USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
433
HISTORY OF OHIO.
The boat with its wounded, afflicted, exhausted, but yet unvan- quished occupants, was borne on by the current, and reached its destination at Maysville, Kentucky, then called Limestone, that night. It is said that this was the last boat descending the Ohio that was attacked by the Indians.
.
CHAPTER XXIII.
SETTLEMENTS ON THE OHIO AND ON THE LAKE.
SETTLEMENT AT MANCHESTER - ADVENTURE AT DONALSON CREEK - CAPTIVITY OF MR. DONALSON - HIS ESCAPE- ADVENTURE OF JOHN EDGINTON -CHARACTER OF SOME OF THE INDIANS- INTERESTING ANECDOTE -CHARACTER OF BLACK HOOF - FOURTH OF JULY, 1796, ON THE WESTERN RESERVE- ELOQUENT WORDS OF JOHN BARR - JUDGE KINGS- BURY'S SAD EXPERIENCE - INDIAN CRUELTY TO CAPTIVES - A SECOND POCAHONTAS - ANCIENT BURIAL GROUND-PECU- LIARITY OF THE EARLY SETTLERS-INCREASING PROSPERITY - INFLUENCE OF MAJOR CARTER WITH THE INDIANS.
ABOUT FIFTY miles east of Cincinnati a little settlement sprang up which received the name of Manchester. St. Clair had, by proclamation, created a county there, which was called Adams, in honor of John Adams, second President of the United States. It covered a very large tract of country, being one of the four counties into which the whole Northwestern Territory was divided. General Nathaniel Massie was governmental surveyor for this region. He needed a settlement for his surveying parties in the midst of his operations. In the year 1790, he succeeded by very liberal offers of land in securing about thirty families to co-operate in the enterprise. His station was carefully laid out into town lots and farming lots. In those days it was necessary that all the buildings should be clustered together for mutual protection. Cabins were raised, and by the middle of March, 1791, the little village was entirely surrounded by strong pickets, firmly planted in the ground, with block houses at each angle. This was the fourth settlement which was effected within the bounds of the present State of Ohio.
Its early settlers consisted of a very choice set of emigrants. They were intelligent, temperate, industrious and brave. Their courage consisted in the spirit which makes every preparation for
435
HISTORY OF OHIO.
the hour of peril, and then, in the language of the apostle, " hav- ing done all to stand." Though this settlement was commenced very nearly in the hottest period of the Indian war, it suffered less than any other which had been made on the banks of the Ohio River. This is undoubtedly to be attributed to the watchfulness with which these brave pioneers guarded their homes. Most of them had come from the Kentucky side of the river, where they had been reared in the midst of dangers and were enured to peril.
Among the honored names, we find the Beasleys, the Stouts, the Washburns, the Wades, and many others, who were not only the equals, but the superiors, of the savages in all the arts and strat- agems of border warfare. Their nearest neighbors, north of the Ohio River, were those at Cincinnati, on the west, and the French settlement at Gallipolis, about seventy-five miles east of them. Nearly opposite the town there were three of the beautiful islands of the river, of apparently inexhaustible fertility of soil. As soon as the cabins were reared the whole population combined their energies to clear the lowest of the islands and plant it with corn. They could all work there at their ease, men, women and children, for the approaches could be very easily watched, and no foe could advance in canoes from either side of the river without affording sufficient time for the laborers to reach the protection of their fortresses.
Game was very abundant in the woods, consisting of deer, elk, bears and turkeys. The hunter could go out any morning, make his own selection of game, and in an hour or two return with any quantity he might desire. The river furnished also a great variety of excellent fish. Thus the inhabitants were dwelling in the midst of abundance. But there is no Elysium to be found in this wicked world where man is the most cruel foe of his brother man.
One evening in the latter part of April, 1791, Mr. Israel Donal- son visited the settlement to assist Mr. Massie in some of his sur- veys. One morning Mr. Massie, with the young surveyor and two other men, all well armed, took a birch canoe and paddled up the stream four or five miles to make a survey. It was at the time of the spring floods, and the majestic river was full to its upper banks. The. current was so strong, that with their paddles they made slow progress against it. At length they reached a little stream entering the river from the north, then without a name, but since known as Donalson's Creek. Here they moored their boat and
1
436
HISTORY OF OHIO.
commenced to survey. General Massie had the compass, Mr. Donaldson and one of the other men, William Lytle, carried the chain. The fourth man, James Tittle, followed to render any assistance which might be needed.
