Ashland County, Ohio - Chapter 8, 1880

men and women danced and sung together, advancing towards each other, stooping until tiieir heads would be touching together, and then ceased from dancing, with loud shouts, and retreated and lortned again, and so repeated the same thing over and over, for three or four hours, without intermission. This exercise appeared to me at hrst irrational and insipid ; but I found that in singing their tunes ya-ne-nohoo-wa-no, like our fa-sa-f t, and though they have no such thing as jingling verse, yet they can intermix sentences with their notes, and sav what they piease to each other, and earn on their tune ;r. concert.

1 found that this was a kind of wooing or courting dance, and as they advanced stooping with their heads together, they could say what they pleased to each other's ear, without disconcerting their rough music, and the others, or those near, not hear what they said."

Smith remained at Tullihas until the following October, when he accompanied his adopted brother, whose name was Tontileaugo, and who had a Wyandot wife, on the shores of Lake Erie. Their route was along an old trail up the lake fork, to near the present village of Tylertown, thence up the Jerome fork through the townships of Mohican, Montgomery and Orange, to the south borders of Sullivan, and across the same, to the head branches of the Black river, called by the Indians Canesadooharie, traveling Medina and Lorain counties, to where it falls into the lake, some distance north of Elyria, where they found a large camp of Wyandots, and the wife of Tontileaugo. Smith remained with the Wvandots, Ottawas and Mohegans , traveling over various parts of northern and western Ohio, to Detroit, Montreal and Presque Isle, for about four years, and then escaped, and returned to his home in Pennsylvania. It will be seen, then, that Smith was probably the first white man that ever penetrated the forests of Ashland county. At any rate, we have no authentic account of such an adventure by a white man. prior to his forced visit along the fertile valleys of the goodly Mohican.

About the pear 1762, two years after the escape of James Smith from the Wyandots, "Mohican John," a noted chief, with a band of Connecticut Mohegans, emigrated to Ohio and established a village on the west side of the Jerome fork, upon a site subsequently covered by the farms of Rev. Elijah Yocum and Judge Edmund 1 Ingmand. These Indians were evidently under the j influence of the French, at, or soon after they located on J -the Jerome fork: for, upon the arrival of the earliest settlers in Mohican township, John Baptiste Jerome, a Frenchman had married an Indian woman and was residing in the vicinity of the village, and subsequently j within the present limits of Jeromeville. The number of ! .Indians accompanying Mohican John to their new hunt- j ing grounds is not clearly set forth, but from the frequent i mention of the village in after times, may have been j from one hundred and fifty to two hundred.

According to Heckewelder, and ether Indian authori- | ties, the name, "Mingo? does not apply to any distinct i nation or tribe of Indians, but is applicable, principally, i It is not certain whether the Mingoes, or Cayugas, sep- | arated from the parent nation during the attempt of the j Five Nations to exterminate the Alleghans, the A ndastes,

I the Fries, the Wyandots and the Ottawas, or during the | period when the Delawares along the Susquehanna were | "made women" by the great New York confederacy, or 1 whether, at a subsequent period, they selected the teemi ing forests of Ohio for their new hunting-grounds.

As early as 1750, straggling parties of the New York Indians were often met along the shores of Lake Erie, j and a Mingo village was found at the mouth of Beaver, j and one near the present site of Steubenville, Ohio.

In consequence of the Indian raids on the border settlements, General Thomas Gage, in 1764, ordered Colonel John Bradslreet to chastise the Ohio Indians. In obedience to orders, he. advanced toward Presque Isle, and was met by ten Mingoes, representatives of the New York tribes settled in Ohio, near that place. Pownall's map places a Mingo village at Cuyahoga Falis, after which, doubtless, Cuyahoga county was named, they being of the New York tribe of Cayugas.

