30 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MIAMIS.
ACCORDING to John B. Dillon, the mild and fertile region now included within the boundaries
of the State of Indiana was at the time of its discovery by Europeans, claimed and possessed by
the Miami confederacy of Indians. The Miamis proper, who, in former times, bore the name of
Twightwees, formed the eastern and most powerful branch of this confederacy. " The dominion
of the confederacy extended for a long period of time ever that portion of Ohio which lies west of
the Scioto River and over the whole of Indiana, over the southern part of Michigan and over the
principal part of the State of Illinois, lying southeast of Fox River and the River Illinois. The tribe
have no tradition of their migration from any other part of the country, and the great extent of the
territory which was claimed by them may be re• garded as some evidence of the high degree of
national importance which they formerly maintained among the Indian tribes of North America."
The Miami tribe were of Algonquin lineage and spoke much the same language or dialect as the
Delawares, the Shawnees and Wyandots. In stature for the most part, the Miamis were of
medium height, well built, heads rather round than oblong, countenances agreeable, rather than
sedate or morose, swift on foot and excessively fond of raeing, both on foot and horse. Some of
them were quite tall and yet retained fine forms, They were noted for their clean ly habits and
neatness of dress.
The Miamis unlike most other tribes, were much whiter or fairer in color. This peculiarity
attracted the attention of the French and other foreigners. Their color partly arose from
inter-marriage with the French who frequently sought such alliances, and became quite
influential with the tribe. The squaws cultivated the corn and other vegetables and performed
most of the field labor. The warriors were regarded as hunters, and provided most of the game
upon which the tribe subsisted. They went to war and were regarded as being above drudgery and
toil. The men were proud and haughty, though generally evincing strong attachments for their
squaws and children. The tribe for a long period lived along the banks of the Wabash, the St.
Joseph and the Maumee, formerly called by the tribe the " Omee." Here the Miami lived
doubtless centuries before the first civilized settlement in America had begun; his squaws
cultivated the maize and performed the common hard ships of life, while the red man hunted the
buffalo, the elk and other wild game; and speared the fish in the beautiful Maumee or Bean
Creek, as they basked in the sunshine, or devoted himself to plays and games, or went forth to
secure the trophies and honors of war, from his camp fires, upon the banks of the Maumee or the
grand Glaize.
Ever eager to advance the interests of their respective Governments, the French and English were
always antagonists in their missionary enterprises. The French from Canada were industrious in
their efforts to propagate the Catholic faith among the Western tribes. In 1672, the Indians
residing along the Maumee and the southern shore of Lake Michigan were visited by the
missionaries, Allouez and Dablon, who opened a mission among the Miamis. There followed,
between 1672 and 1712, the following: Rebourde, Membre, Hennepin, Marquette, Pinet,
Benneteau, Bosles, Periet, Berger, Meoniet, Marest, Gravier, DeVille and Charden, who endured
many privations and dangers to propagate their religion among the various tribes.
Hennepin pushed the mission in 1680 to the Illinois tribes, and, though peacefully heard,
complains that the mission accomplished but little. The Indians could not comprehend the
mysteries of the Christian religion, but silently heard his story and suffered their children to be
baptized. When asked why they remained silent, they informed him that "their habit was always
to hear the speaker tell his story in a courteous manner without contradiction and at the same
time judging of its truth or falsity ;" while white men declare the religion of the red man to be
false! This they thought very rude and unjustifiable. They never disturb a man because of his
religious belief. The result was that his mission produced no lasting impression.
About this time the Five Nations of New York became involved in a war with the Colonists of
Canada, which continued until the treaty of Ryswick in 1697, which retarded the ambition of the
French in planting colonies in the Northwest and the valley of the Mississippi. Between 1680 and
1700, several efforts were made by French missionaries to establish missions along the southern
shores of Lake Michigan for the purpose of converting the Indians of Illinois, These missions
were composed of a few Frenchmen under the lead of the celebrated La Salle, the mis-
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 31
sionary and explorer, and attracted the attention of many adventurers to the Illinois country, and
about the year 1700 a small number of them settled on the banks of Kaskaskia River and became
the founders of a village of that name.
La Salle pushed his discoveries in the new country until the Mississippi, the great river of North
America, was discovered and traced to its mouth, by this ambitious explorer and his followers in
1682. The Government ef France immediately took measures to plant a line ef forts connecting
their Canadian possessions with the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. By the efforts of La Salle, a
small fort was built on the lake shore, forming a missionary station and trading post on the
borders of the River St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. Hennepin, in his notes, states that the fort was
situated at the mouth of the St. Joseph on an eminence, with a kind of a platform naturally
fortified. It was pretty high and steep, of a triangular form, defended on two sides by the river and
on the ether by a deep ditch, which the fall of the waters had made. We felled the trees that were
on the top of the hill; and having cleared the same from bushes for about two musket shot we
began to build a redoubt of eighty feet long arid forty feet broad, with great square pieces of
timber laid one upon another, and prepared a great number of stakes of about twenty-five feet
long to drive into the ground, to make eur fort the mere inaccessible on the river side. We
empleyed the whole month of November, 1679, about that work, which was very hard, though
we had no other food but the bears' flesh our savage killed. These beasts are very common in this
place, because of the great quantity of grapes they find there; but their flesh being too fat and
luscious, our men began to be weary of it, and desired leave to go hunting to kill some wild goats
(deer). Mr. La Salle denied them that liberty, which caused some murmurs among them; and it
was but unwillingly that they continued their work. "We made a cabin wherein we performed
divine service every Sunday; and Father Gabriel and I, who preached alternately, took care te
take such texts as were suitable to our present circumstances and fit to inspire us with courage,
concord and brotherly love." This fort, when - completed, was named "Fort Miami," and was
within the dominion of the Miami nation. This was the sixth fort erected by the French, and
guarded the routes to the great father of waters, via the Wisconsin and Illinois Rivers. Another
fort was built near the confluence of the St. Jeseph and St. Mary's Rivers, near the present site of
Ft. Wayne, where settlements ef French traders began to collect at an early period, which
extended to Vincennes and other points, Time wore on. The church of Rome was
the church of the Frenchmen of the day; and his God was not the God of the Englishman. The
contest was for surpemacy, and destined to be a bitter one; the vantage-ground seemed to be on
the side of the French; but 1749 came, and the English began to make inroads on the French
dominion as traders; this year La Jonquiere, then Governor of Canada, found English traders at
Sandusky exerting an influence against French traders among the Wyandots, and encouraged by
the Iroquois of New York, who had been unwittingly insulted by Champlain in 1609 by uniting
with a party of Algonquin Indians. The English sided with the Iroquois and encouraged their
animosities against the French settlements. This feeling among the New York tribes continued
until the fall of French power in Canada in 1760.
Ke-ki-ong-gay was the great capital of the Miamis, and from the importance exerted by the tribe
was regarded the "great gate" of the tribe through which all great enterprises must pass before
they were given the consent of the confederacy. It stood where the city of Ft. Wayne now stands,
and at the junction of St. Joseph and St. Mary's, near the head of the Maumee up which the
French missionaries and Miami warriors anciently passed in their bark canoes and pirogues.
From 1774 (Dunmore's war) to 1794, the victory of Wayne on the Maumee, the Miamis along the
upper waters of the Scioto, the Mad and Little Miami Rivers in Ohio, and the Wabash River and
the Miami village in Indiana, the Miamis, Shawnees, Wyandots, Delawares and other tribes gave
the border settlers of Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania much annoyance by their hostile raids
along the Ohio River. The treaty of Ft. Harmar was expected to quiet their hostility, but failed to
pacify the Miamis, Shawnees, and others who were still anxious to reserve all the territory
northwest of the Ohio, and still visited the settlers of the borders and committed many murders
and thefts. During this time, the hero Gen. George Rodgers Clark led an expedition into the
territory of Southern Ohio and Indiana, to humble the pride and cruelty of the Miamis and other
tribes. The Indians were still treacherous and cruel. Simon Kenton visited the Shawnees with his
Kentuckians to punish their horse-stealing, and was taken prisoner. The Indians continued
hostile, contending for the whole of Ohio. Boats were frequently taken on the Ohio and the crews
murdered and scalped by the Indians, In self-defense, it finally became necessary to send an
expedition against them, commanded by Gen. Harman This led to the war of 1791 to 1795, when
the Miamis and other tribes were completely humbled by the great campaign of Gen. Wayne.
" Tracing the history of the Miami Indians from
32 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
the present time backward through a period of 150 years, we must pass painfully over a long and
mourn, ful picture of ignorance, superstition, injustice, war, barbarity and the most debasing
intemperance," says Dillon "they fell into decay from habits of indolence, idleness, drunkenness
and barbarism. Intemperance is the bane of the red man, and under its influence the American
Indians are rapidly disappearing. At the present, time a few small, mixed and miserable bands
constitute the remnant of the once powerful Miami nation. Their misfortunes and vices which
they learned from the white race still cling to them, with unabated power to degrade and destroy.
Thus, with the light of civilization beaming around them, the last fragments of one of the most
powerful aboriginal nations in North America are rapidly passing away frem the earth forever.
There are but a few remnants of this people in Indiana, the rest having long since been transferred
to reservations west of the Mississippi.
The Miamis were less cruel in war than the New York tribes, but had many customs that were
revolting in their nature. Gen. Cass, in a speech delivered at Ft. Wayne July 4, 1843, at the
celebration of the opening of the canal, said: "For many years during the frontier history of this
place and region, the line of your canal was a bloody war-path, which has seen many a deed of
horror, and this peaceful town has had its Moloch, and the records of human depravity furnish no
more terrible examples of cruelty than were offered at its shrine. The Miami Indians, our
predecessors, in the occupation of this district, had a terrible institution whose origin and object
have been lost in the darkness of aboriginal history, but which was continued to a late period, and
whose orgies were held upon the very spot where we now are. It was called the man-eating
society, and it was the duty of its associates to eat such prisoners as were preserved and delivered
to them for that purpose. The members of this society belonged to a particular family and the
dreadful inheritance descended to all the children, male and female. The duties it imposed could
not be avoided, and the sanctions of religion were added to the obligations of immemorial usage.
The feast was a solemn ceremony, at which the whole tribe was collected as actors or spectators.
The miserable victim was bound to a stake and burned at a slow fire, with all the refinements of
cruelty which savage ingenuity could invent. There was a traditionary ritual which regulated with
revolting precision the whole course of procedure at those ceremonies. Latterly, the authority and
obligations of the institution has declined and I presume it has now wholly disappeared. But I
have seen and conversed with the head of the family, the chief of the society, whose name was
White Skin—with what feeling of disgust I need not attempt to describe. I well knew an
intelligent Canadian who was present at one of the last sacrifices made at this horrible institution.
