HAMILTON COUNTY OHIO - History of Hamilton County Ohio (published 1881) Chapter VIII

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Ch 8 The Miamese and The Indians - pgs 56-65
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History of Hamilton County Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical
Sketches.

Compiled by Henry A. Ford, A.M. and Mrs. Kate B. Ford, L.A. William & Co.,
Publishers; 1881.
 Pages: 56-65
                                  ~pg 56~

                               CHAPTER VIII.
                        THE MIAMESE AND THE INDIANS.

                              Let us welcome, then, the strangers,
                              Hail them as our friends and brothers,
                              And the heart's right hand of friendship
                              Give them when they come to see us,
                              Gitche Manito, the Mighty,
                              Said this to me in my vision.

                       H. W. LONGFELLOW, "Hiawatha."

                    Friendship was in their looks, but in their hearts
                    there was hatred.
                    Straight there arose from the forest the awful sound of
                    the war-whoop,
                    And, like a flurry of snow in the whistling wind of
                    December,
                    Swift and sudden and keen came a flight of feathery
                    arrows;
                    Then came a cloud of smoke, and out of the cloud came
                    the lightning,
                    Out of the lightning thunder, and death unseen ran
                    before it.

                 LONGFELLOW, "Courtship of Miles Standish."
                           SYMMES' PROCLAMATION.

It was remarked in the last chapter that, while Judge SYMMES was detained
with his party at Limestone, he had repeated information from Major STITES,
then just getting settled in his block-houses and cabins at Columbia, that
Indians had come in to see him (STITES) and share his hospitality, and that
they had expressed a strong desire to see the great man of the Miami
Purchase and make a peace compact with their new white brethren. This
information was evidently considered important by the pioneer Columbian,
since he dispatched two messengers on foot, in the inclement days of early
December, to make their way for sixty miles along the banks of the Ohio, to
convey his tidings to the leader still tarrying at Limestone. SYMMES not
appearing, and the Indians continuing their visits and beginning to express
some impatience at his delay, another message was sent to him, which, as we
have seen, had the effect of hastening his departure with the colony for
the settlement contemplated near the mouth of the Great Miami. Before his
expedition set out, however, he, remembering, perhaps, the great example of
PENN in his dealings with the Indians, prepared and dispatched the
following unique proclamation or letter to the red men of the Miamis:

Brothers of the Wyandots and Shawanees: Hearken to your brother, who is
coming to live at the Great Miami. He was on the Great Miami last summer,
while the deer was yet red, and met with one of your camps; he did no harm
to anything which you had in your camp; he held back two young men from
hurting you or your horses, and would not let them take your skins or meat,
though your brothers were very hungry. All this he did because he was your
brother, and would live in peace with the red people. If the red people
will live in friendship with him and his young men, who came from the great
salt ocean, to plant corn and build cabins on the land between the Great
and Little Miami, then the white and red people shall all be brothers and
live together, and we will buy your furs and skins, and sell you blankets
and rifles, and powder and lead and rum, and everything that our red
brothers may want in hunting and in their towns.

Brothers! a treaty is holding at Muskingum. Great men from the thirteen
fires are there, to meet the chiefs and head men of all the nations of the
red people. May the Great Spirit direct all their councils for peace. But
the great men and the wise men of the red and white people cannot keep
peace and friendship long, unless we, who are their sons and warriors, will
also bury the hatchet and live in peace.

Brothers! I send you a string of beads, and write to you with my own hand,
that you may believe what I say. I am your brother, and will be kind to you
while you remain in peace. Farewell!
                              JNO. C. SYMMES.

Jan. the 3d, 1789

What was the immediate effect of this epistle upon the aboriginal mind has
not been recorded; but a few months afterwards a white man, Mr. Isaac
FREEMAN, going in from the Maumee towns with several captives released by
the Indians, was charged in reply with the delivery of the following
address to Judge SYMMES:
                            MAWME, July 7, 1789

Brothers! Americans! of the Miami Warriors! Listen to us warriors what we
have to say.

Now, Americans! Brothers! we have heard from you, and are glad to hear the
good speech you sent us. You have got our flesh and blood among you, and we
have got yours among us, and we are glad to hear that you wish to exchange.
We really think you want to exchange, and that is the reason we listen to
you.

As the Great Spirit has put your flesh and blood into our hands, we now
deliver them up.

We warriors, if we can, wish to make peace, and our chiefs and yours will
then listen to one another. As we warriors speak from our hearts, we hope
you do so too, and, wish you may be of one mind, as we are.

Brothers, Warriors - when we heard from you that you wished to exchange
prisoners, we listened attentively, and now we send some, as all are not
here nor can be procured at present, and therefore we hope you will send
all ours home; and when we see them, it will make us strong to send all
yours, which cannot now all be got together.

Brothers, Warriors - when we say this, it is from our hearts, and we hope
you do the same; but if our young men should do anything wrong before we
all meet together, we beg you to overlook it. This is the mind of us
warriors, and our chiefs are glad there is hope of peace. We hope,
therefore, that you are of the same mind.

Brothers, Warriors - it is the warriors who have shut the path which your
chiefs and ours formerly laid open; but there is hope that the path will
soon be cleared, that our women and children may go where they wish in
peace, and that yours may do the same.

Now, Brothers, Warriors - you have heard from us: we hope you will be
strong like us, and we hope there will be nothing but peace and friendship
between you and us.

In explanation of a part of this missive it should be said that SYMMES held
at North Bend ten Indian women and children, who had been left with him by
Colonel Robert PATTERSON, as captives taken in a raid from Kentucky to the
Indian towns, to be exchanged for whites when the opportunity should offer.
FREEMAN had been sent by SYMMES to the Maumee, with a young Indian for
interpreter, to arrange such exchanges. Subsequently, while under a flag of
truce approaching the Indians on a friendly mission, FREEMAN was fired upon
and killed.
                           THE MURDER OF FILSON.

The reference of Judge SYMMES' letter to his visit to the Great Miami the
preceding "summer" seems rather to refer to his tour of exploration in that
valley in the early fall, thus mentioned in a letter of his dated October,
1788: "On the twenty-second ultimo I landed at Miami, and explored the
country as high as the upper side of the fifth range of townships." About
forty miles inland, at some point on the Great Miami, his party came upon a
small camp of the savages, so small that they could easily have destroyed
it and its inhabitants. In his company were a number of Kentuckians, who
had accompanied Colonel PATTERSON and the surveyor FILSON, two of the
projectors of Losantiville, in the "blazing" of a road, through the forest
from Lexington to the mouth of the Licking, as one of the preliminary steps
to the proposed settlement opposite that point, and had incited him to make
the exploration by promising him their escort until it was finished. These
men, sharing the inveterate hostility of their people to the red man,
desired
~pg 57~
to make away with this little band of wandering savages and their humble
property at once. SYMMES prevented them, however, and would not allow the
Indians to be harmed or their stuff to be taken. About half the
Kentuckians, therefore, after giving him all the trouble they dared by
their disorderly conduct, deserted his party and started for home, leaving
him almost defenceless in the perilous wilderness. The rest of the men of
Kentucky soon also showing an intention to desert, he was obliged to leave
his exploration but partially accomplished, and make his way as rapidly as
possible back to the Ohio, up which he pushed again to his headquarters at
Limestone. FILSON, who, together with PATTERSON, had accompanied the
expedition, also deserted it about the time the first Kentuckians went,
through fear of remaining longer with either detachment of the party; but,
strange to say, in his eagerness to make greater haste out of the
wilderness, he decided to confront its dangers solitary and alone, and so
swung away from even the feeble protection which he had with SYMMES and the
remainder of the escort. He was never seen or directly heard from again.
Within three hours from the time of his abandonment of the party, it is
supposed he had fallen a victim to the ferocity of the Indians. The
locality of the occurrence, thinks Mr. MILLER, author of Cincinnati's
beginnings, was "probably not far from the northern boundary line of
Hamilton county, and the northeast corner of Colerain township." With
FILSON also perished his plan of Losantiville, which had been carefully
prepared at Lexington, and is believed to have been on his person at the
time.
                        FRIENDLINESS AND HOSTILITY.

