HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO CHAPTER I THE BRITISH LION AND THE LILIES OF FRANCE The exact. date of the initial appearance of the white man in Ohio is not certainly known. It is well authenticated, however, that the inceptive efforts made by Europeans to settle within the territory now constituting the State of Ohio was in the Maumee Valley. It was on or about the year 1680 that some hardy French established themselves along that historic stream, and constructed a small stockade not far from its mouth. Spain already claimed a priority to all of Northwest Ohio by right of discovery. Not having occupied the territory, or made settlements therein, her pretension was not .considered worthy of serious consideration by the other contending and ambitious nations- So far as records go, the foot of the Spanish conquistador never trod the region of the Great Lakes, and the primeval forests of that region at no time echoed to the footfall of the Don. She based her claim wholly on a "concession in perpetuity," made by Pope Alexander VI. By authority of Almighty God, granted him in St. Peter, and by the exalted office that he bore on earth as the actual representative of Jesus the Christ, Pope Alexander had granted to the Kings of Castile and Leon, their heirs and successors, all of North America and the greater part of South America. These sovereigns were to be "Lords of the lands, with free, full and absolute power, authority Vol - I -1 and jurisdiction." This famous decree is one of the most remarkable documents in authentic history. It was a deed in blank conveying all the lands that might be discovered west and south of a line drawn from the Pole Arctic. to the Pole Antarctic, 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. It was based upon the theory that lands occupied by heathen, pagan, infidel, and unbaptized people had absolutely no title which the Christian ruler was bound to respect- Such human beings as the Indians, who happened to dwell thereon, were mere chattels that ran with the land in the same way as the fruits of the field or the wild game of the forests. The Pope designated to Spain and Portugal the exclusive right of hunting and finding and dominating these unknown lands and peoples. Francis I, King of France, disputed the claims of Spain and Portugal to "own the earth-" He inquired of the Spanish king whether Father Adam had made them his sole heirs, and asked whether he could produce a copy of his will. Until such a document was shown, he himself felt at liberty to roam around and assume sovereignty over all the soil he might find actually unappropriated. It is certain that the French preceded the British in this territory by at least half a century. Jamestown was founded just one year before Champlain sowed the seeds of the - 1- 2 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO fleur de lis on the barren cliffs of Quebec. These two little colonies, a thousand miles apart, were the advance stations of the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon, which were 'destined to a life and death struggle in the New World. In the history of mankind this struggle was no less important than that between Greece and Persia, or Rome and Carthage in the long ago. The position of Canada, with the St. Lawrence opening up the territory adjacent to the Great Lakes, invited intercourse with this region, for the waterways provided a vast extent of inland navigation. The original claim of France was based on the discovery of the St. Lawrence by the brave .buccaneer Cartier, in 1534. He had sailed up a broad river, which he named St. Lawrence, as far as Montreal, and called the country Canada, :a name applied to the surrounding region by the Iroquois. This appellation was afterwards changed to New France. The later explorations by' Champlain, La Salle, Joliet, and others simply confirmed and expanded her former pretensions. She maintained the view that to discover a river established a right to all the territory drained by that stream and its tributaries. The waters of the Maumee and Sandusky, 'being tributary to the St. Lawrence, these valleys became a part of the vast domain known as New France, with Quebec as its capital. This claim France was ready to maintain with all the resources and power at her command. It is interesting to trace the gradual growth of geographical knowledge of French cartographers by a study of the maps drawn by them in the last half of the seventeenth century. Even after all the Great Lakes are known to them in a general way, the outlines and the relations of one to the other are at first indefinite and very far from being correct. This is probably chargeable to the fact that the explorers acquired much of their general knowledge from the indefinite statements of the aborigines. In Champlain's map, pub lished in 1632, Lake Erie is shown, but in a very small way. Lake Huron, called Mer Douce, is several times as expansive, and spreads out from east to west rather than from north to south. The first map in which Lacus Erius first appears in anything like a correct contour is one designed by Pere du Creux, in the year 1660. In this map we perceive the first outlines of the Maumee and the Sandusky rivers, although no names are there given to them. In Joliet's map of 1672, the Ohio River is placed only a short portage from the Maumee, and not far from Lake Erie. The increasing correctness of these maps, however, makes manifest the fact that priests and traders and explorers were constantly threading these regions, bringing back more perfect knowledge of the lakes and the rivers and smaller streams, which aided the cartographers in their important work. Samuel de Champlain, in the early part of the seventeenth century, explored much of the lake region. He founded Quebec in 1608. He visited the Wyandots, or the Hurons, at their villages on Lake Huron, and passed several months with them in the year 1615. It is quite likely that he traveled in winter along the southern shores of Lake Erie, for the map made by him of this region shows some knowledge of the contour of the southern shores of this lake. Louis Joliet is credited with being the first European to plow the waters of fair Lake Erie, but this historic fact has never been satisfactorily settled. It is generally believed by some historians that Chevalier de La Salle journeyed up the Maumee River, and then down the Wabash to the Ohio and the Mississippi in the year 1669, although this fact has not been positively established, for some of La Salle's journals were lost. For a period of two years his exact wanderings are unknown. But he is generally credited as the first white man to discover the Ohio, even though the route by which he reached it is unsettled. Through the dense forests in the HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 3 midst of blinding storms, across frozen creeks and swollen streams, fearless alike of the howling wolves and painted savages, the little band a boat which greatly astonished the natives who saw it. She bore at her prow a figure of that mythical creature, with the body of a HISTORIC SITES IN NORTHWEST OHIO of discoverers picked its way across the uncharted Ohio Valley. We do know that La Salle traversed Lake Erie from one end to the other in the Griffin, lion and the wings of an eagle. This vessel was a man-of-war, as well as a passenger boat, for five tiny cannon peeped out from her port-holes. He also built the first Fort Miami, 4 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO near the site of Fort Wayne, on his return overland from this trip. It was a rude log fort, and a few of his followers were left there to maintain it. It was in the year 1668 that the official representative of France, on an occasion when representatives of many Indian tribes were present by invitation, formally took possession of this territory at Sault Ste. Marie. A cross was blessed and placed in the ground. Near the cross was reared a post bearing a metal plate inscribed with the French royal arms. A prayer was offered for the king. Then Saint-Lusson advanced, and, holding his sword aloft in one hand and raising a sod of earth with the other, he formally, in the name of God and France, proclaimed possession of "Lakes Huron and Superior and all countries, rivers, lakes, and streams contiguous and adjacent there unto, both those that have been discovered and those which may be discovered hereafter, in all their length and breadth, bounded on one side by the seas of the north and west and on the other by the South Sea * * *." The Jesuit fathers penetrated almost the entire Northwest Territory, and their reports, called the "Relations," reveal tales of suffering and hardships, self-sacrifice and martyrdoms, that are seldom paralleled in history. But their zeal has cast a glamour over the early historY of the country. One of the most renowned of the Jesuits was Father Marquette, who with Joliet navigated the Upper Mississippi and wore himself out by privation and perils. As a result of exposure, he perished in a rude bark but on the shore of Lake Michigan, attended by his faithful companions. He gazed upon the crucifix and murmured a prayer until death forever closed his lips and veiled his eyes. No name shines brighter for religious devotion, dauntless perseverance, and sacrifice for the advancement of his country and his religion. Ohio, however, was not the scene of the Jesuit explora tions and missionary efforts. The only exception was a mission conducted at Sandusky for a time by Jesuit priests from Detroit. It is quite likely that the coureurs des bois, who traversed the lakes and the forests in every direction, laden with brandy and small stocks of trinkets to barter with the aborigines for their more valuable furs, were among the earliest visitors to Northwest Ohio. Some of these forest tramps frequented the regions of the Sandusky and the Maumee. These men became very popular with the savages, by reason of their free and easy manners, and because they introduced to them the brandy, the use of which became one of their greatest vices. Les coureurs des bois were of a class that made themselves popular by terrorism. They were the forerunners of the cowboys of the western plains. Their occupation was lawless; they themselves were half traders, half explorers, and almost wholly bent on divertissement. Neither misery nor danger discouraged or thwarted them. They lived in utter disregard of all religious teaching, but the priesthood, residing among the savages, were often fain to wink at their immoralities because of their strong arms and efficient use of weapons of defense. Charlevoix says that "while the Indian did not become French, the Frenchman became savage." The first of these forest rovers was Etienne Brule, who set the example of adopting the Indian mode of life in order to ingratiate himself into the confidence of the savages. He became a celebrated interpreter and ambassador among the various tribes. Hundreds, following the precedent established by him, betook themselves to .the forest never to return. These outflowings of the French civilization were quickly merged into the prevalent barbarism, as a river is lost in the sands of one of our western deserts. The wandering Frenchman selected a mate from among the Indian tribes, and in this way an infusion of Celtic blood HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 5 was introduced among the aborigines. Many of them imbibed all the habits and prejudices of their adopted people. As a result, they vied with the red savages in making their faces hideous with colors, and in decorating their long hair with the characteristic eagle feathers. Even in the taking of a scalp they rivaled the genuine Indian in eagerness and dexterity. Not until Frontenac 's day were these degenerate French vagabonds brought again under complete control. The coureur des bois was a child of the woods, and he was in a measure the advance agent of civilization. He knew little of astronomy beyond the course of the sun and the polar star. That fact was no impediment, for constellations can rarely be seen there. It was the secrets of terrestrial nature that guided him on his way. His trained eye could detect the deflection of tender twigs toward the south. He had learned, that the gray moss of the tree trunks is always on the side toward the north ; that the bark is more supple and smoother on the east than on the west ; that southward the mildew never is seen. Out on the prairie, he was aware that the tips of the grass incline toward the south, .and are less green on the north side. This knowledge to an unlettered savant was his compass in the midst of the wilderness. Release a child of civilization amidst such environments and he is as helpless as an infant ; utterly amazed and bewildered, he wanders around in a circle helplessly and aimlessly. To despair and famine he quickly becomes an unresisting victim. There are no birds to feed him like the ravens ministered to the temporal wants of the prophet Elijah. Not so ,with the coureur des bois. To him the forest was a kindly home. He could penetrate its trackless depths with an undeviating course. To him it readily yielded clothing, food, and shelter. Most of its secrets he learned from the red man of the forest, but in some respects he outstripped his instructor. He learned to peruse the signs of the forest as readily as the scholar reads the printed page. The English at last became aroused to the value of the immense territory to the west of the Alleghenies. But the sons of Britain. were far less politic in dealing with the savages than the French. The proud chiefs were disgusted with the haughty bearing of the English officials. In short, all the British Indian affairs at this time were grossly mismanaged. It was only with the Iroquois, those fierce fighters of the Five Nations, that the English made much headway. These warriors, who carried shields of wood covered with hide, had acquired an implacable hatred of the French. Their antipathy had much to do with the final course of events. In their practical system of government, their diplomatic sagacity, their craftiness and cruelness in warfare, the Iroquois were probably unequaled among the aborigines. If they did nothing else, they compelled the French to make their advance to the west. rather than to the south. The French laid claim, because of their discoveries, to all of 'this vast empire of the Northwestern Territory, and this claim had been confirmed by the Treaty of Utrecht. The English put forth pretensions to all the continent as far west as the Mississippi River, and as far north as a line drawn directly west from their most northerly settlement on the Atlantic coast. Thus we find that Northwest Ohio was a part of the disputed territory. We read in the report of a governor of New York, in the year 1700, the following : "The French have mightily impos'd on the world in the mapps they have made of this continent, and our Geographers have been led into gross mistakes by the French mapps, to our very great. prejudice. It were as good a work as your Lordships could do, to send over a very skillful surveyor to make correct mapps of all these plantations and that out of hand, that we may not be cozen's on to the end of the chapter by the French." As a result of 6 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO this recommendation official maps began to appear in a few years. In Evans' map (1755) the Maumee and Sandusky rivers, and some of their tributaries, are pretty well outlined. Over the greater part of Northwest Ohio is printed the following : "These Parts were by the Confederates (Iroquois) allotted for the Wyandots when they were lately admitted into their league." In Mitchell's map, drawn in the same year and published a score of years later, very little improvement is shown, although the outline varies considerably from that of Evans. The best map of the period that we have preserved is the one drawn by Thomas Hutchins, in 1776. The originals of all these are preserved in the Congressional Library, at Washington. In the latter part of the seventeenth century a man by the name of John Nelson, who had spent many years among the French in America, made a report to the Lords of Trade concerning the difference in the English and French method of dealing with the natives, of which the following is a part: "The Great and only advantage which the enemy (French) hath in those parts doth consist chiefly in the nature of their settlement, which contrary to our Plantations who depend upon the improvement of lands, &c, theirs of Canada has its dependence from the Trade of Furrs and Peltry with the Aborigines, soe that consequently their whole study, and contrivances have been to maintaine their interest and reputation with them ; * * * The French are so sensible, that they leave nothing unimproved. * * * as first by seasonable presents; secondly by choosing some of the more notable amongst them, to whom is given a constant pay as a Lieutenant or Ensigne, &c, thirdly, by rewards upon all executions, either upon us or our Aborigines, giving a certaine sume pr head, for as many Scalps as shall be brought them ; fourthly by encouraging the youth of the Countrey in accompanying the Aborigines in all their expeditions, whereby they not only became acquainted with the Woods, Rivers, Passages, but of themselves may equall the Natives in supporting all the incident fatigues of such enterprises, which they performe." After the English once became aroused to the opportunity, it was not long until their explorers, cartographers, and traders began to infiltrate into the Ohio country from across the Blue Ridge Mountains. Clashes soon afterwards occurred between the French and the British, or between the allies of the one and the allies of the other. As early as 1740 traders from Virginia and Pennsylvania journeyed among the Indians of the Ohio and tributary streams to deal for peltries. The English " bush-lopers," or wood-rangers, as they were called by the eastern colonists, had climbed the mountain heights and had threaded their way through the forests or along streams as far as Michilimackinack. They sought favor with the dusky inhabitants by selling their goods at a lower price than the French traders asked, and frequently offered a better figure for the peltries. It was a contest for supremacy between the British Lion and the Lilies of France. These two emblems were to contend for the greater part of a century over the incomparable prize of the North American continent. England based her claims on the discoveries of the Cabots in 1498, which antedated those of Cartier. She did not follow up her discoveries in this northwest territory by actual settlement, however, for a century and a half. She also made further claims to this region by reason of treaties with the Iroquois Indians, who claimed dominion over this territory because of their conquest of the Eries, who had formerly inhabited it. Peace had scarcely been concluded with the hostile tribes than the English traders hastened over the mountains. Each one was anxious to be first in the new and promising market thus afforded. The merchandise was sometimes transported as far as Fort Pitt HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 7 (Pittsburgh) in wagons. From thence it was carried on the backs of horses through the forests of Ohio. The traders laboriously climbed over the rugged hills of Eastern Ohio, pushed their way through almost impenetrable thickets, and waded over swollen streams. They were generally a rough, bold, and fierce class, some of them as intractable and truculent as the savages themselves when placed in the midst of primeval surroundings. A coat of smoked deerskin formed the ordinary dress of the trader, and he wore a fur cap ornamented with the tail of an animal. He carried a knife and a tomahawk in his belt, and a rifle was thrown over his shoulder. The principal trader would establish his headquarters at some large Indian town, while his subordinates were dispatched to the surrounding villages with a suitable supply of red cloth