USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 37
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This truly pilgrim band which thus wrought new homes on the bleak shores of Lake Erie, consisted of fifty-two persons. Two only were females, Mrs. Stiles and Mrs. Gunn. There was one child. The next morning they commenced the building of a large block-house. It was to be their fortress, their store house, and, for the present, the dwelling place of the little company of emigrants. They named this building, which was erected on the sandy beach that fringed the eastern shore of the stream, Stow Castle.
It would not now seem that the location was a wise one. The beach, though overgrown with heavy timber, was a mere accumu- lation of sand. The trees were to be cut down to afford room for the house. The creek was scarcely even boatable, and offered no
MICH. ENG. CO
CONNEAUT IN 1796.
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facilities as a harbor. The mouth was frequently so choked up with a sand bar that often, after a severe storm upon the lake, there was no visible harbor for many days. After the gale had subsided, the creek in a few days would gain sufficient strength again to cut an opening through the bar, forming new channels. Thus the mouth of the creek was continually shifting.
We cannot but wonder at the apparent want of judgment often manifested by these pioneers, leading to awful scenes of suffering, which ordinary prudence might have avoided. The surveying party, of which we have spoken, spent the Summer at Conneaut, but were not prepared to winter there. Judge James Kingsbury came there during the Summer, with his family. He erected a log hut upon the borders of the lake. When all the rest had de- parted, his family was left to bide the storms of the approaching Winter. Business, in the Fall, compelled him to go to New York. He made all the provision he could for his family, expecting to be absent but two or three weeks.
Mrs. Kingsbury was left alone with her little children, in that awful solitude, as the storms of Winter were beginning to lash the lake and howl through the forest. The judge, on his journey, was attacked by severe illness, which confined him to his bed for several weeks. Upon his recovery he attended to his business as speedily as possible, and commenced his return.
Upon reaching Buffalo, a frontier post far away amidst the wilds of New York, he hired an Indian to guide him through the path- less wilds to his distant cabin. His anxiety was terrible, as he knew that his family must be quite destitute of food. At Presque Isle he purchased twenty pounds of flour to be carried to them. In crossing Elk Creek on the ice, his exhausted horse fell beneath him and died. He took the sack of flour upon his own shoulders, and oppressed with the most gloomy forebodings, pressed forward on his weary tramp through pathless wilds, and drifted snow, and wintry storms. At length he reached his dreary home, late one evening. His worst fears were realized. His poor wife, pale, emaciated, reduced by cruel hunger to the last stages in which life can be supported, lay stretched upon a cot, scarcely able to move. By her side, on a little pallet, was the lifeless body of a child who had died of starvation. Who can imagine the scenes of anguish which that mother had passed through during those long wintry months of woe. After this dreadful experience, prosperity seems
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to have dawned upon the family. Judge Kingsbury rose to im- portant posts of trust.
The harbor of Conneaut has since then been greatly improved, rendering it quite an important place of shipment. There was, after the treaty of 1795, at Greenville, peace with the Indians. There were at this time at Conneaut about thirty lodges of the natives. They were pleasantly located, and presented an unusual appearance of neatness and comfort. The Massauga tribe then possessed this territory.
After the awful defeat of St. Clair, two captives were brought to this village. They both were doomed first to run the gauntlet. As we have mentioned, this terrible ordeal consisted of arranging all the Indians, men, women, strong boys and girls in two long parallel lines, about five feet apart. The Indians stood about five or six feet from each other, so as to give ample opportunity to swing their sticks, and strike with all their strength.
They were all provided with stout switches, strong enough to inflict terrible blows, but not sufficiently massive to break the skull or to destroy life. Through the parallel lines the captive, divested of his clothing, was forced to run, while every one struck him in the face, over the head, or wherever a blow could be inflicted. It was a terrible ordeal through which to pass. If the wretched victim fell, bleeding and exhausted, he was then kicked. and beaten still more unmercifully.
