USA > West Virginia > Hampshire County > History of Hampshire County, West Virginia : from its earliest settlement to the present > Part 2
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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
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CHAPTER II.
INDIANS AND MOUNDBUILDERS.
Indians enter largely into the early history of the state, and few of the early settlements were exempt from their visitations. Yet, at the time West Virginia first became known to white men, there was not an Indian settlement, village or camp of any considerable consequence within its borders. There appears to have been several villages in the vicinity of Pittsburg, and thence northward to Lake Erie and westward into Ohio; but West Virginia was va- cant; it belonged to no tribe and was claimed by none with shadow of title. There were at times, and perhaps at nearly all times, a wigwam here or there within the bor- ders; but it belonged to temporary sojourners, hunters, fishermen, who expected to remain only a short time. So far as West Virginia is concerned, the Indians were not dispossessed of it by the white man, and they were never justified in waging war for any wrong done them within this state. The white race simply took land which they found vacant, and dispossessed nobody.
There was a time when West Virginia was occupied by Indians, and they were driven out or exterminated; but it was not done by the white race, but by other tribes of In- dians, who, when they had completed the work of destruc- tion and desolation, did not choose to settle on the land they had made their own by conquest. This war of extermina- tion was waged between the years 1656 and 1672, as nearly as the date could be ascertained by the early historians, who were mostly missionaries among the tribes further north and west. The conquerors were the Mohawks, a
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HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE.
fierce and powerful tribe whose place of residence was in Western New York, but whose warlike excursions were carried into Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, even fu ther south. They obtained firearms from the Dutch colonies on the Hudson, and having learned how to use them. they became a nation of conquerors. The only part of their conquests which comes within the scope of this inquiry was their invasion of West Virginia. A tribe of Indians, believed to be the Hurons, at that time oc- cupied the country from the forks of the Ohio southward along the Monongahela and its tributaries, on the Little Kanawha. on the Great Kanawha and to the Kentucky fine. During the sixteen years between 1656 and 1672 the Mohawks overran the country and left it a solitude, extend- ing their conquest to the Guyandot river. There was scarcely a Haron left to tell the tale in all this state. If a small village on the Little Kanawha at the coming of the white man was not a remnant of the Hurons, it cannot be ascertained that there was one of that tribe within the bor- ders of this state when the white men pushed their settle- ments into it. Genghis Kahn, the Tartar, did not exter- minate more completely than did these Mohawks. If there were any Huron refugees who escaped, they never returned to their old homes to take up their residence again.
There is abundant evidence all over the state that In- dians in considerable numbers once made their home here. Graveyards tell of those who died in times of peace. The dead left of the field of battle are seldom buried by savages. Graves are numerous, sometimes singly, sometimes in large aggregations, indicating that a village was near by. Flint arrowheads are found everywhere, but more numer- ous on river bottoms and on level land near springs, where villages and camps would most likely be located. The houses of these tribesmen were built of the most flimsy material, and no traces of them are found, except fireplaces, which may occasionally be located on account of charcoal
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INDIANS AND MOUNDBUILDERS.
and ashes which remain till the present day and may be un- earthed a foot or more below the surface of the ground. Round these fires, if the imagination may take the place of historical records, sat the wild huntsmen after the chase was over; and while they roasted their venison, they talked of the past and planned for the future; but how long ago, no man knows.
As to who occupied the country before the Hurons, or how long the Hurons held it, history is silent. There is not a legend or tradition coming down to us that is worthy of credence. There was an ancient race here which built mounds; and the evidence found in the mounds is tolera- bly conclusive that the people who built them were here long before any Indians with which we are acquainted; but history has not yet been able to deal with the question whether the Indians built the mounds or whether they are the work of another racc. The strongest argument against the claim that the mounds are the work of Indians of a pre- historic time is the fact that Indians have not built mounds since they have been under the eye of the white race. This evidence is of a negative sort, but it is given weight, and properly so. The argument that the work done shows that the people who built the mounds were a more highly civilized race than the Indians, is not well supported. They were probably more industrious. The mounds in this state, and in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, seem to have been the crude beginnings of architecture which was improved and enlarged in the pyramids of Mexico, built, or supposed to have been built, by the ancestors of the Aztecs and Mayas. If such were the case, the conclusion would not be unreasonable that the people who built the mounds were driven southwestward into Mexico by the irruption of a new people from the north, and that when the exiles reached their new home they turned their hands again to building mounds, and their experience in building enabled them ultimately to build pyramids. In Mexico to-
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HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE.
