USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 18
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SIMON KENTON'S LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS.
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camp equipage, for this was the almost invariable custom of the hunter.
In the rich pastures of Kentucky the animals would grow fat. With their tomahawks they cut through the sods, and planted their corn. Soon they had the pleasure of seeing the field waving with this most beautiful of growths. They wanted for nothing. Dressed in the Indian costume, with skin browned by exposure, no one could easily distinguish them from the Indians. Indeed it had become the custom of these hunters, as a precau- tion against sudden attack, to assume, in full, the disguise of the savage dress.
One day Kenton had gone out alone, some miles from the hut, in pursuit of game, when suddenly, in the dense forest, which was free from under-brush, he came upon apparently an Indian, within half rifle shot. Kenton sprang instantly behind a tree for protec- tion. The savage did the same. There they stood, for sometime, peering at each other, and each attempting, by all the arts of In- dian manœuvering, to draw the other's fire. Should one discharge his rifle, without striking his antagonist, the other could easily rush from his covert and shoot him down before he had time to reload. At length Kenton's antagonist, who was also a white hunter, in the disguise of an Indian, perceived something in the movement of his foe, which led him to suspect that he might also be in disguise. This led him to shout from his covert, "For God's sake, if you are a white man, speak." An explanation ensued, and the stranger introduced himself as Michael Stoner, of North Carolina. He accompanied Kenton to his hut, where he spent several days in the enjoyment of its profuse hospitality.
It seems that Kenton was entirely unacquainted with the little settlement at Boonesborough, which was about one hundred miles southeast from him, far up the Kentucky River. He had sup- posed that he and Williams were the only settlers in Kentucky. Stoner conducted Kenton to Boonesborough, and introduced him to the heroic Daniel Boone. After a short visit Kenton returned to his hut, on the Elkhorn, where he had left his companion. Here a sad spectacle was presented to him. The Indians had been there; his hut was in ashes; all its contents had disappeared. Near by there was a stake driven firmly into the ground, sur- rounded by blackened brands; and charred bones were found
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among the ashes. This revealed too plainly the awful fate of Williams.
Kenton immediately hastened back to Boonesborough, attaching himself to a small band of settlers, who were forming a station at Harrodsburgh. Here he was actively employed as hunter and as ranger, to give warning of the approach of Indians. He had then but just attained the age of full manhood, and is described as remarkably graceful in form and handsome in features. He was over six feet tall, with light hair, a soft blue eye, and with a smile really fascinating. He was capable of the most astonishing endurance.
Not long after he repaired to Boonesborough, and became con- nected, as friend and companion, with Daniel Boone- a congenial spirit. One morning in 1778, Kenton and a companion were leaving the fort on a hunting excursion. Just then two men, who had gone into a field, at a little distance from the fort, to drive in some horses, were attacked by five Indians. The men fled, and were hotly pursued. The savages, in the eagerness of the chase, probably did not perceive Kenton, who was partially concealed behind tall grass and shrubs. One of them overtook one of the white men, struck him down with his tomahawk, and, uttering a triumphant yell, was just beginning to scalp him, when a bullet from Kenton's rifle pierced his heart, and he fell dead. The four, witnessing the fate of their leading warrior, turned on their heels in precipitate flight.
Daniel Boone, always on the alert, had already emerged from the gate of the little fortress, at the head of ten men, and with Ken- ton and his companion, entered into a full pursuit of the savages. But they soon found that the forest was full of the foes. Kenton saw an Indian from behind a tree taking deliberate aim at Colonel Boone. Quick as flash Kenton's rifle was discharged, and the savage dropped dead. He had saved Boone's life. Boone grate- fully bowed his acknowledgments.
Just then, not a little to their dismay, they heard the yell of a large band of Indians, who had rushed between them and the fort, to cut off their retreat. Their peril was extreme. Their only possible hope was in a desperate charge through the savages. Boone gave orders for every man to take deliberate aim, so that each should be sure to bring down some one of their warriors, and then to dash through the band with clubbed guns, and reach the
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fort, if possible. Again it was Kenton's fortune to save his com- mander's life. The bullet of an Indian broke Boone's leg, and he was helpless. Kenton, with gigantic strength, grasped Boone in his arms, as if he were a child, and rushed with him into the fort. All escaped, though of the twelve seven were seriously, though none mortally, wounded.
