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CHAPTER II.

SENECA' S RED PIONEERS.

IN the introduction to the Military History of the county, references are made to the occupation of Pleasant Township by the English soldier- under the Irish Tory, Butler, in 1782, its subsequent occupation by Gen. Harrison's troops in 1813, and the occupation of Clinton Township by Col. Ball's cavalry, the same year. All those movements, expensive, and sometimes costing valuable citizen lives, were not called for directly by Indian aggression. The presence of a trans-Atlantic enemy, and the spirit which that enemy's lies and largesses fostered in the Indian mind were the first causes. The arch-enemy being driven away and punished, Hull's treachery was remedied, and peace was restored.

The Shawnees.- The Eries, a tribe of fishermen and hunters, inhabited the country along Lake Erie, and hunted through the country southward until

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1655, when their villages were destroyed, their women and children slain, and their warriors driven to flight or to the grave. The wild chase of those bloodthirsty, Iroquois after human blood, led them away from this portion of the wilderness in search of other tribes to murder, and in their place came the Shawnees, who fled hither from the Iroquois, who had just evacuated this country. This was in 1672. In 1728 they migrated to the Scioto country; and thirty-five years after assumed ownership of the upper Miami country, with their principal villages at the Mac-a-chack towns. This tribe produced Tecumseh, the savage, who checked up Proctor's fiendish cruelty to the Americans. Their reservations and latter-day villages at Wapakoneta, and near Lima, Allen County, are well described in the history of Ohio, so also their dealings with the British. This tribe was removed, in 1831, to Kansas, where they are Reservation Indians.

The Wyandots are undoubtedly a branch of the great Algonquin race. The history of their persecution by the Iroquois, who drove them from the Simcoe country in Western Canada to the islands of the St. Mary's River, and thence into the country of the Sauks in the lower peninsula of Michigan, is one long, long tale of cruelty and rapine on one hand; death, disease and poverty on the other. They located on the west side of Lake St. Clair in 1690, and during the following century spread out over the Miami and Sandusky country, where they were known until 1842, or over a century and a half. Pomoacan, their great chief, had his wigwam at what is now called Brownstown, below Detroit. He is known in history as the Half-King. In 1781 he moved to Sandusky, making the cabin of the nefarious Billy Wyandot his abode. Here he received the infamous Elliot, and the no less guilty Simon Girty, both officers in the service of the British. This was the Half-King, who, contrary to the new practices and laws of his tribe, permitted the Delawares to carry out Elliott's sentence against Col. Crawford. At the time of Crawford's defeat, Zhaus-sho-toh was their war-chief, and this fellow had no less than 400 warriors out of a total Wyandot population of over 1,700. Catherine Walker, of Seneca Township, was a woman of this nation.

In .1800 the Wyandot nation numbered 2, 200 souls. Under the influence of Christian example and teachings, the whole tribe decreased to 800 in 1842. In 1843 only 664 members of the tribe moved beyond the Mississippi, of whom only 585 were on the New Reserve in 1844, and forty years later, only a bare representation can be seen.

The Delawares inhabited the territory known as the State of Delaware up to the time when the tide of European settlement set in. Before this tide they moved westward, and continued to follow the sun until 1724, when they located on the Muskingum, then a wilderness hitherto uninhabited and unknown.

In 1780 the greater number of the Delaware devils returned from the Muskingum, and took up their residence with the Senecas Shawnees and Wyandots on the Sandusky; those who remained at the middle village on the Muskingum were cut down by Williamson's command. Remembering this massacre they allied themselves with the British in 1781-82, and were among the most diabolical enemies of the United States. Their villages extended along each bank of the Tymochtee, just south of Seneca Township, one and one-half mile north of Crawfordsville, and eleven miles below the old Wyandot town, and eight miles below the new town of Upper Sandusky. Wingemund was the war-chief, and had his wigwam twenty-five miles east of the old town of Sandusky, while the notorious Capt. Pipe, or Kogieschquanoheel, commanded at the Tymochtee villages the Wolf Tribe. He always was in the minority when the question of peace with the Long Knives was brought up in

198 - HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.

council, yet he was one of the most fiendish enemies of Crawford. He died in August, 1794.

The Senecas of Sandusky.-This was a miscellaneous tribe-a number of remnants of intertribal wars grouped under one name, who claimed Logan as one of their nation. The Cayugas formed the leading band, then the Mohawks, and a few Oneidas, Onondagas, Tuscarawas, and mixed breed Wyandots; a few Mingoes, relics, as it were; of Logan's tribe, were among the Cayugas, of which tribe the Mingoes were a branch. Their names still live in New York State, where wealthy white communities have sprung up on the old hunting grounds of those tribes; flying before the incoming tide of immigration, they located in the Scioto and Olentangy Valleys a hundred years after the war of 1682, and during the first decade of this century moved to the west bank of the Sandusky, in this county, where they resided until placed on their reservation in 1817-19. Here they lived in peace until 1831, when civilization again forced them to resume their westward movement, and placed them in the Neosha country. In 1831 the Senecas numbered 510, of whom twenty-eight died before they left the Mississippi Valley. Death and disease have reduced this number now to about 100. The Mohawks in 1831 numbered twenty-five lodges.

Indian, Christianity and Early Preachers.-The early preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, known at the Wyandot Mission, all of whom were also visitors to the settlements of Seneca County, were John Stewart (colored), James Montgomery, Moses Henkle, Sr., James B. Finley (1821), Harriet Stubbs, George Riley, Charles Elliott, Jacob Hooper, John C. Brooke, Between-the-logs, James Gilruth (1827). Gilruth was succeeded by Messrs. Thompson, Shaw, Allen, Wheeler and Squire Grey Eyes. Rev. Mr. Badger, of Lower Sandusky, introduced Presbyterian doctrine, while the Delawares were inclined to Moravianism, if to any branch of Christianity. The Indians looked upon their new Christian teachers as something to be tolerated for convenience sake. Plenty of money poured into the district for their conversion, and, with this money, they purchased new pleasures, which ruined them physically, and lowered the standard of their savage code of morals. A reference to statistics, showing their numbers to have decreased in forty-three years from 2, 200 to 664, reveals the effect of the Christian education they received within that time.

Two Early Treaties.-The treaty of Fort McIntosh, negotiated January 21, 1785, established a boundary line between the United States and the new country of the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas and Otchipwes. This line extended from the mouth of the Cayuga to the portage between that river and the Tuscarawas, feeder of the Muskingum; thence down the feeder to Fort Laurens, and westward to the portage of the Big Miami; thence along this portage to the Maumee, and along the south bank of this river to its month; thence along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cayuga River.

A few special reservations were made, six miles square, at the month of the Maumee, one township on the portage of the Big Miami, one on Lake Sandusky, and two sections on each side of the Lower Sandusky rapids.

