COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 125


call of the western settlements for assistance, but anticipated them in a plan to make that assistance effective and this, it appears, he did largely on his own initiative without an approving gesture from England.


The spirit that he put into the campaign and his disposition to be a soldier with the soldiers—to share with them the plain fare, the rough experiences of warfare in the wilderness, "all the fatigues of the campaign" and personal exposure by "marching on foot with the officers and soldiers," appealed strongly to Virginian colonists and especially to those on the western border. The freeholders of Fincastle County were strictly within the limits of truth in the declaration, "we have no instance of such condescension in your Lordship's predecessors on any similar occasion." The service of Dunmore in this campaign was indeed unique and merited the gratitude that the frontiersmen freely expressed.


Something remains to be said in regard to the results of the campaign. As already stated the conditions of the treaty as expressed in the written document itself are unknown. That document appears to have been lost. Diligent search in the British and American archives has failed to bring it to light. The provisions of the treaty, however, were generally understood at the time and a summary of them appeared in contemporaneous publications and documents. According to most reliable information, they were essentially as follows : The Indians agreed-


1. To give up, without reserve, all the prisoners ever taken by them in war with the white people ; and to never again wage war against the frontier of Virginia.


2. To give up all negroes taken by them from white people since the last war ; and to pay for all property destroyed by them in that time.


3. To surrender all horses and other valuable effects which they had taken from the white people since the last war.


4. To no more in the future hunt on or visit the south side of the Ohio River, except for the purpose of trading with the white people.


5. To no more molest boats of white people, while descending or ascending the Ohio River.


6. To agree to such regulations for trade with the white people as should hereafter be dictated by the King's instructions.


7. To deliver up hostages as a guarantee for the faithful compliance with the terms of the treaty ; to be kept by the whites until convinced of the sincerity on the part of the Indians to adhere to all these articles.


8. To have from the Governor a guarantee that no white people should be permitted to hunt on the northern, or Indian, side of the Ohio River.


9. To meet at Pittsburgh the next spring and enter into a supplemental treaty by which the terms of the treaty of "Camp Charlotte" should be ratified and fully confirmed. 22


On the part of the government that he represented, Lord Dunmore assured the Indians that they should have protection against incursions and hostile treatment of the Virginians ; that, in a general way, they should be secure in the peaceful possession of their homes and property north of the Ohio even as they had pledged themselves to the observance of the rights secured by this treaty to the whites south of that river.


Governor Dunmore, in his report of the expedition, summarized the terms of this treaty as follows :


"The terms of our reconciliation were, briefly, that the Indians should deliver up all prisoners without reserve ; that they should restore all horses and other valuable effects which they had carried off ; that they should not hunt on our side the Ohio, nor molest any Boats passing thereupon ; That they Should promise to agree to such regulations, for their trade with our People, as Should be hereafter dictated by the Kings Instructions, and that they Should deliver into our hands certain Hos; tages, to be kept by us until we were convinced of their Sincere inten-


22 - "American Archives," Fourth series, Vol. II, pp. 301-302.


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tion to adhere to all these Articles. The Indians, finding, contrary to their expectation, no punishment likely to follow, agreed to everything with the greatest alacrity, and gave the most Solemn assurances of their quiet and peacable deportment for the future: and in return I have given them every promise of protection and good treatment on our Side." 23


Immediately following the treaty at Camp Charlotte the officers under the command of Lord Dunmore, when they reached Fort Gower at the mouth of the Hockhocking on their return from the Pickaway Plains, held a meeting and passed certain resolutions that have been the subject of much comment on the part of historians. 24 Inasmuch as this meeting was held within the present limits of Ohio and the action of the officers has been variously interpreted and reported, we here reproduce 'the proceedings in full as they are recorded in American Archives. 25


"MEETING OF OFFICERS UNDER EARL OF DUNMORE.


"At a Meeting of the Officers under the command of his Excellency the Right Honourable the Earl of Dunmore, convened at Fort Gower, November 5, 1774, for the purpose of considering the grievances of British America, an Officer present addressed the Meeting in the following words :


" 'Gentlemen: Having now concluded the campaign, by the assistance of Providence, with honour and advantage to the Colony and ourselves, it only remains that we should give our country the strongest assurance that we are ready, at all times, to the utmost of our power, to maintain and defend her just rights and privileges. We have Hived about three months in the woods without any intelligence from Boston, or from the Delegates at Philadelphia. It is possible, from the groundless reports of designing men, that our countrymen may be jealous of the use such a body would make of arms in their hands at this critical juncture. That we are a respectable body is certain, when it is considered that we can live weeks without bread or salt ; that we can sleep in the open air without any covering but that of the canopy of Heaven; and that our men can march and shoot with any in the known world. Blessed with these talents, let us solemnly engage to one another, and our country in particular, that we will use them to no purpose but for the honour and advantage of America in general, and of Virginia in particular. It behooves us then, for the satisfaction of our country, that we should give them our real sentiments, by way of resolves, at this very alarming crisis.'


"Whereupon the meeting made choice of a Committee to draw up and prepare Resolves for their consideration, who immediately withdrew ; and after some time spent therein, reported that they had agreed to and prepared the following Resolves, which were read, maturely considered and agreed to, nemine contradicente, by the Meeting, and ordered to be published in the Virginia Gazette :


" 'Resolved, That we will bear the most faithful allegiance to his Majesty King George the Third, whilst his Majesty delights to reign over a brave and free people ; that we will, at the expense of life, and everything dear and valuable, exert ourselves in support of the honour of his Crown and the dignity of the British Empire. But as the love of Liberty, and attachment to the real interests and just rights of America outweigh every other consideration, we resolve that we will exert every power within us for the defence of American liberty, and for the support of her just rights and privileges ; not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultuous manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen.


" 'Resolved, That we entertain the greatest respect for his Excellency


23 - Lewis, "History of the Battle of Point Pleasant," p. 56.

24 - Thwaites and Kellogg, "Documentary History of Dunmore's War," p. 386.

25 - Fourth Series, Vol. I, pp. 962-963.


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 127


the Right Honourable Lord Dunmore, who commanded the expedition against the Shawanese ; and who, we are confident, underwent the great fatigpe of this singular campaign from no other motive than the true interest of this country.'


"Signed by order and in behalf of the whole Corps,

"BENJAMIN ASHBY, Clerk."


Some enthusiasts have claimed for this action the distinction of "The first declaration of American Independence." The first battle of the Revolution and the first declaration of American independence, they would have us believe, occurred on the shores of the Ohio at Point Pleasant and Fort Gower. The reasoning runs something like this :


Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia and servant of the British crown, stirred up Indian hostility against the western settlements and then led an army of colonists into the Ohio country for the purpose of utterly destroying them. He had an "understanding" with the Indians that they should attack the two divisions of his army separately in order that the Virginians might be overwhelmed with disaster.


Lewis, however, and his brave followers won the hard-fought battle at Point Pleasant. The Indians who made the attack were acting in accordance with the directions of Dunmore, who was acting in accordance with the instructions of the British government. Presto ! the first battle of the revolution ! !

The officers under Dunmore met after the treaty with the defeated Indians and passed resolutions "for the defense of American liberty." Lo ! the first declaration of American Independence ! !


Such contentions, in the light of reliable historic evidence, are scarcely worthy of consideration. These conclusions are inevitable :


1. The battle of Point Pleasant was not the first battle of the Revolution. It was a battle between the subjects of the King of England, organized by the British Earl of Dunmore, and the Indians who were waging a destructive war against the border settlements.


2. The evidence that Dunmore acted in good faith and deserved the grateful tributes so freely bestowed by the Virginians is overwhelming and conclusive.


3. In the Dunmore war the British commander-in-chief and the colonial soldiers fought together against a common foe. In the Revolution the colonists and the British officers with their followers fought against each other. Neither poetic license nor the romance of history would justify calling the battle of Point Pleasant "the first battle of the American Revolution."


4. The resolutions passed at Fort Gower were in no sense a "first declaration of American independence." They were not a "declaration of independence" at all. They are a declaration of sympathy with the colonists of the Atlantic coast who were growing restive under oppressive British rule. That is all they were intended to be. Clearly running through them is the expressed desire to support their brethren of the East while maintaining their allegiance to George the Third and the British crown.


