USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > History of Augusta County, Virginia > Part 18
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whites, they proceeded to the Big Levels, and on the next day, after hav- ing been as hospitably entertained as at Muddy creek, they reënacted the revolting scenes of the previous day. Every white man in the settlement, but Conrad Yolkom, who was some distance from his house, was slain, and every woman but Mrs. Glendinin. Yolkom, when alarmed by the outcries of the women, took in the situation and fled to Jackson's river, telling the story. The people were unwilling to believe him, till con- vinced by the approach of the Indians. All fled before them, and they pursued on to Carr's creek, in Rockbridge, where many families were murdered and others captured.
The following graphic, life-like, and, no doubt, perfectly veracious ac- count of the raids on Carr's creek, is derived from the venerable Samuel Brown's narrative, published in the " Rockbridge Citizen :"
" There were two raids on Carr's, or Kerr's creek, but the accounts are so mixed that it is not known certainly whether the incidents related as to them occurred at the first or second. This settlement dates back to 1737-38, when Burden was exerting himself to settle his lands, and was composed mostly of Scotch-Irish. The first invasion by Indians was early in 1763, and the second in October, 1764. The number of Shawanese warriors in the first invasion was twenty-seven, and was part of a larger force who had been on a hostile expedition against the Cherokees or Catawbas, and were on their return to their villages north of the Ohio. Some knowledge of their approach led to a hastily organized company under Capt. Moffett, who, marching to the mouth of the Falling Spring Valley, on Jackson's river, on the estate long owned by the late Hon. John H. Peyton, halted there to await the Indians. The Indians, who were hid behind a ridge on the right bank of the river, watched the movements of the whites, and at a favorable moment opened a destructive fire upon them from their concealed position. A number of whites were killed, among them, Jas. Sitlington, of Bath, and the force so demoralized by the terrific fire from the unseen foes that it took to flight. The Indians pur- sued on to the Cow Pasture river, where they burned the smithy of - - Dougherty, who, with his wife and two children, escaped to the mountain, west of Peyton Falls, and thus saved their lives. The Indians continued their eastern progress, and arrived at Millboro', where the force divided, the larger part setting out for the Ohio, and the smaller party, of twenty- seven warriors, for Kerr's creek. The larger party killed a man at the Blowing Cave, in Panther's Gap, crossed the Warm Spring Mountain, and encamped on the lands now owned by the Heckman family. A company of whites was quickly formed, and pursued the savages. On reaching Heckman's, they found a rude bier, on which a wounded Indian had been carried, and afterwards his grave. The whites hastened on, and overtook the Indians in their encampment, near the head of Back creek. The whites rushed upon the camp, routed the savages, killing many of them, and capturing all their camp equipage. Among the whites killed was Capt. Dickinson, of Bath ; John Young, grandfather of Col. D. S. Young, of Staunton, who resided near Hebron church, in Augusta, and others. * * * * The whites returned, bringing back as trophies of their victory a number of scalps, which were recognized by their friends. Among them was the scalp of Jas. Sitlington, known by his long, red hair.
