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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 27 CHAPTER III PRIMITIVE MAN FATHERS OF THE RED MAN-SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS-TEMPLAR, SACRIFICIAL AND OBSERVATION MOUNDS-THE EFFIGIES—MILITARY INCLOSURES PREHISTORIC MOUNDS IN STARK COUNTY-IN THE NEUTRAL BELT- UNCLASSIFIED RELICS-OHIO INDIANS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY -THE COUNTY 'S FIRST HISTORIC SETTLERS-WAR AND PEACE DELAWARES-INDIAN MASSACRE AT GNADENHUTTEN-THE POST MISSION OF 1761-62—THE BOUQUET MILITARY EXPEDITION-INDIAN WARRIOR VS. GOVERNMENT SCOUT-SCOUTS OUTSHOOT WAYNE 'S SHARPSHOOTERS -INDIAN PANIC OF 1812—THE LAST OF THE INDIANS. Any reader who has followed this narrative chapter by chapter will have noted their logical sequence, their natural unfolding in the historical sense. A taste of geology, to the extent of the carboniferous strata, which mainly concern Stark County ; the glacial tracings, with the first evidences of man unearthed from beneath the drift, and a sketch of the topography and soil of the county, as a whole, with the industries which have been directly born of Mother Earth, have all been laid down as the foundation strata for the coming of primitive man. The story has overlapped, at times, into modern periods and events, in order to clear the ground thoroughly for subsequent developments. FATHERS OF THE RED MAN The evidences of glacial man beneath the prehistoric drifts are faint and scant, albeit conclusive, but on the earth's surface of what is now the State of Ohio have been reared more than 10,000 mounds by primitive man ages before the Indians were known to history, and filled with implements of the household, war and the chase. They, too, are prehistoric relics, but, from their profusion, coupled with the ingenuity of scholars, have been made to serve as data for a reconstruction of the habits, customs, arts and industries, religion and social life, of these fathers of the red man. 28 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS The ancient earthworks have been divided into mounds, effigies and inclosures. The mounds, in turn, were evidently either sepulchral or sacrificial, were ordinarily conical in form and varied in height from a foot to seventy feet. They are spoken of in the past tense, as, with the progress of American civilization through the great valleys of the United States, where they were most abundant, most of them have been leveled, and, in many cases, their contents transferred to museums and private ownership. The sepulchral mounds were the most numerous. Within them, and usually at the center of the base, were always found human bones. At least one complete skeleton was always found, with implements and ornaments, supposed to be for use in the Spirit Land. Near the skeleton, or skeletons, were often found igneous stones, ashes or charcoal ; also mica, pottery, copper heads and animal remains. As stated, ordinarily these mounds contained but one skeleton, although one in Licking County contained seventeen, and investigators found a mound in Hardin County from which were taken 300 crumbling skeletons. TEMPLAR, SACRIFICIAL AND OBSERVATION MOUNDS Other mounds, often surrounded with embankments, terraces and spiral pathways leading to the summit, are supposed to have been the foundations of wooden temples. These works are called Templar Mounds. Sacrificial mounds were ordinarily stratified, with convex layers of clay and loam above a stratum of sand. Distinct altars were sometimes unearthed, with evidences of fire upon them and bones scattered about, some human, others of the lower animals. The sacrificial mounds frequently contained implements of war ; silver, copper and other metallic ornaments and utensils; different colored specimens of porphyry and obsidian ; mica from the Alleghanies and shells from the Gulf of Mexico. Observation mounds were apparently designed for alarm towers, or signal stations, and have been found on numerous promontories in the Ohio River valleys. THE EFFIGIES Effigies are elevations of earth in the form of beasts, birds, reptiles or men, and, as a rule, probably represented the totems of different tribes, which they are supposed to have worshiped, like their Indian predecessors. It is just possible, however, that they adopted certain birds or animals for their national standards, as have the Americans HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 29 and Germans, the eagle; the British, the lion; the Russians, the bear. Among the most noted effigies found in Ohio were the eagle and alligator mounds near Newark, Licking County, and the huge 1,000-foot serpent in Adams County, located respectively in the Licking and Ohio valleys of Central and Southern Ohio. MILITARY INCLOSURES Defensive inclosures are supposed to have been erected for military purposes, as