228 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. CHAPTER XVI. INDIAN CHIEF KILLBUCK. A CALIFORNIA '49-er, undertaking inquiries concerning our hero, would climb his genealogic tree armed with a shot-gun. Our purpose being less hostile and in the interest of peace, we approach him with kindliest intentions, but we admit with more gravity than reverence. Who his fore-fathers were and his fore-mothers who, we presume not to forecast. They may have been Assyrians or belonged to "the lost tribes," or "the missing link," or the Anthropophagi, or the Hamaxobii. The daily press, the ubiquitous reporter, even the local miscellanarian, had not yet come to the front, else we might chronicle the spasm of his birth. His grandfather may have built play-houses for his children of human bones extracted from his victims, or, defending his wigwam, fallen "like a little man" before the blood-surge of the Iroquois as they "walked over the track" of war to the west. Like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Killbuck had neither prefix nor suffix to his name. True, he had an alias, Gelelemend, but this name vexes us and we regret the alias. Our border books refer to a chief Killbuck who is denominated a wise and great chief, a great captain and a great conjurer. He appears as a warrior with Shingiss, Blackhoof, etc., and is not pleased with the operations of Braddock's army. In a war council he fiercely and vehemently fulminates as follows: " We know well what the English want. Your own traders say that you intend to take all our lands and destroy us. It is you who have begun the war. Why do you come here to fight ? How have you treated the Delawares ? You INDIAN CHIEF KILLBUCK - 229 know how the Iroquois deceived us into acting as peace mediators; how they shamed us, and took our arms ; put petticoats on us ; called us women, and made us move three times away from our homes. And, why? Because the English paid them a few beads, and blankets, and paint, and when their senses were stolen away with fire-water they sold our lands ; but we tell you this must cease. We are no longer women, but "—striking his breast—" men—men who can strike, and kill, and "— "Yes !" hissed out old Shingiss, springing to his feet, rising to his full stature, his wicked little eyes flashing a venomous fire. " We are men, and no longer women! We have thrown off the petticoat of the squaw, and have seized the keen tomahawk of the ' brave.' I speak," stamping his foot, " as one standing on his own ground. Why do you come to fight on our land ? Keep away ! both French and English. The English are poor and stingy. They give us nothing but a few beads, some bad rum, and old worn-out guns, which kick back and break to pieces ; and their traders cheat us and fool our squaws and maidens. But I tell you we won't suffer it longer." It will be seen that the speech undertaken by Killbuck was completed by Mr. Shingiss. This Chief Killbuck belonged to the Delaware tribe, and is probably the same personage that nearly half a century afterwards figured conspicuously in Tuscarawas county. The Iroquois, of all the savage tribes in America, stood foremost in eloquence, in war, in primitive virtues, and the arts of policy. They were termed by DeWitt Clinton, " the Romans of America," and were the subjugators of a vast area of country, including even Canada itself, and it was through actual, or alleged purchase from them, that the English asserted title to all the land west of the Allegheny mountains, the French claiming the same magnificent domain, by right of discovery and prior possession. They consisted originally of five nations : The Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, to whom a sixth, the Tuscaroras, from the south, were admitted. The Delawares suffered much at their hands. In Ohio the Delawares were the ancestral tribe, and their biography contains an extraordinary number of remarkable personages though none of so distinguished career or character, as to be known to the present generation. Netawatwees was head chief of the Delawares, and died in 230 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. 1776, and White Eyes was the first captain among them, White Eyes died in 1778, of small-pox, when Gelelemend or Killbuck, was installed as temporary chief during the minority of the heir of Netawatwees. Killbuck died in Goshen, an Indian village in Tuscarawas county, in the year 1810, aged 80 years. Captain White Eyes and Killbuck were advocates of the American cause, though that is more than can be said of Shingiss, and other of the Delaware chiefs. Taylor, in his History of Ohio, published 1854, infers from Hutchins' Map of 1763, and Pownall's Map of 1776, " that there were five Delaware villages, within a few miles from each other, on the Muskingum—one on Will's creek, where Cambridge, in Guernsey county, stands ; one near the source of the Scioto, and in the present county of Delaware ; one on the Killbuck, a tributary of the Mohican, or White Woman, and apparently near the present Millersburg, in Holmes county, besides the settlement at the Tuscarawas forks of the Muskingum." The stream known as Killbuck, traversing the county, was named after this chief. We have it upon the authority of Howe, in his Historical Collections of the State, page 485, that two of his sons assumed the name of Henry, out of respect to the celebrated Patrick Henry, of Virginia, and were taken to Princeton, to be educated. In 1798 the United States Government granted to the Society of United Brethren, 12,000 acres of land, for propagating the Gospel among the heathen. On the 4th of August, 1823, Lewis Cass, on the part of the United States, entered into an agreement or treaty with a representative of said Society for