The treaty of Greenville, August 3, 1795, negotiated by Gen. Wayne, provided for the reduction of Indian territory on the east. Again, the treaty of 1805, at Fort Industry, provided that the boundary line of the "Thirteen Fires" the United States-should be a line drawn north. and south on the meridian, 120 miles west of the Pennsylvania line to the intersection of the northern boundary of United States territory, and to that of the. south lire established by the treaty of Greenville. The treaty of Detroit, November 17, 1807, ceded a large area of Michigan and a portion of Ohio to the United States, while the

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treaty of Brownstown, negotiated November 25, 1808, provided for free travel and the construction of roads, one 120 feet wide from Lower Sandusky to the boundary line named in the treaty of Greenville.

Indian Treaties Affecting Seneca County.-The treaty of the Maumee Rapids, negotiated by Lewis Cass and D. McArthur at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, September 29, 1817, with the Indians commonly called Senecas (Cayugas, Mingoes Mohawks, Onondagas, Tuscarawas; Wyandots and Oneidas), and the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Pottawattomies, Ottawas and Otchipwes, was the first which affected the district now known as Seneca County. Takaw-ma-do-aw, Josef, Tawg-you, Runningabout, Coffee-house, Wipingstick, Capt. Harris, Capt. Smith, Is-ahow-ma-saw, chiefs of the several bands, were the signers. Under this treaty a tract of 30,000 acres was set off along the eastern bank of the Sandusky River for the exclusive use of the Senecas, to which 10,000 acres were added by the treaty of St. Mary's, September 17, 1818. This large tract comprised, in Seneca County, the territory within the following boundaries: From a point eighty rods south of the south line of Section 7, in Clinton Township, east on the line running parallel with the south section line of Section 7 to Section 13, Clinton; thence to a point south of Section 10, Scipio Township; thence north, through Scipio and Adams Townships, to the north boundary line of county, west on that line to the Sandusky River, and south along the river to the point of beginning, in Clinton Township.

After the hunting season of 1818 was past, those Indians settled on this Reservation cleared their garden patches and erected their cabins. The agency provided for in the treaty was established, in 1819, when a Methodist preacher was appointed agent, with power to feed and teach this red flock. This agent was James Montgomery, who settled with his family in one of the block-houses at old Fort Seneca, November 19, 1819. Five years and two months later, Seneca County was organized, and within nine years the Indian title was relinquished. The cession was made at Washington, D. C., February 28, 1831, when the Cayugas accepted a reservation in the Neosho and Cowskin River country, southwest of Missouri.

Cession and Recession.-In this treaty with the Senecas, a provision was made for the Van Meter family as follows: "To John Van Meter, who was taken prisoner by the Wyandots, and who has ever since lived amongst them, and has married a Seneca woman, and to his wife and three brothers, Senecas, who now. reside on Honey Creek, one thousand acres of land, to begin north 45 degrees west, 140 poles, thence and from the beginning, east for quantity." This was in Eden Township. The lands were sold to Lloyd Norris in 1828, and the Mohawks left in 1829.

The Armstrong Reservation is founded on the treaty which provided that 640 acres of land should be set apart for Robert Armstrong, a captive of the Wyandots, in recognition of his services as interpreter and guide to United States officers. The President located this reservation on the west side of the river, near the Fort Ball Military Reservation, so with the second Fort Ball or the McCulloch Reservation. A grant of 640 acres was made by the treaty of Miami of the Lake for the use of the children of William McCulloch, and located north of and joining the Armstrong Reservation, near Fort Ball. This William McCulloch was employed by Gen. Harrison as interpreter, and while engaged on duty at Fort Meigs was struck by a cannon ball and killed. The land was parcelled out to his seven children (vide History of Tiffin and Pioneer History). The Armstrong tract of 640 acres was patented October 12, 1823; Armstrong sold 404 acres to Jesse Spencer October 29, same year.

The John Walker Reservation is a tract of 640 acres in Seneca Township, just

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west of the Van Meter grant, was bestowed upon the Wyandot woman, Catherine Walker, and her sons John and William. They sold a large part of this grant to A. Lugenbeel and moved to Upper Sandusky. The Treaty of Washington, D. C., by the Senecas, February 28, 1831, provided that 160 acres should be granted to Henry C. Brish in recognition of his services as subagent, and for special kindness extended to the Senecas.

The treaty with the Delawares, made at Little Sandusky, August 3, 1829, provided for their evacuation of the Delaware Reservation of nine square miles adjoining the Wyandot Reservation, of the Big Spring, and their removal beyond the Mississippi. Of this tribe Wingemund, Capt. Pipe and other notorious enemies of Crawford were members. The widow Armstrong (known as Tishatahooms), Ayenucere, Hoomauron (known as John Mings), Yondorast, John Hill, Isaac Hill, Capt. Wolf, Billy Montour, Black Raccoon Silas Armstrong, John Armstrong or Mahantoo, James Armstrong and Capt. Pipe Jr., were living about the time of their removal.

The parties to the treaty of Washington, in 1831, were James B. Gardiner, United States Commissiner, Henry C. Brish, sub-agent of the Senecas, and W. H. Lewis, Henry Tolan, P. G. Randolph, witnesses; George Herrin, interpreter; Hard-Hickory, Seneca Steel, Good-Hunter, Small-Cloud, Spicer and Coonstick. Col. McIlvain, the chief Seneca agent, was not present. Henry C. Brish succeeded James Montgomery in the agency and remained with the Senecas until they left the State.

Their removal was effected in the fall of 1831, when they started in two divis ions for their Neosha and Cowskin Reservations. The division in charge of Gen. Brish and Martin Lane, traveled by river to the Missouri River, and there waited for the second division, under Herrin and Hart, who made the trip overland. They met near the mouth of the Missouri, April 26, 1832, when twentyeight were reported to have died en route, and resuming their journey arrived in the Neosha Valley on April 26, 1832. The Senecas then numbered 510 strong; but, like their recent neighbors, the Nez Perces, they faded away, as it were, until they may be counted by tens instead of hundreds.

The treaty of McCutcheonville, January 19, 1832, between the United States and the Wyandots of Big Spring Reservation, provided for the cession to the United States of 16,000 acres of land, granted to them by the treaty of St. Mary's, made September 17, 1818, located at Big Springs on the head of Blanchard's Fork between Upper Sandusky and Fort Findlay. The treaty stipulated that the 16,000 acres, in the Big Spring Reservation, should be surveyed, offered for sale, and $1.25 per acre paid to the chiefs for the Big Spring band of Wyandots, and a reservation of 320 acres kept for Roe-nu-nas, one of the oldest chiefs. Joseph McCutcheon was named as appraiser and recommended as sub-agent. The treaty was signed by J. B. Gardiner, the special commissioner; Mat. Greyeyes, Isaac Driver, John D. Brown, Alexander Clark; John McLean, Roe-nu-nas, Bear Skin, She-a-wah (John Solomon), and witnessed by Dr. G. W. Sampson of Seneca County, Dick Reynolds, J. C. DeWitt, James McCutcheon and C. Clark. The reservation embraced twelve square miles in Big Spring Township, and twelve miles square adjoining.