Notwithstanding subsequent hostilities between the Indians and the whites
of the Purchase, the feeling of the sons of the forest toward Judge SYMMES
personally appears to have been kind and friendly - perhaps in memory, if
not of his proclamation or letter, yet of his restraint of the Kentuckians
when some of their people were threatened with pillage and murder, and of
his subsequent kindness to them. He does not appear ever to have been
attacked or otherwise molested by them in his own person or property; and
nearly seven years afterwards, at the negotiation of the treaty of
Greenville, some of the Indians assembled there told him that they had
often been on the point of shooting him, but had recognized him in time to
save his life. Nevertheless the kind-hearted and hospitable judge was
sorely tried and troubled by their hostility to his settlers on the
Purchase --- a feeling which early developed in cruel and bloody deeds. The
traditions of the region were those of inveterate warfare and hatred
between the races. Only ten years before SYMMES' settlement at North Bend,
Colonels BOWMAN and LOGAN had led a hundred and sixty Kentuckians up
between the rivers against the Shawnee towns on the Little Miami, within
the present limits of Greene county, in retaliation for atrocities
committed by the Indians in Kentucky shortly before, and had experienced
some sharp fighting. The Indians pursued them to the mouth of the Little
Miami, where they recrossed the Ohio on their homeward march. The next year
after this expedition the redoubtable George Rogers CLARK headed a troop of
a thousand Kentuckians against the Little Miami and Mad river towns, and
destroyed the Indian village at Piqua and much corn of the growing crops of
the Indians. It is said that after crossing the Ohio at the mouth of the
Licking, on their northward march, they built two block-houses on the
present site of Cincinnati, and that the force was disbanded there on their
return, homeward bound.
                    BLOCK-HOUSES, OR FORTIFIED STATIONS,

were destined to play an active part in the Indian and pioneer affairs of
the SYMMES Purchase. They were erected by associations of colonists for
mutual safety, upon a plan of settlement proposed by Judge SYMMES as best
for the development of the country. A strong log block-house being put up,
it was surrounded by the cabins of the settlers, rather closely crowded
together, and the whole was then encircled by a stout stockade or picket,
made of tree trunks or logs set pretty deep in the ground, and making, in
some cases, a really formidable work of defence. Not until this was
completed did the settlers venture to begin clearing land and planting
crops. Even then they were obliged to work with their rifles near and
sentinels constantly on the alert. At sunset all returned to the stockade,
taking everything portable and of value with them. These stations were made
as numerous as the number of settlers, and more particularly the number of
troops that could be obtained for each from the military commander in this
region, would warrant. It might be presumed that, in the exposed state of
the country, nothing would have been easier than to get or retain soldiers
for the protection of the settlers, since that was precisely for what the
forces of the United States were sent to the valley of the Ohio. But it was
not always so. We have recorded the difficulties and detentions which beset
Judge SYMMES at Limestone, while endeavoring to get his colony to its
destination, through the failure of General HARMAR to send him an escort
promptly. After he had secured the protection of Captain KEARSEY and the
small remnant of his troop, and had made his settlement at North Bend, he
was very soon unceremoniously deserted by KEARSEY and all but five of his
command, the rest putting off down the river to Louisville, without even
building him a stockade or block-house. It was then nearly a month before
the earnest persuasions of SYMMES prevailed with Major WYLLYS, the
commandant at that place, to secure him a garrison, consisting of an ensign
and eighteen men, which speedily, by desertion and Indian attack, was
reduced to twelve, and LUCE, after building a tolerable block-house and
remaining four months, transferred his little force to Losantiville, again
leaving SYMMES' hamlets nearly or quite unprotected. The country had no
adequate protection, indeed, until the early part of the following summer,
when Major DOUGHTY arrived from Fort HARMAR with two companies of soldiers
and began the erection of Fort Washington. Even then, and for some time
after, troops were arbitrarily sent to or withdrawn from the stations.

In a letter from North Bend, January 17, 1792, SYMMES
~pg 58~
relates how "General ST. CLAIR, by much importunity, gave Mr. DUNLAP a
guard of six soldiers. With these the settlers returned to Colerain
[DUNLAP's station]. In a very few days after the station was re-settled,
the Governor ordered the six soldiers back again to Fort Washington. But
the next day General ST. CLAIR set out for Philadelphia, and Major ZEIGLER
came to the command. His good sense and humanity induced him to send the
six men back again in one hour's time, as I am told, after General ST.
CLAIR left Fort Washington, and be assured Mr. DUNLAP that he should have
more soldiers than six, rather than the station should break. Majors
sometimes do more good," he naively adds, "than generals." Dr. GOFORTH,
then of Columbia, wrote September 3, 1791:

The number of militia at these stations, from the best accounts I have
received, are at Columbia, 200 Cincinnati, 150; South Bend, 20; City of
Miami, 80; DUNLAP's, 15; and COVALT's, 20.

A considerable number of these stations, more or less strongly fortified,
are known to have existed within the present limits of the county during
the period of Indian warfare; and it is quite possible that the memory of
others has disappeared. So far as known, they were as follows:

1. COVALT's Station, at Round Bottom, twelve miles up the Little Miami,
below the present site of Milford. This was erected in 1789, and Mr. John
G. OLDEN, author of Historical Sketches and Early Reminiscences of Lockland
and Reading, is disposed to place it first in chronological order, although
similar claims have been made for CLEMENS', GERARD's, DUNLAP's, and
LUDLOW's stations.

2. CLEMENS' station, also on the Round Bottom, about half a mile below
COVALT's.

3. GERARD and MARTIN's station, on the west side of the Little Miami, and
about two miles from its mouth, near the present Union bridge.

4. DUNLAP's station, established in the early spring of 1790, in Colerain
township, on the east side of the Great Miami and in the remarkable bend of
that stream which begins about half a mile south of the county line.

5. CAMPBELL's station, also on the east bank of the Great Miami and in
Colerain township, opposite the present site of Miamitown.

