Columbiana County, Ohio - Chapter 6: Indian Trail and Modern Roadway, 1905

Chapter 6: Indian Trail and Modern Roadway

Colonel Bouquet s Expedition - He Tracks the Indians Through Columbiana County - Old Camp Bouquet - Old National and State Higlnvays - Passing of tlte Stage Coach - Road Improvement in the County - Much .Weeded Work W hich the State H 'ill Help Along.

The pioneers and early settlers found ready for their use highways and byways of travel, made by the buffalo and the Indian. They were not planked, paved or macadamized, but they were as direct and available as the topography of the country would admit of. Such as they were, no modern engineer could improve upon them in these particulars.

Colonel Bouquets Expedition

At the opening of this chapter, which will treat 'somewhat of Indian trails as well as of more modem highways, a partial digression will be made to give an account of the expedition of Col. Henry Bouquet, with his force of about 1,500 men, in pursuit of the hostile Indians, in 1764, which led him through Columbiana County, from north to south. Besides giving a vivid account of one of the exciting pioneer incidents of the early history of > the county, it is r^ch in description of the primeval beauty of the country, and reads like a romance. The original source of information concerning this expedition is the work of Dr. William Smith, provost of the College of Philadelphia, entitled "An Historical Account of the Expedition against the Ohio Indians in 1764." The original edition was "printed in Philadelphia in 1765; reprinted at I^ondnn in 1760; at Dublin in 1769; at Amsterdam, in French,

Before entering upon the account proper of the expedition through Columbiana County, the following paragraphs will be found interesting, as giving the reasons for the expedition. It is extracted from a lecture delivered by Charles Whittlesey at Cleveland. December 17, 1846, and is specially valuable as a clear statement of the condition of affairs between the whites and the Indians at the period when the expedition was undertaken :

"The Indians were very much displeased, when they saw the English taking possession of their country, for they preferred the Frenchmen, who had been their friends ami traders more than 100 years, and had married Indian women. A noted chief of the Ottawa tribe, known by the name of Pontiac, formed the resolution to destroy all the English frontier / posts at one assault, in which he was encouraged by the French traders.

"He succeeded in forming an alliance with the Ottawas, having 900 warriors; the Pottawatomies, with 350; Miamis of the Lake, 350; Chippewas, 5.000; Wyandots. 300; Delawares, 600; Shawnees, 500: Kickapoos, 300; Outatanons of the Walwsh, 400, and the Piankeshaws, 250; in all. able to muster 8.950 warriors. This may l>e called the 'First Great Northwestern Confederacy' against the whites.

The second took place under Brant, or Thayendanegea, during the Revolution, and was continued by Little Turtle: the third under Tecumseh, in the hist war. 1'ontiac's projects were brought to a focus iu the tall of 1763, anil the result was nearly equal to the design. The Indians collected at all the northwestern forts, under the pretense of trade and friendly intercourse; and having killed all the English traders who were scattered through their villages, they made a simultaneous attack upon the forts, and were in a great measure successful.

"The inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Northern and Eastern Ohio were now subject to great alarm, and frequently robberies and murders were committed upon them by the Indians, and prisoners were captured. General Gage was at this time the commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, and his headquarters were at Boston. He ordered an expedition of 3.000 men for the relief of Detroit, to move early in the year 1764. It was directed to assemble at Fort Niagara, and proceeded up Lake Erie in boats, commanded by General Bradstreet. The other was the expedition I design principally to notice at this time. It was at first composed of the 42nd and 77th regiments.who had tieen at the siege of Havana, in Cuba, under the command of Col. Henry Bouquet. This force left Philadelphia, for the relief of Fort Pitt, in July, 1763. and after defeating the Indians at Bushy Run, in August, drove them across the Ohio. It wintered at Fort Pitt, where some of the houses Iniilt by Colonel Bouquet may still be seen, his name cut in stone upon the wall.

"General Gage directed Colonel Bouquet to organize a corps of 1,500 men, and to enter the country of the Delawares and the Shawnces, at the same time that General Bradstreet was engaged in chastising the Wyandots and Ottawas, of I«ake Erie, who were still investing Detroit. As a part of Colonel Bouquet's force was composed of militia from Pennsylvania and Virginia, it was slow to assemble. On the 5th of August, the Pennsylvania quota rendezvoused at Carlisle, where 300 of them deserted. The Virginia quota arrived at Fort Pitt on the 17th of Septeml>er, and uniting with the provincial nitbtia. a part of the 4*<1 and 60th regiments, the army moved from Fort Pitt on the 3rd of October. General Bradstreet, having dispersed the Indian forces besieging Detroit, passed into the Wyandot country, by way of Sandusky Bay. He asscended the bay and river, as far as it was navigable for boats, and there made a camp. A treaty of peace and friendship was signed by the chiefs and head men. who delivered but very few of their prisoners.