the retrocession of those lands to the Government. The agreement could not be legal without the written consent of the Indians, for whose benefit the lands had been donated. These embraced the remainder of the Christian Indians, formerly settled on the land, " including Killbuck and his descendants, and the nephews and descendants of the late Captain White Eyes, Delaware chiefs." Said agreement was consummated and signed as follows : Lewis BOATING ON KILLBUCK - 231 Cass, Commissioner, on the part of the United States; and Zacharias, or Kootalees, John Henry, or Killbuck, Charles Henry, or Killbuck, Francis Henry, or Killbuck, John Peter, Tobias, John Jacob, and Matthias, or Koolotshatshees, being the descendants and representatives of the Christian Indians, who were formerly settled upon three tracts of land, lying on both sides of the Muskingum river, containing four thousand acres each, etc. After sowing his wild oats, and various border experiences, it will be seen, he drifted further west and ceased to be a portent. He ceased swoops and forays ; he yelped war no more. The Moravian missionaries drew him under their " sweet influences ; " he professed ; he confessed ; he said he believed, and died saturated in whisky, but observing the external and more muscular forms of the United Brethren church. BOATING ON KILLBUCK. The following was written by Frederick Leyda, of Winsted, Minn., one of the pioneers of Wayne county, and published in the Wooster Republican in 1872 : Great things transpired during the year 1816. Killbuck, the beautiful, that flows so rapidly west of Wooster and winds its way so majestically south, until it mingles its waters with the great Father of Waters, was this year declared navigable, and it was not thought improbable that the day would come when the " Mohicans" would be conveyed to the Killbuck bridge, and Wooster become the head of slackwater navigation. Owing to the great immigration to this part, grain became scarce and the demand increased. A benevolent spirit entered the heart of John Wilson to seek food for man and beast, and it was on this wise : He laid the matter before one William Totten, who had been a man of renown among the watermen on the Ohio in days of yore. William thought it good to go, and chose some of the valiant men to accompany him. It occurred to him that in the White Woman country there was much corn and to spare, and the captain of this boat led the way to that land where the corn grew, and he procured a craft called a " keel boat." The dimensions of this boat were as follows, viz : The length thereof was 55 feet, the width to feet, depth 6 feet, with a cabin thereon, All things now ready, the captain went forth among the inhabitants of this land of corn, and laid bare the wants of his brethren that dwelt north, even toward the lakes, and after they had hearkened unto the voice of the captain their hearts soft- 232 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. ened toward their kinsman, and they said unto him, " Thou hast come unto thy brethren of the south to get provender for man and beast, and thou shalt not surely go empty away, for we have here an abundance and to spare." The captain answered and said, "We have not come here, my brethren, to ask alms, for we have the coin to satisfy thee. What wilt thou tax us for the provender ? How much per bushel ?" Then the brethren of the south answered and said, " Truly, we are in need of the coin, for we have not seen the like before in this land. Ye shall surely have it for 15 cents per bushel." So it was agreed the boat should be filled, and it was even so. The captain called forth his men and said unto them, "Up, we will haste to our brethren with the corn, that they faint not." The craft was pushed up the stream in this way : On each side of the cabin there was a footway with slats nailed on from bow to stern crosswise. Men on each side with poles commenced at the bow, placed one end of the pole to their shoulder, the other end in the stream, back up stream, then pushed, and as the boat ran ahead they kept stepping until they reached the stern, then wheeled, walked back and did the same—one man at the helm to steer. They succeeded, but with much difficulty, having to cut drift-wood and trees that fell across and in the stream ; often only one or two miles were made per day. They finally landed the boat above the Kill-buck bridge, south. It was then noised abroad that the effort was a success, and great was the rejoicing. The occasion was celebrated in the partaking of the " ardent." The writer of this was considered competent to take charge of said boat and contents during the night, and as the shades of the evening drew near there came forth from their hiding places a numerous quantity of " mosq uitoes "the number no mortal man could tell—and if ever anybody did suffer from these little Killbuck imps, it was me. Having nothing to make a smoke with, I was completely at their mercy. The corn was hauled to town and disposed of at $1.5o per bushel. Joseph McGugan bought the boat, ran it down and was about to load it, when the rains descended, the floods came and that boat, with the men on board, broke its moorings and was carried off. The men got hold of limbs, climbed up the trees and were there thirty-six hours before they were rescued. Thus ended the corn speculation. During the next season a load of salt arrived from the Ohio river, which was disposed of at $12.00 per barrel, and Killbuck was declared a navigable stream. I was somewhat acquainted with the old chief after whom this stream was named. He then lived on the Tuscarawas, and occasionally visited Wooster, always accompanied with his daughter, quite an interesting girl. He was a beautiful specimen of the red