They had advanced but about one hundred and fifty rods along the banks of the creek, when the chain broke. They were all clustered together riveting it again by the aid of a tomahawk and stone, when suddenly, and to their great consternation, two canoes filled with Indian warriors descending the creek, came upon them. The savages, as soon as they caught a glimpse of the white men, turned their canoes to the land and sprang ashore. The survey- ors fled towards their boat, three of them reached it, and pushing out from the lane, escaped. Mr. Donalson, who was by no means of agile frame, and who was totally unaccustomed to such adven- tures, was left far in the rear. In the terror of his clumsy flight, he struck his foot against some obstruction and plunged headlong into a ditch. The Indians were so close upon him, that seeing escape to be impossible, he did not attempt to rise. Three war- riors were instantly at his side presenting their rifles at his head. As he offered no resistance, they raised the muzzles of their guns, and one of them held out his hand to help him up.
Instead of pursuing those who had escaped, they took Donal- son back to their canoes, when several of the party, loading themselves with provisions, blankets, etc., prepared to march with their captive through the forest to their distant settlement. The Indian who had helped Donalson from the ditch was a very lusty and, apparently, kind-hearted man. On the march he seemed to assume that the prisoner was peculiarly his, and entitled to his protection. Soon the rain began to fall, and very copiously. But rapidly the Indians continued their tramp all the afternoon, until nightfall. They then built their camp-fires, kindling them from the flash of their guns, cooked and ate their supper, and, appa- rently, as insensible to rain and the chill night air, as were the buffalo and the deer, slept soundly until morning. Their captive was not treated cruelly, but merely bound so as to prevent escape.
At an early hour of the morning they resumed their march. The rain still continued. As they were passing along, drenched with the falling showers, one of the bareheaded Indians seemed to think that the slouched hat which Mr. Donalson wore, was a convenient article of apparel. He therefore snatched it from the
-
JEREMIAH MORROW Governor 1822-26.
439
HISTORY OF OHIO.
head of the prisoner, and put it upon his own. Mr. Donalson, by signs, appealed to his stalwart guardian for redress. The Indian promptly seized the cap from the purloiner, and replaced it upon its owner's head. They, however, had not advanced far, before the thief took it again. Donalson once more appealed to his protector. The Indian shook his head, and opening his budget, took from it a sort of blanket cap.
"We went on," writes Donalson. "It still rained hard, and the brooks were very much swollen. When my friend discovered that I was timorous, he would lock his arm in mine and lead me through. Frequently in the open woods when I would get tired, I would do the same thing with him, and walk for miles. They did not make me carry anything until Sunday or Monday. They got into a thicket of game, and killed, I think, two bears and some deer. They then halted and jerked their meat, ate a large portion, peeled some bark, made a kind of box, filled it, and put it on me to carry. I soon got tired of it, and threw it down. They raised a great laugh, examined my back, applied some bear's oil to it, and put on the box again. I went on some dis- tance, and again threw it down. My friend took it, threw it over his head, and carried it. It weighed, I thought, at least fifty pounds."
While resting one day, one of the Indians took a kernel of corn, which was carefully wrapped up, and digging a hole in the ground, planted it, and having a comical smile on his face, indicated that that would be Donalson's employment, calling him at the same time a squaw. At length they had traversed the whole breadth of Ohio, and reached a Shawanese village, on the banks of the Sandusky. Here they undertook the rather painful operation of transforming their captive into an Indian. One by one the hairs of his head were pulled out by the roots, leaving the head entirely bare, excepting what was called the scalp lock. His face was painted, and a tin jewel put into his nose.
The village they had entered was quite a spacious one, and it was evident that British or French engineers had assisted them in constructing what was really a fortified camp. There was some- thing quite remarkable in the barbarian etiquette there estab- lished, and in the courtesies of daily intercourse practiced by these savages, courtesies often violated by the parliamentary bodies of England, France and America.
27
-
440
HISTORY OF OHIO.
The day after the capture of Donalson, a war party of the Indians, in the vicinity of Maysville had been cut off, and nearly every man killed. While Donalson was in the Shawanese village an Indian runner entered with the afflicting tidings. Immedi- ately all the men of the camp were assembled to hear the story. The messenger spoke for an hour. There was breathless silence. A pinfall could have been heard. It was remarkable that the savages did not retaliate upon their captive, but they made no difference in his treatment.
