ASHLAND COUNTY OHIO HISTORY PART 3 1898
***********************************************************************
OHGENWEB NOTICE:  All distribution rights to this electronic data are
reserved by the submitter.  Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted
material will require the permission of the copyright owner.  The submitter
has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently
for free access.  http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/
***********************************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Submitter:  Gina Reasoner 
Email: greasoner@prodigy.net
Date: 11 July 2000
***********************************************************************

ASHLAND COUNTY, Part 3, by Henry Howe, 1898

The exact location of the Indian village Helltown is not known,but it was 
supposed to be on the south line of what is now Green township, on the 
banks of the Clear fork of the Mohican. It probably derived its name from a 
Pennsylvania captive who spoke the German language, in which 
"Hell"  signifies clear or transparent, so called the stream on which it 
was situated.
When Col. Crawford in the spring of 1782 invaded the Indian settlements of 
the upper Sandusky the Helltown Indians fled thither for safety. The 
village was the home of a number of well-known Delaware chiefs, among 
others Thomas Armstrong; also the occasional residence of the noted Capt. 
Pipe, one of Col. Crawford's executioners. In 1783 Thomas Armstrong, with 
the original inhabitants of Helltown (that village having been abandoned) 
and a few Mingoes and Mohawks, established the village of Greentown, some 
three miles west of the present village of Perrysville, It was on a bluff 
extending to the north banks of Black fork or "Armstrong's" creek, almost 
entirely surrounded by alder marshes, and a very strong position. The huts, 
numbering about 150, were constructed of poles covered with bark, and 
irregularly placed around a knoll, with a playground in the centre, at the 
west side of which was built the council house and cemetery in a grove.
Up to 1795 it was a station on the route for captives on the way to 
Detroit and other points in the Indian Territory.
Two tragedies in the autumn of 1812 were enacted by the Indians not far 
from the old Indian village of Greentown. These were the murder of Martin 
Ruffner, Frederic Zimmer (or in English Frederic Seymour) and family, on 
the Black fork of the Mohican, and the tragedy at the cabin of Mr. James 
Copus. Hill's "History of Ashland County" gives very full details. We here 
first take the briefer history as published on pages 429-30 in the first 
edition of this work. In a note there we stated that our informant for the 
first tragedy was Mr. Henry Nail, from whose lips, now just forty-two years 
ago, we derived it; and for the second, we said:
"We have three different accounts of this affair: one from Wyatt 
Hutchinson, of Guernsey, then a lieutenant in the Guernsey militia; one 
from Henry Nail, who was with some 0of the wounded men the night following; 
and the last from a gentleman living in Mansfield at the time. Each differs 
in some essential particulars. Much experience has taught us that it is 
almost impossible to get perfectly accurate verbal narratives of events 
that have taken place years since, and which live only in memory." And to 
this remark of ours made in that long ago we here add the additional reason 
for conflicting testimony, viz., the rarity of perfect accuracy of 
observation and strength of memory, combined with the faculty of clearness 
in statement:
THE MASSACRE OF THE RUFFNER FAMILY - There was living at this time - said 
Mr. Nail - on the Black Fork of the Mohican, about half a mile west of 
where Petersburgh now is (now Mifflin), a Mr. Martin Ruffner. Having 
removed his family for safety, no person was with him in his cabin, 
excepting a bound boy. About two miles southeast stood the cabin of the 
Seymours. This family consisted of the parents -both very old people -a 
maiden daughter Catharine, and her brother Philip, who was a bachelor.
One evening Mr. Ruffner sent out the lad to the creek bottom to bring home 
the cows, when he discovered four Indians and ran. They called to him, 
saying that they would not harm him, but wished to speak to him. Having 
ascertained from him that the Seymours were at home, they left, and he 
hurried back and told Ruffner of the circumstance; upon which he took down 
his rifle and started for Seymour's. He arrived there, and was advising 
young Seymour to go the cabin of a Mr. Copus, and get old Mr. Copus and his 
son to come up and help take the Indians prisoners, when the latter were 
seen approaching. Upon this young Seymour passed out of the back door and 
hurried to Copus's while the Indians entered the front door, with their 
rifles in hand.
The Seymours received them with an apparent cordiality, and the daughter 
spread the table for them. The Indians, however, did not appear to be 
inclined to eat, but soon arose and commenced the attack. Ruffner, who was 
a powerful man, made a desperate resistance. He clubbed his rifle, and 
broke the stock to pieces; but he fell before superior numbers, and was 
afterwards found dead and scalped in the yard with two rifle balls through 
him, and several fingers cut off by a tomahawk. The old people and daughter 
were found tomahawked and scalped in the house.
In an hour or so after dark, young Seymour returned with Mr. Copus and 
son, making a hickory bark torch. Approaching the cabin, they found all 
dark and silent within. Young Seymour attempted to open the door, when it 
flew back. Reaching forward, he touched the corpse of the old man, and 
exclaimed in tones of anguish, "here is the blood of my poor father!" 
Before they reached the place, they heard the Indians whistling on their 
powder chargers, upon which they put out the light and were not molested.
These murders, supposed to have been committed by some of the Greentown 
Indians, spread terror among the settlers, who immediately fortified their 
cabins and erected several block-houses. Among the block-houses erected was 
Nails', on the Clear fork of the Mohican; Beams', on the Rocky fork; one on 
the site of Ganges, and a picketed house on the Black Fork, owned by Thomas 
Coulter.
THE COPUS TRAGEDY. -Shortly after this, a party of twelve or fourteen 
militia from Guernsey county, who were out on a scout, without any 
authority brunt the Indian village of Greentown, at this time deserted. At 
night they stopped they stopped at the cabin of Mr. Copus, on the Black 
Fork, about nine miles from Mansfield. The next morning, as four of them 
were at a spring washing, a few rods from the cabin, they were fired upon 
by a party of Indians in ambush. They all ran for the house, except 
Warnock, who retreated in another direction, and was afterward found dead 
in the woods, about half a mile distant. His body was resting against a 
tree, with his handkerchief stuffed in a wound in his bowels. Two of the 
others, George Shipley and John Tedrick were killed and scalped between the 
spring and the house. the fourth man, Robert Dye, in passing between the 
shed and cabin, suddenly met a warrior with his uplifted tomahawk. He 
dodged and escaped into the house, carrying with him a bullet in his thigh.
Mr. Copus at the first alarm had opened the door, and was mortally wounded 
by a rifle ball in his breast. He was laid on the bed,and the Indians 
shortly attacked the cabin. "Fight and save my family," exclaimed he, "for 
I am a dead man." The attack was fiercely made, and several balls came 
through the door, upon which they pulled up the puncheons from the floor 
and placed them against the loft for safety, and the last was slightly 
wounded in the thigh, from a ball fired from a neighboring hill. One of the 
soldiers, George Launtz, was in the act of removing a chunk of wood to fire 
through, when a ball entered the hole and broke his arm. After this, he 
watched and saw an Indian put his head from behind a stump. He fired, and 
the fellow's brains were scattered over it. After about an hour the 
Indians, having suffered severe loss, retreated. Had they first attacked 
the house, it is probable and easy victory would have been gained by them.