day the Indians, Mayas and Aztecs live side by side, and their features and general characteristics show them to be radically the same people, not different races. They are at least as much alike as are the Germans and Spanish, the Greeks and the French; and the common origin of these nations is not difficult to trace. The limits of this work will not permit an extended discussion of this puzzling question. Neither is it proper nor profitable to enter at length upon the consideration of the origin of the In- dians. It is a question which history has not answered, and perhaps never will answer. If the origin of the In- dians were known, the origin of the people who built the mounds would be near at hand. But the whole matter is one of speculation and opinion. The favorite conclusion of most authors is that America was peopled from Asia by way of Berings strait. It could have been done. But the hypothesis is as reasonable that Asia was peopled by emi- grants from America who crossed Berings strait. It is the same distance across, going west or coming east; and there is no historical evidence that America was not peo- pled first; or that both the old world and the new were not peopled at the same time; or that each was not peopled in- dependently of the other. Since the dawn of history, and as far back into prehistoric times as the analysis of lan- guages can throw any light, all great migrations have been westward. No westward migration would have given America its inhabitants from Asia: but a migration from the west would have peopled Asia from America. As a matter of fact, Berings strait is so narrow that the tribes on either side can cross to the other at pleasure, and with less difficulty than the Amazon river can be crossed near its mouth.
It is the opinion of ethnologists that a comparison of the grammatical construction of a large number of the Indian languages would reveal characteristics showing that all had a common origin. But the study has been barren of
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INDIANS AND MOUDBUILDERS.
results up to the present time. The language of the Indians is a puzzle, unless it be accepted as true that there is no common thread through all leading to one source. There were eight Indian languages east of the Mississipi at the coming of the Europeans.
The number of Indians inhabiting a given territory was surprisingly small. They could hardly be said to occupy the land. They had settlements here and there. Of the number of Hurons in the limits of this state, before the Mohawk invasion, there is no record and no estimate. Probably not more than the present number of the inhabi- tants in the state capital, Charleston. This will appear reasonable when it is stated that, according to the mission- ary census, in 1640, the total number of Indians in the territory east of the Mississippi, north of the Gulf of Mexico and south of the St. Lawrence river, was less than one-fourth of the present population of the state of West Virginia. The total number is placed at 180,000. Nearly all the Indians who were concerned in the border wars in West Virginia lived in Ohio. There were many villages in that state, and it was densely populated in cemparison with some of the others; yet there were not, perhaps, fifteen thousand Indians in Ohio, and they could not put three thousand warriors in the field. The army which General Forbes led against Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg) in 1758 was probably larger than could have been mustered by the Indians of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois combined, and the number did not exceed six thousand. The Indians were able to harrass the frontier of West Virginia for a quarter of a century by prowling about in small bands and striking the defenseless. Had they organized an army and fought pitched battles they would have been subdued in a few months.
While the Indians roamed over the whole country, hunt- ing and fishing, they yet had paths which they followed when going on long journeys. These paths were not made
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HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE.
with tools, but were simply the result of walking upon them for generations. They nearly always followed the best grades to be found, and modern road makers have profited by the skill of savages in selecting the most prac- ticable routes. These paths led long distances, and in a general direction, unvarying from beginning to end, show- ing that they were not made at haphazzard, but with design. Thus, crossing West Virginia, the Catawba warpath led from New York to Georgia. It entered West Virginia from Fayette county, Pennsylvania, crossed Cheat river at the mouth of Grassy ran, passed in a direction south by southwest through the state, and reached the head- waters of the Holsten river in Virginia, and thence continued through North Carolina, South Carolina and it is said reached Georgia. The path was well defined when the country was first settled, but at the present time few traces of it remain. It was never an Indian thoroughfare after white men had planted settlements in West Virginia, for the reason that the Indian tribes of Pennsylvania and New York had enough war on hand to keep them busy without making long excursions to the south. It is not recorded that any Indian ever came over this trail to attack the frontiers of West Virginia. The early settlements in Pennsylvania to the north of us cut off incursions from that quarter. A second path, called by the early settlers Warrior Branch, was a branch of the preceding. That is, they formed one path southward from New York to southern Pennsylvania, where they separated, and the Warrior Branch crossed Cheat river at McFarland's; took a southwesterly direction through the state and entered southern Ohio and passed into Kentucky. Neither was this trail much used in attacking the early settlements in this state. It is highly probable that both this and the Catawba path were followed by the Mohawks in their wars against the Hurons in West Virginia; but there is no positive proof that such was the case. Indian villages
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INDIANS AND MOUNDBUILDERS.
were always on or near large trails, and by following these, and their branches, the invaders would be led di- rectly to the homes of the native tribe which they were bent on exterminating.
There were other trails in the state, some of them ap- parently very old, as if they had been used for many gen- erations. There was one, sometimes called the Eastern Path, which came from Ohio, crossed the northern part of West Virginia, through Preston and Monongalia counties, and continued eastward to the South branch of the Poto- mac. This path was made long before the Ohio Indians had any occasion to wage war upon white settlers; but it was used in their attacks upon the frontiers. Over it the Indians traveled who harrassed the settlements on the South branch, and, later, those on the Monongahela and Cheat rivers. The settlers whose homes happened to lie near this trail were in constant danger of attack. During the Indian wars, after 1776, it was the custom for scouts to watch some of the leading trails near the crossing of the Ohio, and when a party of Indians were advancing, to out run them and report the danger in time for the settlers to take refuge in forts. Many massacres were averted in this way.