6. LUDLOW's station, whose site is now embraced within the limits of
Cincinnati, about five miles from Fountain square, in the north part of
Cumminsville. It was also established in the spring of 1790. This was the
most famous of all the stations.

7. WHITE's station, probably established in 1792, on the bank of Mill
creek, northeast of the present site of Carthage, near the aqueduct, and
about where the ice-pond now is.

8. TUCKER's station, on section four, Springfield township, east of the old
Hamilton road and about a mile and a half northwest of Lockland.

9. RUNYAN's station, also of 1792, on section nineteen, Sycamore township,
about a mile and a half north of Sharonville, and near the present county
line. This was the outpost in that direction.

10. GRIFFIN's station, established, probably, in the fall of 1793, about
half a mile west of WHITE's station, where the Carthage and Springfield
turnpike now crosses Mill creek.

11. VOORHEES' station, in the south part of section thirty-three, Sycamore
township, on the west bank of Mill creek, built early in 1794.

12. Pleasant Valley station, on the line between sections four and ten,
Springfield township, near the "Station Spring." Also built in the spring
of 1794, by the builders of TUCKER's station, to protect them and another
party which had moved in to the westward.

13. MCFARLAND's station, in Columbia township, near the site of Pleasant
Ridge, established in the spring of 1795, and believed to be the last
founded of the pioneer stations in this county.

Some of these stations were the scene of fierce Indian attacks, and others
of cowardly murders by the savages. Their story will be more particularly
related in the histories of the townships. In 1794-5 Mr. Benjamin VAN
CLEVE, then of Cincinnati, but soon afterwards of Dayton, made many
interesting memoranda of affairs in the Miami country, among which we find
the following, made in the latter year:

On the twentieth [of August], seventeen days after the treaty [of
Greenville], Governor. ST. CLAIR, General WILKINSON, Jonathan DAYTON, and
Israel LUDLOW contracted with John Cleves SYMMES for the purchase and
settlement of the seventh and eighth ranges, between Mad River and Little
Miami. One settlement was to be at the mouth of Mad River, one on the
Little Miami in the seventh range, and one on Mad River above the mouth.

Two parties of surveyors set off [from Cincinnati] on the twenty-first of
September - Mr. Daniel C. COOPER, to survey and mark a road and cut out
some of the brush, and Captain John DUNLAP to run the boundaries of the
Purchase. I went with DUNLAP. There were at this time several stations on
Mill Creek: LUDLOW's, WHITE's, TUCKER's, VOORHEES's, and CUNNINGHAM'.1 The
last was eleven miles from Cincinnati. We came to VOORHEES's and encamped.

A limited number of regulars was stationed at several of these by General
HARMAR or his subordinate officers. All together they afforded protection
and food to a large number of pioneer families, who must otherwise have
been driven out of the country. They were of use elsewhere among the early
settlements, as well as for local defence, and the pioneers in other parts
of southern Ohio were less annoyed, after their establishment, because the
Indians had to spend a part of their time in watching the stations, instead
of taking the war-path against the scattered and isolated settlers. They
regarded these defences, indeed, with peculiar disfavor. Judge BURNET
accompanies an interesting paragraph upon the stations, in his Notes, with
these remarks:

The Indians viewed these stations with great jealousy, as they had the
appearance of permanent military establishments, intended to retain
possession of their country. In that view they were correct; and it was
fortunate for the settlers that they wanted either the skill or the means
of demolishing them. The truth is, they had no idea of the flood of
emigration which was setting towards their borders, and did not feel the
necessity of submitting to the loss to which immediate action would subject
them. Their great error consisted in permitting those works to be
constructed at all. They might have prevented it with great ease, but they
appeared not to be aware of the serious consequences which were to result,
until it was too late to act with effect. Several attacks were, however,
made at different times, with an apparent determination to destroy them;
but they failed in every instance.
                                  ~pg 59~
                           "CAPTAIN BLACKBEARD."

Shortly after the permanent location of Judge SYMMES upon the Purchase, he
had the honor to entertain, in his rude shelter at North Bend, a Shawnee
chief bearing the English piratical name of "Captain BLACKBEARD," who lived
some scores of miles to the northward, near Roche de Boeuf, on the Maumee
river. The Judge has left the following entertaining account of the
interview:

The chief (the others sitting around him) wished to be informed how far I
was supported by the United States, and whether the thirteen fires (States)
had sent me hither. I answered in the affirmative, and spread before them
the thirteen stripes which I had in a flag then in my camp. I pointed to
the troops in their uniform, then on parade, and informed the chief that
those were the warriors which the thirteen fires kept in constant pay to
avenge their quarrels, and that, though the United States were desirous of
peace, yet they were able to chastise any aggressor who should dare offend
them, and to demonstrate this I showed them the seal of my commission, on
which the American arms are impressed, observing that while the eagle had a
branch of a tree as an emblem of peace in one claw, she had strong and
sharp arrows in the other, which denoted her power to punish her enemies.
The chief, who observed the device on the seal with great attention,
replied to the interpreter that he could not perceive any intimation of
peace from the attitude the eagle was in, having her wings spread as in
flight, when folding of the wings denoted rest and peace; that he could not
understand how the branch of a tree could be considered a pacific emblem,
for rods designed for correction were always taken from the boughs of
trees; that to him the eagle appeared, from her bearing a large whip in one
hand and such a number of arrows in the other, and in full career of
flight, to be wholly bent on war and mischief. I need not repeat here my
arguments to convince him of his mistake, but I at length succeeded, and he
appeared entirely satisfied of the friendship of Congelis (for so they
pronounce Congress) to the red people.

Captain BLACKBEARD staid a month or so in the neighborhood of Judge SYMMES,
with whom be had frequent friendly conferences; and whose hospitality he
accepted, especially when it took the form of whiskey, without reservation
or stint. Notwithstanding subsequent martial events, some of which must
have come very near to his lodge on the Maumee, BLACKBEARD seems to have
remained friendly to the whites, and long afterward he repaid with interest
the kindness and hospitality he had received from SYMMES by requitals to
Judge BURNET and other lawyers and federal officials on their way through
the wilderness from Cincinnati, to attend the courts in Detroit.
                           TREACHERY AND MURDER.