The victim was a young American captured in Kentucky toward the close of our Revolutionary
war. Here where we now are assembled, in peace and security, celebrating the triumph of art and
industry, within the memory of their present generation, our countrymen have been thus tortured,
and murdered and deveured. But, thank God, that council fire is extinguished. The impious feast
is over; the war- danee is ended; the war-song is sung; the war-drum is silent, and the Indian has
departed to find, I hope, in the distant West, a comfortable residence, and I hope also to find,
under the protection, and, if need be, under the power of the United States, a radical change in
the institutions and general improvement in his morals and condition. A feeble remnant of the
once powerful tribe, which formerly won their way to the dominion of this region,by blood, and
by blood maintained it, have to-day appeared among us like passing shadows, flitting round the
places that know them no more. Their resurrection, if I may so speak, is not the least impressive
spectacle, which marks the progress of this imposing ceremony. They are the broken columns
which connect us with the past. The edifice is all in ruins, and the giant vegetation which covered
and protected it lies as low as the once mighty structure, which was shelved in its recesses. They
have come to witness the first great act of peace in our frontier history, as their presence here is
the last in their own. The ceremonies upon which you heretofore gazed with interest, will never
again be seen by the white man, in the seat of their former power. But thanks to our ascendancy,
these representations are but a pageant; but a theatrical exhibition, which, with barbarous
motions and sounds and contortions, show how their ancestors conquered their enemies, and how
they glutted their revenge in blood. To-day, this last of the race is here; to-morrow they will
journey toward the setting sun, where their fathers, agreeable to their rude faith, have preceded
them, and where the red man will find rest and safety."
The tribe seems to have continued these barbarisms almost to the last. Like the Shawnees and
Delawares, they burned prisoners and captives.
LITTLE TURTLE.
This chief was of mixed origin—half Mohican and half Miami, and son of a chief; born at his
village on Eel River, about 1747, he very early became the war chief of the Miamis. In stature he
was a short, well built, with symmetrical form, prominent
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 33
forehead, heavy eye-brows, keen, black eyes and a large chin. His Indian name was
Me-che-kan-nah-quah, and he was noted for his bravery and wisdom in the councils of the tribe
with whom he was allied. In leading his army of braves to sure victory, one hour, it is said, he
was cutting and slashing with his tomahawk with the ferocity of a tiger, and the next hour was
calm and passive as a child. At the treaty of Greenville, he proved himself to be a full match for
Wayne in the councils of the tribes, for shrewdness and far-reaching diplomacy. After the treaty
he returned to his people and gave his adherence to the United States, which he freely supported
as long as he lived. He, with his tribe, resisted the invasion of Harmar in 1790-91, and met Gen.
St. Clair with all his savage confederates, which resulted in the defeat of St. Clair's army at what
was afterward Ft. Recovery. Upon the approach of the army of Wayne, he again prepared to meet
that heroic commander at the battle of Fallen Timbers, in 1794. But the Shawnee chief, Blue
Jacket, was made the commander of the Indian forces and led that army. The result of that battle
is well known. It was fought against the advice of Little Turtle, and resulted in disaster to the
Indians. In all those battles, the Little Turtle proved himself a brave and discreet chief. In the war
of 1812, though urged by Tecumseh, he refused to take sides with that wily leader of the
Shawnees. He was content with the treaty of Greenville and remained near Ft. Wayne. He died
on the 14th of July, 1812, at his lodge at the old orchard, a short distance north of the confluence
of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph Rivers, in the yard fronting the house of his brother-in-law, Capt.
William Wells
The chief had long suffered with the gout, and had come there from his place of residence, at his
village on Eel River, about twenty miles from Ft. Wayne. to be treated by the United States
Surgeon at the fort. It was a solemn and interesting occasion. After the treaty of Greenville, he
had remained the true friend of the Americans and the United States Government, and was much
respeeted by all who knew him. He was borne to the grave with the highest honors, by his great
enemy, the white man. The muffled drum, the solemn march, the funeral salute, announced that a
great soldier had fallen, and even enemies paid tribute to his memory. His remains were interred
about the center of the old orchard, with all his adornments, implements of war, and a sword
presented to him by Gen. Washington, to- gether with a medal of the likeness of Washington
thereon— all laid by his side and hidden beneath the sod in one common grave. This remarkable
chief possessed a great mind. For many years he was the leading chief among the Miami tribe,
surpassed for bravery and intelligence by none of his race. He is said to have possessed a very
inquiring mind and never lost an opportunity to gain some valuable information.
CHAPTER V.
THE HISTORY OF THE SHAWNEES. BY DR. GEORGE W. HILL, OF
ASHLAND, OHIO.
IN an address delivered before the New York Historical Society, December 6, 1811, by Gov. De
Witt Clinton, on the origin and history of the Iroquois Nation, he says: " There is a strong
propensity in the human mind to trace up our ancestry to as high and as remote a source. as
possible, and if our pride and our ambition cannot be gratified by a real statement of facts, fable
is substituted for truth, and the imagination is taxed to supply the deficiency. This principle of
our nature, although liable to great perversion, and frequently the source of well-founded
ridicule, may, if rightly directed, become the parent of great actions. The origin and progress of
individuals, of families and of nations, constitute biography and history—two of the most
interesting departments of human knowledge. Allied to this principle, springing from the same
causes, and producing the same benign effects, is that curiosity we feel in tracing the history of
the nations which have occupied the same territory before us, although not connected with us in
any other respect. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible if it were
endeavored, and it would be foolish if it were possible. The places where great events have been
performed, where great virtues have been exhibited, where great crimes have been perpetrated,
will always excite kindred emotions of admiration or horror. And if that man is little to be envied
whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plains of Mara thon, or whose piety would not
grow warmer among the ruins of Iona, we may with equal confidence assert that morbid must be
his sensibility and small must be his capacity for improvement who does not advance in wisdom
and in virtue from contemplating
34 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
the state and the history of the people who occupied this country before the man of Europe."
It will be interesting to all ethnologists, and those engaged in the study of archaeology, to take a
general geographical and historical view of the Shawnee Nation, which formerly owned and
inhabited the valleys of the Ottawa and Auglaize, before they came into the possession of the
present inhabitants of Allen County by treaty and sale. We enter upon this task the more
cheerfully from the conviction that no part of Ohio contained a braver race, or one which
furnished a more interesting and instructive history. The Shawnees have. since their intercourse
with the white man, been conspicuous for the possession of many remarkable chiefs and leaders
of great military talent—men distinguished in war and in treaties for their shrewdness and
far-seeing diplomacy.
Originally, the nation was called Chaouanons by the French, and Shawanoes by the English, The
English name Shawano changed to Shawanee, and recently to Shawnee, Chaouanon and
Shawano are obviously attempts to represent the same sound by the orthography of the two
languages, the French `eh' being the equivalent of the English `sh.' The Shawnee nation originally
migrated from the north, perhaps Canada, and used largely the dialect of the Wyandots or ancient
Hurons. Their eccentric wanderings, their sudden appearances and disappearances, says a noted
writer on Indian history, perplex the antiquary and defy research. In all history the Shawnees
were noted for their restless disposition, frequently changing their residence and migrating
hundreds of miles.
The Shawnees, by permission of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, emigrated from the South,
perhaps the coast of Florida, some time prior to 1682, and located on the West Branch of the
Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania. The Five Nations regarded them as inferiors, and did not permit
them any representation in the great Northern confederacy, .but simply designated them as
brothers and relations. We find, however, that when William Penn landed at Coaquannuck, the
present site of Philadelphia, in 1682, and entered into a mutual understanding with the Iroquois,
the Delawares and other Indian tribes inhabiting Pennsylvania, concerning the purchase of lands
and a league of peace, the Shawnees were sufficiently numerous and powerful to be present at the
consultation.
In June, 1682, a conference for ratifying the treaty appears to have been held under a large elm
tree at Shackamaxen, near the Delaware River. The chiefs of the Five Nations, the Delawares, the
Shawnees, the Mingoes and the Gan-aw-eese, from the Potomac River, were present, and
received compensation for lands, and the right to occupy the country by the colony of Penn, in
cloth, blankets, strouds and other valuables.
The Shawnees were of Algonquin descent, and spoke much the same dialect as the Iroquois, and
it is tolerably certain that they were of Northern or Canadian origin. If it be true, as suspected by
some, that they were a remnant of the ancient Eries, or Andastes, who fell under the fury of the
relentless Iroquois in 1655, who fled their country and became widely scattered in North and
Sonth Carolina, Florida and the wilds of Kentucky, the fact of their return to the upper waters of
the Susquehanna, some thirty or forty years after the conquest of their country south of Lake Erie,
seems easy of explanation, Certain it is, that at the conquest of the Eries by the Five Nations,
great numbers of the fallen tribe were killed on the various fields of battle, while large numbers
were captured and carried home to grace the triumph of the Iroquois, and, to carry out their
savage customs, burned to the stake. Tradition also declares that great numbers of the Eries were
incorporated into the body of the Iroquois nation, and thenceforward regarded as a part of that
people; while, desiring to escape Iroquois vengeance, great numbers of the fallen Eries fled to the
far South, and obtained a home among the Creeks and the tribes in Georgia and Florida.
From the date of their contact with Europeans, the Shawnees were regarded as the most restless
of all the Indian tribes. Like the Mohawks, they were cruel to their enemies, fierce in war, and
rarely forgot or forgave an insult or injury.
The Algonquin family, at one time, appears to have possessed all the territory from Cape Canso
and the Bay of Gaspe. to the branches of Mississippi, from the Cumberland River to Cape Fear,
and probably from the Savannah to the land of the Esquimaux in the far North.
As early as 1682, the integrity of the Shawnees was so far admitted by the Iroquois and other
tribes in attendance upon the treaty of William Penn that a copy, in parchment, of the treaty, was
deposited with them for safe keeping, and more than forty years afterward was produced at
another conference by the chiefs of the Shawnees.
After the conference of 1682, large bands of the Shawnees removed to Winchester, Va., and from
thence to the Cumberland River, in Kentucky, and thence to the head-waters of the Congaree, in
South Carolina, thence to the head-waters of the Mobile, adjoining the Creeks, and thence to the
Wabash River, in Indiana, where La Salle found them in 1684, and was joined by thirty of their
warriors in his expedition to discover the mouth of the Mississippi, after which we hear no more
of these restless warriors.
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 35
As early as 1698, over seven hundred warriors or fighting men of the Shawnees had returned and
located upon the head-waters of the Susquehanna, by permission of the Five Nations, then
occupying Nerthern New York and Pennsylvania.
For a period of nearly forty years, say from 1698 te 1745, we nearly lose sight of this wandering
and restless people. Between that time and 1755, large bands ef the Shawnees settled on the
Allegheny River, near the present site of Pittsburgh, the former home of the fallen Andastes and
afterward removed to Cape Girardeau, between the Whitewater and the Mississippi. In 1755, the
Shawnees aided the French in repelling the expedition of Gen. Braddock.
In 1701, forty-four years before the English invasion of Fort Du Quesne, Wapatha, a great chief
of the Shawnees, held a conference with William Penn at Philadelphia, in which it was agreed
that a good understanding between the said Penn and the several Indian nations there assembled,
should be forever maintained, and thenceforward they should be as one head and one heart, and
live in peace, friendship and unity as one people.
In 1715, Opes-sah, a great chief of the Shawnees, attended another council, held at Philadelphia,
at which the pipe of peace was smoked. We are not informed of the location of the Shawnees
represented by him, but are told he came a great distance, possibly from the Cumberland River,
or the wilds of the Scioto or the Little Miami, in Ohio.
We are unable to fix the exact date of the arrival and settlement of the Shawnees in Southern
Ohio; but from certain statements of the Wyandots, who gave them permission to occupy that
territory, their settlement must have occurred about 1750.