5. It is noteworthy that the final resolution of the officers at Fort Gower is a testimonial to the high regard in which they held "his excellency, the Right Honorable Lord Dunmore" and a ringing refutation of the post-revolutionary charges against him of treacherous motives and action in the conduct of the campaign.


When the revolution finally came, Dunmore remained firm in his allegiance to the British crown. This brought him into bitter conflict with the Virginia patriots. Out of that conflict grew the wildly improbable stories of bad faith in the conduct of the campaign against the Indians in 1774. These charges retained a degree of currency and credence when it was popular to throw a brickbat at everything English and to "twist the


128 - HISTORY OF OHIO


tail of the British lion" in every political campaign. Their utter emptiness is now apparent. They can serve no worthy claim or cause.


That the Dunmore war was highly beneficial to Americans in its immediate results and in the fortunate condition that it established in the Ohio Country preparatory to the opening of the Revolution there can be no doubt. The treaty at Camp Charlotte was confirmed and supplemented by one at Pittsburgh concluded October 19, 1775. It brought peace to the western border of Virginia and opened up the way for a large immigration from the East. For a number of years after hostilities with the mother country began western Virginia was free from hostile invasion. It nullified the Quebec Act and confirmed the chartered rights of Virginia. It made it possible for George Rogers Clark later to organize and successfully conduct his western campaign which gave the northwest territory to the United States at the close of the revolution. Even if it did not inspire "the first declaration of American independence" and include the "first battle of the American Revolution," the Dunmore war prepared the way for the "Winning of the West," the evolution of the Northwest Territory and the advent of the State of Ohio, on the soil of which the campaign ended and at the firesides of which it was long a thrilling theme in the narratives and legends of the border;


SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE RELATIVE TO THE SPEECH OF LOGAN.


John J. Jacob in his Biographical Sketch of the Life of the Late Capt. Michael Cresap, which is frankly an effort to vindicate Captain Cresap and disprove the charge made against him by Logan, seems to have felt that it was necessary to depreciate Logan and deny to him the honor of having made the famous speech that was sent to Dunmore. His chief reliance is the testimony of Benjamin Tomlinson, mistakenly called Jacob Tomlinson by Brantz Mayer in his Tah-gah-jute ; or Logan and Cresap. This testimony which was signed at Cumberland, April 17, 1797, includes among other statements the following in regard to the leader of the party that killed Logan's relatives :


"The party had no commander. I believe Logan's brother was killed by a man named Sappington ; who killed the others I do not know although I was present." * * *


In his testimony Tomlinson makes the following statements in regard to the absence of Logan from the treaty at Camp Charlotte and the origin of Logan's speech :


"Logan was not at the treaty ; perhaps Cornstalk, the chief of the Shawanee nation, mentioned among other grievances the Indians killed on Yellow Creek ; but I believe neither Cresap nor any other persons were named as the perpetrators. I perfectly recollect that I was that day officer of the guard, and stood near Dunmore's person, and consequently I saw and heard all that passed ; that also two or three days before the treaty, when I was on the out-guard, Simon Girty, who was passing by, stopped with me and conversed ; he said he was going after Logan, but he did not like his business, for he was a surly fellow ; he, however, proceeded on, and I saw him return on the day of the treaty, and Logan was not with him. At this time a circle was formed and the treaty begun. I saw John Gibson, on Girty's arrival, get up and go out of the circle and talk with Girty ; after which he (Gibson) went into a tent, and soon after returning into the circle, drew out of his pocket a piece of clean, new paper, on which was written, in his own hand-writing, a speech for and in the name of Logan. This I heard read three times—once by Gibson and twice by Dunmore—the purport of which was, that he (Logan) was the white man's friend ; that on a journey to Pittsburg to brighten this friendship, or on his return from thence, all his friends were killed at Yellow Creek ; that now, when he died, who should bury him ?—for the blood of Logan was running in no creature's veins ; but neither was the name of Cresap or the name of any other person mentioned in this


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 129


speech. But I recollect having seen Dunmore put this speech among the other treaty papers."


Jacob speaks of Benjamin Tomlinson as "a man universally respected, and whose testimony no man will dare to question." It is perhaps enough to know that he was present, according to his own testimony, at the killing of Logan's relatives in Baker's Tavern. He neither approves nor condemns this slaughter, but as he was present and entered no protest, it may be assumed that he sanctioned the killing. It is not necessary to add anything to the knowledge of that fact. It is rather remarkable that Butterfield should have been, apparently, favorably impressed with this testimony. Whether Girty had been to see Logan before Gibson met him is not a matter of much importance. The statements of Tomlinson, who according to his own admission was one of the party at Baker's Tavern, has little or no weight against the sworn testimony of Gibson.


LOGAN ELM, PICKAWAY COUNTY, OHIO


Circumference three feet from ground, 21 feet 6 inches. Length of south limb, 65 feet 6 inches; length of north limb, 76 feet 6 inches; length of ease limb, 60 feet 0 inches; length of west limb, 62 feet 6 inches.


THE LOGAN ELM


BY C. B. GALBREATH


Historic Elm, child of the forest vast

And eldest of our sylvan pioneers,

Before your crest in grand review have passed

The mute procession of eventful years.

Here Logan came and shed his bitter tears,

In deathless eloquence poured forth his woes ;

And Cornstalk passed ; and victors raised their cheers,

When the Republic wrested from all foes

Long years of peace that made this valley blossom as the rose.


Courageous Elm. The warring elements


Have charged and beat your lordly crest in vain

And wind and lightning shafts have torn the rents

Through which have poured the sunshine and the rain.

Your honored scars you wear in proud disdain

Through frigid blasts and droughty breezes warm ;

Refusing to be numbered with the slain,

In stately, venerated, warrior form,

You breast the bolts of heaven and buffet still the storm !


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Triumphant Elm. Life purposeful and long,

With goal attained before your race is run ;

Brave sentinel whose messages in song

And legend shall survive when life is done.

Crowned in the glory of October's sun

With boughs as green as this autumnal sod—

With offspring elms you guard your triumph won

And, rising from this earth that Logan trod,

Arraign Ingratitude before the throne of God !


This poem was read by its author at the conclusion of a brief address, under the Logan Elm, on the occasion of the celebration of Ohio History Day, October 7, 1923.


CHAPTER VII


FROM THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC TO THE TREATY

OF PARIS



After the conclusion of the French and Indian war and the failure of the confederated tribes under the leadership of Pontiac to drive the British and the colonists from the Ohio Country, there were years of comparative peace on the western border. This truce was broken by a controversy between two colonies over the possession of Western Pennsylvania. Virginia claimed this by charter right and insisted that the services and sacrifices made by Virginians in the French and Indian war entitled her to additional consideration. Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, sent Capt. John Connolly with an armed force to take possession of the disputed territory. At this juncture Connolly seems to have been the chief irritant in the renewal of the Indian wars that continued with brief interruptions till the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.


Captain Connolly has been pictured in dark colors by some writers who have described him as a despicable character and placed upon his shoulders the chief responsibility for the long and tragic series of events that followed. It is a little difficult, in the midst of conflicting testimony, to arrive at a just estimate of some of the actors in these border conflicts. It seems, however, that Connolly was a poor diplomat, if his purpose was to continue peaceful relations with the Indians. But he was only an accidental agency in lighting the fires of a conflict that was inevitable.


The Indians, by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, had been assured possession of the territory north of the Ohio River and the privilege of hunting south of it. The settlement of the territory of Virginia filled them with apprehension. They realized that soon the hunting privileges south of the Ohio would be valueless, and in the expeditions into their territory north of the river they saw an insidious and sinister prelude to the loss of their home land, the possession of which had been assured them by solemn treaty. They had already been driven back from the Atlantic coast plain. Even to their untutored minds the danger of another enforced westward movement was apparent. The basic- causes that led to the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" were still existent and active and by the simple logic of the situation led to another confederation of tribes to resist the encroachments of the white man, and the threatened loss of their Ohio hunting grounds.


Captain Connolly seems to have had, at this time, the confidence of Lord Dunmore. Fort Pitt had been dismantled by the British to quiet the apprehension of the Indians and to dispose of a military post for which there was no particular need after the close of the French and Indian war. Early in 1774 Connolly was directed to take possession of the disputed territory at the forks of the Ohio. He did this and issued a call to the people of Redstone and vicinity to enlist in the Virginia militia. By a liberal distribution of fire-water, which, in those times, was a powerful persuader in any cause, some would-be militiamen were assembled, who, presumably .while under "the influence," fired upon the huts of some Shawnee chiefs who were retained as "semi-hostages" by George Croghan, the deputy Indian agent of Pennsylvania. This rash act, though it did not result in the loss of life, set the Indian mind and heart aflame as the news of it went down thd Ohio River.