Not long after this event, Kenton and two other men, Mont- gomery and Clarke, were sent across the Ohio River to ascend the Valley of the Little Miami, to spy out the condition of the Indi- ans there, and to report if they were preparing for any military expedition. Colonel Bowman had been sent from beyond the mountains, with a hundred and forty men, to protect the feeble settlements in Kentucky. Under his orders Kenton and his com- panions were acting. They reached the Ohio River, and succeeded in crossing the broad and rapid flood unseen. Stealthily they crept through the forest by night, concealing themselves by day, until they reached Old Chillicothe. Here they found in an en- closure, just outside of the town, seven well-fed and fine horses. They each mounted an animal, and, not willing to leave any behind, which might aid the Indians in pursuit, by hastily con- structed halters led the rest. The tramp of the animals reached the quick ear of the Indians, and soon the whole town was in an uproar. The bold adventurers dashed down the valley at their utmost speed. Thus they drove on through the whole of the re- mainder of the night, the next day, and the next night.
On the morning of the second day they reached the Ohio River, and there the majestic flood rolled before them, its beauty being lost in its grandeur. A fierce gale was blowing, and the surface of the stream was lashed into angry waves. It was not possible for the horses to swim the stream in so boisterous a wind. Anxious to retain animals so valuable, and thinking they had got so much the start of the Indians that they could not be speedily overtaken, they very imprudently decided to remain on the north- ern bank till evening, trusting that the gale would abate with the setting sun. But instead of this, as night came on, the storm raged with increasing fury.
The next morning, Kenton, who chanced to be separated a short distance from his two companions, saw three Indians and one white man, all well mounted, close upon him. He instantly raised his rifle, took aim at the breast of the foremost Indian, and
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pulled the trigger. The powder flashed in the pan. He then endeavored to escape by flight, but was speedily overtaken and captured. The savages seemed greatly exasperated by the loss of their horses. One of them seized him by the hair and shook him " till his teeth rattled." With the utmost scorn he exclaimed, "You horse thief." The others cut switches, and, with savage mercilessness, scourged him over the head and face, crying out at every blow, " You steal our horses, hey ? you steal our horses ?"
Just then Kenton saw his companion, Montgomery, running boldly to his aid. Two Indians discharged their rifles at him, and he fell dead. Probably he sought this death, as his only refuge from torture. He was instantly scalped, and the savages slapped the face of Kenton with the bloody trophy. Clarke, unseen by the Indians, plunged into the forest and escaped.
The captors threw their victim, with great violence, to the ground. Placing him upon his back, they fastened his neck strongly to a sapling. His arms, extended to their full length, were bound to stakes, and his feet were pinioned in the same manner. A stout stick was then passed across his breast, and was firmly bound to stakes. Thus fettered, he could scarcely move a muscle of his body. All this was done in the most cruel manner, interspersed with kicks and cuffs. The vagabond Indians had learned many of the white man's oaths. Kenton was assailed with a shower of these oaths, attached to the words, in broken English, of " tief," " rascal," " hoss tief."
Thus bound, and in the endurance of cruel suffering, the unfor- tunate man passed all that day and the next night. The ensuing morning, the Indians, having collected the scattered horses, com- menced their return up the Valley of the Little Miami. They placed their prisoner on a spirited colt, bound his feet under the horse's belly, and tied his hands firmly behind him. The country was rough, with many thickets and brambles. Kenton could do nothing to protect himself. The savages took pleasure in driving the horse through those places where the flesh of their victim would be most severely lacerated.
When night came, Kenton was again bound to the earth as be- fore. The next day they reached the village of Old Chillicothe. As they were drawing near, a courier was sent forward to announce their approach. The whole village-men, women and children- came rushing out to meet them. The renowned chief Blackfish
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was there. He came to Kenton with a stout hickory stick, and angrily said :
" You have been stealing our horses, have you ? "
Kenton, all helpless as he was, knowing that the only way of securing any respect from the savage was to assume a bold air, defiantly replied, " Yes, I have.'
" Did Colonel Boone," inquired the chief, " tell you to steal our horses ? "
"No!" Kenton replied. "I did it on my own account."
