Columbiana County, Ohio - Chapter 3: Indian Occupancy, 1879

When white men first became acquainted with the region lying immediately south of Lake Erie, a tribe of Indians called Fries were in actual possession, and their claims doubtless extended over all of Northeastern Ohio and Western New York. They were brave, fearless, and disposed to boast of their strength and prowess, and were at the maximum in numbers and power at the period of the simultaneous advance of Champlain upon the St. Lawrence and of Hudson upon the "North River" in 1008.

Tradition asserts that, anticipating the union of the five tribes in the State of New York, whose power in that event they feared would be concentrated against them, under plea of a friendly contest they challenged these tribes to a trial of skill in wrestling, racing, and other Indian games. Equal numbers of their most athletic young men were chosen by each side, who met on favorable ground and struggled for tbe mastery in a manner worthy of the best days of Greece and Rome. In each particular the representatives of the five tribes were victorious, which only stimulated the Fries to prevent the combination, and to this end they planned the destruction of the tribes in detail by a sudden onslaught. The eastern Indians were warned of the design, quickly concentrated their warriors, and met the advancing Erics not far from wdiat is known as Honeoye Falls, in the county of Monroe. At this place the Fries are said to have fallen almost to a man; after one of the most sanguinary and hotly contested conflicts known to Indian history.

The destruction of the Fries is by some writers alleged to have taken place in the year 165(3.* The tradition above narrated relates to a period anterior to 1600, the probable date of tbe famous league of the Five Nations, " as it was a powerful organization at the date of Dutch occupancy in 1609."

The Iroquois , it is alleged, were at one time in subjection to the Adirondacks , against whom they arose unsuccessfully, and were obliged to retire from the north side of the St. Lawrence to the Seneca River. The league, from its formation until 1712, consisted of five nations, - Onondaffiis, Oneida s, Mohawks , Cayugas , and Senecas , - when the organization became known as the " Six Nations" by the admission in that year of the Tuscarorus , " shirt-wearing people," who had been driven Iron) the western part of North Carolina. Rising in their combined power and burning for revenge and conquest, they turned against and utterly annihilated the Adirondacks, and "conquered the Ilurons, the Fries , the Andastez, the Chauanons , the Illinois, the Miamies, the A/gonquins , the Delawares , the Sluiwanese , the Susqiiehannocks, the Nanfico/ces, the Unarms , the Minsi, and even the Carnisc Indians, in their sea-girt home upon Long Island, found no protection against their attacks. The name of the Iroquois had become a terror to all the Indian nations." often called the Hoio by tbe Indians, and it is not definitely known whether the conquering Iroquois , prior to that period, actually occupied that part of the country of the Fries which is now a part of Ohio, situated between this warlike confederacy on the east and the equally warlike Shawanese on the west, who occupied the valleys of the Scioto and Miami. The intervening country is said to have been uninhabited except by bands of Shawanees - Shawnees - or war-parties of tbe Iroquois and Miami's. The Wyandotsf are said to have made a treaty with the Five Nations about the year 1694, and to have "gradually extended and moved into what is now Ohio, the Delawares afterwards coming in from the east, the Mi.amis from the west, and the Shawnees from the south."

In tbe early part of the eighteenth century a portion of the Five Nations, mostly Senecas , called Mingocs by tbe Pennsylvanians, from the Delaware term Mengwe, occupied the northern part of .Ohio. |

The century opened auspiciously for the French by the conclusion of a treaty at Montreal in the summer of the year 1700, between the Iroquois , on tbe one side, and the French and Western Indians, on the other. " A written treaty was made, to which each nation placed for itself a symbol, - the Senecas and Onondagas drew a spider ; the Cayugas , a calumet ; the Oneidas , a forked stick ; and the Mohawks , a bear." It was agreed " that war should cease between the French allies and the Sioux ; that peace should reach beyond the Mississippi." § This bond of fealty and good-will was strengthened by the admission to the confederacy of the Tuscarorus , who had suffered wrongs in North Carolina at the hands of the English.

