USA > Ohio > The picturesque Ohio : a historical monograph > Part 4
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"One of their captives was burned at the stake; another, after running the gauntlet, was condemned to death, but made his escape. A woman of the party who had seen her sister shot and killed, had been bound to the stake, fagots were piled around her ready to be fired, when a chief, more merciful than his companions, interfered and had her released."
It was amid scenes such as these that the settlements on the Ohio River were begun, and notwithstanding the frequent raids of the savages the number of these settlements steadily increased, until the whole region was reclaimed ; for the Red Man learned to
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dread the "Long Knives," and prudently withdrew to other hunting-grounds. The attractions of the country were so varied, and the Indians had been so thoroughly taught to respect the fighting qualities of the Scotch-Irish emigrants from the valley of Virginia and Pennsylvania, that · we can understand why Washington said of the settlement at Marietta: "No colony was ever settled under more favorable auspices."
Glowing accounts were sent back to their old homes by the "advance guard " of civilization-they were enthusiastic about the riches of the Ohio country, "where cattle could be fed all the year round on pasturage springing spontaneously from the soil; where lands suitable for raising grain could outvie the islands of the Mediterranean; and where there were bogs from which might be gathered cranberries enough to make tarts for all New England."
The other side of the picture was passed over in silence ; 110 mention was made of danger and discomfort, of crops wantonly destroyed by vengeful Indians, of flocks robbed by wild animals, of the inconvenience of being farmer and sol- dier at once; for no man dared venture from his door without a rifle, and guards were invariably posted to give an alarm to those working in the field should there be any sign of the enemy.
These delusive accounts sent by the pioneers to friends in their old homes awakened the keenest interest, and soon new re-enforcements poured into the settlements from New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The old Braddock trail became one of the highways by which the emigrant sought his new home, and on reaching an affluent of the Ohio a flat-boat was coll- structed, and the journey continued. These boats, called keels, .
5
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sometimes "from fifty to seventy-five feet long, were sharp at both ends, drawing little water, and capable of carrying a good burden."*
The more provident man, of those seeking homes in the western wilds, always preceded his family, and spent a season in raising a crop and in other preparations, before making the move; otherwise much suffering was often the result, for when the supply of provisions brought from across the mountains was exhausted, it could only be replenished with game. Lean venison and the breast of wild turkey were substituted for bread, and bear's-flesh or other gross food was styled meat. After a season's crops had been gathered the family bill of fare ordinarily consisted of "hog and hominy," with Johnny-cake for breakfast and dinner, and mush for supper. This last was frequently served and eaten with bear's oil, à l'Indienne.
Crockery was an unheard-of luxury; wooden trenchers and much-battered pewter ware, supplemented with bone or gourd, were considered luxuries. Iron utensils and knives and forks, as well as salt and iron castings, were brought across the mountains on pack-horses, and were consequently very ex- pensive.
A caravan trade was carried on in order to obtain indispen- sables, but furs and peltries were the only articles of export until time enough had elapsed for the raising of cattle and horses for Eastern markets. A cow and calf was the usual price paid for a bushel of salt, which, until weights came into use, was meas-
* Other boats then in use were called arks: "These arks are built for sale for the accommodation of families descending the river, and for the convenience of produce. They are flat-bottomed and square at the ends, and are all made of the same dimensions, being fifty feet long and fourteen broad. They are covered, and are managed by a steering-oar, which can be lifted out of the water. The usual price is seventy-five dollars, and each will accommodate three or four families as they carry from twenty-five to thirty tons."-Bradbury.
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ured by hand into a half bushel. This was done with the utmost care, and every precaution taken to prevent the displacement of a single grain.