they were always found on high ground in positions difficult of approach. "A large number of these defensive works," says an observer in the times when they were more plentiful than they now are, "consist of a line of ditches and embankments, or several lines, carried across the necks of peninsulas or bluffs—headlands, formed within the bends of streams—an easy and obvious mode of fortification common to all rude people. The embankments of one of this class in Warren County are nearly four miles in length, varying in height from ten to twenty feet to accord to the locality to be protected, and inclose several hundred acres. Covered ways, or parallel walls, are often found, either connecting different enclosures, or portions of the same. They were undoubtedly designed to protect those passing back and forth within. There are large numbers of sacred inclosures in the form of circles, squares, hexagons, octagons, parallelograms and other geometric forms, executed with surprising accuracy. They are sometimes found within military inclosures, and very likely were connected with religious rites and 'ceremonies of the people, as small elevations were found within them which were evidently used for altars. Some archaeologists maintain that many of the so-called sacred inclosures were intended and used for national games and celebrations ; it is probable that those without the altar were used as such." PREHISTORIC MOUNDS IN STARK COUNTY The Mound Builders were fairly busy within the limits of the Stark County of today. Near the center of the western shore of Congress Lake in the northern part of the county, a conical mound has been found, seventy-five feet in diameter north and south and about fifty east and west. It rises about fifteen feet above a swamp and is composed of the same material as the adjacent bluffs. It is believed to have been an island fortress in the dim past. On the farm of David Yant, in the southeastern part of Bethlehem Township. was a structure which was believed to be either the work of 30 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY the Mound Builders or prehistoric Indians. It was some sixty feet in diameter and stood five or six feet above a level field on a low tract of land. Both earth and stone entered into the construction of the mound, at whose summit was a large oak tree, estimated to be between 200 and 300 years old. IN THE NEUTRAL BELT At various places in the Tuscarawas Valley there are meager evidences of the presence and work of a primitive people, but, on the whole, Stark County is lacking in ancient remains. The fact has been explained by the supposition that it was in the neutral belt separating hostile nations of the Mound Builders. This seems more plausible when it is known that large numbers of earth and stone works have been found north, along the Cuyahoga River in Summit County, and south. on the lower Tuscarawas and Muskingum. UNCLASSIFIED RELICS In some portions of the county quantities of flint arrow and spear heads, as well as other implements and utensils, have been unearthed, but investigators divide the relics, as to ownership, between the Mound Builders and the Indians. Quite a number of iron axes have also been found, but they evidently are of English manufacture and were probably used in the border wars. OHIO INDIANS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY In 1750, when the English Ohio Company sent out its agent, Christopher Gist, to explore the country west of the Alleghenies and northwest of the Ohio River, it was found that about a dozen tribes occupied the territory now included within the State of Ohio. The Wyandots occupied the country northwest of the Sandusky River ; the Delawares, the valleys of the Muskingum and Tuscarawas and a few other localities; the Shawanese lived along the Scioto and Mad rivers ; the Miamis, on the Great and Little Miami ; the Mingoes, at Mingo Bottom near Steubenville and at several other points ; the Ottawas, in the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky, and the Chippewas, few in number, were confined to the southern shore of Lake Erie. The Delawares were most closely identified with Stark County, having several villages within its borders, while the Wyandots, the Ottawas and other tribes were represented by scouts or small wandering bands. