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Parte TURTLE
(ME-SHE-KIN-NO-QUAH)
THE GREAT CHIEF
OF THE
MIAMI INDIAN NATION
BEING A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE TOGETHER WITH THAT OF WM. WELLS AND SOME. NOTED DESCENDANTS
BY
CALVIN M. YOUNG
FLACK& GOLD
ILLUSTRATED
19'7
Prepared by the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County 1956
Copyrighted, 1917 By CALVIN M. YOUNG
Greenville, Ohio
1600271
Historica] facts should not be a burden to the memory,
but an illumination to the soul. —Lord Acton.
INDEX TO CHAPTERS.
Foreword
Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter x Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV
Page i Cig eee Asa 0) Sees Pa ae 7 ThesMiamisg 5 So 13 Ke-kiPon-gara ee Be ee 31 St. Clair’s Expedition________ AT Wayne’s Campaign ________ 69 The Great Council Fire_______ 89
The Treaty of GreeneVille____ 103 Birthplace of Little Turtle____ 125
A Character Sketch__________ 135 Notes and Anecdotes_________ 145 Burial Place 2 oye eee 169 Captain William Wells_______ 179 ‘Lhe Royal Line. 22223 2424e 197
Kil-so-quah, the Indian Princess 212 The Godfrey Family_________ Romantic Episodes
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page PAIGE ee oe le SA ongispiece ERMC LOV epee ee tN NT oa aap 6 Pete ea LASSACTE fo) to ee ke wae 34 “LASWWEN GSS FEW 209 9 RE ND EY le 36 Nanetlarmarsetattlenield ois) bey eC uele 42, Pro ra Su OV et bce eo is ge TT ee 45 Major-General Arthur St. Clair. _.__________ AT Bolonel Richardibutlenies cu wee we ee 50 Fan of St: Clair’s Camp’ and: Baftle-______ 54 Lieutenant-Colonel William Darke__________~_ 55 Wayne Street, Fort Recovery_______________ 56 Concrete Bridge, Fort Recovery, Location St. (CLALIT C iy tee 2 oe nies 2 nT Major-General Antony Wayne_______________ 68 Outinerol PortyGreencVillet. os ea 69 Outhne Map ol DarkerCountyoos ok 74. Fort Wayne, Indiana, as it appeared in 1794__ 87 Boulder Memorial, Greenville, Ohio__________ 90 GreeneVille Treaty Peace Pipe_______________ 103 GreeneVille Treaty Medal August 3, 1795_____ 114 Little Turtle’s Farewell Address_____________ 119 Piet ee Lure S) VaAlACerOlLe® tee ee 125 Map of Location of Little Turtle’s Village Site__ 126 Tee Rivera ei wemui es Uo. cam mene tes 129 Soldier’s Monument, Fort Recovery_________- 163 Pioneer Soldier at Base of Fort Recovery Monu- WEN em, lage ae aR RN ae Eat 2 Sed R cs 164
View of Devil’s Lake with landscape scenery__ 165 Washington’s Sword from grave of Little
SSG: i Sip eile ld oe pies EIS late indi, Paiethed ch 170 Relics from. grave of: Little Turtle.- 72. 172-173 Face and Back View of Little Turtle’s Watch__ 175 eas VEE ariT WV Clic toy ees Setind ee ee ene, 178
Poneom yes) Gricos and Grandson. 25) 183 OER TOOT sul co) ee ee ee sen 186 iier, nichardville (Pe-che-wa) 0 203 Kil-so-quah the Indian Princess, Son and
TIC eeOIa. sce et a eee Tre ey mnrabes. Jee pio Bs ireacy Neda. Andrew Jackson: vel ao mot Sorencercourrey So ous au One 226 rea Co Cornell in Indian-eostune. ees 230
5
CALVIN M. YOUNG
Was born in Franklin Township, Darke County, Ohio, in 1851. Is a member of both Stateand County Historical Societies, and is a local Historian of considerable note. During several years past, Mr. Young has devoted much time and research to collecting historical facts relative to Little Turtle, the Great Miami Indian Chief. He has spared no time or expense in making the following sketch as near complete as possible.
FOREW ORD.
Every great crisis in tribal or national life makes a forceful appeal to the bold and aggressive spirits found in all political bodies and calls forth leaders from among these to meet the new and changing conditions of the hour even at the hazard of life, property and personal comfort.
This fact is forcibly illustrated in our own national history by the lives of Washington, Lincoln, Grant and many other heroic characters who estab- lished, fostered and conserved our country.
We are not surprised, therefore, that the rapid expansion of the New England and Coast Colonies and the encroachment of the white man on the vir- gin domain of the lower lake region and the Ohio valley in the latter part of the eighteenth century and later called forth three great Indian chieftains in three successive generations, viz: Pontiac, the Ottawa, in 1762; Little Turtle, the Miami, in 1790; and Tecumseh, the Shawnee, in 1811. All these were distinguished characters scarcely excelled for bravery, military genius and statecraft by any other American Indian chiefs from the earliest white set- tlement to the present time.
Parkman has given us a vivid description of the life and times of Pontiac; Drake has set forth in elegant language the illustrious career of Tecumseh, but the student who desired a comprehensive and complete account of the life of Little Turtle the great chief of the Miamis, has heretofore been doomed to disappointment.
It was this fact that stirred the author of this book to collect, compile and publish in a readable form all of the authentic information about this great chieftain that he could reasonably secure. As a boy, some fifty years ago, the writer lived near the site of Little Turtle’s birthplace where he became
7
8
intimately acquainted with some of the early trap- pers and hunters who had lived in this vicinity while the Misamis were still there. From these backwoods- men he learned many interesting tales of the early days which he treasured up in his retentive mem- ory and now utilizes in the preparation of this his- torical sketch. Thus has been rescued from oblivion many interesting and important facts which are embodied in this work.
The cordial reception given to an article entitled “The Birthplace of Little Turtle’, prepared by my- self for the Ohio Archaeological and Historical So- ciety, and published in Vol. XXIII of the works of that society, and the earnest entreaty of several worthy and influential friends have also been large- ly responsible for my decision to compile and pub- lish this volume.
On account of his previous valuable experience in compiling, editing and publishing various books and sketches of early Ohio valley history I have associated with myself in the editorial work of this book Mr. Frazer E. Wilson, who is largely responsi- ble for the form, style and arrangement of the material collected by myself. It has been his aim to present the historical data in a readable, pleasing and forceful style and the reader may judge to what extent he has succeeded in this matter.
It has taken considerable travel and original re- search to secure the historical data embodied in this volume besides the careful perusal of many works on Indian and pioneer history. The author here- with gratefully acknowledges his special indebted- ness to the following authorities for valuable infor- mation pertaining to his subject:.
Brice’s History of Fort Wayne;
Howe’s History of Ohio;
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Re-
ports ;
Abbott’s History of Ohio;
Atwater’s History of Ohio;
Allen’s History of Civilization ;
Dillon’s History of Indiana;
Cockrum’s History of Indiana;
J. P. Dunn’s True Indian Stories;
Lossing’s Field Book of the War of 1812;
Hand Book of North American Indians;
F. E. Wilson’s Peace of Mad Anthony;
F. E. Wilson’s History of Darke County, Ohio;
Mansfield’s Personal Memoirs;
Parkman’s Pontiac;
Drake’s Aboriginal Races;
Drake’s Tecumseh;
Knapp’s History of the Maumee Valley;
McAfee’s Late War in the Northwest;
Fergus’ Historical Series;
Collin’s Early History of Kentucky;
Williams’ Early Mackinaw;
Harvey’s History of the Shawnee Indians;
McClung’s Western Adventure;
Drake’s Life in the Wigwam;
Slocum’s Ohio Country ;
American Pioneer ;
Beers’ History of Darke County, Ohio;
Howe’s The Great West;
Catlin’s North American Indians;
Thatcher’s Famous Indians;
Blankard’s Conquest of the Northwest;
Woman on the Frontier;
Kinzie’s Wa-bun;
Currie’s Fort Dearborn;
Perkin’s Annals of the West;
Woods’ Lives of Famous Indians;
B. J. Griswold’s Sketch of Fort Wayne;
Frank Dildine’s Sketches of the Miamis;
Prof. W. S. Blatchley for topographical and geo-
logical information.
Very valuable assistance has also been rendered by the Cincinnati University Library; the Burton Public Library of Detroit; the Public Library of Fort Wayne, Ind:; The Chicago Historical Society ; The Greenville (O.) Historical Society; The Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society.
A special debt of gratitude is due the following
10
friends, who rendered valuable assistance in this work:
B. J. Griswold and J. M. Stouder, of Fort Wayne,
Ind. ;
Dr. Koontz, of Roanoke, Ind.;
C. K. Lucas, of Huntington, Ind.;
Frank Dildine, of Tiffin, Ohio;
Geo. A. Katzenberger and Harvey F. Dershem,
attorneys, of Greenville, Ohio.
The Chicago Historical Society has rendered a specially appreciated favor by loaning for repro- duction a reprint of a famous painting said to have been produced by an officer of Wayne’s legion. This picture apparently represents Little Turtle’s farewell address to General Wayne at foot of Stoney Alley, Greenville, Ohio, August 12, 1795.
Mrs. H. H. Hayes, of Chicago; Mrs. Henry Hulst, of Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Eva ©. Corthell, of Jacksonville, Fla., have also contributed many valu- able details to the family history of the subject of this sketch.
In compiling this volume it has been our aim to present to the reader nothing but the most trust- worthy information that we have been able to secure from any source and to make this sketch reliable, readable and entertaining.
Cicero said: “Not to know what happened be- fore we were born is to remain always a child. For what were the life of man did he not combine pres- ent events with the recollection of past ages?”
Future generations will hold us responsible if we fail to honestly and faithfully preserve the record of pioneer times. Our children should be taught and inspired with the spirit of genuine patriotism through a correct knowledge of the suffering and hardships of our fathers and mothers in the early settlement of our country.
In this sketch the writer has tried to lay aside all personal dislikes that he may have had against the Redman—even though his great grandmother and some of her children, who were killed and
ved
scalped by the Creek Indians in Georgia during the Revolution.
“No more for them the busy mother Plied her evening care Or children climbed her knee The evening kiss to share.”
We feel safe in the assurance that no critic can justly accuse the author of unfair discrimination against any person or race.
It is the duty of the historian to deal with facts as they are found and to render justice to whom justice is due. With this as our aim we send forth this book in which are embodied the fruits of re- search and the results of the perusal of many of the most reliable writers on the subject herein treated.
No doubt some errors have crept in our narrative but let us remember that it is human to err and that perfection is found in divinity alone.
With these thoughts in mind we respectfully dedicate the following pages to the young and ris- ing generations and every: true American who de- sires more perfect knowledge of that great Indian Chieftain of the old Northwest whose deeds are so closely interwoven in American pioneer history.
THE AUTHOR. Greenville, Ohio, March 16, 1917.
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PUREE VU REL E
( ME-SH E-KIN--NO-QUAH )
The Great Chief of the Miami Nation.
i THE MIAMIS.
According to the verdict of modern scholars the human race is divided into three well defined fami- lies, viz., the White or Aryan; the Black or Negroid; and the Yellow or Turanian. Until recent years it was customary to specify five families, but extended ethnological and archaeological research have proven conclusively that the Malay and the Red Man are closely related to the Mongolians and together com- prise the Turanian or Mongoloid family. The coarse black hair, the high cheek bones, the swarthy complexion, the cunning handicraft, together with the peculiar style of dress and customs of the North American Indians indicate a close relationship to the Nomadic Mongoloid tribes of Northern Asia and lend color to the conviction that America was peo- pled across Behring Strait at a remote date. When reminded of the striking resemblance between the Tartars and Indians, and the strong probability that America had been peopled from Asia the cun- ning Little Turtle, great Chief of the Miami In- dians, remarked, why not say that the Tartars are descended from us, and America the original home of both? The answer to this question is that the great mass of the Mongoloid peoples have lived in Asia from time immemorial, while the comparative- ly small number of North American Indians have no authentic records to justify the suggestion of the crafty Chief. In the absence of authentic records we can only speculate in reference to the length of the Red Man’s residence in America.
13
14
The words of the poet beautifully portray the idealistic aspect of his life at the advent of his con- queror the ‘‘Pale Face.”
“The echo of the Red Man’s voice Resounded through the vale It lingered on the evening air It floated on the evening gale.
“Tt was borne along the mountain side It drifted through the glen It died away among the hills Far from the haunts of men.
“His face was flushed with hues of health His arms and feet were bare
He had a lithe and active form A scalp of raven hair.
“Beyond the hills he passed from sight A sunken fallen star Until his voice is faintly heard Still calling from afar.” —Anonymous.
The Miami Indians belonged to the great Algon- quin family which occupied the upper Mississippi valley and a large portion of the basin of the St. Lawrence at the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury. Tradition says that they once lived in the region of the Hudson Bay, and in their migration southward toward the Great Lakes became divided into two wings, the western of which probably came around the west end of Lake Superior and into the Wisconsin region. The eastern wing probably came into contact with the Iroquois in the region of the lower lakes and were driven westward where they joined their brethren.
The earliest recorded notice of the Miami nation is from information furnished in 1658, by Gabriel Druilletts, who called them the Oum-a-mik, then liv- ing sixty leagues from St. Michael, at or about the
15
mouth of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Perrot Memoire says, that they withdrew into the Mississippi valley sixty leagues from the Bay, and were established there from 1657 to 1676, although Bacqueville de la Potherie asserts that with Mascoutens, the Kicka- poos and part of the Illini they came to settle at that place about 1667.
Probably the first time the French came into actual contact with the Miamis was when Perrot visited them about 1668. His second visit was in 1670, when they were living at the head waters of Fox river, Wisconsin. In 1671, a part at least of the tribe were living with the Mascoutens in a pali- saded village in this locality. Soon after this the Miamis parted from the Mascoutens and formed new settlements at the south end of Lake Michigan, and on Kalamazoo river, Michigan. The settle- ments at the south end of the lake were at Chicago and on the St. Joseph river emptying into that lake where missions were established late in the seven- teenth century, although the former is mentioned as a Wea village at the time of Marquette’s visit and Weas were found there in 1701, by Decon St. Marche. It is likely that these Weas were the Miamis mentioned by Allovez and others as being united with the Mascoutens in Wisconsin.
The chief village of the Miamis on St. Joseph river was, according to Zenobious, about fifteen leagues inland, in latitude forty-one degrees. 'The extent of territory occupied by this tribe a few years later compels the conclusion that the Miamis in Wisconsin, when the whites first heard of them, formed but a part of the tribe, and that the other bodies were already in northeast Illinois and north- ern Indiana, as the Miamis and their allies were found later on the Wabash, in Indiana, and in north- west Ohio in which territory they gave their name to three rivers and to one county, each in Ohio and Indiana. These facts seem to indicate that they moved to the southeast from the localities where - first known within historic times. The tribe was
16
usually distinguished by early English writers as “Twightwees’’, which signifies the cry of a crane. According to Brice in his’ “History of Fort Wayne,” one Major Thomas Forsyth, who lived among the Sack and Fox Indians for more than twenty years, wrote in 1826, as follows: ‘More than a century ago, all the country, commencing above Rock river and running down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio, up that river to the mouth of the Wabash, thence up that river to Fort Wayne, thence down the Miami of the Lake some distance, thence west to the St. Joseph and Chicago; also. the country lying south of the Des Moines down perhaps to the Mississippi, was inhabited by a numerous nation of Indians who called themselves Linneway, and were called by others, Minneway, signifying “Men.” This great nation was divided into several bands, and inhabited different parts of this extensive region, as follows: The Michiga- mies, the country south of Des Moines; the Caho- kias, that east of the present village of Cahokia in Illinois; the Kaskaskias, that east of the town of that name; the Tamarois had their village nearly central between Cahokia and Kaskasia; the Pianke- shaws, near Vincennes; the Weas, up the Wabash; the Miamis on the headwaters of the Miami of the Lakes, on the St. Joseph river and at Chicago. The Piankeshaws, Weas and Miamis must at this time have hunted south toward and on the Ohio. The Peorias, another band of the same nation, lived and hunted on the Illinois river; the Mascos or Mascoutens, called by the French “Gensdes Prai- ries’, lived and hunted on the great prairies between the Illinois rivers. All these different bands of the Minneway nation spoke the language of the present Miamis, and the whole considered themselves as one and the same people; yet from their local situation and having no standard to go by, their language became broken up into different dialects. These Indians, the Minneways, were attacked by a general Confederacy of other nations, such as the Sacks and Foxes, resident at Green Bay and on the Ouis-
17
consin; the Sioux, whose frontiers extended south to the river Des Moines; the Chippeways, the Otta- ways, and Pottawattomies from the lakes and also the Cherokees and Choctaws from the south. The war continued for a great many years and until the great nation the Minneways were destroyed, except a few Miamis and Weas on the Wabash, and a few who were scattered among strangers. Of the Kas- kaskias, owing to their wars and their fondness for spirituous liquors, there now (1826) remain but thirty or forty souls; of the Peorias near St. Gene- vieve, ten or fifteen; of the Piankeshaws, forty or fifty. The Miamis are the most numerous; a few years ago they consisted of about four hundred souls. There do not exist at the present day more than five hundred souls of the once great and pow- erful Minneway or Illini nation’’.
The Miamis also suffered greatly from the fre- quent incursions of the terrible Iroquois. Charles B. LaSelle, an Indian writer, says that when the Miamis were first invited by the French authorities to Chicago in 1670, for a conference, they were a powerful nation. Their chieftain could lead into the field an army of five thousand warriors. Of all their villages Kekionga was the most important, it being the largest and most central of their posses- sions. Such was the Miami Confederacy at that time, and such it was in 1679 or 1680, when LaSalle the French explorer visited their famous village on the Maumee.
The Iroquois league was the most remarkable and unique Confederacy mentioned in Indian history. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it em- braced the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, and became known as the Five Na- tions. The Tuscaroras, a related tribe living to the southward, joined them in 1775, and the Confeder- acy became known henceforward as the “Six Na- tions.” At the coming of the early white settlers they were found in possession of the greater part of the state of New York. The Dutch and British traders cultivated friendly relations with them and
1s
influenced them against the French whose designs they thwarted in the East. Their perfect union, unbroken almost to the last, and their favoyed loca- tion gave them supremacy among the Indian tribes. They have been called the Romans of the New World, and were certainly like the Romans in that they were remorseless, bloodthirsty conquerors ever seeking the spoils of war. For years they held all the tribes from the plains of the Mississippi to the shores of the Atlantic, and from the Tennessee river to the St. Lawrence under the spell of their powers. The Miami Confederacy, which was formed to resist their encroachments, was their strongest foe, and was frequently brought into contact with the Iro- quois in the wars for spoils waged by the latter. In their homes farther east the settlements of the white man were gradually limiting the hunting grounds of the Six Nations for the purpose of securing furs for sale or exchange to the French traders, who at an early date had established trading houses in Canada and other points in the east, the Iroquois invading the west, the lands of the Miami Confed- eracy being included. These invasions the latter tribes of Indians repelled and as a consequence the wars with the Iroquois became frequent, and thou- sands of Indian warriors in both contending Confed- eracies were slain during the years of conflict.
The Iroquois, in a general way, were the conquer- ors, but about 1684, they met with a most disastrous defeat. The Miamis had joined their kindred the Ijlinois Indians in resisting an invasion of the Iro- quois and after a war that lasted three years, so the historian, Chas. B. LaSelle says, the invincible Iroquois of New York, these Romans of America, were terribly worsted.
The deadly havoc among the Indians as a result of these tribal and confederacy wars was great. About that period, the historian continues, so thin and scattering was the Indian population that one might sometimes journey for days through the for- ests and not meet a human form. Broad tracts were left in solitude. All of Kentucky was a vacant
GS)
space, a mere skirmish ground for hostile war par- ties of the north and south. A great part of upper Canada, Michigan and of Illinois besides other por- tions of the west seemed tenanted by wild beasts alone.