When the young men had somewhat recovered from this ter- rible infliction, a council was held, and it was decided that, while one should be saved, the other, Fitz Gibbon by name, should be burned, to appease the spirits of the Indians slain in battle. The victim was bound to the stake. A large quantity of the most com- bustible material which the forest would furnish was piled up around him. But just as the torch was about to be applied, the maiden daughter of one of the chiefs, whose heart was touched that so fair a young man should suffer so cruel a death, implored her father, with flooded eyes and in the most piteous terms, to. save him. She also offered to the little community a small sum of money and a package of furs for his ransom. The savages, who did not regard their captive with personal animosity, listened to this humane appeal, and the life of the young man was spared. It is to be regretted that the name of this second Pocahontas has. not been transmitted to us.
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The remarkable statement is made that, in the eastern part of the Village of Conneaut, there were found the remains of an ancient burying-ground, which evidently belonged to a race who had occupied the soil at some period, far before the days of the present Indian inhabitants. The burial-ground embraced four acres. It was laid out in the form of an oblong-square. It had been accurately surveyed into lots running north and south. It presented all the order of arrangement of a Christian grave-yard.
Many of the bones seemed to have belonged to men of gigantic stature. Some of the skulls were sufficiently large to admit the head of an ordinary man. The jaw-bones were much larger than those of any men of our day. In one jaw, a metallic tooth was found, which had been fitted into the cavity from which the natural tooth had been drawn.
Though the region was covered with a gigantic forest, there were many traces of ancient cultivation. A large tree was cut down, which presented, near its heart, evident marks of the blows of an ax. The annular rings of the tree, when carefully counted with a magnifying glass, amounted to three hundred and fifty, since the blows received by the ax. This would carry us back to thirteen years before the discovery of America.
Emigrants began to flock in considerable numbers to the Reserve, and having no fear of the now friendly Indians, com- menced settlements in various places. Being thus far removed from the haunts of civilization, one would suppose that they would have clustered together, for the sake of companionship and aid in case of sickness or other adversity. But one who was familiar with these adventures and hardships writes:
"The settlement of the reserve commenced in a manner some- what peculiar. Instead of beginning on one side of a county, and advancing gradually into the interior, as had usually been done in similar cases, the proprietors of the reserve, being gov- erned by different and separate views, began their improvements wherever their individual interests led them. Hence we find many of the first settlers immured in a dense forest, fifteen or twenty miles or more from the abode of any white inhabitants.
" In consequence of their scattered situation, journeys were sometimes to be performed of twenty or fifty miles for the sole purpose of having the staple of an ox-yoke mended, or some other mechanical job, in itself trifling, but absolutely essential for the
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successful prosecution of business. These journeys had to be performed through the wilderness, at a great expense of time; and in many cases the only safe guide was to direct their course by the township lines made by the surveyors."
As early as the year 1755 there was a French trading post in a small Indian village on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, near the mouth of which stream the beautiful City of Cleveland now stands. Ten years after this a Moravian missionary, Zeisberger by name, accompanied by several Indian converts, left Detroit in a vessel called the Mackinaw, and cast anchor in the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. They then ascended the lonely, forest-fringed stream about ten miles, and settled in an abandoned village of the Ottawas. They gave their little settlement the appropriate name of Pilgerruh, or Pilgrim's Rest. It was within the limits of the present Town of Independence.
From an early day the mouth of the Cuyahoga River had at- tracted the attention of leading American statesmen as an im- portant commercial position. The company of surveyors who celebrated the fourth of July, 1796, at Conneaut, in the Autumn of that year, advanced to the Cuyahoga and laid out the plan of a city, which they named Cleveland, in honor of General Moses Cleveland, who was the agent of the Land Company. Mr. Cleve- land was a lawyer of Canterbury, Connecticut. He had received a liberal education at Yale College, had a large fortune, and was a man of considerable note.
The surveyors having completed their task by the 18th of October, retired from the place, leaving two families only to pass the dreary Winter in those vast solitudes. The heads of these families were Job V. Stiles and Edward Paine. Both families resided in one log cabin, which stood in the heart of the present city, where at that time a dense forest shed its gloom.