Each family possessed a hominy-block, which consisted of a huge block of wood with a hole burnt in one end, and so formed that the pestle would throw the corn in such a manner as to make it fall back into the center, and thus come again under the strokes of the pestle. The hand-mill, usually possessed by sev- eral families in common, was precisely the same as that used in Palestine to-day, and which is mentioned in the Bible. It was made of two circular stones placed in a hoop, with a spout for sending off the meal. A handle was fitted in the upper stone, and so fastened that two persons could grind at the same time; the grain was run by hand into the opening in the upper stone. The first water-mills were called tub-mills, and were of very simple construction. Instead of bolting-cloths, sifters of deer-skins were used; these were made by stretching the skin in a state of parchment over a hoop, and perforating it with a hot wire.
Homespun and home-cut garments alone were used, linsey- woolsey-a mixture of flax and wool-and coarse linen were the staple fabrics. It was not until the first retail store was opened at Louisville, in 1783, that the belle of the " forest land" could adorn her comely person in gorgeous calico, and the dandy of the settlement could doff his coon-skin cap for a wool hat. A chronicler of the day, in commenting on this store, says: "The tone of society became visibly more elevated."
In building his cabin the settler had no use for other tools than an ax, an augur, and a cross-cut saw. Wooden pins took the place of nails, and unhewn logs, poles, clapboards, and pun-
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cheons were the materials necessary. If a window were desired, the aperture was fitted with a frame, over which oiled paper was stretched; but light was usually admitted through the open door. When in the course of time an enterprising merchant added window-glass to his stock in trade, and by way of adver- tising his new commodity improved his own establishment, great was the amazement of the settlement urchins, who had never seen any other habitation than that of the backwoodsman. One of the hopefuls, on seeing for the first time a house with glass win- dows, rushed home to his mother, exclaiming : "O, ma, there is a house down here with specs on."
A hard life of constant toil in the midst of ever-present danger admitted few opportunities for merry-making. Log- rolling, cabin-building, and harvesting always ended with a frolic, but the celebration of a marriage was the sole occasion when friends met for pleasure alone. Wedding festivities some- times continued for several days; they were always initiated at the house of the groom, where his attendants met to accompany him to the home of the bride. The party would set out in great glee, but their progress would frequently be interrupted by barricades of grape-vines. Practical jokes of various kinds met them at every turn, until, when within a mile of their destina- tion, the race for "Black Betty" began. Two of the party being selected by the others, put their ponies to their utmost speed, and the one reaching the house first received at the door a bottle of whisky, with which he returned to treat the groom and his attendants.
The marriage always took place in the forenoon, and dinner followed immediately after the ceremony. Then came the danc- ing, invariably beginning with a "square four," which led into
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what was called "jigging it off," and was kept up without inter- mission for hours.
Although the standard of morals was generally good, but few-before the days of camp-meetings, which, however, were early instituted-regarded Sunday other than a rest-day for the aged and a play-day for the youngster. But if religion was wanting, superstition abounded, and many held firmly to a belief in witches .*
In one of the settlements drunkenness had become so dis- tressing the better class of the community determined to try to abate the evil by imposing a fine; the stumps had not yet been removed from the public thoroughfares, and it was decreed that any person found guilty of intemperance should be compelled to dig up a stump. The plan worked admirably. But some of the fines and penalties, though assigned by a judge of the court, were sometimes quite disproportionate to the offense; in more than one instance an offender was condemned to death for petty larceny.
The price at which certain articles might be sold was fixed by court : A half-pint of whisky at $15; corn at $10 a gallon ; lodging in a feather-bed, $6; a "diet," $12; and stable or pas- turage for one night, $4. The seeming exorbitance of these charges is accounted for by the fact that Continental money was the only currency.
In the first days of a settlement but little attention was paid to drainage, and of the many disorders prevalent in consequence, perhaps rheumatism was most general; for this reason each
* It was often said that witches had milked the cows, and this was supposed to have been · done, "by fixing a new pin in a new towel for each cow intended to be milked; the towel was hung over her own door, and by means of certain incantations the witch extracted milk from the fringes of the towel after the manner of milking a cow."
