by Allan Eckert
198. Of the 32 whites who participated in this grisly affair, those who can be identified included the Greathouse brothers—Daniel and Jacob; the Mahon brothers—Raphael (Rafe) and John; Joseph Tomlinson (and according to some sources, his brother Samuel as well); Edward King, John Martin, George Cox, John Sappington, William Grills, Michael Myers, William Fitzgerald, Joseph Smith (a one-armed man), John Biggs and possibly Joshua Baker.
199. The only identified Indian victims were Taylaynee (also referred to by the name of John Petty, Talgayeeta’s older brother), Mellana (Talgayeeta’s wife, though it has been said by some that he had more than one wife at this time, and by others that he was unmarried); Molnah (Talgayeeta’s nephew, son of Taylaynee); and Koonay (Talgayeeta’s sister). Two accounts list Talgayeeta’s mother, unnamed, as among the dead. There is a wide disparity among the reports in the number of Indians killed, with “eight or ten” being the lowest figure and 24 the highest. Most of the bodies of the second party to come over wound up in the water and were swept away by the current and, not being physically included among the on shore dead, have largely been overlooked. Of the ten who came over in the first group (seven warriors, two women and the two-year-old girl, but not including the close-to-birth fetus), all were killed except the little girl, who was subsequently carried to Catfish Camp (present Washington, Pa.) and from there to the Redstone area on the Monongahela, where she was turned over to William Crawford. He, in turn, subsequently placed her in the hands of her father, John Gibson, who saw to her upbringing, but apart from that bit of information, virtually nothing subsequently appears about the daughter. In the second group to come over, there were 14 warriors, one woman and at least two, possibly three or four, boys approximately in their early teens; of whom all but two of the warriors were killed (two swimming to safety) and the woman survived (though it is not stated how this occurred). This means that at least 12 more were killed from among the second party, and so the death toll was probably 21. Most of the whites who took part later individually declared they had taken no part in the actual killing, but this is certainly an effort to absolve themselves of the atrocity and is not borne out by the facts that indicate that all, or virtually all, had to participate in order for what occurred to have taken place.
200. At least three different elaborate lies were concocted by members of the Greathouse party to justify their attack on the Indians from Logan’s Yellow Creek Camp. All differ considerably, yet all were depositions later given. The most accepted of these is that the Indians came over to Joshua Baker’s store, drank his rum without paying for it, took clothing that did not belong to them and threatened Baker’s life. Another widely accepted tale claims that the Greathouse party was innocently camping when attacked by the Mingoes and that all the shots fired by the Indians in their surprise attack missed, giving the whites opportunity to snatch up their weapons and fire back, killing most of the attackers.
201. One account, largely fanciful, states that Talgayeeta’s brother did not die in the burst of gunfire that broke out, that he was wounded and that, while he was in the agonies of death, Edward King leaped astraddle his breast and then stabbed him in the heart, saying aloud to his companions, “Many a deer have I shived this way.” At least one account states that Talgayeeta’s wife, Mellana, was a Shawnee woman, but this is almost certainly incorrect. One account also states that the Greathouse party hid the Indian bodies in dense brush, but this is believed erroneous.
202. Some accounts have erroneously stated that Koonay was Talgayeeta’s daughter. Some accounts also say there were two small children involved, but there was only one.
203. Because he had been warned by Blue Jacket that such an attack was being planned against him and that the name Cresap had been overheard, Talgayeeta — Chief Logan—initially believed that it was Michael Cresap who had led the attack that wiped out his family. Many whites at this time thought the same, since Cresap was known to have led the previous attacks at Short Creek and Captina Creek and that he had also initially started leading this attack against Talgayeeta’s people before reconsidering while en route and giving it up. It was not until much later in the year that Talgayeeta learned from his son-in-law, John Gibson, that Cresap had not led the murderous attack.
204. Peter Jolly, later a respected judge, was 12 years old at this time and many years afterward wrote: “I very well recollect my mother feeding and dressing the babe; chirruping to the little innocent and its smiling. However, they took it away and talked of sending it to its supposed father, Colonel George [actually John] Gibson, of Carlisle, Pa., who was then and had been for many years, a trader among the Indians.”