The first treaty between the United States and the Shawnees, as a separate people, was held at the
mouth of the great Miami, January 31, 1786. In that treaty the limits of their lands and future
hunting-grounds are defined, while they relinquish all title or pretence of title in their lands, to
the United States. The Wyandots protested against this treaty, contending that the lands ceded by
the Shawnees to the United States belonged to them, and that the restless disposition of the
Shawnees caused so much trouble, both to them and the 'United States, that they felt it to be their
duty to dispossess them entirely.
It will be remembered that, from 1755, the Shawnees were jealous of the encroachment., of the
colonists ef Pennsylvania and Virginia, and met the pieneer settlements with gleaming
tomahawks and scalping knives. This hatred of the English was imbibed from the French, who
had been expelled from the head-waters of the Ohio, and who, under the English, kept traders
and spies among the Ohio tribes as late as the close of the Revolutionary war.
The depredations of the Shawnees upon the settlements in Virginia caused Gov. Dunmore, in
1774, to send an army for the invasion of the Indian tribes on the Scioto and Little Miami, in
Ohio. In September, 1774, a great battle was fought at the junction of the Great Kanawha with
the Ohio, in which the Shawnees and their allies were defeated, and compelled to beat a hasty
retreat across the Ohio River. The Shawnees were led by Cornstalk, a great chief,. assisted by the
celebrated ehief and warrior, Black-hoof, equally distinguished for his bravery, oratory,
shrewdness and generosity,
In the fall of 1774, Gov. Dunmore held a treaty, being the last English Governor of Virginia, with
the Shawnees and their allies, not far from the present site of Circleville, Ohio, in which
Cornstalk, Black-hoof. Logan, the Grenadier Squaw and other noted Indians participated. Peace
was proclaimed, but was of short duration.
The arrival of Boone, the McAffees, the Harrods, the Hendersons, the Bullets, Hancocks, Floyds
and others in Kentucky, from 1773 to 1776, again inflamed the jealousy of the Shawnees, and
repeated raids were made against the new settlers to exterminate them. British agents fomented
the discontent of the Ohio Indians, and in some instances planned and headed their expeditions
against the white settlements. In 1777, the Shawnees became somewhat divided on the policy of
continuing the war against the revolted colonies, then seeking independence from the mother
country. Cornstalk, celebrated as a chief and leader, headed the anti-war party, and visited an
American block-house, at the mouth of the great Kanawha, to warn the Virginians of the
approaching storm and, if possible, avert the calamity of border invasion. He was accompanied
by another chief, called Red Hawk. These messengers of peace were immediately seized and
confined in the block-house, "as hostages, to prevent the expected depredations of the Shawnees.
While thus confined, his son, Ellimpsico, who had also fought in the great battle at Point Pleasant
in 1774, came to the fort to learn the fate of Cornstalk, his father. He had become uneasy at his
long absence, and, prompted by filial affection, had come to seek him out in his exile. While in
the fort, a few soldiers, who had crossed the Kanawha to hunt, were attacked by strange Indians,
and a soldier by the name of Gilmore was killed. The result was, that a party of soldiers, in
revenge for the death of Gilmore, proceeded to the blockhouse and shot Cornstalk, Red Hawk
and Ellimpsico! This act-barbar-
36 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
ous and unjustifiable—terminated all uncertainty, and precipitated the Shawnees upon the
borders of Virginia and Kentucky. and was the occasion of repeated invasions from 1777 to the
peace of 1795. under Gen. Wayne at Greenville.
The residence of the Shawnees extended along th Scioto at various points. from its junction to its
headwaters. There was a large band at the present site of Chillicothe, Circleville and Columbus.
The band had villages near what is now London, Madison County, in Logan County, along Darby
and Mad River, the Miami and other points, and finally at the Mackichac towns. The assaults
upon emigrant beats along the Ohio soon rendered it dangerous for emigrants to Kentucky and
elsewhere. Frequent expeditions into the Kentucky settlements, to take prisoners and steal horses,
became so annoying, that Kenton and Logan and Clark, in self-defense, were compelled to head
large forces to invade the Indian country, and finally the Indian war became so well contested
that the United States supported quite a little army at North Bend, the future residence of Gen.
W. H. Harrison, under Gen. Harman. The presence of these forces was soon discovered by the
Shawnees. As seon as the news reached the Indians, they began to move toward the scene of
action, which it was supposed would be somewhere on the Miami or Maumee. Another village
was established where Cincinnati now is, named Losantiville, which became the residence of
Gov. St. Clair and his executive council. A fort, named after the father of his country,
Washington, was erected in the new village, and the soldiers transferred from North Bend to it.
By this demonstration the Shawnees, the Miamis, the Wyandots, the Delawares and other tribes
were the more incensed, being already very jealous at the encroachments upon their hunting-
grounds upon the north side of the Ohio.
The conduct of Gov. St. Clair upon this occasion was rather anomalous. Under his construction
of the treaty of Muskingum, he decided, if upon any occasion it became necessary for Virginia or
Kentucky to repel the attack of an enemy within the limits of the territory of Ohio, it would be
necessary to first obtain the consent of its Territorial authorities, who proposed to act under the
treaty of amity (that of the Muskingum) with the United States. This was tantamount to
surrendering the Western country to the Indians, for no effective expedition could be carried over
the Ohio River. The result was, the people of Kentucky were greatly harassed by the Ohio
Indians, who were constantly sending over bands to steal horses, capture negroes and take white
scalps and prisoners, without the means of redress! The continuance of these aggressions at
length aroused the people of Kentucky, and, relying upon their own energies, they resolved to
pursue their wily and fugitive enemy across the river into the river into their own forests and
towns.
In April, 1790, Gen. Scott, with 230 volunteers, Tossed the Ohio at Limestone, now Maysville,
and was joined by Gen. Josiah Harmar and 100 regulars of the United States. They invaded the
Scioto villages, but found them deserted. In the fall of 1790, Gov. St. Clair became convinced
that more energetic measures were necessary. An attempt had been made to treat with the
Indians, but had failed. The Gov. ernment then took more effective measures to make the Indians
feel the force of arms. Gen Harmar had been appointed, under the old Congress, as Brigadier, and
was now placed at the head of the United States troops, who amounted to 320 men. These were
joined by about 1,200 Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia militia, and in September
rendezvoused at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, with a view of attacking the Miami towns,
often called Omee by the French.
After about seventeen days' march, the army reached the great Miami village, which they found
set on fire by the Indians. The enemy, Parthian like, kept out of the way of the unwieldy
movements of the main army, until an opportunity for effective fighting presented, when they
made a stand. The Indians were concealed in thickets on each side of a large plain near the
confluence of the St Mary's and St. Joseph Rivers, and ambushed their pursuers, About 700
Indians were engaged, which put the militia to a disgraceful flight without firing a single shot!
The noted Miami leader and chief, Little Turtle, commanded the Indians. The regulars made a
stand, but were mercilessly shot down until nearly all the officers and men were killed. After a
few ineffective attempts to rally and renew the fight, we are informed that, after a few attempted
surprises by the officers who accompanied Harmar, he returned, by easy marches, with all his
artillery and baggage to Fort Washington by the 4th of December, 1790.
Thus the Miamis and Shawnees, with their allies, were successful in repelling the invasion of
Harman. The soldiers left on the field wounded or dead, were scalped and barbarously mangled
by the Indians. This triumph increased their courage and audacity. They boasted of their ability to
repel the whites, and became more relentless in their cruelties to prisoners captured on the Ohio
River. They were much affected by the destruction of their villages, and the loss of a large
number of their braves in skirmishes with Harmar's troops, all of which increased their ferocity
toward the whites. The retreat of Harmar was construed into a victory on the part of the Indians,
and did not in the least humble their leading
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 37
chiefs. The Shawnees were commanded by Blue Jacket and Blackhoof, noted for their courage
and cunning. The Delawares were led by Bockongahelas and Captain Pipe, relentless in their hate
toward the pale faces, the latter of whom had caused the execution, by burning, of Col. William
Crawford, on the Tymochtee, eight years prior to this battle.
The fierceness of the Shawnees remained unsubdued, but, if anything, more revengeful. The
result was, that Gen. Harmar had to submit to a court martial, which gave him an honorable
acquittal, when he resigned. Gov. St. Clair was appointed to succeed Gen. Harmar in command
of the army. He had been a General in the Revolutionary army, and had a good deal of experience
in the field. Large expectations were entertained concerning his ability to outwit and over-reach
the furious red men of the forests of Western Ohio. Gens. Scott, Wilkinson, Innis, Shelby, Hardin
and. Logan crossed the Ohio River and in vaded the Indian country. Gov. St. Clair at once began
to organize a new expedition, whieh rendezveused at Fort Washington. Many Revolutionary
officers of distinction accepted a command in the new army. The soldiers, however, were mostly
raw militia, and not noted for courage and .discipline.
During the summer of 1791, the forces were collecting at the fort, to march early in the fall, The
preparations to meet the wily savages of the Northwest were inadequate, and the troops were not
reliable, many being from the haunts of towns, corrupt and lazy, and unwilling to submit to the
hard discipline of regulars. No general officer from Kentucky would accept command, and the
General Government drafted 1,000 men, and Col. Oldham was given the command. By
September, St. Clair's army amounted to about two thousand regulars, a corps of artillery and
several squadrons of cavalry. The militia, in the aggregate, amounted to 3,000 men.
The expedition left Fort Washington about the first of October, by the way of Fort Hamilton, now
in Butler County, Ohio. The objective point was the Indian villages upon the Miami or Maumee
of the lake. While these preparations for invasion were being made by Gen. St. Clair, the Indian
chiefs were equally active. The Little Turtle of the Miamis, Blue Jacket and Blackhoof of the
Shawnees, Bockongahelas and Pipe of the Delawares, and Crane of the Wyandots were actively
engaged in an effort to organize a confederacy of tribes sufficiently powerful to drive the white
settlers from the territory lying on the northwestern side of the Ohio River, receiving aid from
Simon Girty, Alexander McGee and Matthew Elliott (the latter two sub-agents in the British
Indian departments), and from a number of British, French and American traders, who generally
resided among the Indians, and supplied them with arms, ammunition and clothing in exchange
for furs and peltries. Under these influences, a confederation of Miamis, Shawnees, Del awares,
Wyandots, Pottawatomies, Kickapoos and Ottawas was formed, and all the proper steps taken to
confront the invaders of their territory. The British agents were particularly active in fomenting
hate and revenge. The British Government had failed to evacuate the ports of Niagara; Detroit
and Michilimackinac, according to the definitive treaty of 1783, under the pretence that a part of
that treaty, relating to the collection and payment of debts contracted by Americans and due to
the King's subjects, had not been faithfully complied with by the Americans, to the detriment of
the former, and, therefore, British agents justified themselves in stimulating Indian hostilities!
These agents, also, enlisted the Mohawks of Northern New York, under their great chief, Joseph
Brandt, who passed over British territory to aid the Little Turtle and Blue Jacket in repelling the
forces of Gen. St. Clair.