Much of the promise of the Indians to them, however, was to be broken to
the hope. Their expressed friendliness was undoubtedly, in some cases, used
to mask treachery. Scarcely more than two months after the departure of
BLACKBEARD, namely, on the ninth day of April, 1789, one of SYMMES'
exploring parties was fired upon by the savages while leaving its camp, and
two of its number - a man named HOLMAN, from Kentucky, and Mr. WELLS, from
Delaware - were instantly killed. John MILLS and three others, staying not
to fight the foe and standing not upon the order of their going, escaped to
the settlements2. A straggler into the forest from the villages had now and
then also been picked off, and on the twenty-first of May an attack was
made in some force from the Ohio shore upon a boat-load of settlers whom
Ensign LUCE, the officer then stationed at North Bend, was escorting with a
detachment of his men from that place up the river to South Bend. The boat
was not captured with its precious freight; but by the fire one of the
soldiers--- RUNYAN, a New Jersey recruit - was killed, and four others of
the troops were wounded. MILLS, also a Jerseyman, who had escaped the
previous disaster, was now among the wounded, being shot through the lungs;
but was taken in hand by friendly squaws and cured without much difficulty.
One of the settlers--- William MONTGOMERY, of Kentucky - was also hurt, and
so badly as to be sent to Louisville for treatment. The affair created
intense excitement and fear at North Bend, where the garrison was now felt
to be utterly inadequate; and SYMMES, in an indignant letter to DAYTON
bitterly renews his complaints of the neglect of the commanders to send him
troops enough for protection. He says: "We are in three defenceless
villages along the banks of the Ohio, and since the misfortune of yesterday
many citizens have embarked and gone to Louisville; and others are
preparing to follow them soon; so that I fear I shall be nearly, stripped
of settlers and left with one dozen soldiers only. KEARSEY's leaving the
Purchase in the manner he did, ruined me for several weeks." Five days
later he writes: "I believe that fifty persons of all ages have left this
place since the disaster of the twenty-first. The settlers consider
themselves as neglected by the Government. We are really distressed here
for the want of troops," About this time the jealous and angry Kentuckians,
before mentioned, began to designate the Purchase as "a slaughter-house,"
from the danger of massacre they really had some reason for representing as
existing there.
                       TROUBLE BREWING - THE BRITISH.

At this time the settlers at Losantiville and Columbia were tilling their
in lots, as well as out-lots, with firearms at their elbows and sentinels
carefully posted. Weeks before the pacificatory letter of the Indians at "
Mawme" to SYMMES, it became evident that, as soon as they could prepare for
serious inroads, the tribes would show their thorough-going antagonism to
the new settlements being planted upon the Ohio, whatever their verbal or
written words might be. The most alarming reports were brought in by Mr.
Isaac FREEMAN, who had penetrated the Indian country on an errand from
SYMMES, and had returned in safety and with several released captives, and
also the olive-branch missive from "Mawme," but, writes the Judge, he
"brings such terrifying accounts of the warlike preparations making at the
Indian towns, that it has raised fresh commotions in this village, and many
families are preparing to go down to the Falls" [Louisville]. British
influence was busy in stirring up the Indians to acts of hostility. In the
same letter SYMMES writes:

While Mr. FREEMAN was at the Indian towns he was lodged at the
~pg 60~
house of a chief called Blue JACKET, and while there be saw the pack-horses
come to Blue JACKET's house loaded with five hundred weight of powder and
lead equivalent, with one hundred muskets; this share he saw deposited at
the house of Blue JACKET. He says the like quantity was sent them from
Detroit, to every chief through all their towns. FREEMAN saw the same
dividend deposited at a second chief's house in the same town with Blue
JACKET. On the arrival of the stores from Detroit, British colors were
displayed on the housetop of every chief, and a prisoner among the Indians
who had the address to gain full credit with them and attended at their
council-house every day, found means to procure by artifice an opportunity
of conversing with FREMAN. He assured FREEMAN that the Indians were fully
determined to rout these settlements altogether; that they would have
attempted it before this time, but had no military stores; but these being
then arrived, it would not be long before they would march.

Confirmation of these reports was received about the same time from two
widely separated points at the east and west, from Vincennes and from
Pittsburgh.
                              INDIAN OUTRAGES.

We can find in Mr. FREEMAN's account one reason at least why the infant
settlements along the Ohio were for so many months spared from Indian
outrage, conflagration, and general massacre. Individual cases of capture,
maiming, or murder were not wanting, however Judge SYMMES writes, January
1, 1790: "We have already had a man murdered by the Indians within the
squares of the city." This may refer to the case of a young son of John
HILLIERS, a settler at the Bend, who had gone out on the morning of the
twelfth of December next previous, to drive home the cows, and, when
scarcely half a mile from the block-house, was tomahawked and scalped, and
his gun and hat were carried off. On the seventeenth of the same month two
young men from the settlement, James LAFFERTY and Andrew VANEMAN, hunting
along the river, were surprised by Indians while sitting at night by their
camp-fire, and were both killed at the first shot. Their bodies were then.
stripped of clothes, and tomahawked and scalped in the most barbarous
manner. A letter from Judge SYMMES, written in May following, referring to
matters at North Bend, says: "Things were prosperous, considering the
mischief done there this spring by the Indians. They plant considerable
corn, though much more would have been planted if no mischief had been
done. Many fled on those occasions - two men have been killed. The Indians
are universally hostile, and the contrary opinion is ill-founded."

On the other side of the Purchase, the settlers at Columbia were greatly
troubled after the depredations and attacks once began, which was not until
nearly a year after the founding of the colony. In time too soon, however,
the dreaded blows fell. Among the cultivators of the soil to whom Major
STITES had leased the rich clearing known as Turkey Bottom was one James
SEWARD, who occupied a lot upon it for his daily labor, but had his
residence on the hillside near the village. Two sons of his, Obadiah and
John, aged respectively twenty-one and fifteen years, were at work in this
field one afternoon, September 20, 1789, when they were surprised by a
small party of Indians, at a hickory tree which had been felled for nuts,
whose bushy top gave the savages an excellent opportunity for concealment
and stealthy approach. Obadiah gave himself up at once, and was securely
bound by withes or twigs; but the other ran for his life, in a circuitous
course towards home. The Indians easily gained upon him, however, and one
of them hurled his tomahawk at the boy with such force as to cleave his
skull immediately behind the right ear. He dropped in his tracks, and, when
overtaken an instant later, was again tomahawked and was then scalped. His
mangled form was not found until the next morning, when John CLAWSON, one
of the pitying neighbors who gathered around, carried it on his back to the
bereaved home. Strange to say, young SEWARD was not yet dead, though
unconscious, and in his delirium, as his clothing and the surroundings
showed, he had dragged himself round and round upon his knees. He actually
survived the terrible injury for thirty-nine days, his senses returning to
him, and even cheerfulness and good spirits, so that he was able to give a
correct and detailed account of the affair. Obadiah was for some time
unheard from; but a captive returning at length from the Indian country
brought word that he had been killed by a bloodthirsty and drunken Indian,
simply for taking the wrong fork of a trail. The young man, it is said, had
long cherished a presentiment that he should perish at the hands of the
savages. The doubly bereaved father afterwards removed to Springdale, where
he suffered the loss of another son by the fall of a tree.

The captive just mentioned was Ned LARKIN, an employe of Mr. John PHILLIPS
who was seized and taken by the Indians the same day the young SEWARDS were
attacked. He was alone in the field at the time, cutting and binding
cornstalks for fodder, and was bound and marched through the wilderness to
Detroit, where his captors sold him to a French trader. By this man, who
seems to have had a heart in his bosom, LARKIN was liberated not long
after, and with other released captives made his way to Pittsburgh, whence
he found conveyance down the river to Columbia.

