USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 12
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At the present time this magnificent valley is divided into ten states, all of which are drained by the Ohio and its many tributa- ries. These states are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.
" The southern streams have freshets in them, one after another, so as scarcely ever to be all up at any one time. When the fresh- ets in the southern branches have done pouring their increased waters into the Ohio, the northern ones begin to pour theirs into it, though, inasmuch as the streams in the State of Ohio all rise in about the same latitude, and on the same elevation, they often rise about the same time. The Alleghany and Monongahela. branches rise in the Alleghany Mountains, among the snows and ices of that Alpine region, and these are the last to swell the: Ohio. Those who dwell along the banks of this fine river, know, from the driftwood and other indications, what particular stream has produced the freshet. The Big Sandy sometimes brings down, from its sources in North Carolina, the reed-cane. The hemlock floats from the head-waters of the Alleghany. When this last river is up-and it is the last to rise-the rafts of pine-boards descend the Ohio covered with families removing into the Western States. These bring along with them their all- their wives, chil- dren, horses, cattle, dogs, fowls, wagons, and household furniture of all sorts."*
In the early history of the country, this broad, gentle, beautiful stream of crystal water, about eight hundred yards in average: breadth, presented a most animating and joyous spectacle. Large and commodious flat-bottomed boats would float down the current: in a bright June morning. Each boat would contain a single: family, men, women and children, with all their animals and house- hold furniture. A little cabin at one end of the boat furnished protection from the weather. It was the parlor, the bed-room, and the kitchen of the little emigrant household. Water-fowl of great variety sported upon the glassy surface of the stream. A great abundance of game was seen upon the shores, including the buf- falo and elk.
* History of Ohio by Caleb Atwater.
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Sometimes a single raft of pine-boards, half an acre in extent, would contain a neat log hut, and present a very peculiar aspect of rural beauty, as horses, sheep, dogs and poultry, were blended with the family of the emigrant. There was no toil in this jour- ney. Two oars, appropriately placed, very easily kept the raft in the center of the stream. With corn-meal, milk from the cow, and the abundance of game, with which the rifle supplied them, the larder of the emigrant was luxuriously stored. Not unfrequently, several of these rafts would join together; the aspect then would be beautiful, as the little floating village of six or seven families, with all the variety of live-stock, was gently borne down the wind- ings of the stream. Reaching their destination, the rafts were broken up and the voyagers established themselves on the shore.
These emigrants were generally a joyous, musical race. Not un- frequently, bugle blasts were heard reverberating among the green eminences which bordered the stream. Again the violin would give forth its merry notes, and groups would be gathered on the level planks in the dance. The settler from his log-cabin on shore, would wave his hat, and shout a "God-speed " to the passers by. And even the Indian warriors, from their picturesque lodges, in the sheltered coves, would gaze silently, yet with friendly feelings, upon the novel scene. The emigrant brought almost to their doors, knives, and hatchets, and rifles, and many of the con- veniences of civilized life, which the Indians could obtain in ex- change for their peltries, their game, and their garments of softly dressed deer-skins. The Indians ever welcomed the French into their borders, for even the most humble among the French were gentle and fraternal, and were disposed to incorporate themselves with the tribes. The English might thus have found happy homes with their brother, the red man, but for the atrocious conduct of desperate and bloody minded individuals, who, in the wilderness, were restrained by no law, and who remorselessly trampled all the rights of the Indians beneath their feet.
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CHAPTER VIII.
LORD DUNMORE'S WAR.
THE OHIO LAND COMPANY - THE FRENCH AND INDIAN TREATY - EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS - SPEECH OF LAWANGQUA - IN- DIAN RECEPTION OF MR. CROGHAN - ENGLISH INJUSTICE - PURCHASE OF SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON - CRESAP'S VILLANY - MURDERS BY GREATHOUSE - INDIAN REVENGE - PLAN OF LORD DUNMORE - ROUTE OF GENERAL LEWIS - THE HOCK- ING AND SCIOTO - LEWIS' FIGHT WITH THE INDIANS - AN- CIENT POETRY - ROUTE OF LORD DUNMORE - HIS PREPARA- TIONS - SPEECH OF CORN PLANTER - LOGAN - TREATY OF LORD DUNMORE - DEATH OF LOGAN - ABILITY AND ELO- QUENCE OF CORNSTALK - AUTHENTICITY OF LOGAN'S SPEECH.