The main body of St. Clair's army, under Gen. Butler, took up its line of march from Fort
Washington, and, moving northward some twenty-five miles, on the eastern bank of the Great
Miami, erected a post, which was called Fort Hamilton. On the 4th of October, the fort being
completed, the army began its further advance for the Miami village, having marched forty-two
miles, and the work was erected within six miles of the present site of Greenville, Ohio, whieh
was named Fort Jefferson. Here the army remained until the 24th of October. It, again set
forward, and, after marching nine days, many of the militia deserted, and their provisions became
short. Gen. .St. Clair was a gouty old officer, and sick much of the way. On the 3d of November,
the army reached the present site of the town of Recovery, Ohio, and encamped on the
head-waters of the Wabash. The weather was quite cold, and the snow covered the earth, The
Indians, by spies, kept. watch of the advance of St. Clair, and the confederated tribes, inspired
with great courage and determination, were already resorting to their usual strategy, to draw the
white army into an ambuscade. They sometimes advanced, under their great leaders, the Little
Turtle, Back-ong-a-he-las, Blue Jacket, Black- \ hoof, Pipe and Simon Girty, to within a short
distance of St. Clair's advance, and then fell back. .They had, under the Little Turtle, about 1,200
warriors.
Gen. St. Clair was now within fifteen miles of the Miami town. As a means of safety for the
knapsacks of the soldiers, he ordered that a light work should be thrown up, and then intended to
move on and attack the enemy in the morning. A short time before
38 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
day, the Indian whoop and wild yell startled the army of St. Clair, already under arms, and at
once the Indians began a furious attack upon the militia, which soon gave way, and, pell-mell,
rushed into the midst of the camp, through Maj. Butler's battalion, creating the wildest disorder
on every side, closely pursued by the Indians. The front ranks of St. Clairs’ army, by a
well-directed fire, checked the Indian advance. The artillery was brought to bear on the Indians,
but produced little effect. A bayonet charge was ordered, led on by Col. Darke, which drove the
Indians back some distance, but they soon returned, and compelled Darke to give way. In the
meantime, St. Clair's camp was attacked in flank and the troops began to huddle in the center.
Butler and Darke's battalions renewed the charge, but with great loss; many officers fell, Maj.
Butler himself being dangerously wounded, and afterward killed in his tent. The artillery was
now silenced by the Indian sharpshooters, and the army commenced a stampede to regain the
trail, and everything became precipitate. The panic assumed a terrible flight! The camp and
artillery were abandoned—not a horse was left to remove the cannon--the soldiers threw away
their arms as they ran, strewing the road for miles with them. The retreat began about 9.30
o'clock, and continued a distance of twenty-nine miles, to Fort Jefferson, where they arrived
about sunset, having lost 39 officers and 593 men, 22 officers and 242 men wounded, and a loss
of public stores amounting to $32,810. After the flight of the army, the Indians began to avenge
their wrongs by perpetrating the most horrible acts of cruelty and brutality upon the bodies of the
living and the dead who fell into their hands. Many of the Delawares, from the villages of
Mohican, Johnstown and Greentown, in what is now Ashland County, were in the fight, and it is
stated that the chief Armstrong, Captain Pipe, and the noted Tom Lyon, often related their
exploits on that bloody field. Pipe claimed to have tomahawked men until his arms were weary
with the bloody work! Believing that the whites desired all the lands, the Indians crammed clay
and sand into the eyes and down the throats of the dying and the dead!
The remnant of St. Clair's army returned, as rapidly as possible, to Fort Washington, the Indians
failing to give pursuit. They were, doubtless, too busily employed in plundering St. Clair's camp,
and in avenging their imaginary wrongs on the poor, unfortunate soldiers left on the field of
battle. All efforts against the Miami village were, for the time, brought to a close. The news of
the defeat fell heavy upon the country, especially Kentucky. Many of her bravest sons were left
dead upon the battle-field, and her borders would be again open to the ravages of the red man.
The Miami village, now Fort Wayne, was looked upon as the gate of the West, just as Fort Du
Quesne, in 1755, was to the English, in their contest with the French and Indians. The defeat of
St. Clair greatly depressed Gen. Washington, then President. He had hoped for speedy relief to
the sparse and greatly exposed settlements of the West, and relied largely upon Gen. St. Clair to
carry out his designs and those of the Government to a successful termination. He seems to have
had considerable confidence in St. Clair's capacity to carry out his wishes, though in his
commands during the Revolution he was not a successful officer, In his great depression,
Washington said to his private secretary, ""It's all over; St. Clair's defeated—routed! " And then
those present were " awed into breathless silence by the appalling tones in which the torrent of
invective was poured forth by Washington." But this depression and invective were of short
duration. The President resolved to send an army and a leader into the field to chastise, more
effectually, the redman of Ohio. The whole range of the frontier settlements on the Ohio was
exposed to the fury of the Indians, and the settlers were in danger of annihilation or expulsion,
and immediate action was necessary.
In the selection of a suitable commander, Gen. Anthony Wayne, a Revolutionary officer of
distinction, and a great favorite with the people, was pro posed as a proper man to take command
of the Western troops. He received the appointment, and at once commenced to organize an army
to penetrate the Indian country. A factious Congress delayed the equipment of the army nearly
two years. He did not advance until 1794, and, during the intermediate period, between the defeat
of St. Clair and the advance of Wayne, the Indians, apprehensive of a renewed effort for their
conquest, to some extent refrained from incursions on the border settlements, devoting all their
energies in the formation of a confederation of Indian tribes, to drive the whites over the Ohio
River.
In the meantime the Government was making strenuous efforts to establish peace and good will
among the hostile tribes, by sending messengers with speeches and propositions to treat. The
British were constantly inciting the Indians to acts of resentment. and most of the messengers
were captured as spies and murdered near the rapids of the Maumee; and propositions of peace
were spurned by the Indians. In these delays, Gen. Wayne tarried one winter at Legionville, on
the eastern border of Ohio. All hope of conciliation being abandoned, he descended the Ohio,
with his army, to " Hobson's Choice," near Fort Washington, and on the 6th of October, 1'793,
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 39
commenced to advance in the direction of Fort Jefferson, leaving a garrison at Fort Hamilton,
now Butler County, Ohio, under Maj. Jonathan Cass, father of the late Gen. Lewis Cass, of
Michigan, and, in about a month subsequently, established his headquarters at Fort Greenville,
which he built after his arrival. He ordered the erection of a fort on the site of St. Clair's defeat of
1791, which was called " Fort Recovery." He then made an ineffectual attempt to treat with the
Indians. The British interfered, and proposed to render the Indians sufficient aid to enable them
to expel and destroy the American settlers situated on the territery northwest of the Ohio.
The expedition of Gen.. Wayne remained in comparative quiet, at the different posts—Jefferson,
Greenville and Recovery--until the morning of the '30th of June, 1794, when Maj. McMahon,
commanding an escort of ninety riflemen and fifty dragoons, was fiercely assailed by a body of
some 1,500 Indians, under the walls of Fort Recovery, assisted, as was believed, by a number of
British agents and a few French Canadian volunteers. The Indians, for a period of about
twenty-four hours, continued the assault, and then retired. The garrison lost twenty-two in killed,
and thirty wounded and three missing. Two hundred and twenty-one horses were killed, wounded
or missing. The Indians carried away their dead and wounded.
Jonathan Alder, who was then adopted and living with the Shawnees, participated in a part of
these engagements, and gives a very full history of the movements of the red men. He says: " I
gathered up all my effects that I had not sold, and started for the Mack-a-chack towns. I soon
found that there would be a conflict between the whites and Indians. The Indians had been so
successful against St. Clair, that they were very sanguine of success. They talked as though it
would be an easy victory, but it turned out very different. Gen. Wayne was not to be caught in
any of the traps set for him. Little Turtle and one other chief were for making a treaty of peace,
but they were a long way in the minority, and consequently they were over-ruled. Preparations
now began in earnest for the conflict. The Indians never insisted on my taking up arms against
the whites, but left it for me to decide, and consequently I was never in a battle, except a short
time in the first conflict of the great campaign. They had flattered me that it was going to be a
very easy victory, and that Wayne was rich in everything that an Indian desired —horses,
blankets and clothing of all kinds, together with guns and ammunition in abundance. They told
me that if I did not wish to light I need not do so. I studied it over some time, and thought I might
as well have some of the good things he had as any one, and when the army got ready to move I
went along. Gen. Wayne had been gradually moving down upon us, but very slowly and
cautiously. There was not a night, after he got within one hundred miles of us, that an Indian spy
was not within his picket lines. They said, when he was on the march, he fortified every evening
so securely that it was next to impossible to get a horse out of his camp. Our runners and spies
reported every day; they said that at night Wayne would cut down great trees, and fence in a tract
of laud large enough to hold his entire army and baggage, and that these fences were built so
high, with these great trees and tops, that none could get at them, and but few could get out. But
when they got into Fort Recovery, which they thought a safe place, they relaxed some of the
caution used in traveling. Blue Jacket was chief and commander of the Shawnee ferces. He
moved upon Gen, Wayne's position, when he got within two or three miles of us, and the first
thing I heard of any battle was the whites calling out ' Indians! Indians!' We had come suddenly
upon about two hundred of Whine's Light Horse. The Indians, on horseback, made a rush for
them, and they, on foot, ran as fast as they could. The Indians pressed the whites so closely, that
over fifty jumped off their horses and got into the fort as fast as they could, leaving their horses
to run around outside. These horses were finely equipped, with saddles, bridles and a brace of
pistols. The fort was soon surrounded, and a regular fire kept up on both sides for an hour or so.
As soon as the fine horses were seen running around loose, I thought it was my chance to get one
already equipped, if I could only catch it. I got within two hundred yards of the fort, behind a
tree. The horses were running in every direction, very much frightened. Several times they passed
close to me, almost near enough for me to reach their bridles; but whenever I moved toward them
they would be off as fast as they could run. I saw Indians running, half bent, within fifty yards of
the fort, after the horses; then they would take a circle around and back. An Indian that stood
behind a tree close to me asked why I did not shoot, he loading and shooting as fast as he could. I
told him I saw nothing to shoot at. He said, ' Shoot at them holes in the front, and perhaps you
will kill a man ' I told him I did not want to shoot, and he replied that ' I had better get out of
there, then, for if I did not I would be killed. Did you see the bark fly above your head a few
minutes, ago?' said he. I replied that I did. ' Well,' said he, 'just fall back out of reach, if you will
not shoot, or you will get killed.' All at once, as he passed his head around the tree to shoot, I saw
him drop his gun and clap his band to his chin, and then stoop and
40 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
pick up the gun with his other hand, and start and run, half bent, back as far as I could see him.
They had shot him in the chin, and made a flesh wound. I stood where I was a short time, looking
about to see if any one was near me. Just then I heard what I supposed to be a cannon fire behind,
me, but, as I afterward learned, it was only a shell which burst. I now began to feel very badly
frightened, and supposed we were surrounded! While I was thinking what to do a eannon
(mortar) fired in the fort, and a shell burst right over my head. The horses fell all around me, and
then it was that I understood the cause of the report behind me. I started and ran back to the
crowd; they held a council and concluded to give it up, as they were unable to take the fort by
storm, but would try and take it by surprise. After night, we moved off down the river about a
mile, and encamped. In meandering about to find some of my companions, I found one of
Wayne's pack-horses. I haltered it, and concluded I had a horse, anyway. We built our fires and
laid down. There were about five hundred Indians at the time, all lying in a circle. About
midnight, I was awakened by the firing of guns. The firing was so rapid that I could not tell one
report from another. I arose and looked around, but could see but five or six Indians in the circle
where I had lain. They had all gone to try to take the fort by surprise, as they hoped. In about one
hour, the firing began slacking up a little, so that I could tell one gun from another, and in about
an hour more the Indians began to come in. The firing finally stopped altogether, and I listened to
their talk as they came in. 1 learned that they had accomplished nothing, but a good many had
been killed and a large number wounded.