- 131 -


132 - HISTORY OF OHIO


Gen. Arthur St. Clair, acting under authority of the proprietors of Pennsylvania, arrested Connolly and sent him back to Virginia. By direction of the governor of that colony, he returned later with an ample military force, rebuilt a defensive work on the site of Fort Pitt and called it Fort Dunmore. The military demonstration and the firing upon the Indian hostages aroused the fighting spirit of the Ohio tribes and the apprehension of the white settlers south of the river.


The Shawnee chieftains, claiming to have been directed by George Croghan "to attack any whites found encroaching upon their territory, began a series of border raids which reached across the Ohio River into Kentucky and Virginia. The settlers were greatly alarmed and several surveying parties who were present along the south side of the river, in the interest of prospective settlers and land companies, hurriedly joined forces for mutual protection. They assembled at the mouth of Wheeling Creek, where, alarmed at the threatening attitude of the Shawnees, they decided to follow Connolly's instruction and accordingly assumed the aggressive. Capt. Michael Cresap, a well known and experienced trader, who was on the Ohio in the interest of Virginia land owners, was chosen the leader of the party. Cresap and his men shot and killed two Indian canoemen on the Ohio and a few days later attacked an encampment of Shawnees on Captina Creek." 1


The conflict that followed the attacks of Cresap and his party, because of the prominence of the leader, was known as "Cresap's War."


PERIOD OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION


The opening of the Revolutionary war divided the forces against whom the Indians had been arrayed following the French and Indian war. The tribesmen, worn out and discouraged by the Dunmore war and subsequent events, were slow to grasp the opportunity for united action as a "balance of power" in the new conflict that was developing. This was fortunate for the Americans in their struggle with Great Britain. United hostility of the Indians in the early years of the Revolution would have created a serious diversion of the continental forces by bringing them between two fires.


The Wyandots early espoused the cause of the British. The Shawnees were at heart hostile to the Americans, but their defeat at Point Pleasant was fresh in mind and they did not wish to risk a repetition. The Delawares were divided. One faction, under the leadership of Captain Pipe, favored the British ; the other faction, including the Christian Indians under Chief White Eyes, was neutral and generally able to hold in check its warlike brethren. The Miamis, under the influence of Detroit, were inclined to be pro-British. Such was the alignment when, on July 4, 1776, was promulgated the Declaration of Independence.


Both parties to that contest sought the favor of the Indians. The Continental Congress, in 1775, realizing the importance of Indian aid and fearing that this would go to the British, "created three Indian departments, one of which, known as the middle department, should have to do with the Ohio Indians." 2 Commissioners appointed by this Congress were present at the Pittsburg treaty of 1775, at which the terms agreed upon at Camp Charlotte, with slight modifications, were finally adopted.


At Detroit, the British commandant, Henry Hamilton, was actively engaged in cultivating the friendship of the Indians and fomenting their hostility against the Americans. He extended to them a standing invitation to visit the fort, where they were "wined and dined" and in


1 - H. C. Shetrone, "The Indian in Ohio," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, Vol. XXVII, p. 353.

2 - Shetrone, Ohio Archeological and Historical Publications, p. 360.


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 133


the midst of rum and revelry vowed destruction to the foes of the king of Great Britain.


In the meantime the secret hostility of the Ohio tribes toward the Americans was tempted to manifest itself as the British bid for aid became more alluring. A tragic event was the occasion for their open hostility to the Americans.


After the battle at Point Pleasant, Cornstalk not only participated as the representative of his people in the treaty at Camp Charlotte and the one in the following year at Pittsburg, but he sincerely approved all the conditions imposed by these conventions. He felt that it was useless to appeal to arms in behalf of his countrymen and that there was a way open to an enduring peace and better days for both races if the conditions of these treaties were faithfully observed. As he had applied himself industriously and courageously to the arts of war in the interest of his people, he now, believing that appeal to arms was vain, sought to subserve their interests by cultivating the friendship and confidence of those whom he had lately opposed on the field of battle. When other chieftains were tempt0 to join the British and thus avenge themselves against the Virginians, Cornstalk was true to his plighted faith and refused to take up arms against the Americans.


Immediately following the battle of Point Pleasant there was erected on its site a stockade which was called "Fort Blair." This was abandoned in 1775 by direction of Lord Dunmore and a few days afterward was burned by the Indians. In the autumn of the same year another stockade was erected on this site and named "Fort Randolph." The garrison was commanded by Capt. Matthew Arbuckle. In the year 1777 when an attack was feared, Cornstalk went to Fort Randolph to warn the commander of the hostile intentions of the Indians. He said that he himself opposed joining in the war, but all of his nation, except his own tribe, were about to enter the service of the British.


Captain Arbuckle, fearing that Cornstalk later would be influenced to join with the remainder of his countrymen, thought best to detain him as a prisoner with Red-hawk and another warrior who came with him.


One day Cornstalk's son, Ellinipsico, came to learn whether his father was still alive and well. When he reached the river opposite the fort he called aloud. His father recognized his voice and went out and answered. The son then crossed the river, came to the fort, embraced his father and was affectionately received. It so happened that on the following day two young men named Hamilton and Gilmore crossed from the fort to the other side of the river to hunt for deer. On their return they were ambushed by the Indians and Gilmore was killed. His body was brought over to the fort in a boat. Hamilton was not injured. There was at once great excitement when the body of Gilmore was seen by the soldiers of the garrison. A cry was raised for vengeance and the life of the Indian prisoners at the fort. The soldiers were quick to connect the killing of Gilmore and the visit of Cornstalk's son. To their excited minds the whole affair was a plot for which the captive Indians were responsible. Cornstalk and his son had been warned shortly before of what was likely to happen. Ellinipsico pleaded his innocence of the charge of complicity with the murder and trembled with fear at the approach of the infuriated garrison. What then happened is thus described by an eye witness : 3


"His father encouraged him not to be afraid for that the Great Man above had sent him there to be killed and die with him. As the men advanced to the door, the Cornstalk rose up and met them ; they fired upon him, and seven or eight bullets went through him. So fell the great Cornstalk warrior,—whose name was bestowed upon him by the


3 - Capt. John Stuart, quoted by Virgil A. Lewis, in his "History of the Battle of Point Pleasant," pp. 103-106.


134 - HISTORY OF OHIO


consent of the nation, as their great strength and support. His son was shot dead as he sat upon a stool. The Red-hawk made an attempt to go up the chimney, but was shot down. The other Indian was painfully mangled, and I grieved to see him so long in the agonies of death."


Earlier in the day on which he was slain, Cornstalk attended a council in the fort. He spoke eloquently, but seemed to have a premonition of his approaching fate. He said, and repeated a number of times in his speech:


"When I was a young man and went to war, I thought that might be the last time, and I would return no more. Now I am here among you ; you may kill me if you please; I can die but once ; and it is all one to me, now or another time."


The murder of Cornstalk, which the commanding officer of the fort could not prevent, went unpunished. The tragic end of this great Ohio chieftain had in it a pathetic appeal scarcely surpassed by the butchery of the family of Logan. As the news spread among the Ohio tribes it became a decisive influence in turning their support to the British.


BRITISH INDIAN WAR POLICY


ATTACK ON FORT HENRY


At the mouth of Wheeling Creek in Virginia (now West Virginia) to protect the Ohio Valley, the Americans erected Fort Henry (named in honor of Patrick Henry). This post had a garrison of fifty men under the command of Col. David Shepherd. In the summer of 1777, the agents of the British government organized their system of "barbarous war" against the Americans, which was so eloquently denounced by the venerable William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, in his speech in the House of Lords, with which American school boys have long been familiar. Col. Henry Hamilton, lieutenant governor of Canada, seems to have been the originator of this policy. He proposed to his superior officers "the making of a diversion on the frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania by parties of Indians commanded by proper leaders." To the suggestion of Hamilton the British cabinet made a prompt and approving response. From White Hall, London, Lord George Germain wrote a letter under date of March 26, 1777, approving the proposed organization of Indian warfare against American settlements. This letter was addressed to Sir Guy Carleton and by him forwarded to Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, at Detroit, May 21. One of the illuminating paragraphs reads as follows :


"There can be little doubt that the Indians * * * will readily and eagerly engage in any Enterprise in which it may be thought fit to employ them under the direction of the King's officers, and as it is His Majesty's resolution that the most vigorous Efforts should be made, and every means employed that Providence has put into His Majesty's Hands, for crushing the Rebellion & restoring the Constitution, it is the King's Command that you should direct Lieut. Governor Hamilton to assemble as many of the. Indians of his district as he conveniently can, and placing proper persons at their Head to whom he is to make suitable allowances, to conduct their Parties, and restrain them from committing violence on the well affected and inoffensive Inhabitants, employ them in making a Diversion and exciting an alarm upon the frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania."


