USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 42
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
It will be remembered that there was one young lady, Miss Flemming, who was taken captive, and who, in the division, was surrendered to the Cherokees. She was a peculiar girl, who had lived a wild life, and was naturally of very buoyant spirits. She did not at first lay her captivity at all to heart. While her captors lingered on the banks of the Ohio, she tried to ingratiate herself into their favor by fun and frolic.
Soon after Johnston's liberation, while he was still residing with his friend, M. Duchonquet, at Sandusky, the band of Cherokees, with their prisoner, suddenly appeared in the village. All their booty had disappeared. They were ragged and emaciate, and in all respects in a forlorn condition. Poor Miss Flemming was sadly changed. All her lightness of heart had vanished. Her eyes were swollen with weeping; her dress was tattered, and her cheeks pallid and sunken.
Johnston's sympathies were deeply aroused. He addressed her tenderly, and inquired into the treatment she had received, which had caused so great a change. She could make no reply, but
509
HISTORY OF OHIO.
wringing her hands, wept convulsively. She had been assigned to a particular master. He, seeing her tears, brutally ordered her to leave the village, and accompany him to Lower Sandusky.
Her master carried his victim off with him, and all knew that her ultimate fate was to furnish the Cherokees with a gala day. by being tortured and burned at the stake. Johnston and Duchon- quet followed, hoping in some way to effect her liberation. There were a few French and English traders at the trading post, and Lower Sandusky was thronged with Indians from the various tribes. Here Johnston first heard the glad tidings of the escape of Skyles.
The traders all took a great interest in the fate of Miss Flemming, and united their energies to do everything in their power for her liberation. The Cherokees had pitched their camp a little out- side of the village. There was at that place a white man named Whittaker, who had been adopted by the Indians. He had been taken captive years before, when a child, in Virginia. All his friends were killed. He had lost all recollection of his parentage, and had become so thoroughly naturalized among the Indians that he had no desire to leave them.
The tradesmen secured his interest in behalf of Miss Flemming, and taking him with them, went in a body to the Cherokee camp. Miss Flemming's father had formerly kept a sort of tavern and trading-house near Pittsburgh, which was much frequented by Indian hunters. Whittaker, accompanying his Indian friends, had often visited the tavern. Thus he had seen Miss Flemming in her own home. This naturally increased his desire to befriend her.
As soon as Miss Flemming saw Whittaker she recognized him, and rushing forward, seized his hand, and bursting into tears im- plored him to save her from the dreadful fate of death by torture which she knew was impending. With his whole heart he en- gaged in her service; but the Cherokees were inflexible; they would listen to none of his appeals.
He then took a boat and went to Detroit to seek the interven- tion of an influential and powerful Indian chief who went by the name of King Crane, and who was his personal friend. To interest the king more deeply in his behalf, he assured him that Miss Flemming was his sister. With characteristic Indian gravity, the king listened to his story, and acknowledged the reasonableness of his interfering to rescue so near a relative from the stake. He
31
a
510
HISTORY OF OHIO.
at once repaired to Sandusky, and walked out to the Cherokee camp to plead for the captive.
The pride of the Indians was now aroused, and they declared that nothing whatever should induce them to give her up. Very bitter altercations, with many angry threats, ensued. One of the Cherokee chiefs in his rage said to King Crane :
" It is disgraceful for a chief like you to place yourself on a level with the white people, and plead for them, when you know they regard you as no better than dirt."
This insult exasperated the king. Hurling back volleys of vituperation he drew off to concert with his followers measures of redress. Whittaker successfully added fuel to his towering pas- sion, and encouraged the king in his resolve to rescue the white girl.
The Cherokees heard these threats, and in their alarm resolved immediately to put their victim to death. As soon as night came they stripped her of her clothing, painted her body black, bound her firmly to the stake, and gathered the faggots around her, and left her to the misery of the night, intending with the early dawn to enjoy their cruel revel.
The sagacious King Crane anticipated this movement. He armed a band of his most determined young men, and at mid- night commenced a silent march upon the Cherokee encampment. The Cherokees were asleep. The poor captive was found in her condition of unutterable woe. She was moaning in a state of almost utter insensibility. Speedily they clothed her, and sur- rounded her with their protecting arms.
