That Dark and Bloody River

by Allan Eckert

  332. Fort McIntosh was built on the site of the present city of Beaver, Beaver Co., Pa. It was square in construction, its pickets enclosing some two acres and extending to the Ohio River, with no pickets on the river side and the main gate on the north.

  333. Sam Brady’s mother was the former Mary Quigley, daughter of an Irish immigrant who settled on Canandaguinnet Creek. She had bright blue, very intelligent eyes.

  334. Samuel Brady’s siblings were, in the order of their birth, James, John, Mary, William P., the twins, Hugh and Jane, Robert, Hannah and Liberty.

  335. One account says he killed two before the other Indians reached him. If so, he must have snatched up one of the other guns stacked there.

  336. According to a couple of the accounts, there was every likelihood that James Brady would have survived his wounds had he received prompt treatment. Brady’s mother, it was said, was so heartbroken over James’s death that she, also, soon died.

  337. There is some contention over whether it was at this time of James’s death that Samuel Brady made his vow of vengeance or when his father, John Brady, was killed by Indians. Most accounts agree on the former. Very little has been recorded of John Brady’s death except that he was out with a man named Peter Smith when two Indians shot at them from ambush. Both balls hit John Brady, one of them through the heart, while Peter Smith was unscathed and escaped. John Brady’s brother, Sam (for whom Capt. Sam Brady was named) said at the time, regarding John’s death, “I can’t understand why the Almighty suffered so clever a man as John to be killed and permit so insignificant a man as Smith to escape.”

  338. Col. Crawford was made an acting brigadier general for the duration of this expedition.

  339. This site is located three-quarters of a mile south of present downtown Bolivar, Tuscarawas Co., O.

  340. The flour and beeves had been the responsibility of the commissaries Abram and Isaac Hite. They had been driven all the way from the east by a party under Capt. George Lockhart and were rangy and ailing. Lockhart said he had contemplated killing most of them en route and salting down the meat, but then discovered he did not have salt enough to do so and abandoned the idea.

  341. At the time of its construction and ever afterward, some confusion has resulted from the name of Fort Laurens, as many people in their letters, journals and reports misunderstood the name and reproduced it as Fort Lawrence. This even resulted, in later years, in the establishment of Lawrence Township in Tuscarawas County.

  342. Simon Kenton endured a terrible ordeal among the Shawnees, running the gauntlet numerous times. At the Shawnee capital of Wapatomica he was condemned to be burned at the stake. He was saved through the intervention of Simon Girty, only to be recondemned a short time later. Girty and Chief Talgayeeta (Logan) then got the help of an Englishman they knew at Detroit, who managed to convince the Indians to bring him there for a reward. This was done, and Kenton was imprisoned there for half a year before finally escaping and making his way back through the Indiana country to Kentucky. Greater details of all this may be found in the author’s The Frontiersmen and A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh.

  343. Capt. Daniel Boone, on his return to Kentucky, was accused of collaborating with the Indians and was court-martialed on four separate counts. He defended himself and was ultimately exonerated on all charges and promoted to major. Fully reconstructed details of his trial may be found in the author’s novel The Court-Martial of Daniel Boone (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973; New York: Bantam, 1987).

  344. Simon Girty by this time had established his base of operations among the Wyandots at Half King’s Town—the village of Chief Monakaduto—on the upper Sandusky River, three miles south and slightly east of the site of present Upper Sandusky, Wyandot Co., O.

  345. Capt. Henry Bird (often referred to incorrectly as colonel, a rank he earned considerably later) was an officer of the British Eighth Regiment. His name has frequently been spelled Byrd.

  346. Clark’s force in the bateau, much to their mortification, did not arrive at Vincennes until two days after the surrender to Clark.

  347. Lichtenau was located near the southern city limits of present Coshocton, Coshocton Co., O. Salem was located on the Tuscarawas about five miles north and a mile east of present West Lafayette in the same county. Gnadenhütten—meaning Tents of Grace—was located on the site of present Gnadenhutten, Tuscarawas Co., O., and Salem was located in that same county on the site of present New Philadelphia, some 18 miles downstream from Fort Laurens.

