USA > West Virginia > Upshur County > The history of Upshur county, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 24
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 | Part 74 | Part 75
These were some of the invasions made by the savage in 1778. Many others of greater consequence, of more murder and of wider devastation were made, but they were in other sections of Northwest Virginia than the locality with which this annal deals.
196
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
..
BUSH'S FORT
Built in reply to the warning letter of Major Connolly, proxy of Earl of Dunmore, sent out in 1774 to build and retire into forts as the Indians were mad.
These frequent inroads of small parties of Indians resulted in much harm to the many settlements which they attacked. They required if the settlements were to be maintained, greater preparations for security by the settlers or they were implored by the suffering from these renewed hostilities, to make a total abandonment of their pioneer homes. This last occurred with the settlement on Hackers Creek in 1779, when some of its inhabitants forsook the country and returned to the waters of the Potomac; while others went to the Bushes Fort on the Buckhannon and to Nutters Fort near Clarksburg, to aid in resisting the foe, and in retaining possession of the country. The other settlements were strengthened by the accession of emigrants from Hackers Creek and the east, which enabled them to enter the campaign of the next year better prepared to protect themselves from invasion and shield the inhabitants from the wrath of the savage enemy. 1780 found forts in every settlement to which the settlers could flee when danger threatened and which were strong enough to withstand the assaults of the Indians however furious they might be. It was very fortunate for the country that such was the case and that a paucity of number was in great part made up by the strength of fortification.
THE HEROINE, MRS. BOZARTH. In month of April, 1780, two or three families on Dunkard's Creek, hearing of the violent movement of the Indians against Pricket's Fort, decided to collect themselves at the house of Mr. Bozarth, thinking that they would be more safe when together than apart. One day two children ran into the house from their play exclaiming to Mr. Bozarth and his two neighbors that there were "ugly red men coming." One of the neighbors on going to the door to see if the children had given a true alarm, received a glancing shot in his breast from one of the Indians. This caused him to fall back and the Indian
197
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
who shot him immediately sprang after the wounded man. He was checked by the other white man and was thrown on the floor. The victor in the contest having no weapon with which to wound the Indian, called to Mrs. Bozarth for a knife. There was none handy ; but an axe was seized by her and at one blow the brains of the prostrate savage were let out. And now a second Indian entered the door and shot dead the man astride the Indian on the floor. Mrs. Bozarth turned her wrath on him and with a well directed blow emboweled and caused him to bawl out for help. Other Indians endeavored to enter the home. The first that stuck his head through the door had it cleft by the axe of Mrs. Bazarth. The second, seeing the violent desperation of the inmates seized his wounded, yelling companion and drew him from the house. When Mrs. Bozarth and the white man who had been first wounded, closed and made fast the door. The children playing in the open yard were all killed. But for the heroism of Mrs. Bozarth and the wounded white man the attempts of the Indians to force open the door and take possession of the house would have been successful.
A relief party from the neighboring settlement soon gave the inmates liberty. Withers says that from the first alarm from the children to the closing of the door consumed only three minutes and in this time Mrs. Bozarth with infinite coolness, deliberation and intrepidity killed three Indians.
LEONARD SCHOOLCRAFT MADE PRISONER
A short time only elapsed before other Indian ravages were perpetrated. The presence of the savage foe during this year was constant. They were fre- quently seen by hunters and settlers going from settlement to settlement, some- times very near the barricades and forts which gave the settlers protection. One of these parties of Indians was loitering about the Buckhannon settlement in the month of May, when they made prisoner Leonard Schoolcraft, a youth of about sixteen, who had been sent out from the fort on some business. They carried him away to their town and there made great preparations to test his courage, strength and endurance. He was informed that he must run the gauntlet, which in this case was to defend himself against the vigorous blows of the young Indians who would be placed in a circle to pursue him and to beat him. School- craft was active, energetic and athletic and was glad of the opportunity to have his fate settled in this way. He defended himself with remarkable coolness and bravery by well timed blows, frequently knocking down those young Indians who came near him. This struggle afforded much entertainment and amusement to the warriors present and watching. On account of his able defense Leonard Schoolcraft was adopted into the tribe and afterwards became a guide and leader to the Indians. His knowledge of the locality of the settlements and the country round about them made him a very useful guide to the savages in making suc- cessful incursions upon the country.