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 31 THE COUNTY'S FIRST HISTORIC SETTLERS In view of that fact a history of the Delawares, who represented the first settled populace within the present confines of Stark County, is quite to the point. It appears that they are a tribe of the Algonquin family, and when first known to the whites were dwelling in detached bands on the Delaware River. The Dutch began trading with them in 1616, and the Swedes made the first attempts to Christianize them. When the whites of the East first met them, the Delawares formed three families, the Turkey, the Turtle and the Wolf. They claimed to have come from the West with the Mingoes, who soon conquered them. They were finally crowded westward and southward by the Six Nations and transformed into a warlike and ferocious nation. In a war with the Cherokees they finally reached the Ohio River, where a portion remained until 1773. They fought with the French at Braddock's defeat and elsewhere, but suffered so much from English attacks that they finally treated for peace—part of them in 1757 and the others after the fall of Fort Duquesne in the following year. They then centered on the Susquehanna, and a small number soon afterward came west and settled on the Muskingum. There they were found, a few years afterward, by Frederick Post and John Heckewelder, the Moravian missionaries from Western Pennsylvania, who were the first whites to build and occupy a habitation within the bounds of either Stark County or the State of Ohio ; the details of their temporary sojourn and futile labors among the Delawares will be given in the following chapter. WAR AND PEACE DELAWARES The Delawares took up arms against the English in the border war, but were badly defeated by Colonel Bouquet at Bushy Run, in 1763, which relieved Fort Pitt. In retaliation the English burned and razed their towns on the Susquehanna, killed and dispersed them, and swept them over the Allegheny Mountains, so that in 1768 the Delawares migrated to Ohio as a tribe. Four years later a permanent mission was established by the Moravian Brethren, south of what is now Stark County on the Tuscarawas, and from that time the Delawares were divided into Christian Indians, who refused to war against the whites, and those who retained their old-time ferocity and animosity. More than ever before, there was a War party and a Peace party. In 1781 the British moved the Christian Delawares, among whom were virtually all those who had settled in Stark County, to Sandusky. In August of that Year an English officer from Detroit, accompanied by 32 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY two Delaware chiefs and 300 warriors, visited Gnadenhutten, the largest mission and village of the Christian Indians in what is now Tuscarawas County, and urged the removal of the red settlers further west. The Indians were at length induced to leave their crops of corn, potatoes and garden vegetables, and settle in the country bordering on the Sandusky. The missionaries were taken prisoners to Detroit. After suffering severely from hunger and cold during the winter, a portion of the Indians were permitted to return to their settlements on the Tuscarawas for the purpose of gathering the corn left on the stalk during the preceding fall. INDIAN MASSACRE AT GNADENHUTTEN About 150 Moravian Indians, including women and children, arrived on the Tuscarawas in late February, and divided into three parties so as to work at their three chief towns—all in the present Tuscarawas County. At that time had occurred several Indian depredations upon the frontiers of Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the frontiersmen determined to retaliate upon these unwilling wards of the British. The details of the horrible massacre of ninety-three of that peaceful band of corn harvesters at Gnadenhutten, on the 8th of March, 1782, fortunately do not belong to the history of Stark County, only so far as it relates to the pathetic fate of the Christian Delawares, to whom our home Indians were related. By the Treaty of 1785, the Delawares occupied the land between Cuyahoga and Miami rivers. At that time there were many scattered bands of the tribe, several of which were Christian and at peace with the whites. In 1818, the Delawares, 1,800 strong, ceded all their lands to the United States and migrated to Missouri. Subsequently they settled on their reservation in Kansas, most of their warriors served in the Civil war on the Union side, and still later they became citizens and were absorbed into the body politic of the state and nation. Most of them had become respected members of their communities and had been received into citizenship, which, under the Constitution, excludes only "Indians not taxed." Finally, the Delawares were a credit to their race, despite the hideous example of savagery set them by white frontiersmen in the Gnadenhutten Massacre of 1782. THE POST MISSION OF 1761-62 Now, a few words about Indian matters in Stark County, when the Delawares first occupied the land, and Missionary Post and Trader Calhoun and Colonel Bouquet, were the only whites of note about. It HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 33 was an unusual season of complications and unrest. Mr. Post had married a Delaware woman and was in disfavor with his Moravian brethren, and had also incurred the displeasure of the Indians because he had