According to the best traditional authorities the dominion of the Miami Confederacy extended for a long period of time over that part of the state of Ohio which lies west of the Scioto river, the whole of Indiana, the southern part of Michigan and the principal portion of that part of the state of Illinois which les southeast of the Fox and Illinois rivers.
The Miamis have preserved but little tradition of their migration as a tribe from one country to another; and the great extent of territory which was claimed by them may be regarded as some evi- dence of the high degree of national importance which they formerly maintained among the Indian tribes of North America.
In the early part of the eighteenth century, and perhaps for a long period before that time, the Miamis dwelt in small villages at various suitable places within the boundaries of their large territory. Some of these villages were found on the banks of the Scioto; a few were situated in the vicinity of the head waters of the great Miami river; some stood on the banks of the Maumee; others on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan and many were found on the borders of the Wabash and on some of the prin- cipal tributaries of that river. The villages which stood on the banks of the St. Joseph of Lake Michi- gan, those which lay about the head waters of the Maumee, and those which stood on the banks of the river Wabash were often visited by christian mis- sionaries and by fur traders before the middle of the eighteenth century. These visits were not, however, of long duration, and the different periods at which the French founded settlements at or near the sites of these Indian villages can not now be stated with any degree of certainty. Neither the occasional presence of a missionary, the sojournings of adventurous explorers of the country, nor the
20) periodical visits of the fur traders can be fairly regarded as the founding of civilized settlements.
In the year 1672, the Indians, who lived in the vicinity of the southern shores of Lake Michigan, were visited by the missionaries Allouez and Dab- lon, who opened the way for many subsequent but almost fruitless attempts to establish missions with- in the territories of the Miamis.
Among the missionaries who visited this terri- tory between the years 1672 and 1712, were Ri- bourde, Mambre, Hennepin, Marquette, Pinet, Bin- neteen, Rasles, Perrot, Bergen, Mermet, Marest, Gravier, Deville and Chardon. The history of the missionary labors of these men is a record of perse- verence, suffering and disappointments. In heathen lands the efforts of christian missionaries have of- ten been resisted and sometimes wholly defeated by obstacles which were based upon the adverse relig- ious tenets and the political strategems of rival christian nations. For a period of one hundred and fifty years Protestant England and Catholic France were rivals in the great works of acquiring terri- tory, planting colonies and establishing trade among the Indian tribes of North America. Of the Chris- tian missionaries of these two nations very few, if any, were wholly free from the influence of the hostile rivalry that was brought into action and maintained by their respective governments.
Among a number of reasons assigned for the planting of British colonies in New England was one which assumed that it would be a service to the church of great consequence to carry the true Gos- pel into those parts of the world and raise a bul- wark against the kingdom of Anti-Christ which the Jesuits were credited with laboring to rear up in all parts of the world.
The Rev. Cotton Mather in his “Ecclesiastical History of New England,” says that in the year 1696, an Indian Chief informed a Christian minister of Boston that the French, while instructing the Indians in the Christian religion, claimed that the Savior was of the French nation; that those who
21
murdered Him were of the English nation; and that, whereas He rose from the dead and went up to the heavens, all who would recommend them- selves unto His favor must avenge His quarrel upon the English as far as possible. But the Indians, it seems, had little confidence in what the missionaries told them, as the so-called Christian traders who dealt commonly with them with the design of gain thought of nothing but cheating and lying to become rich in a short time. They used all manner of stra- tegems to get the furs of the savages cheap; they made use of hes and deceptions to gain double if they could. On a certain occasion a trader sold needles for one dollar apiece, telling the prospective Indian customer that the only man who could make needies had ‘died and that he had possession of all his remaining stock. Such practices, without doubt, caused an aversion against a religion which was falsely professed by men of so base a type.
The Miamis took a prominent part in all Indian wars in the Ohio valley until the close of the War of 1812. Soon afterward they began to sell their lands and by 1846, had sold about all of their hold- ings in Indiana and had agreed to remove to Kan- sas, whence they went later to Indian Territory, where a small remnant still resides. Quite a num- ber refused to go to their new homes and the gov- ernment was compelled to remove them by force. In the meantime intemperance and smallpox had greatly reduced their number. A considerable part of the tribe, commonly known as the Meshingomeshia band, continued to reside on a reservation in Wabash county, Indiana, until 1872, when the land was divided among the survivors, then numbering about three hundred. In all treaty negotiations they were considered as the original owners of the Wabash country, and all of western Ohio. While the other tribes in that region were regarded as tenants or intruders on their lands.
In 1718, the Miami men were described as being of medium height; well built; heads rather round than oblong; countenances agreeable rather than
22
sedate or morose; swift on foot and excessively fond of racing. They used scarcely any covering and were tattooed all over the body; while women were generally well clad in deerskins. The latter were hard working and raised a species of maize unlike that of the Indians of Detroit, which is described as being white, of the same size of the other, but having a much finer skin and making a much finer meal.
According to the early French explorers the Miamis were distinguished for polite manners, mild, affable and sedate character; and for their respect for, and perfect obedience to their Chiefs, who had greater authority than those of other Algonquin and Northwest tribes. They usually spoke slowly, and were land travelers rather than canoe-men. In his search for the great river in 1673, Marquette en- countered the Miamis in the Fox river region of Wisconsin, and noted that they were friendly, lib- eral, docile and fond of instruction. They were eager to listen to the missionary, Father Allouez, who lived among them shortly before this time, that they allowed him scant repose, even in the night. Two of the Miamis accompanied Marquette and Joliet as guides on their way to the portage of the Wisconsin river.
LaSalle tells us that the Miami Indians were the most civilized of all the Indian nations, neat in dress, splendid of bearing, haughty of manners, and held all other Indian tribes as inferiors. Of all the Indians of America the Miamis approached nearest to the ideal of the true aborigine. Accord- ing to early explorers they worshipped the sun and thunder, but did not honor a host of minor deities like the Hurons and Ottawas.
Three forms of burial appear to have been prac- ticed by the division of the tribe living about Fort Wayne: First, the ordinary ground burial in a Shallow grave prepared to receive the body in a recumbent position; second, surface burial in a hol- low log in which method either a tree was split and the halves hollowed out to receive the body, being
=> 23
afterward closed; third, surface burial, wherein the body was covered with a small pen of logs laid as in a log cabin, and crosses meeting at the top in a single log. Nothing could be more affecting than the sight of a young mother hanging the coffin that contained the remains of her beloved child to the pendant branches of the flowering maple and sing- ing her lament over her loved one as the body waved in the breeze.
“It seemed her voice in bitterest woe To sobs and tears had given birth, And all sad things did list to her And all sad things did weep to her As she moaned her song and her song’s refrain Over and over and over again.”
According to Morgan the Miamis had ten gentes: first, Mowhawa (Wolf); second, Mongwa (Loon) ; third, Kendawa (Eagle); fourth, Ahpakosa (Buz- zard); fifth, Kanozawa (Panther); sixth, Pilawa (Turkey) ; seventh, Ahseponna (Raccoon) ; eighth, Monnato (Snow); ninth, Kulswa (Sun); tenth, (Water).
Chanviznerie in 1737, said that the Miamis had two principal totems: the Elk and the Crane, while some had the Bear. The French writers call At- chatcha-kan-gonen (Crane) the leading division. At a great conference on the Maumee in Ohio in 1798, the Miamis signed with Turtle totem. None of these totems occur in Morgan’s list.
In 1905, the total number of Miamis in Indian Territory was one hundred and twenty-four (124) ; in Indiana there were two hundred and forty-three (243) in 1910. The latter, however, are greatly mixed with white blood. Including individuals scattered among other tribes the whole number is probably four hundred (400) today.
The Miamis joined in, or made treaties with, the United States, as follows: First, at Greenville, Ohio, with General Anthony Wayne, August 3, 1795, defining the boundary between the United States
24
and tribes west of the Ohio river and ceding certain tracts of land; second, Fort Wayne, Indiana, June 7, 1803, with various tribes, defining boundaries and ceding certain lands; third, Gronseland, Indi- ana, August 21, 1805, ceding certain tracts of lands in Indiana and defining boundaries; fourth, Fort Wayne, Indiana, September 30, 1809, in which the Miami, Eel River tribes and Delawares ceded cer- tain lands in Indiana and the relations between the Delawares and Miamis regarding certain territory were defined; fifth, Treaty of Peace at Greenville, Ohio, July 22, 1814, between the United States, the Wvandottes, Delawares, Shawnees, Senecas and the Miamis, including the Eel River and Wea tribes; sixth, Peace Treaty at Spring Wells, Michigan, Sep- tember 8, 1815, by the Miami and other tribes; seventh, St. Mary’s, Ohio, October 6, 1818, by which the Miami ceded certain lands in Indiana; eighth, Treaty of the Wabash, Indiana, October 23, 1826. by which the Miamis ceded all of their Jand north and west of Wabash and Miami rivers; ninth, Wy- andotte village, Indiana, February 11, 1829, by which the Kel River Miamis ceded all of their claim to the reservation on Sugar Tree creek, Indiana; tenth, forks of the Wabash, Indiana, October 23, 1834, by which the Miamis ceded several tracts in Indiana; eleventh, Forks of the Wabash, Indiana, November 6, 1838, by which the Miamis ceded most of their remaining lands in Indiana, and the United States agreed to furnish them a reservation west of the Mississippi; twelfth, Forks of the Wabash, Indiana, November 28, 1840, by which the Miamis ceded their remaining lands in Indiana and agreed to remove to the country assigned them west of the Mississipp1; thirteenth, Washington, June 5, 1854, by which they ceded a tract assigned by amended treaty of November 28, 1840, excepting seventy thousand acres retained as a reserve; fourteenth, Washington, February 23, 1867, with the Senecas and others, in which it is stipulated that the Miamis may become federated with the Peorias and others if they so desire.
25
Among the better known settlements, or villages of the Miamis were Chicago (Chicago, Ill.) ; Chip- pekawkay (Vincennes, Ind.) ; Choppatees (on St. Joseph river a few miles above Fort Wayne, Ind.) ; Kekionga (Fort Wayne, Ind.); Kenapacomaqua, Little Turtle’s Town (Blue River Lake) ; Kokomo (Kokomo, Ind.) ; Meshingomesia (on the Mississin- ewa, Liberty township, Wabash county, Ind.) ; Missimquimescan (near Washington, Daviess coun- ty, Ind.) ; Mississinewa (near Peru, Ind.) ; Osage, Ouiatenon (Wabash river, near LaFayette, Ind.) ; Pamedketeha; Piankeshaw (Wabash at junction of Vermillion); Pickawillanee (Miami river above Piqua, O.); Raccoon’s Village (at the mouth of Aboit creek, near Roanoke, Ind.); Seek’s Village (on Eel river, Whitley county, Ind.); St. Francis Xavier Mission, and others (St. Joseph river of Lake Michigan) ; Thorntown (on Eel river); Tip- pecanoe (Wabash river, near mouth of Tippecanoe river, Tippecanoe county, Ind.).
General W. H. Harrison said that, saving the ten years preceding the Treaty of Greene Ville in 1795, the Miamis alone could have brought more than three thousand warriors into the field; that they comprised a body of the finest light troops in the world, and had they been under an efficient sys- tem of discipline or possessed enterprise equal to their valor, the settlement of the country would have been attended with much more difficulty than was encountered in accomplishing it and their final subjugations would have been delayed for years. Although constant wars with our frontiers had de- prived them of their warriors, the ravages of small- pox was the principal cause of the great decrease in their numbers.
Subsequent to the Treaty of GreeneVille their demoralization was rapid in its progress and terri- ble in its consequences, so much so that when the Baptist missionary, the Rev. Isaac McCoy, was among them during the years from 1817 to 1822, he declared the Miamis were no longer a warlike peo- ple. At the villages on Sugar Creek, Eel River
26
and the Mississinewa, and particularly at Fort Wayne, it was a continuous round of drunken de- bauchery whenever whiskey could be obtained, of which men, women and children partook alike, and life was often sacrificed in personal brawls or by exposure of the debauches to the inclemency of the weather.
By treaties entered into at various times from 1795, to 1845, the Miamis ceded their Jands in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and removed west of the Miss- issippi, going in villages or by detachments from time to time. In 1838, at a single session, they sold to the United States government one hundred and seventy-seven thousand (177,000) acres of land in Indiana, which was only a fragment of their for- mer possessions, although still retaining large tracts. Thus they alienated their heritage piece by piece to make room for the incoming population while they gradually disappeared from the valleys of the Wabash and Maumee. A few of them who clung to their reservations, adapted themselves to the ways of the Americans and their descendant, and are now to be met with in or about the cities that have sprung up in the localities named. The money received from the sale of their lands proved a calamity as the proceeds were wasted for whiskey.
The last of the Miamis to go west were the Miss- issinewa band. This remnant, comprising in all about three hundred and fifty (350) persons in charge of Christian Dazney, left their old homes, where many of them had farm houses and had made considerable progress in agriculture. Going to Cin- cinnati in the fall of 1846, they were placed on a steamboat, taken down the Ohio, up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and landed late-in the season at Westport, near Kansas City. Ragged men, and naked women and children, forming a motley group, were huddled upon the shore of a strange land with- out food or friends to relieve their wants, and ex- posed to the bitter December winds that blew from the chilly plains of Kansas. From Westport the Missinewas were conducted to a place near the pres-
27
ent village Lewisburg, Kansas, in the county since named Miami. They suffered greatly and nearly one-third of their number died the first year.
Mrs. Mary Batiste Peoria, then wife of Christian Dazney, the agent having these unfortunate people in charge, who accompanied her husband in this work, stated that strong men would actually cry when they thought about their old homes in Indiana, to which many of them would make journeys bare- footed, begging their way and submitting to the imprecation hurled upon them from the door of the white man as they asked for a crust of bread. She saw fathers and mothers give their children away | to others of the tribe for adoption and then singing their funeral songs and joining in the solemn dance of death, go calmly away from the assemblage never again to be seen alive.
Some two years were required to accomplish the removal of the Miamis from their Indiana homes to the new reservation in Kansas. The beginning of the disappearance of the tribe took place in the summer of 1844, under the stipulations of a treaty. August Ist had been designated as the time for all ‘members of the tribe to be ready to be taken west in a body under government escort, but it was found when that day arrived that very few had made any preparations to leave.
The Miami reservation extended from the south- western corner of Allen county and included a large portion of Howard, Wells, Huntington, Wabash, Grant and Miami counties. The reluctance of the Indians to comply with the terms of the treaty forced the government to send troops under Captain Jouett, a thoroughgoing, prompt, energetic old sol- dier, just the kind of a man to make short work of a job of this kind, and Mr. St. Clair, government sub-agent. The troops did not arrive, however, un- til September, 1846, and many of the Indians had to be brought forcibly to the place of rendezvous previous to taking their departure.
One writer says that many had to be hunted down like wild animals; some were actually found in the
28
tops of trees; others secreted themselves in swamps and many fled from the locality, coming back only after the emigration had taken place, when they were forwarded as prisoners to their new home in the eastern part of Kansas. Numbers of them found their way back to the reservation, but were ulti- mately returned. A few of this class persisted in returning and never did go back, but spent vagrant lives in the vicinity of the reserve. Much ill feel- ing was aroused by the action of the government in showing marked favoritism toward certain leaders of the tribe including the families of Chief Richard- ville, LaFontaine, Godfrey and Meshingomesia and the brothers of the latter living on the Mississinewa. These were allowed to retain their lands and some were richly rewarded in other ways. It was well understood that this agreement was accomplished through fraud and a collusion on the part of some unprincipled men, chiefs and others of the tribe, who were bought up by grants of lands and money as well, and even is said that Richardville, their tribal chief for half a century, who had taken such an active and questionable part in forcing this treaty upon his people, had to flee to Canada and’ remain there until the excitement and wrath of his people had died out. Chief Richardville, for his services in this matter, received several sections of the most valuable lands in northern Indiana; not- ably a large tract lying along the St. Marys river four miles southwest of Fort Wayne, upon which the government built him a large and comfortable brick house where he resided until his death.
Many of the Miamis were brought through Fort Wayne on their way to Kansas. In the summer of 1846, five hundred Indians who had been gathered at Peru by the soldiers and placed forcibly on canal boats were brought through the city of Fort Wayne. While the crowd remained here a most disgusting scene was enacted. Conscienceless men provided with a large quantity of whiskey, sold the stuff to the savages, and the last view of them as the boats departed for Cincinnati was one to shame the citi-
29
zens of a supposed enlightened community. The boats conveyed the Indians into the Miami and Erie canal, and then proceeded to Cincinnati, where steamers transported them to their new reservation. The almost complete disappearance of the once powerful Miami Nation is one of the pitiable inci- dents of American history.
In 1814, General William Henry Harrison, writ- ing to the Secretary of State, said: “The Miamis are merely a poor, drunken set diminishing every year, becoming too lazy to hunt, they feel the advan- tage of their annuity.”
During the period of the canal building the In- dians experienced little difficulty in securing whiskey in exchange for their government allowance of mon- ey. Between 1813 and 1830, fully five hundred deaths resulted among the Miamis from murders and accidents resulting from strong drink.
It has been well said that some races of men seem molded in wax, soft and melting, at once plastic and feeble; some, like metals, combine the greatest flexibility with the greatest strength; but the Indian was hewn out of the rock of which you cannot change the form without destroying. Races of in- ferior energy have possessed a power of expansion and assimilation to which he is a stranger, and it is this fixed and rigid quality which has proved his ruin. He will not learn the arts of civilization and he and his forest must perish together. The stern unchanging features of his mind excite our admira- tion from their very immutability, and we look with deep interest on the fate of this irreclaimable son of the wilderness, the child who will not be weaned from the breast of his rugged mother. And our interest increases when we discern in the unhappy wanderer, mingled among his vices, the germs of heroic virtues. A hand bountiful to bestow as it is rapacious to seize, and, even in extremest famine, imparting its last morsel to a fellow sufferer; a heart which is as strong in friendship as in hate thinks it not too much to lay down life for its chos- en comrade; a soul true to its own order of honor
30
and burning with an unquenchable thirst for great- ness and renown.
“They waste us ah! like the April snow In the warm noon we shrink away And fast they follow as we go Toward the setting day *Till they shall fill the land and we Are driven into the western sea.” —Bryant.
No doubt the stoicism and lack of adaptability manifested by the Indian has been largely respon- ~ gible for his slowness in adopting the progressive ways of the whites. And account for the fact that his descendants today number but about three hun- dred thousand (300,000) when they might have been counted by the million.
Parkman represents the Jesuit missionaries in Canada two centuries ago as testifying that the Indian has a more acute instinct than the peasants in France. At his best, however, the Red Man was but the child of the forest, and in the presence of the Pale Faces, was not destined to survive. His was a doomed and passing race, meeting a fate it could not endure. One reason assigned for this, is that which was given by a very thoughtful Indian in a speech on a certain occasion long ago in the presence of a company of government agents on the beach at Mackinac Island. Said he very refiective- ly, “The White Man no sooner came than he thought of preparing the way for his posterity. The Red Man never thought of that.” In this profound ob- servation is embodied one of the latest deductions in social philosophy. Of course in thus speaking of the Indians reference is had to manifestations of their mental character as seen in the early days, and not the Indian life and character at the present time.
Il. KE-KI-ON-GA “THE GLORIOUS GATE.”
At the advent of the French in the latter part of the seventeenth century the Miami Confederacy was probably the most powerful in the region be- tween Lake Michigan and the Ohio river and kept in awe the crafty Iroquois below Lake Erie and Ontario on the east and the powerful Sioux of the upper Mississippi on the west. It is said that their. chieftain at this time had a bodyguard of forty war- riors and could lead into battle an army of five thousand men. This powerful Confederacy com- prised the Piankeshaws, whose chief towns were located near the present site of Vincennes; the Weas, whose seat was at Ouiatenon, near the pres- ent site of LaFayette, and the Miamis proper, whose capital was located near the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Marys where they unite to form the Maumee on the present site of Fort Wayne, Ind. This was easily recognized as a_ strategic point, as it was at the head of navigation of the Maumee, some ninety miles from Maumee Bay and was readily reached by trails from the St. Joseph river of Lake Michigan; from the Wabash and the Great Miami and was on the natural water route from Detroit to the above points. At the Treaty of Greene Ville in 1795, Little Turtle spoke of this village as “That glorious gate through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass from the north to the south and from east to the west.”