JOHN SCHOOLCRAFT'S FAMILY KILLED OR MADE PRISONERS.
The capture of young Schoolcraft induced the Indians to make another in- vasion at once. The families who had been living during the winter in Bushes Fort were anxious to get to their respective plantations for spring work. Several of them had gone out to their homes under the belief that the season was so far advanced that the Indians would not again come among them. Disappointment met them. For on a day when the men of the families in and out of the fort had
198
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
met at the fort for the purpose of electing a captain and otherwise completing their military organization, some Indians fell upon the family of John Schoolcraft, killing the wife and eight children, and carrying into captivity two children, boys, who perhaps were made members of the tribe, and in subsequent years led many Indian parties against the settlements. A. small girl, one of the eight children, who had been tomahawked and scalped most brutally, was found the next day yet alive with her brains oozing out. She was taken to her home and lived several days before dying from the fatal fracture of the skull.
SIEGE OF WEST'S FORT AND RELIEF PARTY THERETO.
With the abandonment of West's Fort in 1779, came its total destruction by the Indians. Mr. L. V. McWhorter says that this fort stood on an eminence where is now the residence of Minor C. Hall. He also says that the fort was destroyed with fire. In the spring of 1780, the whites again returned to their clearings on Hackers Creek and the new fort had to be erected, locally called Beech Fort, "because built entirely of beech logs-beech trees standing very thick in this locality." This new fort however, was only a few hundred yards from the old and was in a low marshy place as compared with the sight of the old fort. On account of its proximity to the old fort the new one was generally known by the same name. These returning families went into the new fort upon its completion, but were not there very long before the savages made their appearance and entered upon a siege against it. The inhabitants incarcerated in the fort seeing the superior number of the Indians rightly decided that they were too weak to go out and give battle to the investing foe. Neither did they know when or how soon relief to their situation could come. Their store of provisions ran down and despair stared them in the face, when Jesse Hughes, a benefactor in all such trying circumstances, resolved to have assistance to drive off the enemy. Going out of the fort one exceeding dark night he eluded the Indian sentinels and made his way to Bushes Fort on the Buckhannon river. He appealed to the settlers to go to the rescue of his imprisoned neighbors and his appeal was met by a ready response. An efficient and daring relief party was soon organized and went out by night to drive off the besiegers. The Indians gave them no battle, but allowed them to enter the fort and give rescue to the hungry inhabi- tants. A decision was there and then made to abandon the place once more and remove to Buckhannon. The savages observed their determination to leave the fort and waited for them to take their departure. On their way over to Bushes Fort every device known to savage cunning and audacity was put into operation to effect the division of the company so that the retreating settlers might be made weak enough to fall victims to a vigorous attack. The white men were too cautious and well organized to fall into any such trap and they all reached the fort in safety.
Withers says, "Two days after this, as Jeremiah Curl, Henry Fink and Edmond West, three old men, and Alexander West, John Cutright and Simon Schoolcraft, were returning to the fort with some of their neighbors' property, they were fired at by the Indians who were lying concealed along the run bank. Curl was slightly wounded under the chin, but disdaining to fly without making a stand he called to his companions, "stand your ground, for we are able to whip them." At this instant a lusty warrior drew a tomahawk from his belt and rushed toward him. Nothing daunted by the danger which seemed to threaten him, Curl
199
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
raised his gun; but the powder being damp from the blood from his wound, did not fire. He instantly took up West's gun (which he had been carrying to relieve West from part of his burden) and discharging it at his assailant, brought him to the ground. The whites being by this time rid of their encumbrances, the Indians retreated in two parties and pursued different routes, not, however, without being pursued. Alexander West being swift of foot, soon came near enough to fire, and brought down a second, but having only wounded him, and seeing the Indian spring behind trees, he could not advance to finish him; nor could he again shoot at him, the flint having fallen out when he first fired. John Jackson ( who was hunt- ing sheep not far off ) hearing the report of the guns, ran towards the spot and being in sight of the Indian when West shot, saw him fall and afterwards recover and hobble off. Simon Schoolcraft, following after West, came to him just after Jackson with his gun cocked, and asking where the Indians were, was advised by Jackson to get behind a tree, or they would soon let him know where they were. Instantly the report of a gun was heard, and Schoolcraft let fall his arm. The ball had passed through it, and striking a steel tobacco box in his waistcoat pocket, did him no further injury. Cutright, when West fired at one of the In- dians, saw another of them drop behind a log, and changing his position, espied him, where the log was a little raised from the earth. With steady nerves, he drew upon him. The moaning cry of the savage, as he sprang from the ground and moved haltingly away, convinced them that the shot had taken effect. The rest of the Indians continued behind trees, until they observed a reinforcement coming up to the aid of the whites, and they fled with the utmost precipitancy. Night soon coming on, those who followed them had to give over the pursuit.
