Allen County, Ohio - Chapter 3: Indian Occupation, 1906

Chapter 3: Indian Occupation

The Life Story of Simon Kenton - Simon Girty, the Renegade - Gen. Anthony Wayne , the "Chief Who Never Sleeps" - Celebrated Treaty of Greenville - Gen. Arthur St. Clair - St. Clair's Defeat - Tecumseh, the Most Gifted American Indian - - Tccumsch's Death - Tecumseh's High Ideals of Justice - The Indian of To-Day - Haskell Institute - Carlisle Indian School - Logan's Speech - Villainy of the Government's Indian Agents - Sprague's View of the Indian and His Destiny.

It is not a difficult task to imagine Allen County, and all of Ohio, the home and happy hunting grounds of the red man of the forest. The time is not so far back on the page of history. This county once abounded in game of all kinds, and the means of easily acquired subsistence. Over what are now the clean farms, the villages and the city, "the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer" and "the councilfire glared on the wise and the daring."

The men who fought their way to civilization in the wilderness of Ohio have a lasting place in our hearts. All honor to the scout, the guide, the Indian fighter and the pioneer! They blazed the way through the forest, brake and fen ; they crossed the stream, and fixed the mountain path, and their sons and daughters live to bless the soil to-day.

The Indian is gone from our country, pushed aside by that relentless tide of everadvancing civilization. ''It is an edict issued from the Court of Progress, that ferocious Titan who strides from East to West, that the Indian shall disappear, shall be remanded to the past, shall evanish."

Simon Kenton

Among those who sacrificed a life-time to the cause of civilization, none stands out soplainly upon the horizon of liberty and law as Simon Kenton, the intrepid scout and friend of the white man. In the early days of Indian occupation it was- very necessary that some brave spirit protect and guide the lonely settler. Simon Kenton was born to this duty,, and no man in any avenue of life ever performed his part with greater fidelity.

Leaving his early boyhood home in Virginia, April 6, 17714 after an unfortunate quarrel wit|i a rival for the hand of a worthy young woman, Simon Kenton traveled to Kentucky. Here he became interested in all that aided the settlers in their struggles with wild nature and the still wilder red man of the forest. Through the long fight of the pioneers for possession of the soil, Kenton was ever the leader, and his services as scout and spy, at the head of every force sent against the cruel savages, were never fully recognized or rewarded. True, a tardy acknowledgment of his services to the country came in 1824, when the government granted him a pension of $20 per month. He was then

In his various expeditions against the Indians, Kenton passed much time in Allen County, Ohio, then an unorganized part of the State. He was often sent on secret missions by officers of the army to learn the location and strength of Indian tribes and Indian villages. On one occasion, being sent by Colonel Bowman to learn the strength of a town on the Little Miami, he was captured, thrown prone upon the ground and made to stretch his arms to their full length. The Indians then placed a strong pole across his breast, extending to either hand, and another at right angles from head to foot. His wrists and ankles were fastened with thongs to these poles, and then he was fastened to a sapling near by. So tight were these fastenings made that he could not move hand or foot. The Indian boys and women slapped, cuffed and kicked him all the while. After many hours of suffering he was tied to the back of a fine young colt, and Mazeppa-like, turned loose in the forest. The colt ran through bushes and underbrush, then quieted down and traveled along with the other horses.

After three days of this kind of travel, the band arrived at Chillicothe, now Old Town, on the Little Miami in Green County, where he was made to run the gauntlet. This was a most trying ordeal, as the line of warriors, men, women and children, armed with knives, clubs and tomahawks, extended a quarter of a mile. But he reached the goal without a fatal blow.

A council of war was then held to decide whether they would burn him at the stake or carry him to the other villages. After the speeches were made, the vote was taken. It was done by means of a war club which was passed from one to the other in solemn council, and those who voted to burn him hit the ground a violent blow with the club, and those who voted to carry him to the next village simply passed the club to the next warrior. A teller was appointed to count the votes. He was not to be burned at the stake then, but carried on to another village on the Mad River.

On another occasion his life was saved by that renegade, Simon Girty, who, in 1775, left the people of his own race and took up his abode with the Indians. That was the noblest act of Girty, whom all nations despised as a traitor and distrusted as a man. Girty and Kenton had been companion scouts in the Dunmore expedition, and thus they had become warm friends.

On leaving Virginia, after the unfortunate event already referred to, Kenton had changed his name to Butler. When Girty was told by his captive that his "name was Simon Butler, he at once recognized his old friend, and at great peril to himself, saved Kenton from a terrible death by fire.

Kenton was now allowed to go free, though not to leave the tribe. He was again placed in thongs, and by a vote of the war council he was, in spite of all Girty could do, condemned to die at the stake. He was at once seized and hurried off to the northward. On this march he was struck with an ax by an Indian and his arm broken. At a village on the Scioto, where they halted, Kenton saw the celebrated Mingo chief, Logan, the murder of whose relatives had caused the Dunmore's War. Logan was an eloquent speaker and his speech on the death of his friends has become common property of all who love justice and liberty.