Kekionga is said to be a corruption of Kiskakon, the name of a tribal subdivision of the Ottawas, who had a village here before the Miamis. At that early date the Maumee was likewise known as the Ottawa river on account of its control by the tribe of that name. How long it had been a tribal seat
31
o2
ean only be conjectured, when we recall the state- ment of Meshikinnoqua at Greene Ville concerning certain lands along the Scioto and Miami which he claimed had been enjoyed by his forefathers ‘‘from time immemorial without molestation or dispute.” At the advent of the White Man Kekionga was sur- rounded by gardens, orchards and extensive corn- fields, which were considered remarkable and indi- cated long occupancy. Tradition says that LaSalle visited this point with a company of some thirty companions, consisting of French soldiers, lieuten- ants and assistants and two Indian guides, in the spring of 1679 or 1680. These men had been en- gaged in exploring probably a decade before arriv- ing at this point, having visited Indian settlements in Canada along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa riv- ers; in Michigan, on the shores of Lake Huron and St. Clair and the Detroit river, besides points along the southwestern shore of Lake Erie.
Big Horn is said to have been the Miami chief at this time. It is probable that a trading post had been established here as early as 1719. Captain Vineennes, the founder of Vincennes, Ind., is cred- ited with erecting a French fort about 1734, on the southern bank of the Maumee, a little below where the St. Mary and St. Joseph unite to form this stream. This post was probably built of large logs cut from the site and laid horizontally with log pick- ets some twenty-five feet long firmly set at the most exposed points. It was appropriately named Fort Miami, as it guarded the capital town of the Miamis located on the river of the same name.
The early years of French occupation seem to have been a period of peace. In fact we hear but little concerning this post until near the close of the French and Indian War—perhaps in 1762— when it seems to have been abandoned and replaced by an English fort on the east side of the St. Jos- eph. This latter fort was probably built by the French and taken over by the British about 1760, who placed Ensign Holmes in. charge of it. All went well until the spring of 1763, when Pontiac,
Se
SIs)
the Ottawa, formed a conspiracy to surprise and take the English outposts on the lower lakes and frontiers, including Fort Miami. The Miamis had been a party to the great conspiracy and openly de- nounced the English. Hence, we are not surprised to learn that the English commandant was marked for destruction. Through constraint an Indian maiden, for whom Holmes had found an attach- ment, and in whom he placed confidence, was sent into the post on May 27, with the request that he come out to assist with medical aid a squaw who was lying sick in a hut without the garrison. Fol- lowing the girl a few paces outside the enclosure he was treacherously shot down while approaching the wigwam in which the fictitious sick squaw lay. A sergeant, attracted by the shots, unguardedly stepped outside the fort to investigate the cause and was immediately seized and made a captive. Seeing the desperate situation the handful of defenders threw open the gates and surrendered. Fort Miami again passes into obscurity until the fall of 1780, when one Augustus de la Balme suddenly appeared with fifty or a hundred freebooters on their way to Detroit. From meager historical data it seems that LaBalme was a Frenchman who came over with LaFayette in 1779, to fight in the Revolution. How- ever, we find him in the summer of 1780, in Kas- kaskia and Vincennes quietly enlisting a volunteer company of daring frontiersmen with the view of surprising Kekionga, and, if successful in this ven- ture, extending operations to Detroit, then in the hands of the British. The success of Clark in tak- ing Vincennes a few months previously, no doubt, lent inspiration to the adventure and made recruit- ing comparatively easy. Whether he was moved by patriotic impulse or bent on plunder seems to be a matter of conjecture. Following the valley of the Wabash by a quick and cautious march he passed Ouiatenon and appeared unexpectedly at Kekionga. The panic stricken inhabitants, including some six or eight French traders, fled without resistance. leaving LaBalme plunder the village at will. In a
short time the freebooters had sacked the village and burned the buildings of Beaubien, LaFontaine and other traders together with some stores of food and supplies as they could not apply to their needs. After tarrying a day or so they proceeded westward a few miles and encamped on Aboit creek, a branch of the Wabash, awaiting reinforcements before ad- vancing to Detroit. It is said that one of LaBalme’s objects was to seize Beaubien who was the general partisan of the Miamis. The French traders, how- ever, were greatly incensed by this unwarranted and dastardly raid and soon incited the Indians of the
ee
SESSA ELE CRAMER "
THE ABOITE RIVER MASSACRE From an old print. Little Turtle’s First Victory, 1780.
neighborhood to retaliate. After ascertaining the number and equipment of LaBalme’s forces the Miamis, under the leadership of the crafty Little Turtle, then probably under thirty years of age, surrounded the imperfectly guarded encampment and fell upon it in the night time and massacred the entire party with the exception of a man by the name of Rhys, who was captured and delivered to the British officers in Canada. The Indians, it seems, having learned that LaBalme’s men were Frenchmen, were not disposed at first to avenge the
1600271 he
attack, but the traders, Beaubien (who had married the widow of Chief Joseph Drouet de Richardville, the mother of the late Chief of the nation, Joseph B. Richardville) and LaFontaine (father of the late Miami Chief LaFontaine), incited them to the deed. Here the sagacious mind of Little Turtle foreshad- owed his future greatness, as the morning foretells the day.
It seems that Little Turtle’s time was employed during the decade immediately following 1780, as a leader in various war expeditions against different parts of the frontier, especially Ohio river points and the outposts of Kentucky. In one of these ex- peditions he captured a boy about eleven years of age by the name of William Wells, whom he adopted.
Kekionga again lapsed into comparative quietude while the great drama of conquest and expansion was being enacted by the American Colonies east of the Alleghenies. The close of the Revolution, in 1783, gave an impetus to frontier activity as the eyes of prospective emigrants turned north of the Ohio, and attempts were soon made to realize the visions and ambition of the Ohio company and other organ- izations of prospectors formed before the war.
The first permanent settlement of the Northwest Territory was made on the seventh of April, 1788, at Marietta, by General Rufus Putman, heading a company of forty-seven emigrants.
Cincinnati was settled on December 28, 1788. The next year was famous in the history of western emigration, as no less than twenty thousand per- sons, men, women and children, passed the mouth of the Muskingum river during the season on their journey down the Ohio river. In a very short time a territorial government was established at Mari- etta, with General Arthur St. Clair as Governor.
The Treaty of Paris in 1783, following the Amer- ican Revolutionary War, did not bring peace with the Indian tribes of the Northwest. The British meanwhile kept on good terms with the Indians, intrigued with them and encouraged them in their
36
hostilities against the Americans, which continued with savage fury. Murderous incursions by the Miamis and Confederate tribes from the Maumee and western countries were frequently attended with savage cruelties. The government decided up- on immediate aggressive movements. To delay was only to encourage the Indians in their obstinancy,
GENERAL JOSIAH HARMAR.
and the British in their unscrupulous work of feed- ing, clothing and equipping the Indians for their depredations against the Americans.
In the Indian War in the west the Miamis were the principal central power. Occuping with their confederates the valleys of the Wabash and the Miami of the Lakes they stretched like an impossi-
FS end -)
ble line between Lake Erie and the lower Ohio, and were a complete bar to the settlement of the west.
The outrages, they in connection with the Shaw- nees and Delawares committed, and the threatening aspect they assumed led eventually to the various campaigns at separate periods of Generals Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne.
The first army in this Indian War organized by the general government was placed under command of General Josiah Harmar, a soldier of the Revolu- tion. Arrangements having been completed he left Fort Washington September 30, 1790, with one thousand one hundred and fifty-three men, compris- ing three hundred and twenty regulars and one thousand one hundred and thirty-three militia and drafted men. The entire force comprised three bat- talions of Kentucky militia under Majors Hall, Mc- Mullen and Ray, with Lieutenant-Colonel Trotter in command; one battalion of Pennsylvania militia un- der Lieutenant-Colonel Traby and Major Paul; one battalion of mounted riflemen commanded by Major James Fontaine together with two battalions of reg- ulars under Majors Wyllys and Doughty and a com- pany of artillery with three brass pieces of ordnance commanded by Captain William Ferguson.
After treaty upon treaty had been made and broken and the frontiers had been suffering through this whole period from the tomahawk and scalping knife, the new American government dispatched these regular troops, enlisted in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the force of drafted militia from Pennsylvania and Kentucky to the frontiers under General Harmar, with Col. John Hardin, of Ken- tucky, in charge of the militia. The army comprised many boys and infirm men, who had been sent as substitutes, and were unfit for the hard service be- fore them. On account of hasty assemblage they were also poorly equipped and drilled. The orders to General Harmar were to march on to the Indian towns adjacent the lakes, and to inflict on them such signal chastisement as should protect the settle- ments from future depradations.
38
The militia advanced up the Mill Creek valley on September 26th, and the main army followed on the 30th, making seven miles, and encamping for the night on a branch of Mill Creek, course northeast. Eight miles more were made the second day on a general course of northwest, the army encamping on another branch of Mill Creek. On the third day a march of fifteen miles was made, the course being generally north and the encampment on the waters of Muddy Creek, a tributary of the Little Miami river. On the morning of October 3d, Colonel Har- din, with the militia were overtaken and passed; and, halting at Turtle creek one mile further on, the whole army encamped for the night.
On the 4th of October the army reached and crossed the Little Miami on a northeast course, moving up it one mile to a branch called Sugar or Caesar’s creek, near Waynesville, where they en- camped having accomplished nine miles that day. Next day a march of ten miles still on a northeast course brough the army to Glade creek, near the present site of Xenia, Ohio. On the 6th, it reached Chillicothe, an old Indian village, now Oldtown, and crossed the Little Miami again, keeping a northeast course, making nine miles that day. Next day the troops crossed Mad river, then called the Pickaway fork of the Great Miami, between the present sites of Dayton and Springfield, Ohio, and made nine miles; their course for the first time becoming west of north. On the 8th, pursing a northwest course they crossed Honey creek, and made seven miles more. On the next day, they followed the same course marching ten miles, encamped within two miles of the Great Miami; next day the army crossed that stream above the present site of Piqua, Ohio, keeping still a northwest course and made ten miles more. On the 11th, by a course west of north, it passed the ruins of a French trading station, marked on Hutchin’s map as Twightwees (or Mi- amis), and encamped there after making eleven miles. Next day the army kept a course most of northwest, near Loramie’s creek and across the
39
headwaters of the Auglaize. Here they found the remains of a considerable village, some of the houses being still standing; fourteen miles made this day. Following the old Indian and French portage to the St. Marys river (near St. Marys, Ohio), and on towards the Miami villages. On the 13th they marched ten miles, keeping west of northwest, and encamped, being joined by a reinforcement from Cincinnati with ammunition. Next day, the 14th, Colonel Hardin was detached with one company of regulars and six hundred militia in advance of the main body, being charged with the destruction of towns in the forks of the Maumee. On the arrival of this advance party, they found the towns aban- doned by the Indians and the principal ones burnt.
The main body marched on the 14th, ten miles, and on the 15th eight more; both days on a north- west course. Next day made nine miles, same course, and on the 17th, crossed the Maumee river to the Indian village; formed a junction again with Hardin at the Miami village; this was the same town burned and abandoned by the savages. On the day of Harmayr’s junction with Hardin two Indians were discovered by a scouting party as they were crossing a prairie. The scouts pursued them and shot one; the other making his escape. A young man named Johnson, seeing that the Indian was not dead, attempted to shoot him again, but his pistol failing to fire, the Indian raised his rifle and shot Johnson through the body, which proved fatal. This night the Indian succeeded in driving through the lines between fifty and one hundred horses and bore them off to the mortification of the whites. This same day, October 17th, was employed in search- ing in the hazel thickets for hidden treasurers and much corn was found buried in the earth.
On the evening of this day Captains McClure and McClary fell upon a strategem peculiar to back- woodsmen. They conveyed a horse a short distance down the river undiscovered, fetterd him, un- _ strapped the bell tongue, and concealed themselves, with their rifle. The Indian attracted by the
40
sound of the bell, came cautiously up and began to untie him, when McClure shot him. The report of the gun alarmed the camp and brought many of the troops to the place.
A young man taken prisoner at Loramie was brought to see the Indian just killed and pronounced him to be Captain Punk-great-man, Delaware Chief.
The army burned all the houses and destroyed about twenty thousand bushels of corn, which they discovered in various places where it had been hid- den by the Indians, a large quantity having been found buried in holes dug for that purpose. In this destruction a variety of property belonging to French traders was included.
The 18th was spent in a fruitless attempt to locate the Indians. On the 19th Colonel Hardin led a de- tachment of three hundred men, including a small number of regulars. They followed along an Indian trail to the northwest for about fifteen miles, or to within one mile of the present village of Churubusco, Indiana, and to within five miles of the Little Tur- tle’s famous village.
Through the neglect of Colonel Hardin to give command to move forward, Falkner’s company was left in the rear, possibly a mile or more. The ab- sence of Falkner at the time became apparent. Ma- jor Fontaine, with a portion of the calvary, was at once sent in pursuit of him with the supposition that he was lost. At this time the report of a gun in front of the detachment fell upon the attentive ear of Captain Armstrong, in command of the regu- lars. When Armstrong informed Colonel Hardin that the fires of the Indians had been discerned, the latter believed that the Indians would not fight, and rode in front of the advancing columns. The de- tachment was soon fired on from ambuscade, both skillfully designed and vigorously executed by the skill and genius of the commanding Miami Chief, Little Turtle, at the head of not more than one hundred and fifty warriors. The Indians on this occasion gained a complete victory, having killed nearly one hundred men. The enemy pursued until
Al
Major Fontaine, who had been sent to hunt up Falk- ner and his company, returning with them com- pelled them to retire, and the survivors of the de- tachment arrived safe in camp. The real strength of the Indians was in a well chosen position and in the cowardice of the militia, who threw away their arms without even firing a shot.
This destructive engagement was fought near the spot where the Goshen State Road now crosses Eel river, near or still beyond Hellers corner, about twelve or fifteen miles northwest of Fort Wayne. Captain Armstrong broke through the pursuing In- dians and plunged into the depth of the morass, where he remained to his chin all night in the mud and water, his head concealed by a tussock of high grass. Here he was compelled to listen to the noc- turnal orgies of the Indians dancing and yelling around the dead bodies of his brave soldiers. Event- ually the Indians retired and Armstrong, chilled to the last degree, extricated himself from the swamp, but found himself obliged to kindle a fire in a ravine into which he crawled, having his tender box, watch and compass still on his person. By the aid of the fire he recovered his feeling, and the use of his limbs and at last reached the camp in safety. For some years after the site of this sanguinary con- flict was settled by the whites, bayonets were picked up and bullets were cut out of the neighboring trees in such quantities as to attest the desperate charae- ter of this engagement.
Little Turtle still recruited his Indian army, and slowly followed the trail to near Harmar’s encamp- ment, which was still located at the old Miami vil- lage site at the head of the Maumee.
On the evening of the 21st of October, at 10 o’clock, General Harmar, without calling a council, left camp and started on his return to Fort Wash- ington. Little Turtle, who was immediately ap- praised of this fact, was in possession of the old Miami village early on the morning of the 22d.
Colonel Hardin, surmising that the Indians had returned to the burned village, solicited General
42
Harmar to let him return and inflict a more severe chastisement upon them. The request was granted, and Colonel Hardin, with Major Wyllys, was sent back with a detachment of four hundred men; they too soon became entangled in the snares of the wily Little Turtle, who, on the point of land between the St. Joseph and the Maumee, inflicted another serious defeat to the American arms.
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HARMAR'S BATTLEFIELD October 22, 1790.
Majors Hall and Fontaine, with a detachment of militia, were to pass around the village at the head of the Maumee, cross the St. Marys and the St. Joseph, gain the rear of the Indian encampment unobserved, and await an attack by the main body of the troops in front.
Those consisting of Major McMullin’s battalion and the regulars under Major Wyllys were to cross the Maumee at the usual ford and thus surround the
ee eee
43
savages. The game was spoiled by the imprudence of Major Hall, who fired prematurely upon a soli- tary Indian and alarmed the encampment. The startled Indians were instantly seen flying in differ- ent directions. The militia under Major Hall, and the cavalry under Fontaine, who had crossed the river, started in pursuit in disobedience of orders, leaving the regulars under Wyllys, who had also crossed the Maumee, unsupported. The latter was attacked by Little Turtle, and the main body of the Indians and driven back with great slaughter.
Richardville, a half-blood about ten or twelve years of age, was in the battle, and in later life often asserted that he could have crossed the stream upon the bodies dryshod. This man succeeded Little Tur- tle as Chief, and died at Fort Wayne in 1840.
The above statement is from Lossing’s Field Book of the War 1812, who visited Fort Wayne in 1860.
We also have another statement by this same Richardville, taken from ‘‘Brice’s History of Fort Wayne.” His recollection of the way the Indians stole along the bank of the river near the point long since known as Harmar’s ford was most thrilling. Not a man among the Indians, said he, was to fire a gun until the warriors under Harmar had gained the stream and were about to cross. Then the red men in the bushes, with rifles leveled and ready for action just as the detachment of Harmar began to near the center of the Maumee, opened a sudden and deadly fire in the stream, until the river was literally strewn from bank to bank with the slain, one upon the other, both horses and men, and the water ran red with blood. While this was going on at the ford, Majors Hall and Fontaine were skirmishing with parties of Indians a short distance up the St. Joseph. .
Fontaine, with a number of his followers, fell at the head of his mounted militia in making a charge. He was shot dead, and as he fell from his horse was immediately scalped. The remainder, ~ with those under Hall and Fontaine, fell back in
44
confusion towards the ford of the Maumee and followed the remnant of the regulars in their re- treat.
Major George Adams, who afterward lived and died in Darke county, Ohio, was with the mounted militia under Major Fontaine at the time of his tragic death; and when he found that his troops did not charge as a unit with him, he called out to Adams, “Stick to me, my brave fellow.”
Adams was wounded five times and carried on stretchers between two horses back to Fort Wash- ington and a grave was dug for him three suc- ceeding evenings, thinking it impossible for him to live until morning.
We have the above statement from the excellent paper by George Katzenberger on “Major Adams” published in the “‘Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society’s Reports,” Vol. 22, page 529. Also by John Wharry, “History of Darke County,” published 1880.
The Indians, who suffered a heavy loss, did not pursue. General Harmar at about this time, it seems, had lost all confidence in the militia and de- cided to return to Fort Washington at once. A con- siderable number of the regulars of General Har- mar’s army had followed Washington and other generals in the War of the Revolution. Harmar, in these engagements, lost near two hundred men.
The slain of this little army were buried in the low bank near the ford of the Maumee on the present site of Fort Wayne, Ind.
The father of Robert Gavin, now eighty years old, who lives on Harmar and Liberty streets, Fort Wayne, remembers the cut in the south bank of Maumee river where General Harmar descended to the Maumee ford. His father pointed out to him when a boy the identical spot, which can still be seen. His father cleared this bottom land and raised the first corn crop on it. The graves of Har- mar’s slain were all sunken in and his father filled them up and leveled the ground so as to farm over them with convenience. Here the bones of General
45
Harmar’s heroes had lain until the coming of An- thony Wayne, when by his order, what could still be found, were collected and decently interred.
The writer recently viewed the location of Har- mar’s ford, which lies at the foot of Harmar street, Fort Wayne. It shows no sign of blood and carnage today. General Harmar was forced to struggle homeward to Fort Washington as best he could, a greatly disappointed commander. It was indeed a dreary march.
This is a recent photograph of the exact location of Harmar’s Ford at the foot of Harmar Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Taken August 3, 1913. A small section of the Maumee and the adjacent banks, three-fourths of a mile East of the Court House, marking the site of the slaughter of the troops of General Josiah Harmar, October 22, 1790, by the Miamis and Chief Little Turtle.
