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diff --git a/21381.txt b/21381.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44490fc --- /dev/null +++ b/21381.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6996 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories Of Ohio, by William Dean Howells + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Stories Of Ohio + 1897 + +Author: William Dean Howells + +Release Date: January 23, 2008 [EBook #21381] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES OF OHIO *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +STORIES OF OHIO + +By William Dean Howells + +Copyright, 1897, by American Book Company. + + + + +PREFACE. + +In the following stories, drawn from the annals of Ohio, I have tried to +possess the reader with a knowledge, in outline at least, of the history +of the State from the earliest times. I cannot suppose that I have done +this with unfailing accuracy in respect to fact, but with regard to the +truth, I am quite sure of my purpose at all times to impart it. + +The books which have been of most use to me in writing this are the +histories of Francis Parkman; the various publications of Messrs. Robert +Clarke and Co. in the "Ohio Valley Series"; McClung's "Sketches of +Western Adventure"; "Ohio" (in the American Commonwealths Series) by Ruf +us King; "History and Civil Government of Ohio," by B. A. Hinsdale and +Mary Hinsdale; "Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley," +by W. H. Venable; Theodore Roosevelt's "Winning of the West"; Whitelaw +Reid's "Ohio in the War"; and above all others, the delightful and +inexhaustible volumes of Henry Howe's "Historical Collections of Ohio." + +W. D. H. + + CONTENTS. + + + I. The Ice Folk and the Earth Folk + + II. Ohio as a Part of France + + III. Ohio becomes English + + IV. The Forty Years' War for the West + + V. The Captivity of James Smith + + VI. The Captivity of Boone and Kenton + + VII. The Renegades + + VIII. The Wickedest Deed in our History + + IX. The Torture of Colonel Crawford + + X. The Escape of Knight and Slover + + XI. The Indian Wars and St. Clair's Defeat + + XII. The Indian Wars and Wayne's Victory + + XIII. Indian Fighters + + XIV. Later Captivities + + XV. Indian Heroes and Sages + + XVI. Life in the Backwoods + + XVII. The First Great Settlements + + XVIII. The State of Ohio in the War of 1812 + + XIX. A Foolish Man, a Philosopher, and a Fanatic + + XX. Ways Out + + XXI. The Fight with Slavery + + XXII. The Civil War in Ohio + + XXIII. Famous Ohio Soldiers + + XXIV. Ohio Statesmen + + XXV. Other Notable Ohioans + + XXVI. Incidents and Characteristics + + + + +STORIES OF OHIO. + + + + +I. THE ICE FOLK AND THE EARTH FOLK. + +The first Ohio stories are part of the common story of the wonderful Ice +Age, when a frozen deluge pushed down from the north, and covered a vast +part of the earth's surface with slowly moving glaciers. The traces that +this age left in Ohio are much the same as it left elsewhere, and the +signs that there were people here ten thousand years ago, when the +glaciers began to melt and the land became fit to live in again, are +such as have been found in the glacier drift in many other countries. +Even before the ice came creeping southwestwardly from the region of +Niagara, and passed over two thirds of our state, from Lake Erie to the +Ohio River there were people here of a race older than the hills, as the +hills now are; for the glaciers ground away the hills as they once were, +and made new ones, with new valleys between them, and new channels for +the streams to run where there had never been water courses before. +These earliest Ohioans must have been the same as the Ohioans of the +Ice Age, and when they had fled southward before the glaciers, they must +have followed the retreat of the melting ice back into Ohio again. No +one knows how long they dwelt here along its edges in a climate like +that of Greenland, where the glaciers are now to be seen as they once +were in the region of Cincinnati. But it is believed that these Ice +Folk, as we may call them, were of the race which still roams the Arctic +snows. They seem to have lived as the Eskimos of our day live: they were +hunters and fishers, and in the gravelly banks of the new rivers, which +the glaciers upheaved, the Ice Folk dropped the axes of chipped stone +which are now found there. They left nothing else behind them; but +similar tools or weapons are found in the glacier-built river banks +of Europe, and so it is thought that the race of the earliest Ohio men +lived pretty much all over the world in the Ice Age. + +[Illustration: Stone Axes 017L] + +One of the learned writers[*] who is surest of them and has told us +most about them, holds that they were for their time and place as worthy +ancestors as any people could have; and we could well believe this +because the Ohio man has, in all ages, been one of the foremost men. + + * Professor G. F. Wright. + +Our Ice Folk were sturdy, valiant, and cunning enough to cope with the +fierce brute life and the terrible climate of their day, but all they +have left to prove it is the same kind of stone axes that have been +found in the drift of the glaciers, along the water courses in Northern +France and Southern England. + +Our Ice Folk must have dressed like their far-descended children, the +Eskimos, in furs and skins, and like them they must have lived upon fish +and the flesh of wild beasts. The least terrible of these beasts would +have been the white bear; the mammoth and mastodon were among the +animals the Ice Folk hunted for game, and slew without bows or arrows, +for there was no wood to make these of. The only weapon the Ice Folk had +was the stone ax which they may have struck into their huge prey when +they came upon it sleeping or followed in the chase till it dropped with +fatigue. Such an ax was dug up out of the glacial terrace, as the bank +of this drift is called, in the valley of the Tuscarawas, in 1889, +perhaps ten thousand years after it was left there. It was wrought from +a piece of black flint, four inches long and two inches wide; at the +larger end it was nearly as thick as it was wide, and it was chipped +to a sharp edge all round. Within the present year another of the +Ice Folk's axes has been found near New London, twenty-two feet under +ground, in the same kind of glacial drift as the first. But it seems to +have been made of a different kind of stone, and to have been so deeply +rotted by the long ages it had been buried that when its outer substance +was scratched away, hardly anything of the hard green rock was left. + +After the glaciers were gone, the Ohio climate was still very cold, and +vast lakes stretched over the state, freezing in the long winters, +and thawing in the short summers. One of these spread upward from the +neighborhood of Akron to the east and west of where Cleveland stands; +but by far the largest flooded nearly all that part of Ohio which +the glaciers failed to cover, from beyond where Pittsburg is to where +Cincinnati is. At the last point a mighty ice dam formed every winter +till as the climate grew warmer and the ice thawed more and more, the +waters burst the dam, and poured their tide down the Ohio River to +the Mississippi, while those of the northern lake rushed through the +Cuyahoga to Lake Erie, and both lakes disappeared forever. For the next +four or five thousand years the early Ohio men kept very quiet; but we +need not suppose for that reason that there were none. Our Ice Folk, who +dropped their stone axes in the river banks, may have passed away with +the Ice Age, or they may have remained in Ohio, and begun slowly to take +on some faint likeness of civilization. There is nothing to prove that +they went, and there is nothing to prove that they staid; but Ohio must +always have been a pleasant place to live in after the great thaw, and +it seems reasonable to think that the Ice Folk lingered, in part at +least, and changed with the changing climate, and became at last the +people who left the signs of their presence in almost every part of the +state. + +Those were the Mound Builders, whose works are said to be two or three +thousand years old, though we cannot be very sure of that. There are +some who think that the mounds are only a few hundred years old, and +that their builders were the race of red men whom the white men found +here. One may think very much as one likes, and I like to think that the +Mound Builders were a very ancient people, who vanished many ages before +the Indians came here. They could not have been savages, for the region +where they dwelt could not have fed savages enough to heap up the +multitude of their mounds. Each wild man needs fifty thousand acres to +live upon, as the wild man lives by hunting and fishing; in the whole +Ohio country, the earliest white adventurers found only two or three +thousand Indians at the most; and the people who built those forts and +temples and tombs, and shaped from the earth the mighty images of their +strange bird-gods and reptile-gods, could have lived only by tilling +the soil. Their mounds are found everywhere in the west between the +Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River, but they are found mostly +in Ohio, where their farms and gardens once bordered the Muskingum, the +Scioto, the two Miamis, and our other large streams, which they probably +used as highways to the rivers of the southwest. + +Their forts were earthworks, but they were skillfully planned, with a +knowledge which no savage race has shown. They were real strongholds, +and they are so large that some of them inclose hundreds of acres within +walls of earth which still rise ten and twelve feet from the ground. +They are on a far grander scale than the supposed temples or religious +works; and there are more of them than of all the other ruins, except +the small detached mounds, which are almost numberless. + +These, from the charred bones found among the ashes in them, are known +to be tombs, and they were probably the sepulchers of the common people, +whose bodies were burned. The large mounds are heaped above walled +chambers, and in these were platforms, supposed to have been altars, and +whole skeletons, supposed to be the skeletons of priests buried there. +The priests are supposed to have been the chiefs of the people, and +to have ruled them through their superstitions; but there is nothing to +prove this, for their laws were never put in written words or any other +sign of speech. In some of the mounds little figures of burnt clay have +been found, which may be idols, and pieces of ancient pottery, which may +be fragments of sacred vessels, and small plates of copper, with marks +or scratches on them, which may be letters. Some antiquarians have tried +to read these letters, if they are letters, and to make sense out +of them, but no seeker after true Ohio stories can trust their +interpretations. + +The Mound Builders used very little stone and showed no knowledge of +masonry. But they built so massively out of the earth, that their works +have lasted to this day in many places, just as they left them, except +for the heavy growth of trees, which the first settlers found covering +them, and which were sometimes seven or eight hundred years old. At +Marietta, these works when the white people came were quite perfect and +inclosed fifty acres on the bank of the Muskingum, overlooking the Ohio. +They were in great variety of design. The largest mound was included in +the grounds of the present cemetery, and so has been saved, but the +plow of the New England emigrant soon passed over the foundations of +the Mound Builders' temples. At Circleville the shape of their +fortifications gave its name to the town, which has long since hid them +from sight. One of them was almost perfectly round, and the other nearly +square. The round fort was about seventy feet in diameter, and was +formed of two walls twenty feet high, with a deep ditch between; the +other fort was fifty-five rods square, and it had no ditch; seven +gateways opened into it at the side and corners, and it was joined to +the round fort by an eighth. It is forever to be regretted that these +precious ancient works should have been destroyed to make place for the +present town; but within a few years one of the most marvelous of the +Mound Builders' works, the great Serpent Mound near Loudon, in Adams +County, has been preserved to after time by the friends of science, and +put in the keeping of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. + +[Illustration: Serpent Mound 019L] + +The state of Ohio has passed a law protecting the land around it as a +park, and there is now reason to hope that the mound will last as long +as the rocky bluff on which the serpent lies coiled. This huge idol is +more than twelve hundred feet long, and is the most wonderful symbol +in the world of the serpent worship, which was everywhere the earliest +religion of our race. + +The largest military ruin is the famous Fort Ancient in Warren County, +where, on a terrace above the Little Miami River, five miles of wall, +which can still be easily traced, shut in a hundred acres. In Highland +County, about seventeen miles southeast of Hillsborough, another great +fortress embraces thirty-five acres oh the crest of a hill overlooking +Brush Creek. Itswalls are some twenty-five feet wide at the base, and +rise from &ix to ten feet above the ground. Within their circuit are +two ponds which could supply water in time of siege, and in the valley, +which the hill commands, are the ruins of the Mound Builders' village, +whose people could take refuge in the fort on the hilltop and hold it +against any approaching force. + +For the rest, the works of the Mound Builders, except such as were too +large to be destroyed by the farmer, have disappeared almost as wholly +as the Mound Builders themselves. Their mole-like race threw up their +ridges and banks and larger and lesser heaps, and then ceased from the +face of the earth, as utterly as if they had burrowed into its heart. +They may have fled before the ancestors of the savages whom our +ancestors found here; they may have passed down peacefully into Mexico +and built the cities which the Spaniards destroyed there. Or, they +may have come up out of Mexico, and lost the higher arts of their +civilization in our northern woods, warring with the wild tribes who +were here before them. In either case, it is imaginable that the Mound +Builders were of the same race as the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, +and it is probable that they were akin to the Zufiis of our own day. The +snake dances of the Zufiis are a relic of the old serpent worship; and +the fear and hate which the Zufiis bear the red savages of the plains +may be another heritage from the kindred race which once peopled our +Ohio valleys. + + + + +II. OHIO AS A PART OF FRANCE. + +If the people of Ohio were Eskimos in the ages before history began, +and then thousands of years after, but still thousands of years ago were +Aztecs, there is no doubt that when history first knew of them they were +Frenchmen. The whole Great West, in fact, was once as much a province +of France as Canada; for the dominions of Louis XV. were supposed to +stretch from Quebec to New Orleans, and from the Alleghanies to the +Mississippi. The land was really held by savages who had never heard of +this king; but that was all the same to the French. They had discovered +the Great Lakes, they had discovered the Mississippi, they had +discovered the Ohio; and they built forts at Detroit, at Kaskaskia, and +at Pittsburg, as well as at Niagara; they planted a colony at the mouth +of our mightiest river, and opened a highway to France through the +Gulf of Mexico, as well as through the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and they +proclaimed their king sovereign over all. + +In Ohio they had a post on the Maumee, and everywhere they had +settlements at each of the forts, where there was always a chapel and a +priest for the conversion of the Indians. With the French, the sword and +the cross went together, but very few of the savages knew that they +were either conquered or converted. From time to time they knew that +companies of picturesque strangers visited their towns, and promised +them the favor of the French king if they would have nothing to do with +the traders from the English colonies on the Atlantic, and threatened +them with his displeasure if they refused. When these brilliant +strangers staid among them, and built a fort and a chapel, and laid out +farms, then the savages willingly partook of the great king's bounty, +and clustered around the French post in their wigwams and settled down +to the enjoyment of his brandy, his tobacco, his ammunition, and his +religion. When the strangers went away, almost as soon as they had +promised and threatened, then the savages went back to business with the +English traders. + +The company of Frenchmen who visited our Miami Indians at their town of +Pickawillany, on the head waters of the Miami River in 1749, was of this +last sort. It was commanded by the Chevalier Celoron de Bienville, and +it counted some two hundred Canadians and French troops, officered by +French gentlemen, and attended by one of those brave priests who led or +followed wherever the French flag was carried in the wilderness. Celoron +was sent by the governor of Canada to lay claim to the Ohio valley for +his king, and he did this by very simple means. He nailed plates of +tin to certain trees, and he buried plates of lead at the mouths of the +larger streams. The leaden plates no one ever saw for a hundred years, +till some boys going to bathe found them here and there in the wave-worn +banks; but if the Indians could have read anything, or if the English +traders could have read French, they might have learned at once from +the tin plates that the king of France owned the "Ohio River and all the +waters that fell into it, and all the lands on both sides." As it was, +however, it is hard to see how anybody was the wiser for them, or could +know that the king had upheld his right to the Ohio country by battle +and by treaty and would always defend it. + +In fact, neither the battles nor the treaties between the French and +English in Europe had really settled the question of their claim to the +West in America, and both sides began to urge it in a time of peace +by every kind of secret and open violence. As for the Miamis and their +allies among the neighboring tribes, they believed that God had created +them on the very spot where Celoron found them living, and when he asked +them to leave their capital at Pickawillany, and go to live near the +French post on the Maumee, they answered him that they would do so when +it was more convenient. He bade them banish the English traders, but +they merely hid them, while he was with them, and as soon as he was +gone, they had them out of hiding, and began to traffic with them. They +never found it more convenient to leave their town, until a few years +later, when a force of Canadians and Christian Indians came down from +the post on the Maumee, and destroyed Pickawillany. + +Celoron came into the Ohio country through the western part of New York. +He launched his canoes on the head waters of the Beautiful River, as the +French called the Ohio, and drifted down its current till he reached the +mouth of the Great Miami. He worked up this shallow and uncertain stream +into Shelby County, where he had his friendly but fruitless meeting with +the chief of the Miamis. After that he kept on northward to the Maumee, +and then embarked on Lake Erie, and so got back to Canada. It could not +be honestly said that he had done much to make good his king's claim +to the country with his plates of tin and lead. He had flattered and +threatened the Indians at several places; and the Indians had promised, +over the cups of brandy and pipes of tobacco which he supplied them, to +be good subjects to Louis XV., who was such a very bad king that he did +not deserve even such subjects as they meant to be. They seem not to +have taken Celoron's warnings very seriously, though he told them that +the English traders would ruin them, and that they were preparing the +way for the English settlers, who would soon swarm into their country, +and drive them out. + +The Indians did not believe Celoron, and yet he told them the truth. The +English traders were often men of low character, thoroughly dishonest in +their dealings, and the English settlers were only waiting for the end +of the struggle with the French to come and take the Indians' lands +from them. If the French soldiers and the French priests had won in +that struggle, Ohio and the whole West might now be something like the +Province of Quebec as it was then. The Indians would have been converted +to the Catholic faith, and they would still be found in almost as great +numbers as ever throughout the vast region where hardly one of their +blood remains. + +But this was not to be. The French built their forts with a keen eye +for the strongest points in the wilderness, and the priests planted the +cross even beyond the forts. But all around and between the forts and +the missions, the traders from our colonies, which afterwards became our +states, stole into the country claimed for the king of France. At that +time, there was peace between the king of France and the king of England +in Europe, and they pretended that there was peace between their nations +in America. They were very civil to each other through their ministers +and ambassadors, over there, but their governors and captains here never +ceased to fight and trick for the ownership of the West. From their +forts, built to curb the English settlers, the French set the savages on +to harass the frontier of our colonies, which their war parties wasted +with theft and fire and murder. Our colonies made a poor defense, +because they were suspicious of one another. New England was suspicious +of New York, New York of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania of Virginia, and +the mother country was suspicious of them all. She was willing that the +French should hold Canada, and keep the colonies from joining together +in a revolt against her, when she could easily have taken that province +and freed them from the inroads of the Canadian Indians. The colonies +would not unite against the common enemy, for fear one would have more +advantage than another from their union; but their traders went out +singly, through the West, and trading companies began to be formed in +Pennsylvania and Virginia. While Celoron was in Ohio claiming the whole +land for the king of France, the king of England was granting a great +part of the same to a company of Virginians, with the right to settle +it and fortify it The Virginia Company sent its agents to visit the +Miamis at Pickawillany a year later, and bound them to the English by +gifts of brandy, tobacco, beads, gay cloths, and powder. + +The allied tribes, who had their capital at Pickawillany, numbered some +two thousand in all. The Miamis themselves are said to have been of the +same family as the great Iroquois nation of the East, who had beaten +their rivals of the Algonquin nation, and forced them to bear the name +of women. But many of the Ohio Indians were Delawares, who were of the +Algonquin family; they were by no means patient of the name of women, +and they and their friends now took the side of the French against the +English. When at last the West, together with the whole of Canada, +fell to the English and there presently began to be trouble between the +American colonists and the English king, all the Indians, both Iroquois +and Algonquins took part against the Americans. A little victory for +either side, however, with gifts of brandy and tobacco, would turn their +savage hearts toward the victors; and one must not be too confident in +saying that the Indians were always for the French against the English, +or always for the English against the Americans. + +[Illustration: Pichawillany, Chief town of the Miamis 030] + +In fact, one must speak mostly of the Indians in words that have a +double sense. The old explorers, missionaries, soldiers, and traders +all talk of nations, towns, villages, kings, half-kings, queens, and +princes, but these words present false images to our minds. Calling the +chief town of the Miamis at Pickawillany their capital gives the notion +of some such capital as Columbus or Washington; but if we imagine the +chief town of the Miamis as it really was, we see some hundreds of +wigwams in straggling clusters along the banks of the river, in the +shadow of the ancient woods, or in the sunshine of the beautiful +meadows, as the earliest white visitors to Ohio called the small +prairies which they came upon in the heart of the forests. We see a +large council house of bark, as nearly in the midst of the scattered +huts as may be, where the Miamis hold their solemn debates, receive +embassies from other tribes, welcome their warriors home from their +forays, and celebrate their feasts and dances. We see fields bordering +the village, where the squaws plant their corn and beans, and the maple +groves where they make their sugar. Among the men and boys we see the +busy idleness of children, all day long, except when the grown-up +children go out upon a hunt, or take the warpath. Sometimes we see an +English trader coming with his merchandise and presents, or a captive +brought in to be tortured and burnt, or adopted into the tribe. + +The tribes in the Ohio country were far abler than those that the +English first met to the eastward, and they were fiercer than the +fiercest which the Americans have at last brought under control in the +plains of the Far West. Pitiless as Sioux and Apache and Comanche have +shown themselves in their encounters with the whites in our day, they +were surpassed in ferocity by the Shawnees, the Wyandots, and the Miamis +whom the backwoodsmen met in a thousand fights, a century or a century +and a half ago. The Ohio Indians were unspeakably vicious, treacherous, +and filthy, but they were as brave as they were vile, and they were +as sagacious as they were false. They produced men whom we must call +orators, statesmen, and generals, even when tested by the high standards +of civilization. They excelled us in the art of war as it was adapted +to the woods, and they despised the stupid and wasteful courage of the +disciplined English soldier. Till the white men studied war from them +they were always beaten in their fights with the red men, and it was +hardly the fault of the Indians if the pioneers learned from them to be +savages: to kill women and children as well as armed men, to tomahawk +and scalp the wounded, to butcher helpless prisoners. But this befell, +and it is this which makes many of the stories of Ohio so bloody. We +must know their hideous facts fully if we would know them truly, or if +we would realize the life that once passed in the shadows of our woods. + +The region that we now call Ohio was wonderfully varied and pleasant. +The many rivers that watered it cleared their space to the sky where +they ran, and here and there the meadows or prairies smiled to the sun +in grass and flowers. But everywhere else there was the gloom of forests +unbroken since the Mound Builders left the land. The long levels that +bordered the great lake at the north, the noble hills that followed the +course of the Beautiful River, the gently varied surfaces of the center, +and the southwest, the swamps and morasses of the northwest, were nearly +everywhere densely wooded. Our land was a woodland, and its life, when +it first became known to the white man, was the stealthy and cruel life +of the forest. Where the busy Mound Builders once swarmed, scanty +tribes of savages lurked in the leafy twilight, hunting and fishing, and +warring upon one another. They came and went upon their errands of death +and rapine by trails unseen to other eyes, till the keen traders of +Pennsylvania and Virginia began to find their way over them to their +villages, and to traffic with the savages for the furs which formed +their sole wealth. + +All is dim and vague in any picture of the time and place that we +can bring before us. There are the fathomless forests, broken by the +prairies and rivers; there are the Indian towns widely scattered along +the larger streams throughout the whole region; there are the French +posts on the northern border, with each a priest and a file of soldiers, +and a few Canadian farmers and traders. Under the cover of peace between +the French king and the English king, there is a constant grapple +between the French soldiers and the English settlers for the possession +of the wilds which shall one day be the most magnificent empire under +the sun; there are the war parties of Indians falling stealthily upon +the English borders to the eastward; there is the steady pressure of the +backwoodsman westward, in spite of every hardship and danger, in +spite of treaties, in spite of rights and promises. These are the main +features of the picture whose details the imagination strives to supply, +with a teasing sense of the obscurity resting upon the whole. It is all +much farther off than ancient Rome, much stranger than Greece; but it is +the beginning of a mighty history, which it rests with the children +of this day, and their children after them, to make the happiest and +noblest chapter in the history of the world. It is a part of that +greater history, and I should like my young readers to remember that +the Ohio stories which I hope to tell them are important chiefly because +they are human stories, and record incidents in the life of the whole +race. They cannot be taken from this without losing their finest +meanings. + + + + +III. OHIO BECOMES ENGLISH. + +Neither the French nor the English had any right to the Ohio country +which they both claimed. If it belonged to any people of right, it +belonged to the savages, who held it in their way before the whites +came, and who now had to choose which nation should call itself their +master. They chose the French, and they chose wisely for themselves as +savages; for, as I have said, if the French had prevailed in the war +that was coming, the Indians could have kept their forests and lived +their forest life as before. The French would have been satisfied in +the West as they had been in the North, with their forts and trading +stations, and the Indians could have hunted, and fished, and trapped, as +they had always done. In fact, the French people would often have become +like them. They understood the Indians and liked them; sometimes they +mated with them, and their children grew up as wild as their mothers. +The religion that the French priests taught the Indians, pleased while +it awed them, and it scarcely changed their native customs. + +Wherever the English came, the Indians' woods were wasted, and the +Indians were driven out of the land. + +The English tried neither to save their souls nor to win their hearts; +they both hated and despised the savages, and ruthlessly destroyed them. +Now, when the smoldering strife between the French and English in +the West burst into an open flame of war between the two nations, the +Western tribes took the side of those whom reason and instinct taught +them to know as their best friends. + +But ten years after Celoron visited Ohio, Wolfe captured Quebec, and +France gave up to England not only the whole of Canada, but the whole of +the vast region between the lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, and kept for +herself only the Province of Louisiana. The Indians were left to +their fate, and they made what terms they could with the English. They +promised peace, but they broke their promises, and constantly harassed +the outlying English settlements. At one time they joined together under +the great chief Pontiac, and tried to win back the West for themselves. +The French forts had been ceded to Great Britain and garrisoned with +British troops, and the allied Indians now took all of these but Detroit +and Fort Pitt. In the end they failed, and then they made peace again, +but still they kept up their forays along the English borders. They +stole horses and cattle, they burned houses and barns, they killed men, +women, and children, or carried them off into captivity. In the Ohio +country alone their captives counted hundreds, though the right number +could never be known, for they could easily be kept out of the way when +the tribes were summoned to give them up. + +It was the same story in the West that it had been in the East, and the +North, and the South, wherever the savages fell upon the lonely farms or +the scattered hamlets of the frontiers, and it was not ended until our +own day, when the Indians were at last shut up in reservations. + +[Illustration: Indians carry off the women 036R] + +It was their custom to carry off the women and children. If the +children were hindered the march of their mothers, or if they cried and +endangered or annoyed their captors, they were torn a hawked, or their +brains were dashed out against the trees. But if they were well grown, +and strong enough to keep up with the rest, they were hurried sometimes +hundreds of miles into the wilderness. There the fate of all prisoners +was decided in solemn council of the tribe. If any men had been taken, +especially such as had made a hard fight for their freedom and had given +proof of their courage, they were commonly tortured to death by fire in +celebration of the victory won over them; though it sometimes happened +that young men who had caught the fancy or affection of the Indians were +adopted by the fathers of sons lately lost in battle. The older women +became the slaves and drudges of the squaws and the boys and girls were +parted from their mothers and scattered among the savage families. The +boys grew up hunters and trappers, like the Indian boys, and the girls +grew up like the Indian girls, and did the hard work which the warriors +always left to the women. The captives became as fond of their wild, +free life as the savages themselves, and they found wives and husbands +among the youths and maidens of their tribe. If they were given up to +their own people, as might happen in the brief intervals of peace, they +pined for the wilderness, which called to their homesick hearts, and +sometimes they stole back to it. They seem rarely to have been held for +ransom, as the captives of the Indians of the Western plains were in our +time. It was a tie of real love that bound them and their savage friends +together, and it was sometimes stronger than the tie of blood. But this +made their fate all the crueler to their kindred; for whether they lived +or whether they died, they were lost to the fathers and mothers, and +brothers and sisters whom they had been torn from; and it was little +consolation to these that they had found human mercy and tenderness in +the breasts of savages who in all else were like ravening beasts. It +was rather an agony added to what they had already suffered to know that +somewhere in the trackless forests to the westward there was growing up +a child who must forget them. The time came when something must be done +to end all this and to put a stop to the Indian attacks on the frontiers +of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The jealous colonies united with the +jealous mother country, and a little army of British regulars and +American recruits was sent into Ohio under the lead of Colonel Henry +Bouquet to force the savages to give up their captives. + +This officer, who commanded the king's troops at Philadelphia, was a +young Swiss who had fought in the great wars of Europe, in the service +of the king of Piedmont and of the Dutch republic, before he was given a +commission by the king of Great Britain. He had distinguished himself +by his bravery, his skill, and his good sense. He seems to have been the +first European commander to disuse the rules of European warfare, and +to take a lesson from our pioneers in fighting the Indians, and the year +before he set out for the Ohio country, he had beaten the tribes in a +battle that taught them to respect him. They found that they had no such +wrong-headed leader as Braddock to deal with; and that they could not +hope to ambush Bouquet's troops, and shoot them down like cattle in a +pen; and the news of his coming spread awe among them. + +He gathered his forces together at Fort Pitt, after many delays. At one +time a full third of his colonial recruits deserted him, but he waited +till he had made up their number again, and then he started at the head +of fifteen hundred men, on the 3d of October, 1764. A body of Virginians +went first in three scouting parties, one on the right and one on the +left, to beat up the woods for lurking enemies, and one in the middle +with a guide, to lead the way. Then came the pioneers with their axes, +and two companies of light infantry followed, to clear the way for the +main body of the troops. A column of British regulars, two deep, marched +in the center with a file of regulars on their right, and a file of +Pennsylvanian recruits on their left. + +Two platoons of regulars came after these; then came a battalion of +Pennsylvanians in single file on the right and left, and between them +the convoy, with the ammunition and tools first, then the officers' +baggage and tents, then the sheep and oxen in separate droves for the +subsistence of the army, then the pack horses with other provisions. +A party of light horsemen followed, and last of all another body of +Virginians brought up the rear. The men marched in silence, six feet +from one another, ready, if any part of the force halted, to face +outward, and prepare to meet an attack. + +The Indians hung upon Bouquet's march in large numbers at first, but +when they saw the perfect order and discipline of his army, and the +knowledge of their own tactics which he showed in disposing his men, +they fell away, and he kept his course unmolested, so that in two weeks +he reached a point in the Ohio country which he could now reach in two +hours, if he took rail from Pittsburg direct. But the wonder is for +what he did then, and not for what he could do now. His two weeks' march +through the wilderness was a victory such as had never been achieved +before, and it moved the imagination of the Indians more than if he had +fought them the whole way. + +His quiet firmness in establishing his force in the heart of their +country, where they had gathered the strength of their tribes from all +the outlying regions, must have affected them still more. At the first +halt he made on the Muskingum, they sent some of their chiefs to parley +with him, but he gave them short and stern answers, bidding them be +ready to bring in their captives from every tribe and family; and again +took up his march along the river till he reached the point where the +Tuscarawas and Waldhonding meet to form the Muskingum. There his axmen +cleared a space in the forest, and his troops built a town, rather than +pitched a camp. They put up four redoubts, one at each corner of the +town, and fortified it with a strong stockade. Within this they built a +council house, where the Indians could come and make speeches to +their hearts' content, and deliver up their captives. Three separate +buildings, one for the captives from each of the colonies, with the +officers' quarters, the soldiers' cabins, the kitchens, and the ovens, +were inclosed within the fort, and the whole was kept in a neatness and +order such as the savages had never seen, with military severity. + +The tribes soon began to bring in their prisoners, each chief giving up +the captives of his tribe with long harangues, and many gifts of wampum, +as pledges of good faith, and promises of a peace never to be broken. +They said they had not merely buried the hatchet now, where it might +sometime be dug up, but they had thrown it into the sky to the Great +Spirit, who would never give it back again. They wished Bouquet to +notice that they no longer called the English brothers, as they commonly +did when they were friendly, but they called them fathers, and they +meant to be their children and to do their bidding like children. They +made him a great number of flattering speeches, and he gravely listened +to their compliments, but as to the reasons they gave for breaking their +promises in the past he dealt very frankly with them. He reminded them +of their treacheries, and cruelties of all kinds, and of their failure +to restore their captives after they had pledged themselves to do so, +and he said, "This army shall not leave your country till you have fully +complied with every condition that is to precede my treaty with you.... +I give you twelve days from this date to deliver into my hands all +the prisoners in your possession, without any exception; Englishmen, +Frenchmen, women and children, whether adopted into your tribes, married +or living amongst you under any pretense whatsoever, together with +all negroes. And you are to furnish the said prisoners with clothing, +provisions, and horses, to carry them to Fort Pitt.... You shall then +know on what terms you may obtain the peace you sue for." + +[Illustration: Indians delivering up captives 041] + +These words are said to have quite broken the spirit of the savages, +already overawed by the presence of such an army as they had never seen +in their country before. One of the great chiefs of the Delawares said: +"With this string of wampum we wipe the tears from your eyes, we deliver +you these prisoners... we gather and bury with this belt all the bones +of the people that have been killed during this unhappy war, which +the Evil Spirit occasioned among us. We cover the bones that have been +buried, that they may never more be remembered. We again cover their +place with leaves that it may no more be seen. As we have been long +astray, and the path between you and us stopped, we extend this belt +that it may be again cleared.... While you hold it fast by one end, and +we by the other, we shall always be able to discover anything that may +disturb our friendship." + +Bouquet answered that he had heard them with pleasure, and that in +receiving these last prisoners from them he joined with them in burying +the bones of those who had fallen in the war, so that the place might no +more be known. "The peace you ask for, you shall now have," he said, but +he told them that it was his business to make war, and the business of +others to make peace, and he instructed them how and with whom they were +to treat. He took hostages from them, and he dealt with the other tribes +on the same terms as they brought in their captives. On the 18th of +November, he broke up his camp and marched back to Fort Pitt, with more +than two hundred men, women, and children whom he had delivered from +captivity among the savages. + +It is believed that six hundred others were never given up. The captives +were not always glad to go back to their old homes, and the Indians had +sometimes to use force in bringing them to the camp where their friends +and kindred who had come with Bouquet's army were waiting to receive +them. Many had been taken from their homes when they were so young that +they could not remember them, and they had learned to love the Indians, +who had brought them up like their own children, and treated them as +lovingly as the fathers and mothers from whom they had been stolen. In +the charm of the savage life these children of white parents had really +become savages; and certain of the young girls had grown up and married +Indian husbands to whom they were tenderly attached. The scenes of +parting between all these were very touching on both sides, and it is +told of one Indian who had married a Virginian girl that he followed +her back to the frontier at the risk of his life from her people. The +Indians gave up the captives often so dear to them, with tears and +lamentations, while on the other hand their kindred waited to receive +them in an anguish of hope and fear. As the captives came into the +camp, parents sought among them for the little ones they had lost, and +husbands for the wives who had been snatched from their desolated homes. +Brothers and sisters met after a parting so long that one or other had +forgotten the language they once spoke in common. The Indians still hung +about the camp, and came every day to visit their former prisoners and +bring them gifts. When the army took up its march some of them asked +leave to follow it back to Fort Pitt, and on the way they supplied their +adopted children and brothers with game, and sought in every way to show +their love for them. + +Bouquet reached Pittsburg in ten days, without the loss of a single life +at the hands of the savages, and with all his men in excellent health. +Each day of his march he had pitched his camp among scenes of sylvan +loveliness, on the banks of the pleasant streams that watered the +fertile levels and the wild meadows, or wound through the rich valleys +between the low hills. It would have been wonderful if his Pennsylvanian +and Virginian recruits had not looked upon the land with covetous eyes: +even the fathers and husbands and brothers who had come seeking their +kindred among the Indians, had seen it with a longing to plant their +homes in it. Its charms had been revealed to great numbers of the people +who had known of it only from the traders before, and the savage was +doomed from that time to lose it; for it already belonged to the king of +England, and it rested with the English colonists to come and take it; +or so, at least, they thought. + + + + +IV. THE FORTY YEARS' WAR FOR THE WEST. + +The French king gave up the West to the English king in 1763, but, as we +have seen, the Indians had no part in the bargain. They only knew that +they were handed over by those who had been their friends to those who +had been their enemies, and they did not consent. They had made war +upon the English colonists before, and now, in spite of the failure of +Pontiac, and in spite of Bouquet's march into the Ohio country, +they kept up their warfare for forty years, with a truce when it was +convenient, and a treaty of peace when it was convenient, but with a +steadfast purpose to drive the English settlers out, and to hold the +wilderness for themselves. It was not until long after their power was +broken by the American arms in 1794 that their struggle ended in the +region which ten years later became the state of Ohio. + +There was misunderstanding on both sides. The Indians naturally supposed +that their own country belonged to them, and the colonists supposed +that their eastern and western borders were the two oceans. These were +commonly the boundaries which the English king had given them; and when +he had not been quite clear about it in his grants of territory which he +had never even imagined, they did not allow him to deal less splendidly +with them than such a prince ought. He had, as we know, given the Ohio +Company of Virginia a large tract of the best land beyond the Ohio +even while the French still claimed the West, and he had encouraged the +Virginians to believe they had a right to settle it and to fortify it. +But after the capture of Quebec, when the West, as well as Canada, +fell into the power of Great Britain, the English king, or rather his +ministers, began to change their minds about letting the colonists take +up lands in the Back Country, as they called it. The jealousy between +the colonies grew less, but the jealousy between them and Great Britain +grew greater; there were outbreaks here and there against her rule, and +there was discontent nearly everywhere. The colonists were disappointed +and embittered that the West should be treated as a part of Canada, by +the mother country, when it ought to have been shared among the English +provinces. The British government tried to hinder the settlement of +the whites on the Indians' lands; and though it could not keep them off +altogether, it did enough to make the savages feel that it was their +friend against its own subjects. In 1774, Parliament passed a law which +declared the whole West, between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and +below the Great Lakes, a part of the Province of Quebec. This was felt +by our colonies to be so great an injury that it was charged against +Great Britain in the Declaration of Independence, as one of the causes +for separation. It was in fact an act hostile to a people of the British +race, language, and religion, and it was meant not so much to help +the savages, as to hurt the colonists, though it did really help the +savages. When the Revolutionary War broke out a year or two later, the +British government did not scruple to make use of the cruel hatred of +the Indians against its rebellious subjects. + +[Illustration: Indian war parties joining the English 047] + +It set on the war parties that harried the American border, and when the +blood-stained braves came back with their plunder, their captives, and +the scalps of the men, women, and children they had murdered, they were +welcomed at the British forts as friends and allies. In certain cases, +to be sure, British officers did what they could to soften the hard fate +of the prisoners, but the British government was guilty, nevertheless, +of the barbarous deeds done by the Indians. Its agents furnished them +with arms and ammunition, and its ministers upheld them in the same +atrocities against the American rebels as the French in their time had +urged and tempted them to commit against the settlers when they were +English subjects. + +At the end of the Revolutionary War, the Indians were as slow to lay +down their arms as they had been after the French War. In each case they +fought the victors, as far as they could get at them in the persons +of the hapless backwoodsmen and their wives and children. These +backwoodsmen did not change greatly, in their way of life, during that +long Indian war of forty years. They were of the hardy English, Welsh, +and Scotch-Irish stock which a generation or two in the wilderness had +toughened and strengthened. They had not yet ciphered it out that one +red hunter and trapper must waste the fifty thousand acres which +would support the families of a hundred white farmers in comfort and +prosperity; but they knew that to the westward there was a region, vast +and rich beyond anything words could say, and they longed to possess +it, with a hunger that was sometimes a pitiless greed, and always a +resistless desire. Yet it was not until the French gave up this region +that they could even venture lawlessly into it, and it was not until it +fell from Great Britain to the new power of the