"When Colonel Bouquet was at Fort Loudon, in Pennsylvania, between Carlisle and Fort Pitt, urging forward the militia levies, he received a dispatch from General Bradstreet, notifying him of the peace effected at Sandusky. But the Ohio Indians, particularly the Shawnees of the Scioto River, and the Delawares of the Muskingum, still continued their robberies and murders along the frontier of Pennsylvania; and so Colonel Bouquet determined to proceed with his division, notwithstanding the peace of General Bradstreet. which did not include the Shawnees and Delawares. In the march from Philadelphia to Fort Pitt, Colonel Bouquet had shown himself to be a man of decision, courage and military genius. In the engagement at Bushy Run, he displayed that caution in preparing for emergencies, that high personal influence over his troops, and a facility in changing his plans as circumstances changed during the battle, which marked the good commander and the cool-headed officer. He had been with Forties and Washington when Fort Pitt was taken from the French. The Indians who were assembled at Fort Pitt left the siege of that place and advanced to meet the force of Bouquet, intending to execute a surprise and destroy the whole command. These savages remembered how easily they entrai>cd General Braddock a few years before by the same movement, and had no doubt of success

1 against Bouquet. But he moved always in a hollow square, with his provision train and bis cattle in the center, impressing his men with the idea that a fire might open ujion them at ritic yells of so many savage warriors, arrayed in the livery of demons, the English and provincial troops behaved like veterans, whom nothing could shake. They achieved a complete victory, and drove the allied Indian force beyond the' Ohio."

The Indians, disheartened by their overwhelming defeat at Bushy Run, and despairing of success against Fort Pitt, now it was so heavily reinforced, retired sullenly to their homes beyond the Ohio, leaving the country between it and their settlements free from their ravages. Communication now being rendered safe, the fugutive settlers were enabled to return to their friends or take possession again of their abandoned cabins. By comparing notes they were soon able to make out an accurate list of those who were missing - cither killed, or prisoners among the various trills - when it was found to contain the names of more than 200 men, women and children. Fathers mourned their daughters slain, or subject to a captivity worse than death ; husbands, their wives left mangled in the forest, or forced into the embraces of their savage captors - some with babes at their breasts, and some whose offspring would first see the light in the red man's wigwam - and loud were the cries that went up on every side for vengeance.

Boquct wished to follow up his success, and march at once into the heart of the enemy's country, and wring from the hostile tribes by force of amis, a treaty of peace which should forever put an end to these scenes of rapine and murder. But his force was too small to attempt this, while the season was too far advanced to leave time to organize another expedition l)cfore winter. He therefore determined to remain at the fort until spring, and then assemble an army sufficiently large to crush all opposition, and finish what he had so successfully ljegun.

Acting under instructions, he matured during the winter all his plans and as soon as spring opened set on foot measures by which an army strong enough to render resistance hopeless should be placed under bis command. In the meantime, the Indians had obtained powder from the French, and as soon as the

Bouquet could muster scarcely 500 men of the regular army, most of them Highlanders of the 42nd and 60th regiments, but Pennsylvania, at her own expense, furnished 1,000 militia, and Virginia, a corps of volunteers. With this imposing force he was directed to march against the Delawares, Mohicans and Mingoes; while General Bradstreet, from Detroit, should advance into the territory of the Wyandots, Ottawas, and Chippewas ; and thus, by one great simultaneous movement, crush those warlike tribes. Bouquet's route, however, was without any water communication whatever, and lay directly through the heart ! of an unbroken wilderness. The expedition, 1 from beginning to end, was to be carried on ! without boats, wagons or artillery, and without a post to fall back upon in case of disaster, The army was to be an isolated thing, a selfsupporting machine.

Although the preparations commenced early in the spring, difficulties and delays occurred in carrying them forward, so that the troops that were ordered to assemble at Carisle did not get ready to march until the 5th of August. Four days after, they were drawn up on parade, and addressed in a patriotic speech by the Governor of the Colony. This ceremony being finished, they turned their steps toward the wilderness, followed by the cheers of the people. Passing over the bloody field of Bushy Run, which still bore the marks of the sharp conflict that had taken place there the year before, they pushed on, unmolested by the Indians, and entered Fort Pitt on the 13th of Sqjteml>er.

In the meantime a company of Delawares visited the fort, and informed Bouquet that General Bradstreet had formed a treaty of peace with them and the Shawnees. Bouquet gave no credit to the story, and went on with his preparations. To set the matter at rest, however, he offered to send an express to Detroit if they would furnish guides and a safe conduct, saying he would give it 10 days to go and 10 days to return. This they agreed to; but, unwilling to trust their word alone, he retained 10 of their number as hostages, whom he declared he would shoot if the express came to any harm. Soon after other Indians arrived and endeavored to persuade him not to advance until the express should return.