blankets, guns and hatchets, tobacco and beads, and lastly, but not least, the "firewater." It is not at all surprising that in a region where law was practically unknown, the jealousies of rival traders should become a prolific source of robberies and broils, as well as of actual murders. These rugged men possessed striking contrasts of good and evil in their natures. Many of them, were coarse and unscrupulous ; but in all there were those warlike virtues of undespairing courage and fertility of resource. A bed of earth was frequently the trader's bed ; a morsel of dried meat and a cup of water were not unfrequently his food and drink. Danger and death were his constant companions. While the newly transplanted English colonies were germinating along the narrow fringe of coast between the Alleghenies and the sea, France was silently stretching her authority over the vast interior of the North American continent. The principal occupation of the Englishman was agriculture, which kept him closely at home. Every man owned his own cabin and his own plat of ground. The .Frenchman relied mainly on the fur trade, and with his articles of traffic traversed the rivers and forests of a large part of the continent. A few nobles owned the entire soil. It was in a sense the contest between feudalism and democracy. The English clergymen preached the Gospel only to the savages within easy reach of the settlements, but the unquenchable zeal of the Catholic Jesuit carried him to the remotest forest. In fact, had it not been for the hope of spreading the Christian faith like a mantle over the New World, the work of colonization would doubtless have been abandoned. " The saving of a soul," said Champlain, "is worth more than the conquest of an empire." The establishment of a mission was invariably the precursor of military occupancy. While the English were still generally acquainted only with the aborigines of their immediate neighborhood, the French had already insinuated themselves into the wigwams of every tribe from the Great' Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. In the actual military occupation of the territory the French far greatly antedated their more lethargic competitors. They had dotted the wilderness with stockades before the English turned their attention toward the alluring empire beyond the mountains. Had France fully appreciated the possibilities of the New World, the map of North America would be different than it is today. She sent more men to conquer paltry townships in Germany than she did to take possession of empires in America larger than France herself. The Frenchman of that day was shortsighted—he did not peer into the future. The glory of conquest today seemed greater than a great New France of a century or two hence. Most nations are blind to the possibilities of the future. If they do vision the opportunity, they are unwilling to make the sacrifice of the present for the good of their great-grandchildren and their children's children. England seemed to see the possibilities here better than the other nations, and yet, much of her 8 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO success was doubtless due to fortunate blundering rather than deliberate planning.. Northwest Ohio at this time was a region where "one vast, continuous forest shadowed the fertile soil, covering the land as the grass covers a garden lawn, sweeping over hill and hollow in endless undulation. Green intervals dotted with browsing deer, and broad plains blackened with buffalo, broke the sameness of the woodland scenery. Many rivers seamed the forest with their devious windings. A vast lake washed its boundaries, where the Indian voyager, in his birch canoe, could descry no land beyond the world of waters. Yet this prolific wilderness, teeming with waste fertility, was but a hunting-ground and a battlefield to a few fierce hordes of savages. Here and there, in some rich meadow opened to the sun, the Indian squaws turned the black mould with their rude implements of bone or iron, and sowed their scanty stores of maize and beans. Human labour drew no other tribute from that inexhaustible soil." 1 It is no wonder that the savage perished rather than yield such a delectable country, and that the white man was so eager to enjoy a land so richly 1 Parkman 's "Conspiracy of Pontiac." endowed. But so thin and scattered were the native population that a traveler might journey for days through the twilight forest without encountering a human form. At the opening of the eighteenth century, the Maumee River had already assumed considerable importance. Its broad basin became the first objective in the sanguinary struggle of the French and British to secure a firm foothold in Ohio, because of its easy route to the south and southwest. The favor of the Indians dwelling along its hospitable banks was diligently sought by both the French and English. The French Post Miami, near the head of the Maumee, had been built about 1680-86- It was rebuilt and strengthened in the year 1697 by Captain de Vincennes. It is also claimed that the French constructed a fort a few years earlier, in 1680, on the site of Fort Miami, a few miles above the mouth of the Maumee. In 1701 the first fort at Detroit, Fort Pontchartrain, was erected. Many indeed were the expeditions of Frenchmen, either military or trading, that passed up and down this river. They portaged across from Post Miami to the Wabash, and from there descended to Vincennes, which was an impor- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 9 taut French post. At the beginning of King George II's war, M. de Longueville, French commandant at Detroit, passed up this river with soldiers and savages on their way to capture British traders in Indiana. As early as 1727 Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, requested the British authorities to negotiate, a treaty with the Miamis, on the Miami of the Lakes, permitting the erection of a small fort, but this plan was not carried out. Many years before the Caucasian estab- lished his domicile in Ohio, the Sandusky River likewise was a favorite water route for travel between Canada and the Ohio, and from there to the Mississippi. The early French traders and the Jesuit fathers employed this route, and it required only a short portage. At that time, traversing as it did a densely wooded country and considerable marsh land, it was navigable at all seasons of the year. The English did not penetrate this region until the middle of the eighteenth century. Here occurred the first clash in the rival efforts of the two races to secure a foothold in Ohio, and here was erected the first fort of the island invaders into the Ohio country. The feeble forts erected by both French and English as outposts of empire were indeed dreary places. The men thus exiled from civilization lived almost after the manner of hermits. Time ever hung heavy on their hands, Whether in winter or summer, because of the absence of diversion. With its long barrack rooms, its monotonous walls of logs, and its rough floor of puncheon, the frontier fort did not provide luxury for the occupants. There was no ceiling but a smoky thatch, and there were no windows except openings closed with heavy shutters. The cracks between the logs were stuffed with mud and straw to expel the chilly blasts. An immense fireplace at one end, from which the heat was absorbed long before. it reached the frosty region at the opposite end, supplied the only warmth. The principal fare was salt pork, soup, and black bread, except. when game was obtainable. This was eaten at greasy log tables upon which was placed a gloomy array of battered iron plates and cups. When a hunter happened to bring in some venison or bear meat, there was great rejoicing. Regardless of these drawbacks, it is said that these men, exiles from every refinement, were fairly well contented and generally fairly thankful for the few amenities that came their way. "Their resources of employment and recreation were few and meagre. They found partners in their loneliness among the young beauties of the Indian camps. They hunted and fished, shot at targets and played at games of chance ; and when, by good fortune a traveller, found his way among them, he was greeted with a hearty and open-handed welcome, and plied with eager questions touching the great world from which they were banished men. Yet, tedious as it was, their secluded life was seasoned with stirring danger. The surrounding forests were peopled with a race dark and subtle as their own sunless mazes. At any hour, those jealous tribes might raise the war-cry. No human foresight could predict the sallies of their fierce caprice, and in ceaseless watching lay the only safety." CHAPTER II THE CONSPIRACIES OF NICHOLAS AND PONTIAC Northwest Ohio was a delightful home and a secure, retreat for the red men. The banks of the Maumee and the Sandusky, and their connecting streams, were studded with their villages. Their light canoes glided over the smooth waters, which were at once a convenient highway and an exhaustless reservoir of food. The lake provided them ready access to more remote regions. The forests, waters, and prairies produced spontaneously and in abundance, game, fish, fruits, and nuts —all the things necessary to supply their simple wants. The rich soil responded promptly to their feeble efforts at agriculture. In this secure retreat the wise men of the savages gravely convened about their council fires, and deliberated upon the best means of rolling back the flood of white immigration that was threatening. They dimly foresaw that this tide would ultimately sweep their race from the lands of their fathers. From here their young warriors crept forth and, stealthily approaching the isolated homes of the "palefaces," spreading ruin and desolation far and wide. Returning to the villages, their booty and savage trophies were exhibited with all the exultations and boasts of primitive warriors. Protected by almost impenetrable swamp and uncharted forests, their women, children, and property were comparatively safe during the absence of their warriors. Thus it was that the dusky children of the wilderness here enjoyed almost perfect freedom, and lived in accordance with their rude instincts, and the habits and customs of the tribes. "Amid the scenes of his childhood, in the presence of his ancestors' graves, the red warrior, with his squaw and papoose, surrounded by all the essentials to the enjoyment of his simple wants, here lived out the character which nature had given him. In war, it was his base line of attack, his source of supplies, and his secure refuge ; in peace, his home." It was in Northwest Ohio that two of the most noted conspiracies against the encroachments of the invading race were formulated and inaugurated. One of these was against the French, and was led by chief Nicholas ; the other was the more noted conspiracy of Pontiac, which had for its object the annihilation of British power. Orontony was a noted Wyandot chief, who had been baptized under the name of Nicholas. The tribe had just lately removed from the neighborhood of Detroit, having been in some manner offended by the French. He devised a plan. for the general extermination of the French power in the West. Nicholas resided at " Sandosket," and was "a wily fellow, full of savage cunning, whose enmity, when once aroused, was greatly to be feared." He had his stronghold and villages on some islands lying just above the mouth of the Sandusky River. It was he who granted permission to erect Fort Sandoski at his principal town, in order to secure the aid of the British. This was the first real fort 'erected by white men in Ohio. In 1747 five Frenchmen with their peltries rived here, totally unsuspicious of threaten- - 10 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 11 ing danger, counting upon the hospitality and friendship of the Hurons. Nicholas was greatly irritated by their audacity in coming into his towns without his consent. At the behest of rival English traders, these men were seized and treacherously tomahawked. When this news reached Detroit, there was great indignation. Messengers were promptly dispatched to Nicholas demanding the delivery of the murderers, but the request was defiantly refused. The crafty Nicholas conceived the idea of a widespread conspiracy, which should have for its object the capture of Detroit and all other French outposts, and the massacre of all the white inhabitants. The work of destruction was parcelled out to the various tribes of Wyandots and Miamis, of which he was the leader. He had also succeeded in rallying to his aid the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, and Shawnees, as well as some more distant tribes. The real purpose of this league was nothing less than the driving out of the French from the lake country. No mercy was to be shown. The Miamis and Wyandots were to exterminate the French from the Maumee country ; to the Pottawattomies were assigned the Bois Blanc Islands, while the Foxes were to attack the settlement at Green Bay. Nicholas reserved to himself and his followers the fort and settlement at Detroit. A party of Detroit Hurons were to sleep in the fort and houses at Detroit, as they had often done before, and each was to kill the people where he had lodged. The day set for this massacre was one of the holidays of Pentecost. Premature acts of violence aroused the suspicions of the French, and reinforcements were hurriedly brought in. Like the later one of Pontiac, the conspiracy failed because of a woman. While the braves were in council, one of their squaws, going into the garret of the house in search of Indian corn, overheard the details of the conspiracy. She at once hastened to a Jesuit priest, and revealed the plans of the savages. The priest lost no time in communicating with M. de Longueuil, the French Commandant, who ordered out the troops, aroused the people, and gave the Indians to understand that their plans had been discovered. Eight Frenchmen were seized at Fort Miami (Fort Wayne), which was destroyed, and a French trader was killed along the Maumee. Nicholas finally sought peace and pardon, but vengeance smouldered in his breast. In 1748, he and his followers, numbering in all one hundred and nineteen warriors, departed for the west after destroying all their villages along the Sandusky, and located in the Illinois country. In the spring of 1749 Celeron made his memorable journey down the O-hi-o, the "beautiful river." He took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign and buried leaden plates asserting the sovereignty of France. It was a picturesque flotilla of twenty birch bark canoes that left Montreal in that year. The passengers were equally as picturesque, including as they did soldiers in armor and dusky savages with their primitive weapons. They successfully accomplished their journey and buried their_ last plate at the mouth of the Great Miami River. Changing their course they turned the prow of their canoes northward, and in a few days reached Pickawillany (Pkiwileni). During a week's stay they endeavored to win the, Miamis to their cause, but were not very successful, even with a plentiful use of brandy. There was much feasting and revelry, but the cause of France was not advanced. From there they portaged to Fort Miami (Fort Wayne). Celeron himself proceeded overland to Detroit, while the majority of his followers descended the Maumee. The expedition traveled "over twelve hundred leagues," but added little to French prestige or dominion. In the following year Christopher Gist accomplished his remarkable expedition through Ohio, and at 12 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Pickawillany entered into treaty relations with the Miamis, or Twightwees, as the English called them. At the same time French emissaries were dismissed and their presents refused. The chief of the Pienkeshaws here known as "Old Britain," by the English, and as "La Demoiselle" by the French, because of his gaudy dress. Major George Croghan was sent as an emissary to the Ohio Indians several times, and traversed this country in 1765. He says : "About ninety miles from the Miamis of Twightwee we came to where the large river that heads in a lick, falls into the Miami River. This they called the forks. The Ottawas claim this country, and hunt here where game is very plentyful. From hence we proceed to the Ottawa village. This nation formerly lived at Detroit, but is now settled here on account of the richness of the country, where game is always found to be plenty. Here we were obliged to get out of our canoes and drag them eighteen miles on account of the rifts which interrupted navigation. At the end of these rifts we came to a village of the Wyandots who received us very kindly, and thence we proceeded to the mouth of the river where it falls into Lake Erie. From the Miamis to the lake it is computed 180 miles, and from the entrance of the river into the Lake to Detroit is sixty miles----that is forty-two miles up the lake and eighteen miles up the Detroit River to the garrison of that name." During the long wars between the French and the British, and their Indian 'allies, which extended over a period of half a century or more, and only ended in 1760, there were no battles of any consequence between these two contending forces in Northwest Ohio. There were, however, many isolated tragedies that occurred. The expedition of French and Indians under Charles Langlade, a half-breed, which captured and destroyed Pickawillany, in Shelby County, came from Detroit and ascended the Maumee and the Auglaise on their journey. It was composed of a considerable force of greased and painted Indians, together with a small party of French and Canadians. It was on a June morning, in 1752, that the peaceful village was aroused by the frightful war whoop, as the painted horde bore down upon the inhabitants. Most of the warriors were absent, and the squaws were at work in the fields. Only eight English traders were in the town. It was the work of only a few hours until Pickawillany was destroyed and set on fire. This was one of the many tragic incidents in the French and Indian war. " Old Britain" himself was killed, his body being boiled and eaten by the victors. The Turtle, of whom we are to hear much, succeeded him as chief. The English began to arrive in increasing numbers, following the French along the water courses to greater and greater distances. They continued to pay increased rates for furs, and to sell their goods at lower prices. In this way they began to undermine the French prestige. But the poor Indian was in a quandary. An old sachem meeting Christopher Gist is reported to have said : " The French claim all the land on our side of the Ohio, the English claim all the land on the other side—now where does the Indian's land lie ? " Between the French, their good fathers, and the English, their benevolent brothers, the aborigine seemed destined to be left without land enough upon which to erect a wigwam, leaving out of consideration the necessary hunting grounds. The British had evidently profited by the reports of their emissaries, concerning the success of the French in placing a bonus upon scalps, for we discover them engaged in the same nefarious business at a little later date. If the British inflicted less injury than they experienced by this horrible mode of warfare, it was less from their desire than from their limited success in enlisting the savages as their allies. Governor George Clinton, in a HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 13 letter dated at New . York, 25th April, 1747, wrote to Colonel William Johnson, as follows : "In the bill am going to pass, the council did not think proper to put rewards for scalping, or taking poor women or children prisoners, in it ; but the assembly has assured me the money shall be paid when it so happens, if the natives insist upon it." On May 30th, Colonel Johnson wrote to the governor : "I am quite pestered every day with parties returning with prisoners and scalps, and without a penny to pay them with. It