The history of Madison County, Ohio, Part 28

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

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY.

CHAPTER IV.

PIONEERS PRIOR TO 1800-JONATHAN ALDER-BENJAMIN SPRINGER-USUAL OSBORN-JAMES AND JOSIIUA EWING-DAVID MITCHELL-OTHIER SET-

TLERS-MICHAEL JOHNSON-WILLIAM LAPIN-JAMES AND WILL- IAM HIEWEY-DAVID MARTIN-WILLIAM ALKIRE.

R EACHING back one hundred years, where certain records of history " fade away in the twilight and charm of tradition," we gather up the marvelous growth of civilization in the New World. The past century is rich in the romance of American history, and progress has reigned with imperial power. Here barbarism was driven back still farther into its native forests, where through all the ages it has had its securest home, and the inseparable twins, Christianity and civilization, bearing the ax of time, have cloven along its retiring footsteps, room for a better, purer and holier life, in all of which we may be able to read the inevitable decree of an overruling Providence. In order to bring us closer, if possible, to the condition of things as they once existed here, and to aid in paying just tribute to those brave men who fought here, or who but little later were the avant couriers of this present peaceful and happy county, let us speak in the words of one of Ohio's poet sons :

" The mighty oak, proud monarch of the wood, Upon these hills in stately grandeur stood. Along these vales did ferocious panthers prowl, And oft was heard the fierce wolf's frightful howl ; But all these savage beasts have passed away, And the wild Indians, too-where are they ? They have disappeared-most of these tribes are gone, Like the night's dark shades before the rising dawn. Can we forget that brave and hardy band Who made their homes first in this Western land ? Their names should be enrolled on history's page, To be preserved by each succeeding age ; They were the fathers of the mighty West ; Their arduous labors Heaven above has blessed ; Before them fell the forest of the plain, And peace and plenty followed in the train."

JONATHAN ALDER.

About forty years ago, Jonathan Alder dictated to his son Henry the eventful story of his life, which the latter wrote out in full. It contained about one hundred pages of manuscript, and was loaned to Henry Howe, in the preparation of his history of Ohio, who made copious extracts therefrom. It is not now known whether or not Howe ever returned this manuscript, but if he did, some other man borrowed it soon after, and it has never since been seen by the family. In subsequent years, Henry Alder prepared a second manuscript from memory, also using the extracts printed in Howe's history. These accounts conflict in some cases, and wherever they do, we have given the preference to the original account prepared during the lifetime of Mr. Alder. We have also obtained additional facts from his descendants, and old settlers who knew him well and give them in the general story of his life.

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY.

Jonathan Alder was born in New Jersey, about eight miles from Phila- delphia, September 17, 1773. His parents were Bartholomew and Hannah Alder, and the father had been twice married. Of the first marriage one son, John, was the issue, while the second family were David, Jonathan, Mark and Paul. When our subject was about seven years of age, his par- ents removed to Wythe County, Va., where his father died soon afterward. They resided near the lead mines in that county, and owned a small farm of very poor land. In March, 1782, Jonathan was sent, with his brother David, to hunt up a mare and colt that had been missing for several days. They found the animals, and, while in the act of assisting the colt to rise, it having eaten a poisonous weed and taken sick, David discovered a band of savages in close proximity, and with the cry, " Indians," darted off, closely pursued. Jonathan was so frightened that he made no effort to escape, and when one of the Indians, upon reaching him, held out his hand, he took hold of it without a murmur. The band consisted of about half a dozen Indians and a white prisoner, who had been with them for years. "At length," says Alder," " I saw them returning, leading my brother, while one was holding the handle of a spear that he had thrown at him and run into his body. As they approached, one of them stepped up and grasped him around the body while another pulled out the spear. I observed some flesh on the end of it which looked white, which I supposed came from his entrails. I moved to him and inquired if he was hurt, and he replied that he was; these were the last words that passed between us; at that moment he turned pale and began to sink, and I was hurried on, and shortly after, saw one of the barbarous wretches coming up with the scalp of my brother in his hand, shaking off the blood."