AS EARLY as the year 1748, nearly twenty years previous to the time of which we are now writing, several gentlemen of the Virginia Council, associated themselves with certain London mer- chants, and obtained from the crown, a grant, of half a million of acres of land, to be taken principally from the south side of the Ohio River, between the Monongahela and Kanawha Rivers. This organization was called, The Ohio Land Company. One of its principal objects was, to establish an English colony in the much coveted valley, which, it will be remembered, was then claimed by the French. The French, at that time, had between forty and fifty forts, missionary stations, and trading posts, in various parts of the valley. The English had not a single settlement there.
The King of France, to render his claim to the region still more unquestionable, entered into a treaty with the Indians, by which they very cordially placed the whole country under his protection. It would seem that even then, the Indians feared the encroachments of the English. It must be confessed, that the English authorities, were not disposed to pay much respect to the claims of the Indians, to the vast realms over which they wandered in pursuit of game.
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When, four months before the fall of Fort Duquesne, the Eng- lish sent commissioners across the mountains to endeavor to detach them from the French, one of their orators said :
" Why do you not fight your battles at home, or on the sea, instead of coming into our country to fight them? The white people think we have no brains; that they are many, and we a little handful. But remember where you hunt for a rattlesnake you cannot find it. But perhaps it will bite you before you see it."
By the treaty of peace to which we have referred, after the fall of Pontiac, the Indians agreed to surrender all the prisoners whom they had taken from the English. These prisoners were dispersed far and wide, mainly along the villages which fringed the shores of the Muskingum, the Sciota, the Great and Little Miami, the Sandusky, and others of the lovely streams which were tributaries of the Ohio. The savages had taken many little boys and girls, and had incorporated them into their tribes. They had mani- festly loved them sincerely, and cared for them tenderly. It was a custom of the Indians to adopt these little captives in the place of their own lost sons and daughters.
It was often with deep emotion that they surrendered these objects of their affection. With sighs and tears, and broken ejac- ulations of grief, they often brought them to the office appointed to receive them. Many of the children, also, whose parents had been slain, whose homes were burned, and who had spent many years with their foster parents, having forgotten the relationships of their infant years, had formed such strong attachments for their new homes that they were very reluctant to be returned to the settlements of the pale faces. A Shawanese chief, Lawaugqua by name, was entrusted with a number of these captives to convey them to Fort Pitt. As he surrendered them to the officer he said :
" Father, we have brought your flesh and blood to you. They have all been united to us by adoption. Though we now deliver them, we shall always look upon them as our relations, whenever the Great Spirit is pleased that we may visit them. We have taken as much care of them as if they were our own flesh and blood. They are now become unacquainted with your customs and manners, and, therefore, we request you to use them tenderly and kindly, which will induce them to live contentedly with you."
After this touching address he then spoke of the desire of the
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Indians to live in peace with the English. "Father," he said, " we will now comply with everything you have asked of us. We . assure you that we are sincere in everything we have said. Here is a belt with a figure of our father, the King of Great Britain, at one end, and the chief of our nation at the other. This repre- sents them holding the chain of friendship. We hope that neither side will slip their hands from it so long as the sun and moon give light."
This scene took place in May, 1765, after the overthrow of Pon- tiac's power, but several months before his assassination. A very important council was at this time held at Fort Pitt, to deliberate upon the various questions which would naturally arise under the new posture of affairs. An English gentleman, Mr. George Croghan, was present at this council as deputy commmissioner. When the council broke up he accompanied several Indian chiefs on a friendly visit to the tribes of Illinois. It will be remembered that among these tribes Pontiac had taken refuge, and that the English were very solicitous respecting the influence he might exert over them. In the report he made of this visit of observa- tion, he testifies that he found these tribes greatly under the influ- ence of the French, and strongly attached to them. The French had quite important settlements at Vincennes, Cahokia and Kas- kaskia, from which they received their supplies.