Logan treated Kenton kindly and told him that it was the plan to carry him to Sandusky and burn him there. But Logan really secured his safe conduct to Detroit where, it was argued, the British commander, wanted to talk to him about Kentucky, information of which the latter greatly desired. After a short time he secured his release from Detroit, and in company with two other men, made his way back to Louisville in safety. This journey through the unbroken forest required 30 days, and it was fraught with constant danger. Only the consummate skill of a backwoodsman like Kenton could have accomplished it.

From this time on he took part in many campaigns, and was a most valuable aid to Wayne's army, always leading the scouting party in front of the army. He was made a major by General Wayne and commanded a troop of 150 cavalrymen. He fought in all of Wayne's great battles, except in the battle of the Fallen Timber. In 1805 Kenton was made general of militia. He was in the thickest of the fight of the battle of the Thames, in Canada, where Proctor was overcome, and in which Tecumseh fell, shot by Johnson.

Kenton, in 42 years, since he came to Ohio and Kentucky from Virginia, had run the gauntlet, according to the historian Marshall, 13 times, and three times had been tied to the stake to be burned.

42 years the battles, sieges, skirmishes, raids, marauding excursions, alone, or in company with others, are numbered by the score not to say by the hundred, and most probably his career has never had a parallel on this continent, or on any other. 'His like we ne'er shall see again.' "

The great scout died April 29, 1836, on his farm at Wapatomica, in Logan County, Ohio, and was there buried. After 50 years his remains were taken to Urbana, Ohio, and there he sleeps today, amid the scenes of his earlici and eventful life.

of the appearance and character of this remarkable man, by one (McDonald), who often shared with him in the dangers of the forest and the fight. General Kenton was of fair complexion, six feet, one inch in height. He stood and walked very erect; and in the prime of life weighed about one hundred and ninety pounds. He never was inclined to be corpulent, although of sufficient fullness to form a graceful person. Fie had a soft, tremulous voice, very pleasing to the hearer. He had laughing gray eyes, which appeared to fascinate the beholder, and dark, auburn hair. He was a pleasant, good humored and obliging companion. When excited, or provoked to anger (which was seldom the case), the fiery glance of his eye would almost curdle the blood of those with whom he came in contact. His rage, when roused, was a tornado.

" 'In his dealing he was perfectly honest; his confidence in man, and his credulity were such that the same man might cheat him twenty times, and, if he professed friendship, might cheat him still.'

"The correctness of this description could be affirmed by all who knew the man ; and in addition to this description, he had a sense of justice and fair play which nothing could turn aside. In the course of the War of 1812, some friendly Indians came to the vicinity of Urbana on legitimate business, and some men, inexperienced in the matter of Indian warfare, proposed to kill these men, considering all Indians bad. Kenton attempted to dissuade the men from so high-handed a measure, but his words, apparently not having the desired effect on them, he grasped his rifle and took his position in front of the Indians, and in his impressive and emphatic manner declared that whoever attacked the Indians would do it over, his dead body. It is sufficient to say that the Indians were not further molested.

"As before stated, his long contest with the Indians had taught him the value of quick decision and instantaneous action; and these things he had so long practiced that they became a part of his nature. I will give one instance outside of the domain of war. In the spring of 1807, my father and eight or ten other men, with their families, left the counties of Bourbon and Harrison, Kentucky, for homes in the Mad River Valley. Simon Kenton was employed by the company to pilot them to their destination, and to procure them a supply of fresh meat daily from the forest. He gave his instructions for the day each morning, before he started out for the hunt. One morning, with gun on shoulder he started, and by some inadvertence stumbled over a wagon tongue and fell sprawling to the ground. One of the party broke into a hearty laugh. This enraged Kenton, and quick as lightning he pointed his gun and pulled the trigger, but the fall had knocked the powder out of the pan, and the gun was not discharged. Kenton immediately begged par- don for his hasty action, and asked the man never to do so again, lest in a moment of anger he might do what everybody would regret. My father was a witness to this incident and told me of it years before Simon's death.

"Monument. - This is a substantial structure, seven or eight feet high and over four feet square at the base; and in every way is a most befitting memorial of the dead. In the forests of Ohio Kenton had confronted Indians, bears, wolves and panthers. On the south face of the monument is carved, life-size, the head of an Indian chief, decked out in regular savage style; on the west face is the head of a bear, as life-like as stone can be, and appearing as if the head had just been thrust through the face of stone; on the north side is the head of a wolf similarly carved; and on the east side is the head of a panther. The design is by J. O. A. Ward, the celebrated sculptor, now of New York, but a native of Urbana. His grandfather originally owned the land on which Urbana is built, and for many years the elder Ward and Kenton were intimate friends."

Simon Girty

The world hates a renegade. It despises the man who turns against his own flesh and blood, and stands ready to slay the mother who gave him birth. Such a man, or fiend, was Simon Girty, once the friend of the white man. From his own people he turned and took up his lot with the Indian. His bloody work was done in Ohio, and especially in Northwestern Ohio. Doubtless in many parts of this county of Allen, Girty tracked to death his white victims, or danced with his dusky companions around the helpless victim at the burning stake.