The next Summer the surveying party returned, and made Cleveland its head-quarters. Judge Kingsbury, whose family expe- rience during the Winter at Conneaut had been so dreadful, moved to Cleveland. Soon several other families of emigrants came to the same place. The difficulty of traveling in those days was greater than we can now easily imagine. Mr. Nathaniel Doane, in the year 1798, removed to Cleveland with his family from Chat- ham, Connecticut. It took him ninety-two days to traverse the vast wilderness between. In the Autumn of that year every person
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in the little hamlet of log huts was sick of bilious fever. Mr. Doane's family consisted of his wife and nine children, all under thirteen years of age. The eldest child, Seth, had daily attacks of fever and ague. He was so weak that he could not without difficulty lift a pail of water.
And yet, for two or three months, the only way in which the family were supplied with food was for this poor boy to walk to Judge Kingsbury's, five miles distant, with a peck of corn, grind it in a hand-mill, and bring it home upon his shoulders. Little Seth would wait in the morning till his first attack of ague was over. He would then hasten along his toilsome journey. Having obtained his meal, he would wait until the second attack had come and gone-for he had two attacks each day-and he would then set out on his return.
At one time the boy was so feeble, and a wintry storm so severe, that for several days he was unable to make the trip. During that time the sick family lived upon turnips alone. In November four men of the settlement, who were just recovering from severe sick- ness, started in a boat for Walnut Creek, Pennsylvania, to obtain some flour for their enfeebled families. When just below Euclid Creek a fierce storm swept the lake; the boat was driven ashore and dashed to pieces upon the rocks. With difficulty they saved their lives, and in utter destitution regained their homes. During the Winter and the ensuing Summer there was no flour in the set- tlement but such as was obtained from hand and coffee mills. As they had no means of separating the bran, the flour was made into bread similar to what is now called Graham bread.
During the Summer of 1790, the Connecticut Land Company constructed the first road on the Reserve. It ran from the Penn- sylvania line, a few miles back from the lake, to Cleveland. Very strangely the settlers scattered at great distances from each other. The dispersion was such that, from January, 1799, to April, 1800, there was but one white family in Cleveland, that of Major Carter. During this latter year several settlers came. Two enterprising Connecticut emigrants erected a saw-mill and a grist-mill, at the falls, on the site of Newbury. The little colony began now to flourish.
In the year 1801 the fourth of July was celebrated in Cleve- land by a ball given by Major Carter in his log cabin. One of the guests fiddled while the dancers, numbering thirty in all, vig-
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orously passed through the evolutions of scamper-down, double- shuffle, and western-swing. These were not temperance days. Whisky, sweetened with maple sugar, was amply provided for the guests, and it is not improbable that with some the merriment degenerated into carousing. Even in the most genteel circles of our cities, where wine flows freely at an evening entertainment, it is not unusual for some wine-bibber to learn that " it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder."
The Indians were accustomed, at this period, to meet every Autumn at Cleveland in large numbers, and from wide dispersion, for purposes of trade. They came in canoes from their hunting grounds along the shores of the lake, and up the rivers and the creeks, and in quite a fleet entered the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. They would spend the Winter in hunting, scattered through these wide regions. In the Spring they flocked to Cleveland, dis- posed of their furs to traders, and launching their bark canoes upon the lake, returned to their towns in the region of the San- dusky and the Maumee. Here they spent the Summer raising their crops of corn and potatoes. They were far more dependent upon their crops for food than has generally been supposed.
" In this connection we give an incident showing the fearless- ness and intrepidity of Major Lorenzo Carter, a native of Rut- land, Vermont, and a thorough pioneer, whose rough exterior cov- ered a warm heart. Sometime in the Spring of 1799, the Chip- pewas and Ottawas, to the number of several hundred, having disposed of their furs determined to have one of their drinking frolics at the camp on the west bank of the Cuyahoga. As a precautionary measure, they gave up their tomahawks and other deadly weapons to their squaws to secrete, so that, in the height of their frenzy, they need not harm each other.