In carrying out this policy Hamilton entered upon his new commission with alacrity and zeal. He seemed delighted in the opportunity to put into execution the plans that he had suggested and for which he is chiefly to be held responsible. By his direction "two hundred and eighty-nine braves in fifteen several parties were sent out" to attack


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 135


the American settlements. This opened the war with all its attendant horrors in the valley of the Ohio and the regions south of Lake Erie. This aroused the Americans on the western border to a frenzy of fury and brought denunciation from some of the leading statesmen in Great Britain. In assailing this policy the Earl of Chatham in the House of Lords said :


"But, my lords, who is the man that, in addition to the disgraces and mischief of the war, has dared to authorize and associate to our arms, the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savage ? to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitant of the woods ? to delegate to the merciless Indian the defense of disputed rights and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren ? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. But, my lords, this barbarous measure has been defended, not only on the principles of policy and necessity, but also on those of morality : 'for it is perfectly allowable,' says Lord Suffolk, 'to use all the means which God and Nature have put into our hands.' I am astonished, I am shocked; to hear such principle's confessed ; to hear them avowed in this house on in this country. * * * What ideas of God and Nature that noble lord may entertain I know not ; but I know that such detestable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What ! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and Nature to the massacre of the Indian scalping knife! to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims ! Such notions shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every sentiment of honor." 4


4 - Quoted as adapted in the "McGuffey Readers."


136 - HISTORY OF OHIO


Possibly this policy of the British government has been painted blacker than it really was. Lieutenant Governor Hamilton may not have been so relentless and bloodthirsty as represented. Gratehouse at Baker's Station and Williamson at Gnadenhutten certainly matched him in brutality. In excuse for these barbarous deeds some Americans have pointed to the excesses of Hamilton whose policy is a matter of record to the lasting disgrace of himself and the cause that he served. 5


In the summer of 1777 Indian attacks on the American settlements began. The chief organized movement was directed against Fort Henry. On September 1 it was attacked by a force of 200 Indians. A portion of the little garrison marched out to meet the foe, but were ambuscaded and most of them killed. Those within the stockade maintained a vigorous defense. The day following Maj. Samuel McCullough with forty men arrived to aid the defenders. His men succeeded in entering the fort, but the galrant major was cut off and forced to flee for his life. As he was urging his ,steed along the high ridge leading toward Van Meter's stockade, a few miles distant; he was intercepted by a band of savages and to escape was forced to ride down a precipice 300 feet. His escape with his steed unharmed was little short of miraculous. His pursuers supposing both to have been killed gave up the pursuit and he was soon safe within the stockade toward which he had directed his flight. Soon afterward the Indians abandoned the siege of Fort Henry. Fifteen Amerieans were killed in the attack and five wounded.


Later in the same month "a band of Wyandots under the Half King returned to Fort Henry and succeeded in ambuscading and killing Capt. William Foremen and twenty-five volunteers who were proceeding to the defense of the fort." 6 This defensive work, however, remained in the possession of the Americans.


BOONE AND KENTON 7


To this period belong some of the thrilling experiences of two noted Indian fighters. Daniel Boone was captured in Ohio, carried to Detroit,


5 - Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, from his headquarters in Detroit, waged a relentless war against the Americans on the border. George Rogers Clark called him the "scalp buyer." He gained this unenviable reputation through an intercepted letter from one of his agents who was conducting his warfare in the Ohio Valley. The letter read in part as follows: "I hereby send to your Excellency under care of James Hoyd, eight packages of scalps, cured, dried, hooped and painted with all the triumphal marks and of which consignment this is an invoice and explanation: Package No. 1, 43 scalps of Congress soldiers, inside painted red with a small black dot to show they were killed by bullets; those painted brown and marked with a hole denote that the soldiers were killed while at their farms; those marked with a black ring denote that the persons were surprised by night; those marked with a black hatchet denote that the persons were killed with a tomahawk. Package No. 2, 98 farmers' scalps; a white circle denotes that- they were surprised in the daytime; those with a red foot denote that the men stood their ground and fought in defense of their wives and families. Package No. 3, 97 farmers' scalps; the green hoops' denote that they were killed in the fields. Package No. 4, 102 farmers' scalps; eighteen are marked with a yellow flame to show that they died by torture; the one with a black band attached belonged to a clergyman. No. 5, 88 scalps of women; those with the braided hair were mothers. No. 6, 193 boys' scalps. No. 7, 211 girls' scalps. No. 8, 122 scalps of all sorts; among them are twenty-nine infants' scalps. * * * The chief of the Senecas sends this message: 'Father, Senecas we send you here these many scalps that you may see that we are not idle friends. We want you to send these scalps to the Great King that he may regard them and be refreshed.' " This letter was presented by Benjamin Franklin when he made his appeal to France for intervention against this savage warfare.— Griswold's "History of Fort Wayne," p. 73.


6 - Shetrone, "Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly," Vol. XXVII, p. 372.


7 - For reliable biographies of these two great hunters and Indian fighters,


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 137


where his savage captors refused to turn him over, for a ransom, to the British, and brought back to the Indian village of Oldtown on the Miami River, whence he escaped and returned to Boonesboro, Kentucky. Simon Kenton crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky in 1778, was captured by the Indians, sentenced to torture in a village in what is now Logan County, rescued by Simon Girty, who was operating with the Indians whom he excelled in "savage cruelty," condemned again to

die, this time at Sandusky, ransomed through the influence of Chief Logan, and returned to Kentucky. Kenton shares with Boone the reputation of being one of the greatest hunters and Indian fighters of the West. In the War of 1812 he served as an officer under General Harrison. His later years were spent in Logan County, where he died in 1836.


see "Daniel Boone," by Reuben Gold Thwaites, and "Biographical Sketches of General Nathaniel Massie, General Duncan McArthur, Captain William Wells and General Simon Kenton," by John McDonald.


138 - HISTORY OF OHIO


FORT LAURENS


Early in the year 1778, a little party of Torys departed from the vicinity of Pittsburg and started on their journey through the Indian country to join the British at Detroit. The band included, all told, Alexander McKee, Mathew Elliott, Simon Girty, Robert Surphlit, a man by the name of Higgins and two negroes belonging to McKee. Surphlit was a nephew of McKee. The first three of the band figured conspicuously in the border wars of succeeding years. The date of their flight to the British is definitely fixed. It was the night of March 28, 1778.


They were soon under the protection and direction of Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, in command at Detroit.


Later in the year Gen. Edward Hand, the American officer in command at Fort Pitt, was succeeded by Brig.-Gen. Lachlin McIntosh. The forces at the fort had been strengthened by the arrival of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, under Col. Daniel Brodhead. A part of the Thirteenth Virginia Regiment remaining at Valley Forge was ordered to the fort. The assembled troops were temporarily under the command of Col. John Gibson, who gained fame in the Dunmore war by carrying the famous speech of Logan to the treaty council at Camp Charlotte.


On the right bank of the Ohio River, a short distance below the mouth of Beaver Creek, was erected Fort McIntosh, and here early in October was assembled the "largest army of white soldiers got together in the West" during the Revolution. A treaty had been made with the-Delaware Indians in September, by terms of which a number of their warriors were to join the American army and permission was granted to proceed over the lands of that nation to prevent the advance of the British from Detroit.


A large detachment of continental soldiers later in the autumn of this year proceeded to a point on the Tuscarawas River about one mile south of the site of the Village of Bolivar and began, November 5, the erection of Fort Laurens, named in honor of the president of the Continental Congress. It was the intention of McIntosh to advance from this point against Detroit, but failure to receive provisions for his army made such a venture so late in the season too hazardous to be undertaken.