In the same neighborhood lived a Mr. Martin, wife and two children. The Indians shot Martin, in the timber where he was chopping, and going to his cabin, killed the youngest babe, and took prisoners Mrs. Martin and her two-year-old child. Finding the child of Mrs. Martin burdensome, they soon killed and scalped it ; the last member of her family was now destroyed, and she screamed in agony of grief; upon this one of the Indians caught her by the hair, and drawing the elge of his knife across her forehead cried, "Sculp ! sculp !" with the hope of stilling her cries, but, indifferent to life, she continued her screams, when they procured some switches, and whipped her until she was silent. The next day, young Alder having not risen, through fatigue and want of food, at the moment the word was given, saw, as his face was to the north, the shadow of a man's arm with an uplifted toma- hawk ; he turned, and there stood an Indian, ready for the fatal blow ; upon this he let down his arm and commenced feeling his head ; he afterward told Alder it had been his intention to have killed him, but as he turned he looked so smiling and pleasant that he could not strike, and, on feeling his head, and noticing that his hair was black, the thought struck him that if he could only get him to his tribe, he would make a good Indian, but all that saved him was the color of his hair. The band traveled rapidly across the country, and on the seventh day came to Big Sandy, where they made three bark canoes and floated down that stream to the Ohio, which they immediately crossed to the north bank, and then destroyed their canoes. About two weeks had passed away ere they reached the soil of Ohio, where the Indians felt safe from pursuit, and allowed their prisoners more liberty. Traveling

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at leisure through the beautiful forests and prairies, they at last came to the site of Chillicothe, Ross County, where they found an Indian camp, the squaws and larger children engaged in making salt. Thence they went to the Pickaway plains and spent some time in hunting. Here they crossed the Scioto River, and traveled in a northwest direction between Big Darby and the North Fork of Paint Creek, in the vicinity of Deer Creek. Halting near the site of London, they passed most of the summer hunting in what is now Madison County, principally on the Darby plains, where all sorts of game was abundant. They camped for a time near the present location of Plain City ; thence followed the Indian trace, which started from the salt lick, near Chillicothe ; thence up the Scioto to the mouth of Big Darby ; thence up that stream to the head-waters of the Scioto, and on to Upper Sandusky. While on this trip, Jonathan made a foolish attempt to escape, by hiding in a hollow log, but it proved a failure, and he then became re- signed to his fate.

The village to which Alder was taken belonged to the Mingo tribe, and was on the north side of Mad River, which, we should judge, was some- where within or near the limits of what is now Logan County. As he en- tered he was obliged to run the gantlet formed by young children. with switches. He passed through this ordeal with little or no injury, and was adopted into an Indian family. His Indian mother thoroughly washed him with soap and warm water with herbs in it, previous to dressing him in the In- dian costume, consisting of a calico shirt, breechclout, leggins and mocca- sins. The family having thus converted him into an Indian, were much pleased with their new member ; but Jonathan was at first very homesick, thinking of his mother and brothers. Everything was strange about him; he was unable to speak a word of their language, their food diagreed with him, and, child-like, he used to go out daily for more than a month and sit under a large walnut tree near the village, and cry for hours at a time over his deplorable situation. His Indian father was a chief of the Mingo tribe, named Succohanos, his Indian mother was named Winecheoh, and their daughters respectively answered to the good old English names of Mary, Hannah and Sally. Succohanos and Winecheoh were old people and had lost a son, in whose place they had adopted Jonathan. They took pity on the little fellow, and did their best to comfort him, telling him that he would one day be restored to his mother and brothers. He says of them, " they could not have used their own son better, for which they shall always be held in the most grateful remembrance." Mrs. Martin was parted from him on the second day after reaching the Mingo towns, and he did not see her again for two years, when they met at the "salt-works" (in Jackson County), where she told him of her woes and each sympathized with the other. Soon afterward, she was exchanged and he never saw her more. Some time after his adoption, Simon Girty made his appearance in the vil- lage and offered to buy him, take him to Canada and teach him a trade; but the name of the English was more abhorrent to him at that time than the Indians, so he concluded to stay where he was. At the close of his sec- ond winter among the Indians, a white trader from Kentucky, with an In- dian wife, made his appearance for the purpose of exchanging prisoners. Jonathan was informed of the circumstance and was delighte I with the pros- peet of soon again seeing his mother and brothers ; but his Indian boy com-