"They then sent to the major for whisky, from time to time, as they wanted it; and in proportion as they became intoxicated he weakened it with water. After a while it resulted in the Indi- ans becoming partially sober from drinking freely of diluted liquor. Perceiving the trick they became much enraged. Nine of them came to the major's cabin, swearing vengeance on him and his family. Carter, being apprised of their design, and know- ing that they were partially intoxicated, felt himself to be fully their match, although he possessed but poor weapons of defense. Stationing himself behind the cabin door, with a fire poker, he
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successively knocked down two or three as they attempted to enter, and then, leaping over their prostrate bodies, furiously attacked those on the outside, and drove them to their canoes. Soon after a deputation of squaws came over to make peace with the major; when, arming himself, he fearlessly repaired to the camp alone and settled the difficulty. Such eventually became his influence over the Indians that they regarded him as a magi- cian ; and many of them were made to believe that he could shoot them with a rifle and not break their skins."
CHAPTER XXIV.
LIFE IN THE CABIN.
A FEARFUL TRAGEDY - ATTACK UPON CAPTAIN KIRKWOOD'S HOUSE - SETTLEMENT AT GLEN'S RUN - MR. WILLIAMS' NAR- RATIVE - SILENCE OF THE WILDERNESS- REMARKS OF MR. ATWATER - HAPPY CONTENT OF THE PIONEERS - RETRI- BUTIVE JUSTICE -CAPTURE OF MRS. BUILDERBUCK -TORTURE OF CAPTAIN BUILDERBUCK - MRS. BUILDERBUCK RANSOMED -- WONDERFUL ESCAPE OF JOHN DAVIS- MEETING OF TWO CAP- TIVES ON THE SCIOTO RIVER -CAPTURE OF TWO BOYS- THEIR BRAVERY AND ESCAPE - LIFE IN COLUMBIA, IN 1790 - THE FIRST CLERGYMAN IN COLUMBIA.
THERE WERE, during these journeys of emigration, many fearful tragedies enacted in the wilderness, which it appalls one to contemplate. Mr. Hunter, with his wife, one or two children, and a colored servant boy, was on his way to Cleveland. He had taken a boat, and was coasting along the southern shore of Lake Erie. Just east of Rocky River they were overtaken by a squall, which drove the boat violently upon the shore, where the craggy bluffs rose almost perpendicularly. Gigantic waves were dashed upon the rocks, drenching them with the spray. With great difficulty they clambered up a few feet, where they clung to the side of the cliff, with but very narrow foothold, holding on by the shrubs, which grew out from the crevices of the rocks.
Awful hours passed, while the gale raged with unabated fury. Night came, midnight came, lurid morning dawned, and still the maddened elements howled around, as cold, drenched, and starved, they clung to the rock. On Saturday, the children, one after another died, on Sunday, Mrs. Hunter died. On Monday, Mr. Hunter died. Their lifeless bodies rolled down into the boiling surf. On Tuesday, as the storm was subsiding, some French traders, going to Detroit, discovered the black boy cling-
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ing to the rock. He was nearly dead, having been for three days and four nights without sleep or food.
Opposite the City of Wheeling, in Virginia, lies the County of Bel- mont, in Ohio. Here, in the year 1791, Captain Joseph Kirkwood had reared his lonely cabin. He was from Delaware, and had ob- tained much distinction for his bravery during the Revolutionary war. His house stood upon a small eminence, surrounded by gigantic forest trees, and was by no means in a state of prepara- tion to repel an attack by the savages. It is not improbable that his native recklessness of danger influenced him to neglect those precautions which should have been adopted. It fortunately so happened on the night of the attack that fourteen soldiers were in the cabin with Captain Kirkwood and family.
The Indians stealthily approached through the forest in the night, and a little before the dawn, while the soldiers were sleep- ing as soundly in the cabin as if no danger were to be appre- hended, they succeeded, without giving any alarm, in setting fire to the highly inflammable roof, while each savage completely con- cealed himself behind a tree, rifle in hand, prepared to shoot the inhabitants of the cabin whenever they should expose themselves to extinguish the flames.
The first alarm the inmates had was from the flame bursting up from the roof. All was consternation. The dense forest sur- rounded them. Every tree might conceal a warrior, and the savages might be numbered by hundreds. Still, as the glare of the conflagration illumined the forest, not a foe was to be seen, not a hostile sound was to be heard. The family, fully aware of their danger, immediately commenced pushing off the flaming roof, while they kept themselves concealed as much as possible.