Susj)ecting- that their motive was to delay him until the season was too far advanced to move at all, he turned a deaf ear to their solicitations, saying that the express could reach him on his march; and, if it was true, as they said, that peace was concluded, they would receive no harm from him. So, on the 3rd of October, under a bright autumnal sky, the imposing little army of 1,500 men filed out of the fort, and taking the great Indian trail westward l«oldly -entered the wilderness. The long train of packhorses and immense droves of sheep and cattle that accompanied it gave to it the apj>earancc of a huge caravan, slowly threading its way amidst the endless colonnades of the forest. Only one woman was allowed to each corps, and two for the general hospital.

This expedition, even in early history, was a novel one: for. following no water-course, it struck directly into the trackless forest, with no definite point in view, and no fixed limit to its advance. It was intended to overawe bv its magnitude; to move as an exhibition of awful power into the very heart of the red man's dominions. Expecting to lie shut up in the forest at least a month, and receive in that time no supplies from without, it had to carry along an immense quantity of provisions. Meat, of course, could not t>e preserved, and so the frontier settlements were exhausted of sheep and oxen to move on with it for its supjMin. These necessarily caused its march to be slow and methodical. A corps of Virginian volunteers went in advance, preceded by the three scouting parties, one of which kept the path, while the other two moved in a line abreast ' on either side to explore the woods. Under cover of these the axe companies, guarded by j two companies of light infantry, cut two j parallel paths, one on each side of the main I path, for the troops, pack-horses, and cattle j that were to follow. First marched the Highlanders in column two deep in the center path. , and in the side paths in single file abreast, the men six feet apart; and behind them the corps of reserve and the second tuattalion of Pennsylvania militia. Then came the officers and packhorses, followed by the vast droves of cattle, filling the forest with their loud complainings. A company of light horse walked slowly after these, and the rear guards closed the long array. No talking was allowed, and no music cheered the way. When the order to halt passed along the line, the whole were to face outward, and the moment the signal of attack sounded, to form a hollow square, into the center of which pack-horses, ammunition and cattle were to be hurried, followed by the light horse. In this order the unwieldly caravan struggled on through the forest, neither extremity of which could l>e seen from the center, it l>eing lost amidst the thickly clustering trunks and foliage in the distance.

The first day the expedition made only three miles. The next, after marching two miles, it came to the Ohio, and moved down its gravelly beach six miles and a half, when it again struck into the forest, and making seven miles encani|>ed. The sheep and cattle, which kept up an incessant bleating and lowing that could be heard more than a mile, were placed far in the rear at night and strongly guarded.

Friday, Octolier 5th. the march led across a level country, covered with stately timber and with but little underbrush, so that paths were easily cut. and the army made 10 miles before camping. The next day it again struck the Ohio but followed it only half a mile when it turned abruptly off, and crossing a high ridge, over which the cattle were urged with great difficulty, found itself on the luanks of tin- Hig Beaver Creek. The stream was deep for fording, with a rough, rocky bottom, and high steep banks. The current was. moreover, strong and rapid; so that, although the soldiers waded across without great difficulty, they had trouble in getting the cattle safety over. The sheep were compelled to swim and, I ting Ixtrne dow n by the rapid current, landed, bleating, in scattered squads, along the steep hanks, and were collected together again only after a long effort. Keeping flown the stream, they at length reached its mouth, where they found some deserted Indian huts, which the Indians with tlicm said had been abandoned the year before, after the battle of Bushy Run. Two miles further on they came upon the skull of a child stuck upon a pole. There were a large number of men in the army who had wives, children, and friends held as prisoners among the Indians, and who had accompanied the expedition for the purpose of recovering them. To these the skull of the little child brought sad reflections. Some one -among them was perhaps its father, while the thought that it might stand as an index to tell the fate of all that had been captured made each one shudder. As they looked on it, bleached by the winds and rain, the anxious heart asked questions it dared not answer.

The next day was Sunday, but the camp broke up at the usual hour, and the army resumed its slow march. During the day it crossed a high ridge, from the top of which one of those wondrous scenes found nowhere but in the American wilderness burst on their view. A limitless expanse of forest stretched away until it met the western heavens, broken only here or there by a dark gash or seam, showing where, deep down amidst the trees, a river was pursuing its solitary way to the Ohio, or an occasional glimpse of the Ohio itself, as in its winding course it came in line of vision. In one direction the tree-tops would extend miles upon miles, a vast flooring of foliage, level as the bosom of a lake, and then break into green billows, that went rolling gently against the cloudless horizon. In another, lofty ridges rose, crowned with majestic trees, at the base of which swamps of dark fir trees, refusing the bright beams of the October sun, that flooded the rest of the wilderness, made a pleasing contrast of light and shade. The magnificent scene was new to officers and men. and they gazed on it in rapture and wonder.