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We shall now return to follow the trail of the smaller party, which set out for Kerr's creek. This party crossed Mill mountain at a point still called " Indian trail," and the North mountain, where the road now crosses leading from the Rockbridge Alum to Lexington. At the base of the mountain they were on the head waters of Kerr's creek, and proceeding on came to the house of Chas. Dougherty, where they murdered the whole family. They next came to the house of Jacob Cunningham, who was from home. His wife was killed, and his daughter, ten years of age, struck down with the tomahawk and scalped. After the Indians left, she revived and lived, but fell into their hands on their second invasion in 1765, was taken north of the Ohio, where the Indians placed on her head what they said was her scalp, and, with great demonstrations of mirth and joy, danced around her. She was afterwards ransomed, rejoined her friends, and lived many years, but ultimately died from the effects of the scalping, her head never having properly healed. The Indians next came to the house of Thomas Gilmore, which they burned, killing and scalping him and his wife. The rest of the family saved themselves by flight. The alarm now spread, and the inhabitants were flying in every direction, The next house they attacked was Robert Hamilton's, where they killed five of the ten members composing the family. The Indians went no further on this occasion, but retreated, not so much, it is supposed, because their thirst for blood was satiated, as because they feared to encounter a white force which must have been now collecting. One savage, however, pushed on to the house of John McKee, who had sent his six children to the house of a friend on Timber Ridge, intending soon to follow with his wife. When the alarm reached him, he and his wife fled down the creek about a mile to a thicket, followed by the savage. Seeing they would be overtaken, Mrs. McKee implored her husband to leave her to her fate and make his escape. This he refused to do. She appealed to him again and again to leave her for the sake of their children. If he remained, being unarmed, both would be slain, but, if he escaped, their young children would still have a protector. He yielded to her entreaties, and they parted, to meet no more on earth. After running a short distance, he saw the tomahawk descend on his wife's head The Indian, without halting, followed McKee, but was unable to find him in the bush, and, with a loud whoop, gave up the search. At night, McKee returned to the spot where he had left his wife, and found her dead. Loaded with scalps and plun- der, the savages left the settlement, and the whites, returning, buried their dead. The number of persons killed on this occasion was less than would otherwise have been the case, from the fact that many were at church, at the old Timber Ridge Church, to hear Rev. John Brown, the pastor.
The second invasion of Kerr's creek was Ioth October, 1765, and was composed of about forty Shawanese. The Indians came over North mountain and encamped in a secluded spot, from whence their spies went out. They remained concealed two days, but their presence was detected by their foot-prints in a corn field. The alarm was given about the time they set forth to make an attack. The whites rallied at the "Big Spring," in the house of Jonathan Cunningham, to the number of a hun- dred-men, women and children. Mr. Gilmore and another settler went up the creek to watch the barbarians. The savages shot both from their place of concealment, and then rushed on the promiscuous crowd of whites. Some young men advanced to meet them, and were killed. Then commenced ascene which beggars description; the screaming of women and
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children, and the utter dismay which seized upon all. Many concealed themselves in a thick growth of weeds and brush-among them a Mrs. Dull, who witnessed the awful tragedy. She said the terror-stricken whites ran in every direction trying to hide, and the swift savages, each singling out his prey, pursued them round and round with yells. Some threw up their hands for mercy. Some were spared their lives, but the most fell under the tomahawk. All the men who attempted resistance were shot down. The whites had few arms, and, under the circumstances, any resistance was vain. The wife of Thomas Gilmore, standing with her three children over the body of her husband, fought the Indian who sought to scalp him with desperation. A second Indian came forward to aid his brother, but the first warded off the blow of his tomahawk and saved her life, saying, " She is a brave squaw " -- such was their admira- tion of courage. Mrs. Gilmore, her son and two daughters were made prisoners. Cunningham was killed and his house burned, and the bloody work did not cease until all who could be found were killed or captured. Gathering their prisoners in a group, the Indians prepared to leave. Among their captives were James and Margaret Cunningham, Archibald Marion and Mary Hamilton, Mrs. Gilmoreand her three children, and Betsy Henry. Among the killed in the two invasions were the entire Dougherty family, Mrs. Cunningham, five of the Hamiltons, Thomas Gilmore, Mrs. Gilmore and their son, and James McKee. The names of others killed and captured are not known to the writer, but the whole number slain was not less than sixty to eighty, and twenty-five to thirty were led into cap- tivity.
The following incidents were related by some of these captives, who were redeemed by their friends and returned from the Shawanese towns north of the Ohio. On the evening of their first day's march, the savages opened their kegs of whiskey, made and captured at Cunningham's dis- tillery, and spent the night and until the afternoon of the next day in a drunken revel. The prisoners were hoping all night that a company of whites would come to their rescue, but none came. While here, two war- riors returned to " Big Spring," no doubt to get more whiskey. On their way to Ohio the savages made other prisoners on the Cow Pasture. One of the white chi dren taking sick, and becoming fretful, a savage seized it and dashed its brains out against a tree, and threw the bloody corpse over the neck and shoulders of a young girl sitting at the root of a tree. The prisoners construed this as a signal that she should soon die, which proved true, for she was killed the next day. Another mother caused delay by being exhausted carrying her babe. This exasperated the savages, who took the child, laid it on the ground, and. running a sharpened pole through its body, elevated it in the air. On one occasion some of the prisoners were drying some leaves of the New Testament by the fire; a savage snatched them away and threw them into the fire.