Then the king, with a whoop, summoned the Cherokee chiefs before him, he informed them that he had rescued the white girl; that she was now his by the right of conquest; that if they dis- puted it, and wished to fight, his young men were ready for them.
The Cherokees were outnumbered, and dared not provoke a conflict. They saw that remonstrances would be of no avail. They, however, urged that he had the day before offered to pay a large ransom for her; and they hoped that he would now fulfil that offer. He had made the proposal, acting in cooperation with the traders, who had offered to pay six hundred silver brooches for her release. The king replied, with much dignity:
" The white girl is now in my possession. I should serve you right if I should refuse you a single brooch. But I disdain to .
5II
HISTORY OF OHIO.
receive anything at your hands without paying an ample equiva- lent. I will therefore give you the six hundred brooches."
This arrangement was eminently wise. The savage nature of the Cherokees was so aroused by their humiliation and their loss, that there was great danger that some lurking Indian would take revenge by piercing her bosom with a bullet before she could be removed. Having accepted the ransom, Indian honor was pledged to respect the arrangement. Still, among the Indians as among white men, there were vagabond individuals who had no sense of honor whatever. Miss Flemming was therefore disguised as an Indian squaw, and was placed under the care of two trusty In- dians to be conveyed to Pittsburgh, where she arrived in safety.
Still the Cherokees were in a very discontented state. They had been robbed of one of their greatest entertainments. They knew that they had been compelled to accept a ransom. They de- clared that they would not leave Sandusky until they had killed some white man in revenge for the loss of their prisoner. Every white man there was now in equal peril. Johnston and Duchon- quet in particular found it necessary to keep themselves carefully concealed for several days. After a short time the Cherokees retired, vowing vengeance upon the white men wherever they should meet one. They were seen no more.
Johnston soon left Lower Sandusky, and embarked in a boat laden with furs for Detroit. Here he remained a few days, and then took passage for Montreal. Thence by the way of Fort Stanwix he reached New York. There he had an interview with President Washington, who in some way had heard of his perils, his adventures, and his wonderful escape. Washington sent for him and made minute inquiries respecting the strength of the In- dian tribes, the number and position of the British garrisons, and the character of the alliance which existed between them and the savages. In a week from this time Johnston was again restored to the bosom of his family. He appeared among them as one risen from the dead.
Subsequently the fate of the prominent Indians to whom we have alluded became known. Chickatommo was killed at the renowned battle of the Thames, where General Wayne gained so decisive a victory over the combined Indian hosts. Messhawa was in the same battle, but escaped unharmed. He fought bravely at Tippecanoe and at the River Raisin, and finally disappeared
512
HISTORY OF OHIO.
at the battle of the Thames, where it is supposed that he was killed. King Crane lived to a good old age, much respected for his just and manly character. He was an active warrior in the great victory which the Indians obtained over the whites at the defeat of St. Clair, and shared in the rout which General Wayne subsequently inflicted upon the Indian warriors. After this he became reconciled to the Americans, and fought under the banners of General Harrison at the battle of the Thames.
Whittaker remained devoted to the Indians by whom he had been adopted. Received among them almost in infancy, he was in character, manners, and almost in aspect, thoroughly an Indian. He fought ever on their side. Escaping all the perils of battle, he died, it is not known when or where. Tom Lewis, a full- blooded Indian with an English name, who, it will be remembered, had humanely interposed to save Johnston from being robbed of his shirt in the cold and freezing wind, fought against the Ameri- cans in all the battles of the Northwestern Territory until the final peace in the year 1796. He then was sent as one of the Indian deputation to Washington. There he met his former cap- tive Johnston again, in the year 1797. He rose to high rank among his tribe, and finally perished, as many eminent Americans have done, of intemperance, that bane alike of the white man and the red man.
APISO
ESCAPE OF JOHNSTON.
-
WILSON SHANNON Governor 1838-40-42 44.
1
S
e
.
f
rs
d
as or he he
CHAPTER XXVII. 1
ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE.