The arms and ammunition with which the Indians fought the pioneers of this state were obtained from white traders; or, as from 1776 to 1783, or later, were often supplied by British agents. The worst depredations which West Vir- ginia suffered from the Indians were committed with arms and ammunition obtained from the British in Canada. This was during the Revolutionary war, when the British made allies of the Indians and urged them to harrass the west- ern frontiers, while the British regular army fought the Colonial army in the eastern states.
CHAPTER III. - >0 <-
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
For the first twenty-five years after settlements were: commenced in the present territory of West Virginia there. was immunity from Indian depredations. There was no, occasion for trouble. No tribe occupied the South branch when the first colony was made; and the outposts of the. white man could have been pushed across the state until the Ohio river was reached without taking lands claimed or occupied by Indians, except perhaps in the case of two- or three very small camps; and this most likely would have been done without conflict with Indians, had not Eu- ropeans stirred up these unfortunate children of the forest. and sent them against the colonists. This was done by two European nations, first by France, and afterwards by England. There were four Indian wars waged against West Virginia; the war of 1755 and Pontiac's war of 1763, the Dunmore war of 1774 and the Revolutionary war of 1776. In the war beginning in 1755 the French incited and assisted Indians against the English settlements along the whole western border. In the Revolutionary war the British took the place of the French as allies of the Indians, and armed these savages and sent them against the set- tlers on the western border. For at least a part of the time the British paid the Indians a bounty on every scalp taken, making no distinction between man, woman and child.
It is proper that the causes bringing about the French and Indian war be briefly recited. No state was more deeply concerned than West Virginia. Had the plan out -.
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FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
lined by the French been successfully executed, West Virginia would have been French instead of English, and the settlements by the Virginians would not have been carried west of the Alleghany mountains. The coast of America, from Maine to Georgia, was colonized by En- glish. The French colonized Canada and Louisiana. About the middle of the eighteenth century the design, probably formed long before, of connecting Canada and Louisiana by a chain of forts and settlements, began to be put into execution by the king of France. The cordon was to descend the Alleghany river from Lake Erie to the Ohio, down that stream to the Mississippi and thence to New Orleans. The purpose was to confine the English to the strip of country between the Alleghanies and the At- lantic ocean, which would include New England, the greater part of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, East- ern Pennsylvania, the greater part of Maryland, seven eastern counties of West Virginia, Virginia, North Caro- lina, South Carolina and Georgia. The French hoped to hold everything west of the Alleghany mountains. The immediate territory to be secured was the Ohio val- ley. Missionaries of the Catholic church were the first explorers, not only of the Ohio, but of the Mississippi val- ley, almost to the head springs of that river. The French took formal possession of both banks of the Ohio in the summer of 1749, when and expedition under Captain Cel- eron descended that stream and claimed the country in the name of France.
The determination of the Virginians to plant settlements in the Ohio valley was speedily observed by the French, who set to work to counteract the movement. They be- gan the erection of a fort on one of the upper tributaries of the Alleghany river, and no one doubted that they intended to move south as rapidly as they could erect their cordon of forts. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia decided to send a messenger to the French who already were in the Ohio
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HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE.
valley, asking for what purpose they were there, and in- forming them that the territory belonged to England. It wasa mere diplomatic formality, not expected to doany good. This was in the autumn of 1753, and George Washington, . then twenty-one years of age, was commissioned to bear the dispatch to the French commander on the Alleghany river. Washington left Williamsburg, Virginia, Novem- ber 14, to travel nearly six hundred miles through a track- less wilderness in the dead of winter. When he reached the settlement on the Monongahela where Christopher Gist and twelve families had planted a colony, Mr. Gist ac- companied him as a guide. The message was delivered to . the French commandant, and the reply having been writ- ten, Washington and Gist set out upon their return, on foot. The boast of the French that they would build a fort the next summer on the present site of Pittsburg seemed likely to be carried out. Washington counted over two hundred canoes at the French fort on the Alleghany river, and he rightly conjectured that a descent of that stream was contemplated. After many dangers and hardships, Washington reached Williamsburg and delivered to Gor- ernor Dinwiddie the reply from the French commandant.
It was now evident that the French intended to resist by force all attempts by the English to colonize the Ohio valley, and were resolved to meet force with force. Gov- ernor Dinwiddie called the assembly together, and troops were sent into the Ohio valley. Early in April, 1754, En- sign Ward, with a small detachment, reached the forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburg now stands, and commenced the erection of a fort. Here began the conflict which raged for several years along the border. The French soon appeared in the Alleghany with one thousand men and eighteen cannon and gave the English one hour in which to leave. Resistance was out of the question, and Ward retreated. The French built a fort which they called Duquesne, in honor of the governor of Canada.