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panions, who had become much attached to him, told him terrible stories as to his future if he went with the white trader, hoping thereby to induce him to remain with them. His Indian father always told Jonathan that these tales were false. A few days prior to the time he was to start for Virginia, Succohanos took him to the agency, which was ten miles dis- tant. The parting from his Indian friends was very affecting, for they all loved him well and wept bitterly over his departure. The same hour of his arrival at the agency, the agent, who was a rough man, began to abuse him. Jonathan resisted, and the trader's squaw came to the boy's assistance. This brought on a big quarrel, during which Jonathan " struck out" to over- take his Indian father, in which he was successful. He was joyfully received back by Winecheoh, as well as the entire youth of the village, the latter of whom made him the butt of their friendly jokes on account of his short stay with the agent, whose treatment completely weaned him of any lingering desire to return to his early home.

His Indian sisters were all married. Mary was the wife of the Shaw- nee chief John Lewis; Hannah married Isaac Zane, the half-breed, and Sally became the wife of an ordinary Indian. Jonathan went to live with the latter as a nurse, and she was very cruel to him, abusing and whipping the boy without any provocation, and treating him " like a slave." After two years had passed in this way, one of his playmates told Winecheoh, who immediately took him away from her cross daughter, telling him, over and over, how sorry she was that he had suffered so much cruelty. He subse- quently went to live with Chief Lewis, who had no children. "In the fall of the year," says he, " the Indians would generally collect at our camp in the evenings to talk over their hunting expeditions, and I would sit up to listen to their stories, and frequently fell asleep just where I was sitting ; after they left, Mary would fix my bed, and, with Col. Lewis, carefully take. me up and carry me to it. On these occasions, they would often say, sup- posing me to be asleep, 'Poor fellow, we have sat up too long for him, and he has fallen asleep on the cold ground,' and then how softly they would lay me down and cover me up. Oh ! never have I, nor can I, express the affection I had for these two persons."

Jonathan, with other boys, went into Mad River to bathe, and on one occasion came near drowning; he was taken out senseless, and some time elapsed before he recovered. He says : " I remember, after I got over my strangle, I became very sleepy, and thought I could draw my breath as well as ever ; being overcome with drowsiness, I laid down to sleep, which was the last I remembered. The act of drowning is nothing, but the coming to life is distressing. The boys, after they had brought me to, gave me a silver buckle, as an inducement not to tell the old folks of the occurrence, for fear they would not let me come with them again, and so the affair was kept secret."

When Alder had learned to speak the Indian language, he became more contented. He says: "I would have lived very happy if I could have had good health, but for three or four years I was subject to very severe attacks of fever and ague. Their diet went very hard with me for a long time. Their chief living was meat and hominy ; but we rarely had bread, and very little salt, which was extremely scarce and dear, as well as milk and butter. Honey and sugar were plentiful, and used a great deal in their-

M. A. Chandler

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cooking, as well as on their food." He lived with Chief Lewis until thirteen years of age, when Succohanos took him home, saying, that it was time for Jonathan to be doing something for himself, that he would not have to work, but must be a brave man and a great hunter. The English gave his Indian father, annually, a keg of powder and a keg of musket-bullets, so giving the boy an old English musket, with plenty of ammunition, he said, " Now start and kill any game you see; it makes no difference what it is, so it is game." He used to follow along the water courses, where mud turtles were plenty, and commenced his first essay upon them. Hle generally aimed under them as they lay basking on the rocks, and when he struck the stone, they flew sometimes several feet in the air, which afforded great sport for the youthful marksman. Success attended his efforts in killing the smaller game with which the forest abounded, but when he brought home a fine, fat turkey, he would receive high praise for his skill, the Indians telling him he would be "a great hunter one of these days." His first great feat was the killing of a large buck deer, when a big feast was celebrated over the victory, none being so proud of his prowess as his good old Indian mother. He says: " Between Col. Lewis, Isaac Zane, Sally's husband, and my father, it was sometimes a tussle between whose knees I should sit and tell over my great deed of killing the deer. I really think I told it fifty times that evening." The next spring his father gave him a new riffe, and his whole business was to hunt. Ile soon was second to no Indian youth in the camp, finally be- coming the hope and support of his Indian parents.