" The next morning, the old chief (Blue Jacket) who was lying in the same circle with me, got up
early and called for our attention. He said that they were out last night to try to take the fort by
surprise, but were not successful, and that they had left one of the men of our circle lying close to
the fort unattended, and that he must be brought away.' He said It would be an everlasting shame
to the nation to let the man lie there and be murdered, as he surely would be, by the whites. As
they had abandoned the idea o: whipping Wayne in the fort, all we could do was to wait, and let
Wayne come out and make an attack on us on the open ground.' He then said that some one who
knew where our wounded brother lies would have to go, with others, and bring him off the field.'
Big Turtle said he would go, for one, as he knew exactly where the wounded man fell, so that
there would be no need of wasting time hunting for him. Who will be next?' said the chief.
No one spoke, and the chief looked right at me, and said 'Young man, you will go, for
another—and you— and you, for another,' said he, pointing to two more. He then said, None of
you were out last night, in the fight, so, men, go and bring your comrade away.' The brush and
small trees were cut off for two hundred yards around. As soon as we got inside of the fort, the
whites commenced firing at us. We ran along in single file, one behind the other, stopping at
every tree that was in our line large enough to shelter us. Here we would stop but a moment, and
then run again. The bullets were flying like hail around us all the time. We had stopped behind a
large tree near the open ground, when Big Turtle said, We were doing very wrong in stopping, as
it gave them time to re-load. 'Now,' said he, 'when we start again, I shall not stop until I have
gotten to the man; and, in order that there may be no confusion in taking hold of him, we will go
out in the same way we came in; that is, I will lead going out. The one that is before going in, and
the one behind going out, is in the most danger. We will arrange it in this manner, and thus
eseape some of the bullets.' When we started, there was a perfect shower of bullets flying around
us; but we ran for the man, dodging from side to side. In this manner we ran, and it seemed to
me, right up te the fort; for the man did not lay more than sixty yards from it. As soon as we
came to him, we took hold according to instructions, and in no very tender manner either, but just
seized him as best we could, and started to run, dodging about, just as we had come in. When we
picked him up his shirt was a little up, and I saw that he was shot in the bowels, and it had turned
green around the bullet-hole. I thought how foolish it was for four live men to risk their lives for
one dead one. But we had little time to think of such matters, for as we picked him up it appeared
to me as if the air was full of whistling balls, on either side and above us! How four men could
pass through such a storm and come out safe, has always been a mystery to me; and now, after
many years, I almost shudder to think of this terrible ordeal. Big Turtle was the only one touched
by a bullet; one had grazed him in the thigh, and there were four or five bullet- holes in his
hunting-shirt, which was swinging loosely about him. The wounded man groaned mournfully as
we ran with him, but we had no time to spare for his comfort. When we got to the woods the
firing ceased, and we laid the wounded man down, to rest ourselves, Thanks, devout and sincere,
went up to the Great Spirit for our safe deliverance from the great danger through which we had
passed. We carried the half-dead man to the Indian army, which was
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 41
already on the move. When we got back, a litter was prepared and the poor fellow hoisted on the
shoulders of four men.
" Before I started on this perilous trip, I lashed my blanket and kettle on my horse, and they had
let him stray off. There being no time to hunt him, I lost blanket, kettle and horse! We moved
dlown the river, and about noon the wounded man died. He was taken to a fallen tree, the leaves
were scratched away, and he was buried scarcely deep enough to cover his body. We then went
down to Fort Defiance, where we remained about two weeks, until we heard of the approach of
Gen, Wayne, for he was closely watched. We now picked up .everything and started for the old
English fort, near the Maumee Rapids. Here we prepared for battle, at the lower end of the long
prairie."
We think it due to the memory of Mr. Alder to state, that his account supplies many things that
have heretofore been omitted, in the affair at Fort Recovery and the strategy of the Shawnees. His
notes have never appeared in print, and the only copy in existence is in the possession of the
writer.
Maj. Gen. Scott, with some sixteen hundred mounted volunteers, having arrived at Fort
Greenville on the 26th of July 1794, and joined the regulars under Wayne, the army began its
march on the Indian towns along the Maumee. After the army had passed Fort Recovery, about
twenty-four miles to the north, Gen. Wayne caused to be built and garrisoned a small post, which
was called Fort Adams. From this point, the army moved toward the confluence of the Auglaize
and Maumee Rivers, where he arrived on the 8th of August. At this point a strong stockade work,
with bastions, was erected, and called Fort Defiance. His arrival at that point was unanticipated
by the Indians, who deserted their settlements, towns and villages with a good deal of
precipitation, thus giving evidence of apparent surprise. Wayne had made feints to the right and
left of his present position, striking the Auglaize some forty miles further up some days before,
and the chiefs were really deceived at the actual route he intended to advance, and had given
attention only to those points, while Wayne finally advanced by a central route, and thus gained
the grand emporium of the Indians without loss of blood. While at Defiance, he sent Christopher
Miller, a former Indian captive, with a speech, under a special flag, to the Indians, proposing to
treat, and thus spare the effusion of human blood. The speech was directed to the Delawares,
Shawnees, Miamis, Wyandots, and all other nations of Indians northwest of the Ohio. He
proposed that the Indians should appoint deputies, to assemble, without delay, at the junction of
the Auglaize and the foot of the rapids, to settle the preliminaries of a lasting peace. Miller's
answer proposed to Wayne a delay of ten days where he was, and then they would treat with him.
In the meantime, an old eaptive, by the name of Wells, withdrew from the Miamis by their
consent, and came into the camp of Wayne. This circumstance greatly mortified Little Turtle,
who deemed it ominous of the defeat of the confederated tribes. The slow movement of Wayne
toward the Miami village had caused many Indians to feel no little distrust as to their ability to
defeat the great chief of the Americans, who was creeping like a huge anaconda upon their
strongholds.
On the 15th of August, Gen. Wayne moved his forces toward the rapids, and came to a halt a few
miles above that point on the 18th, and the next day began the erection of a temporary garrison
for the reception of stores and baggage, the better to reconnoiter the enemy's ground, which lay
behind a thick, bushy woods, and the British fort which was at the foot of the rapids, called " Fort
Miami," and seven miles in advance of the new work, which he called " Fort Deposit." The
Miamis became more undecided as to the policy of attacking Wayne, notwithstanding the British
had promised aid. At the general council of the tribes, held on the 19th of August, Little Turtle
was earnest in his efforts to persuade the Indians to make peace with Wayne. He said, " We have
beaten the enemy twice, under separate commanders. We cannot expect the same good fortune
always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps. The night and the
day are alike to him. During all the time that he has been marching upon our villages,
notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him.
Think well of it. There is something whispers me it would be prudent to listen to his offers of
peace." One of the chiefs derided Little Turtle for his advice, and intimated that it originated
from cowardice. The council broke up, and the Turtle, at the head of his braves, took his stand to
meet and give battle to the invader, and the desires of Blue Jacket, head chief of the Shawnees,
were assented to by a majority of the chiefs of the various tribes. Wayne could not assent to a
further delay.
On the morning of the 20th of August, the army again advanced in columns, agreeably to .the
standing order of march; the legion on the right with flank covered by the Maumee; one brigade
of mounted volunteers on the left, under Brig. Gen. Todd, and the other in the rear, under Brig.
Gen. Barbee, A select battalion of mounted volunteers moved in front of the legion, commanded
by Maj. Price, who was directed to keep sufficiently advanced.
42 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
so as to give timely notice to the troops to form in case of action, it being yet undetermined
whether the Indians would decide for peace or war. In this manner the army of Wayne advanced
about five miles, when the corps of Maj. Price received a severe fire from the enemy, who were
secreted in the woods and high grass. The legion immediately formed in two lines, in the close,
thick woods, whieh extended for miles to the left and front, the ground being covered with fallen
timber, the result of a tornado which made it impassable to cavalry, and afforded a fine covert for
the Indian warrior. The Indians had formed in three lines, within supporting distance of each
other, and extending for nearly two miles at right angles with the river. The weight of the fire
soon revealed the extent of their lines, and showed that they were in full force in front and in
possession of their favorite ground, and endeavoring to turn the left flank of Wayne. Wayne's
second line advanced to support the first, and Maj. Gen, Scott was directed to gain and turn the
right flank of the Indian army, with the whole of the mounted volunteers, by a circuitous route.
At the same time, Wayne ordered the front line to advance and charge with trailed arms, rouse
the Indians from their coverts at the point of the bayonet, and, when up, to deliver a close and
well-directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load
again. At the same time, the legionary cavalry moved to the left flank of the Indians, next to the
river, and there was a general advance. All orders were obeyed with spirit and promptitude, and
the impetuosity of the charge by the first line was such, that the Indians, Canadian militia and
volunteers were driven from their concealment in so short a time, that the second line of the
legion of the mounted volunteers was unable to participate in the action, the enemy having been
routed and driven more than two miles through the woods by less than half their own number (?).
The Indians are supposed, by the officers of Wayne's army, to have numbered about two
thousand, while the troops engaged against them were short of nine hundred. The Indians, with
their allies, abandoned themselves to flight, and dispersed in terror and dismay, leaving the
gallant forces of Wayne in quiet possession of the field of battle, which extended to the British
fort. Wayne remained three days and nights on the banks of the Maumee, in front of the field of
battle, during which time all the houses and corn-fields of the enemy were consumed and
destroyed to a considerable distance above and below the British fort. Among the houses
destroyed was the store of Col. McKee, the British agent--the principal stimulator of the war
between the United States and Indians.
On the 27th, the army returned to Fort Defiance, laying waste, as it moved, villages and
corn-fields, for a distance of fifty miles along the Maumee. The fort was repaired and made
substantial, and the army remained there until the 14th of September, 1794, when the legion
began its march for the Miami village, where it arrived on the 17th, when the army rested in a
fortified camp until the country was reconnoitered and a proper site selected to build a garrison.
The work was completed by the 22d of October, and the garrison placed under the command of
Lieut. Col. Hamtramck, when a salute of fifteen rounds of cannon was fired and the garrison
named " Fort Wayne," the present site of the city of that name.
Gen. Wayne, with the main body of the regulars, took up his line of march for Fort Greenville,
where he arrived on the 2d of November. After the clese of the battle on the 20th of August, he
invited the Indians to "a friendly meeting, but they, for some time refrained from entertaining a
proposition to treat, in the hope that the British would render them assistance. Gen. Simcoe,
Alexander McKee, Simon Girty and other British officers, taking advantage of this uncertainty,
invited Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, Bock-ong-a-helas, Blackhoof and Tecumseh, then a young Sh
awnee warrior of great promise, to an Indian council to be held at the mouth of the Detroit River.
In the meantime, a treaty of amity, commerce and navigation was, through the efforts of John
Jay, the American Envoy, established between the United States and Great Britain. The news of
this treaty destroyed all hope of British aid for the Indians, and their chiefs began to assemble at
Greenville, with a view of arranging the preliminaries for a final treaty.
Before giving the result of the campaign, it will A interesting to hear what Mr. Alder says
concerning the great battle of " Fallen Timbers." He continues: " Our camping place was about
two miles below the prairie. The women and children were sent down about three miles below
the fort, and, as I did not wish to fight, I was sent to Upper Sandusky, to inform some warriors
there of the great battle that was about to be fought. I remained at Sandusky until the fight was
over. Although the camp was below the lower point of the prairie, the fighting ground was to be
just at the lower point of it, hoping to fight Wayne in the open ground, while the Indians would
be in the timber. The Indians estimated their number at 3,500 (?), but perhaps it was not so large.