man as taught and trained by the white man—a perfect bloat—and as homely as the devil, lacking the cloven foot. Killbuck, you are not responsible for being named after the old chief! Nor yet for your sluggishness, nor for your slopping over occasionally to afford a good " skating park" for Young Wooster! Thou wast here, winding thy unrippled way THE OLD SALT WORKS ON THE KILLBUCK - 233 carrying off the noxious effluvia and draining the low rich lands along thy borders for the husbandman that are to cultivate that " Nile" as yet untouched by man. The god of waters assigned thee thy course and bade thee perform the great office designed for the good of man. Proud mortals may stand on thy banks and cast a reproach or an epithet on thy appearance, and say, Why was it not thus and so? Ah ! has man filled the great object of his existence ? Nay, verily! but thou hast. NAVIGATING THE KILLBUCK AND SALT CREEK. The following reminiscences were contributed by Nathan W. Smith, of Wooster township : In 1812 Philip Smith despatched a boat load of goods up these streams from the Ohio river, with his sons, George and Philip, and James McIntire in charge. The boat was a " dug-out," 68 feet long by feet wide, carved out of a solid log. It was made several miles up Cross creek, in Ohio, where it was launched and passed down the river to within three miles of Wellsville. Here the cargo was placed on board, consisting of 4 four-horse wagon loads of goods, and on March loth, 1812, they embarked on the trip for the then distant Wayne county. They moved down the Ohio to the mouth of the Muskingum, and up that river and its tributaries to the mouth of the Killbuck ; thence up that stream to the mouth of Salt creek, near Holmesville; thence to a point above Holmesville, where the goods were unloaded, at Morgan's residence, at the Big Spring. About one month was occupied in making this passage. This was the first craft that had navigated the Killbuck, which passage was accomplished with great difficulty, as they frequently had to cut their way through drift-wood. THE OLD SALT WORKS ON THE KILLBUCK. One of the very distressing annoyances and privations to which the pioneers were subjected, and one of the necessities for which they were sometimes compelled to pay the most exorbitant rates, was that of salt. But necessity often compels opportunity, and pluck, then as now, was the father of luck. Prices for this article, we have been told by some of the old settlers, ran as high as $16 and $20 per barrel. Rather than be subjected to the annoyance and expense of transporting it from Pittsburg, or from points on the Ohio, to Coshocton, at the head of the Muskingum, thence to the Walhonding, and tugging it up Killbuck in dug-outs and pi- 234 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. rogues, as did Benjamin Jones and the triple-nerved William Tot ten, they concluded they would bore for it. So the solution of the salt problem was inaugurated on the 5th of March, 1815, by Joseph Eichar. It was a somewhat hazardous financial venture, at that time, it is true, but Mr. Eichar was inspired by the prospect, and hoped to be able to procure for the market at home this great desideratum, receiving the encouragement of enterprising business men throughout Ohio and other of he States. The well was sunk 465 feet, by means of a chisel from one to two inches on the edge. Salt water was obtained and salt made, which met with a ravenous demand and commanded an exorbitant price. The water not being sufficiently impregnated, its manufacture was soon abandoned. We extract from a descriptive letter, furnished us by Mrs. Joseph Lake, of New York, daughter of Joseph Eichar : One of the greatest obstacles they met with in boring, was the striking a strong vein of oil, a spontaneous outburst, which shot up high as the tops of the highest trees! One of the workmen dropped a coal of fire into it, and, in less than a minute, everything was in a roaring blaze ! The men became terribly frightened ; and Jim McClarran struck a bee-line through the woods for Wooster, without hat, or coat, for, said he, " We have struck through to the lower regions, and it looks as if we had set the world on fire." The scene was one of intense excitement and wonder. It seemed, verily, as if hell's hot cauldron had been punctured and was spitting whole buckets of fire-broth, A Mr. McKinley's coat tail took fire, when he went through all manner of Dervish-like contortions, gyrating and fumbling his pendent garment worse than an Asiatic fingering his cymbals before the image of the devil. Of this he is said to have cherished as lively a recollection as did Andrew Poe over the ponderous " hug " of the formidable Big Foot. Mr. Eichar precipitately rushed to the theater of excitement, and the letter says that, upon his arrival, he found " a frightful fire." Means were immediately employed to extinguish the THE OLD SALT WORKS ON THE KILLBUCK - 235 conflagration, which was accomplished by the use of blankets, bed clothes, etc., which were stuffed in and around the cavity. A bottle of the oil was taken to Wooster, and exhibited by Mr. Eichar to Dr. Townsend, who, upon analysis, pronounced it a wonderful phenomena." It must have flowed abundantly, for Mrs. Lake closes her reference to it by saying, " the whole surface of Killbuck was covered with oil." But salt was what they wanted, for oil they could do without. At great expense and trouble the well was tubed, but the saline liquid not presenting itself in paying quantity, and the efflux of oil making its procuration almost, if not wholly impossible, even if the water had been of the most powerful salt character, the enterprise was ultimately abandoned, after thousands of dollars had been expended thereon. |