence among the Indians was used in a cruel and blood-thirsty manner, offering premiums for American scalps until she was known among the Indians as " the hair-buying nation." At that time there was not in the vast territory, bounded on the north by the Great Lakes, on the east and south by the Ohio, and on the west by the Mis- sissippi, a single American settlement. Beyond the Ohio, looking north and west, was everywhere an Indian country, and nearly all the tribes throughout the whole region were openly at war with the United States. So the settlements that had taken root west of the Alleghanies-reaching from Pittsburgh down the east side of the Ohio to some distance below Wheeling- and the few that were dotting the wilds of Kentucky, were all suffering the horrors of the Western border war of the Revolution-a war characterized by rapacity and bloodthirstiness.

The Shawnees were divided into four tribes, the Piqua, Kiskapocke, Mequachuke and Chillicothe. According to a poetical Indian legend, the Piqua tribe had its origin in a man who sprang from the fire and ashes. As their old men used to tell the whites who first came in contact with them, the chief warriors and wise men were once sitting around the smoldering embers of what had been a council fire, when they were startled by a great puffing of fire and smoke, and from the ashes and coals, there sprang into being a man of splendid form and mein, the original of the tribe of Piqua- named Piqua as signifying the man born of ashes. This legend of the origin of the tribe of Piqua, truly beautiful in its simplicity, has been commented upon by leading writers upon the red race, as showing, in a marked degree, their capabilities for imaginative inventiveness, and as a proof of their ro- mantic susceptibility.

Mequachuke signifies a fat man filled-a man made perfect, so that nothing is wanting. This tribe had the priesthood. Its leaders were en- dowed with the privilege of celebrating the religious rites of the nation. The Kiskapocke tribe was inclined to war, and its braves were among the most fierce and crafty of the Indian tribes of the Northwest. The celebrated prophet, and Tecumseh his brother, were members of this tribe. Chillicothe is not known to have been interpreted, save as meaning a dwelling place. A title commonly applied to the Shawnees was " the Spartans of the race," and their constancy in braving danger and enduring the consequences of de- feat seems to have made them deserving of the appellation. They have also been styled the " Bedouins of the American wilderness," which, considering their extensive and almost constant wanderings, is not inappropriate. They were the only tribe among the Indians of the Northwest who had a tradition of foreign origin, and for some time after the whites became acquainted with them, held a yearly festival to celebrate the safe arrival in this country of their ancestors. After their return to Ohio, they located in the Scioto Valley, above and below the mouth of the Scioto River, also scattering along the Little Miami and Mad Rivers, building towns at different points. As

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the voyages of the whites became more frequent up and down the Ohio River, the Indians removed their villages further away from that highway of navigation. They built a town on the west bank of the Scioto River, the present site of Westfall, Pickaway County. This was the headquarters of the confederate tribes, and was called Chillicothe, but subsequently came to be known as " Old Chillicothe." Another village of the same name stood on the site of Frankfort, Ross County, and another in Greene County, three miles north of Xenia. Across the Scioto River from Old Chillicothe, on Scippo Creek, was the village of the celebrated Shawnee chief, Cornstalk, and on the south bank of the same stream stood Grenadier Squaw town, named after a sister of Cornstalk's, called the Grenadier Squaw, who was six feet tall and a woman of great muscular strength and superior intellect.

Of all places in the West, this pre-eminently deserves the name of " classic ground." Here in bygone ages burned the council fires of the red man ; here the affairs of the Miami confederacy were discussed and the important questions of peace and war decided. From the Pickaway plains, surrounding these villages the allied tribes, 1,000 strong. marched forth to meet Col. Andrew Lewis, and his Virginians, at Point Pleasant, where on the 10th of October, 1774, although led by their beloved chief, Cornstalk, and cheered by his words, " Be strong ! be strong !" they were defeated after a fierce battle of twelve hours duration. It was at Old Chillicothe, on the Scioto, that the cabin of the celebrated Mingoe chief, Logan, stood ; here that he mourned the murder of his family and made his memorable speech to John Gibson, the emissary of Lord Dunmore. At this point the campaign against the Shawnee villages was brought to a close by the Indians suing for peace and, entering into a treaty with Lord Dunmore, at Camp Charlotte, which was located on the north bank of Scippo Creek and east of the Indian towns.

The Shawnee chief. Cornstalk, was an extraordinary man, possessing a brilliant intellect. a noble character and undaunted courage. Previous to the battle of Point Pleasant, he counseled peace, but being overruled by the other chiefs of the nation. he took command of the Indians in that battle and conducted it with consummate skill. After their defeat and return to the Pickaway towns, a council was called to consider what was to be done, at which Cornstalk was the chief orator and leading spirit ; said he : " What will you do now ? The Big Knife is coming on us. and we shall all be killed. Now you must fight or we are undone." Receiving no answer, he said, "Then let us kill all our women and children, and go and fight until we die." Perfeet silence still greeted him, when arising, with firm purpose and dignity in every lineament of his face, he struck his tomahawk into a post of the council house and exclaimed : "I'll go and make peace," which was immediately carried into effect. In the summer of 1777, he went on a visit to Point Pleasant to warn the Americans that the Indians intended joining the English in the war just began. He was there cruelly murdered, seven or eight bullets being fired into his body. while his son, Elinipsico, and a noted young warrior, Red Hawk, were killed at the same time. Thus perished Cornstalk, whose name was conferred upon him as the support and strength of his people ; but this outrage precluded all hope of peace between the Indians of the Northwest and the new-born American nation, and cemented their alliance with the English.