A company of fifteen men went early next morning to the battle ground, and taking the trail of the Indians and pursuing it some distance came to where they had some horses (which they had stolen after the skirmish) hobbled out on a fork of Hacker's creek. They then found the plunder which the savages had taken from neighboring houses, and supposing that their wounded warriors were near, the whites commenced looking for them, when a gun was fired at them by an Indian concealed in a laurel thicket, which wounded John Cutright. The whites then caught the stolen horses and returned with them and the plunder to the fort. John Cutright was wounded on Laurel Lick near Berlin, W. Va.
AUSTIN SCHOOLCRAFT AND NIECE KILLED. For some time after this there was nothing occurring to indicate the presence of Indians in the Buckhannon set- tlement, and some of those who were in the fort, hoping that they should not be again visited by them this season, determined on returning to their homes. Austin Schoolcraft was one of these, and being engaged in removing some of his property from the fort, as he and his niece were passing through a swamp on their way to his house, they were shot at by some Indians. Mr. Schoolcraft was killed and his niece taken prisoner.
These are some of the outrages committed by the savages against pioneers of Buckhannon and West Fork, since the arrival of the Pringle brothers at the mouth of Turkey Run and extending over a period of more than ten years. No wonder that so many of these early settlers turned scouts, and with an immeasura- ble hatred, hunted down and killed with impunity the savage or any of his kin who had inflicted these uncalled for devastations and murders. To the settlers "War was indeed hell," but war if it must be, would terminate with them only when might made right. Accordingly renewed efforts were successfully made
200
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
laying in ammunition, installing stronger defenses and getting ready to conquer the impending peril to their homes.
FINALE OF THE SCHOOLCRAFT FAMILY. No family that settled in Western Virginia suffered so much from Indian atrocities as did this one. The reader is already aware of some brutal ravages made upon the Schoolcraft family. In April of 1781, its total extinguishment from the settlements in this part of the country occurred, when on the occasion of Matthias, Simon and Michael Schoolcraft being observed by lurking Indians were killed and captured. Withers claims that these three brothers had gone onto the waters of Stone Coal Creek, to catch pigeons and Henry F. Westfall takes issue with Withers's cause for their absence from the fort and says that they had gone down the Buckhannon river on a hunt. The latter seems the more probable reason and direction of the going of the brothers when they were attacked by Indians, Matthias being killed, the other two being taken captives. These were the last of this remarkable family. All told fifteen members of this family had come into the settlements and in a few short years had been either killed or taken prisoners. Those who were carried away never returned. It is believed that they became members of the Indian tribes which captured them and as members of these tribes they acquired by association the same savage habits, custom and love for war. It is also known that three of this captured family accompanied war parties in their incursions into the settle- ments, and were heinous in their treatment of the whites who fell into their hands in their skirmishes and attacks. The founder of this family is said to have come originally to New York state and from there moved onto the upper Monongahela induced by an over zealous propensity to possess large landed properties. Unfortunately this family early fell a prey to the relentless and ever vigilant savage. It is also known that this Virginia family was distantly con- nected with that of the distinguished author, Henry R. Schoolcraft, whose notable work published in 1851 is both creditable to him and the cause of American literature. How divergent were the aims, intentions, and action of these two branches of one family in the ninteenth century, the first engaged in the nefarious business of deceiving, intriguing and killing white people, the last devoted to a study of the means for the bettering and promotion of good conditions among those very people (Indians) whom his nephews were leading in their efforts to exterminate totally the white race.