United States that the +borderers began openly to press into the backwoods, singly as hunters +and trappers, in families as neighborhoods as the founders of villages +and towns. The pioneers felt that they were going to take their own +wherever they found it, from the savages who could not and would not use +it, and they were right, for the land truly belongs to him who will use +it. The savages felt that the pioneers were coming to take their own +from them, for in their way they were using the land; and they were +right, too. All that is left for us to ask at this late day is which +could use the land best and most; and there can hardly be any doubt of +the answer. + +[Illustration: Pioneers 049L] + +To understand the situation clearly, the reader must keep in mind +certain dates. Celoron de Bienville visited the Miamis in 1749, and +the French kept the Ohio Indians on the warpath against the English +settlements to the eastward until 1763, when they gave up the West to +Great Britain. Then, until 1775, the savages alone fought the settlers +as the subjects of the English king. The Revolutionary War broke out, +and the Indians became the allies of the British. Then, in 1783, their +country was given up to the United States, and they still fought their +old enemies, who had not changed their nature by changing their name to +Americans. In 1794, the great battle of Fallen Timbers was fought on the +banks of the Maumee, and the long struggle was ended. + +It had grown more and more fierce and cruel as time passed, and only +three years before General Wayne won his lasting victory, General St. +Clair had suffered his terrible defeat by the Indians. Through this +defeat, the power of the whites in the West was shaken as it had never +been before; the savages were filled with pride and hope by the greatest +triumph they had achieved over their enemies; and all the settlements in +the Northwestern Territory were endangered. + +Perhaps I had better say seemed endangered. The Indians were really less +to be feared than at any time before. They were weaker, and the whites +were stronger. They were striving against destiny; and though their fate +was sealed with the blood of their enemies, their fate was sealed. All +the chances that had favored them had favored them in vain, and neither +their wily courage nor their pitiless despair availed them against the +people who outnumbered them, as the stems of the harvest field outnumber +the trees of the forest. + + + + +V. THE CAPTIVITY OF JAMES SMITH + +The stories of captivity among the Ohio Indians during the war that +ended in 1794 would of themselves fill a much larger book than this is +meant to be. Most of them were never set down, but some of them were +very thrillingly told, and others very touchingly, either by the +captives themselves, or by such of their friends as were better able to +write them out. One, at least, is charming, and the narrative of +Colonel James Smith deserves a chapter by itself, not only because it is +charming, but because it shows the Indians in a truer and kindlier light +than they were often able to show themselves. + +Smith was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, which in 1737 was the +frontier of the white settlement, and he was taken prisoner in 1755, by +a small party of Delawares, near Bedford, while he was helping to cut a +road for the passage of General Braddock's ill-fated expedition against +the French. The Indians hurried from the English border, and forced him +to run with them nearly the whole way to Fort Duquesne, which afterwards +became Fort Pitt, and is now Pittsburg. A large body of savages was +encamped outside the post, and there Smith expected to be burned to +death with the tortures he afterwards saw inflicted upon many other +prisoners; but he was only made to run the gantlet. Two lines of Indians +were drawn up, with sticks in their hands, and Smith dashed at the top +of his speed between their ranks. He was cruelly beaten, and before he +reached the goal he fell senseless. When he came to himself he was in +the hands of a French surgeon. He was well cared for, and he lived in +hopes of rescue by Braddock's army, which was marching against Fort +Duquesne in greater force than had ever been sent into the wilderness. +But while he was still so broken and bruised as to be scarcely able to +walk, the Indians came in with plunder and prisoners from the scene of +their bloody victory over the British troops. + +A little later, Smith's captors claimed him from the French, and carried +him to an Indian town on the Muskingum. The day after their arrival a +number of the Indians came to him, and one of them began to pull out his +hair, dipping his fingers in ashes to get a better hold, and plucking it +away hair by hair till it was all gone except a lock on the crown. This +they plaited with strings of beadwork and silver brooches, and then they +bored his ears and nose and put rings in them. They painted his face +and body in different colors, hung a band of wampum about his neck, and +fitted his arm with bracelets of silver. An old chief led him into +the street of the village, and gave the alarm halloo, when all the +Delawares, Caughnewagas, and Mohicans of the place came running, and +formed round the chief, who held Smith by the hand, and made them a long +speech. He then gave Smith over to three young squaws, who pulled him +into the river waist-deep, and made signs to him that he should plunge +his head into the water. But Smith's head was full of the tortures of +the prisoners whom he had seen burnt at Fort Duquesne; he believed +all these ceremonies were the preparations for his death, and he would +neither duck. + +He struggled with them, amidst the shouts and laughter of the Indians on +the shore, until one of them managed to say in English, "No hurt you," +when he suffered them to plunge him under the water and rub at him as +long as they chose. + +[Illustration: Indian baptism of James Smith 053] + +By this means they washed away his white blood, and he was adopted into +the tribe in place of a great chief who had lately died. He seems never +to have known why this honor was done him; but he was then a lusty young +fellow of eighteen who might well have taken the fancy of some of his +captors; and he probably fell into their hands at a moment which their +superstition rendered fortunate for him. + +When the squaws had done with him, he was taken up into the council +house of the village, where he was dressed in a new ruffled shirt, +leggins trimmed with ribbons and wrought with beads, and moccasins +embroidered with porcupine quills. His face was painted afresh, and his +scalp lock tied up with red feathers; he was given a pipe and tobacco +pouch and seated upon a bear skin, while one of the chiefs addressed him +in the presence of the assembled warriors. "My son," so the speech was +interpreted to Smith, "you are now flesh of our flesh and bone of our +bone. You are taken into the Caughnewaga nation, and initiated into a +warlike tribe; you are adopted into a great family... in the room and +place of a great man. After what has passed this day, you are now one +of us by an old strong law and custom. My son, you have now nothing to +fear; we are now under the same obligations to love, support, and defend +you, that we are to love and defend one another; therefore you are to +consider yourself as one of our people." + +A grand feast of boiled venison and green corn followed, and Smith took +part in it on the same terms as all the rest of his tribe and family. In +due time he found out that no word the chief had addressed him was +idly spoken, and he began to live the life of the savages like one of +themselves, under the affectionate care and constant instruction of his +brethren. He was given a gun, at first, and sent to hunt turkeys, but he +came upon the trace of buffalo, and was lured on by the hope of larger +game, and so lost his way. The Indians found him again easily enough, +but as a punishment for his rashness his gun was taken from him, and for +two years he was allowed to carry only a bow and arrows. Once when the +hunters had killed a bear and he went out with a party to bring in the +meat, Smith complained of the weight of his load; the Indians laughed at +him, and to shame him they gave part of his burden to a young squaw +who already had as much as he to carry. At another time, he went to the +fields with some other young men to watch the squaws hoeing corn; one of +these challenged him to take her hoe, and he did so, and hoed for some +time with the women. They were delighted and praised his skill, but when +he came back to the village, the old chiefs rebuked him, telling him +that he was adopted in the place of a great man, and it was unworthy of +him to hoe corn like a squaw. + +Smith owns that he never gave them a chance to chide him a second time +for such unseemly behavior. After that he left all the hard work to the +squaws like a true Indian, and guarded his dignity as a hunter. He was +never trusted, or at least he was never asked, to take part in any of +the forays against the white frontier, when from time to time parties +were sent to the Pennsylvania borders to take scalps and steal horses. +It was a sorrowful thing for him when his savage brethren set forth on +these errands of theft and murder among his kindred by race, and it was +long before he could make the least show of returning their affection. + +It was not until they gave him back some books which they had brought +him from other prisoners, but had then taken from him for some caprice, +that he says he felt his heart warm towards them. They pretended that +the books had been lost, but declared that they were glad they had been +found, for they knew that he was grieved at the loss of them. "Though +they had been exceedingly kind to me," he says, "I still as before +detested them, on account of the barbarity I beheld after Braddock's +defeat. Neither had I ever before pretended kindness, or expressed +myself in a friendly manner; but now I began to excuse the Indians on +account of their want of information." + +The family which Smith had been taken into did not stay long in the +Muskingum country, but began the wandering life of the hunters and +trappers, working northward mostly, and visiting the shores and waters +of Lake Erie. It was all very pleasant and full of a wild charm while +the fine weather lasted, especially for the men, who had nothing to do +but to bring in the game and fish for the squaws to cook and care for. +The squaws made the sugar in the spring; they felled the trees and +fashioned from the barks the troughs to catch the maple sap, which they +boiled down into sugar; they planted and tended the fields of corn and +beans; they did everything that was like work, indoors and out, and +the men did nothing that was not like play or war. While their plenty +lasted, it was for all; when the dearth came, every one shared it. +But in this free, sylvan life there was the grace of an unstinted +hospitality. The stranger was pressed to make the lodge of his host his +home, and he was given the best of his store. One day when his Indian +brother came in from the hunt, Smith told him that a passing Wyandot had +visited their camp, and he had given him roast venison. "And I suppose +you gave him also sugar and bear's oil to eat with his venison?" Smith +confessed that as the sugar and bear's oil were in the canoe, he did not +go for them. His brother told him he had behaved just like a Dutchman, +and he asked, "Do you not know that when strangers come to our camp we +are to give them the best we have?" Smith owned that he had been wrong, +and then his brother excused him because he was so young; but he bade +him learn to behave like a warrior, and do great things, and never be +caught in any such mean actions again. + +The Indians were as prompt to praise and reward what they thought fine +in him, as to rebuke what they deemed unworthy; and the second winter +that they spent in Northern Ohio, they gave him a gun again for the +courage and endurance he twice showed when he had lost his way from +camp. Once when he was caught in a heavy storm of snow; he passed the +night in the hollow of a tree, which he made snug by blocking it up with +brush and pieces of wood, and by chopping the rotten inside of the trunk +with his hatchet until he had a soft, warm bed. Another time, when he +was looking at his beaver traps he was overtaken by the dark, and kept +himself from freezing by dancing and shouting till daylight. His Indian +friends honored him for his wise behavior, and as they had now beaver +skins enough, they carried them to the French post at Detroit, where +they bought a gun for him. They bought for themselves a keg of brandy, +and they paid Smith the compliment, when he refused to drink, of making +him one of the guards set over the drinkers to keep them from killing +one another. He helped bring them safely through their debauch, but +nothing could prevent their spending all they had got for their beaver +skins in more and more brandy. Then they went back sick and sorry to the +woods again. + +The family Smith was taken into was honored for its uncommon virtue and +wisdom. His two brothers, Tontileaugo and Tecaughretanego were men of +great sense, with good heads and good hearts. They treated Smith with +the greatest love and patience, and took him to task with affectionate +mildness when he transgressed the laws of taste or feeling. The Indians +all despised the white settlers, whom they thought stupid and cowardly, +and they expected to drive them beyond the sea. They despised them for +their impiety, and Tecaughretanego once said to Smith, "As you have +lived with the white people, you have not had the same advantage of +knowing that the Great Being above feeds his people and gives them their +meat in due season, as we Indians have, who are wonderfully supplied, +and that so frequently that it is evidently the hand of the Great +Owaneeyo that doeth this; whereas the white people have commonly large +flocks of tame cattle, that they can kill when they please, and also +their barns and cribs filled with grain, and therefore have not the same +opportunity of seeing and knowing that they are supported by the ruler +of Heaven and Earth." + +At this time the Indians were suffering from the famine that their waste +and improvidence had brought upon them; and perhaps Smith might have +said something on the white man's side. But he had nothing to say when +rebuked for smiling at Tecaughretanego's sacrifice of the last leaf of +his tobacco to the Great Spirit "Brother, I have something to say to +you, and I hope you will not be offended when I tell you of your faults. +You know that when you were reading your books, I would not let the boys +or any one disturb you; but now when I was praying I saw you laughing. +I do not think you look upon praying as a foolish thing; I believe you +pray yourself. But perhaps you think my mode or manner of prayer +foolish; if so, you ought in a friendly manner to instruct me, and not +make sport of sacred things." + +[Illustration: An Indian Prayer 059L] + +The prayer which Tecaughretanego thought ought to have escaped Smith's +derision was one which he made after he began to get well from a long +sickness; and it was certainly very quaint; but if the Father of all +listens most kindly to those children of his who come to him simply +and humbly, he could not have been displeased with this old Indian's +petition. + +"Oh, Great Being, I thank thee that I have obtained the use of my legs +again, that I am now able to walk about and kill turkeys without feeling +exquisite pain and misery: I know that thou art a hearer and a helper, +and therefore I will call upon thee. _Oh, ho, ho, ho!_ grant that my +ankles and knees may be right well, and that I may be able not only to +walk, but to run and to jump as I did last fall. _Oh, ho, ho, ho!_ +grant that on this voyage we may frequently kill bears, as they may be +crossing the Scioto and Sandusky. _Oh, ho, ho, ho!_ grant that we may +kill plenty of turkeys along the banks, to stew with our bear meat. _Oh, +ho, ho, ho!_ grant that rain may come to raise the Olentangy about two +or three feet, that we may cross in safety down to the Scioto, without +danger of our canoe being wrecked on the rocks. And now, oh, Great +Being, thou knowest how matters stand--thou knowest that I am a great +lover of tobacco, and that though I know not when I may get any more, +I now make a present of the last I have unto thee, as a free burnt +offering. Therefore I request that thou wilt hear and grant these +requests, and I thy servant will return thee thanks, and love thee for +thy gifts." + +Smith tells us that a few days after Tecaughretanego made his prayer and +offered up his tobacco, rain came and raised the Olentangy high enough +to let them pass safely into the Scioto. He does not say whether he +thought this was the effect of the old Indian's piety, but he always +speaks reverently of Tecaughretanego's religion. He is careful to +impress the reader again and again with the importance of the Indian +family he had been taken into, and with the wisdom as well as the +goodness of Tecaughretanego, who held some such place among the Ottawas, +he says, as Socrates held among the Athenians. He was against the +Indians' taking part in the war between the French and English; he +believed they ought to leave these to fight out their own quarrels; +and in all the affairs of his people, he favored justice, truth, and +honesty. The Indians, indeed, never stole from one another, but they +thought it quite right to rob even their French allies; and it will help +us to a real understanding of their principles, if we remember that the +good and wise Tecaughretanego is never shown as rebuking the cruelty +and treachery of the war parties in their attacks on the English +settlements. The Indian's virtues are always for his own tribe; outside +of it, all the crimes are virtues, and it is right to lie, to cheat, +to steal, to kill; as it was with our own ancestors when they lived as +tribes. + +Smith was always treated like one of themselves by his Indian brothers, +and he had a deep affection for them. Once, in a time of famine, when +Tecaughretanego lay helpless in his cabin, suffering patiently with +the rheumatism which crippled him, Smith hunted two whole days without +killing any game, and then came home faint with hunger and fatigue. +Tecaughretanego bade his little son bring him a broth which the boy had +made with some wildcat bones left by the buzzards near the camp, and +when Smith had eaten he rebuked him for his despair, and charged him +never again to doubt that God would care for him, because God always +cared for those children of his who trusted in him, as the Indians did, +while the white men trusted in themselves. The next day Smith went out +again, but the noise made by the snow crust breaking under his feet +frightened the deer he saw, and he could not get a shot at them. +Suddenly, he felt that he could bear his captivity no longer, and he +resolved to try and make his way back to Pennsylvania. The Indians might +kill him, long before he could reach home; but if he staid, he must die +of hunger. He hurried ten or twelve miles eastward, when he came upon +fresh buffalo tracks, and soon caught sight of the buffalo. He shot one +of them, but he could not stop to cook the meat, and he ate it almost +raw. Then the thought of the old man and little child whom he had left +starving in the cabin behind him became too much for him. He remembered +what Tecaughretanego had said of God's care for those who trusted in +him; and he packed up all the meat he could carry, and went back to the +camp. The boy ate ravenously of the half-raw meat, as Smith had done, +but the old man waited patiently till it was well boiled. "Let it be +done enough," he said, when Smith wished to take off the kettle too +soon; and when they had all satisfied their hunger, he made Smith +a speech upon the duty of receiving the bounty of Owaneeyo with +thankfulness. After this, Smith seems to have had no farther thoughts +of running away, and he made no attempt to escape until he had been four +years in captivity. He was then at Caughnewaga, the old Indian village +which the traveler may still see from his steamboat on the St. Lawrence +River near Montreal. He had come to this place with Tecaughretanego and +his little son in an elm-bark canoe, all the way from Detroit; and now, +hearing that a French ship was at Montreal with English prisoners of +war, he stole away from the Indians and got on board with the rest. The +prisoners were shortly afterwards exchanged, and Smith got home to his +friends early in 1760. They had never known whether he had been killed +or captured, and they were overjoyed to see him, though they found him +quite like an Indian in his walk and bearing. + +He married, and settled down on a farm, but he was soon in arms against +the Indians. He served as a lieutenant in Bouquet's expedition, and +became a colonel of the Revolutionary army. After the war he took his +family to Kentucky, where he lived until he died in 1812. The Indians +left him unmolested in his reading or writing while he was among +them, and he had kept a journal, which he wrote out in the delightful +narrative of his captivity, first published in 1799. He modestly says in +his preface that the chief use he hopes for it is from his observations +on Indian warfare; but these have long ceased to be of practical value, +while his pictures of Indian life and his studies of Indian character +have a charm that will always last. + + + + +VI. THE CAPTIVITY OF BOONE AND KENTON. + +Colonel Smith was not the first whose captivity was passed in the +Ohio country, but there is no record of any earlier captivity, though +hundreds of captives were given up to Bouquet by the Indians. In spite +of the treaties and promises on both sides, the fighting went on, and +the wilderness was soon again the prison of the white people whom the +savages had torn from their homes. The Ohio tribes harassed the outlying +settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia, whose borders widened westward +with every year; but they were above all incensed against the pioneers +of Kentucky. Ohio was their home; there they had their camps and towns; +there they held their councils and festivals; there they buried their +dead and guarded their graves. But Kentucky was the pleasance of all the +nations, the hunting ground kept free by common consent, and left to the +herds of deer, elk, and buffalo, which ranged the woods and savannas, +and increased for the common use. When the white men discovered this +hunter's paradise, and began to come back with their families and waste +the game and fell the trees and plow the wild meadows, no wonder the +Indians were furious, and made Kentucky the Dark and Bloody Ground for +the enemies of their whole race, which they had already made it for one +another in the conflicts between the hunting parties of rival tribes. +It maddened them to find the cabins and the forts of the settlers in the +sacred region where no red man dare pitch his wigwam; and they made a +fierce and pitiless effort to drive out the invaders. + +Among these was the famous Daniel Boone. He had heard of the glories of +the land from a hunter who wandered into Kentucky by chance and +returned to North Carolina to tell of it among his neighbors. Two years +afterwards, in 1769, when a man of forty, Boone came to see for himself +the things that he knew by hearsay, and he found that the half had not +been told. But among other surprises in store for him was falling into +the clutches of an Indian hunting party which ambushed him and the +friend who was with him. They both escaped, and soon afterwards Boone's +brother and a neighbor, who had followed him from North Carolina, +chanced upon their camp. Boone's friend was before long shot and +scalped by the Indians; the brother's neighbor was lost in the woods and +devoured by the wolves. Then the brother went home for ammunition, and +Boone was left a whole year alone in the wilderness. The charm of its +life was so great for him that after two years more he returned to North +Carolina, sold his farm, and came to Kentucky with his family. Other +families joined them, and the little settlement founded in the woods +where he had ranged solitary with no friend but his rifle and with foes +everywhere, was called Boonesborough. + +The Revolutionary War broke out, and the Ohio Indians, who had hitherto +fought the pioneers as Englishmen, now fought them as Americans with +fresh fury, under the encouragement of the British commandant at +Detroit. In January, of 1778, Boone took thirty of his men, and went to +make salt at the Blue Licks, where, shortly after, while he was hunting +in the woods, he found himself in the midst of two hundred Indian +warriors, who were on their way to attack Boonesborough. He was then +fifty years old, and the young Indians soon overtook him when he tried +to escape by running, and made him their prisoner. His captors treated +him kindly, as their custom was with prisoners, until they decided +what should be done with them, and at the Licks his whole party gave +themselves up on promise of the same treatment. This was glory enough +for the present; the Indians, as they always did when they had won a +victory, went home to celebrate it, and left Boonesborough unmolested. + +They took all their prisoners to the town of Old Chillicothe, on the +banks of the Little Miami in Greene County. What became of his men +we are not told; none of them kept a journal, as Smith did, but it is +certain that Boone was adopted into an Indian family as Smith was. The +Indians, in fact, all became fond of him, perhaps because he was so much +like themselves in temperament and behavior, for he was a grave, silent +man, very cold and wary, with a sort of savage calm. He was well versed +in their character, and knew how to play upon their vanity. One of the +few things he seems to have told of his captivity was that when they +asked him to take part in their shooting matches he beat them just often +enough to show them his wonderful skill with the rifle, and then allowed +them the pleasure of beating such a splendid shot as he had proved +himself. But probably he had other engaging qualities, or so it appeared +when the Indians took him with them to Detroit. The British commandant +offered them a ransom of a hundred pounds for him, while several other +Englishmen, who liked and pitied him, pressed him to take money and +other favors from them. Boone stoically refused because he could never +hope to make any return to them, and his red brethren refused because +they loved Boone too well to part with him at any price, and they took +him back to Old Chillicothe with them. + +[Illustration: Daniel Boone shooting with the Indians 067] + +He never betrayed the anxiety for his wife and children that constantly +tormented him, for fear of rousing the suspicions of the Indians; but +when he reached Old Chillicothe, and found a large party painted and +ready to take the warpath in a new attack upon Boones-borough, he could +bear it no longer. He showed no sign of his misery, however; he joined +the Indians in all their sports as before, but he was always watching +for some chance to escape, and one morning in the middle of June he +stole away from his captors. He made his way a hundred and sixty miles +through the woods, and on the ninth day entered Boonesborough, faint +with the fast which he had broken but once in his long flight, to find +that he had been given up for dead and his family had gone back to North +Carolina. + +Boone spent the rest of his days fighting wild men and hunting wild +beasts in Kentucky, until both were well-nigh gone and the tamer life +of civilization pressed closer about him. Then he set out for Missouri, +where he found himself again in the wilderness, and dwelt there in his +beloved solitude till he died. Nothing ever moved him so much as the +memoir which a young man wrote down for him and had printed. He was fond +of having it read to him (for he could not read any more than he could +write), and he would cry out in delight over it, "All true; not a lie +in it!" But it is recorded that he once allowed himself to be so far +excited by the heroic behavior of a friend who had saved his life in +an Indian fight, at the risk of his own, as to say, "You behaved like a +man, that time." + +This friend was Simon Kenton, or rather Simon Butler, one of the +greatest of all the Indian hunters of Kentucky and Ohio. He had changed +his name to escape pursuit from his old home in Virginia, when he fled +leaving one of his neighbors, as he supposed, dead on the ground after +a fight, and he kept the name he had taken through the rest of his life. +He wandered about on the frontier and in the wilderness beyond it +for several years, fighting the savages single handed or with a few +comrades, and at times serving as scout or spy in the expeditions of the +English against them. When the Revolution began, he sided of course with +his own people, and he stood two sieges by the Indians in Boonesborough. +It was here that Boone found him in 1778 when he escaped from Old +Chillicothe, and they promptly made a foray together into the Ohio +country, against an Indian town on Paint Creek. They fell in with a war +party on the way, and after some fighting, Boone went back, but Kenton +kept on with another friend, and did not return till they had stolen +some Indian horses. As soon as they reached Boonesborough the commandant +sent them into Ohio again to reconnoiter a town on the Little Miami +which he wished to attack, and here once more Kenton was tempted by the +chance to steal horses. He could not bear to leave any, and he and his +men started homeward through the woods with the whole herd. When they +came to the Ohio, it was so rough that Kenton was nearly drowned in +trying to cross the river. He got back to the northern shore, where they +all waited for the wind to go down, and the waves to fall, and where +the Indians found them the second morning. His comrades were killed and +Kenton was taken prisoner by the Indians whose horses they had stolen. +The Indians were always stealing white men's horses, but they seemed to +think it was very much more wicked and shameful for white men to steal +Indians' horses. They fell upon Kenton and beat him over the head with +their ramrods and mocked him with cries of, "Steal Indians' hoss, hey!" +But this was only the beginning of his sufferings. They fastened him +for the night by stretching him on the ground with one stick across +his breast and another down his middle, and tying his hands and feet to +these with thongs of buffalo skin: stakes were driven into the earth, +and his pinioned arms and legs were bound to them, while a halter, which +was passed round his neck and then round a sapling near by, kept him +from moving his head. All the while they were making sure in this +way that he should not escape, the Indians were cuffing his ears, and +reviling him for a "Tief! A hoss steal! A rascal!" In the morning they +mounted him on an unbroken colt, with his hands tied behind him and his +legs tied under the horse, and drove it into the briers and underbrush, +where his face and hands were torn by the brambles, until the colt +quieted down of itself, and followed in line with the other horses. The +third day, as they drew near the town of Old Chillicothe, where Boone +had been held captive, they were met by the chief Blackfish, who said +sternly to Kenton in English, "You have been stealing horses." "Yes, +sir." "Did Captain Boone tell you to steal our horses?" "No, sir, I did +it on my own accord." Blackfish then lashed him over the naked back with +a hickory switch till the blood ran, and with blows and taunts from all +sides Kenton was marched forward to the village. + +The Indians could not wait for his arrival. They came out, men, women, +and children, to meet him, with whoops and yells, and when they had made +his captors fasten him to a stake, they fell upon him, and tore off all +that was left of his clothes, and amused themselves till midnight by +dancing and screaming round him, and beating him with rods and their +open hands. In the morning he was ordered to run the gantlet, through +two rows of Indians of all ages and sexes, armed with knives, clubs, +switches, and hoe handles, and ready to cut, strike, and stab at him as +he dashed by them on his way to the council house, a quarter of a mile +from the point of starting. But Kenton was too wary to take the risks +before him. He suddenly started aside from the lines; he turned and +doubled in his course, and managed to reach the council house unhurt +except for the blows of two Indians who threw themselves between him and +its door. Here a council was held at once, and he was sentenced to be +burnt at the stake, but the sentence was ordered to be carried out at +the town of Wapatimika on Mad River. A white renegade among the Indians +told him of his fate with a curse, and Kenton resolved that rather than +meet it he would die in the attempt to escape. On the way to Wapatimika +he gave his guard the slip and dashed into the woods; and he had left +his pursuers far behind, when he ran into the midst of another party +of Indians, who seized him and drove him forward to the town. A second +council was now held, and after Kenton had run the gantlet a second time +and been severely hurt, the warriors once more gathered in the council +house, and sitting on the ground in a circle voted his death by striking +the earth with a war club, or by passing it to the next if inclined to +mercy. He was brought before them, as he supposed, to be told when he +was to die, but a blanket was thrown upon the ground for him to sit upon +in the middle of the circle, and Simon Girty, the great renegade, who +was cruder to the whites than the Indians themselves, began harshly to +question him about the number of men in Kentucky. A few words passed, +and then Girty asked, "What is your name?" "Simon Butler," said Kenton, +and Girty jumped from his seat and threw his arms around Kenton's +neck. They had been scouts together in the English service, before the +Revolution began, and had been very warm friends, and now Girty set +himself to save Kenton's life. He pleaded so strongly in his favor that +the council at last voted to spare him, at least for the time being. + +[Illustration: Kenton and Girty 072] + +Three weeks of happiness for Kenton followed in the society of his old +friend, who clothed him at his own cost from the stores of an English +trader in the town, and took him to live with him; and it is said that +if the Indians had continued to treat him kindly, Kenton might perhaps +have cast his lot with them, for he could not hope to go back to his own +people, with the crime of murder, as he supposed, hanging over him, and +he had no close ties binding him to the whites elsewhere. But at the +end of these days of respite, a war party came back from the Virginian +border, where they had been defeated, and the life of the first white +man who fell into their power must pay, by the Indian law, for the life +of the warrior they had lost. The leaders of this party found Kenton +walking in the woods with Girty, and met him with scowls of hate, +refusing his hand when he offered it. The rage of the savages against +him broke out afresh. One of them caught an ax from his squaw who was +chopping wood, and as Kenton passed him on his way into the village, +dealt him a blow that cut deep into his shoulder. For a third time a +council was held, and for a third time Kenton was doomed to die by fire. +Nothing that Girty could say availed, and he was left to tell his friend +that he must die. + +Kenton's sentence was to be now carried out at Sandusky, and with five +Indian guards he set out for that point. On their way they stopped at a +town on the waters of the Scioto, where the captive found himself in +the presence of a chief of noble and kindly face, who said to him, in +excellent English, "Well, young man, these young men seem very mad at +you." Kenton had to own that they were so, indeed, and then the Indian +said, "Well, don't be discouraged. I am a great chief. You are to go to +Sandusky; they speak of burning you there, but I will send two runners +tomorrow to speak good for you." + +This was the noble chief Logan, whose beautiful speech ought to be known +to every American boy and girl, and who, in spite of all he had suffered +from them, was still the friend of the white men. He kept his word +to Kenton, though he seemed to fail, as Girty had failed, to have his +sentence set aside, and Kenton was taken on to Sandusky. But here, the +day before that set for him to die, a British Indian agent, a merciful +man whose name, Drewyer, we ought to remember, made the Indians give him +up, that the commandant at Detroit might find out from him the state +of the American forces in Kentucky. He had to promise the savages that +Kenton should afterwards be returned to them; but though Kenton could +not or would not tell him what he wished to know, Drewyer assured him +that he would never abandon any white prisoner to their cruelty. + +At Detroit Kenton was kindly treated by the English, and beyond having +to report himself daily to the officer who had charge of him, there was +nothing to make him feel that he was a prisoner. But he grew restive in +his captivity, and after he had borne seven months of it, and got well +of all his wounds and bruises, he plotted with two young Kentuckians, +who had been taken with Boone at the Blue Licks, to attempt his escape +with them. They bought guns from some drunken Indians, and hid them +in the woods. Then in the month of June, 1778, they started southward +through the wilderness, and after thirty days reached Louisville in +safety. Kenton continued to fight the Indians in all the wars, large +and little, till they were beaten by General Wayne in 1794. Eight years +later he came to live in Ohio, settling near Urbana, but removing later +to Zanesfield, on the site of the Indian town Wapatimika, where he was +once to have been burned, and where he died peaceably in 1836, when he +was eighty-one years old. He is described as a tall, handsome man, of +an erect figure and carriage, a fair complexion, and a most attractive +countenance. "He had," his biographer tells us, "a soft, tremulous +voice, very pleasing to the hearer, and laughing gray eyes that appeared +to fascinate the beholder," except in his rare moments of anger, when +their fiery glance would curdle the blood of those who had roused his +wrath. He was above all the heroes of Ohio history, both in his virtues +and his vices, the type of the Indian fighter. He was ready to kill or +to take the chances of being killed, but he had no more hate apparently +for the wild men than for the wild beasts he hunted. + + + + +VII. THE RENEGADES. + +Simon Girty, who tried so hard to save Kenton's life at Wapatimika, was +the most notorious of those white renegades who abounded in the Ohio +country during the Indian wars. The life of the border was often such +as to make men desperate and cruel, and the life of the wilderness had +a fascination which their fierce natures could hardly resist. Kenton +himself, as we have seen, might perhaps have willingly remained with the +Indians if they had wished him to be one of them, though he was at heart +too kindly and loyal ever to have become the enemy of his own people, +and if he had been adopted into an Indian family he would probably have +been such an Indian as Smith was. But in the sort of backwoodsman he +had been there was such stuff as renegades were made of. Like him these +desperadoes had mostly fled from the settlements after some violent +deed, and could not have gone back to their homes there if they would. +Yet they were not much worse than the traders who came and went among +the Indians in times of peace, and supplied them with the weapons and +the ammunition they might use at any moment against the settlers. + +Indeed, wherever the two races touched they seemed to get all of each +other's vices, and very few of each other's virtues; and it is doubtful +if the law breakers who escaped from the borders to the woods were more +ferocious than many whom they left behind. Neither side showed mercy; +their warfare was to the death; the white men tomahawked and scalped +the wounded as the red men did, and if the settlers were not always +so pitiless to their prisoners or to the wives and children of their +warriors, they were guilty of many acts of murderous treachery and +murderous fury. One of the best and truest friends they ever had, the +great Mingo chief Logan, who was at last the means of Kenton's escape +from the stake, bore witness to these facts in his famous speech; for in +spite of his friendship for the whites, he had suffered the worst +that they could do to the worst of their foes. When such white men as +butchered Logan's kindred sided with the Indians, they only changed +their cause; their savage natures remained unchanged; but very few of +these, even, seem to have been so far trusted in their fear and hate for +their own people as to be taken by the Indians in their forays against +the whites. + +The great Miami chief Little Turtle, who outgeneralled the Americans at +the defeat of St. Clair, used to tell with humorous relish how he once +trusted a white man adopted into his tribe. This white man was very +eager to go with him on a raid into Kentucky, and when they were +stealing upon the cabin they were going to attack, nothing could +restrain his desire to be foremost. When they got within a few yards, he +suddenly dashed forward with a yell of "Indians, Indians!" and left his +red brethren to get out of the range of the settlers' rifles as fast as +they could. + +But Simon Girty led many of the savage attacks, and showed himself the +relentless enemy of the American cause at every chance, though more than +once he used his power with the Indians to save prisoners from torture +and death. He was born in Pennsylvania, and he was captured with his +brothers, George and James, during Braddock's campaign. They were all +taken to Ohio, where George was adopted by the Delawares, James by the +Shawnees, and Simon by the Senecas. George died a drunken savage; James +became the terror of the Kentucky border, and infamous throughout the +West by his cruelty to the women among the Indians' captives; he seems +to have been without one touch of pity for the fate of any of their +prisoners, and his cruelties were often charged upon Simon, who had +enough of his own to answer for. Yet he seems to have been the best as +well as the ablest of the three brothers whose name is the blackest in +Ohio history. Many of the stories about him are evidently mere romance, +and they often conflict. As he was captured when very young, he never +learned to read or write; and it is said that he was persuaded by worse +and wiser men to take sides with the British in the Revolution. But +we need not believe that he was so ignorant or so simple as this in +accounting for his preference of his red brethren and their cause. +In fact, several letters attributed to him exist, though he may have +dictated these, and may not have known how to write after all. + +It is certain that he was a man of great note and power among the +Indians, and one of their most trusted captains. He led the attack on +Wheeling in 1777, where he demanded the surrender of the fort to the +English king, whose officer he boasted himself. In 1782 he attacked +Bryan's Station in Kentucky with a strong force of Indians, but met with +such a gallant resistance that he attempted to bring the garrison +to terms by telling them who he was and threatening them with the +reenforcements and the cannon which he said he expected hourly. He +promised that all their lives should be spared if they yielded, but +while he waited with the white flag in his hand on the stump where he +stood to harangue them, a young man answered him from the fort: "You +need not be so particular to tell us your name; we know your name and +you, too. I've had a villainous untrustworthy cur dog this long while +named Simon Girty, in compliment to you, he's so like you, just as ugly +and just as wicked. As to the cannon, let them come on; the country's +aroused, and the scalps of your red cutthroats, and your own too, will +be drying in our cabins in twenty-four hours; and if, by chance, you or +your allies do get into the fort, we've a big store of rods laid in to +scourge you out again." + +[Illustration: Simon Girty 079L] + +The Indians retreated, but Girty glutted his revenge for the failure and +the insult in many a fight afterwards with the Americans and in many a +scene of torture and death. The Kentuckians now followed his force to +the Blue Licks, where the Indians ambushed them and beat them back with +fearful slaughter. + +Girty remained with the savages and took part in the war which they +carried on against our people long after our peace with the British. He +was at the terrible defeat of St. Clair in 1791, and he had been present +at the burning of Colonel Crawford in 1782. By some he is said to have +tried to beg and to buy their prisoner off from the Wyandots, and by +others to have taken part in mocking his agonies, if not in torturing +him. It seems certain that he lived to be a very old man, and it is +probable that he died fighting the Americans in our second war with +Great Britain. + +But the twilight of the forest rests upon most of the details of his +history and the traits of his character. The truth about him seems to +be that he had really become a savage, and it would not be strange if he +felt all the ferocity of a savage, together with the rare and capricious +emotions of pity and generosity which are apt to visit the savage heart. +There have always been good Indians and bad Indians, and Simon Girty was +simply a bad Indian. + + + + +VIII. THE WICKEDEST DEED IN OUR HISTORY. + +The Indians despised the white men for what they thought their stupidity +in warfare, when they stood up in the open to be shot at, as the +soldiers who were sent against them mostly did, instead of taking +to trees and hiding in tall grass and hollows of the ground, as the +backwoodsmen learned to do. Smith tells us that when Tecaughretanego +heard how Colonel Grant, in the second campaign against Fort Duquesne, +outwitted the French and Indians by night and stole possession of a hill +overlooking the post, he praised his craft as that of a true warrior; +but as to his letting his pipers play at daybreak, and give the enemy +notice of his presence, so that the Indians could take to trees and +shoot his Highlanders down with no danger to themselves, he could only +suppose that Colonel Grant had got drunk over night. + +The savages respected the whites when they showed cunning, and they did +not hate them the more for not showing mercy in fight; but we have seen +how fiercely they resented the crime of horse stealing in Kenton's case, +though they were always stealing horses themselves from the settlers; +and any deed of treachery against themselves they were eager and prompt +to punish, though they were always doing such deeds against their +enemies. Still, it is doubtful whether with all their malignity they +were ever guilty of anything so abominable as the massacre of the +Christian Indians at Gnadenhutten, by the Americans; and if there is +record of any wickeder act in the history not only of Ohio, but of the +whole United States, I do not know of it. The Spaniards may have outdone +it in some of their dealings with the Indians, but I cannot call to mind +any act of theirs that seems so black, so wholly without justice and +without reason. It is no wonder that it embittered the hostilities +between the red men and the white men and made the war, which outlasted +our Revolution ten years, more and more unmerciful to the very end. + +The missionaries of the Moravian Church were more successful than any +others in converting the Indians, perhaps because they asked the most of +them. They made them give up all the vices which the Indians knew were +vices, and all the vices that the Indians thought were virtues when +practiced outside of their tribe. They forbade them to lie, to steal, to +kill; they taught them to wash themselves, to put on clothes, to work, +and to earn their bread. Upon these hard terms they had congregations +and villages in several parts of Connecticut, New York, and +Pennsylvania, which flourished for a time against the malice of the +disorderly and lawless settlers around them, but which had yielded +to the persecutions of white men and red men alike when, in 1771, the +chiefs of the Delawares sent messages to the Moravians and invited +them to come out and live among them in Ohio. The Lenni-lenape, as the +Delawares called themselves, had left the East, where they were subject +to the Iroquois, and they now had their chief towns on the Muskingum. +Near the place where the Tuscarawas and Walhonding meet to form the +Muskingum they offered lands to the Moravians, and in 1772 the Christian +Indians left their last village in Western Pennsylvania and settled +there at three points which they called Schoenbrun, the Beautiful Spring, +Lichtenau, Field of Light, and Gnadenhutten, the Tents of Grace. + +It was in the very heart of the Western wilderness, but the land was +rich and the savages friendly, and in a few years the teachers and their +followers had founded a fairer and happier home than they had known +before, and had begun to spread their light around them. The Indians +came from far and near to see their fields and orchards and gardens, +with the houses in the midst of them, built of squared logs and set on +streets branching to the four quarters from the chapel, which was the +peaceful citadel of each little town. It must have seemed a stately +edifice to their savage eyes, with its shingled roof, and its belfry, +where, ten years before any white man had settled beyond the Ohio, +the bell called the Christian Indians to prayer. No doubt the creature +comforts of the Christians had their charm, too, for the hungry pagans. +They were not used elsewhere to the hospitality that could set before +them such repasts as one of the missionaries tells us were spread for +the guest at Gnadenhutten. A table furnished with "good bread, meat, +butter, cheese, milk, tea and coffee, and chocolate," and such fruits and +vegetables as the season afforded could hardly have been less wonderful +in the Indian's eyes than red men with their hair cut, and without paint +or feathers, at work in the fields like squaws. + +Their heathen neighbors began to come into the Moravians' peaceful +fold, and the three villages