Old Camp Boiquet

i 8th, that Colonel Bouquet and his army en- I camped at what in one record is given as camp [ No. 7, in Columbiana County, at the beautiful i spot, near Negley, which has since been and is now known as Camp Bouquet. One authority says : "Camp No. 7 lies on and at the foot of a lieautiful knoll, commanding the ground around it, and is distant eleven miles, one quarter and forty-nine perches from the last encampment."

Keeping on their course, they came, two days after, to a point where the Indian path they had been following so long divided - the two branches leading off at a wide angle. The trees at the forks were covered with hieroglyphics, describing the various battles the Indians had fought, and telling the number of scalps they had taken, etc. This point was in the southern part of the present county of Columbiana. The trails were both plainly marked and much traveled.

The right-hand trail took a general course northwest toward Sandusky, and led to that place and on to Detroit ; the course of the lefthand trail was generally south-west, and passed j through the counties of Carroll and Tuscar- 1 awas, striking the Tuscarawas River, down * which it followed, on the south side, to Coshocton, and crossing the Muskingum a few miles below the site of Coshocton continued down the west side of the Muskingum to Dresden, where it crossed the Wakatomika and entered Licking County ; passing across that county to the present reservoir, it continued on southwest to the Indian towns on the Scioto.

Colonel Bouquet took the right-hand trail, which he followed until he reached the Tuscarawas River, when he left it and turned southward along that stream. The path selected by the army was so overgrown by bushes that every foot of the way had to lie cleared with the axe. It led through low, soft ground, and was frequented by narrow, sluggish rivulets, so deep and miry that the pack-horses could not be forced across them. After several attempts to do so, in which the animals became so thoroughly imbedded in the mud that they had to be lifted out with main force, they halted, while the artificers cut down trees and poles and made bridges. This was the hardest day's trial to which they had lieen subjected, and with their utmost efforts they were able to accomplish but five miles.

On Thursday, the 1 1 th, the forest was open and so clear of undergrowth that they made 17 miles. Friday, the 12th the paths led along the banks of Yellow Creek, through a beautiful country of rich bottom land on which the Pennslyvanians and Virginians looked with covetous eyes, and made notes for future reference. The next day they crossed it, and ascending a swell of land marched two miles in view of one of the loveliest prospects that the sun ever shone ujxm. There had been two or three frosty nights, which had changed the whole aspect of the forest. Where, a few days before, an ocean of green had rolled away, there now was spread a Ixnmdlcss carj>ct decorated with an endless variety of the gayest colors, and lighted up by the mellow rays of an October sun. Ix>ng strips of yellow, vast masses of green, waving lines of red, wandering away and losing themselves in the blue of the distant sky - immense spaces sprinkled with every imaginable hue, now separated clear and distinct as if by a painter's brush, and now shading gradually into each other or mingling in inextricable, beautiful confusion, comlrined to form a scene that appeared more like a wondrous vision suddenly unrolled before them than this dull earth. A cloudless sky and the dreamy haze of Indian summer, overarching and enrobing all this beauty and splendor, completed the picture and left nothing for the imagination to suggest.

At length they descended to a small river, which they followed till it joined the main branch of the Muskingum (Tuscarawas), where a scene of a very different character greeted them. A little below and above the forks, the shores had been cultivated and lined with Indian houses. The place was called "Tuscamras," and for beauty of situation could not well lie surpassed. The high, luxuriant kinks, the placid rivers meeting and flowing on together, the green fields sprinkled with huts and bordered with the rich autumnal foliage, all basking in the mellow October light, and so out of the way there in the wilderness, coml bined to form a sweet picture, and was doubly lovely to them after having been so long shut up in the forest. They reached this beautiful spot Saturday afternoon, Oetol>er 13th. and the next day being Sunday they remained in camp, and men and cattle were allowed a day of rest. The latter revived under the smell of green : grass once more, and roaming over the fields i gave a still more civilized aspect to the quiet ! scene.

During the day the two messengers that had ! been sent to Detroit came into camp, accom- ' panicd by their Indian guides. The report they brought showed the wisdom of Bouquet in refusing to delay his march until their return. They had not been allowed to pursue their i journey, but were held close prisoners by the Delawares until the arrival of the army, when, . alarmed for their own safety, the Indians released them and made them bearers of a petition for peace.

Conference With The Indians

' them the next day. In the meantime lie ordered I a large liower to l>c built a short distance from camp, while sentinels were posted in every direction to prevent surprise, in case treachery was meditated.