During the period extending from 1754 to the final treaty of peace between France and England in 1763, most of the Indian tribes from Lake Champlain to the Mississippi "were engaged as allies and auxiliaries to the French arms." At the latter period "some bands of the Six Nations dwelt on the sources of the Ohio, south of Lake Erie, and others as far west as Cuyahoga River, on Lake Erie." ||

The Iroquois claimed by right of conquest " the whole of the country from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from the lakes to Carolina."^ Among the treaties made by tbe colonies with this powerful confederacy was one signed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in June, 1744, whose grants of territory were very indefinite. By its terms were conveyed all the lands within the bounds of Virginia; but f "Mr. Fermi, an old citizen of Fairfield township, tells me that in early times the Wyaudotn encamped near where Salem now stands, and being in a very destitute condition, the whites gathered up provisions and went to their relief, and in return for their kindness received as a present from the Indians a wampum or bead-belt (being the highest token of gratitude and friendship), which belt was afterwards kept and preserved in the family of old William Heald, who was one of the first government surveyors in our county, and towards the close of his life moved to Iowa, and died at over one hundred and two years of ago." - //. It. Qreyfs Addreee before the Columbiana Pioneer Society, September, 1873.

the Indians subsequently claimed that they had been deceived, and " did not intend to cede any lands west of the mountains."* However valid or weak the claim of England to lands on the Ohio, it is evident that between French discovery and British diplomacy the Indian claims were of small significance.

The French and Indians resisted the encroachments of the English upon the territory north and west of the Alleghany and Ohio Rivers, and until the extinguishment of French claims by the treaty of Paris, in 1 703, the din of arms continued, and that portion of the New World was a scene of war and massacre, the result of savage warfare instigated by rival Christian nations.

The uprising of Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, prolonged the strife until the adoption of the treaty of " German Flats," in November, 1704, by which the Six Nations ceded large tracts of land to New York and Pennsylvania. The tide of westward emigration received a new impetus; yet, notwithstanding the Indian title was not extinguished to much of the territory occupied by the settlers, the Indians maintained comparative quiet for ten years. The treaty of Lancaster, 1744, which the Indians had been induced to sign, after partaking freely of whisky- punch, " bumbo," and wine, duly administered by the honorable commissioners from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, was still vehemently repudiated by the savages, who were growing more and more restless, and ready to rise upon any fresh provocation. Sufficient incentive to armed hostility was furnished directly in the causes which led to

Near the end of April, 1774, a party of land-jobbers gathered at Wheeling, Va., pretending to apprehend an attack from the Iudians. Capt. Cresap, who was in command at Fort Fincastle, learning that two Indians, with their families, were coming down the Ohio, a few miles above Wheeling, proposed to slay them. Devoid of any spark of humanity, and regardless of the consequences to the settlements which the act would inevitably produce, of which he was duly warned by Col. Zane, the bloody design was fully carried out by Cresap, who shot the Indians in

*" The province of Virginia invariably took the lead in all movements for the occupancy of the Western lands. As early as 1774, two commissioners from Virginia, Col. Thomas Lee and Col. William Beverly, with others from Pennsylvania and Maryland, convened a portion of the Six Nations at Lancaster, Pa., for the purpose of treating with them for the sale and relinquishment of large bodies of land extending west of the settlements in the three provinces, from the Susquehanna to the Potomac. After a liberal use of whisky-punch, 'bumbo,' and wine, of which the Indians partook freely, the treaty was duly read and signed by the parties respectively. The amount paid the Indians for signing this treaty was two hundred and twenty pounds on the part of Maryland, and two hundred pounds on the part of Virginia, both in Pennsylvania currency, besides sundry presents, and abundance of whisky-punch and 'bumbo.'"

At subsequent treaties, held at Logstown, Winchester, and other places for the purpose, the Indians " indignantly refused to ratify the treaty of Lancaster." . . . " In all these treaties, whether ratified or rejected, the Virginians appear to have been determined to coerce a relinquishment of the Indian lands, either by fair means or foul, and no eti'oit of negotiation or intrigue was omitted to accomplish this purpose." - See Munette's Hint, of the Missiesijijn Valley, pp. 348, 349.

their canoes, a few miles above Wheeling. This unprovoked and cowardly crime was followed by another tit the mouth of Captina Creek, below Wheeling, where Cresap and his followers shot a number of Indians in cold blood, one man receiving in turn a severe wound.