comes very hard upon me, and is displeasing to them I can assure you, for they expect their pay and demand it of me as soon as they return." Governor Clinton reported to the Duke of Newcastle, under date of July 23, 1747, the following : "Colonel Johnson who I have employ 'd as Chief Manager of the Aborigine War and Colonel over all the natives, by their own approbation, has sent several. parties of natives into Canada & brought back at several times prisoners and scalps, but they being laid aside last year, the natives were discouraged and began to entertain jealousies by which a new expense became necessary to remove these jealousies & to bring them back to their former tempers; but unless some enterprise, which may keep up their spirits, we may again loose them. I intend to propose something to our Assembly for this purpose that they may give what is necessary for the expense of it, but I almost despair of any success with them when money is demanded." It would be a tedious task, and is entirely unnecessary, to follow all the events in the desperate efforts of the Indians to adapt themselves to the new situation. The French were far more aggressive, and many complaints came to the British authorities because of their delay in heeding the appeals of the savages. These delays afforded the time to the French authorities to erect new forts and rebuild others, in an effort to control one of the main routes to the Ohio River. Among these was Fort Junandat, at the mouth of the Sandusky River. With Braddock's defeat it seemed to the Indian mind that the English cause was weakening, and many of the tribes, heretofore British in sympathy, began to waver in their allegiance. William Johnson wrote : "The unhappy defeat of General Braddock has brought an Indian war upon this and the neighboring provinces and from a quarter where it was least expectant, I mean the Delawares and Shawnees." The English indeed began to think that "the Indians are a most inconstant and unfixed set of mortals." But it was such events that made possible a federation of the Ohio tribes, together with others farther west and north to drive the English from the western country. In making a study of the history of Northwest Ohio, we learn that this most remarkable section of our state has produced many great and notable white men ; men who have enlivened the pages of our nation's history, and helped to establish her destiny. But we must not forget that it also lays claim to one of the greatest men of American Indian annals. His father was an Ottawa chief, while his mother was an Ojibwa (Chippewa), or Miami, squaw. The date of his birth is variously stated from 1712 to 1720. He was unusually dark in complexion, of medium height, with a powerful frame, and carried himself with haughty mien. Most writers speak of his birthplace as "on the Ottawa River," but that tribe bestowed its name upon practically every stream by the side of which they camped. According to the Miami chief, Richardville, the great chief Pontiac first saw the light of day near the Maumee River, at the mouth of the Auglaize, which would be on or near the site of the present City of Defiance. The Maumee Valley was his home and stronghold. It was here that he planned his treacherous campaign, and here it was that he sought asylum when overwhelmed by defeat. Judged by the primitive standards of the 14 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO aborigines, Pontiac was one of the greatest chiefs of which we have any record in our nation's history. His intellect was broad, powerful, and penetrating. In subtlety and craft, he had no superiors. In him were combined the qualities of an astute leader, a remarkable warrior, and a broad-minded statesman. His ambitions seemed to have no limit, such as was usually the case with an Indian chief. His understanding reached to higher generalizations and broader comprehensions than those of any other Indian mind. The first place that we hear of Pontiac is in an account of the expedition of Rogers' Rangers, in the fall of 1760. Rogers himself says : "We met with a party of Ottawa Indians, at the mouth of the Chogaga (Cuyahoga) River, and that they were under `Ponteack' who is their 'present King or Emperor.' * * * He puts on an air of majesty and princely grandeur, and is greatly honored and revered by his subjects." Pontiac forbade his proceeding for a day or two, but finally smoked the pipe of peace with Rogers, and permitted the expedition to proceed through his country to Detroit, for the purpose of superseding the French garrison there. This was the first act of British authority over this section of our country. His object was accomplished without any conflict. "He was an illiterate man, and unprincipled in money matters, but a good ranger and observer." His journal of the HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 15 expedition affords interesting descriptions of the lake region. Like others his descriptions recount the wonderful profusion and variety of game. Rogers made an encampment for a few days near "Lake Sandusky," as he called it, from whence he sent a courier to Detroit. On his return in the following year, he reached Sandusky by the way of the Maumee. It was the fierce contest between the French and the English forces that afforded Pontiac the opportunity which always seems necessary to develop the great mind. It was with sorrow and anger that the red man saw the fleur-de-lis disappear and the Cross of St. George take its place. Toward the new intruders the Indians generally maintained a stubborn resentment and even hostility. The French, who had been the idols of the Indian heart, had begun to lose their grip on this territory. The English, who were succeeding them in many places, followed an entirely different policy in treating with the aborigines. The abundant supplies of rifles, blankets, and gunpowder, and even brandy, which had been for so many years dispensed from the French forts with lavish hand, were abruptly stopped, or were doled out with a niggardly and reluctant hand. The sudden withholding of supplies to which they had become accustomed was a grievous calamity. When the Indians visited the forts, frequently they were received rather gruffly, instead of being treated with polite attention, and sometimes they were subjected to genuine indignities. Whereas they received gaudy presents, accompanied with honeyed words from the French, they were not infrequently helped out of the fort with a butt of a sentry 's musket, or a vigorous kick from an officer by their successors. These marks of contempt were utterly humiliating to the proud and haughty red men. The fact that French competition in trade had practically ended doubtless influenced English officials and unscrupulous tradesmen in their treatment of the Indians. Added to these official acts was the steady encroachment of white settlers following the end of the French and Indian War, which was at all times a fruitful source of Indian hostility. By this time the more venturesome pioneers were escaping from the confines of the Alleghenies and beginning to spread through the western forests. It was with fear and trembling that the Indian "beheld the westward marches of the unknown crowded nations." Lashed almost into a frenzy by these agencies, still another disturbing influence appeared in a great Indian prophet, who arose among the Delawares. He advocated the wresting of the Indian 's hunting grounds from the white man, claiming to have received a revelation from the Great Spirit. Vast throngs were spellbound by his wild eloquence. Among his audiences were many who had come from distant regions to hear him. The white man was driving the Indians from their country, he said : unless the Indians obeyed the Great Spirit, and exterminated the white man, then the latter would destroy them. He enjoined them even to lay aside the firearms and clothing received from the white man. This was the state of affairs existing among the Indians in the years 1761 and 1762. Everywhere there was discontent and sullen hatred. The shadows of the forest were not blacker than the ominous darkness which pervaded the Indian breast. This condition was not local, for it spread from the Great Lakes, to the Gulf. It was far more nearly universal than any other Indian disturbance before or since that time. The French added fuel to the passion by telling the Indians that the English had evolved a plan to exterminate the entire race. This malicious statement aroused the fierce passions of the red men to fury. The common Indian brave simply struck in revenge for fancied or actual wrongs. But the vision of the great Pontiac assumed a wider scope, for he saw farther. Recognizing the-increasing power of the British, he realized" 16 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO that unless France retained her foothold on the continent the destruction of his race was inevitable. It therefore became his ambition to replace British control with that of France. The result was that far-reaching movement among the savages, which is known in history as Pontiac's Conspiracy. In the same year that the Seven Years War was officially ended by the peace concluded at Fontainebleau, which probably surpasses all other treaties in the transfer of territory, including our own section, in which the Lily of France was officially displaced by the Lion of Great Britain. The war belt of wampum was sent to the farthest shores of Lake Superior, and the most distant delta of the Mississippi. The bugle call of this mighty leader Pontiac aroused the remotest tribes to aggressive action. "Why do you suffer these dogs in red clothing to enter your country and take the land the Great Spirit has given you ? Drive them from it ! Drive them ! When you are in distress I will help you." These words were the substance of the message from. Pontiac. That voice was heard, but not by the whites. "The unsuspecting traders journeyed from village to village ; the soldiers in the forts shrunk from the sun of the early summer, and dozed away the day ; the frontier settler, resting in fancied security, sowed his crops, or, watching the sunset through the girdled trees, mused upon one more peaceful harvest, and told his children of the horrors of the ten, years' war, now, thank God ! over. From the Alleghenies to the Mississippi the trees had leaved and all was calm life and joy. But through the great country, even then, bands of sullen red men were journeying from 'the central valleys to the lakes and the eastern hills. Ottawas filled the woods near Detroit. The Maumee post, Presque Isle, Niagara, Pitt, Ligonier, and every English fort, was hemmed in by Indian tribes, who felt that the great battle drew nigh which was to determine their fate and the possession of their noble lands." The chiefs and sachems everywhere joined the conspiracy, and sent lofty messages to Pontiac of the deeds they would perform. The 'ordinary pursuits of life were practically abandoned. Although the fair haired Anglo-Saxons and darker Latins had concluded peace, the warriors, who had not been represented at the great European conclave, danced their war dance for weeks at a time. Squaws were set to work sharpening knives, moulding bullets, and mixing war paint. Even the children imbibed the fever and incessantly practiced with bows and arrows. While ambassadors in Europe were coldly and unfeelingly disposing of the lands of the aborigines, the savages themselves were planning for the destruction of the Europeans residing among them. For once in the history of the American aborigines, thousands of wild and restless Indians of a score of different tribes were animated by a single inspiration and purpose. The attack was to be made in the month of May, 1763. "Hang the peace pipe on the wall— Rouse the nations one and all ! Tell them quickly to prepare For the bloody rites of War. Now begin the fatal dance, Raise the club and shake the lance, Now prepare the bow and dart- 'Tis our fathers' ancient art; Let each heart be strong and bold As our fathers were of old. Warriors, up !—prepare—attack- 'Tis the voice of Pontiack." The conspiracy was months in maturing. Pontiac kept two secretaries, the "one to write for him, the other to read the letters he received and he manages them so as to keep each of them ignorant of what is transacted by the other." It was also carried on with great HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 17 secrecy, in order to avoid its being communicated to the British. Pontiac reserved to him-. self the beginning of the war. With the opening of spring he dispatched his fleet-footed messengers through the forests bearing their belts of wampum and gifts of tobacco. They visited not only the populous villages, but also many a lonely tepee in the northern woods. The appointed spot was on the banks of the little river Ecorces, not far from Detroit. To this great council went Pontiac, together with his squaws and children. When all the delegates had arrived, the meadow was thickly dotted with the slender wigwams. In accordance with the summons, "they came issuing from their cabins—the tall, naked figures of the wild Ojibwas, with quivers slung at their backs, and light war-clubs resting in the hollow of their arms ; Ottawas, wrapped close in their gaudy blankets ; Wyandots, fluttering in painted shirts, their heads adorned with feathers, and their leggings garnished with bells. All were soon seated in a wide circle upon the grass, row within row, a grave and silent assembly. Each savage countenance seemed carved in wood, and none could have, detected the deep and fiery passions hidden beneath that immovable exterior. Pipes with ornamented stems were lighted and passed from hand to hand." Pontiac inveighed against the arrogance, injustice, and contemptuous conduct of the English'. He expanded upon the trouble that would follow their supremacy. He exhibited a belt of wampum that he had received from their great father, the King of France, as a token that he had heard the voices of his red children, and said that the French and the Indians would once, more fight side by side as they had done many moons ago. The plan that had been agreed upon was to attack all the British outposts on the same day, and thus drive the "dogs in red" from the country. The first intimation that the British had was in March, 1763, when Ensign Vol. I-2 Holmes, commandant of Fort Miami at the head of the Maumee was informed by a friendly Miami that the Indians in the near villages had lately received a war belt with urgent request that they destroy him and his garrison, and that they were even then preparing to do so. This information was communicated to his superior at Detroit, in the following letter to Major Gladwyn "Fort Miami, "March 30th, 1763. " Since my Last Letter to You, where I Acquainted You of the Bloody Belt being in this Village, I have made all the search I could about it, and have found it out to be True. Whereon I Assembled all the Chiefs of this Nation, & after a long and troublesome Spell with them, I Obtained the Belt, with a Speech,' as You will Receive Enclosed. This Affair is very timely Stopt, and I hope the News of a Peace will put a stop to any further Troubles with these Indians, who are the Principal: Ones of Setting Mischief on Foot. I send you the belt with this Packet, which I hope You will Forward to the General." One morning an Indian girl, a favorite of Ensign Holmes, the commanding officer of the Fort Miami mentioned above, appeared at the fort. She told him that an old squaw was lying sick in a wigwam, a short distance away, and beseeched Holmes to come and see if he could do anything for her. Although Holmes was suspicious of the Indians, he never doubted the loyalty of the girl; and readily yielded to her request. A number of Indian lodges stood at the edge of a meadow not far removed from the fort, but hidden from it by a strip of woodland. The treacherous girl pointed out the but where the sick woman lay. As Holmes entered the lodge, a dozen rifles were discharged and he fell dead. A sergeant, hearing the shots, ran out of the fort to see what was the matter, and encountered a similar fate: The panic-stricken gar- 18 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO rison, no longer possessing a leader, threw open the gates and surrendered without resistance. On the 16th of May Ensign Pauli, who was in command at Fort Sandusky, which had been rebuilt and reoccupied, was informed that seven Indians were waiting at the gate to speak with him- Several of these were known to him, as they were Wyandots of his neighborhood, so that they were readily admitted. When the visitors reached his headquarters, an Indian seated himself on either side of the ensign. Pipes were lighted, and all seemed peaceful. Suddenly an Indian standing in the doorway made a signal by raising his head. The savages immediately seized Pauli and disarmed him. At the same time a confusion of yells and shrieks and the noise of firearms sounded from without. It soon ceased, however, and when Pauli was led out of the enclosure the ground was strewn with the corpses of his murdered comrades and the traders. At nightfall he was conducted to the lake, where several birch canoes lay, and as they left the shore the fort burst into flames. He was then bound hand and foot and taken to Detroit, where the assembled Indian squaws and children pelted him with stones, sticks, and gravel, forcing him to dance and sing. Happily an old squaw, who had lately been widowed, adopted him in place of the deceased spouse. Having been first plunged into the river that the white blood might be washed away, he was conducted to the lodge of the widow, but he escaped from such enforced matrimonial servitude at the earliest opportunity. It would not be within the province of this history to describe in detail the prolonged siege which was undergone by the British garrison at Detroit against a host of besieging savages. At every other point the conspiracy was a success, and for the British there was only an unbroken series of disasters. The savages spread terror among the settlers throughout all the Ohio country. Cabins were burned, defenseless women and children were murdered, and the aborigines were aroused to the highest pitch of fury by the blood of their numerous victims. It was not until a letter reached Pontiac from. the French commander, informing him that the French and English were now at peace, that the Ottawa chief abandoned hope. He saw himself and his people thrown back upon their own slender resources. For hours no man nor woman dared approach him, so terrible was his rage. His fierce spirit. was wrought into unspeakable fury. At last he arise and, with an imperious gesture, ordered the frightened squaws to take down the wigwams. In rage and mortification, Pontiac, with a few tribal chiefs as followers, removed his camp from Detroit and returned to the Maumee River to nurse his disappointed expectations. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 19 Following the withdrawal of the Indians, comparative quiet prevailed for several months. Pontiac was still unconquered, however, and his hostility to the English continued unabated. He afterwards journeyed to the Illinois country, where the French still held sway, in order to arouse the western tribes to further resistance. His final submission was given to Sir William Johnson, at Oswego. That official, " wrapped in his scarlet blanket bordered with gold lace, and surrounded by the glittering uniforms of the British officers, was seen, with hand extended in welcome to the great Ottawa, who standing erect in conscious power, his rich plumes waving over the circle of his warriors, accepted. the proffered hand, with an air in which defiance and respect were singularly blended." Like the dissolving view upon a screen, this, picturesque pageant passed into history and Pontiac returned to the Maumee region, which continued to be his home. Here he pitched his lodge in the forest with his wives and children, , and hunted like an ordinary warrior. He yielded more and more to the seduction of "firewater." For a few years the records are silent concerning Pontiac. In 1789, however, he appeared at the post of St. Louis. He remained there for two or three days, after which he visited an assemblage of Indians at Cahokia, on the opposite side of the river, arrayed in the full uniform of a French officer, one which had been presented to him by the Marquis of Montcalm. Here a Kaskaskia Indian, bribed by a British trader, buried a tomahawk in his brain. Thus perished the Indian chief who made himself a powerful champion of his ruined race. Hid' descendants continued to reside along the Maumee until the final removal of the remnant of his once powerful tribe beyond the Mississippi. His death was avenged in a truly sanguinary way. The Kaskaskias were pursued by the Sacs and Foxes, and were practically exterminated, for this vile deed. Their villages were burned, and their people either slain or driven to refuge in distant places. Pontiac 's vision of the ruin of his people was prophetic. The Indian has disappeared, together with the buffalo, the deer, and . the bear. His wigwam has vanished from the banks of the streams. Today, mementoes of his lost race, such as the rude tomahawk, the stone arrowhead, and the wampum beads, when turned up by the plow of the paleface farmer, become the prized relics of the antiquary or the wonder of youth. But his prophetic eye went no further. Little did he dream that within the short space of a few human lives the blue lake over which he oft-times sailed would be studded with the ships of commerce ; that gigantic boats propelled by steam would replace the fragile canoe; that populous cities and thriving villages would arise by the score upon the: ruins of the pristine forests ; that the hunting grounds of his youth, and. old age as well, here in Northwest Ohio, would become a hive of industry and activity, and the abode of wealth surpassed by no other section of this or adjoining states. CHAPTER III THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD After the defeat of Pontiac and the complete collapse of his conspiracy, the Indians became convinced that no more reliance could be placed on the French, and that their interests would be best served by remaining on friendly terms with the British. But this decision did not come spontaneously, for several expeditions and ambassadors were dispatched to the various tribes and confederations before peace followed. Col. John Bradstreet, a man whose reputation greatly exceeded his exploits, headed a large expedition which sailed up Lake Erie to Detroit in 1764. Israel Putnam was a member of this body, the entire expedition numbering more than two thousand soldiers and helpers. It required a large flotilla to convey so large a force. Bradstreet had positive orders attack the Indians dwelling along the Sandusky.. He camped there for a time on his outward journey, but was misled by the Indian subtlety, and sailed away without either following his orders to chastise these Indians or completing the fort which he began. The Indians promised "that if he would refrain from attacking them, they would follow him to Detroit and there conclude a treaty." At Detroit the troops were royally welcomed. An Indian council was at once summoned, and Montresor reports it as follows : "Sat this day the Indian council. Present, the Jibbeways, Shawanese, Hurons of Sandusky and the five nations of the Scioto, with all the several nations of friendly Indians accompanying the army. The Pottawattomies had not yet arrived. Pondiac declined appearing here until his pardon should be granted. * * * This day Pondiac was forgiven in council, who is at present two days' march above. the Castle on the Miami (Maumee) River called la Roche de But, with a party of sixty or more savages." The Indians agreed to call the English king "father," the term formerly applied to the French sovereign. After several weeks spent at Detroit, Bradstreet once more embarked for the Sandusky, where he arrived in a few days. A number of prominent and lesser chiefs visited him here, but nothing whatever was accomplished. Their subtlety was too deep for the English commander. He camped where Fremont is now located, and began the work of erecting a fort on that site. This was finally abandoned and the expedition returned to Fort Niagara. An interesting incident in connection with the Bradstreet expedition was a journey undertaken by Captain Morris, of which he kept a complete and interesting journal. Under instructions from his superior, he "set out in good spirits from Cedar Paint (mouth of the Maumee), Lake Erie, on the 26th of August, 1764, about four o'clock in the afternoon, and at the same time the army proceeded for Detroit." He was accompanied by two Canadians and a dozen Indians, who were to accompany him "to the Rapids of the Miami (Maumee) River, and then return to the army." There were also Warsong, a noted " Chippeway chief, and Attawang, an Uttawa (Ottawa) chief." The party proceeded up - 20 - 22 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO the Maumee to the headquarters of Pontiac, "whose army consisting of six hundred savages, with tomahawks in their hands," surrounded him. Pontiac squatted himself before his visitor, and behaved in a rather unfriendly fashion. The greater part of the Indians got drunk, and several of them threatened to kill him. After the savages had become more sober, Pontiac permitted the party to resume its journey up the river. At the site of Fort Wayne, another rabble of Indians met the embassy in a threatening manner, but Morris remained in a canoe reading "The tragedy of Anthony and Cleopatra," in a volume of Shakespeare which had been presented to him by the Indian chief. This was undoubtedly one of the strangest circumstances under which the works of Shakespeare were ever perused. The journal of Morris reveals a keen insight into the Indian nature. While Bradstreet was being deceived by their duplicity, Morris recognized their real character, and said: "I wish the chiefs were assembled on board a vessel, and that she had a hole in her bottom. Treachery should be paid with treachery ; and it is worth more than ordinary pleasure to deceive those who would deceive us." When he reached Detroit again, Bradstreet had already departed on his journey to the Sandusky. Maj. George Croghan was sent down the Ohio to the Illinois country, in 1765. Of this journey we have a detailed and voluminous account in the journals kept by that officer. They are replete with copious descriptions of the country and streams, the topography, the game, and the Indian villages visited. He encountered much hostility, and was finally made a prisoner. This might have been his last experience, had it not been for some Pyankeshaws. Among these he found many of his former friends, who aided him- Accompanied by Pontiac, who had joined him in a friendly mood, Croghan turned his footsteps eastward to Fort Miami, at the head of the Maumee. From there he descended that river, stopping at the Indian villages on its banks, and proceeded to Detroit. Here a notable gathering of aborigines. assembled pursuant to his summons. It was a motley gathering of many tribes- Speeches innumerable were made and wampum belts exchanged, while the blue smoke from the peace-pipe curled in clouds to the roof of the council hall. His mission was crowned with success, for tribe after tribe yielded its submission- The trip of Croghan, during which he had traveled 2,000 miles through the heart of the hostile Indian country, had a far-reaching effect. It cemented the allegiance of the dusky inhabitants of the forests to their new overlords. The Detroit meeting was followed by a council at Oswego, in the following spring, when new treaties were negotiated. The scene is described by Stone in his "Life of Johnson" : "Indeed the appearance of that council upon that summer's morning was exceedingly picturesque- At one end of the leafy canopy the manly form of the superintendent, wrapped in his scarlet blanket bordered with gold lace, and surrounded by the glittering uniforms of the British officers, was seen with hand extended in welcome to the great Ottawa, who, standing erect in conscious power, his rich plumes waving over the circle of his warriors, accepted the proffered hand, with an air in which defiance and respect were singularly blended. Around, stretched at length upon the grass, lay the proud chiefs of the Six Nations, gazing with curious eye upon the man who had come hundreds of miles to smoke the calumet with their beloved superintendent." A number of clashes occurred after this date and before the Revolution, but they were generally with colonists or colonial forces which backed up the colonists in their entry into the Ohio region. To meet these advances of the whites the Ohio Indians formed a great confederacy on the Pickaway Plains, in July, 1772, in which HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 23 the Shawnees, Wyandots, Miamis, Ottawas, Delawares, and even western tribes, united for mutual protection. They disputed the right of the Six Nations to convey a title to the English for all the huntings grounds south of the Ohio. Hence it was that the purpose of this alliance was not only to hurl back from their frontiers the white invaders, but also to surpass the Iroquois, both in strength and prowess. The Shawnees were the most active in this confederation, and their great chief Cornstalk was recognized as the head of this confederation. In the year 1774 many inhuman and revolting incidents occurred. But the power of this alliance was finally broken, and the peace pipe was again smoked. This decision of the savages to remain loyal to the British was destined to cost the American colonists many hundreds of additional lives, and an untold amount of suffering during the several years of bitter struggle for independence from the mother country. Previous to this time the colonies had already lost some thirty thousand lives, and had incurred an expense of many millions of dollars in their efforts for protection against the French and their Indian allies. Of this sum only about one-third had been reimbursed to them by the British Parliament. Hence it was that a large indebtedness had accumulated, and- the rates of taxation had become exceedingly burdensome. The war against the savages was almost without cessation. The campaigns were more nearly continuous than consecutive, and they seldom reached to the dignity of civilized warfare. In most instances it is difficult to differentiate when one Indian war ended and another began. Incursive bodies of whites and retaliatory bodies of Indians, or vice versa, kept this section of the state in an almost interminable turmoil. An attack was immediately followed by reprisal, and an invasion was promptly succeeded by pursuit and punishment. Most of the encounters rose little above massacres by one or bath belligerents. The killing of some of the family of the Mingo chief, Logan, is an instance of white brutality. Bald Eagle, a Delaware chief, and Silver Heels, a friendly Shawnee chief, were also brutally murdered by the pale faces. It is no wonder that the Indians began to ask : "Had the Indian no rights which the white man was bound to respect ?" In Northwest Ohio the strength and aggressiveness of the savages was greater than in any of the other sections of the state, because of the nearness to the British outposts and the consequent incitations of the British emissaries. The land question was also troublesome, because the demands for the lands of the savages were becoming greater and more insistent. The Ohio Company, which was to a great extent responsible for the French and Indian war, resumed its activities immediately at the close of that conflagration. Other companies were likewise formed to seek grants of immense tracts of the rich country west of the Alleghenies. Among the group of western expansionists were the Washington brothers, including the "Father of his Country," Ben Franklin, and many others who are now historical figures. As an evidence of this, I quote from a letter to the Earl of Shelburne, secretary of state at London, and dated December 16, 1766: "The thirst after the lands of the Aborigines, is become almost universal, the people, who generally want them are either ignorant of or remote from the consequences of disobliging the Aborigines, many make a traffic of lands, and few or none will be at any pains or expence to get them settled, consequently they cannot be loosers by an Aborigine War, and should a Tribe be driven to despair, and abandon their country, they have their desire tho' at the expence of the lives of such ignorant settlers as may be upon it. * * * * The majority of those who get lands, being persons of consequence (British) in the Capitals who can let them lye dead as a sure 24 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST. OHIO Estate hereafter, and are totally ignorant of the Aborigines,, make use of some of the lowest and most selfish of the Country Inhabitants to seduce the Aborigines to their houses, where they are kept rioting in drunkenness till they have affected their bad purposes." The character of at least some of the immigrants at this time is revealed by an excerpt from a report by Sir William Johnson : "For more than ten years past, the most dissolute fellows united with debtors, and persons of wandering disposition, have been removing from Pensilvania & Virginia &c into the Aborigine Country, towards & on the Ohio & a considerable number of settlements were made as early as 1765 when my Deputy (George Croghan) was sent to the Illinois from whence he gave me a particular account of the uneasiness occasioned amongst the Aborigines. Many of these emigrants are idle fellows that are too lazy, to cultivate lands, & invited by the plenty of game they found, have employed themselves in hunting, in which they interfere much more with the Aborigines than if they pursued agriculture alone, and the Aborigine hunters already begin to feel the scarcity this has occasioned, which greatly increases their resentment." As a proof that this Northwest Territory was becoming of greater importance than formerly, we find that in 1767 a post, or mart, was suggested for the Maumee River, as well as one for the Wabash, whereas formerly it was thought that Detroit was sufficient for this entire territory. In his report to the secretary of state in that year, the superintendent said among other things : " Sandusky which has not been re-established is not a place of much consequence of Trade, it is chiefly a post at which several Pennsylvania Traders embarked for Detroit. St. Joseph's (near Lake Michigan) and the Miamis at Fort Wayne have neither of them been yet re-established,, the former is of less consequence for Trade than the latter which is a place of some importance. * * * At the Miamis there may be always a sufficiency of provisions from its. vicinity to Lake Erie, and its easiness of access. by the River of that 'name at the proper season, to protect which the Fort there can yet at a small expense be rendered tenable against any Coup du mains. * * * this would greatly contribute to overcome the present excuse which draws the traders to rove at will and thereby exposes us to the utmost danger." Under the French regime, and' under the, British also, until the Revolutionary War, the commandant of the military post at Detroit,. to which Northwest Ohio was tributary, exercised the functions of both a civil and a military officer with absolute power. The criminal law of England was supposed to be the ruling authority, but as a matter of fact the supreme law was generally the will of the commandant or the official of his appointing. Many times the official proved cruel and re-- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 25 morseless, and as a result the greatest of dissatisfaction arose. When the office of lieutenant governor and superintendent of aborigine affairs was created for Detroit and the surrounding country, including this section, Henry Hamilton was appointed and arrived at his post in December, 1775. He proved to be not. only tactful but also cruel and remorseless. The equipment of the savages with weapons was absolutely in the hands of the British officials, and everywhere war parties of these savages were thoroughly armed. They were frequently commanded by .British officers themselves, and sent out over this territory, as well as other sections. In one report. we read that fifteen war parties had been sent out from Detroit under British officers and rangers, many of the savages coming from, Northwest Ohio. They brought in twenty-three American prisoners and 129 scalps. The white men who accompanied the savages were frequently as cruel and debased as the red men themselves. All the scalps brought in by the savages were paid for, and frequently the commandant himself encouraged his dusky allies by singing the war song and by passing the weapons through his own hands, in order to show his full sympathy with them in their murderous work. On their return to Detroit, they were sometimes welcomed 'by firing the fort's cannon. The following is one instance of a presentation of scalps from the Indians to the commandant at Detroit : "Presenting sixteen scalps, one of the Delaware chiefs said, `Listen to your children, the Delawares who are Come in to see you at a time they have nothing to apprehend from the enemy, and to present you some dried meat, as we could not have the face to appear before our father empty.' " During the first couple of years of the Revolutionary War, the Ohio Indians were inactive. As yet they scarcely knew with which side to affiliate, and they could not understand the quarrel. But their sympathies were with the-British. Governor Hamilton, at Detroit, lost no opportunity to attract them to his cause.. He danced and sang the war-song and mingled with them freely. Detroit became the great center for the Indian gatherings. All of the materials of war were supplied to them there.. " They were coaxed with rum, feasted with' oxen roasted whole, alarmed with threats of the destruction of their hunting ground and supplied with everything that an Indian could. desire. " The Americans practically ignored them at this time. Then came the brutal murder of Cornstalk and his son Ellinipsico, in 1777, when on an errand 'of friendship for the colonists. The death of this brave and magnanimous chief was the signal for the Ohio tribes to go on the warpath. As there were• no white settlements in Ohio as yet, their' depredations were committed in Kentucky and on the Virginia border. Hence it was that this year is known as the "bloody year of the three sevens." Standing in the midst of a long series darkened by ceaseless conflict with the savages, it was darker than the darkest.. It was bloodier than the 'bloodiest. The Shawnees, Ottawas, Wyandots, together with a few Delawares and Senecas, all took a part in the disturbances. The policy of hiring Indians. by paying bounties on scalps was on a par with British employment of mercenary Hessians. Hamilton, at Detroit, became known among the Americans as "the hair buyer." Many scalps and prisoners were taken through Northwest Ohio to Detroit by parties of savages. They were assisted by an ignoble group, of renegade Americans, Simon Girty, Alexander McKee, and Matthew Elliott. When the noted prisoner, Simon Kenton, reached the Upper .Sandusky town, the Indians, young and old, came out to view him. His death was expected to take place here. "As soon as this grand court was organized, and ready to proceed to business, a Canadian Frenchman, one Pierre Druillard who usually 26 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO went by the name of Peter Druyer, was a captain in the British service, and dressed in the gaudy appendages of the British uniform, made his appearance in the council. As soon as the council was organized, Captain Druyer requested permission to address the council. This permission was instantly granted. He began his speech by stating that it was well known that it was the wish and interest of the English