He could not be blind to the fact that the Indians loved the French, and hated the English. He says that they had imbibed from their Canadian friends, and the traders that constantly vis- ited them, an intense hatred of his own countrymen ; that they were extremely reluctant to exchange the easy and friendly rule of the French, who called the red man brother, slept in his wig- wam, married into his tribe, and who, through benignant mission- aries, were teaching him the principles of the Christian religion ; for what they deemed the haughty and imperious domination of the English, who treated them with but little respect, and mani- fested but slight regard for their rights. The Indians received Croghan with civility, but with no marks of friendship or confi- dence. He could not fail to see that he was not a welcome guest ; and he was deeply impressed with the conviction that the peace then existing would prove of but transient duration.
A year after this, in the Spring of 1766, numerous families from the English colonies crossed the Alleghany mountains, and select-
th
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ing for themselves the most fertile and attractive spots on the Monongahela River, erected their cabins and commenced clear- ing their lands. This they did without any purchase from the Indians, and without the slightest recognition that they had any title whatever to the country in which they had settled. It would seem that many of these settlers were unprincipled men, quite devoid of any sense of justice. They despised the Indians, treated them insolently, and if any of them ventured to remon- strate, replied only with menaces and insults.
The Indians felt justly and deeply aggrieved. They perceived that thus the English would eventually rob them of all their lands without any remuneration. Neither the English government nor the Colonial governments approved of these measures. But they were powerless to prevent the wanderings of these individual pioneers. The Indian agent entered his earnest protest against this injustice. They laughed at him. General Gage, Commander-in- Chief of the English forces in America, issued his proclamation denouncing such proceedings. They bade him defiance. Fear- less alike of the authorities of their own country, and of the hostility of the Indians, they selected their lands wherever they pleased.
In the Spring of 1768, Sir William Johnson, Indian Agent, suc- ceeded in purchasing from the Iroquois Indians whatever right and title they possessed to any portion of the Great Valley south of the Ohio River. But there were many other tribes who claimed this magnificent territory, which was profusely stocked with game, as their common hunting-ground. Immediately after this George Washington, and three of the distinguished family of Lee, formed a large company called the Mississippi Company. An agent was sent to England to solicit a grant from the ministry of two million of acres. This enterprise however failed. Various other schemes of the same kind were undertaken, with more or less of success. All eyes were directed to this Canaan of the New World.
In the meantime the flood of emigration was continually flowing across the Alleghanies and penetrating the luxuriant and bloom- ing solitudes on each side of the Ohio. These emigrants, often traveling in quite large bands, were very rapidly possessing the whole country.
As was to have been expected, this unhappy state of affairs, these very needless and unjust proceedings, soon led to conflict,
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bloodshed and woe. The contest which ensued, though short, was very sanguinary. It is called Lord Dunmore's War.
It originated in this way. On the twenty-seventh of April, 1774, a vagabond desperado by the name of Cresap, residing in the vicinity of the present City of Wheeling, heard of two families of Indians, who were a few miles farther up the river hunting and trapping. He took with him a gang of congenial villains, attacked these unoffending people, in cold blood murdered them all, and carried off their game and furs. These murderers came down the river that night to Wheeling in their canoes, laden with plunder. They found shooting Indians to be far better sport than shooting any other kind of game.
Soon after this they heard that there was a small band of Indian hunters, encamped a few miles farther down the river at the head of Captina Creek. Armed to the teeth, these men went down and robbed and murdered them all. Not long after this, there was quite a large party of Indians peacefully encamped about forty miles up the river, at the mouth of Yellow Creek, on the right or northern bank of the Ohio .. A man by the name of Greathouse, took with him a party of seven men, and ascended the river to attack them. They landed on the south side of the Ohio, at Baker's Station, opposite, but just below the point of the Indian encampment. Greathouse concealed his gang of assassins there, and at night crossed the river in his canoe to reconnoiter the ground, and ascertain how many Indians there were in the encampment. As he was skulking along he fell in with an Indian woman. She was very friendly, and urged him not to show him- self to the Indians. She said that they had heard of the murders which had been perpetrated by Cresap, and that they were drink- ing, and were very angry.