There were two other white men in the camp who had been captured when quite young, and who had been incorporated into the tribe. They both had become thoroughly Indian in character, and instead of wishing to return to the settlements of the white men, had imbibed all the hostility of the Indians to the invaders of their soil.
The tidings which the courier had brought threw the little com- munity into a state of great excitement. Donalson's protector and another left the camp on some excursion as scouts. "Never before," writes Donalson, "had I parted with a friend with the same regret."
In the afternoon of that day about sixty warriors, with a hundred very fine horses, which had been stolen from Kentucky, left the camp in a state of great excitement, taking Mr. Donalson with them. They traveled until nightfall, and then encamped on the edge of a prairie. The captive was firmly bound and placed, to sleep, between two Indians, one of whom held each end of the rope. After the Indians had fallen asleep, Donalson gnawed at the rope, which was made of bark, till just before the dawn of day when he succeeded in freeing himself; creeping softly on his hands and feet, for a few rods, when his guard awoke, and with loud cries gave the alarm.
The night was dark. They had no knowledge of the direction in which their captive had fled, and fortunately for him they com- menced their pursuit in an opposite course. Donalson fled with all speed, as the shouts of his bewildered pursuers faded away in the distance. 'Exhausted by a sleepless night, and by his rapid flight, at 10 o'clock he crept into a hollow log, where he slept soundly for several hours. It was nearly sundown when he awoke. He continued his flight until dark, and then secreted himself for another night. On his way he fortunately found a
441
HISTORY OF OHIO.
turkey's nest, with two eggs in it. They afforded him a refresh- ing supper.
Thus he continued, day after day, to journey on, in a south- westerly direction, knowing that he would thus eventually reach the Miami River. He could then follow down that stream to the Ohio. At length, with rent clothes, and bleeding feet, and fam- ished frame, as he was about sinking in despair, he heard the dis- tant tinkling of a bell. It animated him with new life. As he pressed on the sound of an ax reached his ears. "It was the sweetest music I had heard," he said, " for many a day." He soon entered the clearing of an emigrant, Mr. Woodward. The farmer was working in a field at some distance from his house. When he first caught sight of Donalson, he was greatly alarmed, supposing him to be an Indian. An explanation ensued, and Mr. Woodward caught his horse and placed the half-dead fugitive upon his back, and gently led the horse to his house. There were a few cabins clustered together for mutual protection.
The little community was much excited by the strange arrival. They all supposed, at first, that he was an Indian whom Mr. Wood- ward had wounded and captured ; and hurried questions were put upon that supposition.
" I was not surprised," writes Mr. Donalson, " nor offended at the inquiries; for I was still in Indian uniform, bare headed, my hair cut off close, excepting the scalp and foretop, which they had put up in a piece of tin, with a bunch of turkey feathers, which I could not undo. Mr. Woodward took me to his house, where every kindness was shown me. They soon gave me other cloth- ing. Coming from different persons they did not fit me very neatly. But there could not be a pair of shoes found, that I could get on, my feet were so much swollen."
Donalson having thus reached the settlements, was soon con- veyed in safety to his friends. Another incident of the little colony at Manchester I will give, as well narrated in McDonald's Sketches :
"John Edginton, Ashael Edgington, and another man, started out on a hunting expedition, towards Brush Creek. They camped out six miles, in a northeast direction from where West Union now stands, on the road from Chillicothe to Maysville. The Edging- tons had good success in hunting, having killed a number of deer and bears. Of the deer killed they saved the skins and hams alone. They hung up the proceeds of their hunt on a scaffold, out of the
442
HISTORY OF OHIO.
reach of the wolves and other wild animals, and returned home for pack-horses.
" As it was late in the season, no one apprehended danger, the winter season being usually a time of repose from Indian incur- sions. The two Edgingtons returned to their old hunting camp, and, alighting from their horses, were preparing to strike a fire, when a platoon of Indians fired upon them, at the distance of not more than twenty paces. Ashael Edgington fell to rise no more. John was more fortunate. The sharp crack of the rifles, and the horrid yells of the Indians, as they leaped from their place of am- bush, frightened the horses, who took the track towards home at full speed.