It was, however, a large army, and much larger than the whites supposed. There were 400
friendly Indians from New York, under Brant, that the whites knew nothing of. They happened
not to get in the fight, and as soon as it was over they made their way
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 43
back to their homes, and it was kept a secret by all the various tribes.
Wayne came on down the river, and halted at the upper end of the prairie, expecting the Indians
would attack him; but in that he was mistaken. If an Indian expects to go into battle he eats
nothing that morning, for the reason, that if a man is shot in the bowels, the internals are not so
apt to be severed as if they are full; so, when Wayne made his appearance, the Indians were
ordered not to eat any breakfast, as they expected to fight that day. Accordingly, they were all on
the ground in good order and in good spirits, for they confidently expected another St. Clair
defeat. They stayed all day, but Wayne did net attack them. They fell back at night and ate their
suppers and lay on their arms all night, expecting a night attack, but all remained quiet. The next
morning they came out as before, eating no breakfast, and the result was the same—Wayne did
net attack. Again they fell back, and then called a council of the chiefs. They said that this thing
of eating ene meal a day would weaken the men, so that they would not be fit for action, and
there was no knowing how long Wayne would hold off; and if this thing continued eight or ten
days the men would be almost worthless. They thought that Wayne had learned from prisoners of
their peculiarity in this respect, and no doubt that it was strategy on his part not to fight until the
men were weakened. Hence, they concluded they would not be in such a hurry again, and so the
order was given for the men to eat as usual the next morning, before starting out. The next
morning they went to cooking and eating, and as soon as they were through they started for the
ground. Some were on the ground by daylight while others were in their beds. This was the third
morning that they had been on the ground, waiting for an attack. Just as the sun was rising,
Wayne's army came down the prairie, in the direction expected, but sooner than the Indians
anticipated, and they were not prepared for him. There was not, at this time, more than one-third
of the army on the ground. Some were cooking, some eating and some on their way to the
grounds. The firing began before Wayne got in reach, in order to hold his men in check until the
Indian forces could come up; but it had no effect. The old General just moved Tight on, as
though nothing was the matter. He had sent his light horse around to the right of the Indians, so
as to surround them. At the same time that he opened fire, the cavalry commenced blowing their
bugles in the rear, and cut off the balance of the Indians from reaching the ground. The Indians
who were on the way, and those who were eating when the firing commenced, started on the run
te join the army. Those who were on the way, when they came to the cavalry, finding that they
were cut off, ran back, hunting those who were behind, so that there were persons running both
ways in great confusion. Some broke through the lines of the cavalry, and of those that were
surrounded a great many broke for the timber, while others plunged into the river. Those of the
Indians who did not get shot or drowned in the river, made their escape. Such an awful rout was
scarcely ever seen. Some stood their ground, and were either killed or taken prisoners. The
slaughter was very great, and the Indians were so terror- stricken that they never attempted to
rally themselves. As all the principal chiefs were either killed or taken prisoners, the battle was
very short and decisive. The Indians fled down the river to the British fort, but, when they got
there, the soldiers stood, with bayonets charged, in the doorway and would not let them in.
Wayne followed the fugitives but a short distance, and then fell back. The British commander at
the fort told the Indians to push on, for if he let them in, Wayne would attack the fort and destroy
all of them. This conduct of the British commander did more to make peace between the Indians
and Americans than any one thing during the war: for, before the war, the Indians had been
promised aid and protection, and now, when they were in the worst possible condition, they had
thus been rudely pushed from the doors of the fort and refused shelter! It was an act they never
forgot; and, rather than apply again for British protection, they made application to their
victorious enemies, and obtained security upon a more solid foundation." This inhuman act of
Maj. Campbell was thrown into the teeth of Gen. Proctor by Tecumseh, in the war of 1812, just
before the battle of the Thames.
The statement of Mr. Alder overturns the whole theory of the battle. Wayne, and all those who
have attempted to give an account of that wonderful victory, go upon the presumption that he
was contending against the united forces of the confederated tribes, and that about one-half of his
men had actually met and routed the entire Indian army! If Mr. Alder be correct, the fact really
was, that a part of Wayne's forces met a fraction of the army, under the command of Little Turtle,
and took it by surprise, and, before the chief could be re-enforced, put the Indians into
inextricable confusion, and a great rout and flight necessarily followed.
About the 1st of June, 1795, Indian deputations from the different tribes began to assemble at
Greenville, with a view to the consummation of a treaty. Having failed to obtain assistance and
active co operation from the Brrtish Government, the Indians. became disheartened, and
gradually yielded to a prop-
44 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
osition to treat by Gen. Wayne. The chiefs and deputations assembled at Fort Greenville, and
entered into a council to form a treaty. The time oecupied extended from the 16th of June to the
10th of August, 1795. The point to be settled was a future line between the United States and the
Indians. The real cause of this bloody and cruel war was the treaty of Fort Harmar, better known
as the " Treaty of the Muskingum," held at Marietta, in January, 1789. It was alleged, by Little
Turtle and other chiefs, that said treaty was a fraud, and effected altogether by the Six Nations
(Iroquois of New York), who seduced some of their young men to attend it, together with a few
Chippeways. Wyandots, Ottawas, Delawares and Pottawatomies, and that most of the land ceded
belonged to the Miamis, which people were entirely ignorant of a treaty. The Delawares,
Wyandots and Shawnees, who were permitted to occupy Ohio hunting-grounds by the favor of
the Miamis, Little Turtle contended, had no right to dispose of his lands. Gen. Wayne insisted
upon the legality of the treaty of Muskingum, while the chiefs who opposed it insisted upon
making the Ohio River the boundary of the Indian country. At the end of a long debate, the line
was carried west, and extended in a direct course from Fort Recovery to the mouth of the
Kentucky River; and certain reservations, for forts, were made west of that line. The south line
began at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where it enters Lake Erie, and ran up to the portage
between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum. Crossing the portage, it followed
down the Tuscarawas to Fort Laurens, an important military station about half a mile below the
present town of Bolivar. From that point it ran directly west to Loramies Creek, a tributary of the
Great Miami. Thence it followed a line almost due west of Fort Recovery, which point was very
near the present eastern boundary of Indiana. It then ran in a southerly direction to the Ohio,
striking that stream near the mouth of the Kentueky River, as first stated.
The Indians finally accepted the terms dictated by their conquerors, and signed the treaty, which
was to be sacredly observed as " long as the woods grow and waters run." No former treaty,
perhaps, was attended by so many noted chiefs and orators. The Little Turtle, whose Indian name
was Me-che-cun-aqua, displayed unusual ability as a diplomat, a thinker and orator. Indeed, it
must be admitted that he was a full match for Gen. Wayne, who was an educated and
experienced officer. The Little Turtle possessed many of the characteristics of the great Pontiae.
His ability to organize and command was not inferior to any of the most distinguished chiefs of
his race. The defeats of Harmar and St. Clair were due to the shrewdness and military strategy of
this great chief; and a man of less caution and nerve than Gen. Wayne would have been defeated
and erushed. He desired to treat before the battle of " Fallen Timbers," and after that disaster, on
learning the best terms to be given by Wayne to the conquered, signed the treaty for his people,
and faithfully kept its terms to his decease, which occurred on the 14th of July, 1812, at the age
of sixty-five years.
Tarhe, or the Crane, a great Wyandot chief, took a leading part at the treaty, and was the orator
for his people. He signed the treaty, and became a friend to the United States. He served, with a
company of Wyandots, in the war of 1812, in the campaign of Gen. W. H. Harrison. He died at
Crane- town, near Upper Sandusky, in 1818.
The great Delaware chief Bock-ong-a-he-las, who fought against Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne,
was also at the treaty, and signed it. This great chief was present at the treaty of Fort McIntosh in
1785. He had been a leading chief in Eastern Ohio in 1781, and from thence, with other
Delawares, had located on the Miami and White Rivers in Indiana. His name is attached to many
treaties, down as late as 1817. He probably died on the Auglaize.
The great Shawnee chief Blue Jacket, Wey a-piersen-wa, was also present at the treaty, and made
several speeehes. He was more sanguinary and precipitate than Little Turtle, and possessed less
discrimination and judgment. His combative qualities were undoubted. He was among the last
chiefs who came to treat. By his example, the Shawnees were slow to accept terms. He
commanded about two thousand Shawnees and others at Wayne's great battle. He died, most
probably, at the Ottawa town, on Auglaize, prior to the treaty at the " Foot of the Rapids," in
1817.
Joseph Brandt, Thay-en-da-ne-ca, the great Mohawk chief, seems to have been present near the
battle field, with 400 Mohawks. Authorities have disputed the accuracy of this statement, which
was first made, we believe, by the Indian historian, Mr. Stone, but the statement of Mr. Alder
confirms that assertion, and we are persuaded of its accuracy. Brandt was the most brilliant and
courageous chief of the Mohawks, and has left a personal history unequaled for bravery,
eccentricity, cruelty and cunning.
The speakers from among the Shawnees were Blue Jacket, Red Pole, Puck-se-kaw, Black Wolf,
Lame Hawk, Blackhoof, Kec-a-hah, Kekia-pil-athy and Captain Johnny Among the Delawares,
Bock-onga-he-las and three others. Captain Pipe, who cruelly caused the torture and death of
Col. Crawford, on the Tymochtee, in 1782, is believed to have died just before the treaty, though
his death is a mystery. It is
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 45
contended that he lived as late as the war of 1812, on the Mohean.
The tribes at the treaty were the Miamis, Shawnees, Wyandots, Chippeways, Ottawas,
Pottawatomies, Weas, Eel Rivers and Kickapoes.
At the conclusion of the treaty, Gen, Wayne addressed the assembled chiefs and deputies as
follows: "As it is probable, my children, that we shall not meet again in public council, I take this
opportunity to bid you all an affectionate farewell, and wishing you a safe and happy return to
your respective homes and families." After which the Indians quietly dispersed.
After the treaty, in the years 1807, 1808, 1809 and 1810, the Shawnees began to fall back on their
reserves. Prior to the treaty of 1795, they were scattered pretty much all over Ohio, and along the
streams in Indiana. Up to that treaty, they had been induced to sell portions of their
hunting-grounds, in exchange for lands in the West and certain sums of money to be paid yearly.
When the chiefs and warriors attended such treaties, they were often made drunk and badly
cheated by the agents sent out by the Government. It was easily to be seen that the Indian title to
all their lands in Ohio would soon be extinguished. Their Ohio hunting-grounds were the
choicest upon the continent, and their leading chiefs found it necessary to take proper steps to
prevent the whites from getting all such lands.
Tecumseh and the Prophet, his twin brother, were opposed to parting with their hunting-grounds.
They had great influence among the Indians, and were both fine speakers, and could arouse the
feel ings of their hearers and influence their jealousies and passions as they desired, They held
meetings all over the West, speaking to large crowds, declaring that they were not for war (?), but
desired to unite the tribes into a kind of confederacy, to prevent the sale of their lands without a
majority of all the chiefs of the confederacy consented to their sale, as they declared the white
race was united State after State, and thus maintained their rights, while the Government, and the
Great Father at Washington, was chief over all.