grew and flourished till the war broke out +between the colonies and Great Britain. Then the troubles and sorrows +of the Moravians, white and red, began again. They were too weak to keep +the savage war parties from passing through their towns, and they dared +not refuse them rest and food. The warriors began to come with the first +leaves of spring, and they came and went till the first snows of autumn +made their trail too plain for them to escape pursuit from the border. +The Moravians did what they could to ransom their captives and to save +them from torture when the warriors returned after their raids, but all +their goodness did not avail them against the suspicion of the settlers. +The backwoodsmen looked on them as the spies and allies of the +savages, and the savages on their side believed them in league with the +Americans. + +The Delawares had promised the Moravian teachers that if they settled +among them, the Delaware nation would take no part in the war, and the +most of 'them kept their promise. But some of the young men broke it, +and the nation would not forbid the Wyandots from passing through +their country to and from the Virginia frontier. It was true that the +Moravians held thousands of Delaware warriors neutral, and that our +American officers knew their great power for good among the Indians; +but the backwoodsmen hated them as bitterly as they hated the Wyandots. +Their war parties passed through the Christian villages, too, when they +went and came on their forays beyond the Ohio, and at one time their +leaders could hardly keep them from destroying a Moravian town, even +while they were enjoying its hospitality. + +This situation could not last. In August, 1781, a chief of the Hurons, +called the Half King, came with a large body of Indians flying the +English flag and accompanied by an English officer, to urge the +Christians to remove to Sandusky, where they were told they could be +safe from the Virginians. They refused, and then the Half King shot +their cattle, plundered their fields and houses, and imprisoned their +teachers, and at last forced them away. When the winter came on, the +exiles began to suffer from cold and hunger, and many of their children +died. To keep themselves and their little ones from starving, parties +stole back from Sandusky throughout the winter to gather the corn left +standing in the fields beside the Muskingum. + +In March a larger party than usual returned to the deserted villages +with a number of women and children, all unarmed, except for the guns +that the men carried to shoot game. But in February the savages had +fallen upon a lonely cabin and butchered all its inmates with more than +common cruelty, and the whole border was ablaze with fury against the +redskins, whether they called themselves Christians or not. A hundred +and sixty backwoodsmen gathered at Mingo Bottom under the lead of +Colonel David Williamson, who had once disgraced himself among them by +preventing them from killing some Moravian prisoners, and who now seems +to have been willing to atone for his humanity. They marched swiftly to +the Muskingum, where they stole upon the Indians in the cornfields, and +seized their guns. They told them at first that they were going to take +them to Fort Pitt, and at the vote held to decide whether they should +burn their prisoners alive or simply tomahawk and scalp them, there +was really some question of their transfer to Pittsburg. This plan was +favored by the leaders, and it is believed that if Colonel Williamson +could have had his way, it would have been carried out. But there is no +proof of this, and the rest, who were by no means the worst men of the +border, but some of the best, voted by a large majority to kill their +prisoners. + +They gave them the night to prepare for death. One poor woman fell on +her knees before Williamson and begged for her life, but the most of +them seem to have submitted without a word. They spent the night in +prayer and singing, and when their butchers sent at daybreak to know if +they were ready, they answered that they had received the assurance of +God's peace. Then the murderers parted the women and children from the +men and shut them up in another cabin, and the two cabins they fitly +called the slaughterhouses. One of them found a cooper's mallet in the +cooper's shop, where the men were left, and saying: "How exactly this +will answer for the business," he made his way through the kneeling +ranks to one of the most fervent of the converts, and struck him down. + +While the Indians still prayed and sang, he killed twelve more of them, +and then passed the mallet to another butcher with the words: "My arm +fails me. Go on in the same way. I think I have done pretty well." Among +the women and children the slaughter began with a very old and pious +widow, and soon the sound of the singing and the praying was silenced in +death. + +The victims were scalped as they fell, and when the bloody work was +done, the cabins were set on fire and the bodies burned in the burning +buildings. Two boys who had been scalped with the rest feigned death, +and when the murderers had left them they tried to escape. One stuck +fast in the window and was burned, but the other got safely away and +lived to tell the awful tale. + +[Illustration: Massacre of the Christian Indians by the Whites 087] + +The backwoodsmen themselves seem not to have been ashamed of their work, +though it is said that Williamson could never be got to speak of it. The +event was so horrible that it killed the Moravians' hopes of usefulness +among the Ohio Indians. The teachers settled with the remnant of +their converts in Canada, but the Christian Indians always longed for +Gnadenhutten, where they had lived so happily, and where ninety-six +of their brethren had suffered so innocently. Before the close of the +century Congress confirmed the Delawares' grant of the Muskingum lands +to them, and they came back. But they could not survive the crime +committed against them. The white settlers pressed close about them; the +War of 1812 enkindled all the old hate against their race. Their laws +were trampled upon and their own people were seen drunk in the streets. + +Some of the Christians had fallen back into heathen savagery. One of +these, who was found in a war party, painted and armed like the rest for +a foray against the whites, said to a Christian brother: "I cannot but +have bad thoughts of our teachers. I think it was their fault that so +many of our countrymen were murdered in Gnadenhutten. They betrayed +us.... Tell me now, is this the truth or not?" He had lost his children +and all his kindred in that fearful carnage, and yet he could not +believe his own accusations against the Moravians. He added mournfully: +"I have now a wicked and malicious heart, and therefore my thoughts are +evil. As I look outwardly, so is my heart within. What would it avail, +if I were outwardly to appear as a believer, and my heart were full of +evil?" + + + + +IX. THE TORTURE OF COLONEL CRAWFORD + +The slaughter of the Christian Indians at Gnadenhutten took place +in March, 1782, and in May ol the same year, four hundred and fifty +horsemen from the American border met at Mingo Bottom, where the +murderers had rendezvoused, and set out from that point to massacre +the Moravian converts who had taken refuge among the Wyandots on the +Sandusky. They expected, of course, to fight the warlike Indians, but +they openly avowed their purpose of killing all Indians, Christian or +heathen, and women and children, as well as warriors. We must therefore +call them murderers, but we must remember that they had been hardened +against mercy by the atrocities of the savages, and we must make +allowance for men who had seen their wives and little ones tomahawked +and scalped or carried off into captivity, their homes burnt, and their +fields wasted. The life of the frontier at a time when all life was so +much ruder than now was as fierce, if not as cruel, among the white men +as among the red men. + +The murderers at Mingo Bottom voted whether Colonel David Williamson or +Colonel William Crawford should lead them, and their choice fell upon +Crawford. He seems to have been a man of kinder heart than his fellows, +and he unwillingly took command of the turbulent and disorderly band, +which promptly set out on its march through the wilderness towards the +Sandusky country. They had hoped to surprise the Indians, but spies +had watched their movements from the first, and when they reached the +Moravian villages on the Sandusky River, they found them deserted. They +decided then to go on toward Upper Sandusky, and if they could not reach +that town in a day's march, to beat a quick retreat. The next day they +started, but at two o'clock in the afternoon they were attacked by large +numbers of Indians hidden in the tall grass of the prairies, and they +fought a running battle till nightfall. Then both sides kindled large +fires along their lines, and fell back from them to prevent a surprise. + +In the morning the Americans began their retreat, and the Indians +renewed their attack with great fury in the afternoon, on all sides +except the northeast, where the invaders were hemmed in by swamps. There +seems to have been no cause for their retreat, except the danger of an +overwhelming onset by the savages, which must have been foreseen +from the start. But the army, as it was called, was wholly without +discipline; during the night not even a sentry had been posted; and now +their fear became a panic, their retreat became a rout. They made their +way as best they could through the marshes, where the horses stuck fast, +and had to be abandoned, and the men themselves sometimes sank to their +necks in the soft ooze. Instead of keeping together, as Crawford advised +but had no power to compel, the force broke up into small parties, which +the Indians destroyed or captured. Many perished in the swamps; some +were followed as far as the Ohio River. The only one of the small +parties which escaped was that of forty men under Colonel Williamson, +the leader of the Gnadenhiitten massacre, who enjoyed the happier +fortune denied to Colonel Crawford. + +This ill-fated officer was tormented after the retreat began by his fear +for the safety of his son, his son-in-law, and his nephews, and he left +his place at the head of the main body and let the army file past him +while he called and searched for the missing men. He did not try to +overtake it till it was too late to spur his wearied horse forward. He +fell in with Dr. John Knight, who accompanied the expedition as surgeon, +and who now generously remained with Crawford. They pushed on together +with two others through the woods, guided by the north star, but on the +second day after the army had left them behind, a party of Indians fell +upon them and made them prisoners. + +Their captors killed their two companions, Captain Biggs and Lieutenant +Ashley, the following day, but Crawford and Knight were taken to an +Indian camp at a little distance, and then to the old Wyandot town of +Sandusky, where preparations were made for burning Crawford. He seems to +have had great hopes that Simon Girty, who was then at Sandusky, would +somehow manage to save him, and it is said that the renegade really +offered three hundred dollars for Crawford's life, knowing that he would +be many times repaid by Crawford's friends. But the chief whom Girty +tried to bribe answered, "Do you take me for a squaw?" and threatened, +if Girty said more, to burn him along with Crawford. This is the story +told in Girty's favor; other stories represent him as indifferent if not +cruel to Crawford throughout. In any case, it ended in Crawford's return +to the Indian camp, eight miles from the Indian town, where he suffered +death. + +The chiefs who had been put in charge of him were two Delawares of great +note, Captain Pipe and Captain Wingenund. They were chosen his guards +because the Christian Indians were of their nation, and the Delawares, +more than any other nation, were held to have been injured and insulted +by their massacre. It was Captain Pipe who refused Girty's offer, if +Girty ever made it, and it was Captain Pipe who urged the death of the +prisoners, while treating them with mock politeness. Nine others were +brought back from the town with Knight and Crawford, and Captain Pipe +now painted all their faces black, the sign of doom. While he was +painting Knight's face, he told him that he should be taken to see +his friends at the Shawnee village, and he told Crawford that his head +should be shaved, meaning that he should be made an Indian and adopted +into the tribe. But when they came to the place where Crawford was to +suffer, Captain Pipe threw off the mask of kindness; he made a speech to +the forty warriors and seventy squaws and papooses met to torture him, +and used all his eloquence to inflame their hate. + +The other Delaware chief, Captain Wingenund, had gone into his cabin, +that he might not see Crawford's death. They knew each other, and more +than once Crawford had been good to Wingenund. The captive now sent for +the chief, and Wingenund came unwillingly to speak with him, for he was +already tied to the stake, and his friend knew that he could not save +him. The chief acknowledged the kindness that they had once felt for +each other, but he said that Crawford had put it out of his power to +give him help. + +[Illustration: Execution of Crawford 093] + +"How so, Captain Wingenund?" asked Crawford. + +"By joining yourself to that execrable man, Williamson; the man who but +the other day murdered such a number of Moravian Indians, knowing them +to be friends; knowing that he ran no risk in murdering a people who +would not fight, and whose only business was praying." + +In vain, Crawford declared that he would never have suffered the +massacre if he had been present. Wingenund was willing to believe +this, but he reminded him that the men whom he had led to Sandusky had +declared that they came to murder the remaining Moravians. No one, he +said, would now dare to speak a word for him; the king of England, if he +came with all his treasure, could not save him from the vengeance which +the Indians were going to take upon him for the slaughter of their +innocent brethren. + +"Then my fate is fixed," said Crawford. + +Wingenund turned away weeping, and could never afterwards speak of the +scene without deep feeling. + +Crawford had already undergone the first of his punishment. The savages +stripped him naked and made him sit down on the ground before the fire +kindled to burn him, and beat him with their fists and with sticks +till they had heated their rage. Then they tied his wrists together +and fastened the rope that bound them to a post strongly planted in the +ground with leash enough to let him walk round it once or twice, five or +six yards away from the fire. Girty was present, and Crawford asked if +the Indians meant to burn him; the renegade briefly answered, "Yes." +Then Captain Pipe spoke, and Wingenund saw his friend for the last time. +After this chief left Crawford, the Indians broke into a loud yell and +began the work of torture which ended only with his death. + +At one point he besought Simon Girty to put an end to his sufferings; +but Girty would not, or dared not. + +Then Crawford began to pray, imploring God to have mercy upon him, and +bore his torment for an hour and a half longer with manly courage. It is +not known how long his torture lasted; Knight was now taken away, and no +friend remained to witness Crawford's agony to the end. + +I have thought it well to recount his story, for without it we could not +fully realize what the white people of that day underwent in their long +struggle with the Ohio Indians. Cruelty so fiendish could never have +a cause, but it cannot be denied that the torture of Crawford was the +effect of the butchery of the Christian Indians. That awful deed was an +act of even greater wickedness, for it was the act of men who were not +savage by birth or race or creed. It was against the white man's law, +while the torture of Crawford was by the red man's law. It is because +of their laws that the white men have overcome and the red men have gone +under in the order of mercy, for whenever we sin against that order, +contrary to our law, or according to our law, we weaken ourselves, and +if we continue in our sin, we doom ourselves in the end to perish. + + + + +X. THE ESCAPE OF KNIGHT AND SLOVER. + +When the Indians made a raid on the settlements, they abandoned even +victory if they had once had enough fighting; as when they had a feast +they glutted themselves, and then wasted what they had not eaten. They +seemed now to have had such a surfeit of cruelty in the torture of +Crawford that they took little trouble to secure Knight for a future +holiday. They promised themselves that he should be burnt, too, at the +town of the Shawnees, but in their satiety they left him unbound in the +charge of a young Indian who was to take him there from Sandusky. It is +true that Knight was very weak, and that they may have thought he was +unable to escape, though even in this case they would probably have sent +him under a stronger guard at another time, when they were not gorged +with blood. + +His Indian guard was armed and was mounted on a pony, while Knight went +on foot; but Knight had made up his mind that he would escape at any +risk rather than be burned like Crawford. His face had again been +painted black; and he had Simon Girty's word, given him before Crawford +was put to death, that he was to be burned at Old Chillicothe. But he +pretended not to know what the Indians were going to do with him there, +and he easily deceived his guard, who seems to have been a good-natured, +simple fellow. Knight asked him if they were going to live together like +brothers in the same wig-wam, and the Indian answered they were, and +they went in very friendly talk. At night-fall when they camped, Knight +let his guard bind him, but he spent the hours till daybreak trying +secretly to free himself. At dawn the Indian rose and unbound his +captive. Then he rekindled the fire, at the same time fighting the gnats +that swarmed upon his naked body. He willingly consented that Knight +should make a smoke to drive them from his back, and Knight took a heavy +stick from the fire as if to do this; but when he got behind the Indian +he struck him on the head with all his strength. The Indian fell forward +into the fire, but quickly gathered himself up and ran off howling. +Knight wanted to shoot him as he ran; in his eagerness to cock the rifle +he broke the lock, and the Indian escaped. He got safely to the Shawnee +town, where he described the fight in terms that transformed the little +doctor into a furious giant, whom no amount of stabbing had any effect +upon. + +[Illustration: Knight escapes 097L] + +The other Indians, who seem to have understood this cowardly boaster, +received his story with shouts of laughter. But Knight was very glad +to make off with his gun and ammunition, and leave them to settle the +affair among themselves. When he came to the prairies he hid himself in +the grass and waited till dark before venturing to cross them, and +by daybreak he was in the woods again. He could kill nothing with his +broken gun, and he lived for twenty-one days on wild gooseberries, with +two young blackbirds and a tortoise, which he ate raw. He reached the +Ohio River on the twenty-second day, and crossed in safety to Fort +Mcintosh. + +The tragic adventures of the Indian captives must often have been +relieved by comic incidents like those of Knight's escape from his +guard; but there is very little record of anything except sorrow and +suffering, danger and death. Certainly in the captivity of John Slover, +another of Crawford's ill-starred and ill-willed crew of marauders, +there were few gleams of happier chance to distinguish it from most +histories of the sort. He had been captured by the Indians when a boy +of eight years, and carried from his home in Virginia to their town of +Sandusky, where he was adopted into their nation, and where he lived +quite happily till his twentieth year, when he was given up to his own +people. + +He fought through two years of the Revolutionary War, and he was +thoroughly fitted to act as a guide for Crawford. + +After the battle, or rather the disorderly rout, he was one of those who +was mired in the swamps. He left his horse there, and with a few others +tried to make his way to Detroit. Twice the party escaped capture by +hiding in the grass, as the Indians passed near them, but on the third +morning they were ambushed; two were killed, one ran away, and the +remaining three gave themselves up on the promise of good treatment. +They were taken to Wapatimika, where Simon Kenton was to have been +burned, and they soon proved how far the promises of the savages were to +be trusted. + +The Indians knew Slover at once, and they bitterly reproached him with +having come to betray his friends. At the council held to try him, +James Girty urged them to put him to death for his treason. But Slover +strongly defended himself, reminding the Indians that they had freely +given him up, and had no longer any claim upon him. His words had such +weight that the council put off its decision. In the meantime he was +left with an old squaw, who hid him under a bear skin, and scolded off +the messengers who came to bring him before a grand council of Shawnee, +Delaware, Wyandot, Chippewa, and Mingo warriors. But shortly after, +Girty came with forty braves and seized him. Slover was now stripped, +and with his hands tied and his face painted black, he was taken to a +village five miles off, where he was beaten as usual by the people, +and then driven a little farther to another village, where he found +everything made ready to burn him, as Crawford had been burned. He was +tied to the stake, and the fire was lighted; an orator began to kindle +the anger of the savages; but at the last moment a heavy shower of rain +burst over the roofless council house where they had gathered to torture +their captive, put out the fire, and drove them to a sheltered part of +the lodge, where they consoled themselves as best they could by beating +him till midnight, and promising him that he should be burned the next +day. He was then carried to the blockhouse and left bound with two +guards, who entertained themselves, but did not amuse Slover, by talking +over his probable behavior under the torture that awaited him. They fell +asleep, worn out, about daybreak, when Slover made a desperate effort to +free himself, and to his own astonishment, succeeded. He stepped across +his snoring guards out into the open air. No one was astir in the +village, and he ran to hide himself in a cornfield, where he nearly fell +over a sleeping squaw and her papooses. On the other side of the field +he found some horses, and making a halter of the buffalo thong that had +bound him, and that still hung upon his arm, he leaped upon one of them +and dashed through the woods. By ten o'clock in the forenoon he had +reached the Scioto fifty miles away. + +He allowed his horse to breathe here; then he remounted, crossed the +river, and galloped half as far again. At three o'clock his horse gave +out, and Slover left him and ran forward afoot, spurred on by the yells +of the pursuers close behind him. The moon came up, and knowing that his +trail could be easily followed by her light, he ran till daybreak. The +next night he reached the Muskingum, naked, torn by briers, and covered +with the mosquitoes which swarmed upon his bleeding body. A few wild +raspberries enabled him to break his fast for the first time, but the +next day he feasted upon two crawfish. When he came to the Ohio, just +across from Wheeling, and called to a man whom he saw on the island +there, to bring his canoe and take him over, it is not strange that the +man should have hesitated at the sight of the figure on the Ohio shore. +Not till Slover had given him the names of many men in Crawford's army, +as well as his own name, did the man come to his rescue and ferry him +over to the fort, where he was safe at last. + + + + +XI. THE INDIAN WARS AND ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT. + +The Indians and the renegades at Sandusky would not believe their +prisoners when Crawford's men told them that Cornwallis and his army had +surrendered to Washington; but the Revolutionary War had now really come +to an end. The next year Great Britain acknowledged the independence +of the United States, and gave up the whole West to them, as France +had given it up to her before. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, +Pennsylvania, and Virginia claimed each the country lying westward +of them, but the other states denied this claim. The West was finally +declared the property of the whole Union, and in 1784 the first +ordinance was passed by Congress for its government. It was not until +1787 that the great ordinance was passed which gave the future empire +of the world to the West on terms of freedom to all men: "There shall +be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory +otherwise than in the punishment of crime." + +This made the West free forever, but no law of Congress could make it +safe without the consent of the savage nations which had again changed +masters by the treaty of foreign powers. The war between England and +America was over, but the war between white men and red men raged +more fiercely after our peace with Great Britain than before. The +backwoodsmen took this peace for a sign that they might now cross the +river from New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to settle in the Ohio +country; and they were soon there by hundreds. It is true that the +United States had made treaties with the United Tribes for certain +tracts beyond the Ohio River, but the Indians declared that they had +been tricked into these treaties. It is true that Congress meant to deal +fairly by them so far as to drive the hard bargains with them for their +lands which the white men had always driven with the Indians; but the +backwoodsmen waited for nothing, and the old story of surprises and +slaughters, of captivities and tortures, went on, with the difference +that the war parties now need not cross the Ohio to take scalps and +prisoners, and the vengeance of the pioneers had not so far to follow +them in their return to the woods. + +The first white settlers in Ohio were largely the kind of half-savages +who had butchered the Christians at Gnadenhiitten. They built their +cabins and cleared their fields on lands so shamelessly stolen that in +1785 a force of United States troops was sent to drive them out of their +holdings. They seemed to go, but in reality they staid, and wherever the +backwoodsman planted his foot west of the Ohio, he never turned his face +eastward again. + +He was unlawfully there, but from the Indian's point of view he was no +more unrightfully there than the settlers who came a few years later to +take up farms under the land companies authorized by Congress. If any +other proof were wanting that these companies possessed themselves of +land which the Indians believed they had never sold, it would appear in +the fact that the first thing the settlers did was to build a stockade, +or high bullet-proof fence of logs with a strong blockhouse for a kind +of citadel, where they might gather for safety in case of attacks from +any of the wild natives of the woods about them. + +The invaders were from New England, from New Jersey, from Pennsylvania, +and from Virginia, and with their coming, nearly all in the same year, +there began that mingling of the American strains which has since made +Ohio the most American state in the Union, first in war and first in +peace; which has given the nation such soldiers as Grant, Sherman, +Sheridan, McPherson; such presidents as Grant, Hayes, Garfield, +Harrison, McKinley; such statesmen and jurists as Ewing, Cor-win, Wade, +Chase, Giddings, Sherman, Waite. We have to own, in truth and honesty, +that the newcomers might be unlawfully and unrightfully in the great +territory which was destined to be the great state, but it is consoling +to realize that they were not unreasonably there. It was not reasonable +that the land should be left to savages who must each keep fifty +thousand acres of it wild for his needs as a hunter. The earth is for +those who will use it, and not for those who will waste it, and the +Indians who would not suffer themselves to be tamed could not help +wasting the land. + +If the whites made any mistake, it was in allowing any man to own more +land than he could use; but this is a mistake which prevails in our own +day as it prevailed in the days of the pioneers, and they were not to +blame for being no wiser at the end of the eighteenth century than +we are at the end of the nineteenth. The states consenting to the +organization of the Northwest Territory meant that their citizens who +had fought for the independence of the nation in the Revolutionary War +should first of all have their choice of its lands, and so we find Ohio +divided up into the Virginia Military District, the Connecticut Western +Reserve, and the Bounty Lands of Pennsylvania. But large grants were +made to land companies, and the innumerable acres were juggled out of +the hands of the people into the hands of the speculators, as the public +lands have been ever since, until now there are no public lands left +worth having. + +The Ohio Indians knew nothing of all this, or as little as they have +ever known of the fate of their ancient homes on the frontier which we +have pressed further and further westward. They held in their stubborn +way that the line between them and the whites was still the Ohio River, +as it had been for fifty years; and they made war upon the invaders +wherever they found them. At times they gathered force for a great +battle, and in the first two of these battles they were the victors, +but in the third they were beaten and their strength and spirits were +broken. In 1790 General Harmar destroyed the towns of the Miamis on the +Wabash; but they ambushed his retreat and punished his fifteen hundred +men so severely that he was forced back to the Ohio. In 1791 General +Arthur St. Clair led an army against the Indians in the Maumee country, +and was attacked and routed with greater havoc than the savages had ever +yet made of the whites, except perhaps in Braddock's defeat. In 1792 +General Anthony Wayne set about gathering another army for the Indian +campaign. He moved into the enemy's country slowly, building forts in +Darke County and Mercer (where St. Clair was routed) as he advanced. In +1794, at the meeting of the Auglaize and Maumee, twenty miles from the +last post, which he named Fort Defiance, he finally met the tribes in +great force, and defeated them so thoroughly that for sixteen years they +never afterwards made head against the Americans. + +At this day we can hardly imagine the dismay that the rout of St. Clair +and the slaughter of his men spread through the Ohio country. He was +a gallant officer, the governor of the Northwest Territory, and the +trusted friend of Washington. It is true that his army was largely the +refuse of the Eastern States, picked up in the streets of the larger +towns and lured into the wilderness with the promise of three dollars a +month; that these men were badly fed, badly clothed, and badly drilled; +and that they were led by a general whose strength and spirits were +impaired by sickness. But with them was a large body of Kentuckians and +other backwoodsmen, skilled in Indian warfare, and eager for the red +foes with whom they had long arrears of mutual injury to bring up; and +the hopes of the settlers rested securely upon these. The Indians were +led by Little Turtle, one of their greatest war chiefs, and at the point +where General Wayne two years later built one of his forts, and called +it Recovery, they surprised St. Clair's troops. + +[Illustration: The defeat of St. Clair 107] + +It was an easy slaughter. St. Clair was suffering so much with gout that +he could not move from his horse when he was helped to the saddle, and +was wholly unfit to fight. Yet he went undauntedly through the battle; +horse after horse was shot under him, and his clothes were pierced with +nine of the bullets which the Indians rained upon his men from every +tree of the forest. The backwoodsmen had hardly a chance to practice the +Indians' arts against them before the rout began. The cannon which St. +Clair had brought into the wilderness with immense waste of time and +toil, proved useless under the fire that galled the artillerymen. The +weak, undisciplined, and bewildered army was hemmed in on every side, +and the men were shot down as they huddled together or tried to straggle +away, till half their number was left upon the field. Of course none of +the wounded were spared. The Americans were tomahawked and scalped where +they fell; one of the savages told afterwards that he plied his hatchet +until he could hardly lift his arm. All the Ohio tribes shared in the +glory of this greatest victory of their race,--Delawares, Shawnees, +Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippeways, and Pottawottomies. There had been plenty +of game that year; they were all in the vigor and force which St. +Clair's ill-fated army lacked; and they lustily took their fill of +slaughter. + +Many stories of the battle were told by those who escaped. Major Jacob +Fowler, of Kentucky, an old hunter, who went with the army as surveyor, +carried his trusty rifle, but he had run short of bullets, the morning +of the fight, which began at daybreak. He was going for a ladle to melt +more lead, when he met a Kentucky rifleman driven in by the savages, and +begged some balls of him. The man had been shot through the wrist, and +he told Fowler to help himself from his pouch. Fowler was pouring out +a double handful, when the man said, "Stop; you had better count them." +Fowler could not help laughing, though it was hardly the time for +gayety. "If we get through this scrape, my dear fellow," said he, "I +will return you twice as many." But they never met again, and Fowler +could only suppose that his cautious friend was soon tomahawked and +scalped with the other wounded. Fowler took to a tree, and shot Indians +till his gunlock got out of order. Then he picked up a rifle which had +been thrown away, and which he found his bullets would fit, and renewed +the fight. It was a very cold November morning, and his fingers became +so stiff that he could not hold the bullets, which he had to keep in his +mouth, and feed into his rifle from it. At one time he was behind a very +small tree, and two Indians fired on him at such close range that he +felt the smoke of their guns and gave himself up for dead. But both had +missed him, and he got away from the battlefield unhurt. + +Another Kentuckian, a young ranger named William Kennan, was one of +the first riflemen driven back by the overwhelming force of Indians. He +tried to hide in the tall grass, but found that his only hope was in +his heels. The savages endeavored to cut him off, but he distanced all +except one, who followed him only three yards away. Kennan expected him +every moment his tomahawk at him, and he felt in his belt for his own. +It had slipped from its place, and he found himself wholly unarmed, just +as he came to a tree which the wind had blown down, and which spread +before him a mass of roots and earth eight or nine feet high. He +gathered all his strength, bounded into the air, and cleared it, while a +yell of wonder rose from the baffled Indians behind him. A little later +he came upon General Madison of Kentucky sitting on a log, so spent with +the day's work and loss of blood from a wound, that he could no longer +walk, and waiting for the Indians to come up and kill him. Kennan ran +back and caught a horse which he had seen grazing, put Madison on it, +and walked by his side till they were out of danger. The friendship thus +begun lasted through their lives. + +[Illustration: The escape of Kennan 109] + +This is one of the few softer lights in the picture whose darker +features we must not fail to look upon. One of the grimmest of them +was the war chief of the Missasagos, Little Turtle, who planned the +surprise, against the advice of all the other chiefs, and who merits +the fame of the awful day. To the Americans who saw him then, he was a +sullen and gloomy giant, who fought with his men throughout the battle, +arrayed in the conspicuous splendor of a great war, chief, with silver +ornaments dangling from his nose and ears. Hardly less terrible than the +figure of this magnificent butcher is that of the Chickasaw warrior who +accompanied the American army, to glut the hate of his nation for the +Northern tribesmen. When the fight began, he said he would not stand for +the Shawnees to shoot him down like a wild pigeon, and he left the ranks +and took to a fallen log, where he fired with unfailing aim. But he +could not be kept from leaving it to scalp the other Indians as he shot +them, and his own turn to be shot and scalped came at last. + +The battle ground was covered with a thick slush from the new-fallen +snow, and this made the retreat more exhausting. A poor mother, perhaps +one of the soldiers' or pioneers' wives, staggered along with a baby +in her arms till she fell with it. The ranger McDowell then carried it +awhile for her. When he gave it back, she threw it away in the snow, to +save her own life, and the Indians found it, and took it to Sandusky, +where they brought it up as their own. + +Two years after, when a detachment of Wayne's army camped upon the scene +of the carnage, they had to scrape away the heaps of bones and carry +them out of their tents before they could make their beds, and they +buried six hundred skulls on the field. Such is war, and we cannot look +too closely on its hideous face, which is often so alluringly painted +that we forget it is the face of a pitiless demon. + + + + +XII. THE INDIAN WARS AND WAYNE'S VICTORY. + +The Indians who had been so well generaled and had fought so ably, +failed as usual to follow up their victory by moving on the American +settlements in force. They kept on harassing the pioneers in small war +parties, but gave the country time to send an army, thoroughly equipped +and thoroughly disciplined, against them. They made a second attack on +the Americans on the old battle ground where General Wayne had built +his Fort Recovery, but they were beaten off with severe loss, though in +their attack they had the aid of many white Canadians and even of some +British officers, or at least of men wearing the uniform of British +officers. + +By the treaty of 1783 Great Britain agreed to give us the whole West +below a certain line, but when the time came for the surrender, she +refused to yield the forts south of this line. With the bad faith +of wanton power she kept her posts at Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, and +Mackinaw, because we were weak and she was strong; and from these points +her agents abetted the savages in their war upon the American frontiers. +Just before the battle of Fallen Timbers, where Wayne won his victory, +the Lieutenant Governor of Canada marched a force of Canadian militia +and British regulars into the Ohio country, and built a fort on the +Maumee, near the battle ground, which he held until 1796, when Great +Britain at last gave up all the places she had unrightfully kept. The +Indians expected this fort to open its gates to them, when they fled +before Wayne's men, and were astonished and indignant at the behavior of +then-British friends in denying them refuge. This was not from want of +ill will toward the Americans, who taunted them as they passed, and +whom the garrison wished to fire upon for approaching the post in +force. Sharp letters passed between the American general and the British +commandant, but it ended in nothing worse, and our jealous army, +which remained in the neighborhood laying waste the Indian fields and +villages, could not perceive that the British gave any aid or comfort to +the savages. + +The battle of Fallen Timbers was fought on the 20th of August, 1794, on +the banks of the Maumee, near a rising ground called Presque Isle, about +two miles south of the present Maumee City, and four miles from the +British Fort Miami. The place was called Fallen Timbers because it was +covered with trees blown down long before in a tornado. These formed a +natural stronghold for the savages, but Wayne had every other advantage, +especially in numbers; he had almost twice as many men, well drilled, +armed, and clothed, while the miserable and disorderly army of St. Clair +had fallen a prey to a far greater force of Indians. + +On the morning of the battle, Wayne sent a flag of truce to the united +tribes, offering peace, but he did not wait for its return. He met his +envoy coming back with an evasive answer, and he pushed on to Fallen +Timbers without stopping. As soon as he reached the battlefield, he +ordered his infantry to beat up the covert of the enemy, who were hidden +among the logs, brush, and grass, with the bayonet, and as they rose to +deliver their fire. His order was carried out so thoroughly and promptly +that this charge of nine hundred men began and ended the fight. Two +thousand; Indians, Canadian militia and volunteers fled before them, and +the rout was complete. + +[Illustration: St. Clair's Defeat 114] + +The affair was so quickly over that there was no time for the incidents +of heroism and suffering which heightened the tragedy of St. Clair's +defeat. At the beginning of the action, General William Henry Harrison, +afterwards President of the United States, but then one of Wayne's aids, +said to him, "General Wayne, I'm afraid you will get into the battle +yourself, and forget to give us the necessary field orders." "Perhaps I +may," said Wayne, "and if I do, recollect the standing order for the day +is, Charge the rascals with the bayonets!" Wayne had got his nickname +of Mad Anthony in the Revolution from his habit of swearing furiously +in battle, and now he called the Indians something more than simply +rascals. We have seen how his men carried out the spirit of his +instructions, and it is told of one of them who got astray from the rest +that he met an Indian alone and gave him the bayonet. At the same time +the Indian gave the American the tomahawk, and they were found dead +together, one with the blade in his breast, the other with the hatchet +in his skull. + +A runaway negro who had followed the Kentucky horsemen to the battle, +saw three Indians swimming the river from the shore where the cavalry +were posted, and shot one of them. The other two tried to swim on with +the body. The negro fired again with deadly aim, and the only Indian +left was now in water so shallow that he was dragging the bodies to land +when once more the negro fired and killed his man. Then he ran up to +look at the dead men and found them so like one another that he knew +they must be brothers. + +A strange and romantic incident of the campaign, before the battle, +occurred while three American scouts, Wells, McClellan, and Miller, were +ranging the woods to bring in some Indians for Wayne to question. They +came upon a party of three Indians; Wells shot one, and Miller another, +while McClellan, who was very swift of foot, ran down the third. Pursuer +and pursued both stuck in the oozy bottom of a stream, and when Wells +and Miller came up, they were threatening each other with knife and +tomahawk. Miller had been taken captive when a child with one of +his brothers; he had escaped, but this brother had remained with the +savages, and somehow Miller felt that the Indian confronting Mc-Clellan +was his brother. They seized him and washed off his paint; he was white; +he was Miller's brother. They persuaded him, with much trouble at first, +to join Wayne's army, and he fought through the rest of the war on the +American side. + +[Illustration: A White Indian 116] + +At another time as Wells and a party of his scouts came to the banks of +a stream, they saw on the opposite shore a family of savages who began +to cross the river towards them in a canoe. The scouts, taking them for +Indians, were about to fire on them when Wells suddenly called out that +the first who fired should have a bullet through his own head. He had +recognized the Indians, and he said that when he was a captive in their +tribe, this family had fed and clothed him, and nursed him in sickness, +and treated him as tenderly as one of themselves. The backwoodsmen +joined Wells in talk with his friends, urging them to do what they could +for peace among their people, and left them to paddle away in their +canoe unharmed. + +Wells had been the adoptive son of Little Turtle, who led the Indians at +St. Clair's defeat, and he had fought on the side of the savages in that +battle. But after it was over he foresaw that the war must end in favor +of the white men, and he decided to abandon his wild brethren. He spoke +first with Little Turtle as they were walking in the woods together and +warned him in words that a real Indian might have used. "When the sun +reaches the meridian, I leave you for the whites; and whenever you meet +me in battle you must try to kill me, as I shall try to kill you." + +But the real Indians had not Wells's forecast, and they continued the +war till they were beaten by Wayne, in whose army Little Turtle might +have found his adoptive son. Little Turtle was himself one of the last +chiefs to yield, but he came in with the rest at Greenville, and one +year after the battle of Fallen Timbers signed the treaty by which +ninety chiefs and the deputies of twelve tribes gave up the Ohio River +as the Indian border, and ceded half the Ohio lands to the United +States. + +Little Turtle, or Moshokonoghua, as he was called in the tongue of his +nation, the Miamis, lived for thirty years after signing the treaty, and +then died of gout at Fort Wayne. He traveled through the Eastern States +in the first years of the peace, and gave people there a different +impression from that received by those who knew him before the defeat of +St. Clair, and saw him leading the victors in that battle. He struck all +who met him as a man of intelligence and wit; he got the habit of high +living and bore himself like the gentlemen whose company he loved to +frequent. At Philadelphia the famous Polish exile and patriot Kosciusko +gave him his pistols and bade him shoot dead with them any man who +attempted to rob him of his country. + +His business in the East was to interest people in the civilization +of his tribe, but he had no purpose of living among the whites. In +Philadelphia, he said, "When I walk through the streets I see every +person in his shop employed about something: one makes shoes, another +pots, a third sells cloth. I say to myself, which of these things can +you do? Not one. I can make a bow or an arrow, catch fish, kill game, +and go to war; but none of these things is of any use here. To learn +what is done here would require a long time. Old age comes on. I should +be a useless piece of furniture, useless to my nation, useless to +myself. I must go back to my own country." + +This was what he did, and as long as he lived he was steadfast for +peace, for he remembered that it would be foolish for the Indians to +fight the Americans, and Little Turtle was not a fool. Even before the +battle of the Fallen Timbers, he urged his people to treat with Wayne +rather than fight. "We have beaten the enemy twice under separate +commanders," he said, referring to Har-mar and St. Clair. "The Americans +are now led by a chief who never stops; the night and the day are alike +to him. And during all the time that he has been marching upon your +villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men, we have +never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something +which whispers to me that it will be prudent to listen to his offers of +peace." + + + + +XIII. INDIAN FIGHTERS. + +In the long war with the Indians, the great battles were nearly all +fought within the region that afterwards became our state, and the +smaller battles went on there pretty constantly. The first force on +the scale of an army sent against the Ohio tribes was that of Colonel +Bouquet in 1766; but, as we have seen, the chief object of this was +to treat for the return of their white captives. In 1774 Lord Dunmore +marched with three thousand Virginians to destroy the Indian towns on +the Scioto in Pickaway County. He cannot be said to have led his men, +who believed in neither his courage nor his good faith, and who thought +that he was more anxious to treat with the savages for the advantage +of England in the Revolutionary War, which he knew was coming, than to +attack their capital. This was that Old Chillicothe, which has been so +often mentioned before, and here Dunmore made peace with the Indians, +instead of punishing them, as the backwoodsmen expected. The feeling +among them was so bitter that one of them fired through Dunmore's tent +where he sat with two chiefs, hoping to kill all three. He missed, but +he easily escaped among his comrades, who looked upon Dunmore as an +enemy of their country and a traitor to their cause. + +Their spirit, both lawless and fearless, was the spirit of that race of +Indian Fighters, as they were called, which grew up on the border in +the war ending with Wayne's victory. It led them into countless acts of +daring and into many acts of cruelty, and the story of their adventures +is too bloody to be fully told. But unless something of it is told we +cannot have a true notion of what the life of our backwoodsmen was. +We have seen what they could do when they were at their worst in the +Gnadenhutten massacre; but we cannot understand them unless we realize +that they not only held all life cheap, but held the life of an Indian +no dearer than that of a wolf. + +Belmont County was the scene of two exploits of Lewis Wetzel, perhaps +the most famous of these Indian fighters. One day he went home with a +young man whom he met while hunting, and they found the cabin burnt and +the whole family murdered except a girl who had lived with them, and +whom the young man was in love with. They started on the trail of +the Indians who had done the cruel deed, and came up with them after +nightfall sleeping round their camp-fire. The girl was awake, crying +and lamenting, and Wetzel had great ado to keep her lover from firing at +once upon the Indians. But he made him wait for daylight, so that they +could be sure of their aim; and then at the first light of dawn, they +each chose his mark and fired. Each