Simon Girty was born in Northwestern Pennsylvania, of an intemperate father and an unworthy mother. Pie had three brothers, one older than himself. The three younger boys had been taken captive by the Indians, and thus became possessed of the savagery of the Indian himself. Simon was the most wicked of the three thus reared among the wild life of forest. He preferred to live with the savages rather than his own people. He took an active part in Dunmore's War in 1774, and here he met Simon Kenton, and the two young men soon became fast friends. On February 22, 1775, at Fort Pitt (Pittsburg), Girty was commissioned a captain in the militia. But his real sympathies were all the while with the Indians. Finally in company with about 14 others, Girty deserted Fort Pitt, where the militia was stationed, and started out for a reign of terror among the settlers of the wild frontier. They spread false news of the defeat of the Americans and the death of Washington. After much injury and suffering which he inflicted upon the helpless pioneers, Girty started for Detroit. On his way he was captured by the Wyandottes. The Senecas demanded that he be given up to them because he was an adopted son of their race and had now taken up arms against them. But the Wyandottes held him, and finally allowed him to go on to Detroit, where General Hamilton, the commandant, gave him a royal welcome. Girty was now given a kind of work which suited his nature exactly, - he was paid a regular salary to incite the Indians to bloody deeds among the unprotected settlers. His name became a household term for terror all along the Ohio, from Pittsburg to Louisville. He often came up into Ohio, and here, in Allen County, he did his deeds of darkness. At the Indian village of Wapatomica, in Logan County, Girty found his old friend and companion scout in Dunmore's War, Simon Kenton, tied to the stake and condemned to death. Girty recognized Kenton, and, after much parley and a personal appeal to his Indian friends, saved Kenton's life. This appears to be the one bright spot in Girty's dark career. Kenton afterward bought a small farm near this scene of his deliverance, and lived here until his death. But Girty's numberless acts of torture and even of murder cling to his name, and his one good act is almost forgotten. He persecuted the settlers of the valley and the missionaries, who had worked so zealously among the Christian Indians of the Moravian settlements.

in human form, and when the Indians of the great West combined in one last effort, 1790- 94, to repel the ever-increasing tide of immigration, Simon Girty was found among the Indians fighting against the whites. He assisted them at the battle of St. Clair's defeat, and, having captured a white woman, refused to give her up to the Wyandotte squaw who demanded her, according to the Indian custom. But the warriors gathered around, and actually forced the white savage to give her over to the more humane Indian squaw.

He was present at the famous battle of the Fallen Timber, 1794, and did bloody work against Wayne's heroes. After this he is found in a trading-house, for a short time, at St. Mary's, Mercer County, Ohio. He then removed to Malden, Canada. Here he lived until his death, which occurred in 1815. He was totally blind for many years before his death, and a perfect sot. He had many defeats in his old age, and suffered very greatly; in fact he was a complete human wreck, despised by everyone. ''He died without a friend and without a hope."

Gen. Anthony Wayne

This famous general was of good old Pennsylvania stock, in which State he was born in 1745. Much of his history has already been narrated in other chapters. Like Washington he early accepted work as a surveyor, then a public office. He was made a member of the State Legislature, and of the Committee of Public Safety. He commanded a regiment in the Canadian invasion of 1775-76. At a most critical time he had full charge of the Ticonderoga forts, and he manned them with great skill. For this and other meritorious work he was appointed brigadier general, and was in charge of a division of the army at Brandywine. Here it was that his skill and bravery saved the lives of so many by the successful retreat which he conducted. It is sometimes a mark of greater skill to handle men in a retreat, when excited and repulsed, than to make a successful attack.

Because of his supreme caution and watchfulness, the Indians called him the "Chief Who Never Sleeps." But he was surprised at Paoli, and the lesson there learned he never forgot. It will be remembered that he commanded the right wing at Germantown, where General Agnew fell. He was also a valiant fighter at the battle of Monmouth Court House, noted as the only battle of the Revolution in which every one of the 13 Colonies had representatives fighting on the American side. The name of Mollie Pitcher will never be forgotten in connection with this battle. But the most famous exploit of his earlier career was the consummate plan and its execution in the storming and the capture of Stony Point, July 15, 1779. Only a general of high order could have accomplished such a hazardous task. But he planned and then executed. Wayne was ever a man of action, the doing was with him the highest essential. He further showed his remarkable ability in handling men in putting down the mutiny of troops at Morristown ; and he had a most honorable part in the war in Virginia in 1781, the same year in which he quieted the mutiny. He served with distinction in Georgia in 1782, and was made a member of the ratifying convention of Pennsylvania in 1787.

After the fearful slaughter of the troops at Fort Recovery, and the utter overthrow of St. Clair, Washington at once selected General Wayne to lead the forces of the young republic against the crafty fighters of the Western forests. He was made major general in 1792, and in the autumn of 1793 *ie entered the Indian country with a strong force. He marched from Fort Washington (Cincinnati) to the present site of Greenville, where he built a strong stockade. The next summer he advanced to Defiance on the Maumee, where, as related in Chapter II., he built Fort Defiance. He built a second fort on the St. Mary's River.