FATALITIES TO THE FINK FAMILY. About the year 1772, Henry Fink in company with Robert Cunningham, John Goff and John Minear, settled in the Horseshoe bottoms of the Cheat river in the neighborhood of Parsons, W. Va. Fink for good reasons did not live in this settlement very long, but soon came to the Buckhannon settlement. He chose for his home here a site a half mile above the mouth of the creek that now bears his name. This land is now owned by William D. Farnsworth, and his heirs. Fink was an industrious and progressive citizen. He worked with a vigor and determination that accomplished much good to himself and to his neighbors, his clearings were the largest and best in the settlement, consisting largely of improvements of the beautiful bottoms around his home. His crops were large, general, and various, for a new settlement. Especially was this so with his corn crops whose size both delighted him and interested his neighbors. To make the Indian corn of his own and his neighbors farm more palatable he built the first grist mill in the Buckhannon settlement. But Henry Fink, like his neighbors suffered from the revengeful spirit of the savage. On the fourth of February, 1782, while he and his sons were engaged
201
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
in the peaceful happy labor of drawing rails and fencing their corn field several guns were fired at them. The hour of the day was early morning, just as the sun was rising over the eastern hill tops, and telling the inhabitants of the new World that Old Sol was coming to gladden and to make happy. Things at this hour of the day are not as distinct as they might be and Henry not seeing his son called to him, but before John, the son, could make reply to his father's inquiry whether he was hurt, another and fatal shot was fired and he fell lifeless. His remains lie interred in the Heavner Cemetery, the site of the old fort, where a rough stone stands bearing his name, by whom killed and the date, February 4th, 1782. The elder Fink seeing what happened and unfastening as fast as he could the log chain which held in its cold embrace the rails at one end and was fastened to the horse at the other, betook himself in perilous rapidity on a frightened horse away from Indian sight, aim, and danger. Arriving at his home safely and quickly, he commanded his family to move immediately to the fort. In fear, and trembling and excitement the next twenty-four hours were spent by the settlers. The lifeless body of John was brought to the fort on the succeeding day, and on examination it was found that he had a ball in one arm and a second one had passed through his heart. Of course he was scalped and one more trophy was added to the list of rewards for savage bravery.
Providence decreed that Henry Fink was too valuable a man to fall in death at the hands of a ferocious Indian at that time, but subsequently the same fate befell him as that of his son. He was laying down a pair of bars leading from one field to another, near where the Beverly Pike crosses the Buckhannon and Clarksburg Pike in the town of Buckhannon, when a party of Indians in ambush shot and killed him. We know not what became of the other members of this family.
JOHN JACKSON AND SON FIRED UPON. During the summer of 1782, as John Jackson and his son George were returning to the fort from a hunting expedition, they were fired at by some Indians loitering in the neighborhood. Their shots went wild and no damage was done. But George Jackson being on his guard was carrying his gun with an expectation of either seeing some game or observing these very terriors to his neighbors. He discharged his gun at one of them peep- ing from behind a tree, and came so near shooting him that it alarmed him and he ran off, followed by the rest of his party at utmost speed.
MURDER OF EDMOND WEST. On the fifth day of December, 1787, a party of Indians led by the unscrupulous Leonard Schoolcraft, made an attack on the Hackers Creek settlement, first by taking captive Jesse Hughes's daughter, and second by making prisoner Edmond West, Sr., who was feeding his stock at the time the Indians came upon him. This old man begged for mercy, but mercy droppeth not like the gentle dew from heaven out of an Indian's nature, and his appeal was answered by harsh blows of the tomahawk, killing the old man. The several Indians who had been hunting for victims to vent their ferocity upon, now came together and went to the home of Edmond West, Jr., where Mrs. West, a Miss Hacker, daughter of John Hacker, and the youngest brother of Edmond West, a lad of twelve, were. Schoolcraft and two Indians broke down the barricaded door and entered the home. Full vent was given to their fiendish natures, first by the killing of Mrs. West, then the boy, both of whom were toma- hawked. Miss Hacker was struck at and received a glancing lick on her neck. She lay as if dead, but the reverse was true and after the invaders of this home had gotten all the milk, butter, bread and meat, which their hungry appetites
202
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
craved and after emptying the bedticks of their feathers and bagging them for exportation, scalping the woman and boy, they dragged Miss Hacker forty or fifty yards by the hair of the head, threw her over a fence and scalped her.