General Harmar resigned his commission the fol- lowing January and was made Adjutant General of Pennsylvania in 1798, in which position he later rendered good service in furnishing troops for Gen- eral Wayne’s army. He predicted defeat for Gen- eral St. Clair’s army, which was being gathered with great labor in 1791 to operate along the Maumee river. This prediction of General Harmar before
the army set out on its fateful campaign was
founded upon his own experience and positive knowledge of conditions. He saw with what ma- terial the army was being formed—men collected from the streets and prisons of the cities, hurried out into the enemy’s country, and with their com- manding officers totally unacquainted with the busi- ness in which they were engaged. Besides, not any one department was sufficiently prepared, both the contractors and quartermasters extremely de- ficient. It was utterly impossible, under these cir- cumstances, to accomplish the design of the new ex- pedition.
It was a matter of astonishment to General Har- mar that the commanding general, St. Clair, who was acknowledged to be totally incompetent, should think of hazarding with such people and under such circumstances his reputation and life, and the lives of so many others, knowing, too, as both did, the enemy with whom he was going to contend—an enemy brought up from infancy to war, and perhaps superior to an equal number of the best men that could be taken against them. It is a truth that St. Clair had hopes that the noise and show which the army made on the march might deter the enemy from attempting a serious, general attack.
General Harmar, after his retirement from office, lived in comparative obscurity for some years on the banks of the Schuykill and died about 1803. The funeral was conducted with great military pomp, his horse being draped in mourning and led in the pro- cession. His sword and pistols were laid upon his coffin, which was borne upon a bier, hearses not being in use in those days.
“Oh, why does the white man follow my path
Like the hound on the raccoon’s track?
Does the flush on my dark cheek ’waken his wrath? Does he covet the bow on my back?
He has rivers and seas where the billows and breeze Bear riches for him alone,
And the sons of the wood never plunge in the flood Which the white man calls his own.”
Anonymous.
ee ee
Le ST. CLAIR’S EXPEDITION.
Soon after Harmar’s expedition the frontier set- tlements of western Pennsylvania and along the Ohio river were again attacked, and terror spread among the people south of the river. It is esti- mated that the population of the west at this time was between one hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand, scattered in groups—one in southwestern Pennsylvania, two in western Virginia, about Wheeling and the mouth of the Kenawha, and one in Kentucky below the Licking river. These set- tlers had poured in from the eastern states as well
MAJ.-GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR
as from several European countries since the close of the Revolution, being attracted largely by the great fertility of the land and the exceptional busi- ness opportunities. For the most part, they had floated down the Ohio in crude flatboats, but many had come overland by Boone’s celebrated wilderness road. To the hardships of their life in a new, ex- ceedingly rough country, were added the terrors of Indian attacks, inspired by killing, wounding and capturing of more than fifteen hundred men, women and children in Kentucky and vicinity since the peace of 1783. | 47
45
Delegates from several of the exposed counties of Virginia petitioned the governor and the legis- lature of that State authorized him to make tem- porary provision for the protection of the frontier until the United States government should take proper steps in the same direction. Charles Scott, who had served in the Revolution, was appointed brigadier-general of the militia of Kentucky, then a part of Virginia, and was ordered to raise a vol- unteer force to co-operate with several companies of rangers from the western counties and proceed against the Wea villages on the Wabash (near Lafayette, Ind.). Scott chose two Revolutionary compatriots to accompany him on this raid, Colonel James Wilkinson being placed second in command and Colonel John Hardin in charge of the advance guard. The expedition was delayed until May 23, 1791, awaiting the return of Proctor, but, hearing nothing from him by that time, Scott crossed the Qhio at the mouth of the Kentucky with some eight hundred mounted men and arrived at Ouiatenon (Lafayette, Ind.) June Ist. Here he found a vil- lage of some seventy houses, with a number of French inhabitants living in a state of civilization. The village was burned and a large quantity of corn and household goods destroyed. A detachment was sent on foot against Tippecanoe, the most important village, which was also destroyed. The army re- turned with several prisoners, reaching the Ohio in twelve days with the loss of only two men.
On August 1, 1791, Colonel Wilkinson was sent against the Indians of the Eel river with a command of five hundred and twenty-five mounted men. He encountered much difficulty in. his march from Fort Washington on account of the boggy land. Arriv- ing at the mouth of the Eel river, he attacked the village located there, killed a few Indians and cap- tured others. Proceeding to Tippecanoe and Ouia- tenon, the army destroyed the corn which had been planted since Scott’s raid. The army reached the rapids of the Ohio on the 2ist, having marched some four hundred and fifty miles.
ene eng ae a at
AQ
Notwithstanding the loss suffered by the Indians, they became more angry than ever. All the north- western tribes made common cause with the Miamis and banded together in more open warfare, so that the settlers were in constant fear of the tomahawk and scalping knife. The effects of Harmar’s cam- paign both exasperated and encouraged them, and the war whoop resounded through all the tribes. Those Indians who were disposed to be on friendly relations were overpowered by the impetuous flood of savage enthusiasm. All the settlements in the great valley in western Pennsylvania, western Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio were alike menaced. The emi- grants had much more to lose and much more to. dread than the Indians. The farm houses of the settlers were widely scattered. The burning of the frontier villages, with the scalping and torturing of men, women and children, was a horror which no language can exaggerate. To burn the wigwam of a savage was comparatively a light catastrophe. He had no household furniture. A few hours’ labor would restore his hut. He was in no danger, either himself, his wife or his children, of being scalped or tortured.
The perils to which the frontiers were exposed were terrible. In view of them the stoutest heart might quail. But often they found the settlers en- trenching themselves in fort after fort circumscrib- ing their range and cutting them entirely off from their favorite hunting grounds south of the Ohio. There can be no doubt that a determined hostility sprang up in the minds of the savages which all the exertions of the American government failed to allay and soon rendered it apparent that the two races could not live together in amity where it was the policy of one to reclaim the country from the hunter and of the other to keep it a wilderness.
In view of the situation of the frontier, the most earnest petitions were sent to President Washing- ton to authorize the raising of a force sufficiently powerful to protect effectually the frontiers. The President had in person witnessed all the horrors
50
of savage warfare and knew well how to sympathize with those suffering pioneers. He promptly per- suaded Congress, in the session which terminated on the third day of March, 1791, to authorize him to raise a regiment of regulars and two thousand volunteers to serve for six months. Immediate and vigorous measures were adopted for a new cam- paign. In the spring of 1791 the President ap- pointed Governor St. Clair Major General and placed him in command of the army in place of General Harmar, who resigned on his return to Fort Washington. Colonel Richard Butler was pro- moted to the office of General and placed second in
COL. RICHART BUTLER Pennsylvania Killed in Battle St. Clair’s Defeat.
command. The Quartermaster General, Mr. Samuel Hogdon, upon leaving Philadelphia, was furnished by Congress with twenty thousand dollars and Jater with an additional sum of seventeen thousand dol- lars for equipping the new army on the proposed expedition. (The fact that St. Clair had consider- able money with him when in the field is indicated by the testimony of one John Drawbaugh, who was with the army. Several years after the battle on the Wabash the grandfather of the author accom- panied this man to the site west of Lightsville, in northern Darke county, where a large sum of specie had been buried the day before the conflict. Ac-
51
cording to Drawbaugh’s statement, he was one of four privates who accompanied an officer on the secret mission of burying the coin, and all of his companions were killed in battle the next day.— Calvin Young.) These sums were considered amply sufficient at that early date for the purpose desig- nated and seem to indicate that the fathers of the new republic had been schooled in economy and self- sacrifice.
The organizers and leaders of the confederated Indian forces at this juncture were Little Turtle, who, with intelligence, craft and courage, en- deavored to rally the northwestern tribes, together © with Blue Jacket, the great Chief of the Shawnees, and Buckongahelas, Chief of the Delawares. These savages were aided and abetted by the notorious renegades, Simon Girty, Matthew Elliot and Alex- ander McKee, whose council and experience were valuable assets to the untutored Indians in their attempt to drive the white settlers beyond the Ohio.
Chief among these forest heroes whose exploits have made history illustrious was the daring Me- she-kin-no-quah. Gifted with the essential qualities which characterize the men accepted as leaders in civilized communities and nearly exempt from the eccentricities peculiar to his race, his many virtues shown with untarnished luster. Amidst the turmoil of the camp and the vengeful spirit of the times, these Chiefs, in connection with Simon Girty, Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliot and other rene- gades, headed a band of warriors whose discipline had probably never been equaled in Indian warfare. Nothing but a decisive blow by a large and well organized force could quell the uprising being for- mulated by these leaders. The poet well describes the situation at this time when he says:
“They rise by stream and yellow shore, By meadow, moor and fen, By weedy rock and torrents’ roar And lonesome forest glen.
“From many a weedy, moss-grown mound Start forth a war-worn band, As when of old they caught the sound Of hostile arms and closed around To guard their native land.” —Anonymous.
The Indians, at the instigation of the British, contended for the Ohio river as the boundary line of the United States. To get control of the upper lakes and the valuable fur trade around them was.a favorite scheme of the British statesmen. It was proposed by the British commissioners who nego- tiated the treaty of peace in 1814, as an indis- pensable requirement, that the Indians inhabiting that portion of the United States within the limits established by the treaty of 1783 should be included, as the allies of Great Britain, in the projected pacifi- cation, and that the boundaries be settled for Indian territory upon a basis which would have operated to surrender to a number of Indians, not to exceed a few thousand, the right of sovereignty as well as soil over nearly one-third of the territorial do- minion of the United States inhabited by more than one hundred thousand of its citizens. When the British left Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, New York, November 25, 1783, they left their flag flying. It was believed that the absence of British authority in the United States would be only tem- porary, hence the continuation of the Indian wars in the northwest at their behest.
The final war of 1812 is justly termed the second war for American independence. This war gave to every true-born American an idea of absolute in- dependence from British thraldom. Hence, Elihu Slocum, says truly, “The war of 1775-1783 —be- tween the United Colonies and Great Britain was revolutionary; the war of 1812-1814 between the United States and Great Britain was the war of independence.”
When, after many vexatious delays and disap- pointments, St. Clair’s army commenced its march
53
into the wilderness from Ludlow’s Station on Sep- tember 17, 1791, the obstructions were so great that its progress was very slow. Twenty-four miles north of Fort Washington (Cincinnati, Ohio) they erected a strong blockhouse on the eastern bank of the Great Miami river, leaving a small garrison at this place. St. Clair named this post Fort Hamil- ton. Continuing slowly northward forty-four miles, the army arrived at a beautiful camp site and on October 12th, soon built Fort Jefferson. On the 24th another advance of six miles was made. Shortly after leaving Fort Jefferson, one of the militia regiments, with their usual disregard to discipline, determined that it was inexpedient to proceed farther, and, detaching themselves from the main body, returned rapidly to the fort on their way home. General St. Clair was daily expecting the arrival of provisions in a caravan of wagons. Apprehensive that the deserters might seize and plunder these wagons, he hastily detached quite a large force of the first regiment to pursue the de- serters and attack them, if necessary, and rescue and protect the wagons. These various operations so diminished his forces that his main army now consisted of but fourteen hundred men. His march became toilsome and difficult; the dreary month of November had come with its storms of wind and rain; the route in a northwest direction led through a wet, marshy, inhospitable region covered with a dense forest. There was no road through these gloomy wilds; the axe had to be incessantly in use in felling the trees, often of gigantic size, and in removing stumps to open a passage for the baggage wagons and artillery.
The heavily laden wheels often sank to their hubs. General St. Clair was aged, infirm, and was suffer- ing severely from the gout. It indicated a want of judgment in him under those circumstances to have undertaken the leadership in so arduous a campaign. And it cannot be denied that he was entirely out- generaled by the Indian Chiefs.
On the third of November the army reached a
54
point about one hundred miles north of Fort Wash- ington. They were still fifty miles from the Indian towns on the Maumee river which was their intend- ed destination. It was a dismal day, with chilling winds and the ground covered with snow. The weary and water-soaked soldiers had cut their way through an almost pathless forest and approached a creek about thirty-five feet wide, which proved
SCALE 160 YARDS TO THE INCH
PLAN OF ST. CLAIR’S CAMP AND BATTLE
to be the headwaters of the Wabash river. There was a small, elevated meadow on the east banks of this stream, while a dense forest spread gloomily all around. Here General St. Clair took up his en- campment for the night. The militia encamped across the creek, a distance of about three hundred yards, intending to throw up some slight works on the morrow for the purpose of protecting their knapsacks and baggage. During the evening St.
5D
Clair discussed the plan of the proposed work with Major Ferguson of the engineers, expecting to move upon the Miami village as soon as the first regi- ment should rejoin them. The troops were en- camped in two lines with an interval of seventy yards, which was all the nature of the ground would permit. The battalions of Majors Butler, Clark and Patterson composed the front line, which was under the orders of General Butler, an officer of high and merited reputation. The second line was composed of the battalions of Majors Gaither and Bedinger, and the second regiment under the command of Lieu- tenant Colonel Darke. The front and right flanks
LIEUT. COL. WILLIAM DARKE
A hero of St. Clair’s defeat, after whom Darke County, Ohio, was named.
were protected by the creek, the left flank by a steep bank, Faulkner’s corps and some infantry. Skilled in the use of the axe, they speedily cut down trees and built roaring fires in the intervening space which illuminated the forest far and wide and en- abled both parties to cook their suppers and enjoy the genial warmth. Few scouts were sent out, for all were nearly perishing with cold and weariness, and there were no indications whatever that a-foe was at hand in any forceful number. But the cun-
26
ning Little Turtle and a large number of savages were in the forests nearby watching every move- ment and selecting their positions behind trees, from which, unseen and protected, the bullet could be sent with unerring aim upon their foe huddled together without any shelter. The night passed quietly away, but through its long hours the savages, unseen and with the silent tread of the panther, were making their preparations for the slaughter.
It seems that Little Turtle was watching with an eagle’s restless eye for another opportunity to strike the American army. The coming victory over St. Clair was clearly the result, not of overwhelming numbers, but of superior generalship.
WAYNE STREET, FORT RECOVERY
The principal site of St. Clair’s engagement was along this street, a short distance north of this scene. The low place in the picture marks the site of the ravine which bounded St. Clair’s camp on the south and afforded shelter for the Indians.
Here on the banks of the Wabash, about daylight on the morning of the 4th of November, 1791, Little Turtle assailed St. Clair’s army, in front, on both flanks and finally the rear.
Early in the morning the militia on the opposite side of the creek were in thoughtless confusion pre- paring their breakfast when the yell of a thousand savages fell upon their ears, followed by the report of musketry and a deadly discharge of bullets, scarcely one of which missed its aim. The slaughter
a7
was so dreadful that the panic-stricken militia fled instantly and with the utmost precipitation. Many of them did not stop to pick up their guns, but plunged pell mell through the creek, broke resist- lessly through the first line and stopped, a:tumultu- ous, helpless mass, at the second. All this was the work of but a few minutes. And now the little army, huddled together in terror-stricken confusion, were exposed to a deadly fire from every direction, no foe being visible except when here and there a warrior darted from the protection of one tree to another. Colonel Darke was in command of the second line of regulars when the flight of the militia was arrested. He succeeded in forming his line and
This is a view of Fort Recovery at the present time, showing Wabash river and location of General St. Clair’s artillery during the battle of November 4, 1791
charged into the forest. The wary Indians in that portion of the circumference retired before him, while a storm of bullets from all around was rapidly striking down his men. As Darke again drew back to his position the Indians followed like the closing in of the waves of the sea. It seems a large party of Indian sharpshooters had been especially de- signed to attack the artillerymen. In a short time every man at the guns had been shot down. Not an hour elapsed from the commencement of the con- flict before one-half of the men of St. Clair’s army were either killed or wounded and most of the horses were shot. Our artillery being now silent,
58
all of the officers killed except Captain Ford, who was badly wounded, more than half the army fallen, and, being cut off from the road, it became necessary . to attempt the regaining it and to make a retreat, if possible. To this purpose the remnants of the army were formed as well as circumstances would admit towards the right of the encampment, from which, by the way of the second line, another charge was made upon the enemy, as if with the design to turn their right flank, but, in fact, to gain the road. This was affected and as soon as it was open the militia entered, followed by the troops. Major Clark with his battalion covered the retreat. Under these circumstances the remnant of the army was hurled headlong down the trail southward for a distance of four or five miles with terrible slaughter by the victorious and triumphant Indian warriors.
No such defeat at the hands of the Red men had heretofore occurred in American history, not even that of General Braddock in 1775. Down to the pres- ent time it has only been surpassed once, viz, the disastrous defeat of General Custer on the Big Horn June 25, 1876.
The rout continued quite to Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles. The action began about half an hour before sunrise and the retreat was at- tempted at half past nine o’clock. St. Clair’s defeat was described by one Mr. Thomas Irwin, a wagoner in the army, in a diary which he kept at the time. The battle always reminded him of a furious thunder storm that comes up rapidly and soon dis- appears, leaving havoc and desolation in its path. This Mr. Irwin now has descendants in Greenville, Ohio, one of whom assisted in the unveiling of the stone marker at the centennial of the signing of the Wayne treaty August 3, 1895.
In this dreadful disaster the Indians killed over seven hundred of St. Clair’s army, took seven pieces of cannon, two hundred oxen, a great number of horses and. a few prisoners. Most of the wounded on the immediate battlefield were tomahawked and scalped. The Indians lost sixty-six warriors. The
59
loss to the Americans is said to have been greater than that of any battle of the Revolution. The morning of St. Clair’s defeat the boom of cannon was heard by the returning detachment thirty miles away. ‘They were marching post haste to the relief of the army on the field of battle when they were met by the flying fugitives two or three miles north of the present city of Greenville, Ohio.
Among those engaged in this disastrous battle was a gentleman from New Jersey, Captain Littell, with his step-son, Stephen. The Captain had been aman of war from his youth. He had been engaged in thirteen skirmishes with the Indians and had — gained much reputation in the battles at Brandy- wine and Germantown. Having been unfortunate in business, he had turned his attention to the new lands in the west. His son, who had accompanied him, had just attained his majority. The Captain, thinking that as a member of St. Clair’s expedition he would have a fine opportunity of exploring the country, applied for a commission. Being too late in his application, both he and his son enlisted in the ranks. He entertained the supposition, which, unfortunately, was very general, that there would be no fighting. It was thought that the Indians, appalled by the approach of so formidable a force, would not only make no resistance, but would throw down their arms and be for peace. The company to which Littell and his son attached themselves was composed mainly of young men from New Jersey, most of whom had come out for the purpose of viewing the country. This company was esteemed one of the best military corps. It was stationed in the advance upon the other side of the creek where the savages commenced their onset. Captain Littell, being hotly engaged in the fight, was not aware of the order to retreat until the enemy was all around him. With the gleaming tomahawks of the savages almost over his head, he sprang forward to cross the stream. As he leaped down the precipitous bank he stumbled and fell into a hollow of mud and water and thus escaped the shower of bullets
60
whisking all around him. The pursuing Indians, supposing him to be shot dead and that they could return at their pleasure for his scalp, rushed by for other victims. Fortunately, the Captain was some- what screened from observation by the rank grass and dense underbrush which fringed the stream. His boots were filled with water, thus rendering rapid flight impossible. As he was emptying his boots and making preparations for escape he was discovered by a solitary Indian, who, supposing him to be helplessly wounded, rushed incautiously toward him to take his scalp. He stumbled over some slight impediment and Captain Littell, spring- ing up, plunged his sword to the hilt in his bosom. The savage dropped dead into the water. The Cap- tain then fled into the forest. After two days of solitary wandering and much suffering he reached Fort Jefferson in safety.