The proclamation authorizing the sale of the various reservations ceded in 1831, was made under date November 13, 1832, by Andrew Jackson.

In this proclamation the location of the Seneca Reservation as well as of that of the Wyandots is given.

This treaty ended the residence of the Wyandots in this county, and led to the treaty of Upper Sandusky in 1842, by which they relinquished title to the last large Indian reservation in Ohio. In 1832 the lands formerly belonging

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to the Senecas and Wyandots were surveyed by J. W. Christmas, offered for sale under the President's proclamation, and the homes of the Indians were soon occupied by the white men.

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

Many references have been made in the first part of this chapter to the Indian chiefs who were once masters of this county and neighborhood. Again in the first part of this book, devoted to a history of Ohio, such names as Pontiac, Tecumseh, Logan, Blackhoof-find a very full mention. For these reasons the following personal notices of Indians who were at once famous or notorious, are given in a most concise form, each sketch containing only some important point or points not credited in the first part of the history.

So much has been written regarding Tecumseh (pp. 61 to 64), it is only necessary here to make one reference to the man. Few there are who have not read of the barbarity of the English troops during the whole war of the Revolution as well as the war of 1812; fewer still are ignorant of the premium offered by the English commanders to their soldiers and Indian allies. Who does not remember the massacres of Fort Meigs and of the River Raisin? Whohas not heard of Gen. Proctor's infamous doings there, of his order to kill all prisoners of his enthusiasm in witnessing, for two hours, how ably his own troops and his Indians carried out his diabolical command? Tecumseh came on the scene too late to save all, yet in time to cast a ray of light on his own character, and save his Indian brethren from the obloquy which, to this day, attaches itself to the white man. According to the chronicler, it is said: "He sprang from his horse, caught one Indian by the throat and the other by the breast, and threw them to the ground; then, drawing his knife and batchet, and running between the Indians and prisoners, brandished his weapons wildly and dared the attack on another prisoner. Maddened by the barbarity which lie loathed, he sought Gen. Proctor, and demanded why this massacre was allowed.

`Sir,' replied the General, `your Indians cannot be commanded.'

`Begone! ' answered the chief with a sarcastic sneer, 'you are unfit to command; go, you are not a man.' " Let the rebuke be the reproach of a savage; it is worthy of recognition to-day, for in the humanity of manhood is the philosophy of life.

Elsquata, the twin brother of Tecumseh, is known in history as the Prophet. This false friend accompanied the renegade Shawnees, under the lead of Tecumseh, to the British service in Canada; returned after the war to Wapakonetta; welt west of the Mississippi with a large number of his tribe in 1828, and died of cholera in 1833 in Kansas. In a reference to him Jonathan Elder says: "I was very well acquainted with the Prophet. He was not a warrior, but a low, cunning fellow. He prophesied many things that did not come to pass. He was a vain man, with a great amount of show, but with little sense. His powers of prophecy were not well sustained by the Indians in general; in fact, they had but little faith in him." After the treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809, it. is related by Dr. Hill that the Prophet ordered the execution of Leather-lips, a noted Wyandot chief, for pretended witchcraft, but really to get rid of his influence. Six Wyandot warriors were sent to put him to death. The warriors and their leader, Roundhead, went directly from Tippecanoe to execute him. They found him encamped on a stream about twelve miles above the present city of Columbus. When the warriors arrived, and their purpose was ascertained, several white men made an ineffectual effort to save his life. A council took place, and the warriors resolved to kill the chief, as ordered. An

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Indian, with much warmth, accused him of magic or witchcraft; but Leatherlips denied the charge. When the sentence of death was passed upon him, he returned to his camp, ate a dinner of jerked venison, washed and dressed in his best Indian clothing, and painted his face. He was tall and dignified, and his hair quite gray.' When the time of his execution arrived, he shook hands with those present, and turned from his wigwam and commenced to chant his death song. He then moved toward the point where the warriors had dug a grave. When he got to the grave, he knelt down and prayed to the Great Spirit. When he finished, Roundhead also knelt and prayed. Leather-lips again knelt and prayed, and when he ceased, one of the warriors drew from his skirts a keen, new tomahawk, stepped up behind the chief and struck him on the head with his whole strength. The chief fell forward in the agonies of death. The executioner struck him again, once or twice, and finished his sufferings. The body was buried with all his Indian ornaments, and the warriors and whites disappeared. An attempt has been made to fix the responsibility of this great crime upon the Wyandot chief, Crane. Crane was the friend of the whites, and opposed to the schemes of the treacherous Prophet, and it is clear never could have authorized the execution of a follow Wyandot chief.

The Wyandot chief, Roundhead, bad a village on the Scioto in the southwest corner of Hardin County, where the town of Round Head was subsequently laid out. At what precise date the Indians started this village is not known, but about the year 1800 Maj. James Galloway, of Greene County, visited them at this point, and says that. there was then quite a number of apple trees in the village, and that the Indians raised many swine. Some of those trees, said to have been planted by this old chief, are yet standing. Roundhead, whose Indian name was Stiahta, was a fine-looking maxi. He had a brother named John Battise, a man of great size and personal strength. He was well remembered by the pioneers of the Miami and Scioto Valleys on ,account of possessing an enormous nose, which resembled in size and hue an immense blue potato full of indentations, and when he laughed it shook like jolly. He lived at a place called Battisetown some miles west of his brother's village, joined the English in 1812, and was killed at the siege of Fort Meigs. In 1807 Roundhead was present with Tecumseh and other chiefs at a council held at Springfield, Ohio, between the whites and Indians to settle a difficulty which arose over the killing of a white man named Myers, a few miles west of Urbana. The execution of Leather-lips, a well known Wyandot chief, which took place twelve miles north of Columbus, Ohio, in 1810, on the charge of witchcraft, was intrusted by Tecumseh to Roundhead, who, at the head of six braves, came from Tippecanoe and did the deed.

The celebrated Mingoe chief, Logan, with a band of followers, had a village in the southeastern part of Hardin County as early as 1778. It is probable that he moved from the lower Shawnee towns on the Scioto, where his cabin stood in 1774, to this point, soon after Lord Dunmore's campaign. The exact location of this village is not known, some old settlers claiming that it stood in the vicinity of "Grassy Point." Col. John McDonald, in his biography of Simon Renton, when telling of his capture in 1778, says: "As the Indians passed from Wapakoneta to Upper Sandusky, they went through a small village on the river Scioto, where then resided the celebrated chief, Logan, of Jefferson memory. Logan, unlike the rest of his tribe, was humane as he was brave. At his wigwam, the party who had the care of the prisoner, stayed over night." From this account, it seems they also remained the succeeding day and night, not leaving for Upper Sandusky until the second morning after their arrival at Logan's village. The old Shawnee trail crossed the Scioto

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near the residence of the late Judge Portius Wheeler, several miles northeast of Grassy Point, and as the Indian village was on the Scioto, it is safe to infer that the wigwams of Logan and his band were in the vicinity of the Shawnee ford and not at Grassy Point. The main reason why the latter place has been thought to have been the site of the Mingoe Camp, is that the Indians had cleared and cultivated some land in that locality, which, upon subsequent abandonment, had grown up in blue grass, hence the name, Grassy Point. It is more probable that the land referred to was cultivated by the Shawnees and Wyandots, who owned this territory in common, while the Mingoes occupied it only by consent of these tribes, who loved it as one of their favorite camping grounds, and a sacred depository of their dead. Logan, the noble Mingoe chief, and the principal victim of Col. Cresap's mad zeal, belonged to this county as much as to any other locality in the State (vide History of Ohio). His celebrated speech, delivered near Circleville, Ohio, conveys an idea of the deep wrongs which were, in some instances, heaped upon the Indians through the malice of individuals. This man, more noble than the white man, passed the winter of his life in the very neighborhood of Tiffin, and moved away to die. He was killed by a brother Indian while sitting at his camp fire.