killed his Indian, but two others +escaped into the woods, while the lover rushed, knife in hand, to free +the girl. Wetzel made after the Indians, firing into the air to draw +them out of their concealment. Then he turned, loading as he ran, and +wheeled about and shot the Indian nearest him. He fled again, dodging +from tree to tree till his gun was reloaded, when he shot the last +Indian left. He took their scalps, and got home with the girl and her +lover unhurt. + +In 1782, together with one of Crawford's men, he fell in with a party +of forty Indians about two miles from St. Clairsville. Both sides +fired; Wetzel killed one of the Indians, but his friend was wounded and +promptly scalped, while four of the Indians followed Wetzel. He turned, +shot the foremost, and ran on, loading his rifle. The next was so close +upon him that when Wetzel turned again, the Indian caught the muzzle +of his gun. After a fearful struggle Wetzel got it against the Indian's +breast, pulled the trigger, and killed him. The remaining two followed +him a mile farther, and then Wetzel shot one of them as he was crossing +a piece of open ground. The last left of the Indians stopped with a +yell, and Wetzel heard him say as he turned back, "No catch that man; +gun always loaded." + +Wetzel had fought Indians nearly all his life. When he was a boy of +fourteen they attacked his father's cabin in Virginia, and Wetzel +was wounded before he was taken prisoner, with a younger brother, and +carried into the Ohio wilderness. One night the Indians forgot to tie +their captives, and the two boys escaped. Lewis returned to the camp, +after they had stolen away, for a pair of moccasins, and again for his +father's rifle, which the Indians had carried off. They followed the +boys, but the young Wetzels got safely back to the Ohio, and crossed the +river on a raft which they made of logs. + +[Illustration: Wetzel, Indian Fighter 122] + +In 1786 the settlers of Wheeling, who had been troubled by Indians, +offered a purse of a hundred dollars to the man who should first bring +in a scalp. A party crossed the Ohio, but after some days turned back, +leaving Wetzel alone in the woods, where he roamed about looking for +Indians. The second morning he came upon one sleeping, and drove his +knife through his heart. Then he went home with his scalp, and got the +reward. + +One of the tricks of the savages was to imitate the cry, or call, of the +wild turkey and then to shoot the hunter who came looking for the bird. +Wetzel was one day in the woods when this call came to his ear from the +mouth of a cave, a place where several whites had been found scalped. +He watched till the feathered tuft of an Indiana head appeared from +the cave. The call of the wild turkey sounded, and at the same time the +sharp crack of Wetzel's rifle noted the Indian's death. + +It was Wetzel's habit in the autumn to go on a long hunt into the Ohio +country. Once he went as far as the Muskingum, some ninety miles from +Wheeling, when he came on a camp of four Indians. He crept upon them +with no weapon but his knife, which he drove through the skulls of two +as they lay asleep. The two others struggled to their feet stupefied; +Wetzel killed one of them, but the fourth escaped in the shadow of the +woods. When Wetzel returned and was asked what his luck in hunting had +been, he said, "Not much; I treed four Indians, but one got away." + +These were acts of war, but they were very like mere murders, and one +of Wetzel's exploits could hardly be called anything but murder. General +Har-mar in 1779 had invited the Indians to come and make peace with him +in the fort near where Marietta now stands. Wetzel and another Indian +fighter lay in wait for the envoys who passed from the tribes to the +general, and in pure wantonness, shot one. He then took refuge with his +friends at Mingo Bottom, where the officer sent by Harmar to arrest +him, dared not even attempt it. Wetzel was the hero and darling of the +border, where the notion of punishing a man for shooting an Indian was +laughed at. But after a while he was taken, and lodged, heavily ironed, +in the fort. He sent for the general and asked him to give him up, with +a tomahawk, to a large band of armed Indians present, and let him fight +for his life with them. Of course Harmar could not do this, but Wetzel +won upon him so far that the general had his fetters removed, leaving +only the manacles on his wrists, and allowed him to walk about outside +the fort. He made a sudden dash for the woods; the guards fired upon +him, but Wetzel got safely away; and at a distant point he reached the +Ohio. He could not swim, with his hands in irons, but by good luck he +saw a friend on the Virginia shore, who came in answer to his signs and +set him over in his canoe. Later the soldiers found him in a tavern +at Marysville, and arrested him again. He was taken to the fort at +Cincinnati, where Harmar was now in command, but he was released by a +judge of the court just in time to save the fort from an attack by +the backwoodsmen, who were furious that Wetzel should be so persecuted +simply for killing an Indian. + +One of the stories told of Wetzel's skill in Indian warfare relates to +an adventure he had after his escape from hanging by the soldiers. He +was coming home at the end of a hunt in the Ohio woods when he saw an +Indian lifting up his gun to fire. Each sprang behind a tree, and each +waited patiently for the other to expose himself. At last Wetzel put his +bearskin cap on his ramrod, and pushed it a little beyond the edge of +his shelter. The Indian took it for his enemy's head and fired. Before +he could load again Wetzel was upon him, and his end had come. + +It is not easy for us at this day to understand how a man so +blood-stained as this should be by no means the worst man of the border. +Wetzel is said to have been even exemplary in his life apart from his +Indian killing, which, indeed, was accounted no wrong, but rather a +virtue by his savage white friends. In person he might well take their +rude fancy. He was tall, full-chested, and broad-shouldered; his dark +face was deeply pitted with smallpox; his hair, which he was very proud +of, fell to his knees when loose; his black eyes, when he was roused, +shone with dangerous fire. He was silent and shy with strangers, but the +life of any party of comrades. It is not certainly known how or where he +died. Some say that he went South, and ended his stormy life quietly at +Natchez; others that he went West, and remained a woodsman to the last, +hunting wild beasts and killing wild men. + +[Illustration: Bearskin Cap on a Ramrod 125] + +Lewis Wetzel had two brothers only less famous than himself in the +backwoods warfare, and more than once Indian fighting seems to have run +in families. Adam Poe and Andrew Poe were brothers whose names have +come down in the story of deadly combats with the savages. They are most +renowned for their heroic struggle with a party of seven Wyandots near +the mouth of Little Yellow Creek, in 1782. The Wyandots, led by a great +warrior named Big Foot, had fallen suddenly on a settlement just below +Fort Pitt, killed one old man in his cabin, and begun their retreat with +what booty they could gather. Eight borderers, the two Poes among them, +followed in hot haste across the river into the Ohio country, where the +next morning Andrew Poe came suddenly on Big Foot and a small warrior +talking together by their raft at the water's edge. They stood with +their guns cocked, and Poe aimed at Big Foot; but his piece missed fire. +The Indians turned at the click of the lock, and Poe, who was too close +to them for any chance of escape, leaped upon them both and threw them +to the ground together. The little warrior freed himself, and got his +tomahawk from the raft to brain Poe, whom he left in deadly clutch with +Big Foot. Twice he struck, but Poe managed each time, by twisting and +dodging, to keep his head away from the hatchet, and as the warrior +struck the third time, Poe, though badly hurt on the arm by one of +his blows, wrenched himself free from Big Foot, caught up one of the +Indians' guns, and shot the little warrior through the breast. Then +Big Foot seized him again, and they floundered together into the water, +where each tried to drown the other. Poe held Big Foot under the water +so long that he thought he must be dead, but the moment he loosed his +hold upon his scalp lock, the Wyandot renewed the fight. They presently +found themselves in water beyond their depths, and let go to swim for +their lives. The Indian reached the shore first, and got hold of one of +the guns to shoot Poe, but luckily for Poe it was the gun he had fired +in killing the little warrior. + +Adam had heard the shot, and he now came hurrying up. His gun was empty, +too, and it was a question Whether he or Big Foot should load first: he +shot the Indian as he was lifting his gun to fire. But Big Foot was +not killed, and Andrew shouted to Adam not to mind him, but to keep the +Indian from rolling himself into the water. Big Foot was too quick for +them: he got into the current, which whirled him away, and so saved his +scalp in death. About the same time another of the party who came up +took Andrew Poe for an Indian and shot him in the shoulder. Poe got +well of his wounds and lived for many years, proud of his fight with Big +Foot, who was a generous foe, and had often befriended white captives +among his tribe. + +It is told of Adam Poe that five Indians, all rather drunk, once came to +his cabin, and tried to force the door open. He sent his wife with the +children out into the cornfield behind the house, remarking, "There is a +fight and fun ahead," but when he saw the state the Indians were in, he +did not fire at them. He fell upon them with his fists, knocked them all +down, and then threw them one after another over the fence, and the fun +was ended. + +One of the hunters detailed from Wayne's command to supply the officers +with game while the army lay at Greenville in 1793 was the Indian +fighter, Josiah Hunt, who died a peaceful Methodist many years +afterwards. When he passed a winter in the woods he had to build a fire +to keep from freezing, and yet guard against letting the slightest gleam +of light be seen by a prowling foe. So he dug a hole six or seven inches +deep with his tomahawk, filled it with the soft lining of dead oak bark, +and with his flint started a fire. He left two holes at the edges to +breathe the flame; then covered the pit with earth, spread brush over +it, and seated himself on the heap, with his blanket drawn over his +head, and dozed through the night. The Indians had a great honor and +admiration for him, and when they came to make peace at Greenville, +after Fallen Timbers, they all wanted to see Captain Hunt. "Great man, +Captain Hunt," they said. "Great warrior--good hunting man-Indian no can +kill," and they told him they had tried to find out the secret of his +fire, and catch him off his guard so that they could get his scalp, +which they felt would have been the highest distinction they could have +achieved, next to getting General Wayne's scalp. He was indeed both +hunted and hunter. He never fired at a deer without first putting a +bullet in his mouth to reload for an Indian, who might be about to fire +on him. When he skinned a deer, he planted his back against a tree, and +stood his rifle by his side; from time to time he stopped and +listened for the slightest noise that hinted danger. His life had its +disappointments as well as its perils. Once he saw three Indians whom he +might easily have killed at one shot if he could have got them in range, +but they persisted in walking Indian file. If he fired and killed only +one, the other two would have killed him; so he was obliged to let them +all go. Captain Hunt was a quiet, modest man, very frank and sincere, +and seems never to have boasted of his exploits; we have no means of +knowing whether he was glad or sorry that those Indians got away in +safety. Probably he was not very glad; for though the fighters on both +sides could admire, they could never spare one another. + +The Indian fighters were commoner in the southern and eastern parts of +Ohio than in the north, but there was at least one whose chief exploit +had the north for its scene. Captain Samuel Brady, in 1780, gathered a +number of his neighbors and pursued a retreating war party of Indians +from the Ohio as far as the Cuyahoga, near Ravenna. Here he found that +the savages far outnumbered his force, and he decided that it would be +better for him to retreat in his turn, and he bade each of his men look +out for himself. He discovered that the Indians were pressing him hard +with the purpose of taking him alive and glutting many an old grudge +against him by torture. But he knew his ground, for he had often hunted +there with them in friendlier days, and he saw a chance for his life at +a point where another man would have despaired. This was where the river +narrowed to a gorge twenty feet wide, with walls of precipitous rock. As +he neared this chasm in his flight, Brady gathered himself for the +leap and cleared it. He caught at some low bushes where he alighted and +pulled himself up the steep, while the Indians stood stupefied. They had +now no hope of taking him alive, and they all fired upon him. One bullet +wounded him badly in the hip, but he managed to swim a pond which he +came to, and to hide himself behind a log near the shore. When the +Indians came up and saw the blood on its surface, they decided that he +was drowned, and gave up the chase. Some of them stood on the very log +that hid him while they talked over his probable fate, and then they +left him to make his long way home unmolested. + +Duncan McArthur, an early governor of Ohio, though not an Indian fighter +like these others, was in many fights with the Indians. In the summer of +1794 he was hunting deer in the hills near the mouth of the Scioto, when +two Indians fully armed came in sight. McArthur was waiting for the deer +behind a screen or blind near the salt lick which they frequented, and +he took aim at one of the Indians and shot him. The other did not stir +till McArthur broke from his covert and ran. He plunged heedlessly into +the top of a fallen tree, and before he could disentangle himself, he +heard the crack of the Indian's rifle, and the bullet hissed close +to his ear. He freed himself and ran, followed now by several other +Indians, but he managed to distance them all and reached the Ohio River +in safety. + +It was war to the death between the red and white borderers. Neither +spared the other, except in some rare mood of caprice or pity. A life +granted on either side meant perhaps many lives lost, and the foes vied +with one another in being the first to shed the blood which seems, as +you read their savage annals, to stain every acre of the beautiful Ohio +country. + + + + +XIV. LATER CAPTIVITIES. + +The Indians seem to have kept on carrying the whites into captivity, +to the very end of the war, which closed with the Greenville treaty +of 1795. As they had always done, they adopted some of them into their +tribes and devoted others to torture. Nothing more clearly shows how +little they realized that their power was coming to an end, and that +they could no longer live their old life, or follow their immemorial +customs. + +The first captive in Ohio, of whom there is any record, was Mary Harris; +she had been stolen from her home in New England when a child, by the +French Indians, and was found at White Woman Creek in Coshocton County, +about the year 1750. When the last captive was taken is not certainly +known, but two white boys were captured so late as 1791, and one of +these was adopted by the Delawares in Auglaize County. His name was +Brickell, and he was carried off from the neighborhood of Pittsburg when +nine years old. He wrote a narrative of his life among the Indians, and +gave an account of his parting with them which is very touching. After +the first exchange of prisoners Brickell was left because there was +no Indian among the whites to exchange for him, but later his adoptive +father went with him to Fort Defiance, and gave him up. Brickell had +hunted with the rest of the children, and shared in all their sports and +pleasures, and they now clung about him crying, when their father told +them he must go with him to the fort. They asked him if he was going to +leave them, and he could only answer that he did not know. At the +fort, his Indian father, Whingy Pooshies, bade him stand up before the +officers, and then spoke to him. + +"My son, these are men the same color as yourself, and some of your kin +may be here, or they may be a great way off. You have lived a long time +with us. I call on you to say if I have not been a father to you, if I +have not used you as a father would a son." + +"You have used me as well as a father could use a son," said Brickell. + +"I am glad you say so," Whingy Pooshies returned. "You have lived long +with me; you have hunted for me; but your treaty says you must be free. +If you choose to go with the people of your own color, I have no right +to say a word; if you choose to stay with me, your people have no right +to speak. Now reflect on it, and take your choice, and tell us as soon +as you make up your mind." + +Brickell says that he thought of the children he had left crying, and of +all the Indians whom he loved; but he remembered his own people at last, +and he answered, "I will go with my kin." + +Then Whingy Pooshies said, "I have reared you; I have taught you to +hunt; you are a good hunter; you are better to me than my own sons. I am +now getting old and I cannot hunt. I thought you would be a support to +my old age. I leaned on you as on a staff. Now it is broken; you are +going to leave me; and I have no right to say a word, but I am ruined." + +[Illustration: Brickell leaves his Indian Father 133] + +He sank into his seat, weeping, and Brickell wept too; then they parted +and never saw each other again. + +One of the later captivities was that of Israel Donolson, who has told +the story himself. The night before he was captured, he says that he +dreamed of Indians, and took it as a sign of coming trouble; but in +the morning, the 22d of April, 1791, he went prospecting for land with +another young surveyor, named Lytte, and a friend named Tittle. They +worked together along the Ohio River in Adams County till they came +to one of the ancient works of the Mound Builders. The surveyors were +joking Tittle, and telling him what a fine place that would be for him +to build his house, when they saw a party of Frenchmen in two canoes. +The Frenchmen turned out to be Indians, who landed and instantly gave +chase to the white men. Donolson tripped and fell, and three warriors +were quickly upon him. He offered no resistance; they helped him up, +and had leisure to secure him in full sight of the blockhouse on the +Kentucky shore, where they could all see men moving about, but Donolson +could not call to them for help. His captors pushed off with him +northward. The next morning it rained, and one of the Indians took +Donolson's hat; he complained to a large warrior, who gave him a blanket +cap, and helped him through the swollen streams. When they killed a +bear, and wanted to make their captive carry the meat, he flung it down; +and then his big friend carried it for him. + +One day an Indian, while they were resting, built a little fence of +sticks, and planted some grains of corn inside of it, saying, "Squaw!" +as a hint to Donolson that he should be put to work with the women. When +they got to the Shawnee camp, they dressed his hair in Indian fashion, +and put a tin jewel in his nose, and upon the whole they treated him +kindly enough. But almost every day he saw war parties setting off +for Kentucky, or coming back with scalps and horses, and he was always +watching for a chance to escape. One night he encamped with two guards +who had bound him as usual with a rope of bark. He gnawed at it all +night long, and just at daybreak he freed himself. After his first dash +he stopped to put on his moccasins, and knew that he was missed, by the +terrific yells that the Indians were giving. He ran on, and to hide his +trail kept as much as he could on fallen trees. At ten o'clock he hid +between two logs and slept till dark; then he started again, and passed +that night in a hollow tree. The day following he came to the Miami +River, and tried to drift down its current on a raft which he made of +logs tied together with bark, but he was soon forced to the shore again. +He broke his long fast on two eggs he found in a wild turkey's nest; +they proved to have each two yolks, and he made them last for two days. +In the woods he caught a horse and tried to ride it with a bark halter; +but the halter rubbed a sore on its lip, and the horse threw him, and +hurt him so badly that he lay insensible for a time; then he rose up +and pressed on, but very slowly, for his feet were full of thorns. The +twelfth day after his capture he heard the sound of an ax, and found +himself in the neighborhood of Fort Washington, or Cincinnati. + +In 1793, the year before Wayne's victory, Andrew Ellison was taken +by the Indians in a clearing near his cabin in Adams County, and was +hurried off before his family knew that anything had happened. They +roused the neighborhood, and the Indians were hotly pursued, but they +got away with their prisoner, and made swiftly off to Upper Sandusky, +where they forced him to run the gantlet. He was a heavy man, not fleet +of foot, and he was terribly beaten; but he got through alive, and at +Detroit a British officer ransomed him for a hundred dollars. By that +time prisoners must have been getting cheap: it was perhaps more and +more difficult to hold them. + +Two boys, John Johnson, thirteen years old, and Henry Johnson, eleven, +were captured in 1788 near their home at Beach Bottom in Monroe County. +They were cracking nuts in the woods, and when the Indians came upon +them the boys thought that they were two of their neighbors. They were +seized and hurried away, one Indian going before and one following the +boys, who told them their father treated them badly, and tried to make +their captors believe they were glad to be leaving home. The Indians +spent the day in a vain attempt to steal horses, and stopped to pass +the night only four miles from the place where they had taken the boys. +After supper they lay down with the prisoners between them, and when +they supposed the boys were asleep one of the Indians went and stretched +himself on the other side of the fire. Presently he began snoring, and +John rose, cocked one of the guns, and left it with Henry aimed at this +Indian's head, while he took his station with a tomahawk held over the +head of the other. Henry fired and John struck at the same time; neither +Indian was killed at once, but both were too badly hurt to prevent the +boys' escape, and the brothers found their way to the settlement by +daybreak. The neighbors who returned to their camp with them found the +body of the Indian who had been tomahawked, but the other had vanished. +Years afterwards a skeleton with a gun was discovered in the woods, +where he must have crept after he was shot. + +In the autumn of 1792 Samuel Davis and William Campbell set out from +Massie's Station, now Manchester, to trap beaver on the Big Sandy. One +night as they lay asleep beside their camp fire they were roused by a +voice saying in broken English, "Come, come; get up, get up!" and they +woke to find themselves in the clutches of a large party of Indians +returning from a raid into Virginia. The Indians bound their captives +and started, driving before them a herd of stolen horses. They crossed +the Ohio country, and pushed on toward Sandusky, for they were Shawnees. +At night they tied each prisoner with buffalo thongs and made these fast +to the waist of two Indians, who lay down one on either side of him, and +quieted him with blows if he became restive. At daylight the captives +were untied, but they were warned that they would be instantly killed +if they attempted to escape. Davis was in dread of being burned at +Sandusky, and as the Indians, encumbered with their booty, made only +ten or twelve miles a day, the terror had full time to grow upon him. At +last one morning just before dawn he woke one of the Indians beside +him and asked to be untied; he was answered with a blow of the savage's +fist. He waited a moment, and then woke the other guard, who lifted his +head, and seeing some of his people building a fire, released Davis. + +It was still too dark for any of them to get a good shot at him if he +made a dash from their midst, and Davis decided to try for life and +liberty. He knocked a large warrior before him into the fire, bounded +over him, burst through the group around him, and before they could +seize their rifles, which were all stacked together, he had vanished in +the shadows of the forest. They followed him, whooping and yelling, but +none could draw a bead on him, and not a shot was fired. One Indian +was so near that Davis fancied he felt his grasp at times, but he fell +behind, and Davis kept on. When he had distanced them all, he stopped +to tear up his waistcoat, and wrap his feet, naked and bleeding from the +sharp stones which had cut them in his wild flight, and then hurried +on toward the Ohio. Three days without food or fire, in the cold of the +early winter, passed before he reached the river, eight or ten miles +below the mouth of the Scioto. He then saw a large boat coming down the +stream, but his troubles did not end with this joyful sight. One of +the dreadful facts of the dreadful time was the frequent deception of +boatmen by Indians and renegades who pretended to be escaping prisoners, +and who lured them to their destruction by piteous appeals for help. The +boatmen now refused to land for Davis; they told him they had heard +too many stories like his, and they kept on down the stream, while he +followed wearily along the shore. At last he entreated them to row in +a little nearer, so that he could swim out to them. They consented to +this, and he plunged into the icy water, and was taken on board just as +his strength was spent. + +In 1782, John Alder, then a child of eight years, was captured in Wythe +County, Virginia, by a party of Min-goes, who at the same time wounded +and killed his brother. They already had two prisoners, Mrs. Martin, the +wife of a neighbor, and her little one four or five years old: it proved +troublesome, on their rapid march across the Ohio country to their +village on Mad River, and they tomahawked and scalped it. The next +morning little Alder was somewhat slow in rising from his breakfast +when bidden, and on the ground he saw the shadow of an arm with a lifted +tomahawk. He glanced upward and found an Indian standing over him, +who presently began to feel of Alder's thick black hair. He afterwards +confessed that he had been about to kill him, but when he met his +pleasant smile he could not strike, and then he thought that a boy with +hair of that color would make a good Indian, and so spared him. + +At the Mingo village Alder was made to run the gantlet between lines of +children armed with switches, but he was not much hurt, and he was now +taken into the tribe. He was given to a Mingo family, and the mother +washed him and dressed him in the Indian costume. They were kind to +him, but for a month he was very homesick, and used to go every day to a +large walnut tree near the town and cry for the friends and home he had +lost. After he had learned the Mingo language he began in time to be +more contented. He had no complaint to make of any of the family, except +one sister, who despised him as a prisoner, and treated him like a +slave. Another sister and her husband were his special friends, and he +relates that when he used to sit up with the Indians round their camp +fire, listening to their stories, he would sometimes drowse; then this +gentle sister and her husband would take him up in their arms and carry +him to bed, and he would hear them saying, "Poor fellow! We have sat up +too long for him, and he has fallen asleep on the cold ground." + +About a year after he was adopted, Alder met that poor mother, whose +little one the Indians had cruelly murdered before her eyes. "When she +saw me, she came smiling, and asked if it was me. I told her it was. She +asked me how I had been. I told her I had been very unwell, for I had +had fever and ague for a long time. So she took me off to a log, and +there we sat down; and she combed my head, and asked a great many +questions about how I lived, and if I didn't want to see my mother and +little brothers. I told her I should be glad to see them, but never +expected to see them again. We took many a cry together, and when we +parted, took our last and final farewell, for I never saw her again." + +Alder always remained delicate, and could not thrive on the Indians' +fare of meat and hominy, with no bread or salt; of sugar and honey there +was plenty; but he missed the things he was used to at home. When he +grew older he was given a gun, and sent hunting, and whenever he came +back with game the Indians praised his skill and promised him he should +be a great hunter some day. He continued with them until the peace of +1795, which followed Wayne's victory, and even then he stayed for a time +in the region where he had dwelt so long. He had married a squaw, +and had become a complete Indian, so that the first settlers in his +neighborhood had to teach him to speak English. But he did not live +happily with his Indian wife; they agreed to part, and then Alder +thought of going back to his own people. He reached the house of one of +his brothers in the neighborhood of his old home, one Sunday afternoon, +and found several of his brothers and sisters there, and his mother with +them. They could scarcely be persuaded that it was their son and brother +come back to them, and he had to tell them of some things that no one +else could know before they would believe him. His old, white-haired +mother whom he remembered in her youth with a "head as black as a crow," +was the first to take him in her arms, and she said, as she wept over +him, "How you have grown! I dreamed that you had come to see me, but +you was a little _ornary_-looking fellow, and I would not own you for my +son; but now I find I was mistaken, that it is entirely the reverse, and +I am proud to own you for my son." + +[Illustration: Alder returns to his Family 141] + +In 1792, Moses Hewit was taken near Neil's Station, on the Little +Kanawha, by three Indians, who at once pushed off with him towards +Sandusky. They used him very kindly, and shared fully with him the wild +honey which they found in the bee trees, and invited him to take part in +their foot races and other sports. He found that he could outrun two of +them, and he resolved to try for his liberty, though he kept a cheerful +outside with them, and seemed contented with his lot. One day they left +him tied hand and foot and fastened to two small trees while they went +on a hunt, but he contrived to free himself, and made his escape with +their whole stock of provisions, two small pieces of venison. He struck +out for the settlements on the Muskingum, and the first night his +captors passed so near him in pursuit that he might have touched them +in the darkness. Nine days later he came in sight of a station on the +Muskingum, so spent with hunger and fatigue that he could not halloo to +the garrison. He had nothing on his wasted and bleeding body, which was +all torn by briers and brushwood, except a cloth about his loins, and +he was afraid of being mistaken and shot for an Indian. He waited till +nightfall and then crept to the station, where his presence was unknown +till a young man of his acquaintance caught sight of his face in the +firelight, and called out, "Here is 'Hewit!" + +Captain Charles Builderback and his wife were surprised by a party of +Indians while they were looking for cattle in the Ohio country, near +Wheeling, in 1789. Mrs. Builderback hid herself, but the Indians had +captured her husband, and now they forced him to call out to her. She +hesitated to answer, thinking of the children they had left at home in +the cabin which she could see across the river, and knowing how useless +it would be to give herself up. But he called again, saying that if she +surrendered, it might save his life. Then she showed herself, and +was seized and hurried away by one band of savages, while her husband +remained with the others. A few days later these came up and showed her +his scalp: he was one of the assassins of the Gnadenhiitten Indians, +and he was doomed as soon as they knew his name. She was taken to their +towns on the Great Miami, where she lived nine months, drudging with the +squaws and suffering from the rude and filthy life of the savages, but +not ill-treated. Then the commandant at Cincinnati ransomed her and sent +her home to her two orphan children. + +So lately as 1812 two little girls were stolen from their fathers' +houses in Preble County by the Indians. They could not be traced, but +twenty-five years later, one of them, named Parker, was found living +with her savage husband in Indiana. She refused then to go home with her +father, saying coldly that she should be ridiculed there for her Indian +customs. + + + + +XV. INDIAN HEROES AND SAGES. + +The Ohio Indians were of almost as mixed origin as the white people +of Ohio, and if they had qualities beyond those of any other group of +American savages, it was from much the same causes which have given the +Ohioans of our day distinction as citizens. They made the Ohio country +their home by a series of chances, and they defended it against the +French, the English, and Americans in turn, because it had bounds which +seemed to form the natural frontier between them and the Europeans. + +It is now believed that before the coming of our race there was a +balance of power between those two great North American nations, the +Iroquois and the Algonquins, and that our wars and intrigues destroyed +this balance, which was never restored, and put an end to all hope of +advance in the native race. Whether this is true or not, it is certain +that the hostilities between the tribes raged down to our day, and +that these seem to have continued if not begun through one family, the +Algonquins, siding with the French, and the other family, the Iroquois, +siding with the English. The Algonquins were most powerful in New +England and Canada, and the Iroquois in New York. Their struggle ended +in the overthrow of the Algonquins in the regions bordering on the +English colonies, where, as has been told, a great branch of that +people who called themselves the Lenni-lenape, and whom we called the +Delawares, dwelt in a sort of vassalage to the Iroquois. + +In Ohio, however, these families, so long broken elsewhere by their +feuds, united in a common fear and hate of the white men. Many of the +Ohio Indians were Delawares, but the Miamis were Iroquois, while the +Wyandots again were Hurons, one of the finest and ablest of the Iroquois +nation. They ceased to make war upon each other, and in their union the +strongest traits of both were blended. Their character appears at its' +best, I think, in Tecaughretanego, the adoptive brother of James Smith, +and in the great Mingo chief, Logan. + +Of Tecaughretanego, his unselfishness, his piety, his common sense, his +wisdom, we already know something from Smith's narrative, which I wish +every boy and girl might read; and of Logan's noble spirit we have had +a glimpse in the story of Kenton's captivity. He was the son of +Shikellimy, a Cayuga chief who lived at Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and who +named him after James Logan, the Secretary of the Province. Shikellimy +was a convert of the Moravian preachers, and it is thought that Logan +himself was baptized in the Christian faith. He spent the greater +portion of his early life in Pennsylvania, and he took no part in the +war between the French and English, except to do what he could for +peace. When he came to Ohio, he dwelt for a time at Mingo Bottom in +Jefferson County, the rendezvous of the assassins who marched against +Gnadenhiitten under Williamson, and of the assassins who were beaten +back from Sandusky under Crawford. Here, as before, Logan was the friend +of the white man, and it was not till the murder of his father, brother, +and sister, cried to him for vengeance, that he made war upon them. + +His kindred were of a small party of Indians whom some Virginians lured +across the Ohio near the mouth of Yellow Creek in 1774. On the Virginia +side the murderers made three of the Indians drunk and tomahawked them, +and when they had tricked the others into discharging their guns at +a mark, and so had them defenseless, they ruthlessly shot them down. +Logan's sister, who was the only woman in the party, tried to escape, +but a bullet cut short her flight, and she died praying her murderers to +have mercy on the babe she held in her arms. They spared it, and he +who tells the cruel tale saw it the next day in his own mother's arms +smiling up into her face, while she fed and fondled it. + +The news came to Logan while he was speaking at a council of the +Indians, and urging them to make peace with the whites. He instantly +changed his plea; he lifted up his hatchet, and yowed never to lay it +down till he had avenged himself tenfold. He kept his word, and that +summer thirty scalps and prisoners bore witness to his fury. + +But it was a short-lived impulse of a nature essentially so good that it +could not long keep the memory of even such an injury. In this very war, +or this out-Durst of the long Indian war, Logan showed himself as before +the friend of the white men. He had pity on many of the captives he +made, and when he could he tried to move other captors to pity. Major +William Robinson, who was one of Logan's prisoners, tells how he was +surprised, together with two friends, by a party of Indians who fired on +them. Robinson ran with a savage in hot chase behind him, who called +to him in English, "Stop; I won't hurt you." "Yes, you will," Robinson +retorted. "No, I won't," the Indian insisted; "but if you don't stop, +I'll shoot you." Robinson fell over a log, and the Indian seized him. +It was Logan, who told him not to be frightened for he should be adopted +into his own tribe when they reached his village. There he was made to +run the gantlet, but Logan instructed him how to manage so that he +got through without harm. Robinson was then tied to the stake and the +Indians prepared to burn him. It was the summer after the murder of +Logan's kindred, and they had already whipped one Virginian to death +merely because his brother was present at the massacre. They could not +forgive, but Logan rose before the council and pleaded with all his +eloquence for Robinson's life. Three times the captive was untied +from the stake, and three times tied to it again before Logan's words +prevailed. At last the great chief was allowed to lay the belt of wampum +on the prisoner for a sign that he was adopted. Then he gave him in +charge to a young Indian, saying, "This is your cousin; you are to go +home with him, and he will take care of you." + +But still the sense of his wrong, and the hunger for revenge, gnawed at +Logan's heart, and one day he came to Robinson with a piece of paper +and bade him write a letter for him. He said he meant to leave it in +the cabin of a white man which he was going, to attack, and it was +afterwards found there tied to a war club. He made Robinson write +it several times before he thought the words strong enough. It was +addressed to the man whom Logan thought guilty of the death of his +kindred, but who was afterwards known to have been not even present at +their murder. + + "Captain Cresap: What did you kill my people on + Yellow Creek for? The white people killed my kin at + Conestoga, a great while ago, and I thought nothing + of that. But you killed my kin again on Yellow Creek, + and took my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must + kill, too. I have been three times to war since then; + but the Indians are not angry; only myself. + + "July 21, 1774. + + "Captain John Logan." + +Both the matter and the language of this letter are so like those of +Logan's famous speech, that it is clear he must often have thought his +wrongs over in the same terms, brooding upon them with an aching +heart, but not with hate so much as grief. The speech was made at the +Chillicothe town where Lord Dunmore treated with the Ohio tribes for +peace in the August after Logan had written his letter, but it was not +spoken in the council. Logan held aloof from the council, and Dunmore +sent to his cabin for him. It is said by some that his messenger was +the great renegade Simon Girty, who had not yet turned against his own +people, and was then, with his friend Simon Kenton, a scout in Dunmore's +service. Others say that the messenger was a young man named Gibson, but +whoever he was, Logan met him at the door, and coming out into the woods +sat down under a tree which was long known as Logan's Elm. Here, with a +burst of tears, he told the story of his wrongs in language which cannot +be forgotten as long as men have hearts to thrill for others' sorrows. + +[Illustration: Logan's Elm 149] + +"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin and +I gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and I gave him +not clothing. During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan +remained in his tent an advocate of peace. Nay, such was my love for the +whites that those of my own country pointed at me as they passed, and +said, 'Logan is the friend of the white man.' I had even thought to +live with you but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the +last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut off all the relatives of +Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop +of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for +revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my +vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. Yet do not +harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. +He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for +Logan? Not one." + +This speech, or rather this message, which Logan sent to Lord Dunmore, +has come down to us in two forms, one which Dunmore's officers wrote out +from the report of the message, and one which Thomas Jefferson framed +upon it. They do not differ greatly, and I have given Jefferson's +version here, because it best expresses the noble mind of a noble man, +a savage, indeed, but far less savage than many of the white men of that +day or any day. A pioneer of Western Pennsylvania, William Brown, who +afterwards became a judge of the Mifflin County courts, calls him "the +best specimen of humanity he ever met with, _white_ or _red_," He first +saw him in the woods, while stooping to drink at a spring. The figure of +a tall Indian showed itself to him in the water, and he sprang for +his rifle, but the Indian knocked the priming out of his own gun, and +offered his hand. It was Logan, and he guided Brown to the hunting camp +of another white man, with whom he afterwards visited Logan's camp. +There they all shot at a mark for a dollar each round, and Logan lost. +A deerskin was worth a dollar, and Logan offered five skins for his five +failures. Brown's friend refused them, saying they were his guests +and had shot with him merely for a trial of skill. Logan answered with +dignity, "Me try to make you shoot your best; me gentlemen, and me take +your dollar if me beat," and he would not allow the victor even to give +him a horn of powder in return. + +A lovely story was told by the daughter of Judge Brown concerning Logan, +who was one day at her father's camp when her mother happened to regret +that she had no shoes for her little one then just beginning to walk. +Logan said nothing, but shortly after he came and asked the mother to +let the child spend the day with him at his camp. The mother trembled, +but she knew the delicacy of Logan, and she would not wound him by +showing fear of him. He took the child away, and the long hours passed +till nightfall. Then she saw the great chief coming with his tiny +guest through the woods, and the next moment the child bounded into the +mother's arms, proud and glad to show her feet in the moccasins which +Logan had made for her. + +In his old age Logan wandered from place to place, broken by the +misfortunes of his people, and homeless in his own land. He fell a prey +to drink, the enemy of all his race, and he was at last murdered near +Detroit, where, as the story goes, he was sitting by his camp fire, with +his blanket over his head, and lost in gloomy thought, when an Indian +whom he had offended stole upon him and sank his tomahawk in Logan's +skull. + +Of all the Indians he seems to me the grandest because he was the +kindest. Tecaughretanego was wise and good. He had a thoughtful mind and +a serene spirit; he could be just and loving to the white man whom he +had taken for his brother, but he had not so noble an ideal of conduct +as Logan. This chief grasped the notion of friendship with all the +whites; he was more than a tribesman; he imagined what it was to be +a citizen. Among the Ohio men of the past there is no nature more +beautiful, no memory worthier than his. He was a savage, and his thirst +for vengeance, or rather the smoldering thought of his wrongs, lowered +him for a time to the level of the white and red men about him. Yet he +was framed for gentleness, and he surpassed another great Ohio Indian +as much in breadth of character, as he surpassed Tecaughretanego in an +ideal of conduct. + +Tecumseh, the famous war chief of the Shawnees, was born at the +ancient town of Piqua on Mad River, not far from the present city of +Springfield, in Clark County. His name means Shooting Star, and he was +indeed the meteoric light of his people while he lived. He was of a high +Indian, family of the Turtle Tribe, and his father had come with his +clan to Ohio from their home in Florida, about the middle of the last +century. Tecumseh was born, as nearly as can be reckoned, in the year +1768, and from his earliest childhood he showed the passion for war +which ruled him through life. He led his playmates in their mimic +fights, and at seventeen he went on his first war party against the +Kentuckians. The Indians attacked some boats on the Ohio River, and +killed all the boatmen but one, whom they brought back and burned at the +stake. Tecumseh was present, and though he said nothing, the sight of +the torture filled him with such horror, that he used his power with the +Indians to put a stop forever to the burning of prisoners. He was such +a hater of our race that, as he once confessed, the mere presence of a +white man made the flesh of his face creep; but he hated cruelty more, +and in the bloody events which he spent all his power in bringing about, +he could always be trusted to keep the captives from torture, and to +save the lives of women and children. + +In spite of his hatred of white men, it is said that he was once in +love with a white woman, the daughter of a settler in Greene County. +He offered her fifty silver brooches if she would marry him; but she +refused, saying that she did not wish to be a wild woman and drudge like +a squaw; and she would not be tempted even when he promised her that she +should not work, but should be a great squaw. + +[Illustration: Tecumseh 154] + +He was not always terrible, even with white men, and it is told of him +that once meeting in a settler's cabin a stranger who showed alarm at +sight of him, Tecumseh went up and amiably shook him, saying, "Big +baby, Big baby." But he could be fierce and arrogant when he chose, and +he delighted to make the Americans bend to him. At one of their parleys, +General Harrison asked him to sit on his veranda with him. Tecumseh +haughtily refused, and forced the general to come out and meet him under +the trees, on the breast of the earth, who was, he said, the Indian's +mother. + +He was in every fight with the Americans before Wayne's victory, but he +was not made a chief until the year following that battle. Then, though +he seemed resigned to the fate of his people, he became the leader in +their discontent, and in the parts of Ohio and Indiana where he lived he +kept it alive. In this he had the help of his brother Elkskuatawa, +the Prophet, who pretended to have dreams and revelations favorable to +Tecumseh's designs. In 1806, while they were at Greenville, the Prophet +somehow learned that there was to be an eclipse of the sun; he foretold +the coming miracle, and excited the savages through their superstitions +so dangerously that Governor Harrison urged them to banish the Prophet. +They made evasive answers, and kept the Prophet with them, while +Tecumseh amused the governor with meetings and parleys, and went and +came upon his errands among the Southern tribes stirring them up to join +the Northern nations in a revolt against the Americans. He used all his +eloquence and reason in trying to form this union of the red men, and +when these would not avail, he did not scruple to employ the arts of +his brother. In exhorting one of the Southern tribes he rebuked their +coldness, and told them that when he reached Detroit, he would stamp +his foot, and they should feel the earth tremble as a sign of his divine +authority for his work. About the time it would have taken him to reach +Detroit, the great earthquake of 1810 shook the Seminoles with terror of +the man whose arguments they had rejected. + +In fact, Tecumseh and the Prophet constantly played into each other's +hands, but in one of Tecumseh's absences the Prophet made the mistake of +attacking General Harrison at Tippecanoe, and the savages were severely +beaten. The Prophet had also made the mistake of promising them a +victory, and after the defeat he lost his power over them. + +This was in 1811, but the next year the war between the United States +and Great Britain broke out, and then Tecumseh seized his chance for +renewing the war against the Americans. He served so faithfully against +them that the king made him brigadier general, and Tecumseh tried to +fight according to the laws of civilized warfare. At the attack on +Fort Meigs in Wood County, he stopped, at the risk of his own life, the +massacre of the American prisoners, and he bade the British commandant, +who declared that the Indians could not be controlled, go and put on +petticoats. An American who saw him at this time says, "This +celebrated chief