205. When most of the others continued their flight eastward, Edward King remained and lived with Houston for some time, but so far as can be determined, he and Chambers never spoke to each other again after this.
206. In some accounts the Greathouse boys are erroneously referred to as Gatewood and Tomlinson as Tumblestone, the latter an appellation locally applied to Tomlinson because of his habit of tumbling over the stones of prehistoric burial mounds in the area of his Grave Creek Settlement as he looked for ancient artifacts.
207. Twenty-six years later, still trying to absolve himself and Cresap of guilt in the Baker’s Bottom affair, John Sappington, in a deposition given in Madison County and attested to by Samuel McKee, Jr., on February 13, 1800, made a sworn declaration in which he said, among other things regarding this atrocity: “Logan’s family (if it was his family) was not killed by Cresap, nor with his knowledge, nor by his consent, but by the Greathouses and their associates.… To the best of my knowledge, there were three Greathouses engaged in this business.… I know that likewise that he (Cresap) was generally blamed for it, and believed by all who were not acquainted by the circumstances, to have been the perpetrator of it. I know that he despised and hated the Greathouses ever afterwards on account of it.… I do not believe Logan had any relations killed, except his brother. Neither of the squaws who were killed was his wife. Two of them were old women, and the third, with her child which was saved, I have the best reason in the world to believe was the wife and child of General Gibson. I know he educated the child and took care of it, as if it had been his own. Whether Logan had a wife or not, I can’t say, but it is probable that as he was a chief, he considered them all as his people.”
208. One account gives the location of this incident as occurring on the Kanawha River, but that is an error.
209. The mouth of George’s Creek is the site of the present village of New Geneva, Friendship Co., Pa.
210. Site of the present community of Mount Sterling, about a mile and a half west of present Masontown, Fayette Co., Pa.
211. It was not until several years later that Rebecca Tomlinson Martin revealed to her brothers the adventure she had during their absence.
212. Samuel Meason was never further prosecuted for this crime. In fact, his leadership qualities were such that when Ohio County was formed, he was one of the men named to the rank of captain in the county militia. He served well in this capacity but later drifted into the role of an outlaw, formed a band of ruffians and became a notorious Ohio River pirate for a number of years before finally being killed by his own men.
213. Their Indian names are pronounced Out-HOW-wuh SHOCK-uh and SHESH-she-puck-WAH-wuh-luh. Their village of Chalahgawtha was located on the site of the present city of Chillicothe, Ross Co., O.—the name Chillicothe evolving from the phonetic pronunciation of Chalahgawtha.
214. Elinipsico is pronounced EL-len-NIP-sick-ko. Blue Jacket’s Shawnee name was Wehyehpihehrsehnwah, pronounced Way-yeh-PEE-air-SANE-wah.
215. Among the several traders killed were one named Campbell, on the Tuscarawas near present Newcomerstown, Tuscarawas Co.; another named Williams, near the mouth of the Hockhocking; and one named Proctor, on Indian Wheeling Creek, near present Bridgeport, Belmont Co., O.
216. The intense hatred Connolly had built up for Alexander McKee is evident in the deposition lat
er given by trader William Butler when an investigation was being made as to the causes of Dunmore’s War. Butler stated: “On the 27th day of May, Mr. McKee and I rode out about seven miles from town, and on our return were met on the road by a man from Mrs. McKee, who came to tell us that Connelly [sic] had sent a party of men to pull down Mr. McKee’s house. When we came home, we found a guard of six armed men pulling down two out-houses, in Mr. McKee’s back yard; he ordered them to desist, saying that he would defend his people at the risk of his life; upon which the men agreed to wait until we would talk to Mr. Connelly about the matter. We walked toward the fort with that intention, but were met by one Aston (a captain of Connelly’s), at the head of about thirty armed men, followed by Connelly. Aston approached, and in a blasphemous manner accosted Mr. McKee, ordering the Virginia sheriff to seize him. Upon which the sheriff and Aston and several others seized him in a violent manner. Aston presented a rifle at Mr. McKee, threatened to shoot him down, which some of the by-standers prevented. Connelly came up at the same time, in a great rage, telling Mr. McKee that he would send him to Virginia in irons. He endeavored to expostulate with him, but all to no purpose, but told him he would tear down his dwelling house if he thought proper. He also accused Mr. McKee with being refractory on many occasions, and a fomenter of sedition, &c., &c., in opposition to the colony of Virginia, and that he had encouraged his servants to abuse one of his men, who was then present, calling the man to prove what he had asserted, but the man cleared Mr. McKee and his servants, saying that it was a man of Mr. Spear’s who had struck him. Connelly being then confuted before upwards of sixty persons, said it was all as one of the magistrate’s servants. Aston attempted to run the muzzle of his gun at Mr. McKee’s face, but was prevented. In the meantime Connelly suffered a foresworn rascal (one Riely) to shake a stick at Mr. McKee, and abuse him in an outrageous manner, without bringing him to an account for so doing. In this manner Connelly enforces all his laws.”