The Indians thus far had kept in hiding and had not risked a battle. But Wayne soon learned that they had selected a place lower down the Maumee, at the Fallen Timber, and here it was that lie inflicted upon them a most crushing blow. August 20. 1794. (Sec Chapter II.)

Crn. Arthur St. Clair Crn. Josiah Harm Ak

ish at the nearest station that their turn camd next ; all he wanted was an opening. But the British declined the honor, and kept quiet. He then took up his winter quarters at Greenville, and, in the following summer, 1795, the Indians, now subdued and humble, came to Greenville and entered into the celebrated treaty with General Wayne and commissioners of the United States. Twelve tribes with 1,200 warriors and sachems were present, and they ceded to the government 25,000 square miles of territory, in Michigan and Indiana, besides a large number, of special tracts. For this land they received $20,000 in presents, and were promised an annual allowance of $10,000. This treaty ended the serious Indian troubles until 1812. General Wayne's name has been given to the fort he erected at the head waters of the Maumee, and to the growing and prosperous city of Fort Wayne, and to numerous places in the country. He died in 1796.

Gen. Arthur St. Clair

This distinguished general was born in Scotland in 1734. His education was by no means neglected, and after a long course of instruction he graduated from the University, of Edinburgh. After his graduation, he joined the British Army as an ensign, and came to America in 1758 with Admiral Boscavven. His service in the United States was very marked, especially at Louisburg and at Quebec. In 1762 he resigned his position, and two years later took up his residence in Pennsylvania. He was prominent in the civil affairs of his home, and was greatly beloved by his neighbors.

When the Revolutionary War broke out, his inclination towards the common people caused him to join the Colonial Army, and he was given the rank of colonel. The student of history well remembers his gallant services at Three Rivers, Trenton and Princeton, for which services he was raised to the rank of major general in 1777, and was at once placed in command at Ticonderoga. Burgoyne finally drove him from that stronghold, and although he was court martialed for losing that position, he was acquitted of any blame. Nevertheless he lost his command. He was too patriotic to give up the work of a soldier, so he remained in the army as a volunteer, and gradually arose to other important positions. He distinguished himself in the plans which ended with the surrender of Cornwallis. His broad scholarship and statesman-like qualities made him- a member of the Continental Congress, 1 785-87.

A still greater honor awaited him, viz. ; Pie was made president of that noted congress in 1787. He was president also of the Pennsylvania State Society of the Cincinnati, and was the man who gave the name of that society to the great city on the Ohio River, viz. : Cincinnati.

In 1789 he was made the first governor of the Northwest Territory, and, in 1791, as the commander-in-chief of the United States Army, he led his forces against the Miami Indians, and met with the most disastrous defeat in all the story of the early Indian warfare, at Fort Recovery, Mercer County, Ohio, November 4, 1791.

Washington had commanded General St. Clair, not to risk an open engagement with the Indians until he was perfectly sure of his ground. It would seem that St. Clair disobeyed these orders and rushed into the thickest of the fight without proper precautions. The defeat resulted in a most humiliating loss of power and the complete overthrow of his own military renown.

General Washington was said to have become greatly enraged at the news of St. Clair's defeat, and flying into a passion he used very strong language against the unfortunate general who had disobeyed his orders ; but when St. Clair, disheartened, defeated and suffering from rheumatism, appeared before Washington, it is said that the great general relented and forgave him.

The committee of Congress, engaged to investigate the defeat, exhonorated him, but St. Clair's heart was broken, and with great disappointment to himself and his friends, he resigned his command in May, 1792, and in 1802 President Jefferson removed him from the g_>\- ernorship of the Northwest Territory.

The last years of many a great man have been spent in poverty and neglect, and the life of St. Clair is no exception to this statement. There was no sustaining hand to lighten the burden of his rapidly increasing age; there was no fortune at his command. Friends did not come at his beck and call, and, after long years of suffering and unwarranted neglect on the part of the government, he died in 1818.

The school boy, as well as the adult reader, will ever remember "St. Clair's Defeat," rather than St. Clair's many victories and splendid services.

He was born, says tradition, near the present site of Springfield, Ohio, in 1768. The tribe from which he sprang was a branch of the very powerful, and widely distributed, Lenni Lenape, or Delaware race. Long ago this branch had settled in the South, whence their name Shawnees, or "Southerners."

These Shawnees became involved in bitter wars with the Creeks and Yamosees of Georgia and Florida. In consequence they drifted north to the rich valleys of the Ohio, the Miamis, the Wabash and the Maumee. They had many large villages in these valleys, and in one of these villages Tecumseh was born. His mother was a Cherokee woman, and it is said gave birth to triplets - Tecumseh, his celebrated brother, the Prophet, and a third brother of whom nothing is definitely known. The father was killed at the battle of Kanawha, October, 1774, when Lord Dunmore defeated Chief Cornstalk.