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In 1779, Col. John Bowman, commanding a force of 160 men, crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Licking, and after a rapid march attacked the Indian town of Old Chillicothe, on the Little Miami, three miles north of Xenia. The attack was repulsed, and Col. Bowman capturing a sufficient number of ponies to mount his men, began a hurried retreat, being closely pursued by the Indians until he recrossed the Ohio, having lost nine men in the expedition. In October of the same year, Col. David Rogers and Capt. Robert Benham, with 100 men, were passing down the Ohio, in two keel boats, and noticing Indians on the shores, Col. Rogers landed one-half his command for the purpose of attacking the savages. The whites were ambushed by about 500 Indians, a fierce battle ensued, but the odds were too great, and Rogers, with nearly all his men were tomahawked and scalped. Capt. Benham, with a few survivors, cut his way out and finally escaped, although the Captain was severely wounded and lay in the woods two days ere rescued by a passing boat.

In July. 1780, Col. George Rogers Clark organized a force of 1,000 Indian fighters at the mouth of Licking River, and in August of that year marched against Old Chillicothe (in Greene County), but found the village abandoned and burned. They destroyed several hundred acres of corn and then proceeded in a north direction for the purpose of attacking Old Piqua, the Shawnee town on Mad River (in Clark County). Reaching that point on the 8th of August, the fight began at 2 P. M., and after a three hours' en- gagement the Indians were driven from their village, each side losing about twenty men. Upon the following day, the town was burned and the

growing crops completely destroyed. This severe thrashing taught the Indians a lesson not soon to be forgotten, and for the time cowed them into submission. There were nearly 4,000 persons in the tribe at this point, and the destruction of their crops caused them much suffering, having to depend entirely upon the chase for provision to keep them through the fol- lowing winter. The Shawnees crossed over the Great Miami into what is now Miami County, and built another town which they also called Piqua.

In March, 1781, Col. Daniel Broadhead, at the head of 300 men, at- tacked and destroyed the Delaware villages on the Upper Muskingum (in Coshocton County), killing about forty warriors and capturing many squaws and children whom he took to Wheeling, Va. In August of that year, the Indians, in retaliation, attacked a force of 106 men under the command of Col. Archibald Lochry, below the mouth of the Big Miami, killing or capturing the whole force, the fate of the prisoners being, of course, death in its cruelest form. In March, 1782, Col. David Williamson, at the head of 100 men, marched upon the Moravian Indian village of Guadenhutten, in what is now Tuscarawas County. He took ninty-six prisoners. composed of bucks, squaws and children, all of whom were considered friendly In- dians and had embraced the faith of the Moravian Church. Four days afterward, all, with the exception of two boys who escaped from the building where they were imprisoned, were murdered in cold blood, which was one of the darkest crimes in the history of civilization, and one that brought upon Williamson and his command the severest condemnation.

This massacre was bitterly repaid in the defeat of Col. William Craw- ford's force of 480 mounted men in June, 1782. They started from the old Mingo town on the west side of the Ohio with the object of attacking

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the Moravian Indians, as well as the Wyandots, in the same neighborhood. The Indian towns were found deserted, and the force pushed on after the retreating foe. Col. Williamson was second in command. The whites were fiercely attacked on the Sandusky plains (now Wyandot County), forced to retreat, and suffered a humiliating defeat. The Indians killed or captured the majority of the force, and among the latter were Col. Craw- ford and his son-in-law, Maj. Harrison ; but, by some decree of Providence, Williamson was allowed to escape, and the innocent left to suffer the pell- alty of his cruel murder of the Moravian Indians. Col. Crawford and Maj. Harrison were put to death. The latter was squibbed to death with powder at Wappatomica (Logan County), while Crawford was burned at the stake in what is now Wyandot County. The burning of Col. Crawford, as related by Dr. Knight, was one of the most horrible scenes in the annals of Indian warfare. It took place in a low bottom west of Upper Sandusky, and eight miles from the mouth of Tymochtee Creek, on the east bank of that stream. His hands were fastened together behind his back, a rope tied to the ligature binding his wrists and then made fast to a stake close to the ground, giving him sufficient length of rope to walk around the stake twice and back again. His ears were cut off, seventy charges of powder fired into his body from the neck down, his blistering skin punched with burning poles, and as he walked around over a bed of fire, the inhuman devils would throw hot coals and ashes upon him. Thus for three hours this awful scene went on, ending by scalping him and throwing coals of fire upon his bleeding head as he lay dying upon the ground. His body was then thrown into the fire and burnt to ashes.

Col. Crawford was the great-grandfather of Theophilus McKinnon, who died at London, Ohio, in April, 1882. Mr. MeKinnon's parents settled in Clark County in 1803, whence he removed to Madison. His mother was the daughter of Maj. Harrison, who was squibbed to death with powder at Wappatomica. Soon after settling in Clark County, four Indians called at her house one day for dinner, and, while eating, informed her, in answer to some questions, the manner and place in which her father suffered death ; also that two of the party had been present at the execution of her grand- father. Throughout the campaign, this was the fate of nearly all captured males, few escaping death in some form peculiar to the devilish ingenuity of the savages. Dr. Knight and the guide, Slover, who were also captured with Crawford and Harrison, were intended to be put to death in a similar manner. The former escaped from a young Indian into whose care he was given to be taken to a town forty miles distant from Sandusky. Slover was brought to Grenadier Squaw town, stripped for execution, tied to the stake, and the fire kindled, but a terrible storm arose and put out the fire, when the Indians, looking upon this as the manifestation of an angry God. post- poned the horrid deed, and that night Slover escaped.

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The history of Madison County, Ohio, Part 24

Author: Brown, Robert C; W.H. Beers & Co., pub Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, W.H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Brown, Robert C; W.H. Beers & Co., pub
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1180