After crossing the Ohio the prisoners were divided, the Indians separat- ing into several parties. Mrs. Gilmore and her son fell to one party and her daughters to another. The last she heard of them was their heart- rending cries as they were torn from her. Soon mother and son were parted. She was sold to a French trader and taken to Fort Pitt ; her son remained with the Shawanese. He was afterwards redeemed, taken back to Jackson's river by Jacob Warwick, where his mother, at the end of three years, joined him, after being ransomed. The son married and left
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a family. A number of others, among them Mary Hamilton, were ran- somed and brought back."
During one of these raids some of the savages continued their pursuit until within a few miles of Staunton, where they were met by hastily or- ganized bodies of men, who drove them back.
In the wars of 1763-'64, the Indians, no longer controlled by their for- mer allies, the French, indulged their native ferocity of disposition, and perpetrated every species of perfidy and cruelty. This led to retaliation on the part of the whites, and occasioned the revolting and sanguinary scenes which characterized all future wars with the barbarians.
The scenes which were occurring on the frontier aroused the people of Augusta to the necessity of preparation, and as early as 1763, they took steps towards a military organization. This appears from the following entry :
"At the Court of Augusta, held in Staunton, August 16th, 1763,
"Andrew Lewis, gentleman, took the usual oaths to H. M. person and government and subscribed the abjuration oath and test, which is, on his motion, ordered to be certified on his commission of Lieutenant of the County."
The Lieutenant of the County was the commander-in-chief of the mili- tary forces of the county, and Lewis, the leader of greatest experience and ability west of the mountains, was thus commissioned, in view of the threatening aspect of affairs. At the same court William Preston qualified as Colonel of the County, and the following as Captains: Walter Cun- ningham, Alexander McClenehan, William Crow, and John Bowyer ; as Lieutenants : John McClenahan, Michael Bowyer and David Long, and as Ensign, James Ward.
At the opening of the Indian war upon the frontier, in 1764, the Six Nations were conspicuous. These Indians had previously been known as the Five Nations, and called by the French, Iroquois. These five tribes, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Senegas, Onandagos and Cayugas had, in 1712, been joined by the Tuscaroras, who had resided in North Carolina and had been driven from their hunting-grounds, and became the sixth of this powerful confederacy. They were called the Six Nations because they all spoke the same language. These Six Nations united, in 1763-'64, with the Shawanese and all the other tribes of the western country in the war against Virginia, Pennsylvania and the other colonies. Both Virginia and Pennsylvania had attempted to restrain their people from settling west of the Alleghanies, because the lands had not been purchased of the Indians. The people, however, defied the authorities, and, undaunted by fear of the red men, crossed the mountains. Unable to look to their governments for protection, they erected forts and block-houses in the west for their security. The savages, finding the colonial authorities unable or unwill- ing to prevent this invasion of their country, and believing them insincere
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in their professions, resolved to take up the hatchet, and either to expel or exterminate the whites. The following extracts from letters writ- ten about this time, and subsequently, will show that the Indians had rea- son to be exasperated ; that all the blame for these massacres and wars does not attach to them. In a letter dated Winchester, April 30th, 1765, the following passage occurs :
"The frontier inhabitants of this colony and Maryland are removing fast over the Alleghanies in order to settle and live there. The two hunters who killed the two Indians near Pittsburg, some time ago, are so audacious as to boast of the fact and show the scalps publicly. What may such pro- ceedings not produce? One of these hunters, named Walker, lives in Augusta County, Va."
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM CARLISLE.
"A number of men from this settlement went up to Shamokin (Fort Augusta) to kill the Indians there, which caused them all to fly from that place."
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM FORT LOUDOUN, 1768.
"The last news we have had here is the killing of nine Shawanese Indians in Augusta County, Va., who were passing this way to the Cherokee Nation, to war against them, and had obtained a pass from Col. Lewis, of that county. Yet, notwithstanding, a number of county people met them a few miles from Col. Lewis' and killed nine, there being but ten in the Company."