  348. Greater details of this council held by the Shawnees, the speeches made, the arguments heard and other details may be found in the author’s The Frontiersmen and A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh.

  349. Gen. Henry Hamilton, whom Clark had captured at Vincennes, was not set at liberty as his men were. He was shackled and sent up the Ohio and Monongahela to Redstone, then taken overland from there to Williamsburg, where he was imprisoned and kept in irons, even in his cell.

  350. Sometimes when an Indian was killed, the tribe to which the slain individual belonged would forgo declaring war or otherwise seeking retaliation against the perpetrators if a “present” of substantial significance were given to them as an apology for the deed. This present, usually goods of one kind or another, normally went to the family of the dead man.

  351. Some accounts have suggested that Simon Girty was among the attackers, but this is discounted since Girty was at this time among the Wyandots of the Sandusky, deep in the Ohio interior. Fort Hand, deemed indefensible, was abandoned the succeeding fall and was shortly thereafter burned by the Indians.

  352. Christiana Sykes and all six of her children were surrendered by the Delawares 16 years later, on July 20, 1795.

  353. Potter’s Fort was located just a short distance southwest of present Milesburg, Centre Co., Pa.

  354. This smaller stream, first named Redbank Creek, then called Brady’s Bend Creek, is the present Sugar Creek, Armstrong Co., Pa., which enters the Allegheny directly opposite the north end of the present city of East Brady, Clarion Co., Pa.

  355. This Indian camp had been made on the site of what is now known as Brady’s Bend in Brady’s Bend Township, Armstrong Co., Pa.

  356. One account states that this party of Mingoes was led by a noted warrior whom the Americans referred to as Old Mate. It also states that Old Mate was wounded in the genitals but survived the wounding. Another account states that Old Mate, “shot in the privates, was killed,” and that ten other warriors were killed, but that is an error, since only one Indian was killed.

  357. In 1809, thirty years after this incident, Peter Henry, then a prosperous man, brought a fine horse to Peter Parchment as a reward and thanks for the long-ago rescue. Parchment was appreciative of the offer but declined to accept, saying he had only done his job.

  358. This may be the basis for one account that states there was a white renegade with this party of Indians, but since no other accounts mention this, it is believed to be erroneous.

  359. The name Brady’s Bend stuck, and it has ever since been known by that name.

  360. The term bark canoe always seems to conjure up the picture of the picturesque birchbark canoe, but the Shawnees and early Ohio River frontiersmen rarely, if ever, used birch, which was not indigenous to the Ohio country. Several different types of trees were used for making the standard bark canoe, but the most favored was elm, since it was very flexible and easy to work. Two experienced Shawnee men could make a bark canoe suitable for crossing the Ohio River in about two hours. An elm with a good straight trunk would be chosen that was a foot and a half to two feet in diameter. Using tomahawks, a line would be cut through the bark all the way around the tree just above ground level. Another line would be cut straight up the trunk for ten to twelve feet, one of the Shawnees standing on the shoulders of the other when it became too high to work otherwise. Then the man on top would cut a line around the tree similar to the one at the base. Elm bark separates from the base wood quit
e easily, and they would pry it back, using the tomahawks as levers, until the bark came off in a single tube. One end of the tube would be flattened together so the cut lines met exactly, and then, using sharpened wooden pegs, holes would be punched two or three inches apart about an inch or so inward from the ends of the tubular bark. The same thing would be done to the other end. Then long strands of tough wild grapevine would be used to lace each end very tightly. Finally, sections of sturdy branches would be cut just long enough to act as crossbars to prop the long cut apart to its fullest extent. Sometimes (not always) these crossbars would also be snugged in place with pieces of grapevine through peg-holes. The result was a square-ended canoe that was not much for looks and could not make much speed, but that could very nicely carry a couple of men and their gear across—or down—the broad river. Paddles were made from tough stiff sections of oak bark. Such bark canoes always leaked at the ends, but not as much as might be expected, and if the load weight, including the paddlers, were positioned close enough to the center, the canoe would bow downward in the middle, lifting the ends high enough that they would barely come in contact with the water. When finished using such a canoe, the Indians usually found a secluded backwater up a creek, filled the canoe with water and then put large rocks in it to sink it for possible use another time. The elm bark resisted rotting for a considerable time, and a canoe sunk in this manner in spring could be raised and used as late as the following fall, though it would almost never survive undamaged through a winter.