Captain Biggs, who was in command of the little company of soldiers, while descending the ladder which led from the loft to the room below, was struck by a bullet which entered the win- dow and pierced his wrist. Then the war-whoop resounded from apparently hundreds of savage throats. The cabin was entirely surrounded by the exultant foe. While all the energies of the inmates were devoted to the attempt to extinguish the flames, the savages kept close watch for any exposure. Several boldly rushed forward and endeavored to hew down the door with their toma- hawks.
So unprepared were the inmates for this assault, that there was
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not even a firm fastening for the door. They had to tear up the puncheons from the floor to brace it. Awful was the scene. The roof was on fire. The howling savages were hammering at the door. Rifle bullets were piercing the hut through the crevices between the logs. The fort at Wheeling was on the other side of the river, and at the distance of a mile. The feeble garrison there heard the firing and the yells of the Indians, and knew too well what those sounds portended.
The soldiers at Wheeling did not dare to leave the fort and cross the river, for they knew not but that the Indians outnum- bered them ten to one. They knew also that the Indians would have spies upon the banks, and that their canoes would be rid- dled with bullets before they could touch the shore. They there- fore contented themselves with firing a swivel. The Indians heard the impotent report, understood its significance, and hailed it with a shout of derision.
The panic within the burning cabin was such that many wished to escape from the flames at whatever hazard. Captain Kirk- wood, who was one of the most resolute of men, threatened to shoot down the first man who should attempt to leave, asserting that the Indians would tomahawk them as fast as they went out. At length they succeeded in smothering the flames, mainly with damp earth from the floor of the cabin. The fight continued for two hours. With the light of day the baffled savages disappeared. The number of Indians engaged in this attack, or their loss, was never known. In the darkness of the night and surrounded by the gloom of the forest, one Indian only was seen from the cabin. He endeavored to climb a corner of the hut, when he was fired upon and fell to the ground. Whether killed or merely wounded could not be ascertained.
Seven of the inmates of the cabin were struck by the bullets of the Indians, and one, Mr. Walker, was mortally wounded. He died in a few hours, and was buried at the fort in Wheeling. This tragic affair seems to have disgusted Captain Kirkwood with fron- tier life. Abandoning his cabin in the wilderness, he returned to Delaware.
It was nearly nine years after this before any attempts were again made to people these solitudes. There was then peace with the Indians, and the pioneer had only the natural hardships of emigration to encounter. In the year 1800, Mr. Williams
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moved from Carolina, and, with several other families, commenced a settlement upon the banks of a small creek called Glen's Run, about six miles northeast from the present site of St. Clairsville. His son, John S. Williams, subsequently editor of the American Pioneer, was then a lad eleven years old. In after life he wrote a sketch entitled, "Our Cabin, or Life in the Woods." From his graphic narrative we give an abridged account of the adventures of this pioneer family.
Emigrants were pouring in from different parts. Cabins were put up in every direction, and women, children and goods were tumbled into them. The tide of emigration flowed like water through a breach in a mill-dam. Every thing was bustle and confusion, and all were at work who could work. Our cabin had been raised, covered, part of the cracks chinked, and part of the floor laid, when we moved in on Christmas day. There had not been a stick cut except building the cabin. We had intended an inside chimney, for we thought the chimney ought to be in the house. We had a log put across the whole width of the cabin for a mantel. But when the floor was in we found it so low as not to answer, and removed it.
Here was a great change for my mother and sister, as well as for the rest of us, but especially for my mother. She was raised in the most delicate manner, in and near London; and had lived, most of the time, in affluence, and always comfortable. She was now in the wilderness, surrounded by wild beasts; in a cabin with about half a floor, no door, no ceiling overhead, not even a tolerable sign for a fire-place; the light of day and the chilling winds of night passing between every two logs in the building; the cabin so high from the ground that a bear, wolf, panther, or any other animal less in size than a cow could enter without even a squeeze.
Such was our situation on Thursday and Thursday night, December 25, 1800, and which was bettered but by very slow degrees. We got the rest of the floor laid in a few days. The chinking of the cracks went on slowly. The daubing with clay could not proceed until the weather became more suitable. Doorways were sawed out, and steps made of the logs. The back of the chimney was raised up to the mantel; but the funnei, of sticks and clay, was delayed until Spring.
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