A garrison of 150 men was left at Fort Laurens under Colonel Gibson to complete the defensive works, while General McIntosh and his little army returned to Port Pitt. Fort Laurens was soon afterward completed and Colonel Gibson reported that he was ready "to bid defiance to the enemy." The line of approach to this military post in the wilderness had at this time been fairly well established from the mouth of Yellow Creek through what is now Columbiana and Stark counties and down Sandy Creek to its junction with the Tuscarawas a short distance above the fort.


When Simon Girty, acting under orders from the British commander at Detroit, reported the erection of Fort Laurens, plans were as promptly as possible put into execution to prevent the westward advance of the Americans. Girty marshalled a band of warriors and prepared to attack the fort and "get Colonel Gibson's scalp." Capt. John Killbuck, the Delaware chief, made known Girty's plans to Zeisberger, who promptly wrote to Colonel Gibson, warning him of the danger. The colonel does not appear to have taken very seriously the declared intentions of Girty to attack the fort and separate him from his scalp, for he declared in a letter to General McIntosh, "I hope, if Mr. Girty comes to pay a visit, I shall be able to trepan him."


Girty, however, was industriously at work collecting his Indian band and preparing for operations against the Americans in accordance with the method of savage warfare, with which he was as familiar as any painted warrior. He .stealthily approached the fort and concealed


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 139


his presence from the garrison. He and his dusky followers watched the road to Fort McIntosh in the hope that they might. ambush an unwary detachment as it passed along. They finally had the opportunity for which they had been patiently waiting. Capt. John Clark of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment commanded a convoy of provisions to Fort Laurens. On his way back with a sergeant and only fourteen men he was attacked January 29, 1779, by Girty and his warriors and defeated with a loss of two killed, four wounded and one taken prisoner. The remaining soldiers of the detachment fought their way back to the fort. The party under Captain Clark carried important letters from Gibson, a number of which were captured and carried to Capt. R. B. Lernault, temporarily in command at Detroit, in the absence of Hamilton, who had been captured at Vincennes by George Rogers Clark.


Girty boasted much of his success at Fort Laurens. The intercepted letters, which contained some very uncomplimentary references to himself and statements that he need expect no mercy if he fell into Gibson's hands, are thought by Butterfield to have had much influence in determining Girty's subsequent career—to have served to whet his fury against the "rebels," as he now called the Americans. It is scarcely likely, however, that, after he left his old home to join the British in open warfare against his countrymen and signalized his entry into the service of his new masters by resorting to the ambuscade, the tomahawk and scalping knife, he would have been materially influenced by what some foe should write in regard to his treason and treachery.


The friendly Delawares learned that Girty was assembling on the Sandusky a formidable force of Indians preparatory to a second attack on Fort Laurens. This information was promptly forwarded to Colonel Gibson, who seemed to be expecting it and who received it with a full appreciation of its serious import. The fort had been inadequately provisioned. Expected supplies had not arrived. The dense forests were infested with hostile savages and it was dangerous for soldiers to venture beyond their wooden ramparts.


Simon Girty, on his return to Detroit after his attack on Fort Laurens, declared that 700 or 800 warriors, assembled at Upper Sandusky, were ready to march against the fort. He asked the British commander for arms and ammunition and requested that a British officer might accompany the expedition. Capt. Henry Bird was chosen. With large supplies .of provisions and ammunition and accompanied by ten British soldiers and several Indians from the vicinity of Detroit he hastened to Upper Sandusky where he found the Wyandots somewhat averse to entering at once upon the campaign. Their interest for the time seemed to center in the torture of a white captive who was about to be burned at the stake.


In the latter part of February, Bird with the British soldiers, Girty and 120 savages arrived in the vicinity of Fort Laurens. On the twenty-third of that month Colonel Gibson sent out a wagoner with eighteen men to bring in the horses belonging to the post to haul some wood. While they were within sight of the fort they were fired upon from ambush, all killed and scalped, while the astounded garrison were forced to witness thiS bloody spectacle which they were powerless to prevent.


The attacking force now besieged the fort. Gibson and his men did not dare to venture beyond its wooden walls. Here they were held for almost one month—from February 23 to March 20. Their scanty provisions were running very low and it appeared that they must soon choose between starvation and death at the hands of their savage foes. Fortunately the besiegers were themselves running short of supplies. Bird's Wyandot warriors, who had not entered upon the enterprise with much enthusiasm, were on the point of desertion. The siege was finally raised, and Bird returned to Upper Sandusky.


General McIntosh with 500 men at the end of March relieved the


140 - HISTORY OF OHIO


garrison under Gibson and left 100 fresh troops in their stead under Maj. Frederick W. Vernon, with provisions for two months. Soon afterward McIntosh was succeeded in command of the western department by Col. Daniel Brodhead.


Fort Laurens was still beset by bands of Indians ; the dense forest had not ceased to be an ambuscade into which it was dangerous to enter. The little garrison suffered great privations. General Washington desired the fort to be held, if possible, as he feared its abandonment would encourage the British at Detroit. In April the garrison was again on the verge of starvation. Major Vernon sent some of the soldiers to Fort Pitt. The force was now reduced to twenty-five men. This remnant, in a starving condition, was relieved by a company of regulars under Capt. Robert Ball, who left a fresh garrison of seventy-five men under command of Lieut.-Col. Richard Campbell. Finally, by order of Colonel Brodhead, the post was evacuated in August, 1779. The fort was not destroyed, but it was never again occupied. For many years it was an object of casual interest, until it yielded to the elements and gradually disappeared.


Recently the site and adjacent ground have been purchased by the State of Ohio and is now a small park in the custody of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. This was the first fort erected by Americans within the borders of Ohio. It is fitting that the site should be improved as a memorial to the brave defenders, who in the long ago, responding to the command of Gen. George Washington, built this outpost in the wilderness of the Ohio Country and held it grimly against a relentless foe, with fortitude and patriotic devotion scarcely surpassed by the soldiers under the immediate command of "the father of his country" at Valley Forge.


MORAVIAN MISSIONS


SCHOENBRUNN


Schoenbrunn occupied a site of great natural beauty. On the west side of the Tuscarawas the spring, which gave the town its name, 8 poured forth a volume of pure cold water into a lagoon which opened into the river, affording ready access to the canoes whose thirsty oarsmen for generations had come to slake their thirst at this fountain source of refreshing waters. The spring is now dry ; the lagoon, filled with gravel and silt, has become a part of the weedy shore, and the site of Schoenbrunn was so completely obliterated that some difficulty has been experienced in determining the location of its streets and buildings.


In this town were built, in 1772, the first protestant church and the first schoolhouse erected in the Ohio Country.


From a recent circular, entitled "The Romantic Story of Schoenbrunn," issued by a committee of ministers in behalf of an appropriate Schoenbrunn memorial, we learn that "it was May 3, 1.772, that Zeisberger and a small company of Christian Indians arrived at the Big Spring and began the erection of temporary dwellings. On August 23, an additional company of Indian converts and their families, numbering over 200 souls, arrived under the direction of Rev. John Heckewelder and Rev. John Ettwein. The next day the town of Schoenbrunn (Beautiful Spring) was regularly laid out in the shape of a T with forty lots, each three rods wide and six rods long. The streets were four rods wide. At the end of the next year the town consisted of sixty houses of hewn timber, besides huts and lodges ; a church 40 feet by 36 feet, and a schoolhouse. Every lot was fenced in, and there was a fence around the entire town and their 'God's Acre.' These Delaware Chris-


8 - Schoenbrunn means in English "beautiful spring."


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 141


tian Indians came with their missionaries from their former mission town in western Pennsylvania, which they had been forced to vacate because of the encroachments of unprincipled whites."


We learn further from the same source that these "Missionaries and their converts at Schoenbrunn formed the first temperance society and the first peace society west of the Alleghany Mountains, for they would not allow any liquor in their town, nor would they go to war. Henry Laurens, president of the Continental Congress, sent the hearty thanks of the government to the missionaries and their converts for the services they rendered in turning back war parties, in ransoming captives and in warning the officers at Pittsburg of intended massacres."