The next day, the 17th, he paraded the I Highlanders and the Virginian volunteers, and, : escorted by the light horse, led them to the . bower, where he disposed them in the most imposing manner, so as to impress the chief? in the approaching interview. The latter, as they emerged from the forest, were conducted , with great ceremony to the bower, which they entered with their accustomed gravity ; and j without saying a word quietly seated them- selves ami commenced smoking. When they had finished, they laid aside their pipes, and drew tmm their jnuiches strings of wampum. The council being thus opened, they made a long address, laying the whole blame of the war on the young men, whom they said they could not control. Bouquet, not wishing to appear eager to come to a settlement, replied that he would give his answer the next day; and the council broke up. The next day, however, a pouring storm prevented the meeting of the council which did not convene until the day following. Bouquet's answer was long and conciliatory, but the gist of it was he would make peace on one condition and no other - that the Indians should give up all the prisoners in their possession within 10 days. The Indians present at this council were Ki-yas-uta, chief of the Senecas, with 15 warriors; Custaloga, chief of the Wolf tribe of the Delawares, and Beaver, chief of the Turkey tribe of the Delawares, with 20 warriors; and Kissinautchtha, as chief of the Shawnees, with six warriors.

On Monday, October 22nd, the army, accompanied by the Indian deputies, resumed their march, as Bouquet wished to show that he was determined to enforce his demands. They marched nine miles down the Tuscarawas and went into camp. This was their 14th camp since leaving Fort Pitt, and was within a few miles of the east line of Coshocton County. The next day. October 23rd, the army crossed the present boundaries of Coshocton County, marching 16 miles and camping seven miles east of the present site of the town. Here Bouquet remained until the 25th, when he continued his march a little more than six miles, camping within a mile of the forks of the Muskingum.

Judging this to lie as central a position as he could find, he resolved to fix himself here until the object of his mission could be accomplished. He ordered four redoubts to be built, erected several storehouses, a mess house, a large number of ovens and various other buildings for the reception of the captives, which, with the white tents, scattered up and down the lianks of the river, made a large settlement in the wilderness and filled the Indians with alarm. A town with nearly 2,000 inhabitants, well supplied with horses, cattle and sheep, and ample means of defence, was well calculated to awaken the gloomiest anticipations.

The steady sound of the ax day after day the lowing of the cattle, and all the sounds of civilization within the very heart of their territory, were more alarming than the resistless march of a victorious army, and anxious to get rid of such unwelcome companions they made every effort to collect the prisoners scattered among the various tribes.

The American wilderness never presented such a spectacle as was here exhibited on the banks of the Muskingum. It was no longer a hostile camp, but a stage on which human nature was displaying its most attractive ami noble traits; or rather a sublime poem, enacled here in the bosom of the wilderness, whose burden was human affection and whose great argument, the common brotherhood of mankind. Bouquet and his officers were deeply impressed and could hardly believe their senses when they saw young warriors, whose deeds of daring and savage ferocity had made their names a terror on the frontier, weeping like children over their bereavement.

A treaty of peace having been concluded with the various tril>es, Bouquet, taking hostages to secure their good behavior and the return of the remaining prisoners, broke up his camp on the 18th of November and liegan to retrace his steps toward Fort Pitt. The leafless forest rocked and roared aliove the little army as it once more entered its gloomy recesses, and that lovely spot on the Tuscarawas, on which such strange scenes had been witnessed, lapsed j again into solitude and silence. The Indians I gazed with various and conflicting emotions on the lessening files - some with grief and desolat tion of heart because they bore away the obj jects of their deep affections; others with savage hate, for they went as conquerors.

In 10 days the army again drew up in a little clearing in front of Fort Pitt and were welcomed with loud shouts. The war was over, and the troubled frontier rested once more in peace.

the conference between Colonel Bouquet ami the chiefs of the different tribes. The quaint simplicity of his narrative is charming. A quotation from him, with some of the incidents of the conference between Bouquet and the Shawnees, follows:

"The Shawnees still remained to be treated with, and though this nation saw themselves under the necessity of yielding to the same conditions with the other trilxrs, yet there had appeared a dilatoriness and sullen haughtiness in all their conduct which rendered it very suspicious.

"The 1 2th of Novemljer was appointed for the conference with them, which was arranged on their part by Kissinautchtha and Nimwha, their chiefs, with the Red Hawk, Lavissimo, Bensivasica, Eweecuntwe, Keigleighque and 40 warriors. The Caughnawaga, Seneca and Delaware chiefs, with about 60 warriors, lieing all present.

