SENECA COUNTY OHIO - HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO
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Historical Collections of Ohio By Henry Howe, LL.D.

SENECA COUNTY - Part 5

SMITH GOES TO LAKE ERIE.

Returning to the Indian village on the Muskingum, Smith obtained an
English Bible, which Pluggy and his party had brought back among other
spoils of an expedition so far as the south branch of the Potomac. He
remained at Tullihas until October, when he accompanied his adopted
brother, whose name was Tontileaugo, and who had married a Wyandot woman,
to Lake Erie. Their route was up the west branch of the Muskingum, through
a country which for some distance was "hilly, but intermixed with large
bodies of tolerable rich upland and excellent bottoms." They proceeded to
the headwaters of the west branch of the Muskingum, and thence crossed to
the waters of a stream, called by Smith the "Canesadooharie." This was
probably the black river, which, rising in Ashland, and traversing Medina
and Lorain counties (at least by the waters of its east branch), falls
into Lake Erie a few miles north of Elyria. If we suppose that Tullihas,
situated twenty miles above the principal forks of the Muskingum, was near
the junction of the Vernon and Mohican rivers, on the borders of Knox and
Coshocton counties, Smith and his companion probably followed what is
called on Thayer's Map of Ohio, the "Lake fork of the Mohican," until they
reached the northern portion of Ashland county, and there struck the
headwaters of the Canesadooharie, where, as Smith testifies, they found "a
large body of rich, well-lying land -the timber, ash, walnut, sugar-tree,
buckeye, honey-locust and cherry, intermixed with some oak and hickory."
Let us here resume the narrative:
On this route we had no horses with us, and when we started from the town
all the pack I carried was a pouch, containing my books, a little dried
venison and my blanket. I had then no gun. But Tontileaugo was a first-rate
hunter, carried a rifle-gun, and every day killed deer, raccoons or bears.
We left the meat, excepting a little for present use, and carried the skins
with us until we encamped, and then stretched them with elm bark on a frame
made with poles stuck in the ground and tied together with linn or elm
bark, and when the skins were dried by the fire we packed them up and
carried them with us the next day.
As Tontileaugo could not speak English. I had to make use of all the
Caughnewaga I had learned even to talk very imperfectly with him. But I
found I learned to talk Indian faster this way than when I had those with
me who could talk English.
As we proceeded down the Canesadooharie waters our packs increased by the
skins that were daily killed, and became so heavy that we could not march
more than eight or ten miles a day.
We came to Lake Erie about six miles west of the mouth of Canesadooharie.
As the wind was very high the evening we came to the lake, I was surprised
to hear the roaring of the water and see the high waves that dashed against
the shore like the ocean. We encamped on a run near the lake, and as the
wind fell that night, the surface was only in a moderate motion, and we
marched on the sand along the side of the water, frequently resting
ourselves as we heavy laden. I saw on the strand a number of large fish
that had been left in flat or hollow places; as the wind fell and waves
abated they were left without water, or only a small quantity, and numbers
of bald, and gray eagles, etc., were along the shore devouring them.
WYANDOT CAMP.
Some time in the afternoon we came to a camp of Wyandots, at the mouth of
the Canesadooharie, where Tontileaugo's wife was. [This is believed to be
the Black River in Lorain County.]
Here we were kindly received: they gave us a kind of rough brown potatoes,
which grew spontaneously, and were called by the Caughnewagas ohnenata.
These potatoes peeled, and dipped in raccoon's fat taste nearly like our
sweet potatoes. They gave us also what they called caneheanta, which is a
kind of hominy made of green corn, dried, and beans mixed together.
From the headwaters of Canesadooharie to this place the land is generally
good, chiefly first or second rate, and comparatively little or no third
rate. The only refuse is some swamps that appear to be too wet for use, yet
I apprehend that a number of them if drained would make excellent meadows.
The timber is black oak, walnut, hickory, cherry, black ash, white ash,
water ash, buckeye, black locust, honey-locust, sugar-tree and elm. There
is also some land, though comparatively small, where the timber is chiefly
white oak or beech; this may be called third rate.