An impartial account of Schoenbrunn as it appeared to Rev. David Jones, a Baptist minister of the Gospel from New Jersey, on the occasion of his visit to the place Sunday, January 14, 1773, is in part as follows :


"In company with Mr. Duncan, set out, by reason of ice arrived not to it till afternoon. When we came worship was finishing the minister continued but a few sentences, which were spoken by him in the English tongue, an interpreter giving the meaning to the Indians. This town is situated on high level land east side of Muskingum, about ten miles up the stream from New-Comer's Town. It is laid out in regular form—houses are built on each side of the street. The Indians moved here about August, 1772, and have used such frugality, that they have built neat log houses to dwell in, and a good house for divine worship, about twenty-two feet by eighteen, well seated, and a good floor and chimney. They are a mixture of Stock-Bridge, Mingo and Delaware Indians. Since the last war their chief residence has been about Wioming. Their conduct in time of worship is praiseworthy. Their grave and solemn countenances exceed what is commonly seen among us at such times. Their minister, the Rev. David Siezberger, seems an honest man, a native of Moravia, nor has he been many years in this country. He has been successful among these poor heathens, condescending for their sake to endure hardships. While I was present he used no kind of prayer which was not pleasing to me, therefore asked him if that was their uniform practice. He replied that some times prayer was used. Their worship began and ended with the singing of a hymn in the Indian language, which was performed melodiously. In the evening they met again for worship, but their minister, inadvertently or by design, spoke in the German language, so that by me nothing was understood. Mr. Siezberger told me that near eighty families belonged to their two towns, and there were two ministers besides himself. I was informed that one of them, whose name is Youngman, is a person of good ability. By what appeared, must say, that the conduct of the Moravian Society towards the heathen is commendable."


Both Zeisberger and Heckewelder were authors of considerable ability. They had been well educated. Some of their works are still read as original sources of the history of the times and the tribes among whom they labored. The first school book for use in the Ohio Country was written by Zeisberger and published in Philadelphia in 1776. It was entitled "A Delaware Indian and English Spelling Book for use in the schools of the Christian Indians on the Muskingum River." He also left in manuscript form a "History of the Northern American Indians." This has been edited by Archer Butler Hulbert and William Nathanial Schwarze and published by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. Heckewelder wrote "History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States," and "Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren Among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians." Both of these works have been published.


For a time Schoenbrunn flourished. The Christian Indians applied themselves industriously to the tilling of the soil and the beautifying of


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their humble but comfortable homes. Flowers bloomed at their doorways and their gardens yielded gratifying returns in vegetables and fruits. Finally war without and dissensions within brought the town to an end. On April 19, 1777, "Zeisberger and his faithful converts gathered in their beloved church for the last service, and as they knelt in prayer they asked God to forgive the heathen Monseys who were forcing them to leave. The church was then razed to the ground to prevent its desecration. Later the entire village was destroyed by hostile Indians."


The following "Chronology of Schoenbrunn History" has recently been published :


March 14, 1771—David Zeisberger arrived at Gekelemukpechunk, the Delaware capital (Newcomerstown). That evening he preached the first protestant sermon in Ohio.


March 16, 1772—He discovered The Schoenbrunn Spring.


May 3, 1722—David Zeisberger and twenty-eight Christian Indians arrived at the Spring.


August, 1772—The first civil code in the State of Ohio was adopted by the Christian Indians for the town of Schoenbrunn.


August 23, 1772—Two additional companies of Christian Indians arrived at Schoenbrunn.


August 24, 1772—The missionaries and their Indian helpers laid out the town of Schoenbrunn.


September 19, 1772—"Finished the church, and this evening held the first service."


September 24, 1772—The elder Joshua and a company of Mohicans began Upper Town, about where Dover now stands.


October 9, 1772—Joshua and his Mohicans moved from Upper Town and began Gnadenhutten.


July 4, 1773—John Lewis Roth, the first white child in the present State of Ohio, was born at Gnadenhutten.


July 29, 1773—"Today the schoolhouse was completely finished." (This was the first schoolhouse in Ohio.)


October 24, 1773—The second church at Schoenbrunn was dedicated.


December 24, 1773—Christmas Eve Vigils and Love Feast. The children were presented with written Bible verses and lighted tapers.


January 11, 1774—"The school for children was reopened today, in which they showed great interest. Many of them arose hours before daybreak, pounded Indian corn and did their other work in order not to miss school."


February 7, 1774—"The men made palings in order to fence in our town as soon as the weather permits it."


April 3, 1774—Easter services at Schoenbrunn, in which the Easter Litany was used for the first time in the Delaware language.


January, 1776—A revival occurred among the children of the mission.


April 12, 1776—Zeisberger, Heckewelder and thirty-five converts began the building of Lichtenau, the third mission town, two and one-half miles below Coshocton.


April 19, 1777—David Zeisberger with a company of faithful converts held a short service in the church at Schoenbrunn, after which the church was razed to the ground, and the town was deserted.


December, 1779—New Schoenbrunn was founded. It was built on the western bank of the Muskingum, and about a mile farther up the river than the first Schoenbrunn.


April 6, 1780—Salem, the fifth mission town, was begun. It was situated about one and one-half miles southwest of Port Washington.


March 8, 1782—Massacre of ninety Christian Indians at Gnadenhutten.


November 17, 1808—David Zeisberger died at Goshen, near New Philadelphia, Ohio, aged eighty-seven years. He spent sixty-two years in missionary work among the Indians.


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 143


In recent years, chiefly through the initiative of the Tuscarawas County Historical Society and Rev. J. E. Weinland, pastor of the Moravian church at Dover, Ohio, a movement has been successfully inaugurated to restore the Village of Schoenbrunn and, as far as possible, the spring and the lagoon to their former states. The site of the town has been purchased with money appropriated by the General Assembly of Ohio. When improvements are completed, this property will be transferred to the custody of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. Plans have been adopted for the erection of the church and the schoolhouse on their original sites. This is made possible by drawings and descriptions in the archives of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.


The old church bell which, 150 years ago, called the Indian converts to service, has been presetved and from its ancient place will soon ring again and remind the present generation of the heroic missionary service and Christian fortitude of Zeisberger and Heckewelder who founded in the wilderness of the West the church and the school—these two potent and beneficent institutions that have contributed so much to the upbuilding of the Ohio of today.


GNADENHUTTEN


To the period of the Revolution belongs the massacre of the Moravian Indians at Gnadenhutten, within the present limits of Tuscarawas County. In their doctrine of non-resistance, universal brotherhood and peace, the Moravians were not unlike the Quakers. In their zeal to carry their message to the natives of the new world they were not surpassed even by the Jesuit Fathers. Among themselves they were known as "United Brethren." They came to Pennsylvania in 1741 and promptly sent missionaries among the Indians for whom they built churches and established schools. As early as 1761 a Moravian missionary by the name of Christain Post came to Ohio and began his work among the Indians on the banks of the Tuscarawas in what is now Stark County. To this day the site of his log but is pointed out to the traveler. Post soon went back to Pennsylvania, but in 1762 returned with a young missionary by the name of John Heckwelder, who after a short residence among the Indians became an object of suspicion and was forced to return to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Later the attitude of the Indians changed and they sent an invitation to Rev. David Zeisberger to come and bring with him a colony of Moravian Indians from the missions of Pennsylvania. This was promptly and eagerly accepted, and soon afterward (May 3, 1772) five families. numbering twenty-eight persons, came and established the village of Schoen-Braun. A little later 250 more Christian Indians, under the leadership of Heckwelder, came and formed the larger settlement at Gnadenhutten. In four years the Moravian settlements had grown to over 400 persons, neat villages were laid out, churches, schoolhouses and log dwellings were erected, and the devoted missionaries, under the leadership of Zeisberger and Heckwelder, rejoiced in the visible results of their labors. A portion of the forest was cleared away, the earth was tilled, gardens were cultivated, and the foundations of Christian civilization were laid in the wilderness.


Unfortunately the Revolutionary war involved the work of these messengers of peace and their dusky disciples. The Americans held Pittsburg while the British were in possession of the military post at Detroit. The aversion of the Moravians to war made them the object of suspicion to both parties. The British ordered the Christian Indians to leave their crops and move northward, while the missionaries were taken as prisoners to Detroit. They were soon afterward released and their followers were permitted to return to their villages in February of 1782 to gather their corn.