The savage then assailed him with the utmost ferocity, beating him over the head so that the blood streamed down his body. In the meantime the whole crowd was dancing around him with yells of rage. A stake was planted in the ground. He was bound to it without clothing. All united then - men, women and children -in the torture.
We are told in the Bible that God created man in his own image, but little lower than the angels. Fallen man has indeed descended to a very low estate. Demons from the pit could not have been worse than were these savages. We will not describe the torture. It was loathsome and horrible. The Indian women were prominent in acting the part of incarnate fiends.
The wretched victim was kept at the stake till midnight. Wish- ing to prolong his sufferings, they were very careful not to pierce any vital point. Fainting and bleeding, he was carefully guarded in a hut through the night. The next morning he was led out to run the gauntlet. This was one of the principal amusements of the Indians with their captives.
Three hundred Indians, of all ages and both sexes, were ranged in two parallel lines, about six feet apart. They were all armed with sticks sufficiently stout to give painful but not deadly blows. These lines extended nearly half a mile. Kenton was to run between them while every one struck him, with all his force, in the face, over the head, or wherever he could inflict a blow. If he could thus reach what was called the council-house alive, it would prove to him, for a little time, an asylum.
At a given signal Kenton started. He ran for some distance, receiving terrible blows, when he saw, just before him, a savage with a gleaming knife in his hand. The plunge of that knife, or a severe cut from it, would be certain death. He broke through the line, and, pursued by the whole yelling crowd, rushed for the
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council-house. A burly savage intercepted him, and threw him, in his exhaustion, to the ground. Here they all beset him with blows and kicks and he was left apparently lifeless.
A few hours afterwards he partially revived, and some one brought him food and water. He was taken to a hut where, under his marvelous strength of constitution, he slowly recuper- ated. The Indians then held a council and decided to burn him at the stake. They fixed the place of execution farther up the valley, at an Indian village called Wappatomica, upon the present site of Zanesville, in Logan County, Ohio.
At this point there was a British trading post, and here the cap- tive met a friend of former years, the Tory, Simon Girty, who was now, by adoption, an Indian chief. Girty had come, as policy compelled him to do, with swarms of Indians, to witness the tor- ture of the doomed captive. In the mangled condition of Ken- ton, Girty did not at first recognize him. But as soon as Kenton made himself known, even the hard heart of Girty was touched with compassion. He interceded for his old friend, urging upon the Indians the policy of preserving the life of one who might join them, and who was so intimately acquainted with all the white settlements. His plea was unavailing, though he obtained a re- spite and a removal of the prisoner to Sandusky.
The celebrated Indian chief Logan, " the friend of white men," chanced to be there. He interceded with a British officer, Cap- tain Dwyer, in behalf of Kenton, representing that the prisoner would be of great value to the Governor, at Detroit, in giving him information respecting the location of the colonial settlements and the strength of the garrisons. He represented to the Indians that, by taking Kenton to Detroit, they could get a large ransom for him. For once, avarice prevailed over the love of revenge.
Kenton was taken to Detroit, where the commandant paid one hundred dollars for his ransom, and held him as a prisoner of war. Though humanely treated he was carefully guarded. At length he effected his escape through the friendly aid of Mrs. Harvey, the wife of one of the British traders of Detroit. It was the 3d of June, 1779, when Kenton, with two fellow prisoners from Ken- tucky, commenced their long and perilous flight through the wil- · derness to the settlements on the Kentucky River.
Mrs. Harvey had secretly concealed for them, in the hollow of a tree, powder, lead, moccasins, and a quantity of dried beef. 15
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One dark and stormy night she met Kenton in the garden, and gave him three excellent rifles, which she had selected from some stacked near the house. To avoid the hostile bands, who were ever traversing the much-frequented route between Detroit and Kentucky, the fugitives took a very circuitous route, down the Valley of the Wabash, in the present State of Indiana. They pursued their lonely journey on foot, depending upon their rifles for sustenance. For thirty-three days they did not see the face of another human being. They then reached the Falls of the Ohio in safety.