The escape of his son, Stephen, was still more re- markable. At the commencement of the battle he was at the extreme advance. Being unable to keep up with his comrades in their precipitated flight, he sprang aside and hid in a dense thicket. The yelling savages rushed by in their hot pursuit. The Indians were thus soon between him and the rest of the troops. Here he remained for some time in dread- ful suspense as the roar of the battle died away in the distance, the Indians being in full chase of the flying army. He then ventured slowly forward until he reached the scene of the night’s encampment. Awful was the scene presented to him there. The bodies of the seven or eight hundred killed and wounded encumbered the ground. It was a cold, frosty morning. The scalped heads presented a very revolting spectacle, a peculiar vapor ascended from them all. Many of these poor creatures were still alive. Groans assembled from all sides. Sev- eral of the wounded, knowing that as soon as the savages returned they would be doomed to death by torture, implored young Littell to put an end to their misery. This he refused to do. Seeing among the dead, one who bore a strong resemblance to his
ee a
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father he was in the act of turning over the body to examine the features when the exultant and ter- rific shouts of the returning savages fell upon his ear, and already he could see through the forests the plumed warriors rushing back. It so chanced that an evergreen tree of very dense foliage had been felled near where he stood. It was his only possible escape. He sprang into the tree and turned its branches as well as he could around him. Scarcely had he done this than the savages came bounding upon the ground like so many demons. Im- mediately they commenced their fiend-like acts of torture upon all the wounded. One of their principal © amusements was to bind a captive to a tree and see how near his head they could throw their toma- hawks without killing him. If the cruel weapon chanced to strike the cheek or the brow, bringing forth the gushing blood, it only brought forth the shouts of merriment, giving additional zest to the game. One of their tomahawks thus thrown came so near the tree where Stephen was concealed that he could have stooped forward and picked it up. As the savage sprang to get it, Littell felt sure that his keen eye was fixed upon him and he had doubted not that his dreadful doom was sealed. The Indian, fortunately, did not see him, but caught up the mur- derous weapon and sank it to the hilt in the brain of the victim he was torturing.
The scenes he continued to witness were more awful than the imagination could possibly conceive. Here our subject remained until a suitable time ar- rived for him to make his escape, which he did, the only one left to tell the sad story of the awful battle- field.
Incredible as it may seem, it is stated that there were two hundred and fifty women among the camp followers in this campaign. This can only be ac- counted for upon the supposition that they, with the rest of the community, imagined there would be no fighting, that a treaty of friendship would be made with the Indians, and that garrisons would be estab- lished under whose protection they, with their hus-
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bands, might find new homes. Fifty-six of them were killed and they were tortured, if possible, even more fiendishly than the men. Some accounts say: “That two hundred of these women fell victims to savage barbarity.”
One woman was running with her babe, but one year old, in her arms, and, in utter exhaustion, as she was about to fall by the wayside she threw her wailing child into the snow. The Indians picked up the babe, spared its life and took it to Sandusky, where it was brought up as one of the tribe. There was a tall woman with streaming red hair known as Red Headed Nance, who kept in advance of all the fugitives and eventually reached Fort Washing- ton (Cincinnati, Ohio), where she lived until a ripe old age. Years afterward she would tell of the great difficulty she had in saving her scalp at the time of St. Clair’s defeat.
The bodies of some of those women were found on the battlefield with stakes driven through them; some of the soldiers were found with their mouths filled with earth, signifying that they were land hungry. All were treated alike with the most shocking barbarity.
In justice to General Arthur St. Clair, the com- manding officer of the army, on November 4, 1791, it must be said that a committee appointed by the House of Representatives to inquire into the cause of the disaster which reported after the most patient and careful inspection that the defeat was due chiefly to the gross and various mismanagement of others and should in no wise be imputed to the com- mander-in-chief.
With his dismissal from office as governor of the western territory November 22, 1802, the public life of General St. Clair terminated. Broken in health and fortune, he now returned, at the age of sixty- eight, after a life spent largely in the service of his adopted country, to the Ligonier valley in western Pennsylvania. He had never been reimbursed by the government for the private means spent by him during the War of the Revolution. General St.
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Clair, at the critical period in the finance of the Continental Congress, mortgaged his entire manorial estate of eight thousand acres and loaned the money to the government to purchase arms and equipment for the continental army. This loan was never re- paid. In addition to this, during the Indian cam- paign of 1791 he had again advanced his personal credit to the public service and the officers of the government, for more or less technical reasons, now and thereafter turned a deaf ear to his appeals for reimbursement or succor. He struggled earnestly from year to year to retrieve his broken fortune, but when the years of the embargo came and values of all American property suffered such terrible de- preciation he was compelled to stand by and see the last of his property, real and personal, sold by the sheriff, and himself left out, nearly eighty years of age, absolutely penniless, dependent upon the charity of his family and friends.
In referring to this execution, St. Clair himself wrote: ‘They left me a few books of my classical library, and the bust of John Paul Jones which he sent me from Europe, for which I was very grate- ful.”” One of his sons built him a log cabin on a small piece of ground on Chestnut Ridge, five miles west of Ligonier. Here he lived in honorable pov- erty until August 31, 1818, when he died from the effects of an injury sustained in being thrown from a wagon while driving to town.
His neglect by the government in his old age was a disgrace to the nation, especially in view of the lavish sums bestowed on Lafayette and other Revo- lutionary soldiers. Such treatment could not now occur. Thus the hero of two wars and of countless deeds of faithfulness, bravery and self-denial in times of peace was quietly interred in the little burying ground of the neighborhood hamlet of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
By a strange and sad coincidence, General Clark, conquerer of the great northwest, and General St. Clair, were both permitted to die in poverty, neglect
Ut
and obscurity. Both met a similar fate at about the same age and in the same year.
The language of the epitaph upon the simple stone which was afterwards erected at the grave of St. Clair by his Masonic brethren has often been quoted and should still carry its earnest appeal to men of our time. It is as follows: “The earthly remains of Major-General St. Clair are deposited be- neath this humble monument, which is erected to supply the place of a nobler one due from his coun- Env
He was a descendant of the Earl of Orkney Isles, afterward of Caithness and Roslyn. He was born in Scotland in 1734, was educated at the University of Edinburgh. His name always suggests a striking example of the ingratitude of men and republics.
Blanchard, in his “History and Conquest of the Northwest Territory,” says: ‘Marietta was by far the most congenial place for the residence of his family. Accordingly, suitable apartments were fitted up for his family to reside in Campus Martius. In Louisa, his oldest daughter, were united the western heroine with the refinements of Philadel- phia, where she was educated. In the winter of 1790 she was seen skating on the Muskingum river, in which exercise few of the young officers could equal her in activity. During successive years she often rode through the adjacent forests on horse- back with her rifle, undaunted by the dangers of Indian ambuscades. Her skill in the use of this weapon was sometimes turned to-a_good account in the wild game with which she furnished her father’s table, shot by the bullet under the fatal aim of her blue eye.”
Hildreth, the pioneer historian, in his rapturous praises of her surpassing beauty and grace, in his imagination, substitutes a bow and arrow for her rifle and sees her flying through the wooded heather, mounted on her high mettled steed, like Diana, the daughter of Jupiter and goddess of hunting.
In this gifted lady was represented the type of Americans, the transcendant images of civilization
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before which all bow with loyalty and devotion. Should this power supplant the barbarism of the forest and make it teem with joy and beauty, multi- plied with years, or should the inherent rights of the Indian be respected and the country which he owned be held sacred to the chase and occupied only by the tenants of the wigwams?
It was nearly a year before the general govern- ment made another attempt for the conquest of the northwestern tribes, who, it seems, had so far been invincible in spite of all the efforts brought to bear upon them.
Immediately following the resignation of General St. Clair and during this period of time Brigadier- General Wilkinson was the temporary commander at Fort Washington, whose duty it was to furnish provisions and supplies to the outlying garrisons of Forts Hamilton, St. Clair and Jefferson.
Fort St. Clair was erected in the tempestuous nonths of the winter of 1791-2. It was started December 15, 1791, and completed January 26, 1792. General Wilkinson sent Major John §S. Gano, be- longing to the militia of the territory with a party to build the fort. William Henry Harrison, then but an ensign, commanded a guard over others for about three weeks during the erection of the fort. They had neither fire nor covering of any kind and suffered much from the winter’s cold. It was a stockade of the usual kind, about three hundred feet square, and had about twenty acres cleared around it. The outline can yet be traced in the contour of the field surface. It was designed to be the midway fortification between Fort Hamilton on the south and Fort Jefferson on the north, some forty-four miles apart. These forts, Washington, Hamilton, St. Clair and Jefferson, were about twenty-five miles apart and connected by road or trace cut through the dense timber and undergrowth by the soldiers of St. Clair’s army.
In the autumn of 1792 Little Turtle, the cele- brated Miami Chief, at the head of about two hun- dred and fifty Mingo and Wyandot warriors, started
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out to attack a new settlement of the whites then forming at the mouth of the Little Miami river (then called Columbia, Ohio). When passing near Fort Hamilton the Indians attacked some of the garrison working in the timber and captured two of them, from whom they learned that a company of from fifty to one hundred mounted Kentucky riflemen, escorting a brigade of pack horses and under command of Major John Adair, were on their way to Fort Jefferson and would pass on the return trip at a certain time. Accordingly, they lay in ambush along the trail. The escort, however, rested at Fort Jefferson over Sunday and did not appear as soon as expected. Hearing when the Kentuckians had advanced as far as Fort St. Clair, the Indians planned a surprise and attacked them before daylight on the 6th of November, 1792. Major Adair was suddenly and violently attacked by a large party of Indians, who rushed on the en- campment with great fury. A bloody conflict en- sued, during which Major Adair ordered Lieutenant Madison with a small party to gain the right flank of the enemy, if possible, and at the same time gave an order for Lieutenant Hall to attack their left, but, learning that that officer had been slain, the Major, with about twenty-five of his men, made the attack in person, with a view of sustaining Lieu- tenant Madison. The pressure of this movement caused the enemy to retire. They were driven about six hundred yards through and beyond the American camp, where they made a stand and again fought desperately. At this juncture about sixty of the Indians made an effort to turn the right flank of the whites. Major Adair, foreseeing the consequence of this maneuver, found it necessary to order a retreat. That movement was effected with regularity and, as was expected, the Indians pursued them to their camp, where a halt was made and another severe battle was fought, in which the Indians suffered severely and were driven from the ground. In this affair six of the whites were killed, Lieutenant Job Hadle, Sergeant Matthew English,
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Privates Robert Bowling, Joseph Clinton, Isaac Jett and John Williams. Among the wounded were Lieu- tenant George Madison (afterwards governor) and Colonel Richard Taylor, the father of Major-General Taylor, who commanded the United States army in the Mexican War and later President of the United States.
During the campaign of 1813 Major Adair accom- panied Governor Shelby into Canada as an aid, and was present in that capacity at the battle of the Thames. “He was elected Governor of Kentucky in 1820. A county in Kentucky was also named in grateful remembrance of General John Adair.
As above mentioned, on this occasion the Indians | were commanded by Chief Little Turtle.
It so happened some years afterward, in 1805-6, when General Adair was registrar of the land office in Frankfort, Captain William Wells, Indian agent, passed through that place on his way to Washington City, attended by some Indians, among whom was Chief Little Turtle. General Adair called on his old antagonist, and in the course of the conversation, the incident above related being alluded to, General Adair attributed his defeat to his having been taken in surprise. Then Little Turtle immediately re- marked with great pleasantness, “A good General is never taken by surprise.”
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MAJOR GENERAL ANTHONY WAYNE
IV. WAYNE’S CAMPAIGN.
The next commander-in-chief of the American army to appear upon the arena of western warfare was General Anthony Wayne, who arrived at Fort Washington (Cincinnati, Ohio) in April, 1793, with a well organized army of some twenty-six hundred troops. |
During the course of the summer Wayne became
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FORT GREENVILLE
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OUTLINE FORT GREENEVILLE, 1793
convinced that the northwest tribes would not ac- cept reasonable terms of peace and consequently broke camp at Fort Washington the 7th of October, marching northwest with twenty-six hundred regu- lars. thirty-six guides and spies and three hundred and sixty mounted militia. The 13th of October found Wayne encamped six miles north of Fort Jefferson and about eighty miles
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north of Fort Washington, on a beautiful high plain on the south bank of the southwest branch of Still- water, a tributary of the Great Miami. This was the same spot where St. Clair had encamped two years previously while awaiting the arrival of sup- plies. Accordingly, a large fortification was here constructed overlooking the extensive prairie to the southwest with the creek in front, which, with the fort, were both named Greene Ville, in honor of Gen- eral Nathaniel Greene, a fellow officer of Wayne in the Revolution. This fort covered some fifty acres and was fortified to resist any attack that the sav- ages and their allies might make against it. The soldiers were quartered in commodious huts, each sheltering six men, and extensive provisions were made for the convenience and comfort of the entire army. Storehouses, artificer’s shops, mess rooms, officers’ headquarters and a magazine were also erected at suitable places.
Thus October 13, 1793, will ever be remembered as the day in which a fort in the western wilderness and later a beautiful city received its name.
On October 17th, just four days after Wayne’s arrival at Greene Ville, Little Turtle made a dash on a baggage and provision train on the trail some five miles north of Fort St. Clair (now Eaton, Ohio). The convoys, consisting of about ninety men, were under the command of Lieutenant Lowery and En- sign Boyd and were loaded with supplies and pro- visions for the army. In the affray which fol- lowed, Lowery and Boyd and thirteen non-commis- sioned officers and privates were killed and seventy packhorses were killed or driven away. This inci- dent shows plainly that Little Turtle was by no means idle, but was constantly hanging on the out- skirts of Wayne’s army, ever ready to strike a blow if the opportunity should present itself.
Not long after this two white men who had been prisoners in the Miami villages escaped and re- ported that the Indian warriors made all manner of fun in describing the manner in which General St. Clair posted his troops. They even got up a
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sham fight in representation of it for the amusement of the squaws, and with great roars of laughter they re-enacted the scene, calling it St. Clair’s fight and dance. They said they intended annually to celebrate this victory by a similar contemptuous festival.
But war is a very uncertain game and the brag- gadocie is very apt eventually to be humbled.
Not long after this the Indians had their turn in dancing as they were pierced by the bullets of the white man under General Wayne and they found something more serious to attend to than engaging in mock fights. 7
Among the considerations which now operated on the mind of President Washington at this trying period of our national history, which we are com- pelled to consider for a moment, was the poverty of the nation loaded with debt and without much commerce. The people of the east looked upon this western war as a burden which the western people ought to bear. Hence a tax was placed on distil- leries, owned mostly in the west, which grew out cf the expenses on this Indian war. This tax led directly to the whiskey insurrection in western Penn- sylvania. And it need not be disguised that the op- position to the present constitution laid hold of everything within their reach to render General Washington unpopular. They pretended to fear so large a standing army of five thousand four hun- dred men. They saw, too, with alarm, Mr. Wash- ington’s levies and the pomp of Colonel Pickering, General Knox and other heads of departments wit salaries of three thousand dollars a year, though the compensation was so small that they and their fami- lies could not live decently on it. The French Revo-: lution, too, was raging, and Genet was busily engaged in his endeavors to draw us into the vortex of Euro- pean politics. General Washington was beset on all sides with French agents and partisans on the At- lantic border were fomenting discontent. The Brit- ish and their Indians were desolating our frontier ©
12
and, as Atwater truly tells us, ‘““Waked the babe from the sleep of the cradle.”
It was early in this year, we believe, that Presi- dent Washington, after appointing General Wayne and other officers to command the western army and doing all that he had the power to do, made a tour to the Indians of western New York in com- pany with Colonel Pickering. Colonel Pickering tarried one night at the house of Caleb Atwater’s father, while General Washington put up at a near neighbor’s, a Mr. Bloom.
General Washington and Colonel Pickering vis- ited all the New York Indians, held councils with them and delivered talks and speeches to them, some of which Atwater says he saw among these Indians in 1828 while he was on a visit to his old friends still living in the Indian village. This visit was made by General Washington to conciliate those savages and to prevent their joining in the war with the British Indians, as they had done all along before this period. Many New York Indians were present at St. Clair’s defeat and some of them still went off and fought against General Wayne in 1794, when they were defeated and mostly killed on the Maumee river.
In the summer of 1793 Wayne tried to treat with the Indians. Fort Massac was built under him to prevent an expedition against New Orleans, which Genet was planning. General Wayne sent out in succession Colonel Hardin and Major Trueman with a flag of truce, medals, talks and presents to the Indians in order to make a peace with them. These messengers of peace were killed in succession as soon as they arrived among the savages. Their medals and speeches sent by them and all they had with them were taken by the Indians, who slew the bearers of them.
Atwater saw these medals and speeches in the possession of the elder Carray, Maumee principal Chief of the Winnebagoes, at Prairie du Chien in July, 1829. The medal was a large one of copper, six inches in diameter and purported, no doubt, truly
fe
to have been made at the expense of a gentleman in Philadelphia, and by him sent as a token of Presi- dent Washington’s friendship to the Indians. Every other effort was made by General Wayne that sum- mer to bring about a peace with the savages, but all in vain. But, notwithstanding all the efforts to make a peace, yet nothing was omitted that could be done to prepare a vigorous war against them. Although General Wayne promptly accepted his appointment and entered on its arduous duties, yet it was found no easy matter to fill up the minor appointments, even the very next in grade to the commander-in-chief of this army. Several were appointed to these offices who refused to accept them. It was found difficult, too, to enlist soldiers for this hazardous service. Everything moved along slowly and the season was spent in doing very little to any good effect.
The British commander of the fort at Detroit had erected a fort at the head of the Maumee Bay for the purpose, it would seem, of protecting the Indians in alliance with him. Here the Indians resorted for protection. Here they sold their furs, belts and skins, received their annuities, and we doubt not that they received here also the price paid for the scalps of our murdered countrymen.
General Wayne was not idle, but urged forward all his measures vigorously, prudently, and, in the end, effectually. On the 5th of November, 1798, Congress met at Philadelphia, to whom the Presi- dent said in his speech at the commencement of the session, ‘That the reiterated attempts which had been made to effect a pacification with the Indians had issued only in new and outrageous proofs of preserving hostility on the part of the tribes with whom we were at war.”
He alluded to the destruction of Hardin and True- man while on peaceful missions under the sanction of flags of truce, and their families were recom- mended to the attention of Congress.
Notwithstanding all these efforts of General Washington in favor of the bleeding frontier,
14
Congress and the nation were too much engaged with other objects to bestow attention on this dis- tant war.
The spring and summer of 1793, having been employed by General Wayne in endeavoring to make peace and in preparing for war, so that it was Sep- tember before he was really to move forward into
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ARKE COUNTY, O. — -o °
Showing Forts GreeneVille and Jefferson
15
the heart of the Indian country. General Wayne collected his army and marched six miles north of Fort Jefferson, where he established a camp and fortified it and called it Greene Ville, as before stated in these pages.
During the winter Wayne sent a detachment to the site of St. Clair’s defeat, twenty-three miles north of Fort Greene Ville, and built Fort Recovery. Six hundred skulls were gathered up and buried, and they scraped the bones together and carried them out to make their beds. This post was garri- soned and placed in command of Captain Gibson.
President Washington had given General Wayne very minute instructions respecting the campaign. He suggested the order of march, the way to guard against surprises, the mode of forming speedily in order of battle in the thick woods. The camp at night was always to be in the form of a hollow square protected by a breastwork of fallen timber . or of earth. The cavalry and baggage were to be within the square. The troops were to be kept under the highest possible state of discipline and to be especially exercised in loading and firing rapidly and accurately. Particularly they were to be taught to load while running. The General was entreated not to spare powder or lead in giving the troops skill in these practices so essential in Indian warfare.