that not an American should be left alive. That the Americans were the cause of the present bloody and distressing war—that neither peace nor safety could be expected, so long as these intruders were permitted to live upon the earth.' He then explained to the Indians, 'that the war to be carried on successfully, required cunning as well as bravery—that the intelligence which might be extorted from a prisoner, would be of more advantage, in conducting the future opera tions of the war, than would be the lives of twenty prisoners. That he had no doubt but the commanding officer at Detroit could procure information from the prisoner now before them, that would be of incalculable advantage to them in the progress of the present war. Under these circumstances, he hoped they would defer the death of the prisoner till he was taken to Detroit, and examined by the commanding general !' "He next noticed, 'that they had already a great deal of trouble and fatigue with the prisoner without being revenged upon him ; but that they had got back all the horses the prisoner had stolen from them, and killed one of his comrades ; and to insure them something for their fatigue and trouble, he himself would give one hundred dollars in rum and tobacco, or any other article they would choose, if they would let him take the prisoner to Detroit, to be examined by the British General.' The Indians without hesitation agreed to Captain Druyer's proposition, and he paid down the ransom. As soon as these arrangements were concluded, Druyer and a principal chief set off with the prisoner for Lower Sandusky. From this place they proceeded by water to Detroit, where they arrived in a few days." With Kenton's escape was happily terminated one of the most remarkable adventures in Ohio history. It was in 1778 that the Legislature of Virginia organized the Northwestern Territory into the country of Illinois. A court of civil and criminal procedure was established at Vincennes. The various claims of the Eastern States to the territory west of the Alleghenies was the cause of friction between these states for years. These claims were based on the colonial charters and upon treaties with the aborigines, and were generally very indefinite regarding boundaries, because the greater part of the region had never been surveyed. It was finally advocated that each state should cede her claims to the newly organized Union. Congress passed an act in 1780 providing that the territory so ceded should be disposed of for the benefit of the United States in general. This act met a ready response from New York, which assigned her claim in 1781, but the other states did not act for several years. Virginia ceded to the United States all her right, title, and claim to the country northwest of the Ohio River in 1784. The following year the Legislature of Massachusetts relinquished all her assertions to this territory, excepting Detroit and vicinity. In 1786, Connecticut waived all her assertions of sovereignty, excepting the section designated as the Western Reserve, and opened an office for the disposal of the portion of the Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga River. This session cleared Northwest Ohio of all the claims of individual states. The claim of Virginia was based upon her charter of 1609 in which her boundaries were described as follows : " Situate lying and being in that part of America called Virginia from the point of land called Cape or Point HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 27 Comfort all along the sea coast to the northward two hundred miles, and from the said point of Cape Comfort all along the sea coast southward two hundred miles, and all that space or circuit of land lying from sea to sea, west and northwest." Virginia statesmen and jurists interpreted this charter as granting all that vast territory bounded on these lines and extending to the Pacific Ocean as included within that colony. Jurisdiction was exercised over it from the very beginning. Early in the eighteenth century her pioneers had crossed the Allegheny Mountains. It was at first a part of Spottyslvania County, which was afterwards sub-divided into Orange County, which included all of the present site of Ohio, as well as much more. This immense domain was afterwards sub-divided, and Northwest Ohio became a part of Augusta County. Another sub-division was made, and this section of the country was included in Illinois Country, which embraced all the territory within the border limits of Virginia, northwest of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi. Thus it remained so far as governmental relations were concerned, until Virginia ceded to the general government all her rights to the dominion northwest of the Ohio River. In 1778 the British organized a large expedition, consisting of fifteen large bateaux and everal smaller boats, which were laden with ood, clothing, tents, ammunition, and the invitable rum, together with other presents for he savages. At the outset the forces consisted of 177 white soldiers, together with a considerable number of Indians. This expedition started from Detroit with a destination of Vincennes. Oxen carts and even a ix-pounder cannon were sent along on shore, together with beef cattle. The expedition encountered severe storms in crossing Lake Erie, and because of the low stage of the water it required sixteen days to make the journey from the mouth of the Maumee to its head. This force was attacked by American troops under Colonel Clark, and they were defeated. The governor, Henry Hamilton, and all of his officers were made prisoners, and conducted to Virginia, where they were closely confined and put in irons. The supplies of the expedition were also captured by the Americans, and they proved very useful in the work which was laid out before them. In 1780 a larger expedition than usual of savages was gathered together to attack the isolated settlements of Americans now being established throughout Ohio. It was under the command of Capt. Henry Bird, with the three Girtys as guides and scouts. These Indians were well equipped and it is said had pieces of artillery, which was very unusual, if not without precedent among those people. They passed up the Maumee River to the mouth of the Auglaize, and then traversed that river as far as it was navigable. They numbered about one thousand men when they reached Ruddell's Station, in Kentucky. Ruddell's Station yielded, and was followed by Martin's Station, a few miles distant. Several hundred captives were taken. Captain Bird tried to save the captives, but many were massacred, and the expedition returned to Detroit by the way of the Maumee. It was the most successful foray undertaken by the British against the Kentucky settlements. Under date of July 6, 1780, Governor De Peyster wrote : "I am harried with war parties coming in from all quarters that I do not know which way to turn myself." * * * On the 4th of August, he again reported to Colonel Bolton, his superior officer on the lakes, that * * * "I have the pleasure to acquaint you that Captain Bird arrived here this morning with about 150 prisoners, mostly Germans who speak English, the remainder coming in, for in spite of all his endeavors to prevent it the Aborigines broke into the forts 28 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO and seized many. The whole will amount to about 350. * * * Thirteen have entered into the Rangers, and many more will enter, as the prisoners are greatly fatigued with traveling so far some sick and some wounded. P. S. Please excuse the hurry of this letter—the Aborigines engross my time. We have more here than enough. Were it not absolutely necessary to keep in with them, they would tire my patience." CHAPTER IV THE CRAWFORD EXPEDITION AGAINST SANDUSKY "Come all you good people, wherever you be, Pray draw near awhile and listen to me ; A story I'll tell you which happened of late, Concerning brave Crawford's most crueldefeat." —Old Song. One of the most tragic incidents in the early history of the territory beyond the Alleghenies is .that connected with the expedition against the Wyandots under the leadership of Col. William Crawford, in 1782. Cornwallis had already surrendered his army at Yorktown, and the war with England was at an end. The patriotic minds of the colonists were already busy with the great problem of self-government then confronting them. The western frontier, however, was anything but peaceful. The blood-curdling war cry of the savages still aroused their midnight slumbers, and children were frequently snatched into captivity by dark hands thrust out from hidden places. The center of the Indian power was on the Sandusky River. Along this stream was also the chief trading post for the Indians, and the principal depot in the Ohio interior for the distribution of arms and provisions by the British to their savage allies. These circumstances made it the rendezvous for the rallying of tribesmen for border forays, and it was thus a real menace to the Colonials. The failure of the formidable expedition against this Indian stronghold fell like a thunderbolt from a clear sky upon the eastern settlements, where a feeling of seren ity had succeeded the news of the success of the Revolution. For those dwelling west and north of the Ohio River, it seemed to portend ruin and disaster. We are inclined to heap execrations upon the red men once living where .we now dwell in peace, because of the heartless and bloody vengeance wreaked by them upon the members of the unfortunate Crawford band who fell into their toils. We must remember, however, that both the leader and his followers suffered for the misdeeds of other white men in a massacre, equally as bloody and far more unjustified, of the peaceable and guiltless Moravian Indians, at Gnadenhutten, only three months previously. It was not a slaughter perpetrated in the passion of battle, and in the excitement of the moment ; it was a butchery in cold blood, and performed as coldly as if the victims had been animals fattened for food. Because of the recurrent massacres by Indians in Pennsylvania of white people, a body of men was hastily gathered to exterminate the guilty savages. To them, however, with their hearts saddened by the occurrences, every man with a copper-colored skin looked alike, and they slaughtered scores of innocent and Christian Indians without a qualm of conscience. Continuing in their desire to exterminate the Indians, a second expedition was formed to proceed farther into the Ohio territory in pursuit of the wandering savages. On their part, the Indians of this western country were aroused to fury by the massacre - 29 - 30 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO of the peaceful Moravian Indians. Even those red men to whom the Christian religion made no appeal were horrified at the thought that their people, who, listening to the seductive words of white preachers, had laid aside the tomahawk and the war-club, were now cold in death, and they only waited an opportunity for vengeance. The peaceful Moravians had been invited by these same Delawares to settle on the banks of the Muskingum, after they had been driven from Pennsylvania by the persecutions of their encroaching white neighbors. The prospect for the conversion of the entire Delaware nation had begun to loom bright. It is probably true, as claimed, that in a few isolated instances some of the Moravian braves had joined with their brethren in forays against the border settlements, in which helpless infancy, virgin beauty, and hoary age were alike dishonored. In at least one or two instances the evidence against them seems quite convincing. It is not surprising that there was a deep and widespread feeling of revenge against the red men, for, when the slain were relatives, or dear friends, it was natural to harbor revenge. But white men should be held to a higher standard of honor than the untutored children of the forests. As a direct result of the mission influence, the Delawares had remained entirely neutral during the bloody year of 1777, when so many massacres took place throughout the Ohio Territory. British emissaries and some white American renegades had finally aroused the suspicions of the Wyandots toward these Christian Indians. A war party -came and forcibly removed them to their own villages near Upper Sandusky. It was in June, 1781, that a numerous Indian force appeared at these Moravian settlements. Among these were the Half King and Pomoacan, from Upper Sandusky; Abraham Coon, a white chief from Lower Sandusky ; The Pipe and Captain Wingemund, of the Delawares ; Matthew Elliott, and many others, all journeying under a British flag. They were warmly welcomed and entertained by the missionaries and the Christian Indians. The outcome is a tale of hypocrisy and honeyed lies on the part of these invaders, and of frightful sufferings on the side of their victims. Their houses were looted and property destroyed; the spoils were divided among the Wyandots, who "dressed themselves in the clothes which they had stolen, and strutted about the camp in childish vanity." All of the Moravians were assembled and marched away, closely guarded by Delaware and Wyandot warriors- It was indeed a sorrowful journey for these Indians. They were forced to abandon the fruits of eight 'years' toil and leave a large amount of unharvested grain and vegetables. It was even more grievous to bid farewell to the churches, to which they were much attached. This forced migration of the Moravians took place about the time of the surrender of Yorktown, and it was only the beginning of a score of years' wanderings for these homeless outcasts. Near Upper Sandusky they were practically abandoned to their fate, and there they erected log huts for their habitation in the midst of a howling wilderness. This settlement became known as Captive's Town. With no provisions, and little game being in sight, they were thrown upon their own resources. The men were curtly informed that they must join the war parties, and that Pomoacan was their chief. Some of them were compelled to make a trip to Detroit to report to the British commander, De Peyster, who had succeeded "the hair buyer." In order to harvest their crops, however, for food was very scarce, a large number of the Moravians returned to Gnadenhutten in the following spring. While engaged in this peaceful work, the whites under Williamson arrived. Their dress alone marked these Indians as non-combatants. Their .clothes HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 31 were plain, and there was not a sign of paint to be seen on their skin, so 'we are told; there were no feathers on their heads, and the hair was worn the same as that of the frontier whites. With seductive words, and also with promises that they would be safely conducted to Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), the Americans induced the Indians to lay down their arms and assemble at Gnadenhutten. A council was held, and a large majority voted for death. "Some were for burning them alive, others for taking their scalps." They (the Indians) were told to prepare for death. They accepted their fate with resignation, though protesting their innocence of any murders. Their last night on earth was spent in prayer and exhortations to each other "to place a firm reliance in the mercy of the Savior of men." On the following morning the bloody work of execution was begun with knife, gun, spear, and tomahawk. Several of the butcherers immediately seized Abraham, surnamed the Mohican, one of the patriarchs of the converts, "whose long, flowing heard had attracted their notice the day before as fit for making a fine scalp, tied him and another convert with a rope, and dragged them to the cooper shop, the 'slaughter house,' selected for the killing of men." The two men were deliberately slain and scalped. The rest, says Doctor Schweinitz, whose account we are closely following, suffered in the same way, two by two. When, all the men and boys were dead, the women and small children were brought out, two by two as before, taken to the "slaughter house" selected for the women, and "dispatched with the same systematic barbarity." Ninety-six Indians were put to death, two boys escaping as if by a miracle, to be witnesses to the savage fury of the white man. Sixty-two of the slain were adults, and thirty-four were children. Upon their return these men boasted of their inhuman activities. In 1782 permission was granted by the War Department for the organization of a large volunteer gathering against the Indians of the West. The rendezvous for this expedition was established at Mingo Bottom, along the Ohio River, a few miles below Steubenville, and the date was the 20th of May. Up and down the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela, and in all the border settlements, there was unusual stir when the news arrived that an expedition against Sandusky was in preparation. Each volunteer was obliged to furnish his own equipment, while a limited supply of ammunition and flints was all that was promised by the department. Furthermore, there was no assurance whatever of remuneration from the Government for either losses or services during the campaign. Even under these circumstances the volunteering was very brisk. For ten days before the day for the rendezvous the borderers came riding in from all directions, equipped in customary fashion for the campaign. The pioneer soldier of 1782 would indeed be a curiosity on our streets today. His buckskin hunting shirt, reaching half way to the knees, was belted in at the waist. Through his belt was thrust the cruel tomahawk, the glittering scalping knife, and the string of an ammunition pouch. His feet were encased in moccasins instead of shoes. His head was covered with a hat of felt or fur, which was not infrequently decorated with the tails of animals. Over his shoulder the frontiersman carried the necessary rifle. The indispensable knapsack, made of coarse tow cloth, was strapped to his saddle, and in it would be found a few toilet and useful articles which only a woman could design. From the pommel of the saddle hung a canteen, while a blanket which he carried was used as a covering for the saddle by day and the rider by night. Trained to the use of the rifle from childhood, nearly all of these men of the frontier were unerring shots. Each man took along a plentiful supply of powder, 32 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO bullets, bullet-patches, and some extra flints. The edge of the tomahawk was given a few turns on the grindstone, and the scalping knife was made keener than ever by the same process. When this grim and motley assemblage was completed, the first duty was to elect officers. Under the spreading boughs of the' maple and the sycamore, the walnut and the hickory, these frontiersmen gathered for this purpose with grim determination written upon their faces. All were in the highest spirits. William Crawford received 235 out of the 465 votes cast, and was declared colonel in command of the expedition. Second in authority was David Williamson, who had been, one of the leaders in the Moravian massacre. Dr. John Knight was designated as the surgeon. Colonel Crawford was cool and brave, and had had considerable military experience in frontier warfare. He was well fitted by nature and temperament to be a soldier and a leader, and was perfectly at home in the backwoods. A warm friendship existed between him and General Washington. At that time he was fifty years of age. John Slover and Jonathan Zane, both practical frontiersmen, were the guides of the expedition. Zane was probably the most experienced hunter of that day in the western country, and few men enjoyed the confidence of their fellow-men more than he. On the 25th of May the expedition set out for the Sandusky country, 150 miles away. 