Pumpkin, the Taway Indian, was about six feet high, and as savage and ill-looking as he was tall. George Heck, in his relations, speaks of this red-skin as one of whom even Indians were afraid. He killed Mrs. Snow, on Cold Creek, during her husband's absence, cut open her womb, took a full grown babe, roasted the little human being, and made his meal off it. The Senecas captured this terrible savage, brought him to Snow for sentence; but the white man feared to avenge the murder of his wife and child, so that Pumpkin was allowed to go free. Some short time after this cannibal quarreled with a Wyandot, and of course killed him. He was then arrested by the Wyandots, who placed him on a log, and there six tomahawks were buried in his brain.

In the year 1822, Good Spring's mother and three other squaws were executed on a charge of witchcraft. It appears that during the summer of that year a peculiar disease attacked the Senecas, and they attributed their troubles to those four unfortunate women. They were condemned to die, and while waiting, proceeded to Lower Sandusky for whisky, with which they returned to hold their last orgie. During their drunken fit, they called on the executioner to end them, when Jim Sky-the drone of the reservation-ad. vanced with a pipe tomahawk upraised, and striking each of the old women iii the head, declared that the witches were gone.

Death of Seneca John.- This fratricidal affair took place in the fall of 1828. It appears that in 1825, three Senecas, viz.: Coonstick and Steel, brothers, with sub-chief Cracked Hoof, traveled west to seek new hunting-grounds, leaving their eldest brother, Comstock, chief of the tribe, and their youngest brother, Seneca John, sub-chief. On returning they found Seneca John chief, and. learned that Comstock was dead. Tribal gossip was not idle, but with jealous; tongue poured stories of John's treachery into the ears of his brothers, who accused him of poisoning the head chief, and said that he should die. The stoic received the sentence calmly, yet protested his innocence. In the morning he was executed near the Hut of Hard Hickory, the Indian Shane and his two brothers being the executioners, Steel taking the leading part. Hard Hickory stated in after years, that prior to John's death, he turned to Coonstick saying: "Now brother, you take your revenge." Coonstick at once relented and was going to the relief of his dying brother, when Steel rushed forward and completed the murder.

In 1829 Seneca Steel was brought before the court at Upper Sandusky, and

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acquitted of the charge of murder, it being made clear that the murdered chief had his brother poisoned.

In 1832 the Wyandots, under Chief Thomas Koon, resided in Jackson Township and passed the whole season there hunting, killing 10 7 deer, eleven bears, and thousands of small game. John P. Gordon, who then had a saloon at Risdon, sold them whisky at wholesale, and this, on one occasion, almost led to civil war among them. Nestlerode, acting under instructions of Koon, took their knives and whisky bottles from them, and sent them to camp. He however, surrendered the whisky, and when their drunken fit was over returned them their knives.

Tarhe, or the Crane, named by the French Monsieur Grace, or Mr. Crane, was born near Detroit, in 1742, and died near Upper Sandusky, in 1818, his burial being attended by various tribes. He was always a remarkable Indian. His wife was a white girl named Sally Frost.

Comstock, chief of the Seneca Indians for some years previous to 1825, and eldest brother of Seneca John, Seneca Steel, and Coonstick, was poisoned in 1825, and Seneca John, the youngest brother elected chief (side Gen. Brish's Narrative).

Seneca John was a splendid specimen of Indian manhood. He was born here in 1787, and murdered by his brothers in 1825, near Green Spring (vide Gen. Brish's Narrative). His wigwam was where Dr. Williams' house now stands. While visiting the Doctor's father's house, east of Reedtown, his little child was scalded. Dr. Williams did everything to relieve the little sufferer, but death ensued.

Seneca Steel, the murderer of his brother Seneca John, in 1825, moved to the Neosha country in 1831-32.

Coonstick, the third brother of Seneca John, and participator in his murder, moved to the Cowskin River country in 1832.

Hard Hickory, born about 1780 in this district, was considered an excellent Indian, spoke French fluently and English fairly, and was one of the head chiefs of the tribe. Next to Joseph Tequania he was the most polished warrior, and far above him in shrewdness, until after his removal to the Neosha Country. Previous to leaving Seneca County, he with a few other Cayugas received annually $1,600 from New York State, and afterward this sum was mailed to them on the new reservation. In 1834 Hard Hickory and one of the Herrins-either Joseph or George-were deputed to go to Fort Gibson and receive cash for their draft. Having received the cash, Hickory proposed a visit to Washington City, believing that the President would refund him any moneys expended on such a trip. This journey was accomplished; the Indian Department refused to pay for Mr. Hickory's pleasures, so that when he returned to Neosha very little money was visible. This, in addition to a number of lies which he told, drew upon him the condemnation of the tribe. He resisted the tribal law for a short time, but was ultimately executed by Shane in his own cabin and in presence of his own wife.

Wiping Stick, referred to in the history of Fort Seneca garrison, was a Cayuga chief, who possessed all the noble qualities of his race, without any of the bad ones.

She-a-wah, or John Solomon, who signed the treaty for the Wyandots in 1818, moved from Big Spring in 1832, and joined the leading band of Wyandots at Upper Sandusky, where be remained until after the removal of the tribe in 1842. He returned to Wyandot in 1849, and made the place his home until his death in 1878. The pioneers who assembled at Shoch's Woods, Eden Township, September 1, 1877, saw this tall old chief for the last time. There he made his last speech.

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Joseph Tequania, a half-brother of Tequania, who was killed by Peter Pork, was born about 1755; was a commissioned officer in the French Canadian service, and one of the most polished residents of Seneca County even up to 1831, when he went West with his tribe. This man belonged to the Catholic Church, and, with one of his sisters, would proceed long distances to attend service, dressed in a red vest, white ruffled shirt, leggings, hair braided, fancy shawl and some jewelry. With all his refinement, he looked down upon his less fortunate brother Indians, and sometimes hated them for the little they did know.

Strong Arm Tequania, son of the twin-sister of Tequania, the victim of Peter Pork and known as the One-Eyed Medicine Woman, was, like his mother, very benevolent, and much liked by the settlers.