cut down some of their trees to build his cabin; but despite the coming of his enthusiastic young assistant, John Heckewelder, it was thought best to abandon the mission, on account of a threatened Indian uprising in the fall of 1762. A local writer thus describes Mr. Post's surroundings : "The old Indian crossing-place at the Delaware capital (called Tuscarawastown), one mile north of Fort Laurens (just over the southern county line), is a prominent landmark in the early geographical division of Ohio, as well as the scene of important events that transpired in Stark County. Tuscarawastown was located upon the bluff on the west side of the Tuscarawas River at the mouth of the Sandy on land now (February, 1877) owned by Samuel Burns, and was on the. main trail from Fort Pitt to Sandusky." The writer goes on to say that near the southeastern corner of Bethlehem Township was the cabin built in 1761 by Frederick C. Post as a mission house. It was located about a mile from the crossing on the opposite side of the Tuscarawas. The trading post of Calhoun was also on the west side of the river. The Delawares were at first disposed to dispute the right of Post and Heckewelder to fell the forest around their cabin, and summoned them to appear before their council on the following day. At the head of the council was Tamaque, or Beaver, the chief of the Delawares, who told Post that instead of devoting his time to the instruction of the Indian children, he was cutting down the forest and taking possession of the land, like all the other whites. Post replied that while his real object was to teach the children, yet he must arrange to live. He must have corn and vegetables, and could not raise them without land. Finally, after further discussion, the Delawares agreed that the missionary should have a garden fifty steps square ; and this plat was paced off the following day by Captain Pipe, who afterward became so notorious and infamous. There was at this time quite a large Indian village at Navarre, or near there. A mile down the river from Post's cabin was Calhoun's trading house, and still further south was the Delaware capital, containing some forty wigwams. It is said that the village was also the capital of the Senecas. Post owned a canoe and was in the habit of rowing up the river until near Navarre, where he would land, cut a quantity of cedar wood with which to make tubs for the Indians, and then return down the stream. vol. 1-3 34 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY THE BOUQUET MILITARY EXPEDITION In 1764 the military expedition of Colonel Bouquet, following the old Fort Pitt and Sandusky trail into the heart of the Indian country, passed through the southern part of Stark County, forded the Muskingum (now Tuscarawas) at the crossing-place of the Delaware capital and proceeded down the river to Goshegunk, or Coshocton. The object of the leader of the expedition was either to awe or subdue the Indians into submission, and his force comprised 1,500 men, well armed and equipped. The Delawares sued for peace in a body. Colonel Bouquet charged them with wanton violation of their treaties, but the Indians, through their speakers, Turtle Heart, Custaloga and Beaver, asserted that they were unable to restrain their hot-headed young men. The colonel then demanded every white captive they held and received some 300 prisoners whom he returned to their friends and kindred. INDIAN WARRIOR VS. GOVERNMENT SCOUT In all probability, the capital of the Delawares in Stark County often harbored white prisoners, although there is nothing in the various narratives written by the various Moravian missionaries as evidence on that point. The warlike Indians were especially jubilant if they could capture any of the Government scouts, whose assigned duty was to reconnoiter the country beyond the Ohio. They were always rugged men accustomed to the privations and exposure incident to homier life, who knew by experience the habits and mode of warfare of their wily enemies. It was their duty on the discovery of any sign of hostile Indians to immediately acquaint the frontier settlers of the fact that they might be prepared for them. The scouts received from the Government monthly pay and ammunition, but furnished their own arms. The white settlers of Stark County escaped the fierce border warfare of Western Pennsylvania and Virginia and Eastern and Northern Kentucky, but prowling Indians and frontier scouts looking for hostile red men were not unusual sights during the later years of the eighteenth century and the earlier period of the nineteenth. Occasionally an Indian, too demonstrative in his actions, was dropped in his tracks by these skillful marksmen of the Government, but so far as known no settler or scout was ever killed by an Indian on Stark County soil. The following narrative, however, shows that they sometimes had narrow escapes from death on home soil, and as it is typical of frontier life it is presented. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 35 In April, 1793, a company of five Government scouts, all of whom afterward became citizens of Stark County, left their place of rendezvous for a trip into the interior. They were James Downing, Sr., John Guppy, Isaac Miller, George Foulk and Thomas Dillon. Dillon and Foulk had both been captured by the Indians when young, had lived with them for many years and were especially familiar with their. habits. Downing was captain of the company. The scouting party crossed the Ohio River, from what is now the West Virginia shore, to the mouth of Yellow Creek, followed the north branch to near its source, and then struck out for the headwaters of the Sandy. After scouting thereabouts for miles without discovering any signs of Indians, they decided that there were none in the neighborhood and that it would be safe to kill some game to replenish their food supply. Up to this time they had not discharged a gun for fear of being discovered. On the morning of the fourth day out, Downing shot a deer and another of the party, a turkey, and, as they had not yet taken breakfast, they concluded to pitch camp between Little Sandy and Indian Run and enjoy a meal. But a party of about twenty Ottawas and Wyandots had heard the firing and, having divided their force, were soon approaching the camp from the two directions which the scouts would naturally take in order to escapc. While Cuppy was examining his gun, he happened to look up and saw at some distance an Indian moving about and peering through the underbrush. He immediately gave the alarm, sprang to his feet and fired at the fleeing Indian. Miller and Foulk also snatched their guns and gave chase over the sparsely timbered ground. Miller was in the advance, when Foulk called to him to return, believing that as soon as the Indian reached a more heavily timbered piece of ground he would step behind a tree and shoot Miller as he approached. Thereupon Miller turned about and he and Foulk started for the place they had left. Meanwhile, the other party of Indians, six or eight in number, made their appearance in another direction, and advanced boldly and threateningly. Downing said to Cuppy and Dillon, "Let us stand together and defend ourselves to the last." "No," replied Dillon, "each one for himself," and started on a run. Downing and Cuppy kept together and moved cautiously along the higher ground, or upper bench, toward the forks of the Sandy. As the Indians pressed upon them too closely, they would turn and raised their guns as though they intended to shoot. Then the Indians would jump around, throw up their hands and fall to their knees, for the purpose of diverting the aim of the whites. By degrees they became 36 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY bolder and advanced closer, when Downing taking advantage of a good opportunity, shot the nearest, which had the effect of keeping the others at a greater distance. Soon after Downing and Guppy caught up with Dillon, who appeared so exhausted as though about to fall. He begged that they would help him, and as Downing turned and saw his face he discovered that he was choking with his necktie. In his haste to loosen it, Dillon pulled the wrong end and made it tighter, when Downing cut the neckerchief with his belt-knife. Thus ,relieved, the nearly suffocated man took a fresh start and was soon out of sight. Downing and Cuppy were both past middle age and somewhat fleshy. They had both run until nearly exhausted, and knew they could not hold out much longer. Downing said to Guppy, "I can't go any further. I stand and fight under this thorn bush if I die ; and stand he did. At the same time Cuppy got behind a tree, and both awaited the approach of the savages, determined to make the best resistance they could. They had not long to wait, for soon the Indians were seen approaching. Downing reserved his fire until the foremost Indian came within range, then took deliberate aim and brought him down. The others returned a volley which cut the bushes around Downing and Cuppy, but did not strike either. Miller and Foulk hearing the firing, hastened in the direction whence it came, and before aware of it were among the Indians. Miller espied one of unusual size, with a silver half-moon hanging on his breast. He was in the act of loading his gun, but just as Miller was drawing a bead upon him, the chief saw him, gave a yell and sprang behind a tree. Miller soon discovered that he was surrounded and that it would be impossible to protect himself behind a tree; therefore he determined upon flight as the only hope of safety for his scalp. Quick as thought he sprang from the upper bank and ran across the bottom or swamp toward the north branch of the stream. The Indians