" John Edgington was very active on foot, and now an occasion offered which required his utmost speed. The moment the In- dians leaped from their hiding place they threw down their guns and took after him. They pursued him, screaming and yelling in the most horrid manner. For about a mile the Indians stepped in his tracks, almost before the bending grass could rise. The up- lifted tomahawk was frequently so near his head that he thought he felt its edge. Edgington at length gained upon his pursuers, and, after a long race, he distanced them, made his escape, and safely reached home. This, truly, was a fearful and well conducted race. The big Shawnee chief, who headed the Indians on this oc- casion, after peace was made, and Chillicothe became settled, fre- quently told the writer of this sketch of the race. He said, 'The white man who ran away was a smart fellow. He ran and I ran. He ran and ran, and at last ran clear off from me.'"
All those who became intimately acquainted with the Indians agree with the declaration that many of them possessed amiable and attractive traits of character. Mr. David Robb, an intelligent and candid observer, and who was for some time Indian Agent among the Senecas and the Shawnees, has given a very interesting account of his intercourse with the red men.
Though intemperance generally prevailed, there were those who scorned thus to degrade themselves. In the pride of self-respect, they refused to associate with the low and the groveling, and there were almost as marked distinctions in society as with more civi- lized communities. These men cultivated their little farms with much taste and judgment. Their wives often cooked very pala- table meals. They obtained cows, and made both butter and
443
HISTORY OF OHIO.
cheese. Many of them them gradually obtained very considera- ble skill in the use of tools. One chief had a full assortment of carpenter's tools, which he kept in good order.
"He made," writes Mr. Robb, "plows, harrows, wagons, bed- steads, tables, bureaus. He was frank, liberal, and conscientious. On my asking him who taught him the use of tools, he replied, no one. Then, pointing up to the sky, he said, 'The Great Spirit taught me.'"
It seems to be the testimony of every one who has spent any length of time among them, that there was something fascinating in the Indian character. The captives, when adopted, almost in- variably became attached to them. It was often very difficult, and at times impossible, to induce those who had been taken prisoners when young, in after life to return to their own people.
There was among the Shawnees a white woman, who had num- bered her three-score years and twenty. Her friends made every ef- fort in their power to induce her to return to them. It was all in vain. In the whole tribe there could not be found a squaw who was more thoroughly Indian in her nature. The Indians were gener- ally very conscientious in fulfilling their contracts. Mr. Robb says :
"I have often loaned them money, which was always returned in due season, with a single exception. This was a loan to a young man, who promised to pay me when they received their annuity. After the appointed hour he shunned me, and the matter remained unsettled until just prior to our departure for their new homes. I then stated the circumstance to one of the chiefs, more from curi- osity to see how he would receive the intelligence than with the expectation of its being the means of bringing the money. He therefore talked with the lad upon the subject, but, being unsuc- cessful, he called a council of his brother chiefs, who formed a circle, with the young man in the center. After talking to him awhile in a low tone they broke out, and vociferously reprimanded him for his dishonest conduct. But all proved unavailing. Finally, the chiefs, in a most generous and noble spirit, made up the amount from their own purses, and pleasantly tendered it to me."
The leading men of the Indians were truly great men. They at- tained their eminence by their achievements. They loomed above their fellows by their sagacity, their bravery, and their oratorical powers. Black Hoof was one of the most eminent of the Shawa- nee chiefs. He was present at Braddock's defeat, and was one
444
HISTORY OF OHIO.
of the prominent actors in all the wars of the Ohio Indians; and that he had a wonderfully happy faculty in expressing his ideas, and was remarkably graceful and eloquent. Colonel Johnson, who knew him intimately, writes :
"He was well versed in the traditions of his people. No one knew better their peculiar relations to the whites, whose settle- ments were gradually encroaching on them, or could detail with more minuteness the wrongs with which his nation were afflicted. But although a stern and uncompromising hostility to the whites had marked his policy, through a period of forty years, and nerved his arm in a hundred battles, he became at length con- vinced of the madness of an ineffectual struggle against a vastly superior and hourly increasing foe. No sooner had he satisfied himself of this truth, than he acted upon it with a decision which formed a prominent trait in his character. The temporary suc- cess of the Indians, in several engagements, previous to the cam- paign of General Wayne, had kept alive their expiring hopes. But their signal defeat by that gallant officer, convinced the more reflecting of their leaders, of the desperate character of the conflict.