In 1765, George Croghan, a sub-commissioner of Sir William Johnson, who had just heief a council with the Indians on German flats, in New York, was empowered to visit the Ohio Indians, for the purpose of fixing a boundary for the white settlements. He embarked at Pittsburgh, in May, intending to visit the Wabash, the Miami, and other regions in Ohio. On the north side of the Ohio, near where Steubenville now stands, at the mouth of Cross Creeks, he passed a Mingo village.

In 1768, Sir William Johnson negotiated a treaty at. Fort Staiiwix, in central New York, with the deputies of the Fire Nations, the Delawares, Shawnees, and Mingoes, of Ohio.

In 1770, George Washington, then a young man, with a surveying party, made a trip down the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Kanahwa for the purpose of fixing certain boundaries and locating military lands. He also passed the Mingo village at Indian Cross Creeks and interviewed its settlers. During his stay he observed they viewed the settlements on the Ohio with a jealous eye, and claimed that they should be compensated for their right to the sod, if the settlers persisted in locating thereon.

As early as 1774 the migration of the white settlers I on the west side of the Ohio had been so great that the 1 Delttroturs, Mingoes and other tribes were compelled to

,j.c. flirthcr into the wilderness to obtain more ex- j t, n -! hunting grounds. This was the occasion of j r-'.n h jealousy, ill-temper and resentment on the part of | th.' Indians. As a general thing, the conduct of the j Hide people only tended to arouse the hostility of the i >:h! an tribes until they were compelled, in self-defence, j jo league themselves against the encroachments of the j -'Long Knives;" and then their pent up rage burst forth j with savage fury at the inexcusable and unaccountable j assassination of the family of Logan by Greathouse and his party. This act of cruelty and murder was the cause of Dumnore's sanguinary war.

Sometime between the years 1755 and 1761 a small village of Mingoes was located on the east bank of the jeromc fork, nearly north of where Mohican John afterwards placed his village and council house on the west side of said stream.

From the few scraps of history that relate to the Mohegans, Delawares and Mivgoes, we are inclined to think they intermarried and were on the most intimate terms. They hunted together, went to war together, raised cattle, and hogs, and corn, and adopted many of the customs of the whites. From this circumstance we arc of opinion that the Mingoes of the Jerome fork, and of Grcentown, were really a branch, if not a part of the tribe formerly resident on the Susquehanna, at Presque Isle and Beaver, Pennsylvania, at Cuyahoga Falls and Indian Cross Creeks, Ohio, some of whom fled hither after the assassination of the wife and children of poor Logan and the dispersion of his village in 1774. Their inclination to raise cattle, hogs and corn, seems conclusive that they had previously learned their . value from the pioneers on the Ohio and in western Virginia and Pennsylvania.*

As the history ot the great Ahngo chief, John Logan, may be somewhat connected with this county, it will, doubtless, be interesting to the reader to peruse a concise sketch of his wonderful career, which, with that of Pontiac, Powhatan, Cornstalk, King Philip, and Shikillimus, has attracted the admiration of statesmen and scholars in Europe and America.

Prom Heckewelder the Indian historian and Moravian missionary who spent the major part of his life among the Delwares and Mingoes, and who was well acquainted with the father of Logan, we learn that the ancestors of the great Mingo chief resided nearly a century before on the banks of the Susquehanna, and had suffered many wrongs through the treachery and duplicity of the whites; so much so, that his tribe was broken of its strength, and a portion only remained by sufferance.

1 heir chief, when the Moravian missionaries visited them in 1742 at Shomokin, a populous Indian town on the Susquehanna, was Shikillimus, a Cayuga or Mingo, who afterwards became a convert to the Moravian faith, and was attended in his Inst moments by David Zeisberger in '749. Logan is declared to have been the second son llu; ilft'hegtttts nml De/amircs tliul; tojjolhiT in wli.it is now Car l-on county, Pennsylvania, in 174O, from whence they may have accompanied the Dc/, notires to the branches of the Miiskinginn. - I'.gle's History of Pennsylvania, page 4yr.