was a noble, dignified personage. His face was finely +proportioned, his nose inclined to be aquiline, and his eye displayed +none of that savage and ferocious triumph common to the other Indians on +that occasion." + +Tecumseh with his Indians witnessed the battle of Lake Erie at +Put-in-Bay, where Perry defeated the English fleet, and he was not +deceived by the pretense of General Proctor that the Americans were +beaten and the English ships were merely putting in there for repairs. +Proctor was then preparing to retreat into Canada from Detroit, and +Tecumseh demanded to be heard in the name of the Indians. He had some +very bitter words to say: "The war before this our British father gave +the hatchet to his red children.... In that war our father was thrown +upon his back by the Americans, and our father took them by the hand +without our knowledge, and we are afraid our father will do so again at +this time.... Our ships have gone away, and we are much astonished to +see our father tying up everything and preparing to run away.... We +are sorry to see our father doing so without seeing the enemy. We must +compare our father's conduct to a fat dog that carries his tail on his +back, and when affrighted drops it between his legs and runs off. + +"Father, you have got the arms and ammunition which our great father +sent for his children. If you have an idea of going away, give them to +us, and you may go and welcome. Our lives are in the hands of the Great +Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it be his will, we +wish to leave our bones upon them." + +But the British retreated, and the Indians had to follow them into +Canada. There in the battle of the Thames the Americans defeated them +and their savage allies with great slaughter, and Tecumseh, whose +war-cry had been heard above the tumult of the onset, was among the +slain. He is supposed to have been killed by a pistol shot fired by +Colonel Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, and it is said that the body +of this generous enemy did not escape barbarous usage at the hands +of Johnson's men, who literally flayed it and bore portions of their +ghastly trophy home with them in triumph. + +Tecumseh played at a later day the part which Pontiac attempted at the +end of the old French War. He tried to unite the Indians in a general +uprising against the Americans as Pontiac had united them against +the English. He used the same arts, and he showed himself shrewd and +skillful in paltering with our leaders till he was ready to strike +his blow against them, for he managed to remain in the Ohio country +unmolested while he was getting ready to drive the Americans out of it. +When the war with Great Britain began, he might very well have believed +that his hopes were about to be fulfilled; but he seems, though a brave +warrior, never to have shown such generalship as that of Little Turtle +at St. Clair's defeat. He was a great orator, of such a fiery eloquence +that the interpreters often declared it impossible for them to give the +full sense of his words; but none of his many recorded speeches have +the pathos of Logan's. He was, on the savage lines, a statesman and a +patriot, but unlike the wiser and gentler Logan he never could rise to +the wisdom of living in peace with the whites. He was always an Indian; +even at his best he was a savage, just as the backwoodsman was a savage +at his worst. Yet his memory remains honored in tradition beyond that of +any other Ohio Indian, and his name was given to one of the most heroic +Ohio Americans, William Tecumseh Sherman. Such as he was, and such as +Logan was, it must be owned that they seem now of a far nobler mold than +any white men in early Ohio history. + +The Prophet outlived his brother many years, and died dishonored, and +stripped of all the great power he had once wielded. At one time he +wrought so strongly upon the Indians through their superstition of +witchcraft, that they put many to death at his accusal. One of the +victims was the Wyandot chief Leatherlips, whom six Wyandot warriors +came from Tippecanoe to try where he lived near the site of Columbus. +They found him guilty and sentenced him to death, of course upon no +evidence. A white man who wished to save him asked what he had done, and +was answered, "Very bad Indian; make good Indian sick; make horse sick; +make die; very bad chief." When he heard his sentence, Leatherlips ate a +hearty dinner, dressed himself in his finest clothes, painted his face, +and at the hour fixed for his death walked from his lodge to his grave, +chanting his death song while he went. Then as he knelt in prayer beside +the shallow pit, one of the six Wyandots tomahawked him. + +The persecutions for witchcraft under the Prophet continued until at +last a young warrior, whose sister was accused in the council, had the +courage to rise and lead her out of the house. He came back and said to +the council, pointing at the Prophet, "The Devil has come amongst us, +and we are killing each other." This bold good sense brought the Indians +to a pause in a frenzy which has raged among every people in times past. + +[Illustration: Tomahawk 159] + + + + +XVI. LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS. + +Amidst all this tomahawking and scalping, this shooting and stabbing, +this shedding of blood and of tears, this heartbreak of captivity, +this torture, this peril by day and by night, the flower of home was +springing up wherever the ax let the sun into the woods. It would be a +great pity if the stories of cruelty and suffering which seem, while we +read them, to form the whole history of the Ohio country, should be left +without the relief of facts quite as true as these sad tales. Life was +hard in those days, but it was sweet too, and it was often gay and glad. +In times of constant danger, and even while the merciless savages were +beleaguering the lonely clusters of cabins, there was frolicking among +the young people in the forts, and the old people looked on at their +joys in sympathy as well as wonder. The savages themselves had their +harmless pleasures, and their wild life was so free that those who once +knew it did not willingly forsake it. They were not bad-hearted so much +as wrong-headed, and they were mostly what they were, because they knew +no better. More than once we read how the lurking hunter heard them +joking and laughing when off their guard in the wood; and in their +towns, on the Miamis or the Muskingum or the Sandusky, they had their +own games, and feasts, and merrymakings. Much that was beautiful and +kindly and noble was possible to them, but they belonged to the past, +and the white men belonged to the future; and the war between the two +races had to be. Our race had outgrown the order which theirs clung to +helplessly as well as willfully, and it was fated that we must found our +homes upon their graves. + +These homes were at first of the rude and simple sort, which a thousand +narratives and legends have made familiar, and which every Ohio boy and +girl has heard of. It would not be easy to say where or when the first +log cabin was built, but it is safe to say that it was somewhere in the +English colonies of North America, and it is certain that it became the +type of the settler's house throughout the whole middle west. It may be +called the American house, the Western house, the Ohio house. Hardly any +other house was built for a hundred years by the men who were clearing +the land for the stately mansions of our day. As long as the primeval +forests stood, the log cabin remained the woodsman's home; and not fifty +years ago, I saw log cabins newly built in one of the richest and most +prosperous regions of Ohio. They were, to be sure, log cabins of a finer +pattern than the first settler reared. They were of logs handsomely +shaped with the broadax; the joints between the logs were plastered with +mortar; the chimney at the end was of stone; the roof was shingled, the +windows were of glass, and the door was solid and well hung. They were +such cabins as the Christian Indians dwelt in at Gnadenhutten, and such +as were the homes of the well-to-do settlers in all the older parts of +the West. But throughout that region there were many log cabins, +mostly sunk to the uses of stables and corn cribs, of the kind that the +borderers built in the times of the Indian War, from 1750 to 1800. +They were framed of the round logs, untouched by the ax except for the +notches at the ends where they were fitted into one another; the chimney +was of small sticks stuck together with mud, and was as frail as a barn +swallow's nest; the walls were stuffed with moss, plastered with clay; +the floor was of rough boards called puncheons, riven from the block +with a heavy knife; the roof was of clapboards split from logs and laid +loosely on the rafters, and held in place with logs fastened athwart +them. + +[Illustration: Ohio Cabin 162] + +There is a delightful account of such a log cabin by John S. Williams, +whose father settled in the woods of Belmont County in 1800. "Our +cabin," he says, "had been raised, covered, part of the cracks chinked, +and part of the floor laid, when we moved in on Christmas day. There +had not been a stick cut except in building the cabin, which was so high +from the ground that a bear, wolf, panther, or any animal less in +size than a cow could enter without even a squeeze.... The green ash +puncheons had shrunk so as to leave cracks in the floor and doors from +one to two inches wide. At both the doors we had high, unsteady, and +sometimes icy steps, made by piling the logs cut out of the walls, for +the doors and the window, if it could be called a window, when perhaps +it was the largest spot in the top, bottom, or sides of the cabin where +the wind could not enter. It was made by sawing out a log, and placing +sticks across, and then by pasting an old newspaper over the hole, +and applying hog's lard, we had a kind of glazing which shed a most +beautiful and mellow light across the cabin when the sun shone on it. +All other light entered at the doors, cracks, and chimneys. Our cabin +was twenty-four by eighteen. The west end was occupied by two beds, the +center of each side by a door.... On the opposite side of the window, +made of clapboards, supported on pins driven into the walls, were our +shelves. On these shelves my sister displayed in simple order, a host of +pewter plates, and dishes and spoons, scoured and bright.... Our chimney +occupied most of the east end; with pots and kettles opposite the +window, under the shelves, a gun on hooks over the north door, four +split-bottomed chairs, three three-legged stools, and a small eight +by ten looking glass sloped from the wall over a large towel and comb +case.... We got a roof laid over head as soon as possible, but it was +laid of loose clapboards split from a red-oak, and a cat might have +shaken every board in our ceiling.... We made two kinds of furniture. +One kind was of hickory bark, with the outside shaved off. This we would +take off all around the tree, the size of which would determine the +caliber of our box. Into one end we would place a flat piece of bark or +puncheon, cut round to fit in the bark, which stood on end the same +as when on the tree.... A much finer article was made of slippery-elm +bark, shaved smooth, with the inside out, bent round and sewed together, +where the end of the hoop or main bark lapped over.... This was the +finest furniture in a lady's dressing room," and such a cabin and its +appointments were splendor and luxury beside those of the very earliest +pioneers, and many of the latest. The Williamses were Quakers, and the +mother was recently from England; they were of far gentler breeding and +finer tastes than most of their neighbors, who had been backwoodsmen for +generations. + +When the first settlers broke the silence of the woods with the stroke +of their axes, and hewed out a space for their cabins and their fields, +they inclosed their homes with a high stockade of logs, for defense +against the Indians; or if they built their cabins outside the wooden +walls of their stronghold, they always expected to flee to it at the +first alarm, and to stand siege within it. The Indians had no cannon, +and the logs of the stockade were proof against their rifles; if a +breach was made, there was still the blockhouse left, the citadel of +every little fort. This was heavily built, and pierced with loopholes +for the riflemen within, whose wives ran bullets for them at its mighty +hearth, and who kept the savage foe from its sides by firing down upon +them through the projecting timbers of its upper story; but in many a +fearful siege the Indians set the roof ablaze with arrows wrapped in +burning tow, and then the fight became desperate indeed. After the +Indian War ended, the stockade was no longer needed, and the settlers +had only the wild beasts to contend with, and those constant enemies of +the poor in all ages and conditions,--hunger and cold. + +Winter after winter, the Williamses heard the wolves howling round them +in the woods, and this music was familiar to the ears of all the Ohio +pioneers, who trusted their rifles for both the safety and support of +their families. They deadened the trees around them by girdling them +with the ax, and planted the spaces between the leafless trunks with +corn and beans and pumpkins. These were their necessaries, but they had +an occasional luxury in the wild honey from the hollow of a bee tree +when the bears had not got at it. In its season, there was an abundance +of wild fruit, plums and cherries, haws and grapes, berries, and nuts of +every kind, and the maples yielded all the sugar they chose to make from +them. But it was long before they had, at any time, the profusion which +our modern arts enable us to enjoy the whole year round, and in the hard +beginnings the orchard and the garden were forgotten for the fields. +Their harvests must pay for the acres bought of the government, or from +some speculator who had never seen the land; and the settler must be +prompt in paying, or else see his home pass from him after all his toil +into the hands of strangers. He worked hard and he fared hard, and if +he was safer when peace came, it is doubtful if he were otherwise more +fortunate. As the game grew scarcer, it was no longer so easy to provide +food for his family, the change from venison and wild turkey to the +pork, which early began to prevail in his diet, was hardly a wholesome +one. Besides, in cutting down the trees, he opened spaces to the sun +which had been harmless enough in the shadow of the woods, but which now +sent up their ague-breeding miasms. Ague was the scourge of the whole +region, and it was hard to know whether the pestilence was worse on the +rich levels beside the rivers, or on the stony hills where the settlers +sometimes built to escape it. Fevers of several kinds prevailed, and +consumption was common in the climates that ague spared. There was +little knowledge of the rules of health, and little medical skill for +those who lost it; most of the remedies for disease and accident were +such only as home nursing and home treatment could supply. + +When once the settler was housed against the weather, he had the +conditions of a certain rude comfort indoors. If his cabin was not proof +against the wind and rain or snow, its vast fireplace formed the means +of heating, while the forest was an inexhaustible store of fuel. At +first he dressed in the skins and pelts of the deer and fox and wolf, +and his costume could have varied little from that of the red savage +about him, for we often read how' he mistook Indians for white men at +first sight, and how the Indians in their turn mistook white men for +their own people. The whole family went barefoot in the summer, but in +winter the pioneer wore moccasins of buckskin, and buckskin leggins or +trousers; his coat was a hunting shirt belted at the waist and fringed +where it fell to his knees. It was of homespun, a mixture of wool and +flax called linsey-woolsey, and out of this the dresses of his wife and +daughters were made; the wool was shorn from the sheep, which were +so scarce that they were never killed for their flesh, except by the +wolves, which were very fond of mutton, but had no use for wool. For a +wedding dress a cotton check was thought superb, and it really cost a +dollar a yard; silks, satins, laces, were unknown. A man never left his +house without his rifle; the gun was a part of his dress, and in his +belt he carried a hunting knife and a hatchet; on his head he wore a cap +of squirrel skin, often with the plumelike tail dangling from it. + +The furniture of the cabins was, like the clothing of the pioneers, +homemade. A bedstead was contrived by stretching poles from forked +sticks driven into the ground, and laying clapboards across them; the +bedclothes were bearskins. Stools, benches, and tables were roughed out +with auger and broadax; the puncheon floor was left bare, and if the +earth formed the floor, no rug ever replaced the grass which was its +first carpet. The cabin had but one room where the whole of life went +on by day; the father and mother slept there at night, and the children +mounted to their chamber in the loft by means of a ladder. + +The food was what has been already named. The meat was venison, bear, +raccoon, wild turkey, wild duck, and pheasant; the drink was water, or +rye coffee, or whisky which the little stills everywhere supplied only +too abundantly. Wheat bread was long unknown, and corn cakes of various +makings and bakings supplied its place. The most delicious morsel of all +was corn grated while still in the milk and fashioned into round cakes +eaten hot from the clapboard before the fire, or from the mysterious +depths of the Dutch oven, buried in coals and ashes on the hearth. +There was soon a great flow of milk from the kine that multiplied in the +pastures in the woods, and there was sweetening enough from the maple +tree and the bee tree, but salt was very scarce and very dear, and long +journeys were made through the perilous woods to and from the licks, or +salt springs, which the deer had discovered before the white man or the +red man knew them. + +The bees which hived their honey in the hollow trees were tame bees +gone wild, and with the coming of the settlers, some of the wild things +increased so much that they became a pest. Such were the crows which +literally blackened the fields after the settlers plowed, and which the +whole family had to fight from the corn when it was planted. Such were +the rabbits, and such, above all, were the squirrels which overran the +farms, and devoured every green thing till the people combined in great +squirrel hunts and destroyed them by tens of thousands. The larger game +had meanwhile disappeared. The buffalo and the elk went first; the deer +followed, and the bear, and even the useless wolf. But long after these +the poisonous reptiles lingered, the rattlesnake, the moccasin, and +the yet deadlier copperhead; and it was only when the whole country was +cleared that they ceased to be a very common danger. + +For a long time there were no mills to grind the corn, and it was +pounded into meal for bread with a heavy wooden pestle in a mortar made +by hollowing out some tough-grained log. The first mills were horse +power; then small water-power mills were put up on the streams, and in +the larger rivers boats were anchored, with mill wheels which the rapid +current turned. But the stills were plentier than the mills, and as much +corn was made into whisky as into bread. Men drank hard to soften their +hard life, to lighten its heaviness, to drown its cares, to heighten +its few pleasures. Drink was free and common not only at every shooting +match, where men met alone, but at every log rolling or cabin raising, +where the women met with them, to cook for them, and then to dance away +the night that followed the toilsome day. + +There were no rich people then, but all were poor together, and there +were no classes. They were so helpless without one another that people +were kindlier and friendlier as well as freer then than now, and they +made the most of the corn huskings and quilting bees that brought old +and young together in harmless frolics. The greatest frolic of all was +a wedding; the guests gathered from twenty miles around, and the frolic +did not end with the dancing at night. Next day came the _infair_ at the +house of the bridegroom, and all set off together. When they were within +a mile or two, they raced for the bottle which was always waiting for +them at the house, and the guest whose horse was fleetest brought it +back, and made all drink from it, beginning with the bride and groom. + +Religion soon tempered the ruder pleasures of the backwoods, but the +dancing ceased before the drinking. Camp meetings were frolics of a +soberer sort, where whole neighborhoods gathered and dwelt in tents for +days in the beautiful autumn weather, and spent the nights in prayer and +song. Little log churches were built at the crossroads, and these served +the purpose of schoolhouses on week days. But there was more religion +than learning in the backwoods, and the preacher came before the +teacher. + +He was often a very rude, unlearned man himself, and the teacher was +sometimes a rude man, harsh and severe, when he was learned. Often he +was a Scotch-Irishman, whose race gave schoolmasters to the West before +New England began to send her lettered legions to the frontier. + +Such a teacher was Francis Glass, who was born in Dublin in 1790, and +came to Ohio in 1817, to teach the children of the backwoods. One of +these afterwards remembered a log-cabin schoolhouse where Glass taught, +in the twilight let through the windows of oiled paper. The seats were +of hewn blocks, so heavy that the boys could not upset them; in the +midst was a great stove; and against the wall stood the teacher's desk, +of un-planed plank. But as Glass used to say to his pupils, "The temple +of the Delphian god was originally a laurel hut, and the muses deign to +dwell accordingly in very rustic abodes." His labors in the school were +not suffered to keep him from higher aims: he wrote a life of Washington +in Latin, which was used for a time as a text-book in the Ohio schools. + +In the early days all books were costly, and they were even fewer than +they were costly; but those who longed for them got them somehow, and +many a boy who studied them by the cabin fire became afterwards a great +statesman, a great lawyer, or a great preacher. In fact, almost every +distinguished Ohioan of the past generations seems to have begun life in +a log cabin, and to have found his way out of the dark of ignorance by +the light of its great hearth fire. Their stories are such as kindle the +fancy and touch the heart; but now they are tales that are told. + +Among the stories of life in the backwoods, none are more affecting than +those of lost children. In the forests which hemmed in the homes and +fields of the settlers, the little ones often strayed away, or in their +bewilderment failed to find a path back to the cabin they had left among +the stumps of the clearing, or the leafless trunks of the deadening. +In 1804, two children, Lydia and Matilda Osborn, eleven and seven years +old, went to fetch the cows from their pasture a mile from their home in +Williamsburg, Clermont County. Lydia, the elder of the sisters, left +the younger in a certain spot while she tried to head off the wandering +cows. It is supposed that she failed, and came back to get Matilda. Then +it is supposed that, after searching for her, Lydia gave up in despair +and started homeward, but found that she no longer knew the way. In +the meantime the cows had left their pasture, and the younger girl had +followed the sound of their bells and got safely back to the village. +Night came, but no Lydia, and now the neighborhood turned out and helped +the hopeless father to search for the lost child. They carried torches, +and rang bells, and blew horns, and fired guns, so that she might see +and hear and come to them, and before them all, day and night, ran the +father calling, "Lydia, Lydia." Five hundred men, a thousand men at +last, joined in the quest, and on the fifteenth morning, they found +in the heart of the woods a tiny hut, such as a child might build, of +sticks and moss, with a bed of leaves inside; a path which led from it +to a blackberry patch near by was beaten hard by the little feet of the +wanderer. The rough backwoodsmen broke into tears when the father came +up and at sight of the poor shelter called out, "Oh, Lydia, Lydia, my +dear child, are you yet alive?" + +[Illustration: Lost in the woods 172] + +They never found her. A mile or two from the hut they found her bonnet, +and a few miles further on an Indian camp. They could only guess that +the Indians had carried her away, and go back to their homes without +her. The father never gave up, but as long as he lived he searched for +her among the Indians. It was thought afterwards that the very means, +the lights and the noises, used to attract the child, might have +frightened her from her rescuers; for a strange craze would come upon +lost people after a time, and they would hide from those who were +looking for them. Others became hopelessly bewildered, and it is told of +a pioneer, Samuel Davy, who was lost near Galion, that he wandered about +till he reached a log cabin in a clearing. There he asked of the woman +at the door if she knew where Samuel Davy lived. She laughed and bade +him come in and see. Then he knew that it was his own wife speaking to +him from his own threshold. + +Whenever a lost child could not be found, the Indians were naturally +suspected of stealing it; and this was probably the fate of a little one +whom her mother lifted over the fence into the dooryard of her cabin, +near Galion, and then went back to her work of making sugar in the +woods. When she came home at nightfall, the child was not there, and +no search afterwards availed to find her, though the whole neighborhood +searched the woods for days and nights. It was known only that a party +of Indians had lately camped near, and that they might have taken the +child and brought it up as their own; but the mother never heard of her +again. + +Galion is rather famous for lost people, but at least one of them was +found again. This was a little girl of the name of Bashford, who was +sent to bring home the cows. In trying to return she became confused, +and she wisely decided to keep with the cattle. When they lay down for +the night, she sheltered herself against the warm back of a motherly +old cow, and then followed them about in the morning till the neighbors +found her. + +She was none the worse for the night's adventure except for her +fright at the howling of the wolves, and from the pain of her slightly +frost-bitten feet. But the fate of a little boy who wandered from home +in Williams County was of a singular pathos. He was found dead after a +three-days search, when the poor little body, which was half clad, was +still warm. It was supposed that he had undressed each night when he lay +down to sleep, as he was used to do at home, and that the third night he +had been so chilled by the October cold that he could not put on all +his clothes again, and so strayed feebly about till he lay down and died +just before rescue came. + +Encounters with wolves and bears were not so common as these animals +were, by any means; but now and then the settlers came in conflict with +them. In Crawford County so lately as 1826, a young man named Enoch +Baker, in coming home from rather a late call on a young lady, fought +a running fight with wolves, which left him only when he reached the +clearing where his father's cabin stood; then they fell back into the +woods. Daniel Cloe, a boy of the same neighborhood, was attacked by a +pack of eleven wolves one morning before daybreak, but was saved by his +bulldog, which seized the foremost wolf by the throat, and gave the boy +time to climb a tree. + +A brother of this boy found his dogs one morning in ferocious clamor +about some animal which they seemed afraid to grapple with. He came up +and found that it was a bear. He had no gun, but he caught up a club, +and when he had contrived to catch the bear by one of his hind legs, +and to throw him over, he beat him about the head with his bludgeon and +killed him. + +This was pretty well for a boy of sixteen, but the reader must not award +the palm to him without first knowing the adventure of John Gillett of +Williams County, who clambered down a hollow tree to get some bear cubs. +While he was securing them, the opening overhead was darkened by the +body of the mother bear. There was only one thing to do, and Gillett +drove his knife into the haunch of the bear, which scrambled out in +surprise and terror, and pulled him and the cubs out with her. She did +not stay to look after her family, and Gillett took the cubs to the +next town, and got five dollars apiece for them. As he told this story +himself, I suppose it must have been true. + +There are some stories of wolves and bears in Ashtabula County which are +by no means bad. Not the worst of these is told of Elijah Thompson, who +was hunting in the woods near Geneva, when a pack of seven wolves fell +upon his dog. He clubbed his rifle and beat them off; then when the last +had slunk away, he gathered up his wounded dog under his arm, and walked +away with the barrel, which was all that was left of his rifle, on his +shoulder. + +Bears were very common, and very fond of pork. One night two ladies who +were alone in their cabin, were alarmed by wild appeals from the pigpen, +and found it invaded by a bear. They tried to frighten the intruder away +with firebrands, but failed. Then they loaded the family rifle, which +they had heard the men folks say took two fingers of powder. They +therefore poured in the powder to the depth of six inches, and drove +home the bullet. One held a light while the other pulled the trigger. +Both were knocked down by the recoil of the gun, which flew into the +bushes. What became of the bear was never known; but it was probably +blown to atoms. + +Other pioneer women were effective with firearms, and Mrs. Sarah Thorp +of Ashtabula County was one of these. The family fell short of food +in their first year in the backwoods, and in June, 1799, the husband +started to Pennsylvania, twenty miles away, to get supplies. Before he +could return, his wife and little girls had begun to live upon roots and +the few grains of wheat which she found in the straw of her bed. When +these were all gone, and she was in despair, a wild turkey one day +alighted near the cabin. She found that there was barely powder enough +left in the house for the lightest charge; but she loaded her husband's +rifle and crept on her hands and knees from bush to bush and log to log, +till she was close upon the bird, wallowing in the loose plowed earth. +Then she fired and killed it, and her children were saved. + +Starvation was one of the horrors which often threatened the newcomers +in the wilderness, as it had often beset its improvident red children. +In the first year of the settlement at Conneaut, James Kingsbury was +forced to leave his family and go some distance into New York state. +He fell sick, and was unable to return before winter set in. Then he +hurried homeward as fast as he could with a sack of flour on horseback. +His horse became disabled, and then he carried the flour on his +shoulders. He reached home one day at nightfall, and found his older +children starving; his wife, wasted with famine, lay on the floor, and +near her the little one born in his absence, already dead for want of +the nourishment which the poor mother could not give it. + + + + +XVII. THE FIRST GREAT SETTLEMENTS. + +General Rufus Putnam, a brave officer of the Revolutionary war, was the +first to call the attention of the Eastern States to the rich territory +opened to settlement west of the Ohio by the peace with Great Britain, +and he was one of the earliest band of pioneers which landed on the +shores of the Muskingum. In 1787 Rev. Manasseh Cutler of Ipswich, +Massachusetts, published a description of the Ohio country, which left +little to the liveliest imagination. If anything was naturally lacking +for the wants of man in a land abounding in wild fruits, "herds of deer, +elk, buffalo, and bear," and flocks of "turkeys, geese, ducks, swans, +teal, pheasants, partridges, etc.,... in greater plenty than the tame +poultry are in any part of the old settlements of America," and in +rivers "stored with fish, especially catfish, the largest, and of a +delicious flavor," which "weighs from thirty to eighty pounds," it could +be easily supplied by art. "The advantages of every climate," Dr. +Cutler told his readers, "are here blended together," and the rich soil, +everywhere underlain with valuable minerals, and covered with timber +waiting to be built into ships and floated down the rivers to the +sea, would produce not only "wheat, rye, Indian corn, buckwheat, oats, +barley, flax, hemp, tobacco," but even "indigo, silk, wine, and cotton." + +It is no wonder that the Ohio Company found the New Englanders eager +to come out and possess this goodly heritage, and that the first band +should have started from Dr. Cutler's own village. At dawn, on the +30th of December, 1787, they paraded before his church and parsonage, +twenty-two men with their families. After listening to a short speech +from him, they fired a salute, and set off, as the lettering on their +leading wagon made known, "For the Ohio Country." It was eight weeks +before they reached the headwaters of the Beautiful River, and began to +build boats to float down its current to the mouth of the Muskingum. +In the meantime, on the 1st of January, 1788, another company left +Hartford, Connecticut, and in four weeks joined the first. They could +not embark on their voyage together until April 2d, but in five days +they arrived at Fort Harmar, beside the Muskingum, and were at their +journey's end. They did not find the shores waving with indigo, silk, +and cotton, but they saw that the soil could produce almost any +crop, and the weather was so mild and lovely that they must have been +confirmed in their belief of all that Dr. Cutler had told them of the +climate. Captain Pipe, the Delaware chief who had brought Crawford to +his death of cruel torment a few years before, was encamped for trade +near the military post, and with seventy other Indians he welcomed the +newcomers to the Muskingum, where they wisely built a stockade as soon +as they could for defense against their red friends. They settled down +at once to hew their fields out of the forest, and the very next year +they had a school for their children. Bathsheba Rouse taught this first +Ohio school, and Ohio women may well be proud that she taught it a whole +year before a man taught the next Ohio school. The settlers called their +town Adelphia, but soon changed its name to Marietta, which they made up +from the name of the French queen Marie Antoinette, though Marietta was +a common enough name in Italian before their invention of it. + +They built mills on the streams, and in the streams, where the current +turned their wheels, and after a first summer of rejoicing they quieted +down to the serious business of clearing farms, having ague, and saving +their scalps from the hospitable Delawares and their allies. The very +year after their arrival the wonderful climate behaved so ungratefully +that the corn crop was cut off by an early frost; and something like a +famine followed; but still the year of the settlement was one of high +hopes and sober jollity. The pioneers celebrated the Fourth of July, +1788, with a grand banquet of "venison barbecued, buffalo steaks, bear +meat, wild fowl, and a little _pork_, as the choicest luxury of all;" +and at least "one fish, a great pike, weighing one hundred pounds, and +over six feet long," which could easily be "the largest ever taken by +white men in the waters of the Muskingum." Several of the Indians, who +were always ready for eating and drinking, took part in the celebration, +and the settlers saw with pleasure that they did not like the sound of +the cannon. They all "kept it up till after twelve o'clock at night, and +then went home and slept till daylight." + +The Marietta people knew how to enjoy themselves, but they had not +come to Ohio for pastime, and they were soon all hard at work improving +themselves as well as their lands. They not only had the first school +in Ohio, but the first Sunday school. They had a public library in 1796, +and preaching in the blockhouse from the beginning. It was ordered +that every one should keep the Sabbath by going to church, and all men +between eighteen and forty should do four days of military duty every +year, as well as "entertain emigrants, visit the sick, clothe the +naked, feed the hungry, attend funerals, cabin raisings, log rollings, +huskings; have their latchstrings always out." Perhaps the reader has +heard before this of having the latchstring out, but has not known just +what the phrase meant. The log cabin door in those days was fastened +with a wooden latch on the inside, which could be lifted on the outside +by a leathern string passed through a small hole in the door above it. +When the string was pulled in, the door was locked; but the free-hearted +man always left his latchstring out, so that every comer could enter and +share his fireside with him. + +The good people of Marietta had soon occasion for all the kindness +enjoined by their laws in befriending a hapless colony of Frenchmen, +whom certain speculators known as the Scioto Company had lured from +their homes in the Old World, and then abandoned to their fate in the +heart of the Western wilderness, where they had been promised that they +were to find "a climate wholesome and delightful, frost even in winter +almost entirely unknown, a river called, by way of eminence, the +_beautiful_ and abounding in excellent fish of a vast size; noble +forests consisting of trees that spontaneously produce sugar, and a +plant that yields ready-made candles; venison in plenty, the pursuit of +which is uninterrupted by wolves, foxes, lions, or tigers; no taxes to +pay, no military services to be performed." + +Some of the adventurers who came to Ohio on these flattering terms were +destitute people who agreed to work three years for the company and were +then, each to receive from it in reward for their labors fifty acres of +land, a house, and a cow. But others were people of means, who joyfully +sold their property in the French cities and came out to found new homes +in the Western woods, with money in their hands, but with no knowledge +of woodcraft, or farming, and able neither to hunt, chop, plow, sow, or +reap for themselves. They were often artisans, masters of trades +utterly useless in that wild country, for what were carvers and gilders, +cloak-makers, wigmakers and hairdressers to do on the banks of the Ohio +in 1790? Some ten or twelve peasants came with the rest, but they were +helpless too in the strange conditions, and if it had not been for the +settlers at Marietta, they would all have fared miserably indeed. + +The Scioto Company had so far provided for them as to agree with +the Ohio Company for the erection of a little town or village where +Gallipolis now stands; and when the first boats arrived with the +strangely assorted company, they found a space cut out of the forest, +and in the clearing eighty log cabins standing upon four streets +fronting the river, with a square inclosed by a high stockade and +fortified with blockhouses, where they might take shelter from the +Indians. The cabins forming this square were of a better sort than those +on the streets, and there was one meant to serve for a council chamber, +where the newcomers promptly began to give balls. They arrived late +in October, and there was nothing for them to do but to wait for the +spring, even if they had known how to farm, and in the meanwhile they +had as good a time as they could. They did not yet know that the Scioto +Company, which failed to pay the Marietta people for building their +village, had no power to give them titles to their land, and they +hopefully spent their money in hiring American hunters to supply them +with game. They seem to have been rather a light-hearted crew, in +spite of their misfortunes and sufferings, and they not only amused +themselves, but they amused their neighbors by their gay unfitness for +the backwoods. If they went to fell a tree, half a dozen of them set +to work on it with their axes at once, and when they had chopped it all +round, they pulled it down with a rope, to the great danger of their +lives and limbs. When they began to make gardens in the spring they +followed the rules laid down in some books on gardening which they +had brought with them from France, and they planted the seeds of such +vegetables as they were used to at home. In a climate where "frost even +in winter was almost unknown," the Ohio River froze solidly over the +year after they came, and the hunters brought in little or none of the +promised venison, though certainly not molested in the chase "by tigers, +lions, or foxes." The colonists were in danger of starving, and many of +them were already sick of the fevers bred by the past summer's sun on +the swamp lands about them. It was one of their few advantages that +the Indians did not trouble them much, but after killing one of them +in mistake for an American, contented themselves with stealing the +Frenchmen's cattle. + +When the colonists found that the Scioto Company could not give them +titles to the farms they had bought with their money or their toil, they +began to stray away from the settlement. Some went down the rivers to +New Orleans, others wandered off elsewhere, perhaps to St. Louis, or to +the French towns in Indiana and Illinois; and when Congress at last came +to their relief with a grant of twenty-four thousand acres, there were +left at Gallipolis only ninety-two persons, out of the original five +hundred colonists, to profit by the nation's generosity. In 1807 few or +none of them remained on the spot where they had fondly hoped to make +peaceful and happy homes for themselves and their children. It was a sad +ending to a romantic story, the most romantic of all the Ohio stories +that I know, but we must not blame those who deceived the colonists (not +quite wittingly, it seems) for all their woes and disasters. These were +partly owing to themselves. The New Englanders who settled at Marietta +did not find eighty comfortable cabins waiting for them, and they did +not hire hunters to provide their food, or begin by giving balls. The +able and educated men among the French colonists seem to have cowered +under their disasters like the rest; and some were incurable dreamers. +One of the best of them used afterwards to tell how he was descending +the Ohio with two philosophers who believed so firmly in the natural +innocence and goodness of men, that they invited some Indians aboard +their boat and were at once tomahawked. Their skeptical companion shot +two of the savages and then jumped into the river, where he swam for his +life, diving at the flash of their guns, till he got safe to the farther +shore. + +The Frenchmen at Gallipolis were not the stuff that the founders of +great states are made of; but the New Englanders at Marietta were, and +so were the New Jerseymen at Cincinnati, who followed next after them +in time. These had even a harder struggle in their beginnings than the +people at Marietta, for there the emigrants made their settlement under +the guns of Fort Harmar, in a region loosely held by the milder Delaware +tribe of the Algonquin nation; but the lands between the Great Miami and +Little Miami were claimed and held by the fierce Miamis and Shawnees, +and they had been so long the battle ground of the Indians and the +Kentuckians that the region was called the Shawnee Slaughter House. The +great warpath of the tribes ran through it from the Ohio River to +Lake Erie, and the first white settlers had to build stations with +blockhouses and stockades before they could begin to till the ancient +fields, where from time to time immemorial the Indians had planted and +gathered their harvests of corn. The first settlers arrived from New +Jersey in December, 1788, some eight months after the settlement +at Marietta, and in a little more than a year a fort was built at +Cincinnati and garrisoned with United States troops; but in 1791 a band +of five hundred Indians, led by Simon Girty, attacked Dunlap's Station +at Colerain. They were beaten off only after a stubborn fight, though +the Americans were armed with the cannon which the savages so much +dreaded; and before they raised the siege they burned a white prisoner +near the station. + +[Illustration: Marrieta, Ohio 186] + +This was a surveyor, and one of those New Jersey men of education and +substance who were the earliest settlers in the Symmes Purchase, as the +tract between the two Miamis was called. John Cleves Symmes, a prominent +citizen of Trenton, had bought the land of the government, and he came +himself with his friends to make the place his home. The events of this +emigration were not so poetic as those of the New Englanders who settled +on the Muskingum, but they resulted in the foundation of our greatest +city; and if the first school in Ohio was at Marietta, the first church +was built at Cincinnati. The hamlet opposite the mouth of the Licking +was first known as Losantiville, a name made up of Greek and Latin words +describing its situation, but this was soon changed to Cincinnati. The +fort was built in 1790, and called Fort Washington; it was the strongest +fort in the Northwest Territory, and to its strength Cincinnati owed her +freedom from attacks by the Indians; it was of hewn timber, and was +eighty feet square. At Cincinnati, Harmar and St. Clair began their +march to defeat; here too the recruits for Wayne's army gathered and +encamped before they began their march to victory. + +The past of the place is not so rich in legend as that of much humbler +localities, but there is at least one Indian story which will bear +telling over again. It concerns Jacob Wetzel, the brother of the famous +Lewis Wetzel, who was one day returning from a hunt well within the +bounds of the present city, and had sat down on a log to rest, when a +growl from his dog warned him of danger. He instantly _treed_, or jumped +behind a tree, and then saw an Indian treed behind a neighboring oak. +They both fired; the Indian missed, but Wetzel's bullet had broken the +savage's arm. They rushed at each other with their drawn hunting knives, +and fell in a fearful struggle. Wetzel unhurt was no match for the +wounded Indian, who sat astride of him with his knife lifted when +Wetzel's dog sprung at his throat. Wetzel now flung him off, and while +the dog held him helpless, easily dispatched him. Another story is of +the usual ghastliness relieved by a touch of the comic. Colonel Robert +Elliott was shot by the Indians near the northern line of Hamilton +County. One of them sprang upon him to scalp him, but at a touch the +poor man's wig came off in his hand. He lifted it and was heard to say +with an oath, "Lie!" while he stared at his trophy in bewilderment. + +One of the later captives of the Indians was a boy of eleven named O. +M. Spencer, who was seized near Cincinnati in 1792, and carried to a +Shawnee village on the Maumee, where he was taken into a family. His +case is peculiarly interesting because Washington himself asked his +release through the British governor of Canada; and he was at last +returned to his friends by canoe to Detroit, by sailing vessel to +Erie, by land to Albany, by water to New York, and by land through +Pennsylvania to Cincinnati. He was two years in getting back to his +friends. . + +The next settlement in Ohio, and the first within the Virginia Military +District, was at Massie's Station, now Manchester, where Colonel +Nathaniel Massie, with thirty families, arrived in 1790. They at once +made themselves safe in an inclosure of strong pickets, fortified with +blockhouses, and as the woods and rivers abounded in game and fish, they +began to lead a life of as much comfort as people could enjoy who were +surrounded by a wilderness, with the lurking danger of captivity and +death on every hand. + +Six years later, Colonel Massie laid out the town of Chillicothe, +which became the first capital of Ohio, and in the same year, 1796, +the earliest settlers from Connecticut landed at Conneaut in Ashtabula +County. They were led by Moses Cleaveland, a lawyer of Canterbury, +Connecticut, a man of substance and ability, and they had come from +Buffalo, some by land and some by water, but they arrived within a few +hours of one another. It was the Fourth of July, and Cleaveland wrote +in his journal: "We gave three cheers and christened the place Fort +Independence; and, after many difficulties, perplexities, and hardships +were surmounted, and we were on the good and promised land, felt that a +just tribute of respect to the day ought to be paid. There were in all, +including women and children, fifty in number. The men, under Captain +Tinker, ranged themselves on the beach and fired a federal salute of +fifteen rounds, and then the sixteenth in honor of New Connecticut. +Drank several toasts.... Closed with three cheers. Drank several pails +of grog. Supped and retired in good order." + +This was the order of the four lawful settlements in the Ohio country: +first that of the Massachusetts men at Marietta in July, 1788; next, +that of the New Jersey men at Cincinnati in December, 1788; then that of +the Virginia men at Manchester in 1790; and then that of the Connecticut +men at Conneaut in 1796. + + + + +XVIII. THE STATE OF OHIO IN THE WAR OF 1812. + +We may now begin to speak of the State of Ohio, for with the opening of +the present century her borders were defined. The rest of the Northwest +Territory was called Indiana Territory, and by 1804, Ohio found herself +a state of the Union. There has never since been any doubt of her being +there, and if it had not been for the great Ohio generals there might +now be no Union for any of the states to be in. But it is nevertheless +true that Ohio was never admitted to the Union by act of Congress, +and her life as a state dates only from the adoption of her final +constitution, or from the meeting of her first legislature at +Chillicothe, on the 1st of March, 1803. + +The most memorable fact concerning the adoption of this constitution was +the great danger there was that it might allow some form of slavery +in the new state. Slavery had been forbidden from the beginning in the +Northwest Territory, but many of the settlers of the Ohio country were +from the slave states of New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky, +and there was a strong feeling in favor of allowing women to be held as +slaves till they were thirty-five and men till they were twenty-eight +years old. But in the end, thanks to one of the Massachusetts men of +Marietta, Judge Ephraim Cutler, the friends of slavery were beaten, and +it was forbidden in Ohio in the same words which had forbidden it in the +Northwest Territory. + +It had been a long fight and a narrow chance, and the clause that gave +the future to freedom was carried by one vote only. Edward Tiffin was +chosen governor, and the new state entered upon a career of peace and +comfort if not of great prosperity or rapid progress. The Indians if +not crushed were quelled, and the settlers at last lived without fear +of them, until Tecumseh began his intrigues. In the mean time there was +plenty to eat, and enough to wear for all; there was the shelter of the +log cabin, and the fire of its generous hearth. The towns grew, if +they did not grow very rapidly; new towns were founded, and the country +gradually filled up with settlers, or at least the land was claimed. +Immense crops were raised on the fertile soil, and these were mainly fed +to hogs and cattle, which more rapidly found a way to market than the +grain: they could be driven over the bad roads, and the grain had to be +carried. The very richness of the soil when turned to mud forbade good +roads in the new country; and the most thriving settlements were on the +rivers, which, as in the days of the Mound Builders, formed the natural +highways. Many streams were navigable then, which the clearing of the +woods from their banks has since turned to shallow pools in the time of +drouth and to raging torrents in the time of rain; and one of the most +hopeful industries was ship building. The trees turned to masts where +they grew, and many a stately vessel slid into the waters that had +washed its living fibers and glided down the Ohio into the Mississippi +to the sea. + +The Ohio people toiled and waited for the inventions of the future to +open ways out into the world for them with the great riches to which +they were shut up in their own borders; but it must have been with a +growing uneasiness. Great Britain, as we know, had long held the forts +in the West which she had agreed to give up to the United States, and +after she surrendered them, her agents and subjects in Canada abetted +the Indians in their rising against the Americans under Tecumseh and +the Prophet. The trouble with the Indians would probably have ended at +Tippecanoe, if it had not been for the outbreak of war between the two +countries; yet this outbreak must have been a kind of relief to the Ohio +people. The English insisted upon the right of searching our vessels +on the high seas, and pressing into their navy any sailors whom they +decided to be British subjects, and though the Ohio people could not +feel the injury of this, as it was felt in the seaboard states whose +citizens were forced into the English service by thousands, they could +feel the insult. They were used to fighting, and they welcomed the war +which at least unmasked their enemies. Their ardor was chilled, however, +by one of its first events, which was the surrender of Detroit by +General Hull. This threw the state open to invasion by the British and +Indians, and the danger was felt in every part of it. The militia were +called out, troops poured in from Kentucky, and General Harrison marched +into the northwest to recapture Detroit. A detachment of his army was +beaten in the first action, which took place beyond the Ohio limits, +and after yielding to the British was butchered in cold blood by their +Indian allies. The next spring Harrison built Fort Meigs on the Maumee; +from this point he hoped to strike a severe blow at the enemy in Canada, +but he was himself attacked here by General Proctor, who marched down +from Maiden with a large force of British regulars, Canadian militia, +and Indians led by Tecumseh. + +Proctor planted batteries on the shore of the river, and Tecumseh's +Indians climbed trees and poured down a galling fire on the besieged. +The British commander then summoned the fort to surrender, but Harrison +answered his messenger, "As General Proctor did not send me a summons on +his first arrival, I had supposed that he believed me determined to do +my duty," and he dismissed the envoy with the assurance that if the post +fell into Proctor's hands it would be in a manner to do him more honor +than any surrender could do. The fight then continued until the British +general found his fickle savage friends deserting him, and on the 12th +day raised the siege. + +It is probable that the Indians were following their old custom of +leaving off fighting to enjoy a sense of victory when they had won it. +A large body of Kentucky horse had by Harrison's orders attacked one of +the British positions, and carried it. After spiking the enemy's guns +they pursued the flying British, and suddenly fell into an ambush of +Indians. Out of eight hundred only one hundred escaped, and the work +of murdering the prisoners at once began. It was on this occasion that +Tecumseh tried to save the lives of the helpless Americans, appealing +to the British general to support him, and even tomahawking with his own +hatchet a disobedient chief who would not give up the work of death. + +The allies made a second attempt on Fort Meigs, but they were foiled in +this too, and then they turned their attention to Fort Sandusky, where +the town of Fremont now stands. General Harrison held a council of war, +and it was decided that Fort Sandusky could not resist an attack and +must be abandoned. But when the order to retire reached the gallant +young officer in command it was too late, for the Indians were already +in force around the post. Major Croghan therefore wrote a reply which he +thought might fall into the enemy's hands, and which he worded for their +eyes rather than his general's. "Sir, I have just received yours of +yesterday, 10 o'clock p.m., ordering me to destroy this place and +make good my retreat, which was received too late to be carried into +execution. _We have determined to maintain this place, and by heavens we +can!