'The instructions from Gen. William Irvine were opened, and they read in part as follows : "The object of your command is, to destroy with fire and sword (if practicable) the Indian town and settlement at Sandusky, by which we hope to give ease and safety to the inhabitants of this country ; but, if impracticable, then you will doubtless perform such other services in your power as will, in their consequences, have a tendency to answer this great end." The expedition adopted the shortest route, which led through what is now the counties of Jefferson, Harrison, Tuscarawas, Holmes, Ashland, Richland, and Crawford,. and nearly to the center of Wyandot. Though not an Indian had been seen, the greatest precautions were constantly taken against ambuscade and surprises. The wily nature of the aborigine was well known to the leader. As the avowed purpose was to surprise the savages, the .progress was designed to be swift. Day after day the Americans' advanced without finding the print of a single moccasin, or hearing the crack of a single hostile rifle. We must remember that this march was not the advance of an army to the music of a fife or drum ; it was rather a swift and stealthy movement of a mighty serpent winding its way warily through the forests toward the unsuspecting foe. The entire journey, except the last thirty miles, was through an almost unbroken stretch of timber. On the ninth day of the march, the army emerged from the dark and shaded forests, through which they had this far traversed, into the sunlight of the rolling prairies. These plains were a favorite hunting ground for the Indians. " To most of the volunteers," says Mr. Butterfield, the historian of this expedition, "the sight of the plains was a novel one. The high, coarse grass, the islands of timber, the gradually undulating surface, were all objects of surprise. Birds of strange plumage flew over them, prairie hens rose before them, sailing away and slowly drooping to the grass on either hand. Sandhill cranes blew shrill pipes, startled by the sudden apparition. Prairie owls, on cumbrous wings, fluttered away in the distance, and the noisy bittern was heard along the streamlets. Wild geese were frightened from their nests, and, occasionally, in widening circles far above them, soared the imperial eagle." On the morning of the 4th of June, the men were stirring and ready for the march HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 33 before the ascending sun had illumined the landscape. Throughout the entire camp there was a noticeable bustle of excitement. The men knew that they were near their destination, and they felt within themselves that a crisis was approaching. The guns were carefully examined and fresh charges placed in them. Packs were readjusted, and saddle girths were carefully tightened. The army was now encamped within the County of Wyandot, and not many miles distant from the present town of Upper Sandusky. The sight was familiar to Slover, who had spent several years as a captive of the Ohio Indians. From this camp there were several trails leading in different directions. The army followed a well-marked path which led down a diminutive stream, known as the Little Sandusky, in a westerly direction. The army advanced with the greatest caution, for Slover assured Crawford that the Wyandot village was near at hand. Soon they reached an opening in the woods where, in a beautiful location, they could see the Wyandot town, which had been the goal of the expedition. To their intense surprise, not a sign of life was visible. The shrill war cry and the barking of the dogs were alike wanting. All was solitude and silence. When they reached the village, they found to their surprise that this Wyandot town was without an inhabitant. The empty huts were silent and tenantless. The ashes of the camp fires seemed to have been beaten by many a rain since the hot coals had glowed in their midst. This fact upset all the calculations of the leaders, since no one had had an intimation of their removal. The men began to suspect that some great mistake had been made and that there was no settlement nearer than Lower Sandusky, some thirty miles below. This deserted village was distant in a southeasterly direction from Upper Sandusky, the county seat of Wyandot County, about three miles. Let us turn our attention to the vanished Vol. I- 9 foe for a moment. Unknown to the white man, every movement of this expedition, from the time of its gathering at Mingo Bottom until this day, had been known to the Indians. The evident purpose had been reported to the waiting chiefs from day to day by their subtle scouts. The spies reported that no quarter was to be to the Indians. In every forest through the army had passed lurked unseen savages, who keenly watched their course. As soon as the Muskingum was crossed, it became evident that the destination of the Americans was the Sandusky, and that the Indians must summon every available resource for defense. When the old Wyandot town had been deserted, the Indians had removed to the point about eight miles below the old town. Here the Indians of various tribes were concentrating to resist this invasion. The squaws and children had been removed to a hidden ravine. Messengers had also been dispatched to Detroit, begging the British commandant to dispatch instant and powerful aid to his Indian allies. Even at this time reinforcements from the Delawares were on their way, as well as a couple of hundred braves from a Shawnee town some forty miles distant. All of the Indians were kept ready for instant advance, as soon as it was decided to strike a blow against the white invaders. Only a few miles distant was the Village of The Pipe, or Captain Pipe, a famous war chief of the Delawares. Near it was the headquarters of the Half King, chief of the Wyandots. Of all the savage enemies of the Americans in the western wilderness during the Revolution, Captain Pipe had been the most implacable. Upon the discovery of the abandoned Wyandot town, a council of war was immediately held. Opinion was divided upon the question of advance or retreat. Zane counseled an immediate withdrawal. The very failure to discover Indians led the wise ones to surmise that some ambuscade or surprise 34 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO was being prepared. Furthermore, there remained but five days' provisions for the forces. It was, however, finally decided to continue the progression during the afternoon, and, in case the enemy was not encountered, that retrogression should 'be commenced during the night. In the van of the army rode a party of scouts, who were attempting to find the main stream of the Sandusky. At one side of the route was a cranberry marsh, absolutely impassable to horsemen, which afterwards reaped disaster for a number of Crawford's followers. The scouts had not advanced very far ahead of the main army when they suddenly encountered a considerable body of Indians running directly toward them. These were the. Delawares under The Pipe. One of the scouts, who was mounted on the fleetest horse, at once galloped back to inform Crawford of the enemy's whereabouts. The others withdrew slowly as the savages advanced to the attack. The council of war had just ended when the breathless scout arrived with the news of the discovery of the Indians. In a moment the army was ablaze with enthusiasm, and all started forward at full speed. The Indians took possession of an island grove in the midst of the prairie. The military eye of Crawford at once recognized the strategic value of this grove of- timber, and a quick forward movement forced the Indians out. The Indians kept themselves under cover in the thick and high grass of the treeless prairie. They would creep forward stealthily until close to the trees, and then fire upon the Americans from their concealment. Some of the Americans climbed the trees, and from this vantage point took deadly aim at the feathered heads of the enemy moving about in the grass. The battle raged with fury until the shadows of night had fallen. Not a foe was visible on either side. Nevertheless, from every tree and log in the grove the air was ablaze with incessant flashes of the Amer- ican rifles, and every vantage point in the surrounding prairie gave forth continuous explosions, while over all hovered a bank of white smoke. The afternoon was very hot, and the soldiers suffered greatly from the lack of drinking water. One of the company, John Sherrard, greatly distinguished himself by making a dozen or more trips to a pool of stagnant water discovered by him, on each of which he brought back his hat and canteen filled with water. "I do not know how many Indians I killed," said one of the sharpshooters, "but I never saw the same head again above the grass after I shot at it." The issue of the battle was doubtful for some time. Towards sunset the fire of the savages lessened, and their caution increased. They seemed fearful .of exposing themselves to the deadly aim of the frontiersmen. It was very evident that they had suffered severely. By nightfall they had withdrawn beyond the range of the American rifles. Victory seemed to rest with the Americans. To guard against a night surprise, each party built a line of huge campfires, and then fell back beyond them for some distance. The loss of the American army was five killed and nineteen wounded. The site of the battle is now known as Battle Island, and is almost three miles north of the courthouse at Upper Sandusky. At sunrise, on the morning of the 5th, occasional shots at long range were exchanged by the contending forces with little damage to either side. The Americans remained under the shelter of the island of timber. As the day advanced, however, the enemy's firing became irregular. The Americans thought that this was an evidence of weakness: In this they were mistaken, for the Indians were simply awaiting reinforcements. The troops were kept busy in giving attention to the wounded and those who were sick through drinking the stagnant water. During the day four more were wounded. The grove occu- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 35 pied by the Americans soon became the scene of animation and excitement. Preparations were made for an immediate battle. Then it was that a scout reported reinforcements coming from the rear of the Wyandots. To his astonished vision was disclosed the fact that they were white soldiers, which proved to be Butler's Rangers from Detroit. At full speed a band of painted Shawnees came galloping over the prairie. Small squads were sighted coming from other directions. Then it was decided at a council of war that the only safe recourse was a retreat. It was decided to begin the retrogression as soon as the protection of night had fallen. The dead were buried, and litters were made for the wounded. The army was to march in four divisions, keeping the wounded in the center, seven of whom were in a dangerous condition. The sentinels were called in, and the army formed for the march, with Crawford at the head. The enemy were not sleeping, as the Americans soon learned, and quickly discovered the movement of the Americans, but probably did not quite understand it. A hot fire was opened by them. This excited some of the men, and interfered with the orderly plan of retreat that had been adopted. The great wonder is that it did not degenerate into an utter rout. Some of the men in the foremost ranks started to run ; the whole army was soon in full flight, leaving the seven seriously wounded behind. Five of the wounded were assisted upon comrades' horses, however, while two were abandoned to their fate. It was not long until some of the straggling groups were in close conflict with the Delawares and the Shawnees. The main :body of the enemy feared that Crawford's movement might be only a maneuver or a feint, and not a flight, and therefore hesitated to pursue. It was doubtless due to this fact that the greater part of Crawford's forces escaped. Some of the Americans became embedded in the cran berry swamp, and were there obliged to abandon their much needed horses. A little before daylight the main body found themselves on the trail formerly followed, and discovered that they had described a sort of semicircle around the present Town of Upper Sandusky. A halt was made while straggling parties kept coming up to the main body, until nearly 300 of the volunteers were together once more. It was then found that among the missing was Colonel Crawford, of whom nothing was known. Whether he had been killed or captured, or had fortunately escaped, was only a matter of conjecture. Dr. John Knight, John Slover, and a number of others were also numbered among the missing. The command now devolved upon Williamson. On the morning of the 6th, the pursuing enemy again caused a halt of the retreating army. This spot is almost midway between Bucyrus and Galion, at the edge of what was known as the Plains, and not far from a small branch of the Olentangy River, frequently called Whetstone Creek. It had been exceedingly hot, but clouds had begun to gather, and there was every indication of an approaching storm. The savages and their white allies seemed in strong force. Williamson did all that he could to encourage his men. A conflict followed, which is known as the Battle of the Olentangy. It was less than an hour before the savages gave way on all sides, for they had attacked from front, rear, and left flank. Three of the Americans were killed and eight wounded in this action. The loss. of the enemy was never ascertained. The battle had scarcely ended when the rain began to fall in torrents. The troops were drenched to the skin, and their guns were rendered almost useless. No sooner had the wounded been attended to, however, and the dead buried, than the retreat was continued. The enemy rallied their forces and renewed their pursuit, but keeping at a respectable distance. At night 36 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO they encamped on the Sandusky River near the present Village of Leesville. The soldiers slept upon their arms that night. At daybreak the retreat was continued, with the enemy annoying their rear. The last hostile shot was fired near Crestline, where the pursuit was abandoned. Not a single savage was again seen. It was indeed a welcome adieu. Nearly all reached their homes in safety. On the 13th they arrived at Mingo Bottom, and on the following day they were discharged, thus ending a twenty days' campaign. John Slover had some exciting adventures before he reached home. In what is now Wayne County, he and his party were ambuscaded by a band of Shawnees. Two of the men were shot and instantly killed ; one escaped, and three were taken captives. Reaching a village, the inhabitants were almost crazy with joy over the prospect of torturing their victims. Slover was kept prisoner for several days, the Indians endeavoring to extract information from him. While preparing to burn him at the stake, a terrific storm arose. The trees swayed in a frightful manner. The thunder peals seemed almost to split the air asunder. The savages were terrifled and filled with apprehension. When it ceased Slover was untied, and he was placed under the guard of three men for the night. His guards fell asleep. Slover managed to unloose his hands, seized a horse, and galloped away to safety. He heeded not the lacerations from the branches, but realized only that he was flying from the fiends who would torture him. During the first night of the flight Colonel Crawford missed his son, John Crawford, his son-in-law, William Harrison, and his nephew, MONUMENT ON OLENTANGY BATTLE FIELD, CRAWFORD COUNTY William Crawford. Alarmed at their absence, he commenced to search for them in the darkness and shouted their names aloud. He hastened back among the trees in his endeavor to find the missing men. Doctor Knight came up and declared that the young men must be ahead of them, as the grove was then nearly deserted. Crawford answered that he was positive they were not in front, and begged Knight not to leave him. The doctor gave his word and joined in the anxious search. By this time the grove was rapidly filling up with the savage enemy. Two others joined Knight and Crawford, and the four endeavored to make their escape. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 37 At sunrise, Crawford and his companions, whose progress had been slow and circuitous, discovered themselves only eight miles from the battlefield. They were traveling through a heavy timber. On all sides were giant oaks and elms mingled with maples and beaches, hickories and poplars. High overhead the branches sometimes intertwined themselves, until only scintillating glimpses of the sun could be obtained. It was indeed the forest primeval through which they were journeying. Game was plentiful, but they did not dare to discharge a gun for fear of attracting the attention of any lurking savage who might be in the vicinity. Their horses were already jaded and had to be abandoned. Early in the afternoon, they fell in with more stragglers. On the second morning they found a deer, which had been freshly killed. While roasting some of the venison, another volunteer approached and joined the little party. They followed the trail of the pursuing enemy, which probably was an error in judgment. An old man joined the little party, but he was unable to keep up with them. Whenever he got behind, he would call out. He finally dropped farther behind and an Indian scalp halloo was soon heard, after which no call came from the old man. While advancing along the south bank of the Sandusky, at a point east of the present Town of Leesville, in Crawford County, three Indians started up within twenty steps of Knight and Crawford. Knight sprang behind a tree and was about to fire, but Crawford shouted to him not to do so. One of the Indians, a Delaware, ran up to Knight, took him by the hand, and called him "Doctor." Crawford and Knight were at once led captives to the camp of the Delawares. Their capture occurred on Friday afternoon. On Sunday evening, five Indians came into camp carrying two small bloody objects. Because of the dusk, it was difficult to discern what they were. Crawford stooped, looking closely, and turned deathly sick. He said to Doctor Knight : " They are the scalps of Captain Biggs and Lieutenant Ashley." In all, there were now eleven prisoners in this camp. Great indeed was the joy of the Indians when they discovered that Crawford was the "big captain," and word was immediately sent to Captain Pipe. This important news demanded a grave council of the Delaware chiefs. It was decided that Crawford should be burned, but, as they were subject to the sway of the Wyandots, and the latter tribe had abandoned death by fire, it was necessary to obtain the consent of the Half King, head chief of the Wyandots. This was taken by a subterfuge, and preparations then began to go forward for the death of the white leader. Fearing a refusal, if application was made direct to the Wyandot sachem, the two Delawares resorted to stratagem. A messenger, bearing a belt of wampum, was dispatched to the Half King, with the following message : "Uncle ! We, your nephews, the Lenni Len-ape, salute you in a spirit of kindness, love and respect. Uncle ! We have a project in view which we ardently wish to accomplish, and can accomplish if our uncle will not overrule us! By returning the wampum, we will have your pledged word!" Pomoacan was somewhat puzzled at this mysterious message. He questioned the messenger, who, having been previously instructed by the Pipe and Wingenund, feigned ignorance. The Half King, concluding it was a contemplated expedition of a Delaware war party, intended to strike some of the white settlements, returned the belt to the bearer with the word—" Say to my nephews, they have my pledge." This was a death-warrant to the unfortunate Crawford. Knight and his nine companions, on the morning of the 11th, were met by Captain Pipe at the old Wyandot town. With his own hand this chief painted the faces of all the prisoners black. While thus engaged he told 38 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Knight in very good English that he would be taken to the Shawnee town to see his friends. When Colonel Crawford was brought before him, he received him with pretended kindness and joked about his making a good Indian. But it was all a subterfuge. Here was a man upon whom to wreak vengeance. It was Williamson they wanted, because he was one of the Gnadenhutten murderers, but Williamson had escaped, and Crawford was the official leader of this expedition, which had dared to invade their precincts. He must suffer, and that in the most cruel way known to the American savage. It is said that he offered Girty $30,000 to save him, and the white savage partly promised, but this is not well authenticated. The whole party now started towards the Wyandot town, but Crawford and Knight were kept near the rear. They passed by the corpses of four of their companions that had been scalped and tomahawked. Almost every Indian they met struck them either with sticks or their fists. On their way they met Simon Girty, but he had not a single word of kindness or encouragement for the prisoners. Crawford was taken on the 11th of June to a place near what is known as Tymochtee, a few miles north of Upper Sandusky. At this place he had an interview with Simon Girty, of which little has been preserved. The renegade coolly told him that he was destined for the stake. Here he found a large fire burning and many Indians were lying about on the ground. Nevertheless, the dissembling war chiefs, both of whom well knew Crawford, told him he would be adopted as an Indian after he had been shaved. When the party conveying Crawford appeared, the scene of idleness was transformed to one of animation. The Pipe painted him black, and a dozen warriors ran forward and seized him. They tore the clothes from him with eager hands, and he was made to sit on the ground. Surrounded by a howling mob, he at once became the object of showers of dirt, stones, and sticks. While some were engaged in this—to them—sport, others quickly fixed in the ground a large stake, some fifteen feet long, which had been previously prepared. Still others ran quickly to and fro, piling up around the stake great piles of light and dry hickory wood, which had been gathered and prepared for the occasion.   