A few days afterwards, Daniel Greathouse, claiming to fear mischief from a number of Indians who were encamped near the mouth of Yellow Creek, collected a party of thirtytwo men, and proceeded to " Baker's Bottom," on the east side of the Ohio, and opposite the Indian encampment. Greathouse crossed the river alone, - a spy in friendly guise, - but was warned by an Indian woman to return, because the warriors were drinking, were exasperated at the recent murders, and might do him some injury. The force of savages being too great, a plot was laid by which many of them were decoyed across the river and made helplessly drunk on whisky supplied by one Baker. While in this condition they were wantonly murdered by Greathouse, aided by a few others of his bloody gang. The friendly squaw, who had warned Greathouse of his danger, was not spared. Those of the conspirators who calmly viewed the horrid work were equally guilty with the principals for permitting its consummation.

Among the victims in the murders at Captina and Yellow Creeks were the kin of the noble native chieftain Logan, of the Cayuga tribe of the Iroquois. From an influential advocate for peace, the slaughter of his entire family converted Logan into a determined enemy of the whites in Virginia. A timely message from the authorities of Pennsylvania, condemning the outrages and reminding the Indians that the wrongs had not been committed by the dwellers in that province, turned the fury of the onset chiefly against the Virginia settlements. f

The civil authorities rendered no redress for Indian grievances, but rather encouraged the lawlessness of the whites by their indifference. Numerous other acts of fiendishness than those related mark the sad history of that period, including the killing of " Bald Eagle," who had long been a friend to the pale-face. While alone in the woods, near the Monongahela, he was murdered by three white men, who afterwards " placed the lifeless body of their vietjm in a sitting posture in his canoe, and sent it adrift down the stream.

The Shaioanese on the Scioto, as principals in the war, aroused other tribes on the north and west, and began the conflict by murdering all whites found within their territory.

Lord Dunmore, Governor of the Province of Virginia, took steps to protect the frontier settlements and chastise the hostile Indians. The ensuing war, called " Dunmore's War," lasted until Jan. 7, 1775.

" The Indian ' declaration of war' was made by Logan on the 21st of July, 1774, in company with a party of eight warriors. Having advanced into the settlements on the upper Monongahela, and having killed one man and taken two prisoners on the 12th of July, he returned on the 21st and left at the house of William Robinson, whose family he had murdered, 'the war-club,' to which was attached a note, written by a white prisoner who had been

'"Captain Cresap, - Why did you kill my people on Yellow Creek? The white people killed my kin at C'onestago a great while ago, and I -thought nothing of that. But you have killed my kin again on Yellow Creek, and took my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill too, and I have been three times to war since; but the Indians are not angry, it is only myself. July 21, 1774.

The first expedition, under Gen. McDonald, was directed against the Wappatomica towns on the Muskingum, sixteen miles below the junction of the Tuscarawas and Walhonding branches, but was attended with small success. The route pursued to reach the towns was by the Ohio to Captina Creek, and thence westward. The most sanguinary battle of the war took place at the mouth of the Kanawha, Oct. 10, 1774. The Virginians engaged were twelve hundred in number, commanded by Gen. Andrew Lewis, and had recently made a difficult march through the wilderness down the valley of the Kanawha. The flower of the Indian tribes were engaged under Cornstalk, the great Shanxinese chief, aided by his son Ellinipsico; Red Hawk, a Delaware; Chiyawee, a Wyandot; and Logan, a Cayuga chief. f The slaughter was terrible, but resulted in a victory for the Virginians.

A second division, under Lord Dunmore, which was not engaged in this battle, proceeded down the Ohio to the mouth of the Hocking, up that river to the falls, near the present town of Athens, and thence westward to the Scioto, and established its camp " in the margin of the Piqua plains, near Sippoo Creek." At this place was perfected a treaty of peace by which the Indians acknowledged the Ohio River as the boundary between the white man's territory and the Indian hunting-grounds. £

The great chief Logan was unappeased and did not attend the council ; but subsequently uttered, in the presence of Gen. Gibson, the words which have given him an undying name in history, and which, it is claimed, have received a more polished dress since they escaped the lips of the swarthy orator.