"The Red Hawk was their speaker, and as he delivered himself with a strange mixture of fierce pride and humble submission, a passage or two from his speech is added :

"'Brother: You will listen to us your younger brothers, and as we discover something in your eyes that looks like dissatisfaction with us, we now wipe away everything bad between us that you may clearly see. You have heard many bad stories of us. We clean your ears that you may hear. We remove everything bad from your hearts that it may be like the heart of your ancestors when they thought of nothing but good. (Here he gen e a string.)

" 'Brother : When we saw you coming this road you advanced toward us with a tomahawk in your hands ; but we, your younger brothers, > take it out of your hands and throw it up to God to dispose of as he pleases, by which means we hope never to sec it more.' Their usual figure of speech is 'lutrying the hatchet,' hut as such hatchets may 1* dug up again, perhaps he thought this new expression of 'sending it up to God,' or the 'Great Spirit,' a much stronger emblem of the permanency and steadfastness of the peace now to be made. 'And now. Brother, we lx?g leave that you who are a warrior will take hold of this chain (giving a string) of friendship and receive it from us, who are also warriors, and let us think no more of war, in pity to our old men, women and children.' Intimating by this last expression that it was mere compassion to them and not inability to fight that made their nation desire peace.

"He then produced a treaty held with the government of Pennsylvania, 1701, and three messages or letters from that government of different dates, and concluded thus:

" 'Now, Brother, I beg we who are warriors may forget our disputes and renew the friendship which api>ears by these papers to have subsisted l>etween our fathers.' He promised, in Ixdialf of the rest of their nation who . had gone to a great distance to hunt and could not have notice to attend the treaty, that they should certainly come to Fort Pitt in the spring and bring the remainder of the prisoners with them."

As the season was far advanced, the Colonel could not stay long in these remote parts. He I was obliged to rest satisfied with the prisoners the Shawnees liad brought, taking hostages and laying them under the strongest obligations for the delivery of the rest, knowing that no other effectual method could lie pursued.

Prisoners Dei.Ivi-Rko Vp

"The Caughnawagas. the Delawarcs and Senecas severally addressed the Shawnees. ns grandchildren and nephews, 'to perform their promises and to be strong in doing good, that this peace might be everlasting.'

"And I am here to enter on a scene reserved on purpose for this place that the thread of the foregoing narrative might not lx? interrupted - a scene which language can but weakly describe: and to which the poet or painter might have repaired to enrich their highest colorings of the variety of human passions; the philosopher to find ample subject for his most serious reflections: and the man to exercise all the tender and sympathetic feelings of the soul.

"The scene 1 me;ui was the arrival of the prisoners in camp; where were to be seen fathers and mothers recognizing and clasping their once lost babes; huskmds hanging around the necks of the newly recovered wives; sisters and brothers unexpectedly meeting together after long separation, scarce able to speak the same language, or, for some time, to lie sure that they were children of the same parents. In all these interviews joy and rapture inexpressible were seen, while feelings of a very different nature were painted in the looks of others - dying from place to place in eager inquiries after relatives not found, trembling to receive an answer to their questions, distracted with doubts, hopes and fears, on obtaining no account of those they fought for - or stiffened into living monuments of horror and woe on learning their unhappy fate.

"They delivered up their Moved captives with the utmost reluctance, shed torrents of tears over them, recommending them to the care and protection of the commanding officer. Their regard for them continued all the time they remained in the camp. They visited them from day to day, and brought them what corn, skins, horses and other property they had stowed upon them while in their families, accompanied with other presents, and all the marks of the most sincere and tender affections. Nay, they did not stop here ; but when the army marched, some of the Indians solicited and obtained leave to accompany their former captives all the way to Fort Pitt, and employed themselves in hunting and bringing provisions for them on the road. A young Mingo carried this still further, and gave an instance of love which would make a figure even in romance. A young woman of Virginia w as among the captives, for whom he had formed so strong an attachment as to call her his wife. Against all the remonstrances of the imminent danger to which he exposed himself by approaching the frontiers, he |>ersistcd in following her at the risk of l>eing killed by the surviving relatives of many unfortunate persons, who had been

"Among the captives a woman was brought into camp at Muskingum with a babe about three months old at her breast. One of the Virginia volunteers soon knew her to be his wife, who had been taken by the Indians about six months before. She was immediately delivered to her overjoyed husband. He flew w ith her to his tent, and clothed her and his child in proper apparel. But their joy after the first transports was soon dampened by the reflection that another dear child of about two years old captivated with the mother, and separated from her, was still missing, although many children had been brought in.

"A few days afterward a number of other prisoners were brought to the camp, among whom were several more children. The woman was sent for, and one supposed to be hers was .produced. At first she was uncertain ; but viewing the child with great earnestness, she soon recollected its features, and was so overcome with joy, that literally forgetting her other bal>e she dropped it from her arms, and catching up the new-found child in an ecstasy, pressed it to her breast, and bursting into tears carried it off, unable to speak for joy. The father, seizing up the babe she had let fall, followed her in no less transport and affection.