Tecumseh believed the whites were wrongfully encroaching upon the Indians' lands, and, like Pontiac, he sought to organize all the Western Indians into a confederacy against the white settlers. To protect these settlers, General Harrison, Governor of the Northwest Territory, who had ordered the Indians to go West, marched an army against them, and at the village of the Prophet, at the mouth of the Tippecanoe, he defeated the Indians with great loss. Tecumseh was not in the battle. He had gone South, and when he returned and had learned what his brother, the Prophet, had done, he became very angry. He had expressly urged the Indians not to risk a battle then, but the Prophet, who had great influence, had planned the night attack upon Harrison after, asking Harrison to meet him in a "talk" the next day. This conduct of his brother so enraged Tecumseh that he "seized him by his long hair and shook him till his teeth rattled, declaring that he had destroyed all his schemes, and that he ought to be killed" This battle was fought November 7, 1811. The War of 1812 now broke out, and Tecumseh and his faithful band of Shawnees allied themselves with the British. He rendered most valiant service in the battles of Raisin River and Maguaga. Also at Fort Malden and Fort Meigs. For valiant service the British raised him to the rank of brigadier general. On the 5th of October, 1813, this warrior chief was killed in the battle of the Thames, Canada.

Tecumseh was the most gifted American Indian. He would have been a great man in any age, and in any country. He had the rare gift of natural eloquence and such a high ideal of manly, noble conduct that he would never torture a prisoner, or permit it to be done. He put to shame the conduct of his superior officer, General Proctor, when he dashed into a party of his warriors at the siege of Fort Meigs, who were torturing some white prisoners, and, hurling them right and left, he turned to General Proctor and demanded why he allowed such murderous conduct. Proctor replied, "I cannot restrain your warriors." Tecumseh then thundered back, "You are not fit to command; gohome and put on petticoats."

He had great powers as an artist, and could draw a map in relief on bark, which the best English engineers pronounced equal to their own best work. He was born to command, and had far more ability as a general than Proctor. His lofty ideas of honesty and honor have endeared him to the American people, and they have placed his name all over the country, and it was one of the given names of the great gen-

While it is not really known who killed the great warrior, the following taken from Knapp's "History of the Maumee Valley" will be of marked interest : -

I was attached to a company of mounted men called Rangers, at the battle of the Thames in Upper Canada, in the year 1813. During the battle we charged into the swamp, where several of our horses mired down, and an order was given to retire to the hard ground in our rear, which we did. The Indians in front, believing that we were retreating, immediately advanced upon us, with Tecumseh at their head. I distinctly heard his voice, with which I was perfectly familiar. He yelled like a tiger, and urged on his braves to the attack. We were then but a few yards apart. We halted on the hard ground, and continued our fire. After a few minutes of very severe fighting, I discovered Colonel Johnson lying near, on the ground, with one leg confined by the body of his white mare, which had been killed, and had fallen upon him. My friend Medard Labadie was with me. We went up to the Colonel, with whom we were previously acquainted, and found him badly wounded, lying on his side, with one of his pistols lying in his hand. I saw Tecumseh at the same time, lying on his face, dead, and about fifteen or twenty feet from the Colonel. He was stretched at full length, and was shot through the body, I think near the heart. The ball went out through his back. He held his tomahawk in his right hand (it had a brass pipe on the head of it), his arm was extended as if striking, and the edge of the tomahawk was stuck in the ground. Tecumseh was dressed in red speckled leggings, and a fringed hunting shirt; he lay stretched directly towards Colonel Johnson. When we went up to the Colonel, we offered to help him. He replied with great animation, "Knaggs, let me lay here, and push on and take Proctor." However, we liberated him from his dead horse, took his blanket from his saddle, placed him in it, and bore him off the field. I had known Tecumseh from my boyhood ; we were boys together. There was no other Indian killed immediately around where Colonel Johnson or Tecumseh lay, though there were many near the creek, a few rods back of where Tecumseh fell. I had no doubt then, and have none now, that Tecumseh fell by the hand of Colonel Johnson.

" 'Colonel Johnson was invariably modest about claiming the honor of having slain Tecumseh. When I paid him a visit, at his residence at the Great Crossings, in Kentucky, in 1844, while collecting facts and materials illustrative of the career of Clark, Boone, Kenton and other Western pioneers, he exhibited to me the horse pistols he used in the battle of the Thames, and modestly remarked, "that with them he shot the. chief who had confronted and wounded him in the engagement." ' witness has appeared in the newspapers testifying to facts which tend to show that Col. R. M. Johnson killed Tecumseh. The colonel was certainly brave enough to meet and kill a dozen Indians, and if he didn't kill Tecumseh, he no doubt would have done it if he had had a chance. He himself was often interrogated upon the subject and his reply upon at least one occasion was capital : 'They say I killed him ; how could I tell ? I was in too much of a hurry, when he was advancing upon me, to ask him his name, or inquire after the health of his family. I fired as quick as convenient, and he fell. If it had been Tecumseh or the Prophet, it would have been all the same.' "

" 'Captain Knaggs, who is spoken of in that communication, is a highly respectable citizen of Monroe, and was one of the most active and useful partisans in service during the War of 1812. Almost innumerable and miraculous were his "hairbreadth 'scapes" from the savages.