" Black Hoof was among those who decided upon making terms with the victorious American commander ; and having signed the treaty of 1795, at Greenville, he continued faithful to his stipula- tions, during the remainder of his life. From that day he ceased to be the enemy of the white man. As he was not one who could act a negative part, he became the firm ally and friend of those against whom his tomahawk had been so long raised in vindictive animosity. He was their friend, not from sympathy or conviction, but in obedience to a necessity which left no middle course, and under a belief that submission alone could save his tribe from destruction. Having adopted this policy, his sagacity and sense of honor alike forbade a recurrence either to open war or secret hostility. He was the principal chief of the Shawanee nation, and possessed all the influence and authority which are usually attached to that office, in the period when Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, commenced their hostile operations against the United States.
" When Tecumseh and the Prophet embarked in their scheme for the recovery of the land as far south as the Ohio River, it became their interest as well as policy, to enlist Black Hoof in
445
HISTORY OF OHIO.
the enterprise, and every effort which the genius of the one and the cunning of the other could devise, was brought to bear upon him. But Black Hoof continued faithful to the treaty which he had signed at Greenville, in 1795, and by prudence and influence kept the greater part of his tribe from joining the standard of Tecumseh, or engaging on the side of the British in the late war with England. In that contest he became the ally of the United States, and, although he took no active part in it, he exerted a very salutary influence over his tribe.
" In January, 1813, he visited General Tupper's camp, at Fort McArthur, and while there, about ten o'clock one night, while sitting by the fire in company with the general and several other officers, some one fired a pistol through a hole in the wall of the hut, and shot Black Hoof in the face. The ball entered the cheek, glanced against the bone, and finally lodged in the neck. He fell, and for some time was supposed to be dead, but revived, and afterwards recovered from this severe wound. The most prompt and diligent inquiry as to the author of this cruel and dastardly act, failed to lead to his detection. No doubt was entertained that this attempt at assassination was made by a white man, stimulated, perhaps, by no better excuse than the memory of some actual or ideal wrong inflicted on some of his own race by an unknown hand of kindred color with that of his intended victim.
" Black Hoof was opposed to polygamy, and to the practice of burning prisoners. He is reported to have lived forty years with one wife, and to have reared a numerous family of children, who both loved and esteemed him. His disposition was cheerful, and his conversation sprightly and agreeable. In stature he was small, being not more than five feet eight inches in height. He was favored with good health and unimpaired eyesight to the period of his death."
Early in the year 1796 arrangements began to be made to establish a colony in that northern portion of Ohio to which we have before referred, called the Western Reserve. A surveying party was sent out, which, coasting along the shores of Lake Erie, landed on the fourth of July at the mouth of a small stream called Conneaut Creek. John Barr, Esq., in a sketch of this movement, eloquently writes :
"The sons of revolutionary sires; some of them sharers them-
446
HISTORY OF OHIO.
selves in the great baptism of the Republic, they made the anni- versary of their country's freedom a day of ceremonial and re- joicing. They felt that they had arrived at the place of their labors, the, to many of them, sites of homes as little alluring, almost as crowded with dangers as were the levels of Jamestown or the rocks of Plymouth, to the ancestors who had preceded them in the conquest of the sea coast wilderness of this continent. From old homes, and friendly and social associations, they were almost as completely exiled as were the cavaliers who debarked upon the shores of Virginia, or the Puritans who sought the strand of Massachusetts.
" Far away as they were from the villages of their birth and boyhood, before them the trackless forest, or the untraversed lake, yet did they resolve to cast fatigue and privation in peril from their thoughts, for the time being, and give to the day its due, to patriotism its awards. Mustering their numbers, they sat them down on the eastern shore of the stream now known as Conneaut, and dipping from the lake the liquor in which they pledged their country -their goblets, tin cups of no rare workmanship, with the ordnance accompaniment of two or three fowling pieces, discharg- ing the required national salute -the first settlers of the Reserve spent their landing day as became the sons of the Pilgrim Fathers, as the pioneers of a population that has since made the then wilderness of Northern Ohio to blossom as the rose, and prove the homes of a people as remarkable for integrity, industry, love of country, moral truth and enlightened legislation as any to be found within the territorial limits of their ancestral New England."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.