The Indians had carefully watched the proceed- ings of the troops in erecting Fort Recovery on the ground rendered memorable by the defeat of St. Clair. They resolved to make a desperate effort to destroy the small garrison left in guard there and to gain the fort for themselves. On the 30th of June, 1794, a large force, consisting of several hun- dred Indians, with several companies of Canadians with blackened faces and in Indian costume, led by British officers in full dress and the Chief Little Turtle, who led the Miamis, made a furious attack upon the fort. Major McMahon was just on the route with supplies for the garrison from Fort Greene Ville and had not yet entered it when the at-
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tack commenced. This convoy consisted of about one hundred and fifty men. Mr. Burnet, in his notes, gives the following account of this important conflict :
He says, “A very severe and bloody battle was fought under the walls of Fort Recovery between a detachment of American troops consisting of ninety riflemen and fifty dragoons, commanded by Major McMahon, and a very numerous body of Indians and British, who, at the same instant, rushed on the attachment and assailed the fort on every side with fury. They were repulsed with a heavy loss, but again rallied and renewed the attack, keeping up a heavy and constant fire during the whole day, which was returned with spirit and effect by the garrison. The succeeding night was foggy and dark and gave the Indians an opportunity of carrying off their dead by torch light, which oc- casionally drew a fire from the garrison. They, however, succeeded so well that there were but eight or ten bodies left on the ground which were too near the garrison to be approached. On the next morning, McMahon’s detachment having entered the fort, the enemy renewed the attack and continued it with great desperation during the day, but were ultimately compelled to retreat from the same field on which they had been proudly victorious on the 4th of November 1791. The expectation of the as- sailants must have been to surprise the post and carry it by storm, for they could not possibly have received intelligence of the movements of the escorts under Major McMahon, which only marched from Greene Ville on the morning preceding and on the same evening deposited in Fort Recovery the sup- plies it had conveyed. That occurence, therefore, could not have led to the movements of the savages. Judging from the extent of their encampment and their line of march, consisting in several different columns forming a wide and extended front, and from other circumstances, it was believed that their numbers could not have been less than from fifteen hundred to two thousand warriors. It was also
(7
believed that they were in want of provisions, as they had killed and eaten a number of pack horses in their encampment the evening after their assault, and also at their encampment on their return, seven miles from Fort Recovery, where they remained two nights, having been much encumbered with their dead and wounded.”
From the official report of Major Mills, Adjutant- General of the army, it appears that twenty-two offi- cers and non-commissioned officers were killed and thirty wounded. Among the former was Major McMahon and among the latter Lieutenant Darke.
Captain Gibson, who commanded the fort, be-. haved with great gallantry and received the thanks of the commander-in-chief, as did every officer and soldier of the garrison and the escort who were engaged in that most gallant and successful defense.
Immediately after the enemy had retreated it was ascertained that their loss had been very heavy, but the full extent of it was not known until it was disclosed at the Treaty of Greene Ville. References were made to that battle by several of the Chiefs in council, from which it was manifest that they had not even then ceased to mourn the distressing losses sustained on that occasion. Having made the attack with a determination to carry the fort or perish in the attempt, they exposed their persons in an unusual degree, and, of course, a large number of the bravest of the Chiefs and warriors perished before they abandoned the enterprise. From the facts afterwards communicated, it was satisfac- torily ascertained that there were a considerable number of British soldiers and Detroit militia en- gaged with the savages on that occasion.
A few days previous to that affair the General had sent out three small parties of friendly Chicka- saw and Choctaw Indians to take prisoners for the purpose of obtaining information. One of these parties returned to Greene Ville and reported that they had fallen in with a large body of Indians at Girtytown (St. Marys, Ohio), near the crossing of the St. Marys river, on the evening of the 27th of
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June. They were apparently bending their course towards Chillicothe on the Miami. There were a great many white men with them. The other two parties followed the trail of the hostile Indians and were in sight when the assault on the post com- menced. They affirm, one and all, that there were a large number of armed white men with painted faces whom they frequently heard conversing in English and encouraging the Indians to persevere, and that there were also three British officers dressed in scarlet who appeared to be men of dis- tinction from the great attention and respect which were paid them. These persons kept at a distance in the rear of the assailants. Another strong cor- roborating proof that there were British soldiers and militia in the assault is that a number of ounce balls and buck shot were found lodging in the blockhouses and stockades of the fort and that others were picked up on the ground which had been fired from such a distance as not to have momentum sufficient to enter the logs. It was supposed that the British who were engaged in the attack expected to find the artillery that was lost on the fatal 4th of November which had been hidden in the ground and covered with logs by the Indians in the vicinity of the battlefield. This inference was supported by the fact that during the conflict they were seen turning over the logs and examining different places in the neighborhood as if searching for something.
There were many reasons for believing that they depended on that artillery to aid in the reduction of the fort. But fortunately most of it had previously been found by its legitimate owners and was then employed in its defense. It will be re- membered that St. Clair, after his awful defeat, was compelled to abandon his artillery. General Wayne succeeded in recovering all those pieces except one, which could not be found and which was accidentally discovered nearly forty years afterward by some boys who were hunting rabbits on the site where it had been concealed. It eventually passed into the
19
hands of an artillery company. in Cincinnati, Ohio, who may probably still retain it. |
The Indians were very adroit in their strategems and the utmost caution was requisite in a conflict with them. Captain Shaylor was in command of the little garrison at Fort Jefferson immediately after this Indian retreat from their signal defeat at Fort Recovery. As no Indians were around and it would take some time to reorganize new war par- ties, all the garrisons felt much at their ease. Cap- tain Shaylor, as the Indians well knew, was very fond of hunting. One pleasant summer morning the Captain heard the gobble of a flock of turkeys in — the woods at a little distance from the fort. Call- ing his son, they eagerly sallied forth to shoot some game for dinner. They fell into an ambuscade. His son fell, mortally wounded. The gobble of the turkeys was but a decoy of Indians. The Captain turned and fled to the garrison. The Indians, with loud yells, pursued, hoping either to capture him or to enter the gates at his heels. They were, how- ever, disappointed. He rushed in through with an arrow quivering in his back and the gates were im- mediately closed after him.
General Wayne, as before noted, left Greene Ville July 28, 1794. We have two different accounts as to the direction which he pursued in leaving Greene Ville. One is from the pen of Judge Wharry in his pioneer notes on Darke county nearly fifty years ago. He was a lifelong citizen of Greenville and among its first surveyors. He says, “Wayne moved northeast from Fort Greene Ville and camped on Stillwater river the first night, in the vicinity of Beamsville. Leaving still a strong garrison at Fort Greene Ville, took up his line of march with care, circumspection and no undue haste to the north- ward, taking the route toward Loramie and St. Marys. The second night after leaving, his forces were encamped in the southeastern part of what is now Patterson township. Here it is said that about midnight an Indian spy crawled into Wayne's camp and approached a tent in which a dim light
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was burning and here discovered General Wayne seated by a stand looking over notes and papers. He immediately returned to the Indian encamp- ment on Swamp creek, two or three miles off, which was still in council, and made the report that the White Chief never sleeps.
It has been said that this was the time and place which Little Turtle suggested for a night attack on General Wayne, but was opposed by nearly all of the other Chiefs in council. And perhaps the most favorable opportunity was thus permitted to pass by.
The other statement in regard to the route from which Wayne emerged from Fort Greene Ville in his northward campaign is from the pen of Lieu- tenant Boyer, who was with the army. In his Jour- nal he says, “The army marched twelve miles on July 28th on the St. Clair trail and encamped on the Stillwater,” and that “the second night they en- camped one mile beyond Fort Recovery.” We here leave the reader to decide for himself which of these routes is correct. However, the next place that we hear of Wayne is at Girtiestown, or the St. Marys, where he stopped two days for the building of Fort Adams on the bank of that stream.
Slocum, in his “History of the Ohio Country,” page 109, says, “It was necessary to make a road through the great forests composed of great trees of oak, beech and maple which were larger and more numerous as the army advanced, and that the deep Beaver swamp had to be bridged with infinite labor. In this building of Fort Adams, General Wayne was caught under a falling tree while urging more haste upon the choppers of logs for the blockhouses and palisades. This accident nearly put an end to his existence, but his indomit- able will power forced him and his army forward without delay and against all obstacles.”
On August 8, 1794, the army arrived at its camp, Grand Auglaize (junction of the Auglaize river with the Maumee, site of the present city of Defiance, Ohio), at half past ten o’clock in the morning.
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Here Wayne and his army were delighted with the beauty and fertility of the region. Here were all kinds of vegetables in abundance, four or five miles of corn fields and at least a thousand acres of corn around the town. Here was the confluence of three rivers, the Auglaize, Tiffin and Maumee. It was naturally a great gathering place for the various tribes. It seems that the preceding evening the towns and villages had been abandoned in much haste, as marks of apparent surprise and precipita- tion convinced everybody that the approach of the legion was not discovered until a few hours before its arrival, when the fact was communicated by Newman, who had deserted from the army at St. Marys. It was manifest that the defection of that villain enabled the Indians to save their persons by a rapid flight, leaving all of their property to fall into the hands of federal forces. Here as well as elsewhere along the rivers, the British had en- couraged the women of the savages to cultivate corn and vegetables to relieve as much as possible the demands of the savages on the British food supplies. Here Wayne congratulated himself upon his suecess in gaining possession of the Grand Em- porium of the hostile Indians of the west without the loss of blood. The first duty of the General, after taking possession of the country, was to erect a strong stockade fort with four blockhouses by way of bastions at the confluence of the rivers, which he named Fort Defiance.
The army remained at the mouth of the Auglaize river about one week. It had been ascertained by the most recent intelligence that the enemy were collected in great force and that they had been joined by the Detroit militia and a portion of the regular army and that they had selected for the contest an elevated plain above the foot of the rapids on the left bank of the river over which a tornado had recently passed and covered the ground with fallen timber, by which it was rendered un- favorable for the action of the cavalry.
This information, unpleasant as it was, did not
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excite any serious apprehension, or in the least de- gree cool the spirit and ardor of the troops. On the contrary, among the officers and privates, both of the legion and mounted volunteers, there was but one as- piration heard and that was to meet the enemy.
Captain William Wells, the sagacious and intrepid warrior of the woods led his party within so short a distance of the British works as to ascertain that the Indians were encamped under their protection. He took one or two prisoners and made a bold though unsuccessful attempt on a camp of warriors in the night, in which he was wounded. Soon after his re- turn the army moved slowly and cautiously down the left bank of the Maumee river.
On the 13th of August, true to the spirit of peace advised by Washington, General Wayne sent Chris- tian Miller, who had been naturalized, among the Shawnees as a special messenger to offer terms of friendship. Impatient of delay he moved forward and on the 16th met Miller on his return with the message that if the Americans would wait ten days at Grand Glaize (Fort Defiance) they, the Indians, would decide for peace or war.
It seems that at this council, in reply to Miller on the proposition of peace or war, Little Turtle earn- estly counseled peace. In a brief but energetic speech he said:
“We have beaten the enemy twice under separate Commanders. We cannot expect the same good for- tune always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a Chief who never sleeps; the night and the day are alike to him and during all the time that he has been marching upon our village notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There iS something whispers to me, it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace’’.
Blue Jacket was in favor of battle, but Little Turtle, who plainly foresaw the final trend of events by this time, was in favor of making peace.
Being reproached for cowardice which was for- eign to his nature, he laid aside resentment and took
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part in the battle on the morrow. The result of the battle proved his sagacity and wisdom.
Miller stated that the Indians were all dressed and painted for war, that war parties were continually coming in and were received with great enthusiasm, and it was his opinion that the message was merely a ruse by which the Indians hoped to gain a little more time to muster their forces.
At six o’clock on the morning of the 20th of Au- gust, General Wayne advanced from Fort Deposit and took a. position a few miles farther down the river on a long ridge called Presque Isle, and about eight o’clock on the morning of the 20th moved for- _ ward to attack the Indians, who were encamped at: the fallen timbers. |
The British post had been occupied by a garrison sent from Detroit the previous spring. There could be no misapprehension of the motives which led to this occupation, taking place as it did eleven years after the country had been ceded to the United States, and at a time too when the angry and pro- tracted negotiations of several years relating to it was supposed to be about terminating in an open rupture. The Indians were all decidedly in favor of the British. With the jealousy natural to weak- ness, they were always prone to array themselves against the power which most directly pressed upon their destinies and most likely to affect them injur- iously. The British were fully aware of this feeling which their agents were zealously active to excite and foster. They saw in it the means of crippling a young rival who was stretching out into the west with giant strides, trampling down the forest and introducing christianity and civilization. The coun- try had been ceded by 4a treaty still in force, but new negotiations were then in progress under the in-
fluence of several disastrous defeats and as the In- dians demanded an independent dominion over the country in dispute the British government might ex- pect that a surrender so desirable to them would at last be granted. A proposition of a similar char- acter was made by the same government towards the
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close of the second war with Great Britain. The entire independence of the Indians, occupying a wide belt on our northwestern frontiers, was formally and seriously demanded as one of the conditions of peace.
As long as the formidable coalition of tribes which General Wayne found in arms should continue united and hostile it was evident that the British preten- tions and hopes would remain. It was, therefore, of great importance with General Wayne and with his country that his present steps should be taken with the utmost prudence.
A new defeat like that which had terminated al- most every previous campaign commencing with the colonial period about the middle of the eighteenth century would have proved not only destructive to his army so far advanced in the wilderness, but prob- ably decided the British to openly espouse the cause of the Indians.
General Wayne, in the present case, could feet no assurance that this cause would not be sustained by such co-operation as the fort and garrison could afford. Indeed, the positions of the Indians under the walls of the fort rendered it probable that such a course had been determined on. General Wayne had about three thousand men under his command, and the Indians are computed to have been equally numerous. This is not improbable as the hostile league embraced the whole northwestern frontier. As he approached the position of the enemy, he sent forward a battalion of mounted riflemen, which was ordered, in case of attack, to make a retreat in feigned confusion in order to draw the Indians on more disadvantageous ground. As was anticipated, this advance soon met the enemy and being fired on fell back and was warmly pursued towards the main body. The morning was rainy and the drums could not communicate the concerted signals with sufficient distinctness. A plan of turning the right flank of the Indians was not therefore fulfilled, but the victory was complete. The whole Indian line, after a severe contest, giving way and flying in disorder. About one hundred savages were killed. This horde of
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savages, with their allies, abandoned themselves to flight and dispersed with terror and dismay, leaving our victorious army in full and quiet possession of the field of battle, which terminated under the in- fluence of the guns of the British garrison.
During the action, and subsequently while General Wayne remained in the vicinity of the British, there did not appear to be any intercourse between the garrison and the savages.
The gates were kept shut against them, and their rout and slaughter were witnessed from the walls with apparent unconcern and without offering any interposition or assistance. |
After the battle General Wayne devastated all of the fields and burned all of the dwellings around the fort; some of them immediately under the walls. The house of Colonel McKee, an Indian trader, who was supposed to have exercised great influence over the Indians, was reduced to ashes in the general con- flagration.
“It is too important to omit, says Mr. Mann Butler in his “History of Kentucky”, “That General Wayne _ had positive authority from President Washington to attack and demolish the British fort of Miami” ; but on reconnoitering it closely and discovering its strength, added to his own weakness in artillery, the General with a prudence not always accorded him, most judiciously declined an attack. In this daring reconnoiter the General was near falling a victim to his gallantry. He had rode within eighty yards of the fort, accompanied with his Lieutenant William H. Harrison, and within point blank shot of his guns, when a considerable disturbance was _ per- ceived on the platform of the parapet. The intelli- gence of a deserter the next day explained the whole affair. It appeared that a Captain of marines, who happened to be in the garrison when General Wayne | made his approach resented it so highly that he im- ' mediately seized a port fire and was going to apply | ittothe gun. At this moment Major Campbell drew | his sword and threatened to cut the Captain down in- | stantly if he did not desist. He then ordered him ar-
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rested. This high minded forbearance in all proba- bility saved the life of General Wayne with his suite and possibly the peace of the United States.
Wayne in his report says, “The Americans remained three days and nights on the banks of the Maumee in front of the field of battle, during which time all the houses and cornfields were consumed and destroyed for a considerable distance, both above and below Fort Miami, as well as within pistol shot of that garrison, who were compelled to remain tacit?’
Spectators to this general devastation and con- flagration among which were the houses, stores and property of Colonel McKee, the British Indian agent, and principle stimulator of the war now existing be- tween the United States and the savages.
Major William Campbell, of the British 24th Regi- ment, who was commanding officer of Fort Miami, early addressed a note to General Wayne protesting against his near approach to a post belonging to his Majesty, the King of Great Britain, occupied by his Majesty’s troops, declaring that he knew of no war existing between Great Britain and America. This gave occasion for two sharp letters from General Wayne, ordering the Major to get out of American territory with his command, Wayne, knowing of course, that an officer must obey only orders of his commanding officer, but he chafed under this re- — straint and reported to the Secretary of War regard- ing Major Campbell’s third courtions, but firm letter that, the only notice taken of this letter was by im- mediately setting fire to and destroying everything within view of the fort, and even under the muzzles of his guns. Had Mr. Campbell carried his threats into execution, it is more than probable, that he would have experienced a storm.
After the victory of fallen timbers, by General Wayne, the army returned to Fort Defiance on the 27th, having laid waste two villages and cornfields on both sides of the Maumee, for at least fifty miles. September the 14th the legion moved on to the Miami villages, where the long contemplated fort
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was constructed, and on October 22d, 1794, (exactly four years after Harmar’s defeat) placed under com- mand of Lieutenant Colonel Hamtramck, who after firing fifteen rounds of cannon, gave the name which the city now bears of Fort Wayne. Colonel Ham- tramck was a small Canadian Frenchman, who had been many years in the American service and always having proved himself patriotic, capable and meri- torious had been advanced accordingly. The In- dians were utterly disheartened by their great de- feat and considered themselves very dishonorably
FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, AS IT APPEARED IN 17914
treated by the British officers, who had spurred them on in the battle and then had abandoned them and were eager for peace.
This campaign accomplished its intended object. The Indians were thoroughly humbled and subdued, their houses were destroyed, their country ravaged, their supplies consumed.
It was the special object of General Wayne to in- flict such terrible chastisement upon the Indians as to compel them to bury the tomahawk and not to dare take it up again. He, therefore, sent out his cavalry and made utterly waste the whole valley of
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the Maumee for a distance of fifty miles. The wo- men and children fled with terror to the woods. Every village was laid in ashes, orchards were cut down, the harvests, corn, potatoes and other veget- ables with which the rich fields luxuriantly abound- ed, were destroyed. Nothing was left. Cold winter “was approaching and the homeless families, men, women and children, were doomed to hopeless desti- tution, misery and death. No imagination can prob- ably exaggerate the woes which ensued. Such is war.
“War,” exclaimed Napoleon in anguish, as he wit- nessed its horrors, “Is the science of barbarians.”
“War,” says General Sherman, “Is cruelty, you cannot refine it.”
They no longer cherished any hope of being able to check the advance of the white man. In this state of extreme suffering, they were anxious for such terms as the conquerer might dictate.
On the 28th of October, having achieved the ob- jects of the campaign, General Wayne started on his return with the main body of his regulars for Fort Greene Ville, where in the following year, himself and Little Turtle, rendered themselves as conspic- uous in statesmanship and diplomacy as in war, by a treaty, which immortalized both one for the white man and the other for the red man.
Little Turtle was one of the greatest Indian Chiefs of all time, as a warrior, statesman, diplomat and orator, he even excelled Tecumseh, whose ambition, like that of Napoleon, ruined him forever.
The remark made by LaSalle, two hundred years ago, “That the Miamis were the most civilized of all Indian Nations, neat of dress, splendid of bear- ing, haughty of manner, holding all other tribes as inferiors.”’
Of all the Indian tribes of America the Miamis approached nearest to the ideal of an American abor- igine than all others. Little Turtle, in the final cli- max, as he alone stood amidst the downfall of his race, the greatest in war and the greatest in peace.
Ne LIGHTING THE COUNCIL FIRE.
Early in January, 1795, movements were made for the assembling of a general Council of the Indian tribes of the Old Northwest, for the purpose of form- ulating a treaty of peace and friendship between said tribes and the victorious Americans. The ren- dezvous was to be at Wayne’s headquarters, which
% BOULDER MEMORIAL
With Bronze Tablet, placed by the GreeneVille Historical Society, August 3, 1906
had been established at Fort Greene Ville since the fall of 1793. Here in this frontier army post with its substantial log buildings, its shops, warehouses and commodious Council house enclosed by a for- midable rampart of pickets, the Indian Chiefs and
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warriors were assured of a cordial welcome with guaranty of safe conduct while on the way. To the savage mind this well built fort with its strong de- tachment of hardened and disciplined troops, its large supplies of provisions and its roads leading to other posts in the chain of American wilderness de- fences stood as the embodiment of Civilization and organized government. It was easy for the savage mind to look from this place to the source of power in the East, to which it was directly linked, and to read the handwriting on the wall of destiny. Wayne exercised shrewd diplomacy in inviting the tribes to this post and expressed desire that the Great Spirit would incline their hearts and words to peace.