"Among the children who had teen carried off young, and had long lived with the Indians, it is not to be expected that any marks of joy w ould appear on being restored to their parents or relatives. Having been accustomed to look upon the Indians as the only connections they had, having been tenderly treated by them, and speaking their language, it is no wonder they considered their new state in the light of a captivity, and parted from the savages with tears.

"But it must not lie denied that there were even some grown persons who showed an unwillingness to return. The Shawnees were obliged to bind several of their prisoners and force them along to the camp ; and some women who had been delivered up. afterwards finding means to escape, ran back to the Indian town. Some who could not make their escape, clung to their savage acquaintances at parting and"

Tor the honor of humanity we would suppose those persons to have l>ecn of the lowest rank, either bred in ignorance and distressing penury, or who had lived so long with the Indians as to forget all their former connections. For, easy and unconstrained as the savage life is, certainly it could never lie put in competition with the blessings of civilized life and the light of religion by any persons who have had the happiness of enjoying, and the rapacity of discerning them.

'"By the 9th of Xovemlier, 206 prisoners had Ixien delivered, including women and children ; of whom 32 men ami 58 women and children were from Virginia, and 49 males and <>- females from Pennsylvania."

Old National And State Highways

In the first half of the last century the State and county road, - the '-turnpike" and the ordinary wagon road - and the well nigh obsolete canal were to the people of that time what the railroad and the trolley line are to us to-day. Horace Buslmell has well said : "If you wish to know whether society is stagnant, learning scholastic, religion a dead formality, you may learn something by going into universities and libraries; something also by the work that is doing 011 cathedrals and churches, or in them: but quite as much by looking at the roads. For if there is any motion in society, the Road, which is a symbol of motion, will indicate the fact. W hen there is activity, or enlargement, or a liberalizing spirit of any kind, then there is intercourse and travel, and these require roads. So if there is any kind of advancement going on, if new ideas are abroad, and new hopes rising, then you will see it by the roads that are building. Nothing makes an inroad without making a road. All creative action, whether in government, industry, thought or religion, creates roads."

says: "It was for the great animals to mark out what became known as the first thorough- I tares of America. The plunging buffalo, keen I of instinct, and nothing if not utilitarian, broke j great roads across the continent on the summits of the watersheds, besides which the first Indian trails were but traces through the forests. Heavy, lleet of loot, capable of covering scores of miles in a day, the buffalo tore his roads from one feeding ground to another, and from north to south, on high ground. Here his roads were swept clear of the debris in summer, and of snow in winter. They mounted the heights and descended from them on the longest slopes, and crossed each stream on the bars at the mouth of its lesser tributaries. * * * "But the greatest marvel is that these early pathfinders chose routes, even in the roughest districts, which the tripod of the white man cannot improve upon. A rare instance of this is the course of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad ln'twecn Grafton and Parkcrsburg, West Virginia. That this is one of the roughest rides our palatial trains of to-day make is well known ' to all who have passed that way, and that so tine a road could be put through such a rough 1 country is one of the marvels of engineering ! science. But leave the train, say at the little ! hamlet of Petroleum, West Virginia, and find on the hill the famous old thoroughfare of the buffalo. Indian and pioneer, and follow that narrow thread of soil westward to the Ohio River. You will find that the railroad has followed it steadily throughout its course, and when it came to a more difficult point than usual, where the railroad is compelled to tunnel at the strategic point of least elevation, in two instances the trail runs exactly over the tunnel. This occurs at both 'Faton's tunnel' and "Gorham's tunnel.' "

The Day Ok The Stage Coach

The old National Road, which runs i through Ohio from east to west, is said to have been first conceived by Albert Gallatin. In 1806 commissioners were appointed by President Jefferson to take the matter of building such a highway into consideration, and report upon it. As a result ihe contract for the first 10 miles west of Cumberland, Maryland, - the Eastern terminus - was let in 1811, and the road was completed to the Ohio River at Wheeling in 1818. Across Ohio, by the way of Columbus, to Indianapolis, Indiana, the great highway was completed before 1830. Indian and buffalo trails, as has already been related, were mainly followed, which afforded the best grades and shortest routes. Bluff hills were cut down, while knolls were surmounted or semi-circled, and old Indian fords of streams were spanned with bridges. Primitive towns, which had been struggling for a name for some years, now displayed new life under the stimulus of added population and awakening commercial activity, while new towns sprang up here and there, later to Income the homes of prosperous communities. The business done over the old National Road was tremendous. Great wagons, often in trains of a score or more, each carrying burdens of freight of various kinds, 6,000 to 8.000 pounds to the load, were the precursors of the mammoth freight trains of today of ioo cars, each car carrying almost as much as a wagon train of the pioneer days. Stage coaches, drawn by four or six liorses each, carried statesmen, tradesmen and pioneer farmer, where now the palace car, down to the day coach and emigrant car. transport the immensely increased human traffic of to-day. The first half of the last century was the era of the great National and Inter-State roads; but horse power and the slow-moving coaches of a century ago have been largely superseded by steam cars - by electric and a-milea-minutc travel of to-day.