Wingenund had retired to his cabin that he might not see the sentence executed, but Crawford sent for him, with the faint hope that he would intercede for and save him. Wingenund accordingly soon appeared in the presence of Crawford, who was naked and bound to a stake.   "Do you not recollect me, Wingenund?" began Colonel Crawford.   "I believe I do," he replied. "Are you not Colonel Crawford ?"   "I am. How do you do ?"   " So !—yes!—indeed!" ejaculated Wingenund, somewhat agitated.   "Do you not recollect the friendship that always existed between us, and that we were always glad to see each other ?" queried Crawford.   "Yes ! I remember all this, and that we have drunk many a bowl of punch together, and that you have been kind to me."   "Then I hope the same friendship still continues."   "It would, of course, were you where you ought to be, and not here," said the Indian chief.   "And why not here? I hope you would not desert a friend in time of need. Now is the time for you to exert yourself in my behalf, as I should do for you were you in my place."   "Colonel Crawford ! you have placed yourself in a situation which puts it out of my power, and that of others of your friends, to do anything for you."   "How so, Captain Wingenund ?"   HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 39   "By joining yourself to that execrable man, Williamson and his party—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 would not fight and whose only business was praying?"   "But I assure you, Wingenund, that had I been with him at the time this would not have happened. Not I alone, but all your friends, and all good men, whoever they are, reprobate acts of this kind."   "That may be; yet these friends, these good .men, did not prevent him from going out again to kill the remainder of these inoffensive, yet foolish Moravian Indians. I say foolish, because they believed the whites in preference to us."   "I am sorry to hear you speak thus ; as to Williamson's going out again, when it was known he was determined on it, I went out with him to prevent his committing fresh murders."   "This the Indians would not believe, were even I to tell them so."   "Why would they not believe?"   "Because it would have been out of your power to have prevented his doing what he pleased."   "Out of my power ! Have any Moravian Indians been killed or hurt since we came out?"   "None; but you first went to their town, and finding it deserted you turned on the path towards us. If you had been in search of warriors only, you would not have gone thither. Our spies watched you closely."   Crawford felt that with this sentence ended his last ray of hope and now asked with emotion : "What do they intend to do with me?"   "I tell you with grief. As Williamson, with his whole cowardly host, ran off in the night at the whistling of our warriors' balls, being satisfied that now he had no Moravians to deal with, but men who could fight and with such he did not wish to have anything to do—I say, as they have escaped and taken you, they will take revenge on you in his stead."   "And is there no possibility of preventing this? Can you devise no way of getting me off ? You shall, my friend, be well rewarded if you are instrumental in saving my life."   "Had Williamson been taken with you, I and some friends by making use of what you have told me, might perhaps have succeeded in saving you ; but as the matter now stands, no man would dare to interfere in your behalf. The blood of the innocent Moravians, more than half of them women and children, cruelly and wantonly murdered, calls loudly for revenge. The relatives of the slain who were among us cry out and stand ready for revenge. The nation to which they belonged will have revenge."   "My fate is then fixed, and I must prepare to meet death in its worst form."   "I am sorry for it, but cannot do anything for you. Had you attended to the Indian principle, that as good and evil cannot dwell together in the same heart, so a good man ought not to go into evil company you would not be in this lamentable situation. You see now, when it is too late, after Williamson has deserted you, what a bad man he must be. Nothing now remains for you but to meet your fate like a brave man. Farewell, Colonel Crawford ;—they are coming. I will retire to a solitary spot."   The savages then fell upon Crawford. Wingenund, it is said, retired, shedding tears, and ever after, when the circumstance was alluded to, was sensibly affected.   This conversation is related by Heckewelder. It has generally been pronounced apocryphal by critics, for that writer is frequently accused of romancing when an opportunity afforded. The relations of Wingenund and Crawford had been friendly, however,   40 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO   and Crawford in his extremity doubtless did call upon the chief. If so, the substance of this conversation doubtless passed between them, and for that reason it is incorporated in the narrative.   The account of the burning of Colonel Crawford is related in the words of Doctor Knight, his companion, who was an unwilling eye-witness of this tragic scene, near which he stood securely bound and guarded :   "When we went to the fire the colonel was stripped naked, ordered to sit down by the fire, and then they beat him with sticks and their fists. Presently after I was treated in the same manner. They then tied a rope to the foot of a post about fifteen feet high, bound the colonel's hands behind his back and fastened the rope to the ligature between his wrists. The rope was long enough for him to sit down or walk around the post once or twice and return the same way. The colonel then called to Girty, and asked if they intended to burn him? Girty answered, "Yes." The colonel said he would take it all patiently. Upon this, Captain Pipe, a Delaware chief, made a speech to the Indians, viz., about thirty or forty men, sixty or seventy squaws and boys.   "When the speech was finished, they all yelled a hideous and hearty assent to what had been said. The Indian men then took up their guns and shot powder into the colonel's body, from his feet as far up as his neck. I think that not less than seventy loads were discharged upon his naked body. They then crowded about him, and to the best of my observation cut off his ears; when the throng had dispersed a little, I saw blood running from both sides of his head in consequence thereof.   "The fire was about six or seven yards from the post to which the colonel was tied; it was made of small hickory poles, quite through in 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 the powder. These tormentors presented themselves on every side of him with the burning fagots and poles. Some of the squaws took broad boards, upon which   HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 41   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 upon.   "In the midst of these extreme tortures, he called to Simon Girty and begged of him to shoot him; but Girty making no answer, he called to him again. Girty then, by way of derision, told the colonel he had no gun, at the time turning about to an Indian who was behind him, laughed heartily, and by all his gestures seemed delighted at the horrid scene.   "Girty then came up and bade me prepare for death. He said, however, I was not to die at that place, but to be burnt at the Shawanese towns. He swore by G—d I need not expect to escape death, but. should suffer it in all its extremities.   "Col. Crawford at this period of his sufferings, besought 'the Almighty to have mercy on his soul, spoke very low, and bore his torments with the most manly fortitude. In the midst of his tortures he begged of Girty to shoot him, but the white savage made no answer. He continued in all the extremities of pain, for an hour and three-quarters or two hours longer, as near as I can judge, when at last, being almost exhausted, he lay down on his belly; they then scalped him, and repeatedly threw the scalp in my face, telling me, that `That was my great captain.' An old squaw (whose appearance in every way answered the idea that people generally entertain of the devil) got a board, took a parcel of coals and ashes and laid them on his back and head, after he had been scalped ; he then raised himself upon his feet and began to walk round the post; they next put a burning stick to him, as usual, but he seemed more insensible to pain than before."   When the news of the torture and death of Colonel Crawford reached the Shawnee villages, the exultation was very great. Not so, when the awful story was repeated in the settlements upon the border. A gloom was spread over every countenance. Crawford's unfortunate end was lamented by all who knew him. Heart-rending was the anguish in a lonely cabin upon the banks of the Youghiogheny. There were few men on the frontiers, at that time, whose loss could have been more sensibly felt or more keenly deplored.   The language of Washington, upon this occasion, shows the depth of his feeling : "It is with the greatest sorrow and concern that I have learned the melancholy tidings of Colonel Crawford's death. He was known to me as an officer of much care and prudence ; brave, experienced, and active. The manner of his death was shocking to me ; and I have this day communicated to the honorable, the Congress, such papers as I have regarding it."   The Indian brave, Tutelu, who had Doctor Knight in charge, now took him away to Captain Pipe's house, three-quarters of a mile from the place of the colonel's execution. He was bound all night, and thus prevented from seeing the last of the horrid spectacle. Next morning, being June 12th, the Indian untied him, painted him black, and they set off for the Shawnee town, which was somewhat less than forty miles distant from that place. They soon came to the spot where the colonel had been burnt, as it was. partly in their way ; he saw his bones lying among the remains of the fire, almost burned to ashes. After he was dead, they had probably laid his body on the fire. The Indian told him that was his captain, and gave the scalp halloo. It is a well-received tradition that the precise spot where the doctor outwitted, overpowered and escaped from his Indian guard was at the crossing of the Scioto by the old Shawnee trail, not far from Kenton, in Hardin County. This old Shawnee trail ran from the Wyandot and Delaware villages on the Sandusky and Tymochtee to the Shawnee towns on. the Big Miami and Mad rivers. The details, as given by Knight, are in substance as here related.   They started for the Shawnee towns, which   42 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO   the Indian said were somewhat less than forty miles away. Tutelu was on horseback, and drove Knight before him. The latter pretended he was ignorant of the death he was to die, though Simon Girty had told him that he was to die. He affected as cheerful a countenance as was possible, under the circumstances, and asked the savage if they were not to live together as brothers in one house, when they should get to the town. Tutelu seemed well pleased at this remark, and answered "Yes." He then asked Knight if he could make a wigwam. Knight replied that he could. The Indian then seemed more friendly. The route taken by Tutelu and Knight was the Indian trace leading from Pipe's Town to Wapatomika, which ran some six or eight miles west of what is now Upper Sandusky. Its direction was southwest from Pipetown to the Big Tymochtee. They travelled, as near as Knight could judge, the first day about twenty-five miles. The doctor was then informed that they would reach Wapatomica on the next day, a little before noon.   When night fell the prisoner was carefully tied and both laid down to rest. The doctor attempted several times to untie himself during the night, but the Indian was very watchful and scarcely closed his eyes, so that he did not succeed in loosening the tugs with which he was bound. At daybreak, Tutelu arose and untied the doctor. Tutelu, as soon as he had untied the doctor, began to mend the fire, which had been kept burning. As the gnats were troublesome, the doctor asked him if he should make a smoke behind him. He answered, "Yes." The doctor picked up the end of a dogwood fork, which had been burned down to about eighteen inches in length. It was the longest stick that he could find, yet it was too small for the purpose he had in view: He then grasped another small stick and, taking a coal of fire between them, went behind the Indian. Turning suddenly about, he struck the Indian on the head with all his strength. This so stunned him that he fell forward, with both his hands in the fire. He soon recovered and, springing to his feet, ran off howling into the forest. Knight seized his gun and followed, trying to shoot the Indian. Using too much violence in pulling back the cock of the gun, however, he broke the mainspring. The Indian continued his flight precipitately, with the doctor vainly endeavoring to fire his gun.   Doctor Knight finally returned to the camp from the pursuit of Tutelu, and made preparations for his homeward flight through the wilderness. He took the blanket of the Delaware, a pair of new moccasins, his powder-horn and bullet-pouch, together with the gun, and started on his journey in a direction a little north of east. About half an hour before sunset he came to the Sandusky Plains, when he laid down in a thicket until dark. Taking the north star as a guide, he continued in a northeasterly direction, passing near Galion and then into Richland County, and so on, until on the evening of the twentieth day after his escape, he reached the mouth of Beaver Creek, on the Ohio, and was again among friends. During the whole journey, he subsisted on roots, a few young birds that were unable to fly out of his reach, and wild berries that grew in abundance through the forest. Doctor Knight afterwards removed to Shelbyville, Kentucky, where he died in 1838.   CHAPTER V   THE RENEGADES   Of all historic characters the name of the traitor to his race or to his country is buried deepest in the mire. His name becomes a byword and a reproach among the natives of the 'earth. By whatever name the traitor is known, whether turncoat, tory, apostate, or renegade, mankind have for him only universal expressions of contempt. For him there remains only a pillar of historic infamy. He lives in the midst of the fiercest passions which darken the human heart. He is both a hater and the hated. The white renegade who has abandoned his race and civilization for the company of the savages of the forest, is the abhorred of all. For him there is no charity. His virtues, if he had any, pass into oblivion. His name is inscribed with that of Brutus, of Benedict Arnold, and of Judas Iscariot. He may have been really better than he seems, his vices may have been exaggerated, but of these things it is difficult to form a correct and impartial opinion, for the exact truth cannot be obtained. The whirlwinds of abuse throw dust into the eyes of the most painstaking historian.   The history of our border warfare furnishes us a number of instances of white men who deserted to the Indians and relapsed into a state as savage as their associates. Northwest Ohio, with its memories of the Girtys, McKee, and Elliot, has more than its full share of these ingrates. Of all these known instances of white renegades, however, there is none which equals the cruelty and absolute baseness of Simon Girty, or Gerty, as it is sometimes spelled. Girty was an Irishman, who was born in Pennsylvania, not a great distance from Harrisburg. His father, who was also named Simon, was of a roving disposition and somewhat intemperate. It was in a drunken bout that he was killed by an Indian called " The Fish," on the very border of civilization. The Indian in turn was slain by John. Turner, who made his home with the Girtys and afterwards married the widow, by. whom he had a son, also named John.   Simon Girty and his brothers did not owe a great deal to either parent, and this point of heredity may have had something to do with the low grade of morality of three of them. There were four brothers in this family, of whom Simon, born in 1741, was the second. The entire family were captured by a marauding party of French and Indians in 1756. The stepfather was put to death with horrible torture, all of which the boys, then in their teens, and. the miserable mother were compelled to witness. She sat on a log with an infant son in her arms, a terrified spectator of the dreadful scene. The separation of the boys and their mother followed soon afterwards. James was formally adopted by the Shawnees, George by the Delawares, and Simon was taken by the Senecas, whose language he speedily learned. After three years all of these brothers were returned to their friends at Pittsburg, in accordance with a treaty, but voluntarily reverted to savage life at a later period.   James Girty was not quite so much ad-   - 43 -   44 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO   dieted to intoxication as Simon and George. He thoroughly adopted the savage life, however, married a Shawnee squaw, and became a trader with the Aborigines in after years. His principal trading-post for years was called Girty's Town, on the site of the present City of St. Marys. Another place where he had a trading stand at a later period was opposite a large. island, which is still known as Girty 's Island, a short distance above Napoleon. George married a Delaware woman, who bore him several children. He died while intoxicated at the trading post of his brother James. The fourth brother, Thomas, who was the oldest, escaped soon after his capture, and was the only one of the family to remain loyal to the United States during all the troubles with the mother country. He made his home on Girty's Run, which was named after him, where he raised a respectable family and died in 1820, at a ripe old age. On one occasion, in 1783, in company with his half-brother, John Turner, he visited Simon at Detroit. At that time their patriotism seemed to be wavering, but soon afterwards both took the oath of allegiance. John Turner accumulated considerable property. For presenting a burial ground to the citizens of the locality in which he lived, Turner was known as "the benefactor of Squirrel Hill." The career of Thomas Girty and John Turner, Jr., have no further part in this history.   