left Downing and Cuppy, threw down their guns, drew their tomahawks, gave a scalp yell and chased after Miller. At one time they were so near that he recognized a tall warrior among the pursuers known as Tom Jilleway. After Miller crossed Little Sandy and was in an open plain, he thought, as he afterward expressed it, "now legs for it." He always considered himself swift of foot, and extended himself to the utmost for about a mile and a half until he reached the highlands or ridge, when he stopped to look back and listen. He could neither hear nor see anything of the Indians. After resting a short time, he concluded to return to the place where they were first surprised, in the hope of finding the rest of his company. As they were not there, and the day was far advanced, he decided upon HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 37 making for the company's place of rendezvous on the east side of the Ohio river. He continued to travel as long as he could see his way until he reached Yellow Creek. Here, under a fallen tree that lay upon the ground, he made a bed of leaves upon which he slept soundly amid the howling of wolves and the screeching of wild cats. Next day he crossed the Ohio at the mouth of Yellow Creek, and reached the place of rendezvous, where he found Downing, Cuppy and Dillon safe and unhurt, except that Downing's face was much swollen and his eyes bloodshot from exertion. In the evening of the next day Foulk made his appearance and reported that when the Indians started after Miller, he hid himself in the brush. When they were out of sight he crossed over a branch of the Sandy, the same that is now called Indian Run from this identical fight, and secreted himself on a hill where he could overlook the plains south without being observed. He could see the Indians in camp not a mile distant and was satisfied, from his knowledge of their ceremonies, that two of their number had been killed. SCOUTS OUTSHOOT WAYNE 'S SHARPSHOOTERS The next day, General Wayne and his staff in a barge, with his troops in ninety-five flatboats, came down the river on their way to Camp Washington, afterward Cincinnati. As they came in sight, the scouts discharged their guns as a salute. General Wayne had his barge run ashore and, on learning that they were Government scouts, signalled a boat containing sharpshooters to land. He had a target set up, and in the trial of skill between his sharpshooters and the scouts the general's men came out second best. General Wayne is said to have complimented the scouts with "My brave fellows, you are d—d fine shots," and treated them to brandy. INDIAN PANIC OF 1812 Stark County has had its share of Indian scares, despite its immunity from attacks, in line with the thought and the plea of the timorous—that "there may be a first time for anything." The most widespread panic occurred during the War of 1812. At one time news was received that 800 warriors had congregated in the bend of the river at Navarre, and were making preparations to attack the settlers. A company of militia at Canton, commanded by Colonel Sloane, and another in Sandy Township under Captain Downing, the old Indian scout, were hastily raised. The few cabins then at the county seat were 38 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY barricaded, pickets were sent out half a mile or more from the village, and the entire neighborhood placed under military rule. All the settlers living in the outskirts of the town hurried to Canton, armed with pitchforks, sickles, clubs, scythes and axes, prepared to sell their lives only after they had expended the last ounce of resistance. Drums were improvised from old pails, most of the martial music centering around Philip Dewalt's tavern, which was headquarters for the aroused populace. In the excitement of the night, John Shorb, a leading villager, is said to have fatally shot a neighbor 's cow, which failed to respond to his challenge. Other accidents, which did not develop into worse tragedies, occurred, and when the morning dawned the two companies of militia moved toward Navarrc. That settlement was reached, but no Indians. The vigilance and alarm did not subside immediately, but everything, including the militia, was kept in readiness to resist a possible attack. Those certainly were the days of "preparedness" in which the most ardent advocates of that policy, as applied to the nation of the present, would have been happy. THE LAST OF THE INDIANS It is said that just before the Battle of Tippecanoe the Indians of Stark County were unusually active. War dances were frequently held at the Delawares' village, and it was nothing unusual to hear battle cries and scalp halloos. But after the battle such commotions gradually subsided and the bulk of the Indians left after the close of the War of 1812, although straggling bands could be seen as late as 1825. |