_" + +This answer got safely through to General Harrison, who promptly +resented what he thought its presumption and sent to remove Major +Croghan from his command. Croghan went to explain in person and was +allowed to return to his post. The British and Indians appeared in force +the next day, July 31st, and on the 2d of August made their first and +last assault. Colonel Short of the British regulars led a force of 350 +men against the fort, and set them the example of leaping into the ditch +before it. When the ditch was full, Croghan opened upon them from a +masked porthole with a six pounder, and raked them from the distance +of thirty-feet. Colonel Short, who had ordered his men to give the +Americans no quarter, fell mortally wounded; he tied his handkerchief to +his sword and waved it in prayer for mercy, and not in vain. Croghan +did all in his power to relieve his disabled foes; he passed buckets of +water to them over the pickets, he opened a space under the pickets that +those who could might creep through into the fort out of their comrades' +fire. + +That night the whole force of the enemy retreated in such haste that +they left many stores and munitions behind them. They were commanded by +General Proctor, who had already failed at Fort Meigs against Harrison, +and who now dreaded an attack from him. None was made, but Harrison +had the pleasure of writing in his report of the victory won by Major +Croghan at Fort Stephenson: "It will not be among the least of General +Proctor's mortifications that he has been baffled by a youth who had +just passed his twenty-first year." + +A little more than a month after this repulse the British were defeated +in the battle of Lake Erie by Commodore Perry, at Put-in-Bay. The action +itself is by no means the most impressive part of the wonderful story +of that great victory. Perry had not only to cope with the British in +waters where they had been undisputed masters, but he had to create +the means of doing so. He brought ship builders, naval stores, guns and +ammunition, as well as sailors for his fleet, four hundred miles through +the wilderness of New York to the wilderness at Erie, Pennsylvania, and +there he hewed out of the forest the stuff which he wrought almost alive +into his ships. On the 1st of August he was ready to sail with two large +vessels of twenty guns each, and seven smaller craft carrying fourteen +guns in all. With these, he met the enemy's force of six vessels +carrying sixty-four guns, and on the beautiful sunny morning of the 10th +of September the famous fight took place. The Americans at first had +the worst of it; the British guns were of longer range, and Perry's +flag-ship, the _Lawrence_, was so badly disabled that he had to abandon +it for the _Niagara_, The _Lawrence_ was in fact an unmanageable wreck; +her decks were streaming with blood, but nothing broke the awful order +of the carnage. The men fell at their guns; if wounded, they were +carried below; if killed, they were left where they dropped, while +others took their places. + +[Illustration: Admiral Perry on Lake Erie 196] + +Perry hauled down his colors with his own hand, and with his flag under +his arm was rowed to the Niagara through a storm of musketry. Once on +board this vessel, he began to change defeat into victory, and after +a fight lasting more than three hours in all, he could send to General +Harrison his memorable dispatch, "We have met the enemy and they are +ours." + +The next day the mournful sequel to this tragedy followed, when the +crews of both fleets, victors and vanquished, joined in burying their +dead on the shore of the bay. The sailors slain in the battle had been +already sunken in the lake, but now to the sound of the minute guns from +the ships, with the sad music of funeral marches, the measured dip of +oars, and the flutter of half-masted flags, the last sad rites were paid +to the fallen officers. Perhaps the Indians under Tecumseh who had seen +with stupid dismay the great battle of the rival squadrons, witnessed +this pathetic spectacle too, before they sullenly withdrew into Canada +after Proctor's army. There Harrison pursued them, and in his victory +on the banks of the Thames, their mighty chieftain fell, and their cause +perished with him. + + + + + +XIX. A FOOLISH MAN, A PHILOSOPHER, AND A FANATIC. + +"Who is Blennerhassett?" asked William Wirt, at the trial of Aaron Burr +for treason, and many a schoolboy since has echoed the question, as many +a schoolboy will hereafter, while impassioned oratory is music to the +ear and witchery to the breast. The eloquent lawyer went on to answer +himself, and painted in glowing colors a character which history sees +in a colder light. But though Blennerhassett was not the ideal that +Wirt imagined, he was the generous victim of a cold and selfish man's +ambition, and the ruin of his happy home and gentle hope is none the +less pathetic because his own folly was partly to blame for it. + +We must go back of the events which we have been following to an +earlier date, if we wish to find Harman Blennerhassett dwelling with his +beautiful wife on their fairy island in the Ohio. Their earthly paradise +lay in the larger stream at the mouth of the Kanawha, not far from the +present town of Belpre, and there in the first year of the century, +Blennerhassett built a mansion which became the wonder of the West. The +West was not then very well able to judge of the magnificence which it +celebrated, but there seems no reason to doubt that Blennerhassett's +mansion was fine, and of a grandeur unexampled in that new country where +most men lived in log cabins, and where any framed house was a marvel. +He was of English birth, but of Irish parentage, and to the ardor of +his race he added the refinement of an educated taste. He was a Trinity +College man, and one of his classmates at Dublin was the Irish patriot, +Emmet, who afterwards suffered death for his country. But it does not +appear that Blennerhassett came to America for political reasons, and +he seems to have made his home in the West from the impulse of a poetic +nature, with the wealth and the leisure to realize the fancies of +his dream. "A shrubbery that Shenstone might have envied," says Wirt, +"blooms around him. Music that might have charmed Calypso and her +nymphs, is his. An extensive library spreads its treasures before him. +A philosophical apparatus offers him all the secrets and mysteries of +nature. Peace, tranquillity, and innocence shed their mingled delights +around him. And to crown the enchantment of the scene, a wife, who +is said to be lovely even beyond her sex, and graced with every +accomplishment that can render it irresistible, had blessed him with her +love." + +Whatever may be the facts concerning the home of the Blennerhassetts, +the memories of those who knew its mistress bear witness to the truth +of these glowing words. They testify that she was not only brilliant, +accomplished, exquisite in manner, but good to every one, kind to the +poor, and devoted to her husband and children. She was a faultless +housewife, as well as a fearless horsewoman, and she was strong in body +as she was active in mind. "She could leap a five-rail fence, walk ten +miles at a stretch, and ride with the boldest dragoon. Robed in scarlet +broadcloth, with a white beaver hat, on a spirited horse, she might be +seen dashing through the dark woods, reminding one of the flight and gay +plumage of a tropical bird." + +To this home and its inmates came Aaron Burr, as bad, brave, and +brilliant a man as ever figured in our public life. He had been a +gallant officer in the Revolution, he had been Vice President of the +United States, he had come within a vote of being President. But he had +killed Alexander Hamilton in the duel which he forced upon him, and all +his knowledge of the world and men had taught him to worship power and +despise virtue. It has not yet been clearly shown what Burr meant or +hoped to do, and possibly he could not have very well said himself; but +it is certain that in a general way he was trying to separate the West +from the East, and to commit the warlike people of the backwoods to a +fine scheme for conquering Mexico from Spain, and setting up an imperial +throne there for him to sit upon. He was always willing to sell out his +fine scheme to France, to England, to any power that would buy, even +to Spain herself; and in the mean time he came and went in the West and +Southwest and built up a party in his favor, which fell to pieces at the +first touch of real adversity. General Wilkinson, of the United States +army, who had been plotting and scheming with Burr, arrested him; he was +tried for treason, and those who had cast their fortunes with him were +carried down in his fall. The most picturesque of the sufferers was +Blennerhassett, who was one of the most innocent. Burr had found other +Ohio people too plodding, as he said, but the Blennerhassetts took him +seriously, and when Burr in his repeated visits tempted the husband, and +flattered the wife, who was ambitious only for her husband, he easily +beguiled them into a belief in his glorious destiny. + +[Illustration: Aarun Burr and Blennerhassett 200] + +Blennerhassett put all his fortune into the venture. He ordered +fifteen large boats built for transporting five hundred men down the +Mississippi, he contracted for provisioning them, and pledged himself +for the payments of all kinds of debts. His friends tried to reason with +his folly in vain. Governor Tiffin called out a company of militia to +prevent his boats from leaving the Muskingum; Blennerhassett heard +that he was to be arrested, and fled; a troop of Virginians seized +his island, pillaged his house and ruined his grounds; and Mrs. +Blennerhassett with her children embarked amid the ice-floes of the Ohio +on a small flatboat and made her way to her husband in Louisiana. Here +he was taken, but discharged after a few weeks' imprisonment. They came +back to their island, but they never lived there again, and in 1811 the +house was burned. They wandered from place to place, and grew poorer +and poorer; in 1831 he died at the house of his sister in the island of +Guernsey, and seven years later his wife ended her days in a New York +tenement house. + +[Illustration: Johnny Appleseed 202] + +Another picturesque figure of our early times was one who never meant +and never imagined harm to any living creature, man or beast, but +gave his simple, humble life to doing good, with no thought of his own +advantage. Perhaps as the world grows more truly civilized the name of +Johnny Apple-seed will be honored above that of some heroes of the Ohio +country. Like so many of our distinguished men, he was not born in our +state, but he came here in his young manhood from his birthplace in +Massachusetts, and began at once to plant the apple seeds which gave him +his nickname. + +Few knew that his real name was John Chapman, but it did not matter; +and Johnny Appleseed became his right name if men are rightly named from +their works. Wherever he went he carried a store of apple seeds with +him, and when he came to a good clear spot on the bank of a stream, he +planted his seeds, fenced the place in, and left them to sprout and grow +into trees for the orchards of the neighborhood. He soon had hundreds +of these little nurseries throughout Ohio, which he returned year after +year to watch and tend, and which no one molested. When the trees were +large enough he sold them to the farmers for a trifle, an old coat or an +old shirt, and when he needed nothing he gave them for nothing. He went +barefoot in the warm weather, and in winter he wore cast-off shoes; when +he could get none and the ways were very rough he protected his feet +with rude sandals of his own making. His hats were of his own making +too, and were usually of pasteboard with a broad brim in front to shield +his eyes from the sun; but otherwise he dressed in the second-hand +clothing of others, for he thought it wrong to spend upon the vanities +of dress. He dwelt close to the heart of nature, whose dumb children he +would not wound or kill, even poisonous snakes or noxious insects. The +Indians knew him and loved him for the goodness of his life, and they +honored him for the courage with which he bore the pain he never would +inflict. He could drive pins into his flesh without wincing; if he got +hurt he burned the place, and then treated it as a burn; he bore himself +in all things, to their thinking, far above other white men. + +It was believed that he had come into the backwoods to forget a +disappointment in love, but there is no proof that he had ever suffered +this. What is certain is that he was a man of beautiful qualities of +heart and mind, who could at times be divinely eloquent about the work +he had chosen to do in this world. He was a believer in the philosophy +of Emanuel Swedenborg; he carried books of that doctrine in his bosom, +and constantly read them, or shared them with those who cared to know +it, even to tearing a volume in two. If his belief was true and we are +in this world surrounded by spirits, evil or good, which our evil or +good behavior invites to be of our company, then this harmless, loving, +uncouth, half-crazy man walked daily with the angels of God. + +In those early days when the people were poor and ignorant, and had +little hope of bettering themselves in this world, their thoughts +turned much to the other world. The country was often swept by storms of +religious excitement; at the camp-meetings the devout fell in fits and +trances or were convulsed with strange throes called the jerks, and all +sorts of superstitions grew up easily among them. The wildest of these +perhaps was that of the Leatherwood God which flourished in Guernsey +County, about the year 1828. The name of this fanatic or impostor, who +was indeed both one and the other, was Joseph C. Dylks, and his title +was given him because of his claim to be the Supreme Being, and because +he first appeared to his worshipers on Leather-wood Creek at the town +of Salesville. The leatherwood tree which gave this creek its name had +a soft and pliable bark, which could be easily tied into knots, and was +used as cordage by the pioneers; and the dwellers on Leatherwood Creek +had a faith of much the same easy texture. Yet they were of rather more +than the average intelligence, and they were so far from bigoted or +intolerant that all sects among them worshiped in one sanctuary, a large +cabin which they had built in common, and which they called the Temple. +Here on a certain night, while they sat listening to one of their +preachers, they were thrilled by a loud cry of "Salvation!" followed by +a fierce snort, like that of a startled horse, and they discovered in +their midst a stranger of a grave and impressive aspect, who had come no +one knew whence or how. When he rose he stood nearly six feet high, +and showed himself of a perfect figure, with flashing black eyes, a low +broad forehead and a fine arched nose; his hair, black and thick, fell +in a mass behind his ears over his shoulders; he wore a suit of black +broadcloth, a white neckcloth, and a yellow beaver hat. His weird snort +and his striking presence seem to have been his sole equipment for +swaying the faith of the people; though some of the earliest believers +saw a heavenly radiance streaming from his countenance at times, and +when he rode, they beheld above his head a ring of light which hung +in the air over the saddle if he dismounted. But he soon began to make +converts, and he had quickly enough, of the best among those good men +and women, to gain the sole use of the Temple. At first he claimed +merely to be the Lord Jesus Christ, but he presently announced himself +God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth; and his followers readily +believed him, though he failed in the simple miracle of making a +seamless garment out of a bolt of linsey-woolsey cloth, and kept none of +his promises to them. He probably found it sufficient to be the Deity, +and his worshipers, among whom were two ministers, were certainly +content; but the unbelievers felt the scandal to be too great. They had +Dylks arrested, and brought before two justices of the peace, who one +after the other decided that there was no law of Ohio which forbade a +man to declare himself the Almighty. + +[Illustration: Proclaimed himself the Lord Jesus Christ 205] + +The wretched creature was acquitted, but he was thoroughly frightened. +He made his escape from his guards, and took to the woods, where he was +some time in hiding. When he came back to the believers, he had bated +nothing of his claim to divinity, but he was no longer so bold. He now +told them that the New Jerusalem would not come down at Leatherwood +Creek, but in the city of Philadelphia, and he departed to the scene of +his glory. Three of the believers followed him over the rugged mountains +and through the pathless woods, finding food and shelter by hardly +less than a miracle; but they did not find the New Jerusalem at their +journey's end. Dylks had told them that where they should see the +heavenly light the brightest, there they should behold the beginning of +the New Jerusalem; but they nowhere saw this light, though they +walked the streets of the earthly city night and day. Two of them were +substantial farmers, and when they had lost all hope, and had lost even +Dylks himself (for he soon vanished), they pledged their tobacco crops +and so got money enough to come home, where they lived and died in the +full faith that Joseph C. Dylks was God Almighty, though he never did +anything to prove it but snort like a startled horse, wear long hair on +foot and a halo on horseback, and fail in everything else he attempted. +The third of this company of his followers, a young minister of the +United Brethren, did not return for some years; then he came, well +dressed and looking fat and sleek, and preached to the people on +Leatherwood Creek the faith in which he had not faltered. He accounted +for the disappearance of Dylks from the eyes of his other worshipers in +Philadelphia very simply: he had seen him taken up into heaven. + +But the people had merely his word for the fact; Dylks never descended +to earth again as his apostle promised, and the belief in his divinity +died out with those who first accepted him. + + + + +XX. WAYS OUT. + +In 1893 Jacob S. Coxey, a respectable citizen of Massillon, started a +movement in favor of good roads which took the form of a pilgrimage to +Washington to petition Congress for its object. Several armies, as they +were called, from different parts of the country, met in Massillon, and +under Mr. Coxey's leadership, set out on a long and toilsome march over +the Alleghanies to the capital, living by charity on the way. Many of +the soldiers of these armies might well have been idle and worthless +persons; there were doubtless others who were sincere and sane in their +hope that the representatives of the people might be persuaded to do +something for bettering the highways; but the affair was so managed as +to meet with nothing but ridicule, and in trying to force a hearing +from Congress Mr. Coxey and some of his followers were arrested for +trespassing on the Capitol grounds, and were sentenced to several weeks +in jail. This ended the latest crusade for good roads from Ohio; but +there is no Ohio idea more fixed than that we ought to have good roads, +and this was by no means the first time that Ohio men had asked the +nation to lend a hand in making them. The first time they succeeded as +signally as they failed the last time; but that was very long ago, and +it may surprise some of my readers to know that we have a National Road +crossing our whole state, which is still the best road in it. + +Almost as soon as the Western people had broken into the backwoods it +became their necessity to break out again, to find and to make roads +between them and the civilization they had left. The ways of the +different emigrations in reaching Ohio were: for the New Engenders, +through New York state to Lake Erie, and westwardly along the shore +of that water; for the Pennsylvanians, through their own state to the +headwaters of the Ohio, and then down the river and inwardly from it; +for the Virginians, Marylanders, and Carolinians, the valley of the +Shenandoah and the mountain gaps to Kentucky, and so into Southwestern +Ohio. At first the white men came by the _streets_, as the pioneers +called the trails that the buffalo and deer had made; but they soon cut +traces through the woods, and later these traces became wagon roads. Of +course they used the rivers wherever they could and traveled by canoe, +by flatboat, by keelboat, and by ark; and there grew up on the rivers a +wild life which had its adventures and heroes like the Indian warfare. +The most famous of the boatmen was Mike Fink, who drank hard and fought +hard, and was a miraculous shot with his rifle. He was captain of a +keelboat, which was the craft mostly used in ascending the river. The +flatboats were broken up and sold as lumber when they had drifted down +to their points of destination on the lower rivers, but the keelboat +could make a return trip by dint of pushing with a long pole on the +shore side and rowing on the other; sometimes even sails were used, and +then the keelboat sped up stream at the rate of fifty miles instead of +twelve miles a day. + +But these means of traffic and travel soon ceased to suffice. Then the +Ohio people felt the need of getting out with their increasing crops, +their multiplying flocks and herds, and they made their need known to +the nation, to which they were everywhere akin, and the nation answered +through Congress by beginning, in 1806, the National Road, which was +finished by 1838, from Baltimore as far as Indiana. This road first +opened the East to Ohio; then in 1811 a steamboat made its appearance on +the Beautiful River, and after that steam commanded all the Southern and +Southwestern waters for us, as well as those of the inland seas on the +North. Then, that all these waters might be united, the state began in +1825 to build a system of canals, from Cleveland to Portsmouth and +from Toledo to Cincinnati. When these canals were completed, with their +branches, they gave the people some nine hundred miles of navigable +waters within their own borders. The main lines were built, not by +companies for private profit as the railroads have since been built, +but by the people for the people, and it may be said that the great +prosperity of Ohio began with them. Wherever they ran they drained the +swamps and made the land not only habitable but beautiful. They were dug +by Ohio people, and the sixteen millions of dollars that they cost +came back into the hands of the men who gladly taxed themselves for the +outlay. The towns along their course grew, and new towns rose out of the +forests and prairies. + +The Ohio people had the impulse to this great work from the New York +people, who had built the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo, and whose +governor, De Witt Clinton, had urged forward that work. Now, when our +whole state was ablaze with joy at the action of the legislature in +providing for the work, Governor Clinton was invited to come and first +strike the spade into the earth in digging the new canals. He arrived by +steamboat at Cleveland, where the people received him and his train of +distinguished New Yorkers with rejoicings worthy of the great event. He +took stage for Newark, and on the 4th of July, 1825, when our state +had just come of age, in the presence of all the Ohio magnates and +dignitaries, and a mighty throng of citizens, he lifted a spadeful from +the ground on the Licking Summit. Governor Morrow of Ohio lifted the +second spadeful, and then followed a struggle among the distinguished +men as to which should lift the third. New Yorkers and Ohioans vied in +filling a wheelbarrow with successive spadefuls, and a happy citizen +of Chillicothe had the honor of wheeling it away and dumping it over a +bank. He was the captain of a company of militia, and the crowd was so +great that a squadron of cavalry had to keep a space for the speakers +in the midst of their hollow square. Thomas Ewing delivered the oration, +and men all round him wept for joy. + +[Illustration: Governor Clinton 211L] + +There were like scenes when the canals were completed. Multitudes +gathered to see the water let into the channels which to their +impatience had been so long in digging, and they took hopefully the +disappointment of having it sink into the gravelly beds, before it could +slowly fill the banks, instead of rushing like a flood to their brims. +At Dayton, 1829, when the first fleet of three canal boats arrived from +Cincinnati, it was greeted with the firing of cannon and the shouts of +an immense crowd lining the canal banks. This was as it should be, and +will be wherever a great work is done for the common good; and it ought +never to be forgotten that the canals of Ohio were dug by Ohio men that +all Ohio men might freely prosper more and more, and not that a few rich +men might get richer. + +After the National Road, which was our first way out, came the steam +navigation of the lake and the river, and after that came the railroad, +which will be our main reliance for getting back and forth over the +state and to and from it, till some of the many schemes of travel +through the air are realized. We cannot tell how far off the event may +be; but in the mean time it is curious, if not very flattering to our +Ohio pride, to learn that the first railroad enterprise within our +borders was fostered by Michigan. The legislature of that state granted +the charter of the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, which opened in 1836. +The line ran from Toledo to Adrian, thirty-three miles, but when it was +projected the matter was so far from serious with the legislature which +authorized it, that it was granted because it was "merely a fanciful +scheme that could do no harm, and would greatly please" certain citizens +of Toledo; just as now a balloon line might be laughingly authorized. It +was entirely successful, however, as far as the running was concerned, +though the road was so hampered by the cost of fighting enemies and the +expenses of building that it was seized for debt seven years later. + +This has been the history of many railroads since in Ohio, and if we +could read between the lines that now cobweb the map of the state, we +should come to know many tales of broken fortunes and of broken hopes. +The railroads are no different in this from other business enterprises, +but they are different from the canals. These, as we have seen, were +the work of the state for the advantage of the whole people, while the +railroads were from the beginning private schemes for making money. Each +kind of highway came in its time, and each in its way served the purpose +of Ohio. At the time the companies began to build their railroads, +the state system of canals was in its highest usefulness, and it is no +wonder that the people should have regarded the railroads as fanciful +schemes. No one could then have dreamed how rapidly they would increase +and multiply, and that in less than fifty years they should so far +surpass the canals in service to the public that some of these would +be abandoned by the state, and become grass-grown ditches hardly +distinguishable in their look of ancient ruin from the works of the +Mound Builders. At the most there were once nine hundred miles of +canals in Ohio, and now there are twelve or fourteen thousand miles of +railroads. Yet the canals were a greater achievement for Ohio in 1837 +than the railroads are in 1897. + +The children of this day can hardly imagine what rude and simple affairs +the earliest railroads were. Instead of the long smooth steel rails +which now carry the great trains, with their luxurious cars, in their +never-ceasing flight, day in and day out the whole year round, flat +bands of iron, spiked to wooden rails, formed the path of the +small carriages drawn by a locomotive of the size and shape of a +threshing-machine engine. These amazed by a speed of ten or twelve miles +an hour the gaping spectator whose grandchildren do not turn their heads +to look at the express as it makes its sixty miles in sixty minutes. In +the very beginning, indeed, the carriages were drawn by horses, and it +was several years before steam was used. + +[Illustration: Early Railroad 214] + +Little by little the railroads began to be built on the easy levels of +the state, and before a great while a line was projected from Cincinnati +to Columbus along the course of the Little Miami River. This was +completed piecemeal, from point to point, and at last carried through. +In the mean time other lines were laid out, and then all at once +the railroad era was at hand. It was a time of great excitement and +expectation, if not of that public rejoicing which had welcomed the +canals. + +In a few years the magnificent fleets of the river began to feel +the fatal rivalry of the trains that swept along its borders. Travel +deserted them, and traffic sought the surer and swifter transportation +of the shore. The great packets that had carried swarms of passengers +to and from Pittsburg and Cincinnati and all the points between, +disappeared or were converted into freight-boats, and then these +began to fail for want of traffic, and the Beautiful River was almost +abandoned to the stern-wheeler pushing a flotilla of coal-barges. A +like change took place upon the lake; steamers which formed the means +of communication between the towns and cities from Cleveland to Buffalo, +and from Cleveland to Detroit, ceased to touch at the smaller ports, +and became the pleasure-craft of the summer tourists, or the carriers +of heavy freight, and the ports which did not become the feeders of the +railroads dwindled to insignificance. But the railroads could not affect +the navigation of the lake quite so disastrously as that of the river; +the lake in such a rivalry had some such advantage as that of the sea +from its mere vastness, and from the expanses where the railroads could +not follow the steamer in the mere nature of things. The iron horse had +his way with the canals, though, and these monuments of a former period +of enterprise grow more and more like its sepulcher, where he drank them +dry. or where he left their slow currents to stagnate unstirred by the +keels of the leisurely craft once so jubilantly welcomed to them. + +Except for the occasional breaking of an embankment, the history of the +canals could hardly be marked by any incidents of exciting interest. It +was not so with steamboating and railroading, which has each its long +tale of disasters such as give times of peace almost as dark a record +as those of war. The most tragical of these events took place at the +opposite extremities of the state, in Cincinnati and in Ashtabula, and +they occurred at the beginning and the end of an interval of nearly +forty years. + +The rise of steamboating on the Western rivers was perhaps all the more +rapid because of the daring and reckless spirit of the Western people, +who took almost any risk in order to carry a point in their rivalries +or to gain an end of their ambition. It is certain at any rate that the +builders and the crews of the popular boats joined in contriving and +urging them to a speed that should leave all competitors behind. There +was frequent racing between the packets on the Ohio and Mississippi, and +the frightful calamities from bursting boilers continued for a long time +before public opinion quelled the boyish love of victory which tempted +not only the steamboatmen but their passengers too. These joined with +the captain in forcing the boat to the top of its speed, at the risk +of a swift or agonizing death to all on board; and it was no doubt +with their full approval that the master of the beautiful new steamer +_Moselle_ took the chance that resulted in the loss of more than two +hundred lives on the 26th of April, 1838. She had just left her moorings +at Cincinnati for her trip to Louisville, and had run up to take on a +family from a raft a little way above the city. In order that she might +show her speed before the crowd on the landing, and pass a rival boat in +sight of all as she returned, the captain held to the full head of steam +with which he had started. Her wheels had scarcely turned, after she +parted from the raft, when her boilers burst with a roar like thunder. +The air was instantly filled with the flying fragments of the wreck, +and with the bodies and the heads and limbs of men, women, and children. +These fell, strewing the shore and dropping into the river, where what +was left of the Moselle sank within fifteen minutes. Cries of anguish, +groans and shrieks from the sufferers, followed the awful sound of the +explosion. Many of the victims whom the accident had spared were drowned +before boats could reach them. The mangled body of the captain was +hurled into the street; the pilot was thrown a hundred feet into the air +and fell back into the stream. + +[Illustration: Steamboat Explosion 217] + +In 1876, on the evening of December 29, an express train of the Lake +Shore Railroad, broke through the bridge at Ashtabula, and plunged +seventy-five feet down into the bed of the creek below. The train was +of eleven cars with a hundred and fifty-six passengers on board, and the +bridge was further strained by the weight of the two massive locomotives +which drew it. The night was extremely cold, and a blinding snow storm +was raging, while the freezing wind blew a gale. The wreck at once took +fire, and with the cries of the wounded were now mingled the agonized +prayers of those who saw themselves doomed to death in the blazing ruins +which imprisoned them. Nearly every one on the train was hurt more or +less severely; eighty persons perished in the fall or the fire, and five +died after they were rescued. + +There were other paths which the Ohio people had to open before they +could reach a yet wider world than any that lay to the east of them, or +the south of them. Their course to civilization lay not only through +the woods and down the rivers and over the mountains, but it ran also +through the great realm of books, and every log schoolhouse was a +station or a junction on it; or rather, as they had things in these +days, a milestone or a finger-post. + +The great glory and strength of the Ohio people, as I have hinted +before, came from their varied origin. + +They have shown themselves among the first of the Americans, not because +they were born in Ohio, but because they were born of the Massachusetts +and Connecticut men, the New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians, the New +Jerseymen and Marylanders, the Virginians and Carolinians and +Kentuckians who made Ohio what it was to be by the mixture of their +characteristics and qualities here. It is of no use to pretend, however, +that it was their virtues alone which got into the Ohio people; their +foibles got in too, and their prejudices and their vices. A traveler +in our state, just after it had become a state, believed that we were +destined to be more like the people of the North and East than the +people of the South, whom he then found, in Kentucky at least, much +livelier in mind and manner than the Pennsylvanians, fond of public life +and society, very hospitable and courteous, but dissipated, restless, +and reckless. Our public spirit did not come from our Southern ancestry, +but from our New England ancestry. The South gave Ohio perhaps her +foremost place in war and politics, but her enlightenment in other +things was from the North. It was the aristocratic indifference of the +South to public schools that for twenty-four years after Ohio became +a state kept her from profiting by the magnificent provision of school +lands made for her by the whole nation through Congress. It was not +until almost a generation after Ohio became a state that she began to +have schools partly free, and it was still a generation later before +the men of New England blood framed the present school law, and got +it enacted by the legislature. This was in 1853, but in 1825 the first +great effort for public schools was made. There was then a party in +favor of canals in the legislature, and another party in favor of +schools, and these two parties fought each other a long time. At last +they united, and together gave the people canals and schools, the two +ways out of the wilderness. + +Our canals are no longer the great avenues of commerce, because the +modern needs and means are different from those of former days, but our +schools are still the royal roads, the people's roads, to and from the +world of letters and arts. Ohio is now second to no other state in her +public school system: and well-nigh three-quarters of a century ago, +when General Lafayette visited Cincinnati in his tour of the Republic +which he had helped to found, nothing surprised and charmed him more +than the greeting which the children of her public schools gave him. It +spoke to him of a refined and graceful life, such as he could never have +imagined in the young city so lately carven out the forests; and such +proofs of the general culture must have done more than all the signs of +material prosperity, all the objects of industry so proudly shown him, +to make him regard Ohio (to use his own words) as the eighth wonder of +the world. Six hundred boys and girls from the public schools met him at +sunrise, on the morning of his arrival, and scattered flowers under his +feet and made the air ring with their shouts of "Welcome to Lafayette!" + +As for the Indians, who fought so long and so hard here for the graves +of their fathers and the homes of their children, they had to find their +ways out too. But it would not be easy to say what became of them all, +for they went such various ways out of Ohio and out of the world. Some +remained in the country which they had lost, and in a few cases they +tried to take on the likeness of civilized men. But oftener they only +took on the vices of civilization; they were the drunkards and the +vagrants of their neighborhoods, living by a little work and by the +contemptuous charity of the settlers. In them the proud spirit of their +race was broken; they suffered insult and outrage from their conquerors +without resisting; a small white Titian might knock a stalwart Indian +down with his fist, and the Indian would not attempt to revenge himself. +For a while, the settlers feared the lingering red men, but they soon +learned to despise them, and it was seldom that they troubled the whites +by theft or violence. + +A good many of the tribesmen followed the British into Canada, after the +War of 1812, where it must be owned to our shame as Americans that they +had wiser, kinder, and juster treatment than we gave those who remained +with us, and who followed westward from their old hunting grounds in +Ohio the buffalo, the elk, the beaver, and the deer. Several nations, +or parts of nations, were gathered on reservations in Seneca, Lucas, +and Wyandot counties, where they were given land and taught farming and +other trades. Missionaries came to dwell among them and try to make them +Christians, and many were converted. The Quakers seem to have done the +best work in this way, for the Indians always trusted and loved the men +of peace. + +But although their friends could teach the Indians to plow and sow, +to build houses and barns, to make tools and mend them, to sing and to +pray, and to wear clothes and to lead decent and sober lives, they could +not uproot all their old customs and superstitions. The superstition +that seemed to last longest was the belief in witchcraft, which was +indeed very common among their white neighbors. Nearly all forms of +sickness were treated as the effect of witchcraft by the Indians, and +the afflicted were carried into the woods and left alone with none near +them except the medicine man whose business it was to expel the witch. + +A suspected witch or wizard might be safely killed by any kinsman of +the sufferer; and it is said that Indians were known to walk all the +way from the Mississippi to the Ohio reservations in order to shoot down +persons accused of witchcraft, and then return unmolested. In 1828, +the Mingo chief Seneca John was put to death by two of his tribesmen as +ruthlessly as Leatherlips in 1812. He was accused of having bewitched +the chief Comstock, and though he protested, "I loved my brother +Comstock better than the green earth. I stand upon; I would shed my +blood, drop by drop, to bring him back to life," yet he was sentenced +to die, and Comstock's brothers, Coonstick and Steel, carried out the +sentence. + +In 1831 the Senecas ceded their lands, forty thousand acres on the +Sandusky, to the United States, and were removed to the southwest of the +Missouri. Each of the other reservations was given up in turn for lands +in the Far West, and in the early forties I myself, when a boy living in +Hamilton, saw the last of the Ohio Indians passing through the town on +the three canal boats which carried the small remnant of their nation +southward and westward out of the hind that was to know them no more +forever. + +[Illustration: Indian evacuation by River 223L] + +It was quite time. I cannot say how far they had been civilized, and for +all I know they may have been tame farmers and mechanics, but in their +moccasins and blankets, with their bows and arrows, they looked like +wild hunters; and Ohio was no longer a good hunting ground. All the +larger game had long been killed off or driven away, and the smaller +game was fast vanishing before the rifle and the shotgun. As if its +destruction by gunners singly was not rapid enough it was the custom in +somewhat earlier days for whole neighborhoods to meet together for the +wholesale slaughter of the sylvan creatures which still abounded. One of +these great hunts took place in Medina County, in 1818, when the region +was as yet very sparsely settled. The drive, as it was called, was fixed +for the 24th of December, and at sunrise, six hundred men and boys drew +up their far-spreading lines. They were armed with rifles, shotguns, +old muskets, pistols, knives, axes, hatchets, bayonets fastened to long +poles, and whatever other weapons they could lay hands on, to shoot, +strike, or stab with, and they began to draw their vast circle together +with a hideous uproar of horn, conchshells, and voices. The deer fled +inward from all sides; bear and wolf left their coverts in terror; foxes +and raccoons joined the panic rout, and the air was full of the flight +of wild turkeys. Then the slaughter began, and before it ended three +hundred deer, twenty-one bears, and seventeen wolves were killed; of the +turkeys and the smaller game no tale was kept. + +Later these drives were common in the years whenever game was abundant +in any neighborhood. They were called squirrel-hunts, because the +squirrel was the unit, and larger or smaller game counted so many +squirrels, or went to make up the value of a squirrel. I knew of one +of these hunts during the late fifties in Northern Ohio, when the wild +pigeons were still in such multitude that their flight darkened the sky, +where now one of them is rarely seen. + + + + +XXI. THE FIGHT WITH SLAVERY. + +Almost from the beginning Ohio was called the Yankee state by her +Southern neighbors. Burr had found her people too plodding for him, as +he said, and it would not have been strange if the older slave-holding +communities on her southern and eastern border had seen with distrust +and dislike the advance of the young free state, and had given her that +nickname partly out of envy and partly out of contempt. Their citizens +were high-spirited and generous, but they had not the public spirit +which New England had imparted to Ohio, for public spirit comes from +equality and from the feeling for others' rights, and the very supremacy +which the slaveholders enjoyed was fatal to this feeling. Virginia and +Kentucky were rich in independent character, but public spirit is +better than this, for it cares for the independence of all through the +self-sacrifice of each. That was the secret which Ohio early learned +from New England, and which kept her safe from slavery when it pressed +so hard upon her in the