From this time to the close of the war, Simon Kenton was the inveterate foe of the Indian race. He was never able to forget his wrongs, and was always eager to join in any expedition against those from whom he had suffered so much. He was engaged in many a bloody fight, and the savages often felt the weight of his avenging hand. Upon the conclusion of peace he retired to his farm, near Washington, in Mason County, Virginia. Here he became much endeared to the whole community for his gentle vir- tues, his warm affections, and his unbounded hospitality. He sup- posed himself to be quite wealthy; in the possession of large landed estates, and many cattle and horses, and domestic stock of various kinds. He was thus in the enjoyment of a green old age when a new storm darkened his path. Ignorant of the tech- nicalities of the law and the intricacies of land titles, he found, to his surprise and grief, that he had no valid title to the lands he claimed. He was nearly fifty years of age. One suit after an- other was decided against him, and he was reduced to absolute poverty.
In the year 1802 he moved across the Ohio River into the region then called the Northwestern Territory, and took up his residence at Urbana, many miles above the head-waters of the Little Miami. This region had then been but just reclaimed from the savages. It was far in advance of any of the footsteps of civilization. But Kenton was keenly wounded in his feelings by the unjust treatment which he thought he had received. He felt that he was driven from the land which he had defended against the savages, and for which he had shed his blood and endured the most dreadful tortures. In his poverty he preferred the solitudes of the wilderness to the more busy haunts of civil- ized men. Though poor, and retiring in his habits, he was highly
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esteemed as a useful member of the slowly growing com- munity.
He was subsequently chosen brigadier general in the new mili- tary organization of the state. In the year 1810 he found repose, after his stormy life, in the bosom of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He continued a consistent and beloved member of that communion until his death. In 1820 he removed to the head of Mad River, in Logan County, near the site of the old Indian town Wappatomica. This was one of the places where he had encoun- tered, in the year 1779, all the horrors of Indian torture. Here he reared his humble cabin in the midst of a beautiful beech grove. His few wants were mainly supplied by a pension from the Federal Government of twenty dollars a month. The peace- ful evening of his life passed tranquilly away in humble poverty, though free from actual want. On the 24th of June he fell asleep in Jesus.
" Peaceful sleep, From which none ever wake to weep."
" Thus died," writes McDonald, "Gen. Simon Kenton, in the eighty-second year of his age; a man who, as a western pioneer, passed through more dangers, privations, perils and hair-breadth escapes than any man living or dead; a man whose iron nerve never quailed before danger, and whose patriotism warmed up the evening of his life. After a long life devoted to his country, hav- ing passed through a thousand dangers, and having outlived the sufferings of half a dozen deaths, he was permitted to die quietly in his bed at home, in peace and resignation, in the midst of a flourishing settlement, where once was the center of the Indian power. His bones repose within the bosom of the state which sheltered and protected his declining age, and well does Ohio deserve to retain them."
CHAPTER XII.
MASSACRE ON THE TUSCARAWAS AND DEFEAT ON THE SANDUSKY.
CIVILIZATION OF THE TUSCARAWAS - INIQUITOUS PROCEEDINGS OF THE COLONISTS AGAINST THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS- AC- COUNTS OF THE HORRIBLE MASSACRE - FURTHER CRUELTIES OF WILLIAMSON - EXPEDITION AGAINST THE WYANDOTS- LOGAN'S SPRING ~- INTERESTING ANECDOTE - CAPTAIN MAC- LAY AND HIS WAGER - LOVELY CHARACTER OF LOGAN - HIS ADDRESS IN COUNCIL - REASON FOR HIS CHANGE OF FEELING - MARCH OF VENGEANCE -DISAPPOINTMENT OF WILLIAMSON'S PARTY - FIERCE BATTLE - COLONEL CRAWFORD AND DR. KNIGHT CAPTURED - REMARKABLE CONVERSATION BETWEEN COLONEL CRAWFORD AND THE WYANDOT CHIEF - EMIGRATION.
THE UTTER devastation of the valley of the Little Miami, which we described in the last chapter, took place in the autumn of 1782. Pittsburgh was at this time the headquarters of all the Colonial operations in the western wilderness. As the Indians in Ohio had so generally enlisted under the banners of Great Britain, and were committing such awful cruelties, the Colonists had begun to regard an Indian as a foe, to be shot down at sight, making but little discrimination between a friendly and a hostile savage.