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backwoodsman slept with his feet to the fire, either to prevent or to allay the trouble. The sovereign remedy for this and other diseases was "Seneca Oil," the petroleum of the present day .*
Perhaps there is nothing more amazing in the development of the country than the rapidity with which manufacturing establishments sprang up, first on its southern affluents, and then on the Ohio itself. Before the close of the century (which had entered its eighth decade when the first step was made towards civilizing the Ohio region) flour was shipped in considerable quantities for New Orleans and the West Indies, in vessels built on the Allegheny or Monongahela; and glass- houses, paper-mills, rope-walks, tanneries, potteries, powder-mills, salt-works,t and printing-offices were in operation at various points.
At the close of the century the river began to present a very lively appearance. Up to 1795 the population numbered not more than twenty-five families for each hundred miles of the river's length, from Pittsburgh to its mouth ; but by 1802 planta- tions were said to have increased so " that they were not more than from one to three miles asunder, and some of them always within sight from the middle of the river."} Perhaps this statement had best be taken cum grano salis; but the influx from Penn- sylvania and Virginia had undoubtedly made a marked differ- ence in the prosperity of the settlements. Arks were con-
*" The Seneca Indian Oil is a liqiud bitumen which oozes through fissures of the rocks, and is found floating on the surface of several springs."-Harris's Tour.
" Here is a spring on the top of which floats an oil similar to that called Barbadoes tar. It is very efficacious in rheumatic pains ; troops sent to guard the Western posts bathed their joints with it, and found great relief from rheumatic complaints with which they were afflicted."-Navigator.
+ " That the Indians were acquainted with the art of evaporating salt-brine, is evident from the ancient pottery found near the Kanawha salt-works."-Dodge.
Į Michaux.
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stantly passing down the river, transporting human freight, as well as live-stock, farming implements, and such articles as were deemed indispensable to the establishment of a home in the wilderness.
Pittsburgh had gained in commercial what it had lost in mili- tary importance. It had been transformed from a well-guarded outpost, with a few straggling huts built near the fortification, to a town of four hundred houses (many of which were of brick), and the fort adjoining the town had sunk into insignificance, and was manned only by a weak garrison, for the Indians had now withdrawn into the interior. The town could boast of two printing-offices and four newspapers a week, and had become the entrepôt for goods shipped at Philadelphia for the western set- tlements, as well as for the products that were sent to New Or- leans from the towns on the Allegheny and Monongahela, and the surrounding country. Some of these articles were flour, hams, smoked pork, bar iron, coarse cloths, bottles, whisky, and barreled butter. Three-masted vessels of two hundred tons burthen were being constructed; others of considerable tonnage had already been launched on the Monongahela. They were sup- plied with cordage manufactured at Redstone (Brownsville).
Wheeling, Marietta, Cincinnati, Maysville, Manchester, Car- rollton, and Louisville had grown in proportion to the location and the character of their settlers and those of the adjacent country, among whom were many who preferred the excitement of the chase to the plodding life of a tiller of the soil. The hardships, trials, and vexations the early settlers endured with patience and courage can not easily be appreciated by a people who are looking backward through the vista of a century.
More resolute, honest, and upright men have never opened
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a country for the coming of civilization, than were the settlers who builded their rough log cabins upon the forest-clad banks of the Monongahela. The women who shared their checkered for- tunes were worthy to be the wives and mothers of those hardy, daring pioneers of a republic which owes its existence to their fortitude and courage, and its greatness to their virtue and patriotism.
These settlers had followed in the wake of the " long hunters" of Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. Their homes were hos- pitably open to all travelers, and the "block-houses " were ral- lying-points for Indian traders and Indian fighters, before the Colonies refused to drink taxed tea, or unfurled the Starry Flag in the teeth of every wind that blew.
In every struggle west of the mountains, where men were hastily gathered by hundreds or twenties, to fight French troops and their Indian allies, or, in later days, English and Indian in- vaders, the pioneers met the shock and brunt of battle. Wher- ever danger stalked or border foes met in desperate encounter, the courage of the settlers was tested, and, in the main, it rang true as steel. They were restive under military restraint, for they were above all things FREEMEN, accustomed to the freedom of the woods; but as trailers of a predatory foe-ready to en- dure fatigue, hunger, physical suffering, careless of wounds, care- less of death-they were matchless. They were no less ready to dare any and all odds, in hand-to-hand fights, upon “The Shining River;" or under the lintels of their cabins, if a little band of daring warriors crept past the frontier forts, to strike these outlying farms, and gather the blood-red trophies which were to give them rank in the tribes.