In 1790 there were further outrages by the Indians at this place. At one
time the families, of whom there were several, located on that part of the
face of the hill afterwards called Morristown, lost all their clothes hung
out to dry. A party of the thieving redskins being suspected, was pursued,
the property found in their possession and partially recovered; but they
had already destroyed the coverlets to make belts. James NEWELL, one of the
most valued of the early settlers of Columbia, also lost his life by the
red hand of Indian murder - at just what date we have not ascertained.

One of the most interesting incidents of the Indian period in Hamilton
county occurred July 7, 1792, on the river between Cincinnati and Columbia,
and about four miles from the present Broadway, then Eastern Row. It was
the custom of boats on the river, both large and small, to hug pretty
closely the Kentucky side, as being the safer from Indian attack; but a
canoe which left Cincinnati for Columbia on the afternoon of the day named
had neglected this precaution, and was proceeding up what was designated,
from its perils, as the "Indian shore." It contained one lady, Mrs.
COLEMAN, wife of a settler at Columbia, two men named CLAYTON and LIGHT,
and another whose name has not been preserved, and a
~pg 61~
young lad, Oliver M., the only son of Colonel SPENCER, a prominent pioneer
then residing at Columbia, and who had served gallantly in the war of the
Revolution. The boy had been to Cincinnati to spend the Fourth of July, and
had remained for two or three days after. The stranger, a drunken soldier
from the fort, presently lurched overboard, nearly upsetting the canoe; but
managed to get ashore, and was soon left behind, thus escaping massacre,
although his late companions, looking back at him, remarked that he "would
be good food for Indians." The boy also took to the water-side path, and
walked along near the party remaining in the canoe. A pair of Indians had
concealed themselves near the path which connected the two villages, and as
the boat approached fired a volley upon its occupants. CLAYTON was wounded
at the first fire, fell overboard, was at once dragged ashore by the
Indians, killed and scalped. LIGHT was also wounded in the arm, bit not
severely, and throwing himself into the stream, swam off with one arm
through the fire of the Indians and escaped. Mrs. COLEMAN likewise flung
herself into the water, and the Indians, saying, "squaw must drown," left
her to her fate. She was buoyed up by her clothing, however, and floated
down a mile, to a point where she could get ashore, then took the path for
Cincinnati, crossing Deer creek at its mouth, went to the house of Captain
THORP, at the artificer's yard near Fort Washington, where she obtained dry
clothing, and remained until recovered from her fright and fatigue. The
Indians had seized young SPENCER, without doing him injury, and hastily
departed with him, carrying him into captivity. He was taken to their towns
on the headwaters of the Great Miami, where he was adopted into an Indian
family, and lived with them several months, when he was ransomed for one
hundred and twenty-five dollars through the intervention, it is said, of
President WASHINGTON, who had a very high regard for his father, Colonel
SPENCER, and secured the ransom of the son through the British Minister and
the commandant of the British forces at Detroit. Young SPENCER afterwards
became a distinguished citizen, a clergyman and bank officer in Cincinnati.
In his manhood he wrote and published a narrative of his capture and
captivity.

The settlers at Columbia became exceedingly hostile to the red men, and
with reason, as these narratives show. Their labors were greatly
interrupted by the constant necessity for the exercise of vigilance against
the onset of the wily foe. For a time they had to work and watch in equal
divisions, as many as one-half standing guard, while the other half
labored, the divisions being exchanged in the morning and afternoon. Their
annoyances, and the outrages from which they suffered, bore their natural
fruit in an intense and abiding desire for revenge. On the principle, we
suppose that the devil must be fought with fire, they even adopted some of
the Indian methods. Colonel WHITTLESEY, of Cleveland, contributes this
corroborative paragraph in one of his valuable historical pamphlets:

In 1844 I spent an evening with Benjamin STITES, jr., of Madisonville,
Ohio, the son of Benjamin STITES, who settled at Columbia, near Cincinnati,
in 1788. Benjamin, junior, was then a boy, but soon grew to be a woodsman
and an Indian fighter. Going over the incidents of the pioneer days, he
said the settlers of Columbia agreed to pay thirty dollars in trade for
every Indian scalp. He related an instance of man who received a mare for a
scalp, under this arrangement. The frontier men of those times spoke of
"hunting Indians," as they would of hunting wolves, bears, or any other
wild animal. I met another old man who then lived near Covington, on the
Kentucky side of the Ohio, who said he had often gone alone up the valley
of the Miami on a hunt for scalps. With most of these Indian hunters the
bounty was a minor consideration. The hatred of the red man was a much
stronger motive.

A tradition goes that on one occasion a reeking scalp, just torn from the
head of an Indian, was brought on the Sabbath into or near the house of God
in Columbia, breaking up the meeting and sending the inhabitants home to
prepare against an attack from the savages.

The settlers of Cincinnati of course shared the general peril. Some fifteen
or twenty of them were killed by the Indians in the one year 1790. Not only
was it necessary to post sentinels when at work in the out-lots or
improving the town property, but rifles were carried to service by the
congregation of the First Presbyterian church, whose place of meeting was
close by where the same society worships now, near the corner of Main and
Fourth streets. A fine of seventy-five cents was imposed upon male
attendants neglecting this precaution; and it is said to have been actually
inflicted upon Colonel John S. WALLACE, noted hunter and Indian fighter of
those days, and perhaps upon others.

In 1790 the road from Cincinnati eastward crossed the mouth of the
water-course near the then eastern limits of the town, as noted in the
account of the adventure to Mrs. COLEMAN. At the point of crossing there
was a dense forest of maple and beech, with tangled grape-vines and a heavy
undergrowth of spicewood. Mr. Jacob WETZEL, of the village, had a
successful day of hunting, October 7th, of that year, and on his way home
to get a horse with which to bring in his heavier spoils, sat down here
upon a decayed tree-trunk to rest. He shortly heard a rustling in the
woods; his dog pricked up his ears, growled, and a moment afterwards barked
loudly as he saw an Indian presenting his rifle from behind a large oak
tree. WETZEL caught sight of him at the same instant, and, springing behind
another tree, both fired together. He received the Indian's fire unharmed,
and succeeded in wounding his enemy's left elbow. Before the Indian could
reload, WETZEL took the offensive and charged upon him with his hunting
knife, and the Indian drew his to defend himself . The conflict that ensued
was sharp and desperate, a life-or- death struggle. The white man made the
first blow as he rushed, but the red one parried it, knocking the other's
knife from his hand to a distance of thirty feet or more. Nothing daunted,
WETZEL seized him with a vice-like grasp about the body, holding down and
tightly against it the arm with the knife. In the struggle both were
thrown, but the Indian got uppermost and was about to use his knife with
deadly effect, when the dog sprang at his throat with such a savage attack
as made him drop the weapon, which WETZEL seized and instantly stabbed his
antagonist to the heart. The Indian so far had maintained the contest on
his side alone; but after
~pg 62~
the victor had despoiled his body of its armament and gone a little
distance on his way home, he heard the whoop of a party of savages, and ran
hastily to the river, where he seized a canoe and escaped to the cove then
existing at the foot of Sycamore street. He afterwards learned that the
Indian killed was one of the bravest chiefs of his tribe, by whom he was
greatly lamented.