After the battle on the Maumee Little Turtle earn- estly desired peace and used his influence to get his people to attend the proposed Council at Greene Ville. His earlier victories over the poorly organized troops of LaBalm, Harmar and St. Clair, had not blinded him to the fact of the growing power and prestige of the Whites and the precarious position of the scattered tribes. Fully realizing that his power was broken he now urged the Indians to make peace with the “Chief Who Never Sleeps’, and, although he stoutly contended for the claims of his nation and reluctantly signed the articles of peace he remained faithful and passive, and continued to counsel peace with his tribesmen to the end of his career.
Wayne anticipated a large response on the part of the aborigines and early made preparation for their coming by laying in large supplies of clothing, food, and other articles suitable for presents, as he knew the fondness of the Savage mind for such things.
Early in June, 1795, the Indians began to collect at Greene Ville, apparently without concerted action, and gave notice as they arrived that they had come to negotiate peace. On the 16th, a number of Dela- wares, Ottawas, Pottawattomies, and Eel River Chiefs having arrived, Wayne caused them to be assembled and met them in general Council for the
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first time. After each had received and puffed the pipe of peace the American General said:
“T have cleared the ground of all brush and rub- bish, and opened roads to the east, to the west, to the north, and to the south, that all nations may come in safety and ease to meet me. The ground on which the Council House stands is unstained with blood and ig as pure as the heart of General Washington, the Great Chief of America, and of his great Council, as pure as my heart, which wishes for nothing so much as peace and brotherly love. I have this day kindled the Council fire of the United States; we will now | cover it up and keep it alive until the remainder of the different tribes assemble, and form a full meet- ing and representation. I now deliver to each tribe present a string of white wampum to serve as record of the friendship that is this day commenced be- tween us.
“The heavens are high, the woods are open, we will rest in peace. In the meantime, we will have a little refreshments to wash the dust from our throats. We will on this happy occasion be merry, but without passing the bounds of temperance and sobriety. We will now cover up the Council fire and keep it alive until the remainder of the different tribes assemble and form a full meeting and repre- sentation.”’
The next day New Corn, one of the old Chiefs of the Pottawattomies, with several warriors arrived. He said that they had come from Lake Michigan, and that after the treaty was over they would ex- change their old medals for those of General Wash- ington. They wanted peace.
Buckonghelas, with a party of Delawares, came soon afterward, and also Asimethe, with another party of Pottawattomies, who were received at the Council House.
The Delaware King told Wayne, that his fore- fathers used soft cloth to dry up their tears, but that they used wampum, and hoped that its influ-
- ence would do away with all past misfortune.
The Pottawattomie Chief said, that they were
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all there, all the remainder being dead. As a proof of their good wishes they had brought Wayne the only two prisoners, who were in their possessions.
General Wayne welcomed them to Greene Ville, told them that the great Council fire had been kind- led and the pipe of peace had been smoked. Also that when the Wyandots from Sandusky and De- troit, and the tribes in that quarter would arrive, fresh fuel would be added to the fire and business would be postponed until then. In the meantime he would give them something which would make their hearts glad and also distribute some wampum.
The celebrated Little Turtle, Chief of the Miamis, arrived on the 238d of June, with a full retinue of seventy-three Miami and Eel River Indians, together with twelve Weas and Piankishaws and ten Kicka- poos and Kaskaskias. A total of ninety-five.
On the 25th of June General Wayne told them the arrangements he had made for their comfort during the Council. The exterior redoubts were given up to accomodate the different nations with Council Houses. He desired them to retire to their quarters like his own men, at the firing of the evening gun. If any of his foolish young men were found troubling their quarters, he wished the Indians to tie them and send them to him to be dealt with according to the circumstances.
He humored the Indians by telling them, that General Washington and his great Council had sent them large presents, which he soon expected, and their friends the Quakers had also sent them mes- sages and small presents.
Bad Bird, a Chippewa Chief, thought that was all right and very good. Little Turtle made a short speech on the 30th of June to the Chippewas, and said that when brothers meet they always exper- ience pleasure, and as it was a little cool, he hoped that they would get some drink and that they ex- pected to be treated as warriors. He wanted some fire water and would like to have some mutton and pork occasionally.
New Corn was most happy to be in accord with
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the sentiments of Little Turtle, but their hearts were sorry and it grieved them to have seen the graves of their brothers, who fell at Fort Recovery, a few months previous.
The Sun, Chief of the Pottawattomies, complained of the allowance of food. He said that they ate in the morning and became hungry at night; the days were long, and they had nothing to do; they became weary and wished for home.
Frequent arrivals of large numbers continued. On the 3d of July, all were called together, and the General gave them their first lesson in American patriotism. He explained to them why all the States of the American union celebrated the 4th of July each year, adding: “Tomorrow we shall for the twentieth time salute the return of this happy anni- versary, rendered still more dear by the brotherly union of the Americans and Red people. Tomorrow all the people within these lines will rejoice, you, my brothers, shall also rejoice in your respective en- campments. I call you together to explain these matters to you, do not, therefore, be alarmed at the report of our big guns, they will do you no harm, they will be the harbingers of peace and gladness, and their roar will ascend into the heavens. The flag of the United States and the colors of this Le- gion shall be given to the wind to be fanned by its gentlest breeze in honor of the birthday of Ameri- ean freedom.
“I will now show you our colors that you may know them tomorrow. Formerly, they were dis- played as ensigns of war and battle, now they will be exhibited as emblems of peace and happiness.
“This eagle which you now see, holds close his bunch of arrows, whilst he seems to stretch forth as amore valuable offering the inestimable branch of peace. The Great Spirit seems disposed to incline us all to repose for the future under its grateful shade and wisely enjoy the blessings which attend i’
The twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was celebrated at Fort
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Greene Ville in an elaborate and appropriate man- ner. The spirit of ’76 was still surging in the veins of all patriotic Americans and it is not surprising that Wayne and many of his associates, who had served during the trying days of the Revolution, should make the occasion one long to be remembered, by both the Indians and his own soldiers. The fir- ing of the ready salute—probably of fifteen guns— the raising of flags, the martial music and the fiery oration all tended to heighten the effect of the cele- bration. Fortunately we have record of two notable features of that day’s program—one a poem written and recited by an officer, the other, an oration, deliv- ered by a Baptist missionary. The poem was com- posed by Dr. Joseph Strong, a youthful soldier and surgeon, and was kept in the possession of his son, William Y. Strong, esq., of Chillicothe, Ohio, who, it seems had it published in the first volume of the American Pioneer in later years. We take pleasure in reproducing the poem herewith:
“In leagues of love we now unite Around the bank of peaceful light And hail the joy clad day.
No more shall ruthless foes pervade The vast domain of Western shade Or war like music play.
“The Indian tomahawk and knife Which mirthful mocked imploring life Lie buried in the ground. The advance of war shall be forgot And every dark and murderous spot No more in Councils found.
“The bloody belt betokening war Shall be consumed, and, smoking far, Will purify the ground. Where torturing arts of savage power Of past time through the midnight hovr O’er bleeding victims bound.
“The soothing lyre with warbling strain Shall play where battles shook the plain And tune her songs of peace. Temples will rise where warriors fell And heavenly worship quick prevail To guide the pagan race.
“To these vast wilds will science roam And raise her ever lighted dome To guild the shady West. The savage tribes her lamps shall see And all their ancient darkness flee Thus in her light be blessed.
“The future muse will paint this clime The noblest region of its time In beauteous grandeur spread. The prairies with their myriad flowers In graves far off to distant shores O’er nature’s richest bed.
“Here liberty at rest retires With altar’s pure and hallowed fires Whose flame will last with time Where all the oppressed can find repose Where virtue want nor sorrow knows In all this heaven blest clime.”
Another interesting feature of the extensive and varied program given on this memorable Fourth of July was an oration delivered by Rev. Morgan John Rhys (or Rhees), who is known as “The Welsh Bap- tist Hero of Civil and Religious Liberty of the Eigh- teenth Century.” It seems that Rev. Rhys, a Welsh- man by birth, who had lately come to America, had been sent out as a missionary among the American heathen and frontier settlements of the United States by the “Missionary Society of Philadelphia’’; whose members were “impelled by motives of relig- ion and benevolence to attempt the propogation of Christian and civil knowledge among the aborigines of America’. This Society availed itself of the op-
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portunity presented by “the easy access which may be had at present to the different tribes by means of government establishments in various parts of their territory, and their tranquil state and the friendly disposition of some of their Chiefs.”
In his oration, Rev. Rhys said, in part, the follow- ing: “Illustrious Americans—Noble Patriots, you commemorate a glorious day—the birthday of free- dom in the New World. Yes, Columbia, thou art free. The twentieth year of thy independence com- mences this day. Thou hast taken the lead in re- generating the world. Look back, look forward, think of the past, anticipate the future and behold with astonishment the transactions of the present time! The globe revolves on the axis of Liberty ; the new world has put the old in motion; the light of truth, running rapid like lightning, flashes convic- tion in the heart of every Civilized nation, Yes, the thunder of American remonstrance has fallen so heavy on the head of the tyrant that other nations, encouraged by her example, will extripate all des- pots from the earth.
“Citizens of United States: Whilst you commem- orate a glorious resolution, call to mind your first principles of action, never forget them nor those who assisted you to put your principles in practice. May the Curse of Meroz (Judges V) never fall upon America for not joining the heralds of freedom, whilst combatting the tyrants of Europe.
“Citizens of America: Guard with jealousy the Temple of Liberty ; protect her altars from being pol- luted with the offerings of force and fraud.
“Citizens and Soldiers of America—Sons of Lib- erty: It is you I address, banish from your land the remains of slavery. Be consistent with your Congressional declaration of rights and you will be happy. Remember, there never was nor will be a period when justice should not be done. Do what is Just and leave the event with God. Justice is the pillar that upholds the whole fabric of human soci- ety, and mercy is the genial ray which cheers and warms the habitations of man. The perfection of
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our social character consists in tempering the two with one another; in holding that middle course which admits of our being just without being rigid, and allows us to be generous without being unjust. May all the citizens of America be found in the per- formance of such social virtues as will secure them peace and happiness in this world and in the world to ache life everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
On Sunday, July 5th, Rev. Rhys delivered a ser- mon in the Council House at Fort Greene Ville be- fore Wayne and the officers of the American army. The title of this sermon was ‘‘The Altar of Peace’’, and the text was from Judges 6:24, “Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord and called it Je- hovah-Shalom (The Lord give peace)’, in which he exalted the principles of Justice and peace and ex- horted the Americans to be true to their early proc- lamation of freedom and equality.
Many of the interesting details in reference to the campaigns of St. Clair and Wayne and the Treaty of Greene Ville have never been published and many valuable articles published in local papers and mag- azines have been lost or scattered. It is with great pleasure, therefore, that we are able to reproduce herewith, a recently discovered manuscript now in possession of Hon. C. M. Burton, who secured it with many other valuable papers from a descendant of the immmediate actors living in Canada, and placed it in the Burton Library on Brainard Street, Detroit, Mich. This was written by one John Askin, Jr., a man of Irish descent with decided English sympa- thies. He had been engaged in the mercantile busi- ness in Detroit for many years and had an extensive trade with the Indians, thereby, no doubt, becoming acquainted with a large number of them and gaining their confidence. About the time that the English evacuated Detroit he moved across the river into Canada where he died in old age, leaving numerous business letters and valuable manuscripts in the hands of his descendants—part of which were re- ‘cently secured by the Canadian government and taken to Ottawa. ? ;
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It seems that John Askin, Sr., had secured a number of deeds on the American side from the Chippewa Indians, which he desired to have recog- nized by the American government at the time of the treaty. In order to accomplish this purpose he sent his son, John Askin, Jr., along with a band of Chippewa Indians, enroute to the Council at Fort Greene Ville, ostensibly as an interpreter, but, in reality, in the interest of these deeds. The letter, which is largely self explanatory, is as follows:
From M. S. Burton, v. 3, p. 36-37.
Detroit, August 19th, 1795. Colonel England, 24th Regiment, Commandant of Detroit and its Dependencies. Sir:
Being induced, both from duty and inclination, I take the liberty of giving you an account of my voy- age to Fort Greene Ville, with what came to my knowledge while I resided there; it will, I fear, be rather long, but lest the parts I might leave out would be those you wished to be acquainted with, I have thought it advisable to insert in it everything that appeared to me any way material.
It is as follows:
Several Indian Chiefs of the Chippewa and Otta- wa Nation with whom I was well acquainted urged me much to accompany them to the Council at Greene Ville, assigning for their reasons, that as the business they were going on was of great importance to them they stood in need of a faithful Interpreter and friend.
After obtaining my Father’s concurrence I left (Detroit) on the 2d of July, and when I reached Fort Defiance it was the 11th. By this time, the Indians with me were twenty-seven in number, also a Mr. Beaubien and a Mr. Bouffet, who had joined the Indians on the route.
I had a cool reception from Major Hunt, who com- manded there, but of this I was aware before my de- parture. Mr. McDougal having taken the lead, who declared he would make known to the Americans my conduct during the troubles—from this first
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Fort I was inclined to return (to Detroit), but Major Hunt finding if I did that the Indians would follow me, insisted on my proceeding.
Blue Jacket, an Indian Chief, who had been sent to bring forward Indians to Council, joined us here and proceeded with us; this night, being the 14th, Mr. McDougal overtook us. It was the 19th before we reached Fort Adams, the 20th we got to Fort Recovery and the 21st to Fort Greene Ville. Soon after our arrival a Major of Dragoons, said General Wayne wished to see us. We proceeded to the Coun- cil House, which is situated in the Fort. Here Gen- | eral Wayne received us and shook hands with all the Indians. Omissas, a Chippewa Chief, who had been chosen to speak for the Ottawas, Pottawattomies, and his nation, asked me for a few Strings of Wampum he had given me in charge and with them made the following speech:
“Brothers: We, the Chippewas, looking over our bundles, found your Strings of Wampum that had been given us at Muskingum, and thought it time to come and see you at the great Council Fire.”
General Wayne in return said:
“IT am extremely happy to see you and more so to hear that you brought the Strings of Wampum, gave you at Muskingum, you, Omissas, spoke like an hon- est, sensible, and good hearted man, and I take you again by the hand for your honesty.”
Omissas to General Wayne:
“Brothers: Should any one say that they advised us to come to this Council or say they brought us to this place, it’s false, we came of our own free will and have brought this English man (meaning me) with us to repeat to us what you say in Council, and that we may be instructed with every thing that will be said to us and not be so ignorant of this Council as we were of that of Muskingum.”
Blue Jacket’s speech to General Wayne:
“Brothers: I am extremely sorry that I have not been able to accomplish what I wished to have done owing to the number of bad birds who were contin- ually whispering in my Shawnee Chiefs ears, and have prevented them from coming sooner, however,
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I have a bit of Tobacco from them and they sent me word they would come immediately, but I cannot assure you they will.”
General Wayne’s answer:
“Brothers: I am sensible of the great Zeal and wish you have come to serve the States and that you have done.all in your power for them. I am well persuaded that you met great numbers of bad birds, who did all they could to prevent what you went about.”
July 22. No Council.
July 23. As I was going to the Council I was told by Mons Beaubien not to go, that the Centinel would Stop me. The General’s aid de Camp told him so. When I stopped the Indians stopped also and said they would not go but on my telling them it was all the same they could repeat to me at night what had passed, they proceeded.
July 24. The Indians gave in their answer this day with a white belt of Wampum as follows:
“Brothers: We know nothing of the Six Thou- sand Dollars said to have been given the Indians at Muskingum, but as for the Wyandotts, they perhaps know of these dollars. They were accustomed to horde up all they got on these occasions and never let others know of it. The Wyandots were displeased and begged leave to give their answer next day.”
July 25. This day General Wayne explained that the six thousand dollars were given in goods, ete. Then the Chippewas were satisfied with the Wyan- dots and said it was true that they had received pres- ents, but thought they were given them for having buried the hatchet and not for Lands.
July 26. The Miamis spoke and said their Grand Father had given them these lands and they were told not to sell them nor give them away and of course the Tribes who had given them at Muskin- gum had no right to them, and several other words to the same purpose.
July 27. The Indians were allowed to speak among themselves.
July 28. I wrote to General Wayne for a pass to
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return home (to Detroit) and received for answer, to call next day.
July 29. Waited on General Warne he delivered me a letter from Mrs. Askin, which he opened and shewed me another asking if ‘i knew the hand writ- ing? I said I did. It was my Father’s, he then pro- ceeded to read its contents to me, and after he had done reading, he said he looked upon me as a spy and that I deserved death. I told him that I knew of no spies in time of peace, he said it was true, but he still had the power of sending me to a Fort in the Woods, and immediately ordered a party of Light Horse to take me to Fort Jefferson, he likewise or- dered my papers to be examined and an officer took out of them two Indian Deeds of Land given me in charge by a gentleman here, which he said would be returned, but as yet have not.
The Commanding Officer at Fort Jefferson had orders not to let me speak to any one, but in his presence, nor to write to any person except the Gen- eral, to do him justice, he treated me with much civ- ility.
July 380th and 31st. In confinement.
August 1. The Indians delivered a white belt of Wampum, requesting I might be set at Liberty, the General gave for answer that I should in two days, however, the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth elapsed but on the seventh the General wrote me a note saying I was at liberty and in it invited me to dine with him (which I did), on the eighth I got a pass and set off and the fifteenth (of August) ar- rived here (at Detroit).
As I was not at any of the Councils but the first, I can only speak from the reports of the Indians and others, who informed me that until I was some days in confinement the Indians, who went out with me, would neither consent to ratify the Muskingum Treaty nor give up their claims to the disposal of their lands, nor I am sure ever would, had I not been confined and deprived of giving them advice, but being intimidated by the threats of the General, say- ing he would drive them back into the Sea if they did not acquiesce in his demands, and seeing the
AVG
other Nations (from fear and persuasion of some of our Canadian and English friends) agree, they at last. did the same, prior to my being released.
The Treaty so far as I could learn was, that they confirmed the Muskingum Treaty and added to it all the lands situated on the South side of the (source of the) Miamis River (and Fort Recovery). They sold six miles square, near where Fort Miami is sit- uated. Twelve miles square at and about (certain different localities,) which were to be given up and such small spots about them as the English had pur- chased and that they should have that matter cleared up, which they accordingly did next day and it was then acknowledged to them that our Government had not given over their lands.
It was reported, at my departure, that very soon after a party of Americans were to come by land to the spot purchased up the river of (Raisin) and take post there, likewise at Sandusky, to Build a Fort.
I am with due respect,
Sir, Your most obedient and very humble servant, JOHN ASKIN, Jr.
From this letter it will be noticed that the confer- ence preliminary to the Treaty was held in the Council House, which was located within the enclos- ure of the fort; that Fort Jefferson, which was the most advanced post built and garrisoned by St. Clair in October, 1791, some five miles south of Greene Ville, was still maintained by Wayne as an important link in the chain of posts reaching from Fort Washington to Fort Wayne.
That Askin was employed by the British for some mercenary purpose is suggested by the fact that on his return to Detroit he made a report to Colonel England, then the Commandant of that post, in which he states that he would have advised the In- dians not to have signed the treaty if he had not been prevented from doing so. Wayne evidently suspected his mission and treated him accordingly in which matter he was advised by one Mr. McDou- gal who overtook the Askin party at Fort Defiance and accompanied them to Greene Ville.
Vi THE TREATY OF GREENEVILLE.