POPULATION OF THE NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY IN 1796 - SET- TLEMENT AT CHILLICOTHE -FORMING OF WAYNE COUNTY - ORGANIZATION OF ROSS COUNTY, AND OF ADAMS- JOHN BRICKELL - FIRST ELECTION FOR THE TERRITORIAL LEGISLA- TURE -THE RATTLESNAKE FIGHT - DIVISION OF THE NORTH- WESTERN TERRITORY - OHIO A STATE -NEW COUNTIES- FRONTIER DEMOCRACY - McMAHON'S EXPEDITION - EMBASSY OF COLONEL HILLMAN - ONONDAGA -CAPTAIN PETERS- COUNCIL AT WARREN.
THE EMIGRANTS to Southern Ohio, from the New England and Middle States, usually traveled in their wagons, until they struck the Ohio at Wheeling. They then took boats, and floated down the river, several hundred miles, to Maysville, Kentucky, or to other points near, where they made preparations to cross the river, and to proceed to their final places of residence. In the year 1796, the whole white population of the Northwestern Terri- tory, was estimated at five thousand souls. These were generally scattered along the banks of the Muskingum, the Scioto and the Miami, and their tributaries, within fifty miles of the Ohio River.
Cincinnati contained then one hundred log cabins, about a dozen frame houses, and six hundred inhabitants. Brick had not yet been introduced. The chimneys were built of stone taken from the hills in the rear of the town. As stone was more easily obtained than lumber, it soon became quite commonly used in building.
Colonel Nathaniel Massie, an enterprising man from Virginia, had been very efficient in colonizing the military district of that State. During the year 1795, he had secured large bodies of excellent lands, west of the Scioto, upon the branches of Paint Creek, and soon erected a station at the mouth of the creek. A
516
HISTORY OF OHIO.
vigorous colony commenced operations there. The settlement was called "Station Prairie," and was about three miles below the present City of Chillicothe. The colony was well provided with horses, stock, poultry and all needed farming utensils. Stable cabins were erected, and during the first season thirty plows were employed in turning up three hundred acres of fertile prairie land.
Three miles above these rich farming fields there was an ele- vated, alluvial plain, which presented peculiar attractions for a large town. This was carefully surveyed and laid off into two hundred and eighty-seven town lots, with one hundred and sixty- nine out lots. The wide streets, alternating with lanes, intersected each other at right angles. As an attraction to emigrants, a town lot and a house lot were given to each of the first one hundred settlers. Those who came afterwards were to purchase their lands, but at a very low rate. For a choice town lot ten dollars were to be paid.
" The town sprung up," writes John W. Monette, " as it were, by magic. Before the close of the year it contained, besides pri- vate residences, several stores, taverns and mechanical shops. The arts of pioneer life began to multiply, and to give competence in the midst of the . Ilderness. Emigrants constantly arrived. The population, trade and enterprise of the place continued to increase: under the liberal policy of its enterprising founder. The town was called Chillicothe, a term which in the Indian dialect signi- fies town. It was the first town west of the mountains which was built in peace and quietude, and not requiring the protection of stockades and forts against Indian hostility."
Emigrants rapidly advanced throughout the whole Valley of the Scioto, and also ascended the Muskingum to Zanesville.
We have already alluded to the settlement of Cleveland, on the lands of the Connecticut Reserve. Though the town was situated on a beautiful, alluvial, well-wooded plain, about eighty feet above the waters of the lake, and was well adapted for commercial pur- poses, yet the place attained no importance until the year 1806. It then became the county seat of Cuyahoga County. In the origi- nal survey the town was divided into two hundred and twenty lots, intersected by seven streets and four lanes.
The northwestern military posts which had been evacuated by the British were held by United States troops. The settlements
517
HISTORY OF OHIO.
on the Detroit River and the Maumee were annexed to the juris- diction, of the Northwestern Territory, and were incorporated in a county called Wayne. Detroit was the seat of justice. Two full regiments garrisoned these forts until the year 1798. Five counties comprised the whole territory not actually in possession of the Indians.