The savages were also making mischief this year on the other side of the
river, in the interior. Judge SYMMES wrote the last of April:

The Indians are beyond measure troublesome throughout Kentucky. They have
destroyed Major DOUGHTY and a party of troops on the Tennessee. If the
President knew of half the murders they commit, he surely would rouse in
indignation and dash those barbarians to some other clime.

After the defeat of General HARMAR in two actions by the Indians, in
October, they grew bolder, but still made no concerted attacks upon the
settlements on the SYMMES Purchase until January, when DUNLAP's station was
attacked, as will be presently narrated. November 4th the judge writes:

The strokes our army has got seem to fall like a blight upon the prospect,
and for the present seem to appall every countenance. I confess that, as to
myself, I do not apprehend that we shall be in a worse situation with
regard to the Indians than before the repulse. What the Indians could do
before, they did, and they now have about one hundred less of their
warriors to annoy us with than they had before the two actions; besides, it
will give them some employment this winter to build up new cabins and
repair by hunting the loss of their corn.

The settlers at them [the stations] are very much alarmed at their
situation, though I do not think that the houses will be attacked at those
stations; yet I am much concerned for the safety of the men while at work,
hunting, and travelling.

Judge SYMMES did not divine with his usual prescience in this case.
Scarcely more than two months had passed after this deliverance before the
Indians appeared in force but a few miles from his home and made a
desperate attack upon one of his stations. On the eighth of January, 1791,
Colonel John S. WALLACE, of Cincinnati, lately mentioned in this chapter,
together with Abner HUNT, who was a surveyor, John STOANE, and a Mr.
CUNNINGHAM, engaged in exploring the country, fell in with, this war-party,
or a detachment of it, somewhere on the west bank of the Great Miami, where
the whites had encamped the night before. When setting out that morning to
explore the bottoms above their camp, towards Colerain, or DUNLAP's
station, they had got but about seventy yards away when they were assailed
by savages from the rear, an ambuscade having evidently been prepared for
them. CUNNINGHAM was shot down instantly; HUNT was violently dismounted by
the fright of his horse, and made prisoner; and SLOANE was shot through the
body, but managed to keep his feet and effect his escape. WALLACE also
dashed off, but on foot, and was followed by two Indians, when he overtook
SLOANE and mounted HUNT's riderless horse, which had kept along with its
companion. Both WALLACE and SLOANE thus escaped safely and uninjured to
DUNLAP's station. Colonel WALLACE had a narrow escape, however. He was
repeatedly fired upon in his flight, and at the first shot his leggings
became loose, the fastenings perhaps cut by the missile, when he tripped
and fell. Coolly but rapidly he retied the strings, in time to resume his
flight without being overtaken. HUNT's fate was terrible, being that which
too often befell the captive among the savages. During a lull in the siege
of DUNLAP's station, the third night after the capture, they occupied
themselves in the torture of the hapless prisoner. He was prostrated across
a log with his legs and arms stretched and fastened in painful positions to
the ground; he was scalped, his body agonized by knife-wounds, and the
cruel work completed, as one account relates, by building a fire upon his
naked abdomen, or, as others have it, by thrusting blazing firebrands into
his bowels, which had been exposed by the cutting and slashing to which he
had been subjected. In this dreadful situation his remains were found after
the Indians had retired, and were taken up decently and buried by the
garrison.

The attack on DUNLAP's began in the early morning of January 10th. About
five hundred Indians appeared before the stockade, with three hundred more
in reserve in the neighborhood, and demanded its surrender, promising the
garrison and settlers safety. They are believed to have been led by the
notorious white renegade, Simon GIRTY, who was guilty of so many atrocities
and barbarities toward the whites, and is said to have died himself, in the
centre of a blazing log-heap, where he was placed by a party of avengers,
who recognized him long after Indian hostilities had ceased. GIRTY's
brother was also in the attacking force, with Blue Jacket and other
well-known chiefs. During the parley with KINGSLEY, which lasted two hours,
Simon GIRTY was seen holding the rope with which the prisoner's (HUNT's)
arms were tied, and sheltered behind a log. Lieutenant KINGSLEY was in
command, but had only eighteen regulars, who, with eight or ten armed
residents, made but a feeble garrison in point of numbers. Nevertheless the
Indian demand was refused and fire was opened by the garrison, being
promptly returned by the besiegers. As soon as possible a runner was got
off to Fort Washington for reinforcements, and the defence continued to be
stoutly maintained. The women in the station kept up the supply of bullets
to their defenders by melting spoons and pewter plates and running them
into balls; and the fire on both sides was scarcely intermitted for hours.
The Indians entirely surrounded the stockade on the land side, their flanks
resting on the river; and their fire was hot and distressing. It was kept
up until late in the afternoon, when the Indians drew off and during the
night put HUNT to the torture in full view of the garrison, between the
fort and an ancient work remaining near. The attack was renewed in the
evening and maintained in a desultory way until midnight, when the
beleagured people again had comparative rest, but no refreshment in their
weariness and terror except parched corn, their supply of water being cut
off by the merciless foe. The Indians in this attempt set fire to the brush
about the station and threw many blazing brands upon the structures within
it, but they were happily extinguished before serious mischief was done.
Again the Indians came on the next day, but were met with the steady,
unrelenting fire of the garrison, and hastily withdrew, probably hastening
their retreat from the report of their scouts that relief was
~pg 63~
marching from Fort Washington. In their retreat the Indians shot all the
cattle within their reach. A force of thirty regulars and thirty-three
volunteers had been dispatched from Fort Washington, under the command of
Captain TIMMONS, reaching, the neighborhood of the station the next
forenoon about ten o'clock, but finding the Indians already gone. They went
in pursuit at once, but with little effect, the detachment not being
numerous enough to make an effective attack.

This heroic defence of Colerain against an overwhelming force of savages is
one of the most noteworthy incidents in the history of the county. Sometime
before the fight David GIBSON and John CRUM, of the station, had been taken
prisoners by the Indians, and Thomas LAWISON and William CRUM driven to the
stockade, to the imminent danger of their lives. The inhabitants there were
kept in a pretty constant state of alarm, and, after the defeat of General
ST. CLAIR the following November, the settlers at DUNLAP's, vividly
remembering the attack which followed HARMAR's misfortune, and reasonably
expecting a similar sequel to ST. CLAIR's, abandoned the station, and were
only persuaded to return with considerable difficulty. It was important
that this station should be maintained. Judge SYMMES wrote in January,
1792: "Colerain has always been considered the best barrier to all the
settlements, and when that place became re-peopled the inhabitants of the
other stations became more reconciled to stay."