" 'He related to me, when I last saw him, several anecdotes of Tecumseh, which will illustrate his character. Among others, he states that while the enemy was in full possession of the country, Tecumseh, with a large band of his warriors, visited the Raisin. The inhabitants along that river had been stripped of nearly every means of subsistence. Old Mr. Rivard, who was lame and unable to labor to procure a living for himself and family, had contrived to keep out of sight of the wandering bands of savages a pair of oxen, with which his son was able to procure a scanty support for the family. It so happened that, while at labor with the -oxen, Tecumseh, who had come over from Malden, met him in the road, and walking up to him, said : "My friend, I must have those oxen. My young men are very hungry ; they have had nothing to eat. We must have the oxen."

" ' "Well," said Tecumseh, "we are the conquerors, and every thing we want is ours. I must have the oxen ; my people must not starve ; but I will not be so mean as to rob you of them. I will pay you one hundred dollars for them, and that is far more than they are worth ; but we must have them."

" 'Tecumseh cot a white man to write an order on the British Indian agent, Colonel Elliott, who was on the river some distance below, for the money. The oxen were killed, large fires built, and the forest warriors were soon feasting on their flesh. Young Rivard took the order to Colonel Elliott, who promptly refused to pay it. The young man, with a sorrowful heart returned with the answer to Tecumseh, who said, "He won't pay it, will he? Stay all night and tomorrow we will go and see." On the next morning he took young Rivard, and went down to see the Colonel. On meeting him, he said, "Do you refuse to pay for the oxen I bought?" "Yes," said the Colonel, and he reiterated the reason for refusal. "I bought them," said the chief, "for my young men were very hungry. I promised to pay for them, and they shall be paid for. I have always heard that white nations went to war with each other, and not with peaceful individuals; that they did not rob and plunder poor people. I will not." "Well," said the Colonel, "I will not pay for them." "You can do as you please," said the chief, "but before Tecumseh and his warriors came to fight the battles of the great King they had enough to eat, for which they had only to thank the Master of Life and their good rifles.

Their hunting grounds supplied them with food enough, to them they can return." This threat produced a change in the Colonel's mind, d he defection of the great chief, he well knew, would immediately withdraw all the nations of the red men from the British service ; and without them they were nearly powerless on the frontier. "Well," said the Colonel, "if I must pay, I will." "Give me hard money," said Tecumseh, "not rag money" (army bills). The Colonel then counted out a hundred dollars in coin and gave them to him. The chief handed the money to young Rivard, and then said to the Colonel, "Give me one dollar more." It was given; and handing that also to Rivard, he said, "Take that ; it will pay for the time you have lost in getting your money."

" 'Before the commencement of the war, when his hunting parties approached the white settlements, horses and cattle were occasionally stolen ; but notice to the chief failed not to produce instant redress.

" 'The character of Tecumseh was that of a gallant and intrepid warrior, an honest and honorable man, and his memory is respected by all our old citizens who personally knew him.'

"The following letter from the venerable General Combs, of Kentucky, who bore so gallant a part in the defense of the Ohio and the Maumee Valley, has both local and general interest ;

You ask me for a description of the celebrated Indian warrior, Tecumseh, from my personal observation. I answer that I never saw the great chief but once, and then under rather exciting circumstances, but I have a vivid recollection of him from his appearance, 'and from intercourse with his personal friends, I am possessed of accurate knowledge of his character.

I was, as you know, one of the prisoners taken at what is known as Dudley's defeat on the banks of the Maumee River, opposite Fort Meigs, early in May, iSr.}. Tecumseh had fallen upon our rear, and we were compelled to surrender. We were marched down to the old Fort Miami or Maumee, in squads, where a terrible scene awaited us.

tomahawks - to say nothing of scalping knives - had formed themselves into two lines in front of the gateway between which all of us were bound to pass. Many were killed or wounded in running the gauntlet. Shortly after the prisoners had entered, the Indians rushed over the walls and again surrounded us, and raised the warwhoop, at the same time making unmistakable demonstrations of violence. We all expected to be massacred, and the small British guard around us were utterly unable to afford protection. They called loudly for General Proctor and Colonel Elliott to come to our relief. At this critical moment Tecumseh came rushing in, deeply excited, and denounced the murderers of prisoners as cowards. Thus our lives were spared and we went down to the fleet at the mouth of Swan Creek (now Toledo), and from that place across the end of , the lake to Huron and paroled.

I shall never forget the noble countenance, gallant bearing and sonorous voice of that remarkable man, while addressing his warriors in our behalf.

He was then between forty and forty-five years of age. His frame was vigorous and robust, but he was not fat, weighing about one hundred and seventy pounds. Five feet ten inches was his height. He had a high, projecting forehead, and broad, open countenance ; and there was something noble and commanding in all his actions. He was brave, humane and generous, and never allowed a prisoner to be massacred if he could prevent it. At Fort Miami he saved the lives of all of us who had survived running the gauntlet. He afterwards released seven Shawnees belonging to my command, and sent them home on parole. Tecumseh was a Shawnee. His name signified in their language, Shooting Star. At the time when I saw him he held the commission of a brigadier general in the British Army. I am satisfied that he deserved all that was said of him by General Cass and Governor Harrison, previous to his death. Leslie Combs.