FROM LORD BOTETOURT, 1770.
" I send the body of John Ingman, he having confessed himself con- cerned in the murder of Indian Stephen. You will find there never was an act of villainy more unprovoked and more deliberately undertaken."
FROM FORT PITT, 1771.
" I take the liberty to enclose for your perusal the copy of an affidavit relative to the murder of two Senecas Indians. I have had several meet- ings with the chiefs, who seem well pleased with the steps taken in the affair."
This bloody war, after a course of twelve months, was ended by a treaty negotiated in the Autumn of 1764, by Col. Bouquet, near Muskingum, and another, concluded by Sir William Johnson, at German Flats, when, as we have seen, the Indians surrendered two hundred and six prisoners. The most conspicuous negotiator on behalf of the barbarians was the cel- ebrated chief, Captain John-than whom no warrior among the Shawanese or Delawares was more brutal or ferocious. He possessed great courage, energy and sagacity, and wielded a vast influence. This desperate and blood-thirsty savage was over six feet high, and celebrated for his strength, activity and dexterity with the tomahawk. On one occasion he encoun- tered, in single combat, an Indian chief by the name of Cushion, almost as noted as himself for physical power and bull-dog courage. They fought with tomahawks, and the fight resulted in the death of Cushion, whose skull was cloven in twain. Captain John quarreled with his squaw.
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They agreed to divide their worldly goods and separate. The mother held fast to their only child. The Captain jerked it from her arms, and, dividing the body with his tomahawk and scalping-knive into two parts, threw her one half, saying, " Be off, or I'll serve you in the same way."
It will not be uninteresting, and will conduce to an understanding of western affairs, if we pause at this point to give a brief account of western land titles. At the close of the war of 1763-'4, the country, from the Alle- ghanies to the Wabash, was an almost unbroken wilderness ; a few military posts and an occasional pioneer settler were all there was of civilization in that vast region. But the tide of emigration to the west was about to set in with force. Already, in 1762, some families had settled in Greenbrier, and had refused to leave on the King's proclamation, "enjoining and requiring all persons whatsoever, who have either willfully or inadver- tently seated themselves upon any lands within the countries above de- scribed, or upon any other lands which, not having been ceded to or pur- chased by us, are still reserved to the said Indians as aforesaid, forthwith to remove themselves from such settlements." From Greenbrier, the whites penetrated to and settled on the New river previous to 1776, and at various points were, in contravention of treaties, entering upon and culti- vating the lands of different tribes. The Indians witnessed these encroach- ments with bitter feelings; lost faith in such proclamations as that of Bou- quet, given in the preceding chapter, and in all treaties, and though Col. Johnson had ordered the whites, by proclamation, to leave, they learned that he contemplated, himself, founding a colony south of the Ohio river. This is true, but it was Johnson's intention to purchase lands before com- mencing operations. From Franklin's letters, we learn that this plan was in contemplation as early as the Spring of 1766. At this time Franklin was in London, and was written to by his son, Governor Franklin, of New Jersey, with regard to the proposed colony. . The plan seems to have been to buy of the Six Nations the lands south of the Ohio, a purchase which, it was not doubted, Sir William might make, and then to procure from the King a grant of as much territory as the company, which it was intended to form, would require. Governor Franklin, accordingly, forwarded to his father an application for a grant, together with a letter from Sir William, recommending the plan to the ministry, all of which was duly communi- cated to the proper department. But at that time there were various inter- ests bearing upon this plan of Franklin. The old Ohio Company was still suing, through its agent, Col. Mercer, for a perfection of the original grant. The soldiers, claiming under Dinwiddie's proclamation, had their tales of rights and grievances. Individuals, to whom grants had been made by Virginia, wished them completed. Gen. Lyman, from Connec- ticut, we believe, was soliciting a new grant similar to that now asked by Franklin, and the ministers themselves were divided as to the policy and
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propriety of establishing settlements so far in the interior, Shelburne be- ing in favor of the new colony, Hillsborough opposed to it.