We now give the incidents of these tragedies, and in an abridged form, as 
told in the "County History:"

Martin Ruffner and brother-in-law Richard Hughes erected cabins near each 
other in the spring of 1812, about half a mile northwest of the present 
site of Mifflin. Mr. Frederick Zimmer, Sr., put up a cabin two and a half 
miles southeast of Mr. Martin Ruffner and occupied it with his wife, 
daughter Catherine. Zimmer's son Philip Zimmer, aged 19, and Michael 
Ruffner, brother of Martin, whom he hired to assist him. Martin Ruffner and 
a bound boy, Levi Berkinhizer, occupied the Ruffner cabin.
One day in September Michael Ruffner met two well-armed Indians near the 
Zimmer cabin, and being suspicious of their intentions he mounted a fleet 
horse and rode rapidly to Zimmer's and put them on their guard, and Philip 
Zimmer was despatched to inform James Copus, who lived two miles further 
south. Having warned Copus he proceeded to inform John Lambright, who 
returned with him and was joined by Mr. Copus; proceeding to the Zimmer 
cabin, which they reached early in the evening. Finding no light in the 
cabin Copus crept cautiously up to it; the door was ajar, but with some 
obstruction against it; cautiously feeling his way, he placed his hand in a 
pool of blood. Returning to his companions he informed them of his 
discovery, and further investigation proved that Frederick Zimmer, wife and 
daughter, and Martin Ruffner had been murdered. Ruffner had made a 
desperate resistance; he had fought his way from the cabin into the yard, 
his gun being bent nearly double from clubbing it; several of his fingers 
had been chopped off by a tomahawk and he was shot twice through the body. 
The fiends had scalped their victims, who had been treacherously set upon 
while furnishing them refreshment, as was indicated by the table being nigh 
spread.
It is supposed eight or ten Indians were engaged in the slaughter, whose 
enmity Mr. Zimmer had incurred by tying clap-boards to their ponies tails 
to frighten them away from the corn field; any injury to an Indian's dog or 
pony being a cause for enduring resentment. Martin Ruffner and the Zimmers 
were buried in one large grave on a knoll near the scene of the tragedy. 
The cabins of Martin Zimmer and Richard Hughes near the Zimmers were not 
disturbed, young Berhinhizer having slept alone in that of Ruffner  the 
night of the tragedy, Ruffner having been very friendly with the Indians, 
although perfectly fearless in his dealings with them.
	After his discovery of the murder of the Zimmers Mr. Copus and Mr. 
Lambright returned to their cabins for their families, and removed them to 
the block-house at Jacob Beams.
After several days int he block-house Mr. Copus, believing the Indians 
owed him no ill will, insisted on returning with his family to his cabin on 
the Black Fork. Capt. Martin protested against it but as Copus persisted in 
going he sent nine soldiers with him as an escort. They reached the cabin 
in safety and retired for the night, the soldiers occupying the barn. In 
the night the dogs kept up a continuous barking and Mr. Copus got up toward 
daylight and invited the soldiers into the cabin.
In the morning the soldiers leaning their guns against the cabin (although 
cautioned to keep possession of them by Mr. Copus) passed out to the spring 
at the base of a hill near the sixth cabin for the purpose of washing. They 
had reached the spring, when some Indians from their concealment in a corn 
field near by rushed out, cut off their retreat and began hooting and 
tomahawking them. Mr. Copus seizing his gun rushed for the cabin door; just 
as he opened it, he met an Indian; both fired at the same instant and both 
were mortally wounded. The ball from the Indian's gun passed through the 
leather strap sustaining Mr. Copus's powder horn (which is now in the 
possession of Mr. Wesely Copus) and into his breast; he staggered to his 
bed and died in a short time, begging the soldiers to defend and save his 
family. Two of the soldiers fled toward the forest, but were soon overtaken 
killed and scalped; another Mr. Warnock, succeeded in escaping his 
pursuers, but was shot through the bowels and foot; his body was afterward 
found seated leaning against a tree with his handkerchief stuffed into the 
wound in his bowels. Mr. Geo. Dye, another soldier, was shot through the 
thigh just as he was entering the cabin.

	-continued in part 4