The Indian Of To-Day

Of all the mighty chiefs who led their bands of warriors unmolested over the plains and fertile valleys of North America, only one remains alive. That one is Geronimo, the "Human Tiger." Of all chiefs he was the most treacherous and fiendish. His crimes and butcheries are without number and he yet lives and enjoys good health. He is the last of his race, this old war chief of the White Mountain Apaches. He is about 90 years old. Many thousands of our people have seen him at one

After Victoria, the Warm Springs chief, was killed in 1881, Geronimo became a leader and in Mexico and Arizona he kept more than 2,000 United States troops at hay for over a year. He was finally captured and is now living a life of indolence and assumed piety. He has learned to write his name in English, and is kept busy writing it at 25 cents a signature.

It is well that this type of the red man is passing. When Geronimo was at the height of his power, he constantly sought human life and taught his people to love only the war-path. It is said he never forgave and never forgot.

Chief Joseph, the "Napoleon" of the Nez Perces, died in peace about one year ago. He was the greatest general of his race, and was deserving of far better treatment than he received at the hands of the United States government. He may be compared with Tecumseh, the great Shawnee chief of 100 years before.

The Mexican troops killed old Victoria in a desperate fight in the Beratcha (Drunken) Mountains in Mexico. Sitting Bull, the hero of the terrible Custer massacre, was killed by the Indian police. Sitting Bull was not in the battle of the Little Big Horn at all, but he got all the notoriety for it. He was only a Sioux Medicine-man, but he became a leader of his people and a terror to all border life.

Red Cloud died peacefully at Pine Ridge Agency about two years ago, and the friendly Sioux Chieftain, Spotted Tail, spent his last years in peace with the whites. The kindness of the people at Fort Laramie during the sickness and after the death of his daughter so softened the heart of the old chief against the whites that he became very friendly and helpful. He aided Custer in his fight in 1876 against the hostile Sioux, who were led by Sitting Bull.

The government is doing a good work in educating the Indian of today, and there may be found at Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kansas, about 600 Indian boys and girls. They are making rapid and substantial advancement.

The Indian loves music, and can learn very to produce it. The bands of the Carlisle Indian School and Haskell Institute are famous, and they are widely known in foreign -countries. The Haskell Institute Band is at present in Europe. Their music is of high grade.

The Indian learns rapidly, and he has taken a high place in athletics. Soxalexis, the Indian, was one of the world's greatest baseball players, and as a sprinter he never had an equal. He was "wined and dined" by society until the Indian's innate love of "fire-water" caused his ruin. On the gridiron the Indian holds a high place. His playing is marked by intelligence and great speed. In fact the Indian is naturally an athlete, but education does not change him in this respect. Education only gives the Indian greater confidence and skill in his work. Graduates of these Indian schools are holding good positions, such as bank cashiers, State librarians and teachers of art.

A most interesting incident relating to the educated Indian comes to us from the far W est. An educated gentleman was hunting in the Rocky Mountains when suddenly he found himself face to face with an Indian in full war paint and arms, seated on a log in an open spot in a densely wooded ravine. The hunter fully expected an immediate attack, but was greatly surprised as well as relieved, when the painted monarch of the forest addressed him in elegant English, bidding him accept a seat by his side. The Indian held an open book in his hand, a copy of "homer," which he had been reading while resting himself from the fatigue of the chase. He proved to be a graduate of the Carlisle Indian School, and had donned the old attire. "just to see how it felt."

The Indian is, likewise, a natural born orator. It is said that Tecumseh's voice and gesture had wonderful power, and the natural sweetness of his tone was convincing.

The fame of the speech of Logan, the Mingo chief, is world- wide. It elevated the character of the native of the forest throughout the world, and it will be remembered "so -long as touching eloquence is admired by men."

"I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and I gave him not meat ; if ever he came cold or naked and I gave him not clothing.

"During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained in his tent an advocate of peace. Nay, such was my love for the white, that those of my own country pointed at me as they passed by and said, 'Logan is the friend of the white men.' I had even thought to live with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, cut off all the relatives of Logan ; not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace, yet, do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."

This noted piece of eloquent sorrow, pride and courage was delivered by Logan, the murder of whose family caused the Dunmore War, under the "Logan Elm," in Pickaway County, Ohio, six miles south of Circleville.

One of the most noted Indian schools in the world is the famous Carlisle Indian School, located at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This school was organized, and opened November 1, 1879. and has had a steady growth each year until it has at the present time 800 students coming from 55 different tribes, scattered all over the United States.