In the record of individual daring, Wheeling has commem-
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orated a gallant deed by naming the bluff above Wheeling Creek McCulloch's Leap.
In September of 1782 Fort Henry was besieged by some five hundred Indians, commanded by Simon Girty, who figures in the history of the time as a renegade more cruel than the Indians he led. In the history of the relief of the garrison, this incident is given :
"About daybreak Major Samuel McCulloch, with forty mounted men from Short Creek, came to the relief of the little garrison. The gate was thrown open, and McCulloch's men, though closely beset by the Indians, entered in safety, but McCulloch himself was not permitted to pass the gateway; the Indians crowded around him and separated him from his party. After several ineffectual attempts to force his way to the gate, he wheeled about and galloped with the swiftness of a deer in the direction of Wheeling Hill.
"The Indians might easily have killed him, but they cherished towards him an almost frenzied hatred; for he had participated in so many en- counters that almost every warrior personally knew him. To take him alive, and glut their full revenge by the most fiendish tortures, was their object, and they made almost superhuman exertions to capture him. He put spurs to his horse and soon became completely hemmed in on three sides, and the fourth was almost a perpendicular precipice of one hundred and fifty feet descent, with Wheeling Creek at its base. Supporting his rifle on his left hand, and carefully adjusting his reins with the other, he urged his horse to the brink of the bluff, and then made the leap which decided his fate. The next moment the noble steed, still bearing his intrepid rider in safety, was at the foot of the precipice. McCulloch immediately dashed across the creek and was soon beyond the reach of the Indians.
"After the escape of Major McCulloch the Indians concentrated at the foot of the hill, and soon after set fire to all the houses and fences outside of the fort, and killed about three hundred head of cattle belonging to the settlers. They then raised the siege and took up the line of march to some other theater of action.
"As the reader will very naturally desire to learn the fate of Major McCulloch after his almost miraculous escape from the Indians, some
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account of the manner of his death may be properly introduced in this place.
"Not long after the siege of Fort Henry, indications of Indians having been noticed by some of the settlers, Major McCulloch and his brother John mounted their horses and left Van Metre's fort to ascertain the correctness of the report. They crossed Short Creek, and continued in the direction of Wheeling, but inclining towards the river. They scouted closely, but cautiously, and not discovering any such 'signs' as had been stated, descended to the river bottom at a point on the farm subsequently owned by Alfred P. Woods, about two miles above Wheeling. They then passed up the river to the mouth of Short Creek, and thence up Girty's Point in the direction of Van Metre's. Not discovering any indications of the enemy, the brothers were riding leisurely along, when, a short distance beyond the 'Point,' a deadly discharge of rifles took place, killing Major Samuel McCulloch instantly. His brother John escaped, but his horse was killed. Immediately mounting that of his brother he made off to give the alarm. As yet no enemy had been seen; but, turning in his saddle after riding fifty yards, the path was filled with Indians, and one fellow was seen in the act of scalping the unfortunate major. Quick as thought the rifle of John was at his shoulder; an instant later and the savage was rolling in the agonies of death. John escaped to the fort unhurt, with the exception of a slight wound of his hip.
" On the following day a party of men from Van Metre's went out and gathered up the mutilated remains of Major McCulloch. The savages had disemboweled him, but the viscera all remained except the heart. Some years subsequent to this melancholy affair, an Indian, who had been one of the party on this occasion, told some whites that the heart of Major McCulloch had been divided and eaten by the party. 'This was done,' said he, 'that we be bold, like Major McCulloch.'"