The tribes on the Maumee and the Sandusky, in the immediate vicinity of Detroit, were prompt in their obedience to the authori- ties there. But those on the upper branches of the Muskingum river, called Tuscarawas, being near Pittsburgh, were so influenced by the friendly treatment they received from the Colonists there, that they persistently refused all the solicitations of the British agents, and all entreaties of the Indian tribes, to join them in their warfare against the Americans. They persisted in a friendly neu- trality, holding constantly amicable relations with the Americans at Pittsburgh. It will be remembered that White Eyes was one of
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the leading chiefs of this tribe. These Indians had made decid- edly greater advances in the direction of civilization than any of the other tribes. They had three quite important towns, in each of which the Moravian Christians had established quite successful missionary stations. They were all situated upon a pleasant tributary of the Muskingum, called Tuscarawas. The first of these villages, Schoenburn, was about two miles south of the present site of New Philadelphia. Seven miles further south was the peaceful little Village of Gnadenhutten, with its Christian preachers, its church, its schools, and its congregation, just emerging from the savage state. Five miles farther down the stream was the little town of Salem, on the western banks, as was also the upper town of Schoenburn.
It was with great difficulty, as we have already seen, that these Indians had been enabled to preserve their neutrality, against the powerful influence which was brought to bear upon them. In the Autumn of the year 1781, an English officer from Detroit, Colonel Elliott, accompanied by two chiefs from the Sandusky River, and three hundred of their savage warriors, visited Gnadenhutten to persuade or compel them to join the British alliance. By means of threats and bribes, and actual violence, they succeeded in car- rying off most of the able-bodied Indians to the distant home of the hostile tribes on the Sandusky. It was probably hoped that when brought so near the powerful influence of Detroit, they might be led to join the Wyandots in their bloody forays. On the other hand it was feared, that being left so near Pittsburgh, and influenced by their Christian teachers, they might be induced to embark in the cause of the colonists. These tribes were thus compelled to leave their corn in the fields, their potatoes in the ground, and the vegetables in their gardens, while they accompa- nied their unwelcome visitors in a weary tramp to the distant banks of the Sandusky. The Christian missionaries were also taken prisoners and carried to Detroit.
These captive Indians taken from the three villages were most of them Christians. They passed the Winter of 1781 in great des- titution and suffering. Early in February, 1782, a hundred and fifty of them, including many women and children, were permitted to return to the Tuscarawas, to gather in the abandoned crop. They divided into three parties, so as to work at the three towns in harvesting the corn. About the time of their arrival, there had
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been several very atrocious burnings, murderings and scalpings, committed on the upper waters of the Ohio and the Mononga- hela, by the hostile Indians. The settlers around Pittsburgh be- lieved, or affected to believe, that these depredations had been perpetrated by the Tuscarawas, or by hostile Indians whom they allowed to find shelter in their towns. They knew of the visit which the Wyandots had paid this tribe, but criminally they had not informed themselves of the fidelity with which the Tuscara- was had repelled all the threats and bribes addressed to them.
It was therefore decided that these villages were dangerous to the frontier settlements, and must be destroyed. A corps of a hundred mounted men was raised to perform the iniquitous and cruel deed. Each man furnished himself with his own arms, ammunition and provisions, with two horses, one to ride and the other to be led, and to be mounted in case of necessity. The soldiers for this fatal expedition were rendezvoused in what is called the Mingo Bottom, on the west side of the Ohio River, which stream here runs almost directly south.
After a rapid march of two days they reached Gnadenhutten late in the afternoon of the 5th of March, and encamped at a little distance from the village. Early the next morning they entered the village, and found most of the Indians gathering corn in the fields on the west banks of the river. Sixteen of William- son's men crossed the river in a rude boat which they found upon the banks. They went strongly armed. They found the Indians in the field much more numerous than they expected. As usual they had their guns with them for protection and to take game. They either knew before, or soon ascertained, that the Tuscarawas. were annoyed and not a little exasperated by their compulsory visit to the Sandusky. The whites approached them kindly, sym- pathized with them in their wrongs, and told them they had come as friends to protect them. They assured them that it had come to their knowledge that the British at Detroit, with their Indian. allies, were about to repeat the outrage, and with still greater in- dignities ; and that they therefore had been sent by the friends of the Tuscarawas at Fort Pitt to convey them to Pittsburgh, where . they would find ample protection. The simple-hearted Indians had no reason to disbelieve this statement. Many of them had previously visited the fort, where they had always been received with the greatest kindness.
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