Tequania or Strong Arm, murdered in 1829 by Peter Pork, was the twinbrother of the medicine woman of the tribe. Each of them was born with only one eye; both were extra good Indians, and great friends of their white neighbors.

Good Springs was a young savage, corresponding with the modern dude of white communities. His mother was executed in 1822 for witchcraft, and after the deed was done by Jim Sky, this fellow feared to meet the murderer.

George Washington, who served as scout during the war of the Revolution, reached a ripe old age in 1822. During that year his squaw-Martha Washington-was condemned to death for witchcraft. The executioners entered her cabin, saw the old scout looking on at his doomed wife pounding hominy, and then without ceremony, Shane stepped forward, struck her with the tomahawk, and called upon Jim Sky to cut her neck.

Peter Pork, whose only good trait was a desire to murder villains like himself, was the worst character in the Seneca country. While attending one of Benazah Parker's orgies in the latter's saloon at Fort Seneca, October 4, 1829, he stabbed this white wretch, immediately after he had administered a mock sacrament of corn dodgers and whisky to his guests. Parker died of his wounds in January, 1831, having suffered terribly in the meantime. Previous to his attack upon Parker, he cut up Tequania or Strong Arm with an ax. This occurred while en route home from Lower Sandusky, and would have resulted in the immediate death of Tequania, had not Dr. Ely Dresbach exercised his skill in binding up the wounds. The Indian, however, died nine days after, and ten days before Parker received his death wounds from the same Pork. He also killed Joseph Silas, a Mohawk half-breed, and another Indian, a friend of Silas, together with the squaw Brandt, known as "Thomas Brandt's old wife," who lived a solitary life in one of Brandt's cabins. In 1836 Joseph Herrin, a Mohawk half-breed and interpreter, revisited Fort Seneca learned of his cousin Silas' death, and on his return to the Neosha country cut Peter Pork's head off (vide History of Courts and Bar).

Mrs. Sally Ingham, in referring to the murder by Pork of Parker, related for Mr. Stewart in 1873, and for the writer in September, 1885, the following reminiscence: "On the 4th of October, 1829, an Indian of the Seneca tribe, named Peter Pork, called at the house of Parker, in a state of intoxication, and demanded some whisky. Observing his condition Parker refused to comply with his demand, when the Indian became exasperated, and said, with an oath, that `he would have some,' at the same time making a movement to procure the `firewater.' Parker seized a fire-brand from the fireplace, and made an attack on the Indian, in the hope that he would desist. This only tended to infuriate the savage, who drew his knife and stabbed Parker in the side, inflicting a painful and dangerous wound, from which he died about a year

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afterward. After the committal of the deed, Peter Pork went to his but and made some preliminary preparations for defense, well knowing that his deed would be detected, He placed his tomahawk within reach of his bed, and stuck his knife in a crevice in a wall just above his head. His squaw, noticing these actions, comprehended that something was wrong, and after he had fallen into a sort of drunken stupor, she removed the knife, placing in its stead a piece of wood of about the same dimensions. The following persons repaired to his house in order to arrest him: Jaques Hulberd (afterward judge), Phineas Frary, Anson (fray and Stephen Ross. He was a gigantic savage, and on the entrance of the party a terrible struggle ensued, which was carried on in the dark, Pork having kicked the lantern out of the hand of Frary at the onset. Mr. Hulberd clinched the Indian, and caught him by the throat, when Pork seized the piece of wood, supposing it to be his knife, and gave Hulberd a terrible stab, the stick penetrating through his coat. After being nearly throttled, the Indian was secured; and April 28, 1830, he was arraigned before the court of common pleas of this county, and found guilty of ` stabbing with intent to kill.' He was sentenced to three years in the Ohio State Penitentiary."

Buck-ong-a-he-lax, a noted old Delaware chief, mixed much with the Shawnees. He is supposed to have been born near Philadelphia, Penn., a few years after the treaties with Penn, and, when he lived on the Auglaize, was well advanced in age. In colonial days, with Jacobs and other leading Delawares, he resided in western Pennsylvania, and is believed at that time to have been identical with the "Shingess" who entertained Washington, when a young man, in 1758. Shingess was an active warrior when Fort Du Quesne was taken in 1759. Heckewelder speaks of meeting him at the Tuscarora town on the Muskingum, as early as 1760. As early as 1764, King Beaver, who was a brother of Buck-ong-a-he-laa, is met by (ten. Gibson at the mouth of Big Beaver. Just what time he settled in western Ohio is not known. At the capture of Col. Hardin, Maj. Truman and others in 1792, as bearers of a flag of truce from Washington, after having treacherously murdered Hardin, the' Indians arrived near the Indian town of Auglaize, and reported to the old chief, 'who was very sorry they had killed the men, and said, instead of so doing they should have brought them along to the Indian towns, and then, if what they had to say had not been liked it would have been time enough to have killed them. Nothing could justify them for putting them to death, as there was no chance for them to escape." This chief fought against Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne. He signed the treaty of 1795. He must have been over one hundred years old. He died at Ottawa village, on the Auglaize, in 1804.

One of the most noted chiefs was the venerable Blackhoof-Cul-the-we-kasaw-in the raids upon Kentucky sometimes called Blackfoot. He is believed to have been born in Florida, and, at the period of the removal of a portion of the Shawnees to Ohio and Pennsylvania, was old enough to recollect having bathed in the salt water. He was present, with others of his tribe, at the defeat of (ten. Braddock, near Pittsburgh, in 1755, and was engaged in all the wars in Ohio from that time until the treaty of Greenville, in 1795. He was known far and wide as the great Shawnee warrior, whose cunning, sagacity and experience were only equaled by the force and desperate bravery with which he carried into operation his military plans. He was the inveterate foe of the white man, and held that no peace should be made, nor negotiation attempted, except on the condition that the whites should repass the mountains, and leave the great plains of the West to the sole occupancy of the red men. He was the orator of the tribe during the greater tart of his long life, and is

HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY. - 209

said to have been an excellent speaker. Col. John Johnston says he was probably in more battles than any living man of his day, and was the most graceful Indian he had ever seen, and possessed the most natural and happy faculty of expressing his ideas. He was well versed in the traditions of his people, and no one understood better their relations to the whites, whose settlements were gradually pressing them back, and could detail with minuteness the wrongs inflicted by the whites on his people. He remembered having talked with some of the aged chiefs who had been present at the treaty with William Penn, in 1682. He fought the battles against Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, hoping to retain his country; but when finally defeated, in 1794, he decided that further resistance was useless, and signed the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, and continued faithful to its stipulations until his decease, which occurred in the summer of 1831, at Wapakonetta, at the advanced age of one hundred and twenty years! Blackhoof is said to have been opposed to polygamy and the practice of burning prisoners. He lived forty years with one wife, raising a large family of children, who both loved and respected him. He was small in stature, not more than five feet eight inches in height. He was favored with good health and unimpaired eyesight to the period of hilt death.