In the year 1790 there were more than fifty log cabins at Chilli- cothe, and several small settlements were scattered along the river for twenty miles below. Forty miles above, there were three or four log cabins at Franklin, opposite the present City of Colum- bus. The whole surrounding region presented a gloomy wilder- ness of dense forests and marshy prairies. There were a few hunters to be found here, and a few vagabond whites living with the Indians, having renounced civilization and adopted barbarism. But the flood of emigration was such, that in two years after this time the cabin of a settler could be found every ten or twelve miles along all the principal routes and Indian trails.
New counties began to be organized, and hundreds of small settlements were springing up in all directions. The pomp and pageantry of cruel war had abandoned Cincinnati. For eight years it had been the center of all military parades. The thril- ling music of the drum and fife was continually heard in the streets. The sonorous peals of the bugle, blending with the roar of the morning and evening gun, reverberated along the hills which fringed the magnificent stream.
But now the deserted fort was crumbling to decay. It was no longer the rendezvous of troops destined to hostile campaigns and to the frontier posts. Cincinnati began to assume the appearance of a peaceful, thrifty and happy agricultural and commercial town.
The strongest tide of emigration flowed into the Scioto country. This valley was far-famed for its fertility, its salubrity, its splen- didly wooded bottoms, and its level plains, inviting the plow. The governor organized a new county, called Ross, of which Chillicothe was the seat of justice. This county contained large regions of wilderness which had then never been even explored. There were then but three cabins between Chillicothe and Lan- caster, on the Hockhocking River.
The region of Lancaster had belonged to the Wyandots. They had, in addition to other towns, a pleasant little village here of a
.
518
HISTORY OF OHIO.
hundred bark wigwams, containing a population of about five hundred. The whole tribe could bring five hundred warriors into the field. By the treaty of Greenville the Wyandots surren- dered their whole territory to the United States. Most of the tribe, under their chief, moved to the Upper Sandusky. A few remained behind for four or five years, expressing a great unwil- lingness to tear themselves away from the graves of their fathers and from their ancient hunting grounds. They were very peace- able and friendly, so that no one desired their removal. Still they were never willing to engage vigorously in agricultural work; and as the game disappeared, they gradually rejoined their friends in the wilds of the Upper Sandusky.
The enterprising Ebenezer Zane had a road cut, for a distance of about two hundred miles, from the Ohio River, opposite Wheel- ing, to a point on the river opposite Maysville, which, as we have mentioned, was then called Limestone. This road, called Zane's Truce, rough as it was, became a celebrated route for the wagons of the emigrants. They forded the Hocking River near the pre- sent site of Lancaster.
The first settler, in this upper Hocking Valley was Captain Joseph Hunter. It is difficult to conceive what motive could induce a man to separate himself from all the advantages of neighborhood, and to bury his family in such awful solitudes. When Captain Hunter felled the trees, and cleared away the underbrush, and built his log hut, on the banks of this lonely stream, there was not a cabin on the east of him nearer than the Muskingum River, or on the west nearer than the Scioto. He is regarded as the father of the now populous County of Fairfield. He lived to see the country around him quite densely settled.
Lancaster was laid out by Mr. Zane, in the year ICco. It was named from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as many of the emigrants came from that place. The town lots were sold from five to fifty dollars each. Most of the first settlers were mechanics. Their intelligence and energy wrought wonders. The town soon assumed a very thriving appearance. They sustained the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which lies at the foundation of all real prosperity.
It is said that shortly after the settlement of the place, several emigrants came and made purchases there, who were of different character from the first proprietors. They had occasionally their
519
HISTORY OF OHIO.
drinking frolics, which would often terminate in disgraceful brawls. There were then no established tribunals of law and justice. The better disposed of the settlers determined to put a stop to such riotous proceedings. They met in a general gathering, and passed a resolution that any person of the town found intoxicated should for every such offense dig a stump out of the streets, or suffer personal chastisement at the whipping-post. It was no easy task to uproot one of these gigantic stumps, firmly imbedded in the soil. But it was better to perform that labor than to endure the keen pain of the lash upon the bare back. The law proved a very effective preventive of intemperance. A few stumps were cleared away, when dram drinking ceased, and the inhabitants of Lancaster became a peculiarly sober and happy people.
The majority of the emigrants into the Valley of the Scioto were from Virginia. Their settlements rapidly extended upon all the fine lands within twenty miles of Chillicothe. Adams County was organized from the eastern portion of Hamilton. Manchester became its seat of justice.