144 - HISTORY OF OHIO


The rough frontiersmen at Pittsburg, only too ready to accept as true rumors that these Christian Indians had been secretly aiding the British, and eager to avenge wrongs that they themselves had suffered at the hands of the unconverted savages, assembled to the number of eighty or ninety under the leadership of Col. David Williamson and started on their mission to destroy the settlements. They reached the vicinity of Gnadenhutten early in March when the Indians had almost finished the gathering of the corn. With kind words they easily deceived the unsuspecting natives, got possession of their weapons of defense, took them all prisoners and huddled them together, the women and girls in one house, and the men and boys in another. At a council their captors coolly and cruelly decreed that these unoffending creatures should all be put to death. The victims were notified and spent the night in singing and prayer. To the last'some of them continued to hope that Heckwelder or Zeisberger might return to save their lives, but the awful tragedy was unsuspected and no one came to their rescue. On the morning of March 8 the ruthless butchery began. The doomed victims were cruelly slain—all except two who escaped to tell the story. This brutal and bloody work has made infamous the white savages who perpetrated it. An Ohio historian has fittingly called it "the wickedest deed in our history."


The outrage against the Moravian Indians was not to go unavenged. Not satisfied with the murders that they had perpetrated at Gnadenhutten, the savage frontiersmen recruited their numbers to over 400 and marched toward Upper Sandusky to destroy the larger number of Christian Indians who had not returned to Gnadenhutten. This band elected Col. William Crawford over Colonel Williamson to lead the expedition to the settlements on the Sandusky River. The Christian Indians heard of their coming and deserted their villages, but some of their dusky countrymen who were unconverted had no scruples against a war of vengeance. These ambushed Craw ford and his men in the tall grass near Upper Sandusky and drove them back in confusion. Many of them were shot or perished in the swamps through which they tried to escape. Colonel Crawford was captured and burned at the stake with all the torture that savage ingenuity could invent. Before his death he was told by an Indian chief that he had placed himself beyond the reach of mercy. "Why so ?" asked Crawford. To which the chief replied, "By joining yourself to that infamous man, Williamson, the man who but the other day murdered such a number of Moravian Indians, knowing them to be friends ; knowing that he ran no risk in murdering a people who could not fight, and whose only business was praying."


Crawford was not with the party that committed the outrage at Gnadenhutten. Williamson led that expedition and accompanied the second, but escaped capture. There would have been less occasion for regret had he met Crawford's fate.


The butchery of the Indian converts at Gnadenhutten has been execrated by succeeding generations. Their sympathy for these martyrs has been signalized by raising over their remains, where they fell, a monument with the simple and appropriate inscription :


HERE

TRIUMPHED IN DEATH

NINETY

CHRISTIAN INDIANS

MARCH 8, 1782


THE SLAUGHTER OF THE MORAVIAN CONVERTS


Butterfield 9 is in error in his statements to the effect that the Moravian Indians were guilty of making a raid on the border settle-


9 - Butterfield, "History of the Girtys," p. 180.


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 145


ments and killing a number of persons among whom he specifically names a Mrs. Wallace and her child and says that her garments were discovered by Williamson's men in Gnadenhutten. Nor is there any reliable evidence that these peaceful converts had ever made war upon the Americans or that they had in their possession, as charged; any "garments and other things" which had been taken in murderous raids against the settlements. Butterfield's book, "History of the Girtys," was published in March, 1890. In February, 1891, William M. Farrar, in a carefully prepared paper read before the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, completely disproves the charges made by Butterfield. 10 Nothing was found on the persons of the Moravian Indians at Gnadenhutten to arouse the fury of the men under Williamson.


It remains only to quote, somewhat in detail, what others with opportunities to know have said in regard to the "Moravian Massacre." After describing the surprise and consternation among the Indian converts when they were suddenly seized by the followers of Williamson after they had given up their arms, and were told that they must die, Heckewelder relates in his "Narrative" 11


"Finding that all entreaties to save their lives were to no purpose—and that some, more blood thirsty than their comrades, were anxious to begin upon them : they united in begging a short delay, so that they might prepare themselves for death—which request at length was granted them. Then asking each other's pardon whenever they had offended or grieved one another : they kneeled down, offering fervent prayers, to God their Savior—and kissing one another, under a flood of tears, fully resigned to his Will, they sang praises unto him, in the joyful hope, that they would soon be relieved from all pains, and be with him, their Redeemer.


"During the time of their devotion, the Murderers were consulting on the manner, in which they put them to death. Some were for setting fire to the houses they were in, and burning them alive. Others wanted to take their Scalps home with them, as a signal of Victory ; while again others remonstrated against either of these plans, declaring that they never would be guilty of murdering a People whose innocence was so satisfactorily evinced. * * *


"The Murderers, impatient to make a beginning, came again up to them, while they were singing ; and enquiring whether they were now ready for dying : they were answered in the affirmative ; they adding : `that they had commended their immortal Souls to God who had given them the assurance in their hearts that they should come to him :'—One of the party, now taking up a Cooper's Mallet, which lay at the house saying : 'How exactly this will answer for the business,' began with Abraham and continued knocking down one after the other until he


10 - It has been recently written (by Butterfield) that it was originally the intention to take the Indians to Fort Pitt as prisoners just as Williamson and his party at first assured them would be done. But when the settlers found in the possession of the Indians the dress of Mrs. Wallace all bloody, and other property which had been taken from the settlers, the wrath of the men rose to such a pitch that it was impossible to save the lives of the prisoners, and that then, for the first time, was it determined to kill them. This is of the same quality as the other stories told in justification of the murder of the Moravian Indians. Almost all the old accounts assigned as the cause for the expedition the capture of Carpenter, the murder of John Fink and the capture of Mrs. Wallace and her children. It is now known that Carpenter returned home more than two months prior to the capture of Mrs. Wallace. He is the man who it was said saw in the Moravian towns during his captivity the bloody dress of Mrs. Wallace, which of course is absurd. Wallace believed his wife alive and a captive as much as eight months after the massacre. So the position that it was the original intention to take the Christian Indians to Fort Pitt is not tenable.—W. E. Connelley, ed. "Heckewelder Narrative," note, pp. 425-426. See also "Ohio Archxological and Historical Society Publications," Vol. III, pp. 288-289.


11 - Connelley, "Heckewelder's Narrative," pp. 423-425.


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had counted fourteen, that he had killed with his own hand, now handed this instrument to one of his fellow murderers saying : 'My arm fails me ! Go on in the same way ! I think I have done well !' "


Heckewelder then briefly describes the killing of the remaining Indians and tells how the perpetrators of this deed, after they had set fire to the buildings, "went off shouting and yelling on having been so victorious." Frederick Leinbach described this tragedy in the following language :

"In the morning the militia chose two houses, which they called the slaughter houses, and then fetched the Indians, two or three at a time, with ropes about their necks, and dragged them into the slaughter houses, where they knocked them down ; they then set these two houses on fire, as likewise all the other houses."


George Henry Loskiel in his "History of the Mission of the United Brethren Among the Indians in North America" sums up this awful affair in a few words :


"The poor innocent people, men, women and children, were led, bound two and two together with ropes, into the above mentioned slaughter houses and there scalped and murdered."12


Two boys escaped. Loskiel tells who they were and how they got away with their lives :


"Only two youths, each between fifteen and sixteen years old, escaped almost miraculously from the hands of the murderers. One of them, seeing that they were in earnest, was so fortunate as to disengage himself from his bonds, then slipping unobserved from the crowd, crept through a narrow window into the cellar of the house in which the Sisters were executed. Their blood soon penetrated through the flooring, and according to his account, ran in streams into the cellar, by which it appears probable that most, if not all of them were not merely scalped, but killed with hatchets or swords. The lad remained concealed till night, providentially not coming down to search the cellar, when having with much difficulty climbed up the wall to the window, he crept through and escaped into a neighboring thicket. The other youth's name was Thomas. The murderers struck him only one blow on the head, took his scalp and left him. But after some time he recovered his senses and saw himself surrounded by bleeding corpses. Among these he observed one Brother called Abel, moving and endeavoring to raise himself up. But he remained lying as still as though he had been dead and this caution proved the means of his deliverance ; for soon after, one of the murderers coming in, and observing Abel's motions, killed him outright with two or three blows. Thomas lay quiet till dark though suffering the most exquisite torment. He then ventured to creep towards the door, and observing nobody in the neighborhood got out and escaped into the woods where he concealed himself during the night. These two youths met afterwards in the wood and God preserved them from harm on their journey to Sandusky, though they purposely took a long circuit and suffered great hardships and dangers. But before they left the neighborhood of Gnadenhutten they observed the murderers from behind the thicket making merry after their successful enterprise, and at last setting fire to the two slaughter houses filled with corpses." 13


Here we may well draw the veil over this simple, straightforward account of this inexcusable outrage—this premeditated and brutal horror that beggars description.