In 1786, Alder was living in the vicinity of the Mackacheek villages, when they were attacked and destroyed by Gen. Logan. He says that the news of the approach of the Kentuckians was communicated to the Indians by a deserter, but as Logan arrived sooner than expected the surprise was complete. Early one morning, an Indian runner came to the village where Alder lived, and gave the information that Mackacheek had been destroyed, and the " Long-Knives" were approaching. The people of the village who were principally aged men, squaws and children, retreated for two days, until they arrived on the head-waters of the Scioto River, where they suf- fered much for want of food. There was not a man among them capable of hunting, and they were compelled to subsist on papaws, muscles and craw- fish. In about eight days, they returned to Zane's town, and thence to Hog Creek, where they spent the winter of 1786-87. Their principal living, at that place, was "raccoons, and that with little or no salt, without a single bite of bread, hominy or sweet corn." In the spring, they moved back to their village, where nothing remained but the ashes of their dwellings, and their corn burnt to charcoal. They stayed here during the sugar season, and then removed to Blanchard's Fork, so as to be more secure from the whites, where, being obliged to clear the land, they were enabled to raise but a scanty crop of corn. They fared hard throughout the summer, but managed to sustain life by "eating a kind of wild potato, and poor raccoons that had been suckled down so poor that dogs would hardly eat them," and, Alder says, "for fear of losing a little, they threw them on the fire, singed the hair off, and ate skin and all." When the crop was in and cabins built, the men scattered out to hunt, coming as far south as Madison County, where game of all sorts was plentiful, and whence they supplied their winter stock to overflowing. Alder made periodical trips with the Indians to the salt

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springs, and usually came through this region of country, hunting along the Darbys, Deer Creek, Paint Creek and their tributaries. They had, he says, favorite camping places on Oak Run and Paint Creek, south of the site of London, also north of London, on the head-waters of Deer Creek, and near the junction of Spring Fork with Little Darby. Some time was usually spent in making salt, as boiling the water in small kettles, which were brought along for that purpose, proved a very slow process of manufacture. All hands worked, excepting a few good hunters who supplied the camp with food. During one of these trips, while a number of the party were hunting a bear, Alder got severely injured. He had climbed a tree to assist in driv- ing bruin from his perch, when the tree broke off and precipitated him to the ground. His comrades thought he was killed, but although he finally recovered, it was several months ere he could stir around, or regained his former strength.

In the spring of 1790, Alder went with a party of Indians into Kentucky to steal horses, " in retaliation for the destruction of our towns and property." Starting from the vicinity of the old Mackacheek villages, they passed through what is now Logan, Union, Madison, Pickaway and Ross Counties, stopping on the Pickaway plains to hunt, and taking their leisure as Indians always do. They reached the Ohio River, near the site of Portsmouth, made bark canoes and crossed to the Kentucky shore. Alder says : " This was the first time I had seen the Ohio River since I crossed it a prisoner." They secured thirty-two horses, young and old, says Alder. " I had a mare, one yearling colt and one two-year-old colt." The animals were made to swim the Ohio, and the Indians did likewise. Alder says : " I swam it with ease, it seemed as if I hardly wet my back." The whole band returned by the same route through Ohio, arriving home in safety. In speaking of his Indian parents, he says : "They thought it was a great feat for me to swim the great Ohio River. They seemed to set a high value on the horses, not because they were valuable, but because they had a son who could venture out so far, and be so successful in stealing horses, and get back with his property safe." Two years later, he made a second trip to Kentucky for the same purpose, but the band was discovered and narrowly escaped capture. They resolved, during the pursuit, to murder a family whose cabin lay in their route back to the Ohio, and waited until midnight, about a mile from their intended victims. On starting for the house they were unable to find the path lead- ing thereto, and though close to the cabin, did not discover it on account of the extreme darkness of the night, and, looking upon their failure as a mani- festation of the displeasure of the Great Spirit, gave up the cruel intention. On coming to a second cabin, however, they determined to gratify their savage desire for blood, but fortunately found the house deserted. Alder says that he felt thankful then and ever afterward, that there were no lives taken during these trips. Another excursion subsequently was made into Kentucky, but it also proved a failure, as the people were on the alert for these thieving pests.