In the bottoms, and also many places in the uplands, there is a large
quantity of wild apple, plum, and red and black haw trees. It appeared to
be well watered, and plenty of meadow ground intermixed with upland, but no
large prairies or glades that I saw or heard of. In this route deer, bear,
turkeys and raccoons appeared plenty, but no buffalo, and very little signs
of elks.
We continued our camp at the mouth of Canesadooharie for some time, where
we killed some deer and a great many raccoons; the raccoons here were
remarkably large and fat. At length we embarked in a birch canoe. This
vessel was four feet wide and three feet deep, and about five and thirty
feet long; and though it could carry a heavy burden, it was so artfully and
curiously constructed that four men could carry it several miles, or from
one landing place to another, or from the waters of the lake to the waters
of the Ohio. We proceeded up Canesadooharie a few miles, and went on shore
to hunt; but to my great surprise, they carried the vessel that we all came
in up the bank, and inverted it, or turned the bottom up, and converted it
into a dwelling house, and kindled a fire before us to warm ourselves in
this house, we were very much crowded, yet our little house turned off the
rain very well.
We kept moving and hunting up this river until we came to the falls: here
we remained some weeks, and killed a number of deer, several bears and a
great many raccoons. They then buried their large canoe in the ground,
which is the way to preserve this sort of a canoe in the winter season.
INDIAN MANNER OF BUILDING CABINS.
As we had at this time no horses, every one had a pack on his back, and we
steered an east course about twelve miles and encamped. The next morning we
proceeded on the same course about twelve miles to a large creek that
empties into Lake Erie betwixt Canesadooharie and Cayahaga. Here they made
their winter cabin in the following form: they cut logs about fifteen feet
long, and laid these logs upon each other, and drove posts in the ground at
each end to keep them together: the posts they tied together at the top
with bark, and by this means raised a wall fifteen feet long, and about
four feet high, and in the same manner another wall opposite to this, at
about twelve feet distance: they then drove forks in the ground in the
center of each end, and laid a strong pole from end to end on these forks:
and from these walls to the poles, they set up poles instead of rafters,
and on these they tied small poles in place of laths: and a cover was made
of linn bark, which will run even in the winter season.
As every tree will not run, they examine the tree first, by trying it near
the ground, and when they find it will do, they fell the tree and raise the
bark with the tomahawk, near the top of the tree, about five or six inches
broad, then put the tomahawk handle under the bark, and pull it down to the
butt of the tree; so that sometimes one piece of bark will be thirty feet
long. This bark they cut at suitable lengths in order to cover the hut.
At the end of these walls they set up split timber, so that they had
timber all around, excepting a door at each end. At the top, in place of a
chimney, they left an open place, and for bedding they laid down the
aforesaid kind of bark, on which they spread bear skins.
From end to end of this but, along the middle, there were fires, which the
squaws made of dry split wood, and the holes or open places that appeared,
the squaws stopped with moss, which they collected form old logs, and at
the door they hung a bearskin, and notwithstanding the winters are hard
here, our lodging was much better than I expected.
It appears that this Wyandot encampment consisted of eight hunters and
thirteen squaws, boys and children. Soon afterwards, four of the hunters
started on an expedition against the English settlements, leaving
Tontileaugo, three other Indians and Smith to supply the camp with food.
The winter months passed in hunting-excursions-the bear, even more than the
deer, being an object of active and successful pursuit. The months of
February and March, 1756, seem to have been occupied as follows:
SUGAR MAKING.
In February we began to make sugar. As some of the elm bark will strip at
this season, the squaws, after finding a tree that will do, cut it down and
with a crooked stick, broad and sharp at the end, took the bark off the
tree, and of this bark made vessels in a curious manner, that would hold
about two gallons each; they made above one hundred of this kind of
vessels. In the sugar tree they cut a notch, sloping down, and at the end
where they stuck a tomahawk, they drove a long chip, in order to carry the
water out from the tree, and under this they set their vessel to receive
it. As the sugar-trees were plenty and large here, they seldom or never
notched a tree that was not two or three feet over. They also made bark
vessels for carrying the water that would hold about four gallons each.