Schoolcraft now saw that she was simulating death and was showing vigorous signs of life. He commanded one of the Indians to thrust the knife into her and it struck a rib, not inflicting a fatal wound. Old Mrs. West and her two daughters, Elizabeth and Hada, who were alone when the old gentle- man was taken, became uneasy that he did not return, and fearing that he had fallen into the hands of savages (as they could not otherwise account for his absence) they left the house and went to Alexander West's, who was then on a hunting expedition with his brother Edmond. They told of the absence of old Mr. West and their fears for his fate, and as there was no man here, they went over to Jesse Hughes's who was himself uneasy that his daughter did not come home. Upon hearing that West too was missing, he did not doubt but that both had fallen into the hands of Indians; and knowing of the absence from home of Edmond West, Jr., he deemed it advisable to apprize his wife of danger, and remove her to his house. For this purpose and accompanied by Mrs. West's two daughters, he went on. On entering the door, the tale of destruction which had been done there was soon told in part. Mrs. West and the lad lay weltering in their blood, but not yet dead. The sight overpowered the girls, and Hughes had to carry them off. Seeing that the savages had but just left them, and aware of the danger which would attend any attempt to move out and give the alarm that night, Hughes guarded his own house until day, when he spread the sorrowful intelligence, and a company were collected to ascertain the extent of the mischief and try to find those who were known to be missing.
Young West was found-standing in the creek about a mile from where he had been tomahawked. The brains were oozing from his head, yet he survived in extreme suffering for three days. Old Mr. West was found in the field where he had been tomahawked. Mrs. West was in the house; she had probably lived but a few minutes after Hughes and her sister-in-law had left there. Their little girl (Hacker's daughter) was in bed at the house of old Mr. West. She related the history of the transactions at Edmond West's Jr., and said that she went to sleep when thrown over the fence and was awakened by the scalping. After she had been stabbed at the suggestion of Schoolcraft and left, she tried to recross the fence to the house, but fell back. She then walked into the woods, sheltered herself as well as she could in the top of a fallen tree, and remained there until the cocks crew in the morning. Remembering that there was no person left alive at the house of her sister, a while before day she proceeded to old Mr. West's. She found no person at home, the fire nearly out, but the hearth warın and she laid down on it. The heat produced a sickly feeling, which caused her to get up and go to bed, in which she was found. She recovered, grew up, was married, gave birth to ten children, and died, as was believed, of an affec- tion of the head, occasioned by the wound she received that night. Hughes' daughter was ransomed by her father the next year, and is yet living (1831) in sight of the theater of those savage enormities.
MURDER OF BUSH AND TWO CHILDREN
The same John Bush, after whom the fort on Buckhannon River was named, removed after some years of residence in this section to Freeman's Creek, Lewis
STONE CULVERT BRIDGE ACROSS FINK S RUN.
DIRT ROAD
A HERD OF GRADED CATTLE.
FLOCK OF SOUTHDOWN SHEEP.
203
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
County, and there on the 24th of April, 1791, met his death at the vile hands of the Indians. On that morning he sent his two children to drive up the cows and was alarmed by their screams soon after their departure. He got up and took down his gun and hastened to leave the house to ascertain the cause of the children's screams, when he was met at the door by an Indian, who seized the gun, wrenched it from his strong grip, and shot him. Bush fell dead on his own threshold and an attempt was made to scalp him. But it was thwarted by the heroism of Mrs. Bush, who, like a fierce tigress, made after the Indian with a sharp axe. He pulled the axe away from her, but she withdrew into the house and secured the door. The Indians bombarded the home with everything they had at their command, they fired eleven shots through the frock of Mrs. Bush, some grazing the skin. One savage stuck his gun through a hole between the logs and shot, hoping thus to more certainly kill the woman, but she fought them off in one way and another until the approaching steps of a relief party were heard by the savages. It was Adam Bush who, hearing the screams of the children and the firing of the gun rushed post haste to learn what had happened. His dogs in crossing the Creek made the noise that was the alarm to the savages. The two children were carried away and brutally slaughtered and scalped by their captors. The pursuing company which went forth for the two-fold purpose of avenging Bush's death and rescuing his children were once so close upon the Indians that they were forced to fly precipitately, leaving the plunder and seven horses which they had taken from the settlement. This event occurred near the mouth of Little Kanawha. The horses and plunder were brought home.
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.