Such arguments were .sensible and logical, and had a pewerful effect upon the Indians. These
meetings excited the fears of the white settlers, and the authorities of the State and United States
began to take notice of the matter.
About the year 1804, Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, commenced to agitate the question
of an Indian confederacy to prevent the purchase and eccupancy of their lands by the whites.
Tecumseh visited the various tribes, and endeavored to enlist them in the combination, while the
Prophet, who had, prior to this time, been a drunken profligate, proelaimed that he had been
commanded by the Great Spirit to inform his red children that all their misfortunes were the
result of abandoning their former mode of life, and that through him (the Prophet) they were now
commanded to return to their former habits, to leave off the use of whisky and clothe themselves
in skins instead of blankets. He fixed his headquarters at Greenville, and from that point his fame
spread among the tribes, and he was soon surrounded by the most abandoned young men of the
Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Pottawatomies, Ottawas, Chippewas and Kickapoos, The
leading chiefs of all these tribes, however, could not be induced to join his league, and the result
was that many of them were assassinated by the orders of the Prophet, as mischievous men and
witches, to get rid of their opposition and influence! Te-te-box-ke, a venerable Delaware chief,
and many of his friends, were mercilessly burned at the stake on the charge of being witches and
dangerous persons.
In September, 1809, a treaty was made at Fort Wayne, by which the title to a large tract of land
extending sixty miles up the Wabash above Vincennes, belonging to the Miamis, was
extinguished. This again aroused Tecumseh and the Prophet to renewed efforts to prevent any
more sales. Tecumseh had been at the treaty of Greenville as a warrior, in 1795, and, with Blue
Jacket, greatly regretted the loss of their lands, and while he was soliciting the Western and
Southern tribes to help stop " the mighty water " that was about to sweep away all their lands, the
Prophet was holding large meetings at Greenville and Tippecanoe. He was as cunning as he was
fanatical and revengeful.
About this time, the Prophet ordered the execution of Leatherlips, a noted Wyandot chief, for
pretended witchcraft, but really to get rid of his influence, Six Wyandot warriors were sent to put
him to death. The warriors and their leader, Roundhead, went directly from Tippecanoe to
execute him. They found him encamped on a stream about twelve miles above the present city of
Columbus. When the warriors arrived, and their purpose was ascertained, several white men
made an ineffectual effort to save his life. A council took place, and the warriors resolved to kill
the chief, as ordered. An Indian, with much warmth, accused him with magic or witchcraft; but
Leatherlips denied the charge. When the sentence of death was passed upon him, he returned to
his camp, ate a dinner of jerked venison, washed, and dressed in his best Indian clothing, and
painted his face. He was tall and dignified, and his hair quite gray. When the time of his
execution arrived, he shook hands with those present, and turned from his
46 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
wigwam and commenced to chant his death song. He then moved toward the point where the
warriors had dug a grave. When he got to the grave, he knelt down and prayed to the Great Spirit.
When he finished, Roundhead also knelt and prayed. Leather- lips again knelt and prayed, and
when he ceased, one of the warriors drew from his skirts a keen, new tomahawk, stepped up
behind the chief, and struck him on the head with his whole strength. The chief fell forward in
the agonies of death. The executioner struck him again, once or twice, and finished his suffering.
The body was buried with all his Indian ornaments, and the warriors and whites disappeared. An
attempt has been made to fix the responsibility of this great crime upen the Wyandot chief Crane.
Crane was the friend of the whites, and opposed to the schemes of the treacherous Prophet, and.
it is clear, never could have authorized the execution of a fellow Wyandot chief.
Mr. Alder says: " I was very well acquainted with the Prophet. He was not a. warrior, but a low,
cunning fellow. He prophesied many things that did not come to pass. He was a vain man, with a
great amount of show, but with little sense. His powers of prophecy were not well sustained by
the Indians in general; in fact, they had but very little faith in him."
Col. John Johnston says: "He was the twin brother of Tecumseh. His Indian name was
Elsquata-wa. As a man, he was void of talent or merit, a brawling, mischievous, Indian
demagogue."
While residing on Mad River, the Shawnees were divided into four tribes or bands—the
Mequachake, the Chillicothe, the Kiskapocoke and the Piqua. The priesthood was confided to the
Mequachake, and the office of chief was hereditary. In other tribes, the office of chief was
bestowed from merit or achievement in war. Their towns were scattered along the banks of the
Scioto, the Mad River and the Little Miami, in Southern Ohio. Cornstalk, the great chief so
cruelly assassinated at Point Pleasant, resided east of the Scioto River, on Sippo Creek, in what is
now Pickaway County, and his sister, the Grenadier Squaw, who was six feet high, resided near
him on the opposite side of the stream, in Squaw town. The principal town, Old Chillicothe, was
located near the mouth of Massie's Creek, three miles north of the present site of Xenia. Piqua,
memorable as the birthplace of Tecumseh and Elsqua-ta-wa, was situated on the north bank of
Mad River, seven miles West of the present site of the city of Springfield, in Clark County.
Upper and Lower Piqua, in Miami County, were not far from the present site of the city of Piqua.
After the destruction of the Macachack towns on Mad River, in what is now Logan County,
Ohio, in 1786, by Gen. Logan. of Kentucky, the Shawnees abandoned these towns, and gradually
began a settlement on the Ottawa or Hog Creek, and at Wapakonetta, in what is now
Auglaize—formerly Allen— County. They also had a few other villages in what is now Clark
County, Ohio, and also along the streams in Indiana. In the fall of 1811, a good deal of
uneasiness existed among the Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots and other Western tribes, and
British agents were very active in their endeavors to seduce the Ohio Indians into the British
service, in case of a war with the United States. Tecumseh, Blue Jacket and the Prophet
employed all their arts to induce the Little Turtle, Blackhoof, Back-ong-a-he-las and other noted
chiefs to join the league; but the Turtle, having been overruled by the Blue Jacket in the battle of
" Fallen Timbers," refused to follow the lead of the wily Shawnee again.
In the spring of 1812, Gen. Meigs convened a council at the village of Urbana, Ohio, and through
Col. James McPherson, and the elder Walker, who had married a Wyandot, invited the Shawnee,
Wyandot and Delaware chiefs and braves to meet him. They assembled about the 1st of June.
The result was very satisfactory, and ended in an exchange of wampum, and in smoking the pipe
of peace. The chiefs agreed to take sides with the United States; and protection was guaranteed
their families, and a block-house was erected near Zanesfield, in what is now Logan County, for
the protection of their women and children, where they were furnished, during the war, at the
public expense, with provisions and clothing.
During this excitement and ferment among the Indians, British agents were constantly engaged in
fomenting between the Indians and the border settlements. In fact, many English statesmen still
entertained the opinion that the American colonies were not wholly lost to the mother country,
and hoped, when the proper time arrived, by the aid of the Indian tribes and the supposed
disaffected colonies, to regain sovereignty over the States. To this end, as has been observed, the
tribes on our borders were secretly supplied with munitions of war, and instigated to commit
depredations on the frontiers of Kentucky and Southwest Ohio. McKee, Elliott and Girty fanned
the flame of hate and revenge, and, as the probabilities of war between the two countries became
stronger, the Indians, following the lead of Tecumseh, became more audacious. In April, 1812,
an embargo was laid, by Congress, on all the shipping in the ports and harbors of the United
States; and soon after, an act authorizing the President to detach 100,000 militia, for six months,
was passed
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 47
and carried inte execution, and a general declaration ef war was expected. At this time, the war in
Europe between France and the allied powers, continued to rage with unabated violence. England
and France used every artifice to involve all the nations of Europe in the contest. At the same
time, the British naval officers were carrying out the detestable doctrine of " impressing
American seamen," in a manner so extensive and vexatious as in cause great distress among our
seafaring people, and much inconvenience and risk to our merchants. The American Government
repeatedly protested against these outrages, but could neither obtain indemnity for the past nor
security for the future. The alternative of arms alone was left, to vindicate our rights and protect
our maritime interests on the ocean, and hence, a formal declaration of war against Great Britain
was made June 18, 1812.
The forces of the United States and of Ohio were marshaled for the contest with all speed. Gov.
Meigs obtained permission of the friendly Wyandots, Shawnees, Mingoes and Delawares to
march through their country without opposition; these Indians agreeing to abide faithfully by the
treaty of Greenville, and remain neutral during the progress of the war. The forces of Gen.
McArthur and Col. Cass in due time appeared on the Rivers Raisin and Huron, and thence to
Brownstown, and finally to Detroit, where Gen. Hull, without an effort, ingloriously surrendered
his forces to Gen. Isaac Brock, of the British Army This disaster sent a shudder through the
pioneer settlements of Ohio. Gen. W. H. Harrison was appointed to the command, and a new
army was levied and organized, We are unable, for want of space, te trace the history of his
campaigns until the close ef the war. It will be sufficient to 'state that he was ably seconded by
Col, Richard M. Johnson, Col. Jehn Logan and Col. W. S. Hunter as aids, while the troops of
Kentucky. Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio, under his command, sustained the reputation of their
States by acts of valor and uncomplaining sacrifices until the declaration of peace.
The Government of the United States made an attempt, as soon as war was declared, to soften the
jealousies of the Indians on our border. The various tribes were invited to a general council, to be
held at Piqua on the 15th of August, 1812. They were invited to bring their families, and kindle a
great council fire, Gov. Meigs, Thomas Worthington and Jeremiah Morrow were appointed
Commissioners to meet them. The conference failed; for only a few Shawnees, Wyandots,
Mingoes, Delawares, Ottawas and Miamis attended. Those present professed great friendship for
the Government; but little confidence could he placed in any but the Shawnees and Wyan-
dots. Blackhoof, Logan and the Crane appeared to be honest in their desires for peace, and
wielded a good influence. The Government desired to provide for all peaceable Indians, and sent
officers to conduct sueh to Urbana, Zanesville and Piqua, where they could be under the eye of
the Government agents. The Mohegans and Delawares of the villages of Greenstown and
Jerometown, in what is now Ashland County, were conducted to Urbana by Capt. Douglass, of
Clinton, Knox County, where they remained, at Government expense, until peace was declared.
The friendly Shawnees and Wyandots were variously employed, some as scouts and others as
guides. While acting in the capacity of spy, a noted Shawnee half-blood, named Logan, was
fatally wounded in a encounter with the Pottawatomie chief Winemac and his braves. Logan will
be remembered as having been taken a prisoner, when a boy, by Gen. Logan, of Kentucky, in
1786, and adopted and educated, and received the name of his captor—Logan. His mother was a
sister of Tecumseh and the Prophet. The family of Logan resided near Wapakonetta, whither he
was taken after his death and buried by United States troops with the honors of war.
In the spring of 1813, the policy of the Government as to the employment of Indians as soldiers
was, with some hesitancy, changed. Gen. Harrison held a council at Franklinton with the friendly
Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees and Senecas, in which it was agreed those tribes should be
enrolled and take up arms in defense of the United States, as against the British and their Indian
allies. Tarhe, the venerable Wyandot chief, for himself and people, and the chiefs of the other
tribes, agreed to prevent their warriors from scalping prisoners and committing the barbaric acts
which had characterized the Canadian Indians. With these stipulations, a corps of Indians was
armed, and fully demonstrated that they could be controlled by the rules of civilized warfare, and
successfully restrained from committing acts characteristie of savages, notwithstanding the
assertions of British officers. The Indian soldiers are said to have been " uniformly distinguished
by orderly and humane conduct."