of this chief, and was called after John Logan, secretary of the province, for whom Shikillimus entertained a veryhigh regard. Logan left Shomokin, with others of his tribe, when a young man, and spent a number of years within the present limits of Mifflin, Pennsylvania. It is probable that Logan married while he resided in Mifflin, near what is known as the "Logan Spring." Many anecdotes are related by the pioneers of that section concerning the great Mingo chief prior to his departure to the territories west of the Ohio. Judge Brown, long a resident of Mifflin and well acquainted with Logan, declared he was "the best specimen oi humanity he ever met with, white or red." - Heckewelder describes him as tali and imposing in appearance, and as possessing "superior talents and correct sentiments" Ke was first met, after leaving Mifflin, by Heckewelder in 1772, encamped with a number of Mingoes at the mouth of Beaver. Heckewelder again visited him the next spring, and was treated "with every civility from such of the family as were at home."

A short time prior to the opening of Dnnmore's war Logan seems to have joined his Mingo friends at Cross Creeks. About this time, one Dr. John Connelly asserted the claims of Virginia to Fort Pitt and its vicinity. He was arrested by Arthur St. Clair, who represented the proprietors of Pittsburgh, but was afterwards discharged and again re-asserted the claims of Virginia, and took possession of the fort, which he repaired and called Fort Dunmore. He immediately commenced a scries of annoyances and aggressions upon the Ohio Indians, which were resented. Under his influence, May 4, 1 77 1, Greathouse and Michael C resap, officers in command, assembled at the house of one Baker (who had settled on the Virginia side), with thirty-two persons who had gathered from the neighborhood, just opposite the Indian encampment on the Ohio side. By invitation, five Indian men, one woman and a little child, crossed over in a canoe to Baker's. Greathouse gave them whiskey, and three of the men became drunk. The woman and the other two Indians refused to drink. These the inhuman followers of Greathouse instantly shot and killed, and afterwards tomahawked those they had caused to become I intoxicated - saving none but the infant. It is due to the volunteers to state that this barbarous act was perpetrated bv but five or six of the. party of Greathouse, while the others protested against it ns an atrocious murder.

The Indians at Yellow creek hearing the firing, sent two Indians in a canoe to see what had happened. These were shot down as soon as they landed. Others | attempted to pass over and were likewise shot and | wounded. Among the first party were probably the wife 1 and other relatives of Logan. They were cruelly assas- | sinated by the Baker party. Up to that time Logan had ! been the friend of the whites, and but a few days before j had advised the Indians to be on terms of peace with the "Long Knives" and the Pennsylvanians. This act ot* wanton cruelty changed his whole nature ; and from a ; warm friend lie' became the deadly enemy of the white settlers. His relations were now all dead! No one 1 cared for poor Logan! He resolved to avenge the death of his relation:; by killing an equal- number of the settlers. He selected eight warriors, and penetrated to the settlements on the waters of the Monongahela, where he j took many scalps and. several prisoners, and eluded pursuit. These he carried to an Indian town near Dresden, on the Muskingum, where William Robinson, one of the prisoners, was condemned to be tortured to death, Logan made an eloquent speech in his behalf, but in vain, for the Indians were determined to burn him. While . tied to the stake Logan rushed forward, cut his thongs, and threw a belt of wampum around him, and then led him in safety to his own wigwam, where he was adopted in place of a brother whom the Baker party had killed at Yellow creek.

- Logan then visited nearly all the Indian tribes in Ohio, and endeavored to induce them to join a great defensive league to prevent the encroachments and settlements of the whites. In making this effort it is not unlikely that he visited the Delawares, Mingoes and Mohegans of this county; and in his final retreat to Detroit may have resided some time at Mohican Johnstown. He succeded in inducing some of the Wyandots , Delawares , Mohegans , Mi?igoes , and a large number of the Shawnees to join his league.