At North Bend, during the same year, there were fresh attacks by the
Indians. In September, 1791, a Mr. FULLER and his son William, employes of
John MATSON, sr., were accompanied by MATSON's mother and George CULLUM to
a fish-dam that was planted in the Great Miami, about two miles from North
Bend. Towards night FULLER sent his son away alone, to take the cows to the
settlement, when he disappeared, and was seen no more until after WAYNE's
victory, or nearly four years after he was taken by the Indians, when he
was restored to his friends by Christopher MILLER, a white man who was
among the savages at the time of his capture.

The outrages at Cincinnati were also numerous in 1791. In May of this year
Colonel WALLACE, whose misfortune it was to figure considerably in the
Indian history of this period, was at work with his father and a small lad,
hoeing corn upon the subsequent site of the Cincinnati hospital, while two
men named SCOTT and SHEPHERD were plowing corn upon a spot near the corner
of Central avenue and Clinton street. To them suddenly appeared five or six
Indians, who jumped the fence and raised a yell, whereupon the plowmen took
to their heels, and were fortunately not caught by the pursuing savages
though they were chased as far as the corner of Fifth and Race streets.
Colonel WALLACE may have been forgetful, as before noted, about taking his
rifle to church; but he had it with him on this occasion, lying in an
adjacent furrow, and telling the rest to escape to town as quietly as
possible, snatched it up and fired at an Indian about eighty yards distant,
who took himself off at once. The other Indians rode away on the
plow-horses at the top of their speed. Contrary to their usual custom,
however, they, in the haste of their flight, unintentionally, of course,
left something by way of exchange. Light blankets and blanket capotes, a
leg of bear meat, a horn of powder, and some other small articles, were the
spoils from the raiders; but they hardly made up an equivalent for the
horses taken. As soon as the alarm could be given and preparations made,
the best foresters and hunters in town started in pursuit, mounting all the
horses available, a party going ahead at once on foot. The chase was
followed up the Great Miami valley to where Hamilton now stands; but
unavailingly, as the Indians had just crossed, and the pursuers were turned
back by tremendous rains and floods.

On the twenty-first of the same month Benjamin VAN CLEVE and Joseph CUTLER,
while engaged in clearing an out-lot, were fired at, and the latter
captured, carried off, and never heard of afterwards. The trail of the
party was easily followed, as CUTLER had lost a shoe, and was kept at full
run till dark, and resumed the next day; but the Indians got off safely
with their captive.

Eleven days after, on the first of June, Mr. VAN CLEVE, again working in
his out-lot, with two others, was attacked and pursued. He started first in
the retreat; but was stopped an instant by a fallen tree-top, giving an
Indian time to seize him. VAN CLEVE threw his assailant, but the savage
rose at once and stabbed him, following this by the usual barbarity of
scalping. He then took himself out of the way of the two white men who were
running some distance in VAN CLEVE's rear, and who found their companion
lifeless when they reached the spot. On the same day Sergeant Michael HAHN,
of the garrison, with a corporal and a young man from Colerain, taking a
cow to DUNLAP's station, the party was attacked soon after starting, within
the present limits of the city, and all were killed and scalped.

These are recorded as the last cases of assasination by the red men in
Cincinnati; but they continued to prowl about the outlying streets and
roads, and sometimes killed cattle; in one case, it is said, an Indian shot
his stone-headed arrow clean through the body of an ox. They also stole
horses from time to time, and committed other depredations, until Anthony
WAYNE instituted his energetic measures for the protection of this region
in 1793 and 1794.

In the spring of the latter year, however, John LUDLOW, brother of Colonel
Israel LUDLOW, of the station, left his late residence in Cincinnati to
return to his farm, near the junction of the old Hamilton road with the
hill road to Carthage. An attack had been made on WHITE's station, in the
country, which, with a defeat sustained by Lieutenant LOWREY near Eaton,
Preble county, had greatly alarmed the Cincinnatians. Mr. WHITE himself was
in this party, which was escorted by Colonel LUDLOW and his company of
militia. They reached the farm without molestation, and began unloading the
wagon with them, while WHITE, mounted on a sick horse, went on toward his
station. When he reached a point about two hundred yards from the stream
since called Bloody run, he heard rifle-shots, and presently saw four
pack-horses where as many whites had been waylaid by the Indians.
~pg 64~
One of them was killed, tomahawked, and scalped; his body was found in the
river. Another was mortally hurt, but managed to get to Abner BENTON's
place, at LUDLOW's Ford on Mill creek, where he died of his wounds. A third
was slightly wounded, and the fourth escaped unhurt. WHITE now abandoned
the journey to his station, and returned to LUDLOW's party to give the
alarm. Pursuit was promptly taken up by the whole company and the Indians
followed vainly for five or six miles, when the party rode back to the
scene of the attack and buried the dead.

One of the saddest incidents of this time occurred while WAYNE's campaign
was in progress. Colonel Robert ELLIOTT, a Pennsylvanian born, but a
resident of Hagerstown, Maryland, was a contractor for the supply of
General WAYNE's army, and was in person superintending the delivery of
supplies. While on the way from Fort Hamilton to Cincinnati, on the present
Winton road, he was fired upon and killed by the enemy, his servant
escaping in safety with both horses. An attempt was made to scalp the
Colonel, which, from the absence of his natural capillary covering and the
adoption of a substitute, led the Indian attempting it to the exclamation,
as is reported in English, "big d--d lie!" Mr. ELLIOTT's body was recovered
the next day, put in a box, and started for Cincinnati in one of his own
wagons. Near or exactly at the place where the Colonel was shot, the
servant, by a singular fatality, received a second fire from the savages,
and was this time killed. The escort was stampeded, and the Indians seized
the box and broke it, but did not further disturb its contents, though they
took away the horses that drew it. An armed party was then detached from
Fort Washington, which went out and brought the body in. It was buried in
the old Presbyterian cemetery at the corner of Main and Fourth streets, and
afterwards removed to the new "God's acre" of that church on Twelfth
street. A monument was erected many years after, to commemorate the
tragedy, by Commodore ELLIOTT, his son, with an inscription as follows: "In
memory of Robert ELLIOTT, slain by a party of Indians near this point,
while in the service of his country. Placed by his son, Commodore J. D.
ELLIOTT, United States Navy, 1835. Damon and Fidelity."

Several outrages whose history we have found recorded, and doubtless many
others so far unnoticed to the writer, occurred during the period of Indian
warfare, some of whose dates we are not able to fix with certainty. Judge
SYMMES, in April, 1790, notes that a lad had been "captivated" by the
Indians a few weeks before at the Mill creek (LUDLOW's) station; but adds:
"Otherwise not the smallest mischief has been done to any, except we count
the firing by the Indians on our people mischief, for there have been some
instances of that, but they did no hurt." Not a great many years ago a
large elm might still be seen on one of the roads leading north from the
city, about three miles from the old corporation line, behind which a small
party of Indians had been concealed, to await the approach on horseback of
a man named BAILY, whom they halted, seized, and took prisoner.