The government has spent on the Haskell Institute more than half a million dollars, for buildings and grounds, and it willingly expends $200,000 each year in maintaining the school. The Department of the Interior, through a regularly appointed agent, looks after the edu-

interests of the Indian, and the work is well done. A large number of unselfish and devoted teachers have given their lives to the service of the Indian youth, and not a few of these teachers are of Ohio birth, among whom might be named Mr. and Mrs. George G. Davis, who for a number, of years have so successfully conducted the school at the Rosebud Agency, South Dakota. It will be remembered that it was at this place, in 1881, that Crow Dog shot and killed the great Sioux Chieftain, Spotted Tail, who was at peace with the whites, and who had befriended them, and especially Custer, when engaged in the bloody contest with Sitting Bull.

These schools have long since demonstrated the fact that the Indian youth, properly trained, will become a valuable American citizen, and surely we should be ever willing to make the necessary expenditures.

The government, in past years, has done very poorly in its treatment of these aborigines. The rascally Indian agents have cheated and robbed them, again and again. Often for personal gain have these agents recommended to the government that whole tribes be removed from the hunting grounds of their fathers, fertile as the valley of the Po, into some torrid, arid desert. Of course they would fight; who would not under the same conditions? Then the government would send a vastly superior force against this "rebellious" tribe, and the red man was doomed.

This is exactly what was done with old Victoria, chief of the Warm Spring Indians. He had been living as a farmer chief in the fertile valley at the foot of the San Mateo Mountains, in New Mexico, raising cattle, hogs and sheep and learning from Duncan, the farmer, how to cultivate the soil.

A thieving Indian agent at San Carlos, Arizona, wanted this tribe sent to him that he might rob them as he was robbing those tribes already under his control. Acting on his urgent advice, the government had twice sent this peaceful tribe from their beautiful and fertile home into Arizona, to a hot and barren land.

and on being again ordered to return to Arizona, old Victoria and his little band of 85 warriors took to the mountains. "Andy" Kelly, an interpreter and trader, was sent to Victoria, to ask him to wait until the officer in charge of the troops sent against him could get an answer by telegraph from Washington. The old leader, burning with indignation at the treatment he was receiving, gave the following reply to Kelly : "Me wait. Me no want fight. Big Chief make long tongue" - the telegraph - "say me stay reservation, me no fight. Me want stay my old home. If Great Father make long tongue say all right, me come in. But if long tongue say me go San Carlos, me fight all time, and you no more come back with white flag. You come back, me kill you, too." (Crawford.)

When the scout, who had been sent 100 miles to the nearest telegraph station, was seen by Victoria, returning on his jaded pony, and no answer, came from "long tongue" saying "me stay here," Victoria began to fight for his rights. For two long years he successfully fought the United States troops, and in that time he and his little band of warriors killed more than 600 men, women and children. He was finally entrapped in the Beratcha (Drunken) Mountains, Mexico, and was slain by Mexican soldiers, fighting manfully for his rights.

This chapter cannot be more fittingly closed than to quote in full Charles Sprague's masterpiece, so often read by our fathers and grandfathers : -

The North American Indian

Not many generations ago, where you now sit, encircled with all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another race of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over your head, the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer; gazing on the same moon that smiles for you, the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate.

Now they dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy lakes, and now they paddled their light canoe along your rocky shores. Here they warred ; the echoing whoop, the bloody grapple, the defying death song, all were here; and, when the tiger-strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace. Here, too, they worshipped ; and from many a dark bosom went up a pure prayer to the Great Spirit. He had not written his laws for them on tables of stone, but he had traced them on the table of their hearts.

The poor child of Nature knew not the God of revelation, but the God of the universe he acknowledged in everything around. He beheld him in the star that sank in beauty behind his lonely dwelling; in the sacred orb that flamed on him from his mid-day throne; in the flower that snapped in the morning breeze; in the lofty pine that had defied a thousand whirlwinds ; in the timid warbler that never left his native grove; in the fearless eagle whose untired pinion was wet in clouds ; in the worm that crawled at his feet ; and in his own matchless form, glowing with a spark of that light to whose mysterious source he bent in humble though blind adoration.

And all this has passed away. Across the ocean came a pilgrim bark, bearing the seeds of life and death. The former were sown for you ; the latter sprang up in the path of the simple native. Two hundred years have changed the character of a great continent, and blotted forever from its face a whole, peculiar people. Art has usurped the bowers of Nature, and the anointed children of education have been too powerful for the tribes of the ignorant. Here and there a stricken few remain ; but how unlike their bold, untamed, untamable progenitors ! The Indian of falcon-glance, and lionbearing, the theme of the touching ballad, the hero of the pathetic tale, is gone! and his degraded offspring crawl upon the soil where he walked in majesty, to remind us how miserable is man when the foot of the conqueror is on his neck.

As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken. Their springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. Their council-fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war-cry is fast dying away to the untrodden West. Slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountains and read their doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking before the mighty tide that is pressing them away; they must soon hear the roar of the last wave which will settle over them forever. Ages hence, the inquisitive white man, as he stands by some growing city, will ponder on the structure of their disturbed remains, and wonder to what manner of persons they belonged. They will live only in songs and chronicles of their exterminators. Let these be faithful to their rude virtues as men, and pay due tribute to their unhappy fate as a people.