Alder speaks of meeting John Brickell with a band of Delawares, who visited their camps on the Maumee, coming from the villages, where Colum- bus now stands. IIe also knew Jeremiah Armstrong very well who lived with the Wyandots at the same place, both being prisoners with the Indians.

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During this time Winecheoh died, aged about eighty years, and soon after- ward Alder went with Succohanos to the salt springs. The old man was very feeble, and desired Jonathan to go to Upper Sandusky and get him some tobacco, but upon his return he found that Succohanos was dead and buried. He says : " I was now left alone, no one to care for me. I had lost a kind father and mother, and man as I was, I missed them both very much." He soon afterward began to pay his attention to an Indian widow named Bar- shaw, who was a sister of Big Turtle, and somewhat older than Alder. He concluded to find a good hunting ground for the fall, and the Darby plains was chosen. Starting from Upper Sandusky for this point, he pitched his tent near a spring, where Plain City now stands. His season proved a suc- cessful one, and selling his peltries to a trader, who was living at the Indian villages where Columbus now is, he returned to Sandusky late in the fall. During the winter he continued to pay his addresses to Barshaw, and early the following spring again came to this portion of the territory, locating his tent on Paint Creek, south of the site of London, where he hunted deer and trapped the valuable beaver and otter with gratifying success. Throughout that summer and succeeding winter, his camp was on Big Darby, on the farm subsequently owned by Knowlton Bailey, and here he remained hunting and trapping until Indian runners brought the news of the invasion of Wayne's army. All of the Indians were ordered north to join their brethren in the coming struggle. The Indians told Alder it was going to be an easy victory over Wayne, and that the spoils would be rich and plenty, which inducements proved too strong a temptation for him to remain away. He says : " They told me if I did not wish to fight, I need not do so. I stud- ied over it for some time, and thought I might as well have some of the good things he had as any one, so when the army got ready to move I went along." The Indians attacked Fort Recovery June 30, 1794, and were repulsed. A number of riderless horses, belonging to the mounted force outside the fort, first attacked by the Indians, were galloping madly around, and Alder exerted himself without success, to capture one of the animals. He states that Simom Girty and the McKees, father and son, were in the fight, and that Thomas McKee killed Capt. Hartshorn of the American forces. Speaking of the battle, Alder says : "In the morning when we arose, an old Indian addressed us, saying, 'We went out last night to take the fort by surprise, and lost several of our men killed and wounded. There is one wounded man lying near the fort, who must be brought away, for it would be an eternal shame and scandal to the tribe to allow him to fall into the hands of the whites to be massacred. I wish to known who will volunteer to go and bring him away.' 'Big Turtle,' who knew where he lay, answered that he would go; but as no one else volunteered, the old Indian pointed out several of us successively, myself among the number, saying, that we must accompany Big Turtle. Upon this, we rose up without a word, and started. As soon as we came into the edge of the cleared ground, those in the fort began shooting at us. We then ran crooked from one tree to another, the bullets in the meanwhile flying about us like hail. At length, while stand- ing behind a big tree, Big Turtle ordered us not to stop any more, but run in a straight line, as we were only giving them time to load, that those fore- most in going should have the liberty of first returning. He then pointed out the wounded man, and we started in a straight line, through a shower

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of bullets. When we reached him, we were within sixty yards of the fort. We all seized him and retreated for our lives, first dodging from one side and then to the other, until out of danger. None of us were wounded but Big Turtle ; a ball grazed his thigh, and a number of bullets passed through his hunting shirt that hung loose. When we picked up the wounded man, his shirt flew open, and I saw that he was shot in the belly. It was green all around the bullet hole, and I concluded we were risking our lives for a dead man." Alder says that he did not take any active part in this fight, and when told by an Indian to shoot at the holes in the fort, replied, " I do not want to shoot," and was then advised to get out of the battle if he did not want to do any fighting.

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The history of Madison County, Ohio, Part 28

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