Quasky, his elder son, was the successor to Blackhoof. He possessed many of the qualities of his distinguished father. He went West with his people in 1832, and was living in 1853. He, like his father, was a fine speaker.

The chief Blue Jacket, it will be remembered, commanded the Indian army at the battle of "Fallen Timber," in 1794, and, with much reluctance, signed the treaty with Wayne, at Greenville, in 1795. He was very bitter in his feelings toward the "Long Knives," who were rapidly settling upon the lands that formerly belonged to the red man. His feelings were quite as intense as those of Tecumseh, though he did not possess his abilities for organization. As a matter of prudence, he did not join Tecumseh in the war of 1812. He is supposed to have died at Ottawa village, down the Auglaize, ,just prior to the treaty at Maumee Rapids, in 1817. It appears that Gens. Cass and McArthur, in that treaty, made provision for his family at Wapakonetta, in which James, George and Charles Blue Jacket received each about 1,000 acres in the reservation.

Quilna another chief, was actually popular among the white pioneers. He shared in all their sports and industries; was as good a workman as he was a hunter.

Little Fox, a brother of Pht, was an irreconcilable. Up to the departure of this Indian for Kansas, he could not believe that he was doomed to leave Ohio.

Turkeyfoot, a peculiar formation, just as broad as he was long, was a savage capable of entertaining and practicing the most diabolical ideas. At times he would induce himself to believe that he was on good terms with the whites, and while in such a mood he would make a circuit of all the white settlements.

Beaver, a young Delaware chief, who, with his band, made his home with the Shawnees, was a favorite of Gen. Harrison. He it was who executed Little Blue Jacket, in July, 1813, when that emissary of Proctor was on his way to assassinate Gen. Harrison, at Fort Seneca.

Little Blue Jacket, an itinerant bravado of the Shawnee nation, who passed some time with the British at Malden, was dispatched by Gen. Proctor to Ohio to introduce himself into the camp of the American Shawnees and Delawares, who were then aiding the American army, and, when an opportunity

210 - HISTORY OE SENECA COUNTY.

offered, to assassinate the American commander. Owing to the loyalty of Beaver his design was foiled, and himself made the victim of his treachery.

Soo-de-nooks, son of Black Chief, murdered John Barnet's half brother in October, 1830; was brought before a council of the Wyandots (of which tribe both were members), and sentenced to banishment, while his property was to become common to the tribe. This sentence was vetoed by the tribe, and all men over twenty-one years of age assembled to try the case. There were 112 votes in favor of capital punishment and twelve in favor of the sentence of the council. Three Christian and three heathen Indians were appointed to carry out the new decision, viz.: Silas Armstrong, Joe Enos, Francis Cotter, Lump-on-the-head, Soo-kuh-guess and Saw-yan-wa-hey. These savages fired at the murderer, and Soo-de-nooks went straight to the country of all bad Indians.

Grey Eyes was a regular Methodist minister-a pure Wyandot, and an uncompromising opponent of the sale of the Big Spring and other reservations until after the majority agreed to sell, when he also acquiesced. In 1843, he moved West with the tribe, under Chief Jacques.

La-wa-tu-cheh (John Wolf), was a Shawnee of some note. Col. John Johnston hired of him a trading house at Wapakonetta, and he often accompanied the Colonel on his trading trips in the forest among the different tribes. He died at Wapakonetta.

Wa-the-the-we-la, or Bright Horn, was another noted chief, who was present when Logan was mortally wounded in the contest with Winemac in 1812 and was severely wounded in the thigh in the same fight, but recovered and lived at Wapakonetla. He was, with Blackhoof, the especial friend of Gen. Harrison in the war of 1812. He was a brave man, and of sound integrity. He fought like a hero for our cause in the war of 1812. He was a large and commanding Indian in appearance, and was quite shrewd and intelligent. He died in 1826, at Wapakonetta.

Peter Cornstalk was a chief in succession to his father, who was assassinated at Point Pleasant, Va. This Peter was a fine specimen of the Indian, and a true friend of the settlers in the Auglaize country. He moved to Kansas in 1828 with the Prophet.

Nern-pe-nes-he-quah, also a son of Chief Cornstalk, went to Kansas in 1832.

Henry Clay, son of Capt. Wolf, was educated under the supervision of Col. John Johnston, at Upper Piqua, at the expense of the Quaker Friends. He afterward became a leading chief and married the daughter of Jeremiah McLain, formerly a member of Congress from the Columbus District, in 1835.

Way-wel-ea-py was the principal speaker among the Shawnees at the period of their removal. He was an eloquent orator, grave, gay or humorous, as occasion required. At times, his manner is said to have been quite fascinating his countenance so full of varied expression, and his voice so musical, that surveyors and other strangers passing through the country listened to him with delight, although the words fell upon their ears in an unknown language. During the negotiation for the sale of their reserve, he addressed his people and Mr. Gardiner several times. His refutation of Gardiner's assumed superiority over the Indian race was complete and full of irony. Col. George C. Johnston often met this chief at his trading post in. Wapakonetta, and says he was a fine looking Indian, and cultivated the friendship of the pioneers. He was the principal speaker of the Shawnces, and delivered the opinions of the tribe at treaties and in public assemblies. He removed West with his tribe, where he died in 1843.

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Lollaway (John Perry), head chief of the Shawnees, often traded at the station of Col. Johnston. He signed the treaty of 1831, at Wapakonetta. He could converse fluently in English. He was a man of influence with his tribe, and of good habits. He was much grieved when he learned that the Shawnees had been deceived as to the value of their reservations. He went West in 1832, and died in 1843.

The chief Oxonoxy resided where Charloe Village now stands. About the year 1827 this savage killed his son-in-law and grandson; he was tried by a council of chiefs, sentenced to be beheaded, but instead of carrying out the sentence one of deposition was substituted.

Between-the-Logs, son of a Cayuga warrior and a woman of the Bear band of Wyandots, was born at Lower Sandusky about three years prior to Crawford's defeat. At the age of twenty-five years he was sent to the Senecas further up the river to study the doctrine and ways of the Seneca prophet, and in 1806 visited the notorious brother of Tecumseh on a similar errand. He exposed those false prophets, and in 1812 opposed the political teachings of Tecumseh's brother, even going so far as to ask the chief to ignore him, and join the American army. During the war of 1812 he won all the Senecas and many of the Wyandots to the American standard; subsequently settled at Upper Sandusky; became a drunkard, killed his squaw, immediately became temperate visited Washington in 1817, and afterward joined John Stewart's Methodist Mission, of which he was appointed exhorter. He died in 1827, and on .January 2, the day after, he was buried near the Mission Church, erected in 1825.

Warpole, the first chief of the Shawnees, elected after the death of Chief Deunquot, gave place to Jacques, who was re-elected on New Year's day for many years.

Mononcue, one of the ablest Indians of the decaying Wyandots, and one of the chiefs after Warpole, died about 1835. He was an orator of the tribe, and considered by old men to be much superior to Pomoacan, the great chief of the tribe in 1782.