friendship as well as the enmity of her +neighbors. + +We know that the Northwestern Territory was devoted to freedom by the +law that created it, but we have seen that slavery was kept out of Ohio +by one vote only when her first constitution was adopted; and for a +very long time there was a very large party favorable to slavery in our +state. It will seem strange to many of my readers that Ohio people of +color were once not only not allowed to vote, but were not allowed to +give testimony in the courts of law. They were treated in this like the +Southern slaves, and in fact there was really a sort of slaveholding +in Ohio, in spite of the law. In the river counties many farmers +hired slaves from their masters in Virginia and Kentucky; and when the +Southerners traveled through Ohio, they brought their slaves into the +state with them, and took them out again. But when the conscience of the +Northern people began to stir against slavery, the Ohio abolitionists +coaxed away the slaves of these Southern travelers and sojourners, +and this, with the constant escape of runaway slaves by their help, +infuriated the friends of slavery inside as well as outside of the +state. The abolitionists had what they called the Underground Railroad, +with stations at their houses in town and country, and they sped the +fugitives from one to another till they reached Canada. Their enemies +accused them of tempting slaves across the Ohio, in order to give them +their freedom, and in a little while the rage against them broke out in +mobs and riots. + +It would not be easy to trace here the course of events which led to +these outbreaks. It is no doubt true that the abolitionists were often +rash, if not reckless, and that when they were maddened by the coldness +or the hostility of the people to the cause of human freedom they did +not stop at some acts which, though they were righteous enough, were +unlawful. It was unlawful to harbor runaway slaves, but they did it +gladly, and they appealed to the passions as well as the consciences of +men in their hate of the sum of all villainies, as John Wesley called +slavery. They not only met their foes half way, they carried the war +into the hearts and homes of the enemy. From time to time wicked and +sorrowful things happened to fret their fanaticism and keep it at a +white heat. Peaceable negroes were attacked in their homes by ruffianly +whites, their cattle killed, their fields wasted; and sometimes they +made a bloody resistance. They were not always harmless, and they were +not always pleasant neighbors. Slavery was a bad school, for the slaves +as well as the masters; and the negroes, when not vicious and dishonest, +were degraded and ignorant, for the public schools were shut against +them, and they could not read, any more than they could vote or bear +witness. So it is not strange that they should have been hunted and +harried everywhere in Southern Ohio. + +In Pike County a whole neighborhood was invaded, and several lives were +lost before one of these foolish and wicked persecutions ended. This +incident, which was one of many more or less violent, occurred in 1830, +and two years later something still more tragical happened. A negro +calling himself Thomas Marshall, who had lived several years at Dayton, +was caught up in the streets of that town by some men who, when his +cries brought the citizens to his help, declared that he was a runaway +slave. They took him before a magistrate, and proved their charge; but +one of the slavecatchers held out the hope that his master would sell +him. The poor slave gave fifty dollars himself toward his freedom, and +his ransom was well made up when word came from his owner in Kentucky +that he would not part with him for any sum. His captors then took +Marshall to Cincinnati, where he was lodged for safe keeping over night +in the fourth story of a hotel. When his guards fell asleep, the slave +rose and threw himself out of the window to the ground fifty feet below. +He was taken up fatally hurt, and he died at dawn. + +The anti-slavery meetings were often broken in upon by mobs and +sometimes broken up. One of these riots took place in 1834 at Granville, +in Licking County, where the Ohio Anti-slavery Convention held its +anniversary in a barn on the outskirts. The members were returning to +the village in a procession when the mob met them, and at sight of the +ladies among them shouted, "Egg the squaws!" and began to pelt them with +eggs and other missiles, while some ran and tried to trip them up. +Many of the men were beaten and egged, and the manes and tails of their +horses were shaved. This was a favorite argument with the friends of +slavery, and if shaving horses' manes and tails could have availed, +their party would easily have won. + +Some of the anti-slavery speakers and lecturers came on missions from +the Eastern States, but several of the fiercest and bravest were +like the Rev. John Rankin, of Clermont County, who had emigrated +from Tennessee to Ohio, because he would not live in a slaveholding +community. He used to preach against slavery at frequent peril of his +life, and his son tells how a mob leader once mounted to his pulpit, +and threatened him with his club. "Stop speaking, or I will burst your +head," he shouted, but Rankin went quietly on as if nothing had been +said, and one of his friends dragged the ruffian from his side. Of +course, he was always coming home with his horse's mane and tail shaved, +and of course his house was a station on the underground railroad to +freedom. + +One of the boldest of the abolitionists was James G. Birney, who like +Rankin had come to Ohio from the South. He started a newspaper called +_The Philanthropist_ in Cincinnati, and for three months attacked +slavery unsparingly in it. Then, on the 23d of July, 1836, the mob rose, +broke into the printing office, threw the types into the street, +tore down the press, and cast the fragments into the river. Then they +assailed the black people living in one of the alleys, and shots were +exchanged but no lives were lost. A few years later, however, in 1841, +a general assault was made upon the negroes by the mob; several on +both sides were killed and many wounded, and the office of _The +Philanthropist_ was again destroyed. Of course these things did not stop +the fight against slavery, and it did not help slavery at all when +the authorities of Lane Theological Seminary at Cincinnati forbade the +students to write or to talk about it. That was foolish and useless; it +only hurt the seminary, and drove many students from it to the college +at Oberlin, then newly founded in the woods of Lorain County. There they +could not only discuss slavery, but they could learn about it at +first hand from the negro students. The founders of Oberlin were not +abolitionists, but it is related that when they took Christ for their +guide, they found that they could not shut out the friendless people +whom the law kept from the schools, the polls, and the courts. + +These few scattered facts will give some notion of the bitter feeling +that prevailed during the first ten or twelve years of the fight against +slavery in Ohio. Afterwards it became less intense, as slavery became a +political question between the two great parties of that day, the Whigs +and the Democrats. Neither party expected to abolish slavery, but the +Whigs hoped to keep it out of the territories and all the new states. +Both parties split upon this question at last, and in 1856 the +anti-slavery Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats joined in forming the +Republican party, which in 1860 elected Abraham Lincoln upon its promise +to shut slavery up to the states where it already existed. + +But it must not be supposed, because the first bitter feeling had passed +away, that the facts were changed or that the tragedies and outrages had +ceased. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, there was +a new hunt for runaways all over the state, and business on the +underground railroad was never so brisk. The hatred of slavery was +revived in all its intensity by such cases as that of Margaret Gorden +in 1856. This unhappy mother had escaped from Kentucky with her four +children to the house of a free colored man below Mill Creek in Hamilton +County, where they remained concealed with thirteen other fugitives. One +night the place was suddenly attacked by the slavehunters under the lead +of the United States officers. A fight followed, and several on both +sides were wounded, but at last the slaves were overpowered. While the +officers were dragging the others from the house, Margaret seized a +knife from the table, and killed her little daughter rather than see +it taken back to slavery, and then turned the bloody weapon against +herself, but failed in the attempt on her own life. She was taken to +Cincinnati and tried, not for murder, but for escaping from slavery, +together with the other fugitives, who said they would "go singing to +the gallows," if only they need not go back to the South. They were all +found guilty of seeking to be free, and were returned to their owners. +On her way down the river it is said that Margaret jumped from the +boat with one of her remaining little ones in her arms. The child was +drowned, but Margaret was saved for the fate which she dreaded, and +which she had twice risked her own and her children's life to shun. What +became of her at last was never known; it is only known that she was +carried back to her owner. She had two deep scars on her black face. +At her trial she was asked what made them, and she answered "White man +struck me." + +In Champaign County, a fugitive slave named Ad White resisted the +attempt of the slavehunters to take him, in 1857, and fired upon one of +the United States marshals, whose life was saved by the negro's bullet +striking against the marshal's gunbarrel. The people and their officers +took the slave's side, and the case was fought in and out of court. +The sheriff of the county was brutally beaten with a slungshot by the +marshal who had so narrowly escaped death himself, and never take a +thousand dollars for him; the money was promptly raised and paid over, +and White lived on unmolested. + +[Illustration: Slavery issue 232] + +As late as the summer of 1860 a fugitive slave was arrested near Iberia, +in Morrow County. A party of young men caught one of the marshals +and shaved his head, while others beat his comrades. Rev. Mr. Gordon, +President of Ohio Central College, stood by trying to prevent the +punishment, but he alone was arrested. He was sentenced to prison, +where he lay till Lincoln pardoned him. The pardon did not recognize his +innocence, and he would not leave his cell until his friends forced him +to do so. By this time the damp jail air had infected him, and he died, +shortly after, of consumption. + +One would think that such things as these would have cured the Ohio +people of all sentiment for slavery, for they had no real interest in +it. But even in the second year of the Civil War, which the love of +slavery had stirred up against the Union, the famous anti-slavery +orator, Wendell Phillips, was stoned and egged while trying to lecture +in Cincinnati. Before this time, however, events had gone so far that +there was no staying them. One of the earliest and chiefest of these +events was the attempt of John Brown to free the slaves in Virginia. He +had already fought slavery in Kansas, where it was trying to invade free +soil, and in 1859 he thought that the time had come to carry the war +into the enemy's country. He did this by placing himself with a small +force of daring young men, several of his own sons among the rest, in +the mountains near Harper's Ferry. He hoped that when he had seized +the United States Arsenal at that point, and given them arms the slaves +would join him, and help to fight their way to the free states under his +lead. But when they were attacked in the Arsenal, Brown and his men +were easily overpowered by a detachment of Marines sent from Washington; +several of his followers were killed; a few escaped; the rest suffered +death with their leader on the gallows at Charlestown. + +Some think that Brown was mad, some that he was inspired, some that he +was right, some that he was wrong; but whatever men think of him, there +are none who doubt that he was a hero, ready to shed his blood for +the cause he held just. His name can never die, so long as the name of +America lives, and it is part of the fame of Ohio that he dwelt many +years in our state. For many years of his younger manhood Brown had +lived at Hudson, in Summit County; for months before his attempt in +Virginia he and his men were coming and going at different points in the +Western Reserve, and in Ashtabula County where one of his sons then had +a farm, he kept hidden the pikes with which he hoped to arm the slaves. +One of the young men who died with him on the scaffold at Charlestown +was the Quaker lad, Edwin Coppock, of Columbiana County, who wrote, two +days before he suffered, a touching letter of farewell to his friends. +"I had fondly hoped to live to see the principles of the Declaration +of Independence fully realized; I had hoped to see the dark stain of +slavery blotted from our land.... But two more short days remain to me +to fulfill my earthly destiny. At the expiration of those days I shall +stand upon the scaffold to take my last look of earthly scenes. But that +scaffold has but little dread for me, for I honestly believe that I am +innocent of any crime justifying such a punishment. But by the taking of +my life and the lives of my comrades, Virginia is but hastening on the +day when the slave will rejoice in his freedom." + +[Illustration: John Brown making pikes for Slaves 234R] + + + + +XXII. THE CIVIL WAR IN OHIO + +Though the Ohio people were too plodding for Aaron Burr, and though they +were taunted almost from the first as the Yankee state of the West, they +seem to have had war in their blood, which may have been their heritage +from the long struggle with the Indians. But after the peace with Great +Britain in 1815 there was no war cloud in the Ohio sky until Morgan +swept across our horizon with his hard-riders, except at one time in +1835. There had then arisen between our state authorities and those +of Michigan a dispute concerning the border line between the two +commonwealths, and matters went so far that the governors of both States +called out their militia. The Michigan troops actually invaded Ohio, +and overran the watermelon patches near Toledo, ate the chickens of +the neighborhood, destroyed an ice house, and carried off one Ohioan +prisoner. But the mere terror of the Ohio name sufficed to send them +flying home again when they heard that our riflemen were waiting for +them in Toledo, and many deserters from their ranks took to the woods +on their way back. This vindicated the glory of our state; we cheerfully +submitted when the arbitrators chosen to settle the dispute decided it +mainly in favor of Michigan, and we have ever since lived at peace with +that commonwealth. + +All this seems now like a huge joke, and so it has ever since been +regarded, but a war was coming which was serious enough. It might be +said that the great Civil War began with "John Brown's invasion of +Virginia," in 1859, but it might just as well be said that it began with +the fighting for and against freedom in Kansas in 1856. In fact it might +be said that it began with the mobbing of anti-slavery speakers and the +rescue of runaway slaves all over the North, from 1830 onwards. Yet this +would be fantastic, even if it were true, and we had better accept the +dates which history gives. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President +by the men opposed to the spread of slavery, and in 1861 the slave +states, feeling that their mastery of the Union was gone, left it one +after another, and the first fighting took place through the effort of +the United States government to hold its forts in the South. + +In this war, Ohio played so great a part, that it is hard for Ohio +people to keep from claiming that she played the first part. Remembering +that General Grant, General Sherman, General Sheridan, the three +greatest soldiers of the war, were all Ohio men, we might be tempted to +claim that without these the war would not have been won for the Union, +but it is safer to claim nothing more than that Ohio gave the nation the +generals who won the war. Our three greatest soldiers were only chief +among many others under whose lead Ohio sent to the war some three +hundred and twenty thousand men, during the four years of fighting, a +force almost as great as that of whole nations in other times. + +[Illustration: John Morgan invades Ohio in 1863 237] + +Ohio men shed their blood on all the battlefields of the South, but +only once was the war which consumed her children by tens of thousands +brought home to her own hearths. This was when the state was invaded by +John Morgan and his hard-riders in 1863. Morgan was born at Huntsville +in Alabama, and was of the true Southern type, gallant, reckless, +independent. He was one of the bravest and luckiest chiefs of +Confederate cavalry, and when he was ordered to march northward from +Tennessee through Kentucky, and attempt the capture of Louisville, but +not to pass the Ohio, he trusted to his fortune, and crossed the river +into Indiana at the head of some twenty-three hundred horsemen. On +the 13th of July he entered the state of Ohio, a few miles north +of Cincinnati, and passed eastward unmolested by the Union general +Burnside, who preferred not to bring him to battle in the neighborhood +of the city, but to wait some chance of attacking him elsewhere. The +militia had been called out by the governor, and the whole country was +on the alert. But Morgan's men passed through Clermont, Brown, Adams, +Pike, Jackson, Vinton, Athens, and Gallia counties into Meigs with +comparatively little molestation, though the militia learned rapidly +to embarrass if not to imperil his course. His men suffered terribly in +their long ride. They had to live on the country as best they could, +and they were literally dropping with sleep as they pushed their jaded +horses along the roads, everywhere threatened by the Ohio sharpshooters. +They fell from their saddles and were left behind; they crawled off in +the darkness and threw themselves down in the woods and fields, glad +to awaken prisoners in the hands of their pursuers. At first the large +towns were alarmed by the fear of pillage, but Morgan had hardly +got into Ohio before it became his chief aim to get out again. His +hard-riders were confined in their depredations mainly to the plunder of +the country stores on their route. They stole what they could, but they +stole without method or reason, except in the matter of horses, which +they really needed and could use. They commonly left their worn-out +chargers in exchange, but they took the freshest and strongest horses +they could get, at any rate. In their horse stealing they were not +so very unlike the Kentucky pioneers, who used to cross into the Ohio +country for the ponies of the Indians, and they practiced it at much +the same risk; for the Ohio people were becoming every moment madder and +more mischievous. At first they only cut down trees to check Morgan's +march after he got by, but they soon began to obstruct the roads in +front of him; and though they burned one bridge over a river that +he could easily ford, it was not long before they learned to destroy +bridges where the streams were otherwise impassable. + +By the time he reached Portland the militia were closing in around him, +and the next morning two detachments of United States cavalry struck +him, while the gunboats which had been watching for him on the river, +opened fire on him. In a few minutes the fight was over. Morgan left +seven hundred of his men prisoners behind him, and with twelve hundred +others fled north and east to seek a new way out of Ohio. The fight at +Buffington Island took place on the 18th, five days after Morgan crossed +the Ohio line into Hamilton County, and on the 26th he surrendered +with the constantly lessening remnant of his force seven miles from New +Lisbon in Columbiana County. + +The prisoners were all sent for safe keeping to the penitentiary at +Columbus, but on the night of November 7th, Morgan and six of his +comrades made their escape, by digging into an air-space under the floor +of his cell with their table-knives, passing through this to the prison +walls, and letting themselves down with ropes made of their bed-clothes. +At the station where they were to take the train for Cincinnati, Morgan +was dismayed to realize that he had no money to buy a ticket; but one +of his officers had been supplied by a young lady who sent him some +bank notes concealed in a book. They rode all night in great fear and +anxiety, and just before the train drew into Cincinnati they put on the +brakes and slowed it enough to drop from it with safety. Then they lost +no time in making for the Ohio River, where they hired a boy to set them +over to Kentucky in his boat. Morgan had not found the Ohio people too +plodding for him, as Aaron Burr had, but he was quite as glad to leave +their state, which he never revisited, for he was killed the next year +in Tennessee. He left behind him in Ohio by no means a wholly evil +name, and some stories are told of him that more than hint at a generous +nature. A Union soldier whom his men had taken tried to break his musket +across a stone, and one of the Confederate officers drew his pistol to +shoot him. Morgan forbade it. "Never harm a man who has surrendered," he +said. "He was only doing what I should have done in his place." + +We may be sure that such an enemy inflicted no wanton injury upon the +country, and there was something in Morgan's presence that corresponded +with this magnanimity of his character. He was a man of powerful frame, +large beyond the common, of great endurance, and able to outride any +of his men, without sleep or rest. He had a fresh complexion, with fair +hair and beard, and his face was rather mild. When he gave himself up at +last, it was with an apparently cheerful unconcern at the turn of luck +which in other raids had enabled him to break bridges, capture trains, +and destroy millions of value in military stores. + +Ohio is herself built upon so grand a scale that even her enemies seem +to have been cast in a noble mold; and the jokes upon her own people +that form the life of most of the stories of Morgan's raid are as large +as he. At one point, forty miles from their line of march, a good lady +saved the family horse from the southern troopers by locking him into +the parlor, where his stamping on the hollow floor kept the neighborhood +awake the whole night through. + +One of Morgan's men, who plundered wildly, but not very wickedly, +carried for two days a bird cage with three canaries in it; another, at +the looting of a country store, filled his pockets with bone-buttons; +they were only dangerous when they met reluctance in their frequent +horse trades. They called at the house of a gentleman in Hamilton County +at one o'clock in the morning, and asked for breakfast; when he objected +that there was no fire at that time, they suggested that they could +kindle one for him that it might be hard to put out; then he made one +himself and they got their breakfast. + +In Carroll County Morgan himself called for dinner at the house of a +lady whose maiden name was Morgan, and at table they fell into such +kindly chat about their cousinship, that she ended by giving him a clean +shirt, which he needed badly, and gratefully wore away. + +[Illustration: Hiding with the pigs 242R] + +A farmer in Morgan County took refuge in his pigpen, where one of the +raiders found him trying to hide behind a fat mother of a family, who +was suckling her farrow. The raider grinned: "Hello! How did you get +here? Did you all come in the same litter?" A stuttering hero who had +been bragging of what he would do to the enemy if he got at them, was +surprised by Morgan's men with a demand for his surrender. He flung up +his hands instantly. "I s-s-surrendered f-f-f-five minutes ago!" + +One of the greatest jokes of all was played upon a friend of the South +in Hamilton County. My younger readers may not suppose that there could +be any friends of the South in Ohio, at that time; but in truth there +were a great many, and far more than there were at the outbreak of the +war. Then most of us believed that it would be quickly fought to an end; +but after it had dragged on for two years, when its drain on the blood +and the money of the nation was severest, and the end seemed as far +off as at the beginning, those who had never loved the cause of freedom +could easily blow the smoldering fires of discontent into a wide and +far-raging flame. It must not be imagined that the Northern enemies of +the North were all bad men; they were sometimes men of conscience, and +sincerely opposed to the war against the South as unjust and hopeless. +But they were called copperheads, because for a long time they lurked +silently among the people, like that deadly snake which used to haunt +the grass of the backwoods, and bite without warning. They were still +called copperheads when they lifted their heads and struck boldly at +the Union cause, under the lead of a very able man, Clement L. +Vallandigham, whom we shall presently learn more of; and it was an +old copperhead who followed Morgan's rear guard with the best horse the +hard-riders had left him, and who tried to get speech with the officer +in command. He explained that he was a follower of Vallandigham and +against the war, and he pleaded that on this ground he ought to have his +horses back. The Morgan colonel said they could not stop to listen, but +they would hear him if he would drive along with them. He added that as +some of his soldiers were worn out, the copperhead had better give them +his wagon; and when the copperhead said that he could not ride, the +colonel answered that he should be allowed to walk. After walking +awhile, he complained that his boots hurt him, and the colonel ordered +them taken off. The copperhead was obliged to follow in his stockings +till the raiders camped. Then, to amuse their leisure, they taught him a +Morgan song, and obliged him to dance, fat and fagged as he was, to his +own music, while they applauded him with shouts of "Go it, old Yank! +Louder!" till their commanding officer ordered them to harness a +worn-out crow bait to his wagon, and bring him three wretched jades for +the horses he wanted to recover, and let him go. + +[Illustration: A Copperhead walks with General Morgan 243L] + +It is not known whether this behavior of his friends turned the +copperheads against them or not But in spite of the Morgan raid, and in +spite of all the reasons and victories of a North, the largest vote that +the Democratic party had ever polled, up to that time, was cast in favor +of a man who had been bitterest against the war, and who was then in +exile from his native country because of his treasonable words and +practices. Even three thousand soldiers in the field voted for him, and +this is far more surprising than that forty thousand voted against him. +As we look back through the perspective of history, our state seems to +have been solid for the Union and for freedom; but this is an appearance +only, and it is better that we should realize the truth. It will do no +harm even to realize that the man who embodied the copperhead feeling +was by no means a malignant man, however mistaken. + +Clement Laird Vallandigham was born in 1820 at New Lisbon, of mixed +Huguenot and Scotch-Irish ancestry, a stock which has given us some of +our best and greatest men. His father was a Presbyterian minister, +who eked out his poor salary by teaching a classical school in his own +house. Clement was ready for college long before he was old enough to +be received; and when he was graduated from Jefferson College, at +Cannonsburg in Pennsylvania, he came back to New Lisbon and began to +practice law. + +So far all the influences of his life should have been at least as good +for the generous side of politics as for the ungenerous; but from the +first he cast his lot with the oppressor. In 1845 he was sent to the +legislature, where he took a leading part in opposing the repeal of the +Black Laws, which kept the negro from voting at the polls or testifying +in the courts. Two years later he fixed his home in Dayton, where +he quickly came to the front as a States Rights Democrat in the full +Southern sense. He was given by a Democratic house the seat to which +Lewis D. Campbell was elected in 1856, and he remained in Congress till +defeated in 1862. Up to the last moment he never ceased to vote and to +speak against the war, because he believed it impossible to conquer the +South; and when he came back to Ohio he kept on saying what he believed. + +This brought him under condemnation of General Order No. 38, issued +by General Burnside at Cincinnati, forbidding any person to express +sympathy for the enemy under pain of being sent out of the Union lines +into the lines of the Confederates. Vallandigham defied this order; he +was arrested by a company of the 115th Ohio, and taken to Cincinnati +from Dayton, where a mob of his friends broke out the next day, and +burned the office of the leading Republican newspaper. General Burnside +sent a force and quelled the mob, and promptly had Vallandigham tried by +a court-martial, which sentenced him to imprisonment in Fort Warren at +Boston during the war. President Lincoln changed this sentence to +transportation through our lines into the borders of the Southern +Confederacy, and Vallandigham was hurried by special train from +Cincinnati to Murfreesboro, in Tennessee, where General Rosecrans was in +command. In a long interview, General Rosecrans tried to convince him of +his wrongdoing, and asked if he did not know that but for his protection +the soldiers would tear him to pieces in an instant. Vallandigham +answered, "Draw your soldiers up in a hollow square to-morrow morning, +and announce to them that Vallandigham desires to vindicate himself, and +I will guarantee that when they have heard me through they will be more +willing to tear Lincoln and yourself to pieces than they will +Vallandigham." The general said he had too much regard for his +prisoner's life to try it; but the charm of the man had won upon him. +"He don't look a bit like a traitor, now, does he, Joe?" he remarked to +one of his staff, and he warmly shook hands with Vallandigham when they +parted at two o'clock on the morning of May 25. + +Vallandigham mounted into the spring wagon provided for the rest of +his journey, and was driven rapidly out of the sleeping town toward the +Confederate lines. It was still in the forenoon when, in response to a +Federal flag of truce, Colonel Webb of the 51st Alabama sent word to +say that he was ready to receive him; two Federal officers crossed the +enemy's lines with him, where he was met by one private soldier, and +after some hours taken into the presence of the commander. General Bragg +received him very kindly at Shelbyville, and allowed him to report on +parole at Wilmington, North Carolina. There he took a blockade runner +for Nassau, where he found a steamer for Canada. + +He arrived in the British province early in July, to find that the Ohio +Democrats had nominated him for governor, and that his party throughout +the country had expressed its sympathy with him. President Lincoln met +one of their committees, and agreed with them that Vallandigham's arrest +was unusual, but he quaintly added: He could not be persuaded that the +government should not take measures in time of war which must not be +taken in time of peace, any more than he could be persuaded that a sick +man must not take medicine which was not good food for a well one. + +So thought the great majority of the Ohio people, who duly chose John +Brough, a War Democrat, for their governor in October. Vallandigham +remained in Canada until 1864, when he returned to Dayton, where he was +warmly received by his friends, and not molested by the authorities. But +he had never afterwards any political importance, in spite of his great +abilities and the peculiar charm of his manner for all kinds of people. +After the war was over, he accepted its conclusions with earnest good +faith, and three years later he met his death by a curious accident. +He was showing a friend, in behalf of a client in whom he was greatly +interested, how a pistol might go off in a pocket and cause a mortal +wound such as his client was accused of inflicting on another. The +pistol in his hand was really discharged; Vallandigham was fatally +wounded and died shortly afterwards. + + + + +XXIII. FAMOUS OHIO SOLDIERS + +First among these I count the great chief Pontiac, who led the +rebellion of the mid-western tribes against the English after the French +had abandoned them, and who was born in Auglaize County. I count +the renowned chief Tecumseh, too, that later and lesser Pontiac, who +attempted to do against the Americans what Pontiac tried to do against +the English. + +It was some time before the great white men of Ohio began to be born +here, but in the meanwhile there were those born elsewhere who, like +General Harrison, became Ohioans, and so did what they could to repair +the defect of birth. There is no reason to think that such men were +shaped by Ohio influences, but it is the habit of our generous Ohio +state patriotism to claim as Ohioans not only those who were born here, +and those who came to live here, but those who were born here and then +went to live elsewhere. + +Valiant and able generals came from the different parts of Ohio, and +from the different races which settled there. But the Scotch race, +descending through New England, has the highest place in our soldiers' +ancestry, and the county of Clermont has the deathless glory of being +the birthplace of Ulysses Simpson Grant, one of the greatest captains of +all time, one of the purest patriots, one of the best and gentlest men. +I need not speak of his career as a soldier, for that has become a part +of the nation's history. The beginnings of his life were rude and hard; +it was afterwards often clouded with failure; it brightened out into +such splendid success as few lives have ever known; it was again +darkened by trouble and disaster, and it closed in a long anguish of +suffering. But if ever a life was worth living it was his, and his +memory is safe forever in the love of his country and the honor of the +world. + +His parents removed soon after he was born to Brown County, where +Georgetown was his home until he was sent to West Point at seventeen. +His whole boyhood, therefore, was spent in Southwestern Ohio, where a +boy may live the happiest life on earth, and where Grant played, worked, +planned, and studied not only without a dream of the place he was to +take in history, but without special thought or liking for the calling +in which he was to stand with Caesar and with Napoleon. + +When he was eight years old, he began to work in his father's tannery, +where he drove the horse that turned the bark mill, and broke the bark +into the hopper. He did not like the work, and he escaped from it when +he could, and did jobs of wagoning about the village. He loved his +horses and kept them sleek and fat; and it is told of him that when +he first traded horses he was so eager to get a certain colt that he +offered the man even more than he asked. He was fond of all boyish +sports, but he was never rough, or profane, or foul-mouthed, and he was +noted among his mates for his truth and honesty. The girls liked him for +his gentleness, the younger children for his kindness; he never teased +them, and he never tormented any living creature. There may have been +better boys, but I have never heard of them; and if Grant passed only +his first seventeen years in his native state, they were years of as +true a greatness relatively as any that followed. From the first he +was self-reliant, and taught himself to trust to his own powers and +resources. When seven years old, he got an unbroken colt from the stable +in his father's absence, hitched it to a sled which he loaded with wood +in the forest, and then drove home with a single line. He once wished +to ride his father's pacer on an errand he was sent upon; but his father +could not spare it and the boy took his colt. "I will break him to +pace," he said, and he came back with the colt pacing. At twelve he +hauled logs with a heavy draft team. Once the men who were to load for +him did not come, and Grant managed with the help of a fallen tree to +get the logs on the truck alone and drove home with them. After eleven +he had scarcely any schooling except that of hard work, until he was +appointed to West Point. + +From Georgetown, another Ohioan famous in the great war was sent about +the same time to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. This was the boy Daniel +Am-men, who was destined to become Admiral Ammen. He had saved Grant's +life when they were bathing together in White Oak Creek, and Grant +remembered him with his high office and title when he became President. + +But Ammen had won both by his services during the war, for the Ammens +were fighters. The admiral's brother Jacob had early distinguished +himself by gallantry that won him a generalship. Long before this +their father had begun the good fight by printing John Rankin's letters +against slavery in his newspaper at Ripley. + +From Carroll County came that wonderful race of fighters, the McCooks. +Daniel McCook, Presbyterian elder and Sunday-school superintendent, +went into the war at sixty-three with his sons, and two years later was +killed in the engagement with Morgan at Buffington Island. Latimer A. +McCook died in 1869 of wounds received during his service as surgeon in +the battles of the war. General Robert Latimer McCook was murdered by +guerrillas as he lay sick and wounded near Salem, Alabama, in 1862. +General A. McDowell McCook was a West Pointer who won his major +generalship by his gallantry at Shiloh. General Daniel McCook, Jr., led +the assault at Kenesaw Mountain, where he was mortally wounded. Edwin +Stanton McCook was graduated at Annapolis, but preferred the land +service, and rose to the rank of brevet major general, through the +courage and ability he had shown at Fort Henry, at Fort Donelson, at +Chickamauga, and in Sherman's March to the Sea. Charles Morris McCook +was killed at the first Bull Run in 1861, while in his Freshman year at +Gam-bier. His father saw him overwhelmed by the enemy and called out to +him to surrender; but he answered "Father, I will never surrender to +a rebel," and was shot down by one of the Black Horse Cavalry. John +J. McCook served in the campaigns of the West and with Grant from the +battle of the Wilderness onward to the end. He was severely wounded at +Shady Grove, and left the army with the rank of colonel. + +Dr. John McCook, another Sunday-school superintendent, was the father of +Edwin Moody McCook, who rendered brilliant service early in the war and +left the army at its close with the rank of major general. His greatest +exploit was breaking through the enemy's lines before Sherman began his +march to the sea, and effecting a diversion by the damage he did and the +prisoners he took. His brother Anson George McCook was at the first +Bull Run and in the great battles of the Southwest, and was brevetted +Brigadier General at the end of the war. Rev. Henry C. McCook enlisted +first as a private soldier and became chaplain of a regiment, but did +no actual fighting. He is well known as a naturalist and theologian, +and his youngest brother John James is distinguished as a linguist. His +brother left the army as colonel after seeing some of the first fighting +and became an Episcopal minister. Roderick Sheldon McCook left Annapolis +in 1859 and promptly shared in the capture of a slaver off the African +coast. From 1861 to 1865 he was engaged in all the naval movements at +Newbern, Wilmington, Charleston, Fort Fisher, and on the James, and +suffered lasting injury to his health on the monitors. He left the navy +with the rank of commodore. All these McCooks, except the Rev. J. J. +McCook, now professor in Trinity College, Hartford, remained of the +Presbyterian faith, which seems natural to their Scotch-Irish race. + +[Illustration: Rutherford Hayes 253R] + +Of all the Americans who have lived, none is securer of lasting +remembrance than Rutherford B. Hayes, who was born in Delaware, October +4, 1822. He was a great lawyer, a great soldier, a great statesman, a +great philanthropist, a man without taint or stain. He had to suffer the +doubt thrown by his enemies upon his right to the high office they +had themselves conceded to him, but he was never wounded in his own +conscience or in the love of the people. He was three times governor +of Ohio, and when he became President of the United States he devoted +himself to healing the hurts left by the war he had helped to fight. He +made the North and South friends in the love he had for both sections, +and then he gladly laid down his charge and went back to private life, +after giving the country peace with honor. His presidency was not only +one of the most distinguished and enlightened statesmanship, but it was +consecrated by the virtues of the woman who made the White House the +happiest home in the land. Lucy Webb Hayes, who had been like a mother +to the soldiers of her husband's command, gave the social side of his +administration the grace and charm of her surpassingly wise and lovely +character. He never knew in his youth the poverty and hard work which +narrowed the early life of Grant and Garfield. He was born to comfort +and lived in greater and greater affluence; he had only to profit by his +opportunities, while they had to make theirs; but he did profit by them. +From school to college, and from college to the study of law, he passed +easily successful in all that he tried to do, and he always tried to do +his duty. Like Grant, he was of farther Scotch and nearer New England +origin, but the next most distinguished native of Delaware County was of +Dutch stock, as his name witnesses. William Starke Rosecrans was born +in 1819, and entered West Point when only fifteen years old. He was in +civil life when the war broke out in 1861, but of course he at once took +part in it, and fought through a series of most brilliant campaigns, +without one defeat, until the battle of Chickamauga in 1863. Even this +he won, but the trust President Lincoln had felt in him and expressed up +to the last moment was shaken by Rosecrans's enemies, and he was removed +from his command. He left the army with the rank of major general, and +he held afterwards places of high honor, but he felt that the wrong done +him was never atoned for. Twenty-five years after his removal he told +a meeting of his old comrades the touching story of how the stroke fell +and how he bore it. "It was at night that I received the order, and I +sent for General Thomas," who was to replace him, "He came to the tent +and took his seat. I handed him the letter. He read it and as he did so +his breast began to swell and he turned pale. He did not want to accept +the command, but we agreed on consideration that he must do so, and I +told him that I could not bear to meet my troops afterwards. 