Greathouse paddled back across the river, to Baker's station, and in the morning succeeded in enticing quite a number of the savages across the river to his concealed encampment. Here, after getting them intoxicated, he deliberately shot them. The Indians on the other side of the river hearing the report of the guns, sent two of their number across to ascertain the cause. These men had but just stepped out of their birch canoe upon the shore, when, pierced by bullets, they fell dead. . The report of these guns excited suspicion among the Indians, and they sent over quite a large armed force to investigate affairs. They crossed
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the river in quite a number of birch canoes. But, before they landed, this villainous gang of white men fired upon them from an ambush, and killed a large number. The survivors, in conster- nation, returned to their encampment. Greathouse and his gang pursued them, and put all to death whom they could reach; men, women and children. In this atrocious massacre, the family of a noted Indian chief, Logan, ever the firm friend of the white men, were all put to death.
These unprovoked murders soon reached the ears of all the tribes throughout the great valley. There were hundreds of set- tlers who had then crossed the Alleghanies, and were quietly cul- tivating their farms, seeking friendly relations with the Indians, and treating them with true brotherly kindness. They abhorred these deeds as much as any reader of this narrative can abhor them. But the poor Indians knew not how to discriminate. The innocent had to suffer with the guilty. Every where, through the forest, over mountain and prairie, the war-whoop resounded, and the hosts rallied for war.
The governments of Virginia and Pennsylvania immediately dispatched messengers to all the frontier settlements to warn them of their danger. There was universal consternation. Many set- tlers abandoned every thing, and fled across the mountains, Others sought refuge in forts. In the meantime the Indians were roving in all directions, burning, killing, scalping, without mercy. The Legislature of Virginia raised four hundred volunteers, who were rendezvoused at Wheeling. They descended the Ohio River to the mouth of the Muskingum, where Marietta now stands. Ascending that river, they destroyed the Indian towns as far as Zanesville, killing many Indians, and adding greatly to their exasperation.
A vigorous campaign was now organized, to be composed of three thousand men. One division, of eleven hundred men, was to rendezvous in September, at Fort Union, in Green Briar County, Virginia. Near this point the Kanawha River takes its rise, among the western declivities of the Alleghanies. They were then to descend the valley of this river to its mouth, on the Ohio River. Here, at a spot known as Point Pleasant, they were to encamp and await the arrival of Lord Dunmore. He, with two thousand men, was to ascend the Cumberland, in Maryland. Thence he was to force his way across the Alleghany Mountains
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to the Monongahela River. He was to follow that river until he reached the Ohio. Thence he was to descend to Point Pleasant, where he was to form a junction with Lewis.
On the 11th of September, 1774, General Lewis commenced his march. His route lay mainly through a pathless wilderness, where not even the trail of the Indian could be found. All his baggage, including provisions and ammunition, could be carried only on pack-horses. They had to wind their way through wild ravines and dense forests, and over crags, which it would seem that the mountain-goat could with difficulty climb. There is per- haps no region on the continent, of more majestic scenery, than these gloomy gorges and sublime heights of the Alleghany Mountains.
For nineteen days this gallant little band was toiling along, sur- mounting innumerable difficulties, until the formidable barrier was passed, and descending the western declivities, they reached the lovely Valley of the Kanawha. The distance across the moun- tains, from Camp Union, in Virginia, to the mouth of the Great Kanawha, in what is now Kentucky, was one hundred and sixty miles. It is said that the march was more difficult than Hanni- bal's celebrated passage of the Alps.
At Point Pleasant, where the Kanawha enters the Ohio, General Lewis expected to meet, and form a junction with Earl Dunmore. It was the first of October. 1744, when he reached the place of his destination. Finding that Lord Dunmore had not arrived, he went into camp. After waiting nine days, a messenger came with the intelligence that the Governor had changed his plan. In- stead of descending the Ohio in his barges, to Point Pleasant, he would stop about thirty miles farther up the stream, at the mouth of the Hocking River. Then, ascending that stream in a nor- therly direction, as far as the Falls, he would strike directly across the country, to the west, a distance of about sixty miles, till he should reach the banks of the Scioto, where the Indian villages, they were about to attack, were thickly clustered.