The renegade young Shawnees, and those of other tribes, joined Tecumseh and fought
desperately for the British at the battle of the Thames, where Col. R. M. Johnson was wounded in
the thigh, hip and left hand, and is reputed to have killed Tecumseh, then a Colonel in the British
service. It was the belief of soldiers who were present, and saw the rencontre, that Johnson killed
the chief with a horse-pistol, in the attack, after his own horse had fallen, because Tecumseh fell
at the point where the Colonel was down.
48 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
As Tecumseh was a chief of undoubted talent and of great courage, we deem it proper, in giving
a sketch of the Shawnees, to call the attention of the reader to his history. The following is
compiled from Drake's life of the chief: " Puckeshinwa, the father of Tecumseh, was a member
of the Kiscopoke, and Methoataske, the mother, of the Turtle tribe of the Shawnee nation. They
removed from Florida to Ohio about the middle of the last century (1750). The father rose to the
rank of chief, and fell at the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774. After his death, his wife returned
South, where she died at an advanced age. Tecumseh was born at Piqua about the year 1768, and,
like Napoleon, showed a passion for war in his youth, It is stated that the first battle in which he
was engaged occurred on the present site of Dayton, between the Kentuckians under Col. Logan
and some Shawnees. When about seventeen years of age, he manifested great courage in an
attack on some boats on the Ohio River, near what is now Maysville, Ky. The prisoners were all
killed but one, who was burned alive. Tecumseh, having witnessed the burning of the prisoner,
expressed his strong abhorrence of the act, and by his eloquence persuaded his party never to
burn any more prisoners. He rose rapidly as a warrior. and gained great popularity among his
tribe. He was in the attack on Fort Recovery, and the battle of Fallen Timbers, in Wayne's
campaign, and, in the summer of 1795, became a chief. He resided, in 1796, at Deer Creek, in the
vicinity of the present site of Urbana, and afterward at Piqua, on the Great Miami. In 1798, by
invitation of the Delawares, he removed, with his followers, to White River, Ind. In 1805,
through the influence of Elsquatawa, his twin brother, a large number of Shawnees established
themselves at Greenville, and Elsquatawa assumed the office of a prophet, and commenced a
career of cunning and pretended sorcery that gave him great sway over the Indian mind. They
remained at Greenville in the year 1806, and were visited by many Indians from the different
tribes. The Prophet pretended to have dreamed many wonderful dreams, and claimed to have had
many supernatural revelations, and by such stories convinced many that he was really the earthly
agent of the Great Spirit. In 1807, Gov. W. H. Harrison sent a messenger to the head chiefs of the
Shawnees, desiring them to disband their people at Greenville, as their conduct foreshadowed
evil to the whites. The Prophet evaded the message and refused to go. In 1808, Tecumseh and the
Prophet removed to Tippecanoe, and continued their efforts to induce the Indians to forsake their
vicious habits, while Tecumseh visited the neighboring tribes to increase the Prophet's influence.
In 1809--10, their conduct was such as to leave but little doubt that their intentions were hostile.
The Prophet seemed to be most prominent, but Tecumseh, backed by British agents, was in
reality the leader. In August, 1810, Tecumseh visited Vincennes, accompanied by forty warriors,
to have a talk with Gov. Harrison. His manner on that occasion was haughty and menacing. He
declared he was not for war, but desired to unite all the Indians to prevent the sale of their lands.
His vehemence of speech fully indicated the purpose of the brothers, and after his departure Gov.
Harrison proceeded te prepare for the coming contest. He sent a message to the Shawnees,
bidding them to beware of hostilities; to which Tecumseh gave a brief reply, and visited the
Governor with 300 warriors, in July, 1811, in which he exhibited the same haughty spirit that he
evinced in the former meeting. Gov. Harrison prepared to disperse the hostiles at White River,
and the battle at Tippecanoe followed. The result of that battle deprived the Prophet of much of
his influence. In the spring of 1812, Tecumseh and his warriors visited Malden, and tendered
their services to the British, and he was subsequently made a Brigadier General in the British
Army, and was present at the ensuing battles against the Americans on land, until the battle of the
Thames, in which he fell."
Mr. Alder, in his narrative, states that he was personally acquainted with Tecumseh, and that he
heard an Indian once boasting how many white scalps he had taken. Tecumseh, the great chief,
turned on him and said " he was a low, mean Indian; that more than half the number of scalps
were those of women and children. Tecumseh said he had killed forty men with his own hands in
single combat, but he had never taken the life of a woman or child." Tecumseh seems to have
possessed, for a savage, many fine traits. To save his country was honorable and highly patriotic.
He was a man of fine intellect, brave, fearless, and of pure integrity. He would ask nothing but
his right, and would submit to nothing that was wrong. This great chief was born three-fourths of
a century too late. With his talents for organization, seventy five years earlier he would have
rivaled Pontiac, and have done much to keep the pale faces east of the Ohio. It is not definitely
certain whether the projected Indian confederacy originated with him. Whether it did or not, it
must be conceded that he evinced great talents in carrying it forward: and the skill of Gen.
Harrison was more than once baffled by the persistence of this great chief. When Proctor was
about to retreat to the Thames, Tecumseh, having penetrated his designs, looked upon the British
Commander with scorn. The manner of the death of the chief will, probably, ever remain
unsettled. The Prophet, who accompanied the renegade Shaw-
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 49
noes under the lead of Tecumseh to the British service in Canada, after the war returned to
Wapakonetta, and went West of the Mississippi, with a large number of his tribe, in 1828, and
died, in 1833, in Kansas, with cholera.
By a treaty, held at the Maumee Rapids, in 1817, by Gen. Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur, the
Shawnees were given a reservation around Wapakonetta, in the name of Blackhoof, and along
Hog Creek of ten miles square, and in 1818, at the treaty of St. Mary's, twenty-five square miles,
to be so laid out that Wapakonetta should be the center. At the same treaties, the Shawnees and
Senecas in what is now Logan County, in and around Lewistown, received a reservation of forty
square miles. The founder of the latter village is believed to have been the chief John Lewis, who
married Mary, the Indian sister of the captive Jonathan Alder. The Shawnees continued to reside
on these reservations until their final removal west of the Mississippi. None of the band of
Tecumseh was included in the schedule of names appended in the treaty of 1817 at the Maumee
Rapids, ner at St. Mary's. They had forfeited all right to pretection by the Government of the
United States, having joined the British in 1812.
As the Wapakonetta band was, at the time of removal, within the limits of Allen County, the
names of the Shawnees of that reservation are as follows: " Qua-tu-wa-pee, or Capt. Lewis, of
Lewistown, forty square miles. Tracts at Wapakonetta divided among the following: Blackhoof,
Pam-thee or Walker, Pea-se-ca or Wolf, Shem-an-ita or Snake, Athel-wake se ea or Yellow
Clouds, Pem-thew-tew or John Perry, Ca ca-lawa or End of the Tail, Que-la-we War Chief,
Sa-ca-chew a, We-rew-e-la, Wa-sa-we-tah or Bright Horn, Otha-ra-sa or Yellow, Tep-e-te-seca,
New-a-he tuc-ea, Ca-awar -joh̊, Wa-cat-chew -a, Silocha-he-ca, Tapea or Sanders,
Me-she-raw-ah, To-leapea, Poc-he-caw, Alowe meta-huck or Lalloway or Perry, Wa-wel-ame,
Ne-me-cashe, Ne-ru-pene-shequah or Cornstalk, Shi-she, She-a-law-he, Nam-skaka, Wa-cas-ka
or David McNair, Sha-pu-ka-ha, Quaco-wuw-nee, Neco-she-cu, Thu-cu-scu. or Jim Blue Jacket,
Cho-welas-eca. Qua ha-ho, Kay-ketch he-ka or William Perry, Sew-a-pen, Peetah or Davy Baker,
Ska-poa wah or George McDougal, Cho-po cu-ra, She-ma or Sam, Che-a- has- k or Captain
Tommy, General Wayne. Tha-way, Ohawee, We-a-re-cah, Captain Reed, Law-ay-tu-cheh or
John Wolf, Te-cutie or George, Ske-ka-cump-ske-kaw, Wish-e maw. Muy-way-mano treka,
Quas-kee, Thos-wa, Bap-tis-te, May- we-ali -upe, Perea- Cumme, Chock-ke-lake or Dam.
Kewa-pea, Ega-ta-cum-she-qua, Wal-upe, Aquashe-qua, Pemata, Nepaho, Tap-e-she-ka,
La-tho-wayno-ma, Saw-a-co-tu or Yellow Clouds, Mem-his-he-ka, Ash-e-lu-kah, O-hip-wah,
Tha-pae-ca, Chu-ca-tuh, Na-ka-ke-ka, Thit-huc-cu-lu, Pe-la cul-he, Pe-las-ke, She-sho- lou.
Quan-a-co, Hal-koo-ta, Laugh-she-na, Cap-a-wah,Ethe-wa-case, Que-he-thu, Ca-pia,
Thucatrou-wah or the Man Going Up Hill, Mag-a-thu, Tecum-to-qua, Tete-co-patha, Kek-us-the,
Sheat-wah, Sheale-war-son, Hagh-ke-la, Aka-pee or Heap Up Anything, Lamo-to-the, Kasha,
Pan-hoar Peaitchtham-tah or Peter Cornstalk, Capea, Shua-gunme, Wa-wal-ep-es-shec-co,
Cale-qua, Teto-tu, Tas-his-hee, Nawe-bes-he-co or White Feather, She-per kis-co-sheno-te kah,
She-makih, Pes-he-to, Theat-she-ta, Milham-et-che, Cha-coa, Lawath-ska, Pa-che-tah,
Awaybaris-ke-caw, Hato-cuino, Tho-mas-hes-haw-kah, Pepa-co-she, Os-has-he, Quel-co-shu,
Me-with-a-quin, Aguepeh, Quellime." The foregoing contains the names of all males a
Wapakonetta in 1817, being 126. Each person was allowed about five hundred acres, and if the
tribe had remained and become civilized farmers, and cultivated their lands, would have been a
wealthy people by this time.
THE SALE OF THEIR RESERVES.
In the year 1831, Hon. John McElvain, Indian Agent for the Shawnees and Senecas of Ohio, was
instructed by the Department at Washington to approach those tribes on the question of disposing
of their reservations and removal west of the Missouri, and it was done through James B.
Gardner as Special Commissioner. The Shawnees had put little confidence in the integrity of Mr.
Gardner, and entered into the proposed consultation with reluctance. Col. John Johnston, of
Piqua, the old agent, who had served the Shawnees and other tribes included in his agency for
over thirty years., had been removed by the President in consequence of his political opinions.
This greatly grieved the Shawnees, for they had formed a very warm attachment for the old
agent. He had been an honest, faithful and conscientious officer, and managed his department
with strict economy and uprightness. During his official career he had handled vast sums of
Government money, and never applied a dollar to private uses above his regular compensation.
He did not speculate, as is the modern custom, in spoiled beef, nor submit to be subsidized by
venal speculators in provisions, goods or furs, notwithstanding which, such was the heat of party
rancor that the President removed him and appointed a partisan in his place.
The Society of Friends, at a very considerable expense, introduced farming among the Shawnees,
built a grist and saw mill at Wapakonetta, when Col. Johnson was made the almoner of a female
Friend in Ireland to the amount of £100 sterling, to be expended in stock and implements of
agriculture among
|