To define the times it is necessary to insist upon the fact that the "Law of the Border" was the law of retaliation. The inci- dent just given, and the crime chronicled here, are proofs which show both sides of this question.
"The Moravian Indians consisted chiefly of Delawares and Mohicans, who had been converted to Christianity through the zeal and influence of
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the Moravian missionaries. They had four towns on the Upper Mus- kingum, in the line of travel between the nearest point on the Ohio River and Upper Sandusky, the home of the Delawares and other warlike tribes. The Moravian Indians were always friendly toward the whites. During the whole of the Revolutionary War they had remained neutral, or if they took part, it was in favor of the Americans, advising them of the approach of hostile Indians, and rendering other kindly offices. For ten years of border strife they had lived in peace and quietness, but at length became objects of suspicion to both whites and savages. They were, it may be said, be- tween two fires. While passing to and fro, the hostile parties would compel them to furnish provisions. It is not surprising, therefore, that they should have fallen a sacrifice to one or the other.
"It happened that early in February, 1782, a party of Indians front San- dusky penetrated the white settlements and committed numerous depreda- tions. Of the families which fell beneath the murderous stroke of these savages was that of David Wallace, consisting of himself, wife, and six chil- dren, and at the same time a man named Carpenter was taken prisoner. The early date of this visitation induced the whites to believe that the depredators had wintered with the Moravians, and they at once resolved on executing summary vengeance. About the Ist of March a body of eighty or ninety men gathered at Mingo Bottom, a few miles below the present town of Steubenville, Ohio. The second day's march brought them within a short distance of one of the Moravian towns (of which there were four), and they encamped for the night.
"The victims received warning of their danger, but took no measures to escape, believing that they had nothing to fear from the Americans. On the arrival of an advanced party of sixteen men they professed peace and good-will to the Moravians, and informed them that they had come to take them to Fort Pitt for safety. The Indians surrendered, delivering up their arms, even their hatchets, on being promised that everything should be restored to them on their arrival at Pittsburg. By persuasion of some and driving of others, the inhabitants of two or three of the towns had been brought together and bound without resistance. A council of war was then held to decide their fate. The commandant, Colonel David Williamson, at the suggestion of his officers, then put the question to his men in form, "Whether the Moravian Indians should be taken prisoners to Pittsburg or put to death?" and requested that all who were in favor of saving their
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lives should step out of the line, and form a second rank. On this sixteen men stepped out, and formed themselves into a second line. The fearful determination of putting the Moravians to death was thus shown.
"Most of those opposed to this diabolical resolution protested in the name of high Heaven against the atrocious act, and called God to witness that they were innocent of the blood of these people; yet the majority re- mained unmoved, and some of them were even in favor of burning them alive. But it was at length decided that they should be scalped in cold blood, and the Indians were told to prepare for their fate. They were led into buildings, in one of which the men, and in the other the women and children, were confined like sheep for the slaughter. They passed the night in praying and exhorting one another, and singing hymns of praise to God.
"When the morning arrived for the purpose of slaughter, two houses were selected, one for the men and the other for the women and children. The victims were then bound two and two together, led into the slaughter- houses, and there scalped and murdered. The number of the slain, accord- ing to the Moravian account (for many of them had made their escape), was ninety-six. Of these, sixty-two were grown persons, one-third of whom were women; the remaining thirty-four were children.
"After the work of death had been finished and the plunder secured, all the buildings in the towns were set on fire. A rapid retreat to the settlements concluded this deplorable campaign."
"In justice to the memory of Colonel Williamson," says Doddridge, "I have to say, that although at that time very young, I was personally ac- quainted with him, and from my recollection of his conversation, I say, with confidence, that he was a brave man, but not cruel. He would meet an enemy in battle and fight like a soldier, but not murder a prisoner. Had he possessed the authority of a superior officer in a regular army, I do not believe that a single Moravian Indian would have lost his life; but he possessed no such authority. He was only a militia officer, who could advise, but not command. His only fault was that of too easy compliance with popular opinion and popular prejudice. On this account his memory has been loaded with unmerited reproach.
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