  361. The author has been unable to find any identification of who this “relative” was who took charge of the Henry children. Nor was there any further record of their parents, who, the children reported, had been taken along with the other captives by the larger Indian group that had turned northward.

  362. Col. John Bowman remained jealous of George Rogers Clark for many years and was said to “bad-mouth” Clark at any opportunity and, wherever possible, undermine Clark to his superiors.

  363. More complete details of the Col. John Bowman campaign against Chalahgawtha may be found in the author’s A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh.

  364. Full day-by-day details of Maj. Gen. John Sullivan’s 1779 expedition against the Iroquois may be found in the author’s The Wilderness War (Boston: Little Brown, 1978; New York: Bantam, 1979).

  365. This ambush site was evidently somewhere in the vicinity of opposite the present town of West Monterey, Armstrong Co., Pa., about three miles upstream from present Bald Eagle Island.

  366. One account, less reliable, claims there were 60 Indians in this war party, but that is believed to be an exaggeration.

  367. Who this slain renegade actually was has never been ascertained, but as Nicholson averred, it was definitely not either George or James Girty, nor their half-brother, John Turner.

  368. The militiaman killed when he dropped his own gun against a log was Pvt. William Hall of Pittsburgh. In at least one account, this incident is erroneously included as part of Brodhead’s Coshocton Campaign in April 1781. Jacob Fouts, of the Ramsey’s Fort area on Buffalo Creek, was the brother of Andrew Fouts, who also lived here with his son, David.

  369. The name of Dehguswaygahent—pronounced as Day-gus-WAY-guh-hent—in some accounts is spelled Dahgahswagaheh; it was, in addition to being translated as “the Fallen Board,” also translated by some as “the Dropped Plank” or “the Rifle Stock Dropped.” Dayoosta’s name is pronounced Dah-YOU-stah.

  370. Dahgahgahend’s name is pronounced Day-GAH-guh-hend.

  371. One account states, regarding Red Eye: “And after he got over & was climbing up the bank or hill, a ball came so near him as to knock him down, yet without actually touching him.” Red Eye died at an advanced age at the Cold Spring Iroquois Reservation in 1830. Two other accounts state that the brief battle broke out before the canoes ever reached shore, but this is believed erroneous as it does not jibe too well with many of the minor details associated with the fight that have been better substantiated.

  372. While there was a certain element of trophy-taking and revenge in the practice of taking Indian scalps, it was actually more economically based than anything else. Indian scalps had a definite commercial value—just as American scalps had commercial value for the Indians who turned them in at Detroit—since a rather high bounty was paid for them. Following the Allegheny Campaign, Brady turned in the scalps that had been taken and was paid accordingly. In the minutes of the Supreme Executive Council, Pennsylvania Colonial Records, it is noted: “An order was drawn in favor of Col. Archibald Lochry, Lieutenant of the County of Westmoreland, for the sum of £12.10s state money, equal to 2,500 dollars continental money, to be by him paid to Captain Samuel Brady, as a reward for an Indian scalp, agreeable to a late proclamation of this board.”

  373. Jonathan Zane’s wound required surgery at Fort Pitt for the ball to be removed, but he responded well to treatment and was back on his feet within a month.

  374. The Muncey Towns were situated about four miles downstream from the present town of Irvine, and 14 miles below the present city of Warren, county seat of Warren Co., Pa.