The company was organized, however, and the nominally leading man therein being Thomas Walpole, a London banker of eminence, it was known as the Walpole Company. Franklin continued, privately, to make friends among the ministry, and to press upon them the policy of making large settlements in the west ; and as the old way of managing the Indians by superintendents was just then in bad odour, in consequence of the ex- pense attending it, the Cabinet Council so far approved the new plan as to present it for examination to the Board of Trade, with members of which Franklin had been privately conversing.
This was in the Autumn of 1767. But, before any conclusion was come to, it was necessary to arrange definitely that boundary line which had been vaguely talked of in 1765, and with respect to which Sir William Johnson had written to the ministry, who had mislaid his letters, and given him no instructions. The necessity of arranging this boundary was also kept in mind by the continued and growing irritation of the Indians, who found themselves invaded from every side. This irritation became so great, during the Autumn of 1767, that Gage wrote to the Governor of Pennsylvania on the subject. The Governor communicated his letter to the Assembly on the 5th of January, 1768, and representations were at once sent to England expressing the necessity of having the Indian line fixed. Dr. Franklin, all this time, was urging the same necessity upon the ministers in England, and about Christmas of 1767, Sir William's let- ters on the subject having been found, orders were sent him to complete the proposed purchase from the Six Nations and settle all differences. But the project for a colony was, for the time, dropped-a new administration coming in which was not that way disposed.
Sir William Johnson having received, early in the Spring, the orders from England relative to a new treaty with the Indians, at once took steps to secure a full attendance. Notice was given to the various colonial gov- ernments, to the Six Nations, the Delawares and the Shawanese, and a congress was appointed to meet at Fort Stanwix during the following October (1768.) It met upon the 24th of that month, and was attended by repre- sentatives from New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania, by Sir William and his deputies, by the agents of those traders who had suffered in the war of 1763, and by deputies from all the Six Nations, the Delawares and the Shawanese.
The first point to be settled was the boundary line, which was to deter- mine the Indian lands of the west from that time forward, and this line the Indians, upon the Ist of November, stated should begin on the Ohio, at the mouth of the Cherokee (or Tennessee) river ; thence go up the Ohio and Alleghany to Kittatinny ; thence across to the Susquehanna, &c., where-
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by the whole country south of the Ohio and Alleghany, to which the Six Nations had any claim, was transferred to the British. One deed, for a part of this land, was made on the 3d of November to William Trent, at- torney for twenty-two traders, whose goods had been destroyed by the Indians in 1763. The tract conveyed by this was between the Kanawha and Monongehela, and was, by the traders, named Indiana. Two days afterwards a deed for the remaining western lands was made to the King, and the price agreed on paid down. These deeds were made upon the express agreement that no claim should ever be based upon previous treaties, those of Lancaster, Logstown, &c .; and they were signed by the chiefs of the Six Nations for themselves, their allies and dependants, the Shawanese, Delawares, Mingos of Ohio, and others ; but the Shawanese and Delaware deputies present did not sign them.
Such was the treaty of Stanwix, whereon, in a great measure, rests the title by purchase to Western Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. It was a better foundation, perhaps, than that given by previous treaties, but was essentially worthless, for the lands conveyed were not occupied or hunted on by those conveying them. In truth, we cannot doubt that this immense grant was obtained by the influence of Sir William Johnson, in order that the new colony, of which he was to be the Governor, might be founded there. The fact that such a country was ceded voluntarily-not after a war, not by hard persuasion, but at once and willingly-satisfies us that the whole affair had been previously settled with the New York sav- ages, and that the Ohio Indians had no voice in the matter.
But besides the claim of the Iroquois and the northwest Indians to Kentucky, it was also claimed by the Cherokees ; and it is worthy of re- membrance that after the treaty of Lochabar, made in October, 1770, two years after the Stanwix treaty recognized a title in the Southern Indians to all the country west from a line drawn from a point six miles east of Big or Long Island, in Holsten river, to the mouth of the Great Kanawha ; although, as we have just stated, their right to all the lands north and east of the Kentucky river was purchased by Col. Donaldson, either for the King, Virginia, or himself, it is impossible to say which.
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