THE BURNING OF COL. WILLIAM CRAWFORD


As we should naturally expect, writers have appeared at different times to mitigate the offenses of Williamson and his party and magnify


12 - Loskiel, Part III, p. 180.

13 - “Ibid.,” p. 181.


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the horrors of the burning of Crawford. Opposed to these are those who detail the atrocities of Gnadenhutten and pass over lightly the fiendish torture and burning of Crawford. With the former must be included Consul Wilshire Butterfield, an unusually careful and reliable author who seems in this case to have resorted to a little "special pleading." After describing some border outrages by "British" Indians, including a number from Gnadenhutten, and the setting out of Williamson and his militiamen on their trail, Butterfield says :


"The force was commanded by Colonel David Williamson. Upon reaching the Tuscarawas, ninety of the 'Moravian' Indians—men, women and children—together with six of the other Indians who had come with them from the Sandusky, were captured at Gnadenhutten and subsequently all killed, except two boys who succeeded in eluding the militia. The residue of those from the Sandusky were in one of the other villages ; these, taking the alarm, made good their escape. The militia supposed, until they learned the contrary from their prisoners. that they had captured only British Indians. When they became assured that most of the captured were `Moravians,' they concluded to take them to Fort Pitt and deliver them to General Irvine, who commanded there, and they so informed the prisoners. But subsequently they discovered garments and other things in possession of the captives, which convinced them that they--the 'Moravian' Indians—had just been raiding into the settlement and that it was their trail which had been followed by the militia ; which belief, as to about thirty of those Indians, there can be no doubt was well founded.


"Williamson's men, suddenly made desperate by what they had discovered (some of the bloody garments being recognized as having belonged to the victims of One of the raids before mentioned), resolved to put to death, without discrimination, all who were in their hands ; and this resolution, as we have already mentioned, they proceeded to carry into effect. It was a ghastly retaliation, only made possible by the previous aggressions of the thirty 'Moravian' Indians and the British Indians who were with them. 14


These statements are followed by others tending to excuse the excesses of Williamson and his followers and to leave the impression


14 - Butterfield, "History of the Girtys," pp. 155-156.


148 - HISTORY OF OHIO


that the Moravian Indians were guilty of the offenses that the frontiersmen had set out to punish. Among other evidences to bolster up this charge is the statement that Gnadenhutten victims before their "execution" sang "war songs" and not "hymns" as reported by others who heard them.


The description of the burning of Crawford by Butterfield is in marked contrast. With Crawford was captured Dr. John Knight who witnessed and reported the torturing of the former. After describing the tying of Crawford with a rope "long enough for him to sit down or walk around the post once or twice and return the same way" and stating that Captain Pipe made a speech to the Indians to which "they all yelled a hideous and hearty assent" Butterfield thus describes what followed :


"So soon as Captain Pipe had finished his speech to the assembled savages—men, squaws and children—the Indian men took up their guns and shot powder into Crawford's naked body from his feet as far up as his neck. It was the opinion of Knight that not less than seventy loads were discharged upon him ! They then crowded about him, and, to the best of Knight's observation, cut off both his ears ; for, when the throng dispersed, he saw the blood running from both sides of the head !


"The fire was about six or seven yards from the post to which Crawford was tied. It was made of small hickory poles burnt quite through the middle, each end of the poles remaining about six feet in length. Three or four Indians by turns would take up, individually, one of these burning pieces of wood and apply it to his naked body, already burnt black with powder.


"These tormentors presented themselves on every side of him, so that, whichever way he ran round the post, they met him with the burning faggots. Some of the squaws took broad boards, upon which they would carry a quantity of burning coals and hot embers, and throw on him ; so that, in a short time, he had nothing but coals of fire and hot ashes to walk on !


"In the midst of these extreme tortures, Crawford called to Girty and begged of him to shoot him ; but the cruel renegade making no answer, he called again. Girty then, by way of derision, told Crawford he had no gun ; at the same time, turning about to an Indian who was behind him, he laughed heartily and, by all his gestures, seemed delighted at the horrid scene ! * * *


"Crawford, at this period of his suffering, besought the Almighty to have mercy on his soul, spoke very low, and bore his torments with the most manly fortitude. He continued, in all the extremities of pain, for an hour and three-quarters or two hours longer, when, at last, being unable to stand, he lay down upon his stomach. The savages then scalped him, and repeatedly threw the scalp into the face of Knight, telling him that was his 'great captain.' "


That this description of the tragedy is essentially true there is little room to doubt. It is an all-sufficient exhibition of the vengeance of the "noble red man" and the depravity of Simon Girty.


It is equally true that the murder of the Moravian converts, which Butterfield passes over rather lightly, presents a picture equally black and revolting.


LATER HISTORY OF MORAVIAN MISSIONS


Of the later history of the Moravian missions in Ohio much has been written. A brief r sketch must here suffice. Congress in response to a popular sentiment in favor of the Moravians, in the year 1788 granted them three tracts of land embracing the sites of Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten and Salem. In 1789 Zeisberger returned to the valley


COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - 149


of the Tuscarawas and founded the Village of Goshen near the site of Schoenbrunn.


In the meantime the valley of the Tuscarawas, outside of the Moravian reservation, was rapidly settled in the years following the Revolution. Contact with the white immigrants of the frontier had a demoralizing influence upon the Indians. The selling of intoxicating liquors to them was strictly prohibited by law, but the act was evaded and not infrequently they were seen reeling under the influence of firewater. They seemed to yield more readily to the vices than to the virtues of the white man's civilization. The War of 1812 made the "Goshen Indians," as they were called, again objects of suspicion. Finally, conditions became so discouraging that even the Moravian missionaries were forced to admit that their work was practically hopeless with an environment which grew increasingly unfavorable to the industrial, intellectual and moral improvement of the Indians. To save them from utter degradation and extinction, arrangements were made for their transfer to some territory remote from the white settlements, where they would again be under the direct care of the United States Government.


The trustees of the Moravian Society relinquished their claims for the small sum of $6,654. This was preliminary to the extinction of the title of the Christian Indians to the lands set apart for them. This was arranged by treaty at Gnadenhutten between the United States and the Indians "including Killbuck and his descendants and the nephews and descendants of the late Capt. White Eyes, Delaware chief." By the terms of the treaty, which was signed by the Indians and on the part of the United States by Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan Territory, the title to the 12,000 acres of Moravian lands passed to the United States in exchange for 24,000 acres "in one of the territories to be designated by the United States and an annuity of $400." By act of Congress approved May 26, 1824, the reservations in Ohio were sold and the Moravian Indians departed never to return.


BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES


A few biographical notes on the Moravian missionaries are here included. More extended sketches, are available in works devoted to their missions in the valley of the Tuscarawas.


Christian Frederick Post was born in Conitz, Prussia, in 1710. He came to Pennsylvania in 1742. From 1743 to 1749 he was a missionary to the Moravian Indians in New York and Connecticut. He returned to Europe, but came back to Pennsylvania in 1758, where he again engaged in the missionary service. He twice married Indian women and, after the death of the last, married a white woman. In 1761 he come to the vicinity of the present site of Bolivar and built a cabin just north of the southern boundary of Stark County where he undertook to establish a mission. After a time he was forced to abandon this post. He afterward attempted to establish a mission on the Bay of Honduras, which was in a measure successful. Later he united with the Protestant Episcopal Church and died at Germantown, Pennsylvania, April 29, 1785.


John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder was born in. Bedford, England, March 12, 1743. At the age of eleven he came with his parents to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. After attending school and serving as apprentice to a cooper, he was called to assist Frederick Post and at the age of nineteen accompanied him to the Ohio Country. After leaving Posts's cabin on the banks of the Tuscarawas, he was appointed to assist Rev. David Zeisberger at a mission in Pennsylvania. In 1772 he .returned to the valley of the Tuscarawas where he remained in the mission service fifteen years. In 1792, at the request of Henry Knox, secretary of war, he accompanied Gen. Rufus Putnam to Post Vin-