'I want to +leave,' I said, 'before the announcement is made, and I will start early +in the morning.' I packed up that night, and early in the morning, +about seven o'clock, I rode away through the fog that then hung over the +camp." + +[Illustration: William Tecumseh Sherman 255] + +William Tecumseh Sherman, who was born at Lancaster, Fairfield County, +in 1820, was like his comrade and beloved friend Grant in the poverty he +was born to. But his family was of historical distinction, while Grant's +had always been obscure, and his father died a judge of the Supreme +Court of Ohio. As he died poor, his large family of children were left +to their mother, whose means were not equal to their maintenance and +education. Thomas Ewing, the great man of the place, had been the +father's friend, and he wished to adopt "the smartest of the children." +It is not known how his choice fell upon Sherman, who was playing with +some other boys on a sand bank near Ewing's house when it was made, and +had apparently nothing to do with it. + +His father had called him Tecumseh because he admired the Indian chief's +noble character and his merciful treatment of prisoners, and because +he wished the boy to be a soldier. Ewing fulfilled the father's wish +by appointing the son to a West Point cadetship at sixteen. Sherman had +meantime fallen in love with Miss Ellen Ewing, and he married her in +1850. Then he left the army and tried banking and the law, but liked +neither, and he was President of the Louisiana state military academy +when the Civil War began. With his frank, bold, impetuous nature, he +forewarned the governor that he should side with the Union, and he asked +to be notified in time before the state seceded. + +He received the surrender of the last great Confederate army, after a +series of the most splendid strokes of generalship. His March to the +Sea will be forever famous. The highest British military criticism +pronounced his attempt "the most brilliant or the most foolish thing +ever attempted by a military leader," and we all know how it turned +out. Grant called him "the best field officer the war had produced," +and there has been nothing in history more sweet and beautiful than the +friendship between these two great men. They were unlike in everything +but their unselfishness and single-hearted patriotism, and they trusted +as wholly as they loved each other. + +Irvin McDowell, born at Franklinton, Franklin County, in 1818, was the +brave and gifted officer who lost the first battle of Bull Run, where he +failed less ruinously than any other general of that moment of the war +would have done. His name and fame have outlived that disaster, though +the people did not then know enough to forgive him for his army's +defeat. He was again of that tough Scotch-Irish breed that so many +Ohioans are of; like our other great generals, he was a West Pointer, +and he was of the high and kindly personal character common to them. + +[Illustration: General George A. Custer 258R] + +George A. Custer put into his life of vivid action the splendor of +romance. His figure stands foremost in any picture of the war as that of +the most dashing and daring cavalier of his time; but if his bearing was +that of a young hero of fiction, his deeds were those of an accomplished +and disciplined modern soldier. He was born at New Rumley in Harrison +County, of a Hessian ancestor who had come over to fight for King +George against the country which Custer lived and died to serve, and +he inherited from him the blue German eyes, and the yellow German hair +which he loved to wear long, and flying about his neck in his gallant +charges. But otherwise he was of the simple matter-of-fact Ohio +character. He got himself sent to West Point by means of a letter which +he wrote to the congressman of his district. He frankly owned himself "a +Democrat boy," and though the congressman was a Republican his fancy was +taken with the honesty of the youth, whom he never saw till one day a +young officer "with long yellow hair, hanging like Absalom's," presented +himself at his house in Washington as Lieutenant Custer. "Mr. Bingham, +I've been in my first battle," he said, "and I've come to tell you I've +tried not to show the coward." After that, in numberless bold forays +and fierce battles, he displayed such dauntless bravery, such brilliant +prowess, that General Sheridan, in sending Mrs. Custer the table on +which Lee signed his surrender, could write, "I know of no person more +instrumental in bringing about this desirable event than your own most +gallant husband." All the world knows how this glorious hero fell in the +West, long after the war, before an overwhelming force of Indians. + +[Illustration: James A. Garfield 259L] + +If Custer was the romance of our history, James A. Garfield was its +tragedy, the sort of noble tragedy which exalts while it awes. Again we +have in his life the story, so often told in the Ohio annals, of early +struggles with poverty, and of triumph over unfriendly fate. The child +who was born in the rude farmhouse in Orange, Cuyahoga County, in 1831, +was of Puritan lineage on his father's side and Huguenot blood on +his mother's; and throughout his life he showed the qualities of both +strains. He was left the youngest of four children to the care of his +widowed mother, soon after his birth, and at the very beginning his +blithe and dauntless spirit felt the stress of want. But he began to +help himself and school himself, as the children of the poor must and +do, and he early showed a passion for literature and adventure; he +wanted to read; he wanted to go to sea; he actually tried to ship on +a schooner at Cleveland, but, failing this, he got a chance to drive +a canal-boat team. He fell sick and came home, and when he got well he +learned carpentering. With his earnings in that trade he helped himself +through the Academy at Chardon in Geauga County. From there he went +to Hiram College, in Portage County, and then to Williams College, in +Massachusetts. He studied law, and was elected to the Ohio Senate, which +he left to enter the army. He was a brave and able soldier, and rose +from lieutenant to be major general, before he left the service of his +country in the field, to serve her in Congress. After sixteen years +in the House, his state sent him to the Senate, and then his +fellow-citizens chose him their President. He had been only four months +in the White House, when the wretched Guiteau, a fool maddened by his +own vanity and the sight of others' malevolence toward the man who +never hated any one, shot him down; and he lingered amidst the fervent +sympathy of the whole world, till he died nine or ten weeks later. Of +all the great Ohioans he was the gentlest and kindest nature; he never +did harm to any man, and his heart was as high as his aspiring intellect +above anything base or low. His ambition was in all things for what was +fine and noble. + +Quincy Adams Gilmore, who was born on a farm in Lorain County in 1825, +was graduated at the head of his class from West Point. He achieved +lasting fame in the siege of Fort Pulaski in Georgia, which other +engineers had said could never be taken. Gilmore reduced it in two days +by a feat in gunnery which changed forever the science and practice of +that branch of the military art. In the ooze of a trembling marsh, which +scarcely lifted its uncertain surface above the tides, he planted his +heavy rifled cannon at three times the distance that siege artillery was +believed effective, and battered down the walls of the fort with perfect +ease, and with the loss of only one life in his command. + +The doubt as to the birthplace of Philip H. Sheridan, with a choice +between Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio, seems not to have been felt +by Sheridan himself. He decided that he was born in Somerset, Perry +County, Ohio, in March, 1831, and there is no good reason to suppose +that he did not know. While so many of our soldiers were of Scotch-Irish +origin, he was simply of Irish origin, and his father and mother were +poor Irish laboring people, Catholics in religion, and careful to rear +their son in their faith. Many stories are told of his boyhood, which +seems to have been like that of most other Ohio boys of his generation. +The most significant of these stories are those relating to his childish +love and knowledge of horses and horsemanship; for they seem the +prophecy of the greatest cavalry commander of modern times, who +invented that branch of the service anew, as Gilmore reinvented gunnery. +Sheridan's first famous ride was on a barebacked, bridleless horse which +he mounted in the pasture where it was feeding, and clung to with his +knees and elbows in its long flight down the highway. No poet has yet +put this legendary feat into verse, but all my readers know the poem +which celebrates Sheridan's ride from Winchester to Cedar Creek. This +ride not only saved the day, but it stamped with the fiery little +man's character the history of the whole campaign in the Valley of the +Shenandoah; and in it, as it were, he met Sherman halfway on his +March to the Sea, and completed the deadly circuit in which the great +rebellion died. + +[Illustration: General Phillip H. Sheridan 262R] + +Of all our commanders he was perhaps the best beloved by his men, for +he fought with his men. He tried to account for their liking him on no +other ground. He once said, "These men all know that where it is the +hottest there I am, and they like it, and that is the reason they like +me." He was in the hottest place because he thought it was his duty to +be there, and not because he was fearless. "The man who says he isn't +afraid under fire, is a liar. I am afraid," he frankly said, with a +touch of that profanity which Grant never used, "and if I followed my +own impulse I should turn and get out. It is all a question of the power +of mind over body." + +As a boy he had some schooling at a Catholic school, under an eccentric +Irish master whom he used to play tricks upon, and who used to thrash +him impartially with the rest. When he left school, he became a clerk in +a hardware store in his native village, and then in a dry-goods store. +From the last place, he was appointed in 1848 to West Point and his +destiny was fixed. In his class was another Ohio boy, born not far from +Sheridan's birthplace, at the little town of Clyde, Sandusky County, in +the year 1828. This was James B. McPherson, Scotch-Irish by race as his +name shows, and, as his history was to show later, one of the worthiest +scions of that soldier-bearing stock. If Sheridan was the well-beloved +of his men, McPherson was singularly dear to those who were closest +to him and should have known him best. He was of a most affectionate +nature, tenderly attached to his home and kindred, as men are apt to +be if their homes are poor and their kindred have shared privation with +them; but McPherson kept through all his prosperity and success the +qualities which endear men to their fellows and comrades. The noble +friendship between Grant and Sherman is one of the most precious of +our national memories, but these great commanders seem to have loved +McPherson next after one another. + +His father was a farmer who worked at the trade of blacksmithing when he +was not following the plow; and the boy helped him in the field and at +the forge. When James was thirteen, his father died, and then he got a +place in a village store, and did what he could to support his widowed +mother and orphan brothers and sisters. It is told that when he left +them on the farm he ran tear-blinded till he got out of sight, and +then sat down with his little bundle in the woods and cried with +homesickness. But he went to work, and he studied and read in his hours +of leisure, and when he got the promise of a nomination to West Point he +managed to spend two terms at the Norwalk Academy in preparing himself. +He was then so old that he was afraid he would not be admitted to West +Point; but once in the army he seemed to regain his youth. When he +took command of the Army of the Tennessee, under Sherman, he was only +thirty-two years old. + +In one of the battles before Atlanta, in July, 1864, he was fired upon +by a Confederate skirmish line, while personally leading a movement of +his troops, and received a mortal wound. He rode a little way into the +woods to avoid capture, and then fell from his horse; and as he lay +there dying alone a private of an Iowa regiment found him, and cared for +him till he expired. + +Sherman's grief for his loss was open and passionate. He wept over his +dead face, and in the report of his loss to headquarters he said, "Those +whom he commanded loved him even to idolatry; and I, his associate and +commander, fail in words adequate to express my opinion of his great +worth." Grant wrote to McPherson's aged grandmother: "The nation had +more to expect from him than from almost any one living." He wished to +express the grief of personal love for the departed, and he testified to +"his zeal, his great, almost unequaled ability, his amiability, and all +the manly virtues that can adorn a commander." + +Such were the greatest of the great Ohio soldiers. To say that they +were, each in his different way, the first soldiers of the war, is to +keep well within the modest truth. They believed in one another, they +trusted one another, for they knew one another. The love between +them, impassioned in Sherman, frank and hearty in Sheridan, tender in +McPherson, deep and constant in Grant, is one of the most beautiful +facts of our history, or of any history, a feeling without one +ungenerous quality. It was indeed, + +"A goodly fellowship of noble knights," + +such as has not been since that of King Arthur's Table Round. + + + + +XXIV. OHIO STATESMEN + +The men who have given distinction to our state in politics could hardly +be more than named in a record like this; and I shall not try to speak +of them all or try to keep any order in my mention of them except the +alphabetical order of the counties where they were born, or where they +lived. + +From Ashtabula County, the names that will come at once to the reader's +mind are those of Joshua R. Giddings and Benjamin F. Wade, both of a +national fame inseparable from the history of the struggle with slavery. +Giddings was first to cast his lot with the almost hopeless cause of +freedom, but the fiery nature of Wade served to keep it warm in the +hearts of its later adherents and to spread its light. Neither of +these great Ohioans were Ohioans by birth. Giddings was born in Athens, +Pennsylvania, in 1795, and came to Ashtabula County in 1806, where +he dwelt until within a few years of his death, which took place at +Montreal in 1864, while he was Consul General for Canada. He studied +law, and succeeded at the bar before he entered political life. He +was then twenty years in Congress as representative from the Ashtabula +district, which promptly returned him when he was expelled from the +House of Representatives for presenting a petition against slavery. His +courage was so unconscious that he seemed never to assert it in his +long career of defiance at Washington, but it never failed him in the +presence of the dangers that often beset him there. In early life his +people were desperately poor; he had scarcely a thought of school till +he was twenty-three, and it was not until he had conquered from the +wilderness a farm for his father and himself that he found time for +study. He always loved the simplicity of the new country, and when he +came home to the village of Jefferson from the sessions of Congress, +he liked to "turn himself out to grass," as he called it: to put on old +clothes and a straw hat, and walk barefoot through the streets which he +had known when they were forest trails. + +Wade was born at Hills Parish, Massachusetts, in 1800, and he too was +born in utter poverty. He worked on a farm, and then worked with pick +and spade on the Erie Canal; but by the time he was twenty-one he +knew much science and philosophy through studies he had pursued in a +woodchopper's hut by the light of pine knots. In Jefferson he read law +and became Giddings's partner. He was sent to the United States Senate +in 1851 as an antislavery Whig, and he continued to stand four-square +for freedom there during nearly twenty years. He was frank, bluff, even +harsh in his speech and manner, but kind at heart, and it is told of him +that once when he discovered a wretched neighbor robbing his corn crib, +he moved out of sight that the man might not know he had been caught in +the misdeed to which want had driven him. + +Thomas Ewing, at one time United States senator from Ohio, and at all +times a leading statesman and lawyer, was a citizen of Athens County, +where his father settled in 1798. There the boy led the backwoods life, +and struggled with all its adversities in his love of books, until he +was nineteen. He loved the woods, too, and his boyhood was not +unhappy, though his ambition was for the things of the mind. In his +reminiscences, he tells of his early privations and of his delight in +the first books which came to his hands: the "Vicar of Wakefield," which +he learned largely by heart, and the "Aeneid" of Virgil, which he used +to read aloud to the farm hands on Sundays, and at such other leisure +times as they all had amidst the work of clearing the land. At nineteen, +he went to earn some money at the Salines on the Kanawha, and then +lavished it upon the luxury of three months' study at Athens. After +several years' labor in the salt works, he entered college at Athens, +teaching school between terms, and going to Gallipolis to pick up French +among the survivors of the disastrous settlement there. Then he turned +to the law, and won his way to ease and honor. One of his daughters, as +we know, became the wife of General Sherman, whom he had adopted as his +son. + +Benjamin Lundy, the meek and dauntless Quaker who was called the +Father of Abolitionism, lived a long time in Belmont County, at St. +Clairsville, where he founded his Union Humane Society, in 1815, and +inspired the formation of like societies throughout the country. He +was born in New Jersey, and had settled in Wheeling, Virginia, but life +there became un endurable to him from the sight of slaves chained and +driven in gangs through the streets, on their way to be sold in the +Southern markets. In Belmont County, also, the first native Ohio +governor, Wilson Shannon, was born. + +One of the Ohioans whom history will not forget was Robert Morris, of +Clermont County, our United States senator from 1813 till 1839. He was +one of the earliest American statesman to own the right of the slave +and to defend it. In his last speech he startled the Senate with the +prophetic words in which he recognized the danger hanging over the +Union, and he said, "That all may be safe, I conclude that the negro +will yet be free." + +[Illustration: Benjamin Harrison 268R] + +Benjamin Harrison, one of the five presidents whom Ohio has given the +country within thirty years, was born at North Bend in Hamilton County, +where his grandfather General William Henry Harrison lived until chosen +President in 1840. He remained in Ohio until he was twenty-one; then he +went to Indianapolis, and it was from Indiana that he went to the war, +where he achieved rank and distinction by his talent and courage. + +He is a great lawyer, as well as a soldier and politician, and a speaker +of almost unsurpassed gifts. + +[Illustration: Salmon P. Chase 269L] + +Salmon P. Chase, governor of Ohio and United States senator, Lincoln's +first Secretary of the Treasury, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court +of the United States, was an Ohioan by grace of New Hampshire, where he +was born, and where he lived till he was a well-grown boy. In 1830, when +he was twenty-two years old, he began the practice of law in Cincinnati, +and prospered in spite of his bold sympathy with the slave and the +friends of the slave. The Kentuckians called him the attorney-general of +the negroes, and the negroes gave him a silver pitcher, in gratitude +for his "public services in behalf of the oppressed." He was first an +abolitionist, but later became a leader of the anti-slavery party, +and was one of the first and foremost Republicans. As Secretary of the +Treasury his mastery in finance was as essential to our success in the +war as the statesmanship of Lincoln or the generalship of Grant. He was +followed in the office of Chief Justice by another Ohioan of New England +birth, who, like Chase, had passed all the years of his public life in +our state. Morrison R. Waite, of Toledo, was perhaps even more Ohioan in +those traits of plainness and simplicity in greatness which we like to +claim for Ohio, only upon sober second thought to acknowledge that they +are the distinctive American traits. + +An Ohio Secretary of the Treasury assured to the nation the means of +meeting the expenses of the Civil War, Ohio generals fought it to a +victorious close, and an Ohio Secretary of War knew how to deal best +with both the men and the money, so as to turn the struggle from its +doubtful course. Without Edwin M. Stanton neither Chase nor Grant, with +Sherman and Sheridan, could have availed. He was born at Steubenville +in 1814, of a family of North Carolina Quakers, and as a boy his tastes +were as peaceful as those of his ancestors. He had pets of all kinds, +and he made collections of birds and insects. He was pretty diligent +at school, but his studies there were not of the severer kind. He loved +poetry; he founded a circulating library; and both before and after he +went to Kenyon College, he was clerk in a bookstore. But deep within +this quiet outside was the hot nature which fused the forces of the +great war, and shaped them according to his relentless will. He became +a successful lawyer, and had been President Buchanan's Attorney-General +when Lincoln made him Secretary of War. He left that office worn out +with the duties to which he gave mind and body, and died soon after +Grant had appointed him, in 1869, to the bench of the Supreme Court No +man in office ever deserved more friends, or made more enemies. He was +tender and kindly with the friendless and hapless, but with the strong +and the fortunate, when they crossed his mood, he was rude to savagery. + +[Illustration: John Sherman 270R] + +The chief citizen of Richland County is John Sherman, who is also one +of the chief citizens of Ohio, and of the United States. He has been in +Congress ever since 1855, and ever since 1861 he has been in the Senate, +except for the four years when he was Secretary of the Treasury under +President Hayes. If any man in our public life during this long period +merits more than he the name of statesman, it would be hard to say who +he may be. But in his boyhood he gave promise of anything but the sort +of career which he has dignified. He had all the impulsiveness of his +famous brother, General Sherman, and something more than his turbulence. +He himself, with that charming frankness which seems peculiarly a +Sherman trait, tells in his autobiography what reckless things he did, +even to coming to blows with his teacher; but all this heat seems later +to have gone to temper a most manly and courageous character for a +career of the greatest public usefulness. + +[Illustration: William McKinley 271L] + +He was born at Lancaster in 1810, and the second President who has +called him from the Senate to a seat in his cabinet was born at Niles in +Trumbull County, in 1844. William McKinley entered the army as a private +in the famous 23d Ohio, when he was only seventeen, and fought through +the war. When it ended he had won the rank of brevet major, but he had +then his beginning to make in civil life. He studied law, and settled +in Canton, where he married, and began to be felt in politics. He was +thrice sent to Congress, and then defeated; but in 1896 he was elected +the fifth President of the United States from the state of Ohio. + +It is a long step backward in time, in fact more than a hundred years, +before we reach the birthday, in 1794, of Thomas Corwin, one of the most +gifted Ohioans who has ever lived. + +[Illustration: Thomas Corwin 272R] + +He was born in Kentucky and was brought, a child of four years, by his +parents to Ohio, when they settled at Lebanon in Warren County. He grew +up in the backwoods, but felt the poetry as well as the poverty of the +pioneer days, and it is told that the great orator showed his passion +for eloquence at the first school he attended. He excelled in +recitations and dialogues; but he was not meant for a scholar by his +father and he was soon taken from school, and put to work on the farm. +In the War of 1812 he drove a wagon in the supply train for General +Harrison's army, and the people liked to call him the Wagoner Boy, when +he came forward in politics. A few years later he read law, and with +the training which he had given himself at school as well as in the +old-fashioned debating societies which flourished everywhere in that +day, he quickly gained standing at the bar as an advocate. He was +all-powerful with juries, and with the people he was always a favorite. +Such a man could not long be kept out of public life. He was called to +serve seven years in the state legislature, and ten in Congress; then +he was elected governor. He was so beloved that when he was nominated a +second time for the governorship it was taken for granted that he would +be elected, but so few of his friends were at the trouble to vote for +him that he was, to the profound astonishment of everybody, defeated. + +It was a joke which no one could enjoy more than Corwin himself; for he +was not only an impassioned orator, but a delightful humorist. He could +put a principle or a reason in the form of a jest so that it would go +farther than even eloquence could carry it with the whimsical Western +people; and perhaps nothing more effective was said against the infamous +Black Laws which forbade the testimony of negroes in the courts than +Corwin put in the form of self-satire. He was of a very dark complexion, +so that he might have been taken for a light mulatto; and he used to say +that it was only when a man got to be of about his color that he could +be expected to tell the truth. + +He was sent to the United States Senate soon after his defeat for the +governorship, and it was there that in 1847 he made his great speech +against the war with Mexico, as a war of conquest for the spread of +slavery. It may be that there are more eloquent passages in English than +some of the finest in this speech, where he warned the American people +against the doom of unjust ambition, but I do not know them. It was +the supreme effort of his life, but it was addressed to a time of +unwholesome patriotic frenzy, and Corwin's popularity suffered fatally +from it. He never disowned it; he defended and justified it before the +people; but he declined from the high stand he had taken as the champion +of freedom and justice, and the later years of his political life +were marked by rather an anxious conservatism. His final efforts were +unavailingly made to stay the course of secession by suggestions of +impossible compromise between the North and South. At the close of the +war he was stricken with paralysis while visiting as a private citizen +the Capitol at Washington, where he had triumphed as representative and +senator, and he died almost before the laughter had left the lips of the +delighted groups which hung about him. Of all our public men he was most +distinctively what is called, for want of some closer term, a man of +genius, and he shares with but three or four other Americans the fame of +qualities that made men love while they honored and revered him. In the +presence of this great soul, so simple, so sweet, so true, so winning, +so wise, I think the reader will scarcely care to be reminded that among +the notable Ohio men of our day are some of the richest, if not the very +richest, American millionaires. + + + + +XXV. OTHER NOTABLE OHIOANS + +Two names well-known in literature belong to Ashtabula County. Albion +W. Tourgee was born there in 1838, and made a wide reputation by his +novels, "A Fool's Errand" and "Bricks without Straw,"--impassioned and +vivid reports of life in the South during the period of reconstruction; +and Edith Thomas, who was born in Medina County, made Ashtabula her home +till she went to live near New York. While she was still in Ohio, the +poems which are full of the love of nature and the sense of immortal +things began to win her a fame in which she need envy no others of our +time. + +One of the earlier Ohioans of note was John Cleves Symmes, of Butler +County, who believed that the earth was penetrated at the poles by +openings into a habitable region within it. He petitioned Congress for +means to explore the Arctic seas and verify his theory; of course +he petitioned in vain, but he won world-wide attention and made some +converts. He had been a gallant officer of the United States Army, and +had fought well in the War of 1812, but he died poor and neglected. He +was of New Jersey birth, and of that stanch New Jersey stock which gave +character to the whole southwestern part of Ohio. + +Another and still more famous theorist, who is not generally known to +have been an Ohioan, was Delia Bacon, who first maintained that the +plays and poems of Shakespeare were written, by Sir Francis Bacon. She +was born in Portage County at Tallmadge, where her father was settled as +minister. + +A sculptor who, if not the greatest American sculptor, has yet achieved +in his art the most American things ever done in it, is J. Q. A. Ward, +the author of the "Indian Hunter," and many other noble if less native +works. He was born at Urbana, in Champaign County, of the old pioneer +stock; and in a region remote from artistic influences, he felt the +artistic impulse in his boyhood. His earliest attempt was a figure +modeled in the wax which one of his sisters used in making wax flowers, +and which he clandestinely borrowed. Then he made a bas-relief of the +first train of cars he ever saw, but this he did in clay at the village +potter's; and he also modeled in clay the head of a negro, well known in +the place, which all the neighbors recognized. A few years later he was +sent to school in Brooklyn, where he used every day to pass the studio +of the sculptor H. K. Browne, and long for some accident that would give +him entrance. The chance came at last; he told the sculptor the wish of +his heart, and Browne consented to let him try his hand under his eye. +From that time the boy's future was assured. The famous sculptor lives +absorbed in his work in New York, where his ripe years find him crowned +with the honor that will survive him as long as his bronzes and marbles +endure. + +To Clinton County belongs the name of Addison P. Russell, whose charming +books of literary comment have so widely endeared him to book lovers; +but whose public services in his own state are scarcely known outside of +it among the readers of "Library Notes," or of "A Club of One." + +The inventor of the first successful electric light, Charles Francis +Brush, was born on his father's farm in Euclid, Cuyahoga County, in +1840, and still pursues in Cleveland the studies which have literally +illumined the world. One of the earliest pioneers of science in geology +and archaeology, Charles Whittlesey is identified with Cleveland, where +the girlhood of the gifted novelist, Constance Fenimore Woolson, was +passed. There, too, Charles F. Browne began to make his pseudonym of +Artemus Ward known, and helped found the school of American humor. He +was born in Maine; but his fun tastes of the West rather than the East. + +[Illustration: Thomas A. Edison 277L] + +Thomas A. Edison, the electrician whose inventions are almost of the +quality of miracles, and have given him worldwide celebrity, was born in +Milan, Erie County, in 1847, of mixed American and Canadian parentage. +His early boyhood was passed in Ohio, but he went later to Michigan, +where he began his studies in a railroad telegraph office, after serving +as a train boy. + +Another noted name in science is that of T. G. Wormley, long a citizen +of Columbus, though a native of Pennsylvania. He wrote his work on +poisons in our capital, where he had studied their effects on animal +life, in several thousand cats and dogs, while a professor in Starling +Medical College. His microscopical analysis was illustrated by drawings +of the poison crystals, made by his wife, who learned the art of steel +engraving for the purpose, when it was found that no one else could +give the exquisite delicacy and precision of the original designs. Her +achievement in this art was hardly less than her husband's in science, +and it is a pleasure to record that she was born in Columbus. + +To Franklin County also belongs the honor of being the birthplace of +the botanist, William S. Sullivant. The American Academy of Arts and +Sciences recognized him as the most accomplished student of mosses whom +this country has produced. + +I do not think it at all the least of her honors that Franklin County +should be the birthplace of the horse tamer John S. Rarey, for whose +celebrity the world was once not too large. He imagined a gentle art of +managing horses by study of their nature and character, and in Europe, +as well as America, he showed how he could subdue the fiercest of them +to his will, through his patient kindness. In England the ferocious +racing colt Cruiser yielded to Rarey, and everywhere the most vicious +animals felt his magic. He was the author of a "Treatise on Horse +Taming" which had a great vogue in various languages, and he achieved a +reputation which was by no means mere notoriety. + +Coates Kinney of Xenia was not born in Greene County, or even in Ohio; +but he came to our state from New York when a boy, he has lived here +ever since, and has been shaped by its life. His poem of "Rain on the +Roof" is a household word, and it is the poem which will first come into +the reader's mind at the mention of his name. But his greatest poem is +"Optim and Pessim," which is one of the subtlest and strongest passages +of human thought concerning the mystery of the universe; and his next +greatest is his "Ode for the Ohio Centennial," delivered at Columbus +in 1888. It merits a place with the best that have celebrated, like +Lowell's "Commemoration Ode," the achievements of the people. + +In Greene County began the long journalistic life of William D. +Gallagher, who was born in Philadelphia in 1808, but came while a child +to Southern Ohio, and grew up in the impassioned love of that beautiful +country. There was not much besides its beauty to endear it to him, for +his life was a long struggle there with adverse conditions. But he never +lost heart or hope; he failed cheerfully in one literary enterprise +after another, and turned from literature to politics until he found +the means and the chance to fail again in the field where his heart was +always. In Xenia, in Cincinnati, in Columbus, in Louisville, he lived, +now here, now there, as his hopes and enterprises called him, and ended +at last on a little farm in Kentucky. His poetic vein was genuine; it +was sometimes overworked, but at least one poem of entire loveliness was +minted from it; and there are few American poems which impart a truer +and tenderer feeling for nature than Gallaghers "August," beginning-- + +"Dust on thy summer mantle, dust." + +[Illustration: Whitelaw Reid 280R] + +The life of Whitelaw Reid, who was born near Xenia in 1837, is a +romance of success from the beginning, of the kind that seems peculiarly +American. His people were Scotch Covenanters, with the stern convictions +of that race. It is said that his grandfather first settled in Hamilton +County, but rather than run a ferry boat on Sunday, as the deed of his +land bound him to do, he sold it and removed to Greene County, where his +father was a farmer when the boy White-law was born. He sent his son +to school and to college, and then left him to make his own way in the +world, which he did by first becoming a country editor, and then going +to the war as a newspaper correspondent, and taking part in several +battles as an aid-de-camp. He learned to know the war at first hand, +and he was well fitted to make his history of "Ohio in the War" the most +important of all the state histories. He spent two years in writing this +work of truly Ohioan proportions and of unfailing interest, and then he +became Horace Greeley's assistant on the New York Tribune. It was in the +course of nature that after Greeley's death he should become its owner +and director, and should take a leading part in national politics. He +has been our minister to France, and has acquired great wealth as well +as honor; but he has remained affectionately true to the home of his +youth, as his care of the old farmstead at Cedarville evinces. + +Among the most eminent and useful citizens of the state was Nicholas +Longworth, who came from New Jersey to Cincinnati, when just of age, in +1803. He was first to introduce the culture of grapes and the making +of wine into Ohio; he planted the Catawba vine on the uplands of +Cincinnati, where it flourished till the destruction of the forests +changed the climate. He became very rich by his investments in lands, +but he never outgrew his sympathy with the poor and struggling, and his +hand was open to every one who could intelligently profit by his help. +Many stories are told of his eccentricity. He was so simple in his dress +that he was once mistaken for one of his own workmen by a stranger whom +he had shown through his grounds, and who gave him a dime; Longworth +thanked him and put it in his pocket For a long time he received the +poor every Monday morning at his house, and gave whoever asked a loaf +of bread, or a peck of meal, or their worth in money. His charity was of +the divine order which does not seek desert in its objects. "I will help +the devil's poor," he said, "the miserable drunken dog, whom nobody else +will do anything for but despise and kick," and he left the deserving +poor to others, knowing that they were sure of friends. + +Hiram Powers was the first American sculptor to give us rank in Europe. +Longworth, who loved the arts as well as the industries, helped him +to go to Florence from Cincinnati, where he had begun by modeling wax +figures for a local museum. James H. Beard came from Painesville to +Cincinnati, and won there his first success as a portrait painter. He +was later to reveal the peculiar satirical gift for expressing human +character in animals, for which his brother William H. Beard is perhaps +even more famed. Among later artists, either born or bred in Cincinnati, +Frank Dengler in sculpture, and Mr. Frank Duvaneck in painting, have +shown extraordinary qualities. Dengler died at twenty-four, but not +too soon to have given proof of his great talent; Mr. Duvaneck did such +things in painting as to attract wide notice in America and Europe, +where he headed a revolt of the young painters from the Munich School, +and may be said almost to have founded a school of his own. These two +young men were of the German stock which flourishes amid the Rhine-like +hills of the Ohio; but another gifted Ohioan, who began his art life +at Cincinnati, though he was born in Trumbull County, is of that pure +American lineage commonest in the Western Reserve. Kenyon Cox, now +president of the Art Student's League in New York, is the son of the +distinguished statesman and soldier, General J. D. Cox, who was one +of the first to enter the army from civil life, and with Garfield and +Hayes, to show military qualities second only to those of the West Point +men. + +Of this class of our generals was Ormsby M. Mitchell, the eminent +astronomer in charge of the observatory at Cincinnati, who was among +the first to go from that city to the war. He won rank and honor without +fighting a battle, by virtue of the same qualities which enabled him +to do more than any one else towards founding a public observatory at +Cincinnati before any city in the East had one. + +He was of Kentucky birth, and came a child to Ohio; but William H. +Lytle, dear to lovers of poetry as the author of the fine lyric, "Antony +and Cleopatra," was born in Cincinnati, of the old Scotch-Irish +stock, in 1826. He had everything pleasant in life and he enjoyed +his prosperity, but when the war came he met its call halfway. At +Chickamauga he fell, pierced by three bullets, in the thick of the +fight. As he dropped from his horse into the arms of friends, he +smiled his gratitude, and spent his last breath in urging them to save +themselves, and leave him to his fate. The poem which begins with the +well-known words, + +"I am dying, Egypt, dying," + +will keep the name of Lytle in remembrance perhaps longer than all the +poems of Phoebe and Alice Cary shall live, such are the caprices of +fame; but the verse of these sisters is a part of American literature, +as they themselves are a part of its history. They were true poets, and +in their work a sense of + +"The broad horizons of the West" + +first made itself felt. They left the farm where they were born near +College Hill and came to live in Cincinnati after they began to be known +in literature, and later they went to dwell among the noises of New +York, where they died; but the country, the sweet Miami country, +remained a source of their inspiration, and now and again the reader +tastes its charm in their verse. + +[Illustration: Harriet Beecher Stowe 284R] + +They were undeniably Ohioan, while Pennsylvania may dispute our right +to the fame of Thomas Buchanan Read, though his most famous poem, +"Sheridan's Ride," was written and first recited in Cincinnati. We must +not more than remind ourselves that Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe passed +part of her early life in that city, and is known to have gathered much +of the suggestion for "Uncle Tom's Cabin" among the Ohio scenes where +some of its most vivid events occur. + +[Illustration: George Kennan 284L] + +In the county of Huron a man of unquestionable claim to remembrance was +born. George Kennan, whose enviable privilege it was to let the light +in upon the misery of Siberian exile and to awaken the abhorrence of the +world for Russian tyranny, was a native of Norwalk, where he grew up a +telegraph operator. He worked at night and went to school by day, and +when only nineteen, while one of the chief operators in Cincinnati, he +applied for leave to join an expedition for laying a cable from Alaska +to Siberia by way of Bering Strait. He was asked if he could get ready +to start in two weeks, and he answered that he could get ready to start +in two hours. He was appointed, and in this way he came to know the +horrors which he afterwards studied more fully in a second visit to +Siberia. He traveled fifteen hundred miles through that wintry prison +of Russia, and saw and heard the sorrowful things which the despotism of +the Czar has done to men who dare to love freedom. + +His report of these cruelties has at least put their authors to shame +before the civilized world, if it has not wrought so great an open +change as the work of another Ohio man in dealing with even greater +atrocities. It is interesting to note that Januarius A. Mac-Gahan +was born in the same county as Philip H. Sheridan, of the same Irish +parentage, to the same Catholic religion, and the same early poverty. He +saw the light in July, 1844, in a log cabin on his father's little farm +among the woods near New Lexington in Perry County. He studied hard at +school, and read constantly out of school, when a boy. When a little +older, he worked for the neighboring farmers; he hoped to get a school +to teach; but he could not get it in his own home, where he was thought +too young, and he had to go to Indiana for it. From there he went to +St Louis, where he became a newspaper reporter. In 1868 he sailed for +Europe to study French and German, hoping to come home and practice law +in that city. But his duty as correspondent took him to the scenes of +various European wars, and launched him at last amidst the barbaric +outrages of the Turks in Bulgaria. His exposure of their abominable +misdeeds in 1876 roused the whole world; the English government +officially examined his facts and found them indisputable. The war began +between Russia and Turkey, and MacGahan returned to Bulgaria with the +victorious Russian troops. There, wherever the people knew him, they +hailed him as their savior. He had made their miseries so widely known +to mankind as to render it impossible that they should continue. It +is not strange that they thronged upon him, and kissed his hands, his +boots, his saddle, his horse. In the peace that followed, a whole empire +was torn from the bloody hands of the Turks, and four Christian peoples +were saved from their savage rule. Bulgaria, Roumania, Roumelia, and +Servia now belong to themselves, and all this has come about from the +efforts of an unknown young Ohio man, who went abroad to study the +languages, and changed the map of Europe. It reads like wild romance, +but it is sober history. + +Among all these Ohioans of celebrity we must not forget Johnnie Clem, +the Drummer Boy of Shiloh. He ran away from his home in Newark, his +native city, in 1861, when he was not yet ten years old, and joined the +24th Ohio as drummer; but he was afraid to be seen and sent home by +an uncle who was in that regiment, and he cast his lot with the 22d +Michigan. He was not only at Shiloh, but the battles of Perryville, +Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Nashville, and Kenesaw. He was +taken prisoner in Georgia, and when his captors stripped him of his +clothes he grieved for the loss of nothing except his cap, which had +three bullet holes in it. After his release, he came home to get well, +and then returned to the army, where General Thomas attached him to his +staff. Later he was sent to West Point, where he could not be regularly +entered because he was too small; but he made his studies, and Grant +commissioned him as lieutenant, and he rose to be captain of infantry. +He won the love and respect of all his generals, and while they lived +they wrote him letters of affectionate friendship. He was once wounded +by a shell, and once he lost his drum by the fragment of a bursting +bomb. + +J. J. Platt, who is first among Ohio poets, was born in Indiana; but +his boyhood was passed mostly in Ohio, where he grew up on his father's +farm, amidst the scenes which he has loved to depict in his verse, until +he became a printer's apprentice. Since then he has dwelt in cities, +both at home and abroad; but he is always happiest in dealing with the +traits and aspects of country life, especially in the earlier times. +He was for many years consul at different points in Ireland; and he +has found in England even greater recognition for the distinctively +mid-western quality of his poems than he has enjoyed among ourselves. So +far as he is of Ohio, he is of Logan County, which has been the seat of +his family from the settlement of the country; as his name suggests, he +is of French descent. + +Of Toledo, and therefore of Lucas County, was David R. Locke, who was +born in New York state, but lived in Ohio from his fifth year onward. He +was a printer and an editor, and after the war, he suddenly won national +fame as the author of the Petroleum V. Naseby letters. These were +satires of the old proslavery spirit which retarded the reconstruction +of the South and harried the freedmen by mobs and lynchings. Their humor +gave Locke a place in our literature which no history of it can ignore. + +Another literary man who must be taken account of in the summing up of +American literature was S. S. Cox, who made himself known early in the +fifties when Ohio was far less heard of than now, by his lively book of +travels, "A Buckeye Abroad." He was a journalist and a politician; he +was three times elected to Congress from Columbus, and when he went +to live in New York, he was three times sent to the House of +Representatives from that city, where he is commemorated by a statue. He +was a native of Muskingum County, and was born in 1824 at Zanesville. + +The latest and most brilliant contribution of Ohio to the scholarship of +the East is Professor W. M. Sloane, now of Princeton University, but by +birth of Jefferson County. He must rank by his "Life of Napoleon" among +the American historians of the first class. He is of Scotch Calvinistic +ancestry, and the son of a Presbyterian minister. + +In this list of Ohioans who have done honor to our state, Mr. James +Ford Rhodes happens to be last, though chance might well have placed him +among the first He is the author of "A History of the United States +from the Compromise of 1850," which has a peculiar value in the field +of American history, and which has given Mr. Rhodes prominent standing, +with a constantly growing reputation. He is of the New England race of +the Western Reserve; until within a few years his home was in Cleveland, +but he now lives in Boston. + + + + +XVI. INCIDENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS. + +Nearly all the Ohio stories since 1812 have been stories of business +enterprise and industrial adventure. I dare say that if these could be +fully told, we should have tales as exciting, as romantic and pathetic +as any I have set down concerning the Indian wars. But such stories are +usually forgotten in the material interest of the affairs, and it is +only when some tragedy or comedy arising from them finds chance record +that we realize how full of human interest they are. The decay of +steamboating and the rise of railroading is in itself a romance if it +could be rightly seen, and if the facts could be clearly set before us, +the story of commercial triumph by a great monopoly would not be less +fascinating than that of any war of conquest. + +The greatest monopoly of ancient or modern times, the Standard Oil +Company, had its rise in Ohio, and there is no more impressive chapter +in the annals of our country than its history forms. In fact, everything +concerning the discovery of the great underground lakes of petroleum, +and subterranean spaces of natural gas, which suddenly enriched certain +sections of the state, and then with their exhaustion left them to lapse +into ruin, is picturesque and dramatic. Many tales are told of poor +farmers who struck oil on their lands, and sold them for sums greater +than they had ever dreamed of, and then went out into the world to waste +their wealth in a few years of wild riot, or sank down and led idle +and useless lives in sight of the fields they had once tilled. Similar +stories are told of the regions where natural gas has been found, and +some day, when the chronicles of Findlay, in Hancock County are fully +written we shall know all these romantic episodes in their grotesqueness +and their pathos. It had been known from the earliest settlement of the +country that the natural gas underlay the town, and fifty years ago two +small wells were sunk. But it was not until after the discovery of the +natural gas at Pittsburg that the people of Findlay began to think of +turning their treasure to account. Then, in the year 1884, the first +great well was bored, and sent into the startled air a shaft of flame +sixty feet high. Other wells were sunk, and the greatest of all, the +famous Karg well, shook its flag of fire against the sky with a roar +like that of Niagara, and made its voice heard fifteen miles away. It +was winter when it was first lighted, but it made summer for two hundred +yards around. The snow melted, the grass and wild flowers sprang up, +and the crickets came and trilled in the grateful warmth. By a sad irony +this source of future wealth became the refuge of homeless men, and +within its genial circuit many tramps slept sweetly, secure from the +winter beyond. + +Findlay grew from five thousand to fifteen thousand inhabitants in a +year. The municipality wisely possessed itself of the most important +wells, and supplied the gas so cheaply and abundantly to the people that +no company could rival it. In June, 1887, it celebrated the anniversary +of the first use of the natural gas in the industrial arts, and for +three days the town was given over to rejoicing in its glory and +prosperity. The streets were arched with flame, the great wells flaunted +their banners night and day, and the gas flared from innumerable pipes +and jets through sun and rain in every part of the town. + +No such festival has commemorated the introduction of the grape culture +in Ohio, though this is one of the most poetic facts of our history. +When the changes of climate along the Ohio River rendered it +unprofitable in the region of Cincinnati, where the imaginative genius +of Longworth had first invented the Catawba wine which the poetic genius +of Longfellow celebrated in graceful song, the vine found home and +welcome along the shores of Lake Erie. There thousands upon thousands +of acres now spread interminable vineyards, and the grapes of every +American variety purple in autumn to an almost unfailing harvest. + +It was at first only a dream when Longworth transplanted the wild vine +from the woods, and it might well have been scoffed at as akin to +dreams of the past which never were realized. One of these was the silk +culture, which people believed was to be one of our greatest sources +of wealth sixty or seventy years ago, when they planted millions of +mulberry trees to nourish the silkworms which died rather than become +citizens of Ohio. Another was the culture of the Chinese sorghum cane, +which for many years tantalized our farmers with the hopes of native +sugar never fulfilled. + +Still other kinds of dreams there have been native to our air or +naturalized to it. The Leatherwood God was by no means the only +religious impostor who has flourished among us. In 1831 Joseph Smith, +the first of the Mormon prophets and the founder of Mormon-ism, came +to Portage County, with one of his disciples, and began to preach. They +made so many converts that some shortsighted people of Hiram thought +to stop their work by tarring and feathering them. This only drove +them from the place; but the next year, they settled in Kirtland, Lake +County, where, in 1834, their followers built the first Mormon temple, +for the worship of God according to the Book of Mormon. It was this +sacred book, written on gold plates, which Smith, a native of Vermont, +pretended to find, in a hill near Palmyra, New York, where he was +leading an idle and useless life. His converts at Kirtland increased to +three thousand, but they founded a bank as well as a temple, and so got +into debt and trouble. Smith left the state to escape the sheriff, and +went to Missouri, where the great mass of the believers joined him, +seven hundred leaving Kirtland in one day. Before long the Missourians +foolishly began to persecute them, and then the Mormons settled at +Nauvoo, in Illinois, where they built their second temple, far more +magnificent than the first at Kirtland. But here again their unwise +neighbors began to molest them, and Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram +were thrown into jail. A mob attacked the jail, and the Smiths were +murdered. The Mormons then abandoned Nauvoo, and took their way through +the desert to Salt Lake, in Utah, where they laid the foundations of +a great commonwealth. They still own their first temple at Kirtland, +however, and it is said to be the hope of one sect among them yet to +return and dwell there. + +Among the fanaticisms or enthusiasms which flourished among our people, +none was more striking than that which moved the Woman's Temperance +Crusade in Hillsborough, Highland County, in 1873. Under the influence +of a fervent speaker, who told how the women of his native village in +New England had joined in beseeching the liquor sellers of the place to +give up their traffic, a hundred and fifty ladies of Hillsborough banded +together and went about to the different saloons, entreating their +owners not to sell strong drink any more. By day and by night, in wet +and in cold, through menace and insult, they kept up their effort the +whole winter long. Where the dealer was very obstinate, they knelt down +at his door, and prayed and sang till he yielded. After the crusade +ended, the liquor selling began again, but though it seemed to have done +little good, yet it is said that there has been far less drunkenness +in the region than before, and public opinion was roused to enforce the +laws against liquor selling. Among the crusaders were some of the first +ladies of the neighborhood, and good women emulated their efforts in +several other places. + +I am willing to leave the reader with the impression that the people of +Ohio are that sort of idealists who have the courage of their dreams. By +this courage they have made the best of them come true, and it is well +for them in their mainly matter-of-fact and practical character that +they show themselves at times enthusiasts and even fanatics. It is not +ill for them that they should now and then have been mistaken. This has +helped to keep them modest in the midst of their prosperity, and their +eminence in saving and governing the union of these states. Such as +they are, they seem to me, historically, the first of the Americans. The +whole country on the eastward characterized them, and they, more than +the people of any other state, have perpetuated and imparted their +character to the whole country on the westward. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories Of Ohio, by William Dean Howells + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES OF OHIO *** + +***** This file should be named 21381.txt or 21381.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/3/8/21381/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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