In the Autumn of 1798, four surveyors set out to explore the wil- derness far up the Scioto River. Lord Dunmore, with his army, had penetrated this region more than twenty years before, and had brought back the report that lands of very rare excellence were to be found there. Each surveyor had a rifle, a good horse, which he rode, and a pack-horse, which he led, laden with supplies and ammunition. They advanced through Zane's Truce, travers- ing league after league of the sublime forest without encountering any sign of inhabitants. At Zanesville they found two or three shanties, where several white hunters were encamped, men almost as rude and uncouth as the Indians. Near by there were several wigwams of the savages, who were also employed in hunting, fish- ing, and especially in drinking the whisky which they obtained from itinerant traders. Where Columbus, the capital of the state, now stands, they found but a dense, silent forest. About a mile above, upon the river bank, there was a collection of three or four log cabins, without chinking or daubing, and having a blanket in the doorway instead of a wooden door. They found here the wigwam of a white man by the name of John Brickell. When a child he had been taken captive by the Indians. At the treaty of Greenville he was nominally surrendered, but he had become so much attached to his Indian friends that he refused to leave them.
520
HISTORY OF OHIO.
Nothing could induce him to abandon the freedom of barbarian life for the restraints of civilization.
This year two men, James Ross and Basil Wells, having pur- chased a large tract of land in the northern portion of Jefferson County, laid out a town on the western banks of the Ohio, about twenty miles above Wheeling. They named the place Steuben- ville, in honor of Baron Steuben, who had nobly volunteered his services in the cause of American independence. The town was admirably located on an elevated and fertile plain, surrounded by beautiful scenery.
FIRST HOTEL AT ZANESVILLE.
As, by the census taken at this time, the population of the ter- ritory amounted to five thousand free white males, the people were entitled, by the ordinance of 1787, to what was called the second grade of territorial government. Governor St. Clair accordingly issued a proclamation, ordering an election to be held in the sev- eral counties on the third Monday of the following December, to
521
HISTORY OF OHIO.
elect twenty representatives, to serve as a Lower House of the Territorial Legislature. In reference to this measure, Mr. Monette very justly writes :
"Those elected to compose this Legislature were such as are not excelled in point of talent by the members of any legislative body in the United States, even at this late day. Among the pioneers of Ohio were men of the first order of talent and of finished education, improved and polished by much intercourse with the most refined population of the Atlantic States. Hamilton County sent a strong representation. Of these, William McMillan was a native of Virginia, a man of strong and commanding talent, and a finished scholar.
" John Smith was a man of strong mind, native talent and great energy of character. His laudable ambition and rectitude of pur- pose placed him above many of the talented leaders of his day. Jacob Burnett, another representative from Hamilton, was a prom- inent member of the territorial government, and continued to fill' responsible offices under the state government for many years.
"Solomon Sibley, of Detroit, representative from Wayne County, possessed a sound mind, improved by a liberal education, and a stability of character which commanded general respect and made him rank as one of the most talented men in the House.
"Return J. Meigs and Paul Fearing, both lawyers of Marietta, and representatives of Washington County, were men of talent and great worth. Nathaniel Massie and Joseph Darlington, rep- resentatives of Adams County, were among the earliest and most enterprising citizens of Ohio. Ross County sent a representation not excelled by any county in the territory for intelligence and and talent. Worthington, Tiffin, Finley and Langham were quali- fied to exert an influence in any deliberative body."
The representatives to this Territorial Legislature met at Cin- cinnati the first Monday of February, 1799, and nominated ten men to the President of the United States, to serve as a legislative council. The first regular session of the Legislature was opened at Cincinnati on the sixteenth of September, and continued its sitting for nearly three months. It is said that the address of the governor was remarkable for its polished diction. Captain William H. Harrison, subsequently President of the United States, was elected the first delegate to Congress.
To prevent large bodies of fine land from falling into the hands
522
HISTORY OF OHIO.
of speculators, who would check emigration by greatly advancing the price, Congress devised a mode of survey and sale by which the public lands should be laid off in small tracts, and be held open for sale to any individual.
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.