The adventures of the three Girty renegades have furnished the material for many a volume of traditional and thrilling fiction. Whether plausible or not, readers have been inclined to accept at their face value the most absurd statements regarding their reputed activities. The Indian name of Simon Girty   HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 45   was Katepakomen. For a number of years after his return from captivity, Simon remained loyal to the American cause and attained considerable influence. He took part in Dunmore's War in 1774 with the Virginia forces, acting as guide and interpreter, and is said to have been as willing to kill a lurking savage as any of his companions. During this campaign he became a warm friend and bosom companion of Simon Kenton, also one of the scouts. During these years he also made the acquaintance of Colonel Crawford, to whom he was indebted for favors. He repaid these at a later date by refusing the mercy shot begged for by that officer when in his deepest suffering.   Girty was commissioned a second lieutenant of the militia at Pittsburg for his services on behalf of Virginia. "On the 22nd of February, 1775, came Simon Girty in open court and took and subscribed the oath." This was "To be faithful and bear true allegiance to his majesty King George the Third." At this time, says Mr. Butterfield, "Girty, notwithstanding there was trouble of a serious nature between the colonies and the mother country, was well disposed toward the latter." He is included in a special list of loyal subjects by Lord Dunmore in a report to his government. In 1775 he accompanied James Wood, a commissioner to the Indians, on a long trip through the Ohio wilderness, as guide and interpreter, at a salary of five shillings a day. The trip took them to the Wyandots at Upper Sandusky, the Shawnees, and other tribes, and he performed his duties faithfully. His sympathies at this time were strongly with the colonies. But his loyalty to the colonial cause ended shortly after his return from this journey. He was employed in one other expedition dispatched to the Six Nations, but was dismissed "for ill behavior," after three months' service. Just what the unsatisfactory conduct was is not now known, for the records do not reveal it. Girty was still loyal, however, for he exerted himself afterwards in enlisting men in the volunteer army.   It is said that jealousy over the fact that he was not named as a captain, which commission he expected as a reward for his services, was the real reason for his desertion of the American cause in 1778, in the early years of the Revolution. He was made a second lieutenant in a company, but did not go to the front with the organization. He remained in Pittsburg on detached duty. On one occasion he was arrested for disloyalty, but was acquitted on the charge. He was again sent to the Senecas with a message. George Girty was likewise considered loyal and joined a company of patriots, being commissioned as a second lieutenant. He took part in at least one expedition against the British, as also did Simon.   About this time evidence was secured that Alexander McKee, a trader and British representative at Pittsburg, was making preparations to join the British. He had for some time been under constant surveillance. It was on the night of the 28th of March, 1778, that Simon Girty, in company with Matthew Elliot, Alexander McKee, Robert Surphlit, a man named Higgin, and the two negro servants of McKee, took their departure from Pittsburg for the Indian country on their way to Detroit. It is needless to say that great consternation followed the departure of so many well known characters. No other three men, such as McKee, Girty and Elliot, could have been found so well fitted to work for and among the Aborigines. The real moving cause that made Girty a base deserter of his native land and of his people is not definitely known. At any rate, from this time he became a renegade, and was faithless to his race and his fellow countrymen.   The little band of traitors stopped for a brief time with the Moravian Indians by the Tuscarawas, and from there proceeded to the headquarters of the Delawares, near the pres-   46 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO   ent site of Coshocton. Their intrigue with this tribe nearly changed its peaceful policy into one of open hostility against the Americans. General Washington had been killed, they said, and the patriot army cut to pieces. They represented that a great disaster had come upon the American forces, so that the struggle was sure to end in a victory for Great Britain, and that the few thousand troops yet remaining were intending to kill every Indian they should meet, whether friendly or hostile. Leaving the Delawares, Girty and two companions went westward to the villages of the Shawnees. That the Indians were not entirely fooled by Girty is shown by a message which the principal chief of the Delawares sent to the Shawnees : " Grandchildren !" so ran the message, "ye Shawnese ! Some days ago, a flock of birds, that had come on from the east, lit at Goshhochking (Coshocton), imposing a song of theirs upon us, which song had nigh proved our ruin! Should these birds, which, on leaving us, took their flight toward ,Scioto endeavor to impose a song on you likewise, do not listen to them, for they lie !" It was here that they met James Girty, who was easily persuaded to desert his country. He went to Detroit a few weeks later, and was employed as interpreter to remain with the Shawnees. A proclamation was afterwards, and in the same year, issued by Pennsylvania publicly proclaiming Alexander McKee, formerly Indian trader, Simon Girty, Indian interpreter, James Girty, laborer, and Matthew Elliot, Indian trader, as aiding and abetting the common enemy and summoning them back for trial. It was not until the following year that George Girty joined his brothers, and thus completed the trio of renegade brothers. He was immediately engaged by the Indian department as an interpreter and dispatched to the Shawnees. He acted as disbursing agent in dealing out supplies to that tribe.   After his visit to the Shawnees, Simon Girty and Alexander McKee started for Detroit by the way of Sandusky. They reached that fort by the middle of June. It is needless to say that Girty, as well as McKee, was welcomed by "hair buyer" Hamilton, the commandant of the post. McKee was made captain and interpreter of the Indian department. Girty was immediately employed in the British service at a salary of about $2 per day as interpreter, and sent back to Sandusky to assist the savages there in their warfare upon the Americans. Up to this time he had not taken a part in slaying a fellow-countryman. He formally took up his residence with the Wyandots in 1781, and his influence soon began to be felt among all the Indian tribes of Northwest Ohio. With his perfect knowledge of the Wyandot, Delaware, and other Indian tongues, he was indeed an invaluable aid to the British. He became almost as cruel and heartless as the most hardened savage. He was also an expert hunter. He joined the Wyandots, the Shawnees, and the Senecas in their murderous forays against the border settlements, and was always recognized as a leader. He maintained his headquarters at Sandusky, and exercised great influence over the Half King, the head chief of the Wyandots. His name became a household word of terror all over what is now the State of Ohio, for with it was associated everything that was cruel and inhuman. Especially was his name terrifying to women and children.   According to the records that come down to us Girty took part in many noted instances of border warfare, some of them extending down into the bloody battleground of Kentucky. In fact, his first maraud was into that country. Ruddle's Station was surrendered after Girty had been admitted and made seductive promises that the captives would be protected from the Indians. After the surrender, the savage fury broke forth, and they were either killed or made prisoners of the   HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 47   Indians. At Bryan's Station he sought to intimidate the garrison by telling them who he was, and elaborating upon what would happen if they did not surrender. He had almost succeeded, so we are told, when one young man, named Aaron Reynolds, seeing the effect of this harangue, and believing his story, as it was, to be false, of his own accord answered him in the tone of rough banter so popular with backwoodsmen : "You need not be so particular to tell us your name ; we know your name and you too. I've had a villainous, untrustworthy cur-dog this long while, named Simon Girty, in compliment to you ; he's so like you—just as ugly and just as wicked. As to the cannon, let them come on ; the country's roused, and the scalps of your red cutthroats, and your own too, will be drying on your cabins in twenty-four hours." This spirited reply produced good results. Girty in turn was disheartened, and, with his Indians, soon withdrew. It is true that this account is questioned by some, but Roosevelt adopts it in his "Winning of the West," as do many of the writers. If it is true, it certainly revealed to the renegade the esteem in which he was held by the backwoods pioneers.   The directing genius in the famous siege of Fort Laurens, on the Tuscarawas River, was no other than Simon Girty. He assisted in killing a number of American soldiers and taking their scalps, as was the custom. Implacable in his hatred, and tireless in his movements, he was recognized as one of the chief agents of the British. To judge from the varied information we have of him, he seems to have been anything but a loafer, but was constantly engaged in some form of activity. Although classed on British records only as an interpreter, he seems frequently to have acted practically as a sub-agent in his dealings with the aborigines. His treatment of Colonel Crawford, who had befriended him, has been related elsewhere. Captain Elliot was the only one of the renegades who showed any compassion, and he did. all he could to save Crawford. Of Girty's cruelty on this occasion, Col. John Johnson said : "He (Simon Girty) was notorious for his cruelty to the whites who fell into the hands of the Indians. His cruelty to the unfortunate Col. Crawford is well known to myself, and although I did not witness the tragedy, I can vouch for the facts of the case, having had them from eyewitnesses. When that brave and unfortunate commander was suffering at the stake by a slow fire in order to lengthen his misery to the longest possible time, he besought Girty to have him shot to end his torments, when the monster mocked him by firing powder without ball at him." He had evidently re-received his information from the Wyandots. George. Girty was just as cruel as his more noted brother. In company with forty warriors he took Slover, one of Crawford's party, and tied him alter stripping him and painting him black. He then cursed him, telling Slover he would not get what he had for many years deserved, He seemed to take a delight in knowing that death was to be his doom. A sudden storm came up, however, after the Indians had tied the prisoner to the stake, and Slover escaped.   Simon Girty's headquarters were along the Sandusky, where he exercised great influence over the Half King, who was head chief of the Wyandots. When the Moravian Indians were captured by the Wyandots and brought to Sandusky, he seemed to take delight in treating the Christian Indians and the white missionaries with cruelty. " The missionaries in particular were as a thorn in, their eyes, being not only considered as the, cause that the Delawares would not join in the war, but they also mistrusted them of informing the American Government the part they (the white savages) were acting in the Indian country."   Just before he started on an expedition with a war party, Girty commissioned a   48 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO   Frenchman by the name of Francis Levallie, from Lower Sandusky, to conduct the missionaries to Detroit, and drive them all the way by land as though they were cattle. The Frenchman, however, was more humane and treated them kindly. He sent word to Detroit for boats to be sent to Sandusky to carry the missionaries to. Detroit. Before the boats arrived, however, Girty returned and, according to Missionary Heckwelder, "behaved like a madman, on hearing that we were here, and that our conductor had disobeyed his orders, and had sent a letter to the commandant at Detroit respecting us. He flew at the Frenchman, who was in the room adjoining ours, most furiously, striking at him, and threatening to split his head in two for disobeying the orders he had given him. He swore the most horrid oaths respecting us, and continued in that way until after midnight. His oaths were all to the purport that he never would leave the house until he split our heads in two with his tomahawk, and made our brains stick to the walls of the,room in which we were ! Never before did any of us hear the like, oaths, or know any one to rave like him. He appeared like an host of evil spirits. He would sometimes come up to the bolted door between us and him, threatening to chop it in pieces to get at us. How we should escape the clutches of this white beast in human form no one could foresee. Yet at the proper time relief was at hand; for, in the morning, at break, of. day, and while he was still sleeping, two large flat-bottomed boats arrived from Detroit, for the purpose of taking us to that place. This was joyful news !"   Only one instance is recorded to the credit of Girty. As heretofore mentioned he and Simon Kenton had served together in a border war. When Kenton was captured by the Shawnees, he was sentenced to be burned at Wapatomika, an Indian village within what is now Logan County. Girty, who had just returned from an expedition into Kentucky, came to see the prisoner, who was sitting upon the floor silent and dejected with his face painted black, which was a custom among the Indians when captives were doomed to the stake. Hence it was that he did not recognize Kenton until the latter spoke to him. His first intention Was only to gain information from the captive. Only a few words had been exchanged, however, before he recognized him.   "What is your name ?" Girty asked.   "Simon' Butler," answered Kenton, for that was the name he then bore.   As soon as he heard his friend's name, Girty became greatly agitated. Springing up from his seat he threw himself into Kenton's arms, calling him his dear and esteemed friend. "You are condemned to die," said he, "but I will do all I can—use every means in my power to save your life." It was due to his efforts that a council was convened, and Girty made a long and eloquent, speech to the Indians in their language. He entreated them to have consideration for his feelings this one instance. He reminded them that three years of faithful service had proved his devotion to the cause of the Indians. "Did I not," said he, "bring seven scalps home from the last expedition ? Did I not also submit seven white prisoners that same evening to your discretion ? Did I express a wish that a single one should be saved? This is my first and shall be my last request. From what expedition did I ever shrink ? What white man has ever seen my back ? Whose tomahawk has been bloodier than mine ?" This council decided against him by an overwhelming majority, but a later one at Upper Sandusky, through the skillful manipulation of Girty, consented to place Kenton under his care and protection. As a result he was taken to Sandusky and thence to Detroit, from whence he made his escape in safety to Kentucky. Kenton ever afterwards spoke of Girty in grateful remembrance. Girty told Kenton that he had acted too hasty in deserting his   HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 49   country, and was sorry for the part he had taken. It is the only expression of regret .that is recorded of the renegade.   For a number of years now, very little is mentioned concerning the life of this noted desperado. He remained among the Indians, however. His last expedition against the Americans was in 1783, when he led a band of red men to Nine Mile River, within five miles of Pittsburg. Here it was he first learned that hostilities had ended, but he did not place credence in the rumor. "he never again visited his native state, painted and plumed as a savage, to imbrue his hands in the blood of his countrymen," says Butterfield. He remained as an interpreter in the British Indian Department on half pay, practically a pensioner. His headquarters were at first at Detroit. This leisure gave him time to think of something else besides fighting, and he resolved to marry. The object of his affections was Catherine Malott, then a prisoner among the Indians, .and much younger than himself. They were married in August, 1784, in Canada, near the mouth of the Detroit River, and here they took up their abode in the neighborhood of the present Town of Amherstburg. His wife is said to have been a very comely maiden, and she probably married the renegade to escape from her position as prisoner among the Indians. At the time of her marriage, she was not more than half the age of her husband. His daughter Ann, was born in 1786. A son, Thomas, 'another daughter, Sarah, and a second son, Prideaux, the last one being born in 1797, were his other children.   After Great Britain had acknowledged the independence of the colonies, Simon Girty was one of the leading agents in keeping the savages loyal to the British. For the succeeding decade he stands out as a very prominent figure throughout Northwest Ohio, and practically the entire Northwest. There is probably not a county in this section of our state   Vol. 1-4   where there is not some record of his activities. To him and others of his kind was due the dissatisfaction with and disloyalty to the treaty negotiated at Fort McIntosh. His .harangues had potent influence. He was under the direction of his old-time friend McKee. He no longer lived with the red men, but constantly visited them as British. emissary. He played his part well. Of this we have the testimony of General Harmar himself. Matthew. Elliott was an able second, for he had taken up his residence with the Shawnees. In 1788 Girty attended an Indian council at the foot of the Maumee Rapids. Here he was received into the conference by. the Indians as one of them. He was the mouthpiece of McKee, who had established a store there.   By none was the rising war cloud welcomed more than by the white savage, Simon Girty. He was present at the grand council held in October, 1793, at the Glaize (Defiance). McKee, Elliott, and other whites were also there, but. Simon Girty was the only white man admitted to the deliberations. To no one else did these children of the forests feel safe in confiding their innermost thoughts. Well had he earned the confidence reposed in him. It was no doubt a proud moment in his life, and one upon which he afterwards reflected with pleasure. At Fallen Timbers Girty, Elliott, and McKee were all present, but they kept at a respectable distance near the river, and did not take a part in the fighting. All three made good their escape. After this he and McKee assisted in furnishing food to the Indians, whose crops had been destroyed by General Wayne. This event practically ended his wild career in the Ohio country. On only one other occasion, only a few months later, did he appear as a British emissary among the Ohio Indians. Nevertheless his influence remained strong for a long time. He continued to visit Detroit occasionally, until the Americans occupied it He happened to