The Hocking River would, in most countries, be deemed quite an important stream. It flows through one of Ohio's lovely val- leys, which is about eighty miles in length, and fifteen or twenty in breadth. Boats can ascend the stream about seventy miles, when they come to falls, forty feet in perpendicular height. Here Lord Dunmore was to leave his boats, as he crossed over to the Scioto.
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ARTHUR STCLAIR Governor 1788 1802.
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The Scioto, in its peaceful beauty, is one of the most attractive streams on earth. It takes its rise far away in the north, on the prairie-like summit-level which approaches Lake Erie. It has twelve quite important tributaries. These branches the Indians called its Legs. They therefore gave the river its name " Seeyo- toh "- Greatlegs. In Atwater's History of Ohio we find the fol- lowing very interesting account of this stream :
" The soil where these branches rise and run, is as fertile as any can be in the world. At Chillicothe, the Scioto enters a hilly sand-stone region, and passes through it to the Ohio River in a val- ley of several miles in' width. Above Chillicothe, the Scioto spreads its branches like the frame-work of a fan fully expanded, forming a semi-circle of about seventy miles in diameter at its upper extremity.
" The Scioto may be estimated by the contents of the surface of its valley. It is one hundred and thirty miles in a direct line from its summit to its mouth, at Portsmouth. Its breadth, from east to west, will average seventy miles. From the Town of Del- aware to Chillicothe, a distance of seventy miles, from north to south, in the summer months, the traveler sees the most beautiful country in Ohio. It is a perfect paradise, waving with grass and grain, as far as his eye can see. The country is animated by a people living either in beautiful towns, or along the roadside on farms. Sometimes are presented to view large droves of cattle, horses and hogs. From Delaware to Columbus the road runs near the Olentangy. From Columbus downwards, the traveler almost everywhere sees the canal, with its boats, he hears the sound of their horns, and sees the Scioto winding its way along to the Ohio River.
" This is the Scioto country, famed in all time, since man dwelt on its surface, for its beauty and fertility. That ancient race of men, who were the earliest inhabitants, dwelt here in greater numbers than anywhere else in the Western States. The Indians of the present race preferred this country to any other, and lived here in greater numbers, in towns. Here the wild animals lived in the greatest numbers. And we have placed Columbus, our Capitol, on the most beautiful spot of the Scioto country. Nature has already done her part for this region, and man has done, is doing, and will continue to do his to make it all that man can ever desire it to be forever, ' A Home, Sweet Home.'"
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It was to this beautiful region, and to the villages which fringed the luxuriant banks of the river, that the military expedition was sent to sweep its whole extent with conflagration, ruin and death. Was this dreadful deed a necessity ? Upon that point judgments will differ. The Indians, like demons, were devastating the fron- tiers. But, by universal admission, they had been roused to these horrible outrages by atrocious wrongs, and wrongs which the gov- ernment could not prevent, which were inflicted by vagabonds whom the law could not reach.
On the tenth of October, the latter part of the afternoon, two of the soldiers of General Lewis were two or three miles from the camp, hunting along the banks of the Ohio River, when a large party of Indian warriors rushed from their concealment upon them. One was instantly killed. The other fled and reached the camp in safety. The Indians had their scouts vigilantly watching every movement of the English. With much military sagacity they had sent a large detachment of their warriors to cross the Ohio some miles above Point Pleasant, and attack the English hemmed in between the Ohio and the Kanawha Rivers.
General Lewis, not knowing the strength of the Indians, the next morning sent out two companies to attack them. The In- dians were already within a quarter of a mile of the English camp. They were well armed with rifles. Raising hideous yells, they furiously commenced the battle by discharging a volley of well-aimed bullets upon their foes. The English recoiled from an attack so formidable, and so unexpected in its strength. As they were retreating before the savages, the reserve came up and checked the onward rush of the foe.
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