217. Despite the long and loud utterances of revulsion for what had taken place against the Indians, no charges were ever lodged or punishment levied against any of the white men who were involved in the instigation of this Indian war.
218. Stoner and Boone set out on their respective missions on June 6, 1774.
219. Greater details of the attack on the McKinzie family, the captivity of the girls and the long search by their father to locate and rescue them will be found in the author’s A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh.
220. On the site of present Harrodsburg, Mercer Co., Ky.
221. This first Shepherd’s Fort was built on the site of present Connellsville, Fayette Co., Pa.
222. Fort Fincastle was built in the shape of a parallelogram, with a blockhouse at each corner and stout pickets eight feet high from one blockhouse to another. Within the enclosure of three-quarters of an acre were a storehouse, barracks room, garrison wells and a number of cabins for use of families. The principal entry was a gateway on the east side. The blockhouses were square, heavy, double-storied buildings with the upper story projecting over the lower about two feet all around. They also projected slightly beyond the stockade, commanding all approaches so no lodgement could be made against the pickets to set them on fire or scale them. They were also pierced with loopholes for rifle fire. The roof sloped equally from each side upward and was surmounted at the peak by a quadrangular structure called the sentry box—an elevated post providing an extensive view on all sides. Usually the sentry box was occupied by two or three of the best riflemen during times of attack. The fort itself was situated a quarter-mile above the mouth of Wheeling Creek, on the site of present Wheeling, Ohio Co., W.Va.
223. Linn was two months recuperating from his wound; even then, when hunting, he would have to hold his ramrod under his wounded arm to support his rifle when aiming.
224. Wapatomica (meaning Capital Town and sometimes spelled Wapatomika) was being reestablished in present Logan Co., O., on the headwaters of the Mad River, 4.5 miles southeast of the French trading post of Bellefontaine. The new site was, for a long time earlier, a favored camping place and rendezvous of British traders, where, in 1751, a number who were trading there were taken prisoner by the French. This new Wapatomica’s exact location was on the headwaters of the Mad River, on the west side of the stream, across a broad meadow to the first and second levels of the first ridge to the west of the base of the large hill presently called Mad River Mountain, 2 miles southwest of the present town of Zanesfield. The ridge upon which it was located runs from West Liberty to Zanesfield. The town was situated 3.5 to 4 miles north of Mackachack and about 2.5 miles south of the present town of Zanesfield (which was the site of Tarhe’s Town, Tarhe—The Crane—being a renowned Wyandot chief), 4.5 miles southeast of the present Logan County seat of Bellefontaine. The town was largely on the second elevated bottom of the ridge. The land was later owned by a man named Hoague, with a lesser part of the tract owned by a man named Miller. Later, the entire tract was owned by Samuel and Solomon McCulloch, uncles of Judge Noah McCulloch of nearby Bellefontaine; and the property now [1994] is owned by the Westley and John Sidesinger families. Mackachack (also called Moluntha’s Town) was located on the north side of present Mac-o-chee Creek, one mile east of the present town of West Liberty, Logan Co., O.
225. This group, perhaps numbering as many as 400, journeyed to the headwaters of the Suwannee River in the Okefenokee Swamp and reestablished themselves a few miles southeast of present Waycross, Ware Co., Ga.