Early in the last century the laying out and grading of State roads were undertaken, and in localities corduroy and plank roads were Unit to a limited extent. One of the earliest roads to be built in this section of the State, over which there was a large amount of traffic to the interior ami northern sections for many years prior to the flays of railroads, was that running from the Ohio River at Wellsville. to

New Lisbon, Canton and Cleveland. This thoroughfare is to-day, as it always has Ijcen, a dirt or "mud" road; and four score years ago, when it bore the heaviest travel, it was no uncommon occurrence for the heavy wagons to sink into mother earth to the hubs of the wheels. It was too early for even the agitation of the subject of road improvement. In later years there has l>een some agitation and a small amount of legislation, but as yet. at least in C olumbiana county, to little practical purpose. Outside the corporate limits of cities and towns, there are, up to the beginning of 1905, not epiite 25 miles of improved roads in the county. The most notable example of improved road in the county, and of the improved conditions which such improvement brings with it, is the piece of road between East Liverpool and Calcutta, four miles in extent, two miles of which is brick and two miles, |M>unded stone. Then there are two miles of improved road from Wellsville corporate limits on the hill road running towards Lisbon. Other sections of improved road in the county are : Between Kensington and Hanover, 1 mile; near Summitville, 1 mile; i>j miles on the Salineville and Hanover roads, near Lisbon; between Leetonia and Columbiana, 1 mile, between Leetonia ami Columbiana, 2l/> miles: between Leetonia and Washingtonville, 2 miles; near East Palestine, 1 mile; between Salem and Millville. 1 mile; besides smaller pieces elsewhere in Salem. Perry, Knox, Butler, Madison, and Liverpool townships. Besides perhaps 4 or 5 miles of brick paving, these improved roads are made chiefly of slag and gravel, and in a few cases of |>ouuded stone. But in the main the public mads of the county are very bad, es- |K.'cially in the southern or hill sections, and all are susceptible of improvement. A beginning, j however, has l>een made in the l)ettertncnt of these conditions, ami it is hoped that ere many years good roads over the county will be the rule rather than the exception.

The construction of roads and bridges is an essential part of the industrial system, and is carried on under authority derived from the State. By a law passed by the Legislature in 1904. the State pur|>oscs to cooperate in the maintenance of roads. Tins law creates a new department in charge of a State highway commissioner. This officer will investigate roadmaking, publish bulletins thereon, pass on applications from county commissioners for road improvements, and, when approved, furnish plans, and let the contracts. The cost will l>e borne, one- fourth by the State, and the remaining three-fourths by the county - the countyproper, the township and the owner of the land abutting dividing the three-fourths apportioned to the county. One of the advantages attendant upon rural free delivery - which has lieen introduced in the county with many beneficent results during the opening years of the new century, and which will l>e referred to more at length in another chapter - is the stimulus which it lias given to road improvement.

Under the provisions of the new road law, which has l>een referred to, Governor Herrick in February. 1905, appointed Samuel Huston, of Steubenville, State highway commissioner: and a few days thereafter Commissioner Huston opened his new department in Columbus. He announced at once that there would Ixr no road building under State supervision during the first year of the department's existence. The Legislature had placed but $10,000 at the disposal of the department for the first year, and this, the commissioner said, would not much more than cover the expense of getting it properly in o|>eration. Divided among the 88 counties of the State, it would be an insignificant I sum for road building. Commissioner Huston ' believed it was the intention of the Legislature that the first year should be devoted to the preliminary work, and he decided that he should spend much time traveling over the State, in order to get acquainted with conditipns, and to "confer with counties interested in better roads." It be does that, he may hold a conference or conferences in every county in the Stale. He will issue bulletins explaining the objects of the department, which he purposes sending to the daily papers for publication. "I expect to carry on a campaign of education through the medium of the press, which is the most powerful factor in bringing things to a successful issue," said Mr. Huston. As a matter of fact, a campaign of education has been progressing during the past 100 years - years which have been full of experience, demonstrating the need of improved roads, with every now and then the promulgation of a lot of theories as to how better conditions might obtain ; but the one thing needful is the application of some practical, common-sense ideas in the advancement of the much needed work.