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FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
The English were not inclined to submit so tamely. Virginia and Pennsylvania took steps to recover the site at the forks of the Ohio, and to build a fort there. Troops were raised and placed in command of Colonel Fry, while Washington was made lieutenant colonel. The instruc- tions from Governor Dinwiddie were explicit, and directed that all persons, not the subjects of Great Britain, who should attempt to take possession of the Ohio river or any of its tributaries, be killed, destroyed or seized as prisoners. When the troops under Washington reached the Great Meadows, near the present site of Brownsville. Pennsylvania, it was learned that a party of about fifty French were prowling in the vicinity, and had announced their purpose of attacking the first English they should meet. Washington, at the head of fifty men, left the camp and went in search of the French, came upon their camp early in the morning, fought them a few minutes, killed ten, including the commander, Jumonville, and took twenty- two prisoners, with the loss of one killed and two or three wounded. The prisoners were sent to Williamsburg, and. at the same time, an urgent appeal for more troops was made. It was correctly surmised that as soon as news of the fight reached Fort Duquesne, a large force of French would be sent out to attack the English. Considerable reinforcements were raised and were advanced as far as Winchester; but, with the exception of an independent company from South Carolina under Captain Mackay, none of the reinforcements reached the Great Meadows where the whole force under Colonel Fry amounted to less than four hundred men.
The Indians had been friendly with the settlers on the western border up to this time; but the French having supplied them bountifully with presents, induced them to take up arms against the English, and henceforward the colonists had to fight both the French and the Indians. Of the two, the Indians were the more troublesome. They
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HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE.
had a natural hatred for the English, who had dispos- sessed the tribes east of the Alleghanies of their land, and were now invading the territory west of that range. But it is difficult to see wherein they hoped to better their con- dition by assisting the French to gain possession of the country; for the French were as greedy for land as were the English. However, the majority of the natives could not reason far enough to see that point; and without much investigation they took up arms in aid of the French. One sachem, however, wiser than the rest, is reported to have stated the case thus: "If the French claim all the land on one side of the river, and the English claim all on the other side, where is the Indians' land?" His countrymen were too busily engaged in preparation for war to give any an- swer, and they joined the French and marched against the English.
After the brush with Jumonville's party, it was expected that the French in strong force would march from Fort Du- quesne to drive back the English. Washington built Fort Necessity about fifty miles west of Cumberland, Maryland, and prepared for a fight. News was brought to him that large reinforcements from Canada had reached Fort Du- quesne; and within a few days he was told that the French were on the road to meet him. Expected reinforcements from Virginia had not arrived, and Washington, who had advanced a few miles toward the Ohio, fell back to Fort Necessity. There, on the third of July, 1754, was fought a long and obstinate battle. Many Indians were with the French. Washington offered battle in the open ground, but the offer was declined, and the English withdrew within the entrenchments. The enemy fought from be- hind trees, and some climbed to the top of trees in order to get aim at those in the trenches. The French were in su- perior force and better armed than the English. A rain dampened the ammunition and rendered many of the guns of the English useless. Washington surrendered upon
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FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
honorable terms which permitted his soldiers to retain their arms and baggage, but not the artillery. This capit- ulation occurred July 4, 1754, just twenty-two years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The French and Indians numbered seven hundred men. Their loss in killed was three or four. The loss of the English was thirty.
When Washington's defeated army retreated from the Ohio valley, the French were in full possession, and no at- tempt was made that year to renew the war in that quarter, but the purpose on the part of the English of driving the French out was by no means abandoned. It was now un- derstood that nothing less than a general war could settle the question, and both sides prepared for it. It was with some surprise, in January, 1755, that a proposition was re- ceived from France that the portion of the Ohio valley be- tween that river and the Alleghanies be abandoned by both the French and the English. The latter, believing that the opportunity had arrived for driving a good bargain, de- manded that the French destroy all their forts as far as the Wabash, raze Niagara and Crown Point, surrender the peninsula of Nova Scotia, and a strip of land sixty miles wide along the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic, and leave the intermediate country as far as the St. Lawrence a neutral desert. France rejected this proposition, and un- derstanding the designs of the English, sent three thousand men to Canada. General Braddock was already on his way to America with two regiments; yet no war had been de- clared between England and France. The former an- nounced that it would act only on the defensive and the latter affirmed its desire for peace.
When General Braddock arrived in America he prepared four expeditions against the French, yet still insisting that he was acting only on the defensive. One was against Nova Scotia, one against Niagara, one against Crown Point, and the fourth against the Ohio valley, to be led by Brad-
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