In August of the same year, Lord Dunmore, then governor of Virginia, resolved on punishing the Indian tribes west of the Ohio, and compelling a peace with the leagued tribes. On the seventeenth of October, 1774, the memorable battle of Point Pleasant, at the junction of the Kanawha with the Ohio, was fought. The Indians occupied a strong position in the midst of dense underbrush, behind fallen trees and logs, where they fought with desperate courage from early in the morning until nearly night, when they withdrew across the Ohio. The numbers on each side were nearly equal, being about twelve hundred. The Virginians lost half their officers, while the killed and wounded were fully onefourth the army engaged. The Indian loss is reported at two hundred and thirty-three. Indian authorities assert that Logan, Cornstalk, Ellenipsco, Red Hawk, and many other celebrated chiefs participated in that great battle.

A.fter crossing the river the allied Indians retreated in the direction of Pickaway plains. Dunmore with his army descended the Ohio to the mouth of Hockhocking, and having erected Fort Gower, and- leaving a garrison, ascended Hocking to Logan, the [resent county seat, and then marched westward to within seven miles of the present site of Circleville. Here he halted for a council, and built a fort called camp Charlotte. The Indians were encamped at a point called Old Chillicothe. Cornstalk, who had been at the battle of Point Pleasant, was now anxious for a permanent peace. He met Dunmore in council and, undaunted by past reverses, spoke with peculiar emphasis concerning a cessation of hostilities. While this was going on, I .ogati approached John < iibson, j an interpreter of Dunmore, .and asked him to walk out i with him. He did so, and while sitting down, l.ugan 1 talked over the murder of his relations at Yellow Creek, at the 'same time shedding many tears, declaring that up 1 to that time he had always been the friend of the white man, and opposed the war. It was at this interview that he delivered to Gibson the speech that has made his fame world-wide. It was as follows:

" I apnea! to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat ; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not? During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, " Logan is the friend of the white man." I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injustice of one man, Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing rnv women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. 1 have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, f rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a 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 I.ogan? Not one."

The treaty was concluded, but Logan did not attend ; and the Mingoes , though assenting to its terms, were not parties to it. After the peace, Logan, heart-broken, melancholy - at times laboring under a mania, wandered from tribe to tribe, mourning over his misfortune in the loss of his wife, children and relations, and finally, in an j Indian camp near Detroit, Michigan, while sitting with a blanket over his head, before a camp-fire, his elbows resting on his knees, and his head upon his hands, buried in profound reflection, an Indian who had taken some offence, stole behind him, and buried his tomahawk in his brains ! Thus fell Logan, greatest of Indian orators, and bravest of their heroic chiefs, the last of his race, with no one to shed a tear over his grave.

Note. - The reader will perceive by reference to histories of the war of iSi2, that there are two Logans of note. The first being John Logan, the Mingo or Cayuga, and Logan, the Shawttce. t'pon the services of th m Shawnee Logan, Mr. Flint observes :

"In i8i-2 the Indian tribes that remained faithful to the I'nited States, and whose wish to join our standard had been hitherto refused, by an arrangement with the executive, were permitted to takr a part in the war. Logan, a warrior of distinguished reputation, joined General Harrison, with seven hundred warriors. There was some severe skirmishing of the enemy with the advance of Genera! Winchester's force, in which Logan, the friendly chief, after conducting with great personal bravery, was mortally wounded."

In a letter addressed to the author of these notes, General Leslie Combs, of Kentucky, who was present when Logan No. 2 was brought into camp, wounded, says: A SAam/ee chief being at Wappatenetta, now a railroad station in Ohio, not far from Piqua, who joined i General Harrison, with a few followers, at St. Marys, early in Septcm- I ber, i8t2, where I first saw him. A very fine-looking man, at tout ! forty years of age, and full six feet high, weighing about one hundred and eighty pounds. I next saw him the night he was morta'iy wounded, on the twenty-second of November, tSia, when I was a cadet in the army of the Northwest, at camp No. 3, six miles below old Fort Defiance, on the Maumee. He died in a few day s at that place, and was sent home to his family, by a special delegation. General Combs yet survives (1879), and resides at Lexington, Kentucky. He is now eighty -five years old.