William Walker, son of the squaw Catherine Walker, died in 1874. He was a quarterblood Seneca.

Among the leading men of the Wyandots in 1843, known to the people of Seneca County, were Jacques (the chief), Porcupine, Providence, Split-the-Logs, Stand-in-the-Water White Wing, Mud Eater, Bull Head, Peacock, Big River, Big Tree Black Sheep, Chop-the-Logs, Blue Jacket, Bear Skin, CaryHoe, Curly-Head, Washington, Lump-on-the-Head, John Hicks, Kill Buck, Spy Buck, and others named in the foregoing sketches.

Sum-mum-de-Wat, one of the Christian Wyandots, and a chief of that tribe, was one of the truest friends the first settlers of Seneca County claimed among all the Indians. While entertaining a few whites, alleged land-hunters, the guests murdered their hospitable host in Wood County in 1841, the genial old Indian rested here in Seneca for a while, but in 1843 his ashes were removed to Mission Church Cemetery.

White and Colored Captives and Breeds.- Sam Wells, the negro captive, mentioned heretofore, did not go West with the Wyandots. He became a charge on the people of Wyandot County, under the care of Reuben Lowmaster, of Eden Township.

Spibey-the-Tailor, a breed, and Old Abe Taylor, a negro with Russell Russ, a breed, and a few Indians, were to be found on the borders of this county.

Spicer's sons and daughters-all of them as grotesque as their father's cabin--married in this county.

212 - HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.

John Carpenter was made captive by the Delawares (two of whom were Moravians and speakers of the Dutch language) in February, 1782, at Buffalo Creek, Washington Co., Penn., and carried into Ohio. He escaped subsequently and returned to Pittsburgh. The same year Thomas Decker, Sainuel Wells, a negro boy, were also captured. Timothy Dorman and his wife were captured near Fort Buchanan, and carried into the wilderness of Ohio, but there is no further account of them. About this time, also, the Delawares carried away the wife and three children of Robert Wallace, while he was away from home. They murdered Mrs. Wallace and her infant near the Sandusky River; one of her boys died in the Sandusky country; the other was sold to the Wyandots about 1812, and was rescued by his father about 181 5. Even in 181.7 there were several captives among the Senecas and Wyandots, such as Spicer, Knisely, Sarah Williams, Mrs. Castleman, Eliza Whittaker, Sally Frost, Van Meter and others referred to in the history of Ohio. Those who were carried away in their youth, were raised by Indian foster mothers, and became more Indian than the Indians themselves.

Sally Frost was a white girl, raised by a Wyandot woman after her capture, and survived Tarhe, her Indian husband many years, and was among the white pioneers of the Sandusky country.

Jonathan Pointer, was the name of a negro, who was captured in Virginia, taken to the Wyandot country, and who grew up here to be the slave of Tarhe. He was also Girty's servant, subsequently Capt. Pipe's servant, and again an employe of John Van Meter; was a fair interpreter, as well as renderer of sacred vocal music. While at the Van Meter place, he would interpret for preacher Stewart and others, but when Stewart's doctrine became enigmatical, Pointer would look as comic as a negro can look, and add: "I don't know meself whether that is so or not so." He was leader in all musical entertainments at the Mission Church, even as he was at an Indian or pioneer dance.

Benjamin Franklin Warner was not a captive, but a citizen of the Seneca nation, having withdrawn from American civilization. He was married to a Mohican woman, named Konkepot, and with her came from Green Bay, Wis., to Ohio, where he was hospitably received by the Senecas. In accompanying his Indian friends to the Neosha, Konkepot died near the mouth of the Missouri, leaving her child to Warner, who cared for the little Indian until he was able to enter life for himself. Warner was the man-of-all-work, liberal, sober, industrious and always agreeable.

Charlieu, like Joseph Tequania, was in the service of the French-Canadian, and was present on the Plains of Abraham, when the unfortunate death of Montcalm gave the victory of that day, and all Canada to the British. He subsequently served with the British. Charlieu was born about 1736, as a child of the Mohawks, a nephew of the Brandts, married a French half-breed, spoke the French language, embraced Catholicism, came to Ohio with his tribe, and in 1829 joined the Senecas. When the tribe moved, in 1831-32, to the Neosha country, he set out on the overland trip, but died at St. Louis, Mo., April 26, 1832, from eating warm bread, and was interred in the old Catholic cemetery.

William Spicer, or Big Kittles, a captive of the Wyandots, was a native of Pennsylvania, made captive about 1775, and brought to the Ohio River, where the Wyandots would tie him to a tree near the river bank, so as to attract the attention of white travelers, who, on coming to release the boy, would themselves be captured. He was moved to the Sandusky about 1778, grow up here, and became a large stock-raiser and farmer. About 1821 he was beaten and then robbed of several thousand dollars, it is illegod, by a carpenter named

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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY. - 215

William Rollins, an employe of P. D. Butler, at Fort Ball, in 1821. At that time Benjamin Barney and a constable named Papineau, a polished FrenchCanadian, and Caleb Rice-espoused Spicer's cause, arrested Rollins, Downing, Butler and Case, brought them to trial, and had Rollins sentenced to eleven years in the penitentiary. A year later Spicer himself signed a petition asking pardon for the robber. A good deal of the $6,000 or $7,000 stolen was returned to this prosperous captive, who died here about 1830. One of his daughters was the second wife of Crow, another captive. Spicer's cabin, like himself, is said to have been the filthiest west of the Alleghenies. This William Spicer was charged, in 1830, with the murder of Drake, the mail carrier, son of Judge Drake, of Marion County.

Robert Armstrong, to whom a section of land was granted at Fort Ball in 1817, was made captive in Pennsylvania, and adopted by a woman of the Wyandot nation. He married a half-breed Indian, presumably of the Cayugas, was employed as interpreter by the United States, as he could speak English and Indian well, and thus ingratiated himself into the confidence of both parties, until he was rewarded by the United States with this grant of 640 acres in one of the most beautiful spots in the State. In 1823 the President issued a patent to him for this land, and the same year he sold 404 acres of it to Jesse Spencer. He moved from Upper Sandusky to Fort Ball that year, returned in 1824, and died within two miles of Upper Sandusky in 1825, on the Wyandot Reservation.

William McCulloch, named in the treaty of 1817, was engaged for some months as an interpreter by Gen. Harrison, and killed by a cannon ball while on duty at Fort Meigs in 1813. To his seven children a section of land was granted adjoining the Armstrong Reservation at Fort Ball, which was subdivided, and sold. In the history of Ohio McCulloch is mentioned as a half-bred, married to a squaw or squaws.