“See again the smoke is curling From the friendly calumet And the Club of War is buried And the star of slaughter set.” —Anonymous.
GREENEVILLE TREATY PEACE PIPE
Now in Museum of Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society’s Museum, Columbus, Ohio.
At the preliminary conference of the Confeder- ated Tribes held at Fort Greene Ville on January 24, 1795, it had been agreed that all their sachems and war chiefs should meet Wayne at this frontier post on or about June 15, to consult and conclude a satisfactory peace. We have noticed that strag- gling bands representing the various tribes have been gathering and holding conferences prelimin- ary to the great Council at which all are to meet the distinguished representatives of the Fifteen Fires.
On account of the remote situation of some of the tribes and the obstacles encountered in traveling through the primitive forest, coupled with the intrigue of the British agents, the Indians kept ar- riving in small parties from their homes on the Wabash, the Maumee and the Great Lakes. Some had met in former treaties and had fought the Americans in more than one hot engagement; many had helped to rout poor St. Clair and all had been humiliated by the great “Chief who never sleeps.” As they arrived Wayne received them cordially and expressed pleasure at their voluntary expression of
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sentiments of peace. When Chief New Corn ar- rived he manifested grief on account of the graves of his tribesmen who had been killed in their attack on Fort Recovery the summer previous as he had passed them on the way to the Council. Wayne re- minded him that such grief was unmanly, and, in order to make glad the hearts of the Chiefs and dry their tears he gave each a sheep for his personal use and some drink for themselves and their people, suggesting at the same time that they all take a glass together. He explained further to them that the Americans had no pork and but few sheep which were intended for the use of the sick and occasion- ally, for the use of the officers. He promised them that their sick should share with his own in the comforts of the camp, and that he would divide with the officers.
On the 15th of July, the Council fire, which had been covered on the 16th day of June, was stirred up and replenished and around its sacred embers gathered, no doubt, a motley group of chiefs, scouts, spies, interpreters, and officers, among whom might probably be noticed the faces of Wayne and his aides, Wm. H. Harrison and T. Lewis; the Quarter- master General Jas.O’Hara; Major of Infantry, John Mills; Lieutenant of Artillery, Geo. Cemeter; Chap- lain, David Jones and Secretary DeButts; a number of French Canadian interpreters including LaFon- taine, Navarre, Eichambre, Beufert, Jacques Las- selle, Grant Lasselle, H. Lasselle, M. Morans and Sans Crainte, besides the famous frontier scouts, Wm. Wells, Christopher Miller, Cabot Willson, Abra- ham Williams and Isaac Zane. Among the Indian faces might be detected Little Turtle and LeGris, representing the Miamis; Blue Jacket and Black Hoof, the Shawnees, Bukongehelas, Tetaboshke and Peketelemund of the Delaware; Massas and Bad Bird, the Chippewas; Augooshaway, the Ottawa; New Corn, Sun and Asimethe, the Pottawattomies; Keeahah, the Kickapoo; Reyntwoco, of the Six Na- tions, and Tarke, or the Crane, the great keeper of the Calumet of the Wyandots.
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In the presence of this wonderful backwoods as- sembly Wayne arose on the 15th of July and ad- dressed the Council at length, explaining his powers and urging the Treaty of Muskingum (Fort Har- mar) as a suitable basis of lasting peace. By that treaty the Indians signed in 1785, by the terms of which they kept the country west of the Cuyahoga river and south of the lakes to a line running west- ward near the fortieth parallel as far as the head- waters of the Great Miami river, retaining the privi- lege of hunting and fishing to the Ohio river, and giving the American certain trading posts with small surrounding tracts.
Time was given for deliberation and on the 18th, discussion followed relative to the validity and force of the Treaty of Muskingum of which some of the chiefs professed ignorance. Wayne endeavored to impress the chiefs and warriors assembled with the great importance of the interests at stake and with the fact that they were now called upon to determine questions which involved the happiness of both the United States and the Indian nations represented, after which he invoked the blessings of the Great Spirit upon their deliberations.
About the year 1794, the Society of Friends be- came concerned for the welfare of the Indians in the Western Country as well as that of the frontier settlers, who were liable to much suffering on ac- count of the depredations of the Indians. Deeply affected with the horrors attendant on the barbar- ous raids against the pioneers, the Yearly Meeting nominated a large committee with instructions to endeavor to terminate these hostilities. In the same year they sent a memorial to the President and Congress recommending the adoption of such just and pacific measures toward the various tribes as might arrest the further shedding of blood and es- tablish peace on a firm basis. A treaty was soon afterward held at Sandusky, but nothing was effect- ed there.
At the opening of the treaty at Fort Greene Ville, General Wayne read the address of the Friends’
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Yearly Meeting at Philadelphia, which they had for- warded to the Indians in this Council together with some presents. This letter was concluded in lan- guage entirely calculated to allay those feelings of bitterness which had been implanted deeply in their minds on account of accumulated wrongs. Of this letter General Wayne remarked to the Chiefs in Council: ‘Younger brothers—I have received a letter from your friends, the people called Quakers, with a message to all Nations here assembled. The Quakers are a people whom I much love and esteem for their goodness of heart and sincere love of peace with all nations.
“Listen then to their voices and let them sink deep into your hearts (here the General read their ad- dress and the invoice of their presents). Their present, you see, is small, but, being designed with the benevolent view of promoting the happiness and peace of mankind, it becomes of important value. They wish it to ke considered merely as a token of regard for you and a testimony of their brotherly affections and kind remembrance of you.”
On the 20th of July Wayne read to the warriors assembled in Council the offer of peace sent to them just before the battle of Fallen Timbers. He also read and explained the Treaty of Fort Harmar and pointed to a number of Chiefs who were present and had signed both that treaty and the Treaty of Fort McIntosh and asked them to consider seriously what he had said with the view of making known their thoughts at the next meeting.
On the 21st, the discussion was continued and sev- eral prominent chiefs took part, being followed by Little Turtle, who professed ignorance of the ces- sion of lands along the Wabash and expressed sur- prise that these lands had been ceded by the British to the Americans when the former were beaten by and made peace with the latter.
Perhaps the great climax of all the deliberations was reached on Wednesday, July 22d, when the tall and crafty Chief of the Miamis made a shrewd and eloquent address before the great Council. Most of
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our readers, perhaps, have read the pathetic speech of Chief Logan deploring the unwarranted murder of his brethren, but few of us have perused the classic and masterful address delivered by Little Turtle on this rare and inspiring occasion. Let us imagine him on this day trigged out in the pictur- esque and fantastic costume of the typical Indian Chief with paint, beads and feathers, to heighten the effect as he strides solemnly and majestically forward to the center of the encircling Council. Thoughts of the past power and prestige of his wan- ing nation and the early victories over the advanc- ing Americans throng his brain as he casts his eagle eyes toward the blazing July sun and then turns impressively to his large and picturesque audi- ence. We may imagine him with a sweep of his outstretched arm, describing the lands over which his forefathers claimed dominion; with a handful of earth, symbolizing the remaining tribal allotments; with a few kernels rattled in a dry pod illustrat- ing the decimated numbers of his people, and with the down of a thistle or milkweed scattered to the wind symbolizing the coming race. “I expect,” said he, ‘‘that the lands on the Wabash and in this coun- try belong to me and my people. I now take the opportunity to inform my brethren of the United States and others present that there are men of sense and understanding among my people as well as among theirs, and that these lands were disposed of without our knowledge or consent.” ‘You have pointed out,” he continued, ‘‘the boundary line be- tween the Indian and the United States, but I now take the liberty to inform you that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of country which has been enjoyed by my forefathers from time im- memorial without molestation or dispute.” “The prints of my ancestors’ houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion. I was a little astonished at hearing you and my brethren who were present, telling each other what business you had transacted together at Muskingum concerning this country. It is well known by all my brothers present that my
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forefathers kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his lines to the headwaters of the Scioto; from thence to its mouth; from thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash and from thence to Lake Michigan.
“At this place I first saw my elder brothers, the Shawnees. I have now informed you of the boun- daries of the Miami nation where the Great Spirit placed my forefathers a long time ago, and charged him not to sell or part with his lands, but to pre- serve them for his posterity.
“This charge has been handed down to me_ I was much surprised that my brothers differed so much from me on this subject; for their conduct would lead me to suppose that the Great Spirit and their forefathers had not given them the same charge that was given to me, but on the contrary had directed them to sell their lands to any who wore a:hat as soon as he should ask it of them.”
What a great Indian empire was here described by the sagacious Little Turtle, which, without a doubt originally belonged to the Miamis. It includ- ed the present state of Indiana, part of southern Michigan and the western half of Ohio and a portion of northeastern I]linois.
A number of other tribes and bands of Indians inhabited this country it is true, but they were mostly tribes of near kinship, and all of them belonged to this great Miami Confederacy, where the capital or general headquarters was at the junction of the St. Marys and St. Joseph rivers, now Fort Wayne. This was the abode of the principal chiefs of the confederate tribes and their reluctance in yielding its possession to the government of the United States was graphically shown in the conduct of Little Tur- tle, who was born within twenty miles of this place. In this contest at Greene Ville there met two diplo- mats, General Wayne, on the part of the United States, and Little Turtle, on behalf of the Indian confederacy, who would have been enabled to cope with the most sagacious State Minister of an Euro- pean Court.
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The time occupied would have been somewhat abridged had it not been for the obstacles interposed by Little Turtle, the master spirit on the part of the Indians, whose chief point was to retain partial if not full possession of his glorious gate at Fort Wayne, through which all of the good words had to pass from north to south and from east to west.
The other chiefs, many of whom gave evidence of much wisdom and eloquence early in the negotia- tions, evinced a disposition to assent readily to all the terms prescribed by the commissioner of the United States. This entire discussion is of deep interest and in reply to Little Turtle’s speech above mentioned, General Wayne said in his address be- fore the Council held on the 24th of July:
“T have paid attention to what Little Turtle said two days since concerning the land which he claims. He said his fathers first kindled the fires at Detroit and stretched his lines from thence to the head- waters of the Scioto; thence down the Scioto to the Ohio; thence down that river to the mouth of the Wabash and from thence to Chicago on the south- west end of Lake Michigan, and observed that his forefathers had enjoyed that country from time im- memorial.
“These boundaries enclose a very large space of country, indeed they embrace, if I mistake not, all the lands on which all the nations now present live as well as those which have been ceded to the United States. Then Little Turtle says, the prints of his forefathers’ houses are everywhere to be seen with- in these boundaries. Younger brother, it is true these prints are to be observed but at the same time we discover the marks of the French possessions throughout this country, which were established long before we were born. I will point out to you a few places where I discover strong traces of these estab- lishments, and first of all I find at Detroit a very strong print where the fire was first kindled by your forefathers; next at Vincennes on the Wabash; again at Musquiton on the same river; a little higher up that stream, they are to be seen at Ouitanon. I dis-
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cover another strong trace at Chicago; another on the banks of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. I have seen distinctly the prints of a French and of a British post at the Miami villages (Fort Wayne) and of a British post at the rapids now in their pos- sessions.”
At the Council on the 27th of July, after a general acquiescence to the terms of the treaty had been given by the other chiefs, Little Turtle arose and said: ‘Listen, you chiefs and warriors, to what I am about to say to you; to you I am speaking. We have heard what our elder brother has said to us this day. I expected to have him deliver those words ever since we have been here for which rea- son I observed you were precipitate on you part. This is a business of greatest consequence to us all, it is an affair to which no one among us can give us an answer. Therefore, I hope we will take time to consider the subject that we will unite in an opinion and express it unanimously. Perhaps our brothers the Shawnees from Detroit may arrive in time to give us their assistance. You chiefs pres- ent are men of sense and understanding. This occa- sion calls for your serious deliberations, and you, my uncles, the Wyandots, and grandfathers, the Delawares, view our situation in its true point of consideration.
‘All you present must know that every kind of _business, especially such as we are at present en- gaged in, exhibits difficulties which require patience to remove, and consideration to adjust.”
In the discussion on the day following (July 28th) the New Corn, a Pottawattomie Chief, growing im- patient at the delay, exclaimed: ‘Why do you hesi- tate? You know good works are always better when executed with decision. I now entreat you all to join hand and heart, and finish this good work with our elder brother.”
At the Council on the 29th of July, addressing General Wayne, Little Turtle said: ‘These people (the French) were seen by our forefathers first at Detroit; afterward we saw them at the Miami vil-
lil
lage (Fort Wayne) that glorious gate which your younger brother had the happiness to own and through which all the words of our chiefs had to pass from the north to south and from east to west. Brothers, these people never told us that they wished to purchase these lands from us. I now give you the true sentiments of your younger brothers, the Miamis, with respect to the reservation at the Miami villages. We thank you for kindly contract- ing the limits you at first proposed. We wish you to take this six miles square on the side of the river where your fort now stands, as your younger broth- ers wish to inhabit that beloved spot again. You shall cut hay for your cattle wherever you please; and you shall never require in vain the assistance of your younger brother at that place. The next place you pointed to, was the Little river, and said you wanted two miles square at that place. This is a request that our fathers the French or British never made us. It was always ours. This carrying place has heretofore proved in a great degree the sub- sistance of your younger brothers. That place has brought to us in the course of one day the amount of one hundred dollars. Let us both own this place and enjoy in common the advantages it affords.”
In his reply General Wayne used the following language: “I find there is some objections to the reservation at Fort Wayne. The Little Turtle ob- serves he never heard of any cessions made at that place to the French. I have traced the lines of two forts at that point; one stood at the junction of the St. Joseph with the St. Marys; and the other not far removed on the St. Marys and it ever was an established rule among the Europeans to reserve as much ground around their forts as their cannon can command. This is a rule as well known as any other fact.
“Objection has also been made respecting the portage between Fort Wayne and the Little river; and the reasons produced are, that that road has been to the Miamis a source of wealth; that it has
heretofore produced them one hundred dollars per
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day. It may be so; but let us inquire who in fact paid this heavy contribution. It is true the traders bore it in the first instance, but they laid it on the goods, and the Indians of the Wabash really and finally paid it; therefore, it is the Little Beaver, the Soldier, the Sun and their tribes who have actually been so highly taxed.”
On the 17th day of July, 1795, was fixed the boun- dary that should divide the United States, or the fifteen great fires of America, from the lands be- longing to the Indian nations.
Wayne explained to them the several articles of a treaty upon which a permanent peace could be es- tablished between the United States and the Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio. The third article which should define the boundary reads: ‘That the general boundary between the lands of the United States and the lands of the said Indian tribes shall begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river and run thence up the same to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down that branch to the crossing place near Fort Laurens; thence westwardly to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami river running into the Ohio riv- er, at or near which stood Loramie’s store, and where commenced the portage between the Miami of the Ohio and St. Marys river which is a branch of the Miami, which runs into Lake Erie; thence a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on the bank of the Wabash; thence southerly in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river oppo- site the mouth of the Kentucky river.”
There were certain reservations granted to the Indians in this treaty. <A lasting peace was provid- ed for and it was stipulated that all the prisoners then held should be restored.
Little Turtle insisted that the line should run from Fort Recovery to Fort Hamilton on the Great Miami, and assured the whites of the free navigation of that river from thence to its mouth forever.
The treaty was signed August 3d, and exchanged August 7, 1795. It was laid before the Senate
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December 9, 1795, and was ratified December 22, 1795. This closed the old Indian wars of the west. General Wayne, in declaring the Council at an end, said:
-“T now fervently pray to the Great Spirit that the peace now established may be permanent, and that it now holds us together in the bonds of friendship until time shall be no more. I also pray that the Great Spirit above may enlighten your minds and open your eyes to your true happiness, that your children may learn to cultivate the earth and enjoy the fruits of peace and industry.” |
By this treaty the Indians ceded about twenty-five thousand (25,000) square miles of territory to the United States, besides sixteen separate tracts, in- cluding lands and forts. The Indians received in consideration of these cessions goods of the value of twenty thousand dollars as presents, and were promised an annual allowance of ninety-five hun- dred dollars to be equally distributed to the parties to the treaty.
Twelve tribes were represented at the treaty as follows: Delawares, 381; Pottawattomies, 240; Wyandots, 180; Shawnees, 143; Miamis and Eel Rivers, 73; Chippewas, 46; Ottawas, 45; Weas and Piankeshawas, 17; Kickapoos and Kaskaskias, 10, in all 1,130.
Every chief and warrior of the eleven hundred and thirty who participated in that Council has long since passed to the land of the Great Spirit.
General Wayne died on the banks of Lake Erie, in 1796, and doubtless the dying hero saw in its tur- bulent waters at times something of his own uncon- querable will and at others that quiet peace which come at last to his restless soul. The influence of that will remain forever. It saved defenseless set- tlements from the tomahawk and scalping knife of the Indian, and opened up to emigration and settle- ment the limitless west.
It is the testimony of history that the confederate tribes kept the faith pledged at Greene Ville and never violated the limits established by the treaty.
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The writer of the volume on Ohio, in the “Amer- ican Commonwealth Series,” says: “It was a grand tribute to General Wayne, that no chief or warrior who gave him the land at Fort Greene Ville ever after lifted the hatchet against the United States.”
At the Greene Ville Treaty the new government presented Little Turtle and other participating chiefs with a beautiful silver medal, which was high- ly prized by the savages. These medals and silver ornaments were given out August 8th. This medal
‘ Pamsioant i795 2 \ Gee = cia
GREENEVILLE TREATY MEDAL August 3, 1795.
was a fac-simile of the Red Jacket medal, except that the date engraved thereon was 1795. It was of oblong shape and four by six inches in size.
The Red Jacket medal was presented to Chief Red Jacket in the spring of 1792, at Philadelphia, by President Washington. It is now in the custody of the Buffalo Historical Society.
From time immemorial loyalty has been rewarded by the conferring of land and titles of nobility; by the personal thanks of the sovereign; the presenta-
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tions of medals and the bestowal of knightly hon- ors, the insignia of which were hung on the breast of the recipient. With the Indian Chief of the western tribes it was the same.
The following is a complete description of the Greene Ville treaty medal: On the obverse side, President Washington is represented in uniform, bareheaded, facing to the right and presenting a pipe to an Indian Chief, who is smoking it. The Indian is standing, and has a large medal suspend- ing from his neck. On the left is a pine tree at the foot of which lies a tomahawk. In the background is a farmer plowing. Below, in exergue, George Washington, President, 1795. On the reverse side appears the arms and crest of the United States on the breast of an eagle. In the eagle’s right talon is an olive branch, in the left a sheaf of arrows, in its beak the motto, E Pluribus Unum, and above a glory breaking through the clouds and surrounded by thirteen stars.
It seems that the Little Turtle medal is now lost, as we have so far failed to find it among any of his descendants, or to learn where any of them have disposed of it. It was not interred with him at his burial, as its absence was especially noticed from all of the other things that were taken from the grave. Its present location seems to be entirely unknown to any person now living. However, one of these medals were presented to Wa-pa-man-qua, White Loon, a Wea Chief, and secured from one of his descendants in Oklahoma by E. B. Dyer, of Augusta, Georgia. It is now in the public museum of Kansas City, Missouri.
Another was presented to She-nock-in-wak, or Soldier as he was commonly called, Chief of the Eel River Miamis. We learn that one of the above named chiefs of Miami county, Indiana, whose name was John Eveline, sold this medal about 1906, to Charles F. Gunther, a wealthy relic collector and ’ extensive candy manufacturer of the city of Chica- go. So this is about all we are able to say concern- ing any and all of the Greene Ville treaty medals
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given out by the government at the treaty in 1795, to the various chiefs and warriors there assembled.
The Indians were loathe to leave GreeneVille even after the General’s eloquent farewell speech, and besought him to accept as a token of their love and esteem for him a present of the GreeneVille treaty peace pipe, which with great ceremony was handed to him by Tar-ke, or the Crane, the Wyan- dot Chief, whose tribe was always the keeper of this sacred implement.
Let us strive to realize the full significance and the great importance attached by the aboriginal inhabitant of America to the solemn pledge which the pipe of peace conveyed when once smoked in solemn council between the various tribes which had