They had two brass kettles that held fifteen gallons each, and other
smaller kettles in which they boiled the water. But as they could not at
times boil away the water as fast as collected, they made vessels of bark
that would hold about one hundred gallons each for retaining the water, and
though the sugar-trees did not run every day, they had always a sufficient
quantity of water to keep them boiling during the whole sugar season.
The way we commonly used our sugar while encamped was by putting it in
bear's fat until the fat, was almost as sweet as the sugar itself and in
this we dipped our roasted venison. About this time, some of the Indian
lads and myself were employed in making and attending traps for catching
raccoons, foxes, wild cats, etc.
TRAPPING COONS, FOXES, ETC.
As the raccoon is a kind of water animal that frequents the runs or small
water courses almost the whole night, we made our traps on the runs, by
laying one small sapling on another and driving in posts to keep them from
rolling. The under sapling we raised about eighteen inches and set so that
on the raccoon's touching a string or a small piece of bark, the sapling
would fall and kill it; and lest the raccoon should pass by, we laid brush
on both sides of the run, only leaving the channel open.
The fox-traps we made nearly in the same manner, at the end of a hollow
log or opposite to a hole at the root of a hollow tree, and put venison on
a stick for bait; we had it so set that when the fox took hold of the meat,
the trap fell. While the squaws were employed in making sugar, the boys and
men were engaged in hunting and trapping.
About the latter end of March we began to prepare for moving into town in
order to plant corn. The squaws were then frying the last of their bear fat
and making vessels to hold it; the vessels were made of deer skins, which
were skinned by pulling the skin off the neck without ripping. After they
had taken off the hair, they gathered it in small plaits around the neck
and with a string drew it together like a purse, in the centre a pin was
put, below which they tied a string and while it was wet they blew it up
like a bladder, and let it remain in this manner until it was dry, when it
appeared nearly in the shapeof a sugar loaf, but more rounding at the
lower end. One of the vessels would hold about four or five gallons. In
these vessels it was they carried their bear oil.
When all things were ready the party returned to the falls of
Canesadooharie, and thence, after building another canoe of elm bark, to
the town at the mouth of the river.
KINDNESS OF THE INDIANS.
By this time, Smith, was thoroughly domesticated among his Indian captors.
He found himself treated as an equal and often with disinterested kindness.
His Indian name, by which they habitually addressed him, was Scoouwa. At
length, he and his adopted brother Tontileaugo, started for a westward
journey to Sandusky Lake -Smith on horseback along the strand of Lake Erie,
and the Indian in a canoe near the shore. Here we resume our extracts:
A WYANDOT FARM.
We arrived safe at Sunyendeand, which was a Wyandot town, that lay upon a
small creek which empties into the little lake below the mouth of the
Sandusky. The town was about eighty rods above the mouth of the creek, on
the south side of a large plain on which timber grew, and nothing more but
grass and nettles. In some places there were large flats where nothing but
grass grew, about three feet high when grown, and in other places nothing
but nettles, very rank, where, the soil is extremely rich and loose -here
they planted corn. In this town there were also French traders, who
purchased our skins and furs, and we all got new clothes, paint, tobacco, etc.
INDIAN MODE OF EATING.
As the Indians on their return from their winter hunt, bring in with them
large quantities of bear oil, sugar, dried venison, etc., at times they
have plenty and do not spare eating or giving - thus, they make away with
their provisions as quick as possible. They have no such thing as regular
meals, breakfast, dinner or supper, but if any one, even the town folks,
would go to the same house several times in one day, he would be invited to
eat of the best -and with them it is bad manners to refuse to eat when it
is offered.
If they will not eat, it is interpreted as a symptom of displeasure, or
that the persons refusing to eat were angry with those who invited them.

-continued in part 6