226. The other Virginia delegates included Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Richard Bland and Edmund Pendleton.
227. Virtually all who wrote about this at the time, including Joseph Doddridge, John Burk and Alexander Scott Withers, agree that Lord Dunmore seriously tried to put the Lewis army in a position where it would be cut up by the Indians, yet this is all based on circumstantial evidence, and no documents are known to exist that confirm the inferences.
228. Andrew Lewis, in addition to having his brother, son and nephew as officers in his army, had two other sons, Samuel and Thomas, as privates with the force.
229. This canoe-making camp was situated on the site of the present capital city of Charleston, W.Va.
230. The name of Dunmore County was, following the governor’s precipitate departure for England, renamed to the present Shenandoah County.
231. This delegation of Indians, never fully identified, is believed to have been sent by Hokolesqua of the Shawnees in a last bid for peace. Yet, there are historians who have implied that it was at this secret council, which involved some Iroquois—along with one that occurred with Shawnees and possibly some Delawares at the mouth of the Hockhocking River (present Hocking River) — that Dunmore entered into some sort of agreement that if the Indians did not attack his force, he would not merge his army with Lewis at Point Pleasant but would instead head overland to negotiate a peace with the Shawnees and other tribes; in the meanwhile, by doing so, leaving the Lewis force open to attack by the Indians assembling for that purpose. Various bits of evidence seem to indicate there may be some element of truth to the speculations.
232. In his letter from Wheeling to George Washington, Crawford wrote: “I this day am to set out with the first division for the mouth of the Hockhocking, and there to erect a post on your bottom, where the whole of the troops are to rendezvous.” A discrepancy of dates occurs at this time, since Crawford dated the letter to Washington as September 20 when, in actuality, the date was September 30.
233. Some historians have speculated that while at Wheeling, Lord Dunmore received official dispatches from the British government that the probability of a revolutionary war breaking out had become very high and that he should proceed accordingly; and that this caused Dunmore to deviate from his original rendezvous plan so as to jeopardize the Lewis army and perhaps even cause its annihilation.
234. After eighteen years of captivity, Joshua Snidow came back to Draper’s Meadows with the view of resumin
g his life as a white man, but he soon found he could not adapt to the white life. He soon returned to the Indians and remained with them until his death at an old age.
235. A story is prevalent in some accounts that Gen. Lewis beat Simon Girty with a cane at this time for some sort of impertinence on Girty’s part, laying open Girty’s scalp and causing profuse bleeding. Girty, it is said, swore vengeance for the attack. There does not seem to be either justification for such an act on the part of Gen. Lewis, nor acceptable verification that it ever really occurred.
236. This creek is the present Campaign Creek which enters the Ohio a quarter-mile below the present town of Addison, Gallia Co., O.
237. The Indians landed on the left side of the Ohio at the mouth of present Oldtown Creek.
238. These two young hunters were James Robertson and a man identified only as Hickman (identified in one account, erroneous in other respects, as Valentine Sevier), the latter being the individual who was killed.
239. Col. William Fleming, 45, who commanded the Botetourt Regiment, was an intelligent Scotsman who had been born in Jedburgh and attended the University of Edinburgh and then emigrated to America in 1755. He had served as an ensign under Col. George Washington during the French and Indian War and until 1763, when he married Anne Christian. He recovered from the wounds he received at Point Pleasant, became county lieutenant of Botetourt in 1776, served in the Virginia Legislature 1777–79, was a member of the Virginia Council in 1780 and served 12 days as acting Virginia governor in June 1781. He died at age 66 on August 5, 1795.
240. Pucksinwah was also the father of Tecumseh who, at the time of this battle, was only six years old and in their village of Kispoko Town on the Scioto River, a few miles below present Circleville, Pickaway Co., O.
241. Chaquiweshe—The Mink—was married to Pucksinwah’s daughter, Tecumapese. He was father of her son, Spemica Lawba, later to gain recognition as Johnny Logan. Some years afterward, Tecumapese married the warrior named Wasegoboah—Stand Firm—who was eventually killed beside Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames near Chatham, Ont., October 5, 1813.