John Van Meter, captured in West Virginia in 1778, by the Wyandots, transferred to the Mohawks or Senecas in later years by his foster-mother, was married to a Mohawk woman named Susan Brandt, sister of Thomas, Isaac and Paulus Brandt, the last chiefs of the Mohawk nation, the remnant of whom settled near Tiffin and resided in this county. The- treaty of 1817 provided that 1,000 acres of land should be granted to John Van Meter, his wife and her three brothers. This was known as the "Van Meter Reservation," on Honey Creek, and was the home of John, Sr., until his death about 1824. In 1828 John Van Meter, Jr., Thomas, Isaac and Paulus Brandt sold their interests in this reservation to Lloyd Norris for $2,500, and in 1829 young Van Meter accompanied the twenty-five Mohawk families on their trans-Mississippi journey.

Crow. or Jacob Knisely, was made captive in his youth by the Wyandots at Loyal Hannah, Penn., and carried to the Ohio River; thence brought to the Sandusky and transferred to the Senecas, with whom he moved West in 1831-32. He was made captive in 1778. Fifty years later his father came to Seneca County and stayed at Crow's cabin. The captive refused to answer any questions, until Mr. Knisely said: "If you are my son, then your name is Jacob." Crow responded enthusiastically, saying: " That is my name and I am your son. I recollect that, but I kept it all to myself for fear that somebody would claim me and take me away." A very old Wyandot squaw, the woman who adopted young Knisely and named him Crow, was sent for to the Wyandot Reservation, and she confirmed the fact, but watched her foster-son, lest his father would induce him to return to civilization. In early years Crow married a Wyandot woman, who died, but before leaving for the West he took William

216 - HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.

Spicer's daughter as his wife. He would not return with his father, parting with him forever at Bellevue. He died in 1833. White Crow, a son of Crow by his second wife, visited the old reservation here in 1852, after leaving his sons in school at Dayton. He is now known as Jacob Knisely. When here he reported that the interpreter Herrin murdered Peter Pork on the Neosha.

Good Hunter, a full-blooded Cayuga, is supposed to have been born on the Sandusky about 1780. After the murder of Seneca John he took his place as chief and counselor.

Catherine Walker, and John Walker and William Walker her sons, were well known settlers of Seneca Township. A grant of 640 acres was made to them under the treaty of 1817, in consideration of John Walker's services to the United States as a soldier, and on account of a severe wound which he received. Their claim was away west of the Mohawk Reservation. Catherine and her son William, conducted a store at Upper Sandusky. On their grant was some fine timber, and there they established a saw-mill about 1856, built a large house and soon cleared a beautiful forest.

John Stewart, an eighth-breed negro and Indian, was a native of Powhatan, Va., failed in an effort to commit suicide in the Ohio River, next became a convert to Methodism and then considered himself an instrument in the hands of (led to convert the Indians and even the French. In August, 1817, he repeated his visit of November, 1816, to the Wyandots, used the negro - Pointer-and Tom Lyons as interpreters and was making fair progress, when Methodist missionaries visited Upper Sandusky in 1818 and spread the report that Stewart was an unlicensed preacher, if not a mere pretender. In March, 1819, a Methodist Conference at Urbana conferred a license upon him, allowed Anthony Banning to assist him, and when, in August, 1819, James B. Finley was appointed presiding elder of the Wyandot country, this Stewart, as well as James Montgomery, the Seneca sub-agent, were appointed missionaries. When Montgomery was really established at Fort Seneca he retired from missionary life among the Wyandots. Moses Henkle succeeded Montgomery, and henceforth John Stewart's teachings and influences declined.

Buckwheat, a Delaware who had negro blood in his veins, was burned in 1827 for his secret dealings with witches, a charge proved against him at Little Sandusky. Anthony Bowsher, who platted Bowsherville, Ohio, was present at this execution, which was only surpassed in cruelty by that of Col. Crawford, forty-five years previously.

Tom Lyons, a Delaware and the friend of Anthony Wayne, who named him Tom Lyons, was a very old and fierce warrior, having lived with his people in Pennsylvania long before they retired into Ohio. He often stated that he sent ninety-nine white men to meet in the happy hunting-grounds, and owing to his prowess was given the fairest woman of the Delaware tribe as his wife. On making his home at Fort Ball, he was accustomed to buy trinkets,, ribbons, etc., for this woman, and array her in the outfit of a queen. While living in this simple way, two white hunters from Delaware County visited Fort Ball, and finding Lyons in his cabin, sent him to the happy hunting-grounds.

Sally Williams, a quarter-breed, daughter of the Castleman woman, who in her youth was made captive in Pennsylvania, became the squaw of Solomon Johnnycake. Three of her sons by Solomon served in the Kansas Infantry during the war. Johnnycake and his wife were well known to all the settlers along the Sandusky from Tiffin up the river.

Billy Dowdee, known as Capt. Billy, was a. fellow-scalper of old Tom Lyons, but an extra-good Indian after the war of 1812. His son Tom, and his son-in-law, Nickels, were two of the worst characters in the Wyandot country, the

HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY. - 217

peers of Pumpkin of the Senecas. Nickels was killed by one of the settlers of Wyandot County, much to the satisfaction of his father-in-law.

Abduction of a pappoose. -Immediately after the first business houses were established at Tiffin, while yet the forest was untouched by the ax, save in a few places on Washington Street, south of Perry, the Indians were accustomed to visit the new stores to trade. On one occasion a large number of men and women crossed the river where now is the Washington Street bridge. The men hitched their horses in a grove, which then stood between the site of the Shawhan House and the river, while the women left their pappoose caches standing by the trees. All marched up to the village, but were no sooner gone than an immense hawk, called by the Indians sea-eagle, swooped down, took one of the little Indians in his talons, and soared away. On this discovery being made, there was great sorrow among the savages. They quieted down after a little while, and remained in the grove for three days, observing a solemn silence all the while. On the third day the sea-eagle returned as if to explore, when one of the women stepped forth, fired, and brought down the great bird. Rejoicing followed, for the death of the little Indian was avenged.

CONCLUSION.

The dignity which poets and untraveled persons ascribe to the red man, vanished the moment the European appeared. From this time he lost all the noble qualities of the child of nature, and measured his evil doings by his opportunities. He imbibed, as it were, all the viciousness of the whites, but never essayed to emulate any of the few virtues with which the conquerors were credited. To-day, in the far West, remnants of those old residents of Ohio are still to be found, and among them many who remember their old hunting grounds on the Sandusky. With few exceptions they are animated monuments of moral deformity and physical decay, growing weaker and weaker, dying in their young days with a curse for the white race lingering on their lips. Only a short time and their history will alone remain to acquaint the future with their existence; the traveler will never find the camp of Ohio's Red pioneers.

The Indians with their bitter feuds, their wars of extermination, their alliances with the British, their invasions, their revenges, their hates, are all gone. Seldom do the thoughts of the higher people, who now own and cultivate their lands turn toward the West in sympathy with the aborigines. How different with the exiles? In their day-reams, far away in Oklohoma, they look toward the rising sun, and long to return to the land where they passed their youth, to surround themselves again with the memoried scenes. May we not hope that before they pass away these children of nature may learn from the past; may arrive, at a high state of civilization and then come among us to realize the barbarous condition of their fathers, and conceive the littleness of their tribal glories?