At Blue Bank, a locality on, the Great Miami near DUNLAP's station, while
Michael HAHN, one of the early settlers of Cincinnati, Martin BURKHARDT and
Michael LUTZ, were viewing lots on the second of January, 1792, LUTZ was
killed and scalped, and finally stabbed by the Indians. HAHN was shot
through the body, but ran for the station, within sight of which the
Indians followed him, and there, seeing they were otherwise likely to lose
the chance of his scalp, shot a second time and brought him down..
BURKHARDT was shot through the shoulder and took to the river, where he was
drowned and his body found near North Bend six weeks subsequently. Thus
perished this whole party by Indian massacre.

About two miles below the same station, at a riffle in the Great Miami, a
canoe in which John MCNAMARA, Isaac GIBSON, jr., Samuel CARSWELL, and James
BARNETT were taking a millstone up the river, was fired upon with mortal
effect. MCNAMARA was killed; CARSWELL wounded in the shoulder and GIBSON in
the knee, BARNETT alone escaping unhurt.

Elsewhere in the county, at Round Bottom, two settlers named HINKLE and
COVALT, while engaged in hewing logs in front of their own cabin, were
instantly killed by the barbarians.

An interesting narrative of the captivity of Israel DONALSON, contributed
to the American Pioneer for December, 1842, contains a passage which is of
some local value, especially as illustrating the character of a famous
old-time citizen, long since passed away. DONALSON was captured by the
Indians April 22, 1791, while on a surveying expedition with MASSIE and
LYTLE, four miles above Manchester, on what was called from that day
DONALSON creek, and escaped a few days afterwards, reaching the Great
Miami, and following down HARMAR's trace until he arrived at what he called
"Fort Washington," now Cincinnati. Mr. DONALSON says:

On Wednesday, the day that I got in, I was so far gone that I thought it
entirely useless to make any further exertion, not knowing what distance I
was from the river; and I took my station at the root of a tree, but soon
got into a state of sleeping, and either dreamt or thought that I should
not be loitering away my time, that I should get in that day; which, on
reflection, I had not the most distant idea. However the impression was so
strong that I got up and walked on some distance. I then took my station
again as before, and the same thoughts occupied my mind. I got up and
walked on. I had not travelled far before I thought I could see an opening
for the river; and getting a little farther on I heard the sound of a bell.
I then started and ran, at a slow speed, undoubtedly; a little farther on I
began to perceive that I was coming to the river hill, and having got About
halfway down, I heard the sound of an axe, which was the sweetest music I
had heard for many a day. It was in the extreme out-lot; when I got to the
lot I crawled over the fence with difficulty, it being very high. I
approached the person very cautiously till within about a chain's length,
undiscovered; I then stopped and spoke; the person I spoke to was Mr.
William WOODWARD, the founder of the WOODWARD high school. Mr. WOODWARD
looked up, hastily cast his eyes round, and saw that I had no deadly
weapon; he then spoke: "In the name of God," said he, "who are you?" I told
him I had been a prisoner and had made my escape from the Indians. After a
few more questions he told me to come to him I did so. Seeing my situation,
his fears soon subsided; he told me to sit down on a log and he would go
and catch a horse he had in the lot, and take me in. He caught his horse,
set me on him, but kept the bridle in his own hand. When we got into the
road, people began to enquire of Mr. WOODWARD, "Who is he - an Indian?" I
was not surprised nor offended at the enquiries, for I was still in Indian
uniform, bareheaded, my hair cut off close, except the scalp and foretop,
which they had put up in a piece of tin, with a bunch of turkey feathers;
which I could not undo. They had also stripped
~pg 65~
off the feathers of about two turkeys, and hung them to the hair of my
scalp; these I had taken off the day I left them. Mr. WOODWARD took me to
his house, where every kindness was shown me. They soon gave me other
clothing; coming from different persons they did not fit me very neatly;
but there could not be a pair of shoes got in the place that I could get
on, my feet were so much swollen. But what surprised me most was, when a
pallet was made down before the fire, Mr. WOODWARD condescended to sleep
with me. The next day, soon after breakfast, General HARMAR sent for me to
come to the fort. I would not go. A second messenger came; I still refused.
At length a Captain SHAMBROUGH came; he pleaded with me, told me I might,
take my own time, and he would wait for me. At length he told me if I would
not go with him, the next day a file of men would be sent, and I would then
be compelled to go. I went with him; he was as good as his word, and
treated me very kindly. When I was ushered into the quarters of the
commander, I found the room full of people waiting my arrival. I knew none
of them except Judge SYMMES, and he did not know me, which was not
surprising, considering the fix I was in. The General asked me a great many
questions; and when he got through he asked me to take a glass of liquor,
which was all the aid he offered; meantime had a mind to keep me in custody
as a spy, which, when I heard, it raised my indignation to think that the
commander of an army should have no more judgment when his own eyes were
witnessing that I could scarce go alone.
                              RELIEF AT LAST.

The glorious victory of General WAYNE brought infinite relief to the
harassed people. They no longer trembled with anxiety and fear of Indian
outrage. One immediate effect of the victory and the treaty of Greenville
was the partial abandonment of the river villages and the stations, by the
desire of the people to settle in the open country. August 6, 1795, Judge
SYMMES wrote from Cincinnati:

This village is reduced more than one-half in its numbers since I left it
to go to Jersey in February, 1793. The people spread themselves into all
parts of the Purchase below the military range since the Indian defeat on
the twentieth of August, and the cabins are of late deserted by dozens in a
street.

Another letter of his the next year, however, shows that the Indians were
again giving trouble, though not very serious this time:

They now begin to crowd in upon us in numbers, and are becoming
troublesome. We have but one merchant in this part of the Purchase [North
Bend], and he will not buy their deer-skins. The next result is to beg from
me; and I was compelled last week to give them upwards of forty dollars
value, or send near forty of them away offended.

They must have a market for their skins, or they can purchase, nothing from
us. Though we have twenty or more merchants at Cincinnati, not one of them
is fond of purchasing deer-skins. Some attention of Government is certainly
necessary to this object. Some of our citizens will purchase horses from
the Indians. The consequence is that the Indians immediately steal others,
for not an Indian will walk if he can steal a horse to ride. I wish it was
made penal by Congress to buy horses directly or indirectly from the
Indians.

But these annoyances and losses were petty, compared with the awful dangers
of the earlier years. The Miami country, though not without occasional
alarms, especially during the Indian war of 1811 and the war with Great
Britain that began the next year, was thenceforth almost exempt from savage
atrocities. "Poor Lo," with the inevitable destiny of his race, was being
crowded westward and to eventual extermination.

        ------------------------------------------------------------

1 CUNNINGHAM's settlement, according to Mr. OLDEN, "was not a regular
station in the proper sense of that term. No block-house or other defensive
work were erected, and there was no organized community."

2 The year before SYMMES came with his colony, about the twentieth of May,
a large party of whites, descending the river in three boats was attacked
by the Indians a little below the mouth of the Great Miami, and cut off or
captured to a man. Samuel PURVIANCE, a prominent citizen of Baltimore, was
one of the company, and was never afterwards heard of, though General
HARMAR caused a long and careful search to be made for him. It was one of
the most terrible and sweeping disasters from Indian attack that ever
occurred in the valley of the Ohio.