  375. The Muncey Towns were never rebuilt after this destruction. Nor has there ever been any indication that any of the 30 brass kettles were recovered. In his later report to Gen. Washington, Col. Brodhead wrote: “The troops remained on the ground three whole days destroying the towns and corn fields. I never saw finer corn, although it was planted much thicker than is common with our farmers. The quantity of corn and other vegetables destroyed at the several towns, from the best accounts I can recollect from the officers employed to destroy it, must certainly exceed five hundred acres, which is the lowest estimate, and the plunder taken is estimated at three thousand dollars.”

  376. The Seneca village of Dunosahdahgah—The Burnt House—was situated at the site of the present community of Kinga, Warren Co., Pa.

  377. This same young Seneca about two years later captured James Chambers, who had been on Brodhead’s Allegheny Campaign, and treated Chambers very roughly. Chambers was fortunate enough to escape before the execution that was planned for him.

  378. Nantagoah—pronounced Nan-tuh-GO-uh—who was also known as Captain Crow, died at an advanced age in 1830 on the Iroquois Indian Reservation at Cold Spring.

  379. One account states that Seneca Chief Gahgeote—known as Half Town to the Americans—having returned from opposing Gen. Sullivan on his campaign, learned of Brodhead’s expedition and immediately raised 40 warriors and set out to engage him. Brodhead had, by that time, returned to Fort Pitt, but Gahgeote’s party allegedly encountered four of Brodhead’s men who had wandered off from the main party and became lost. Allegedly, the four fled upon seeing the Indians but were pursued and all four killed. This story, however, is generally discredited.

  380. Beeler’s Fort, established by the Beeler brothers, John and Samuel, in September 1778, was situated on a fairly broad bottom of Raccoon Creek about midway between present Murdocksville and Bavington, Washington Co., Pa.

  381. David McMechen became a very successful attorney in Baltimore, where he finally died without ever having married.

  382. James McMechen made his claims near the site of present Natrium, Wetzel Co., W.Va., and eventually became the owner of extensive tracts of land in that area and the sire of a large family there.

  383. William McMechen, Jr., under the guidance of his eldest brother, David, also became a Baltimore attorney and subsequently a municipal judge there.

  384. William McMechen lived up to his vow and remained at the rebuilt McMechen Settlement until his death in 1803. His son Benjamin inherited his father’s place, and he, too, remained there, a successful and prosperous farmer owning 1,600 acres of McMechen’s Bottom, until his death at age 78 in 1855. He and his wife, Mary, had fourteen children: Sidney, William, Hiram, David, James, Hanson, Mary, twins Elizabeth and Jane, Benson, Lydia, Ellen, Sheppard and Sallie.

  385. The Shawnee graveyard at Chalahgawtha was located on
present Shawnee Creek, 200 yards upstream from where it is crossed by present Hawkins Road, just northwest of Xenia, seat of Greene Co. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad line was built over a portion of the graveyard.

  386. Kinnikinnick (pronounced KIN-ny-kin-NICK) was a pungent blend of specially dried leaves—the blend often very individualistic—the principal ingredients being leaves of the red willow (osier) and sumac, and often dried bearberry and shredded dogwood bark. With the advent of greater white contact and Indian trade, ordinary smoking tobacco from the plant called tabac (tobacco), which grew abundantly in the wild from the Kan-tuck-kee region southward, was often mixed with the blend because of its constant and slow-burning attributes. The fragrance of kinnikinnick was strong but not unpleasant. Occasionally, for ritualistic purposes, especially among the tribal medicine men and seers, small amounts of crushed dried marijuana was added, but it was not a constituent of the normal kinnikinnick mixture. Marijuana at this time was abundant as a wild plant throughout the present Midwest. So far as the author’s research has determined, it had never been grown by the Indians as a crop, though tabac was, especially among the Cherokees, Creeks and Alabamas.

  387. Capt. Henry Bird always wore full dress uniform when visiting the tribes, although other British officers often appeared among the tribes in mufti, or even in Indian garb; McKee was among the latter.

  388. This was a party of 42 men under the general command of Maj. David Rogers, who had been sent downriver from Fort Pitt to the Spanish governor in New Orleans the previous spring to procure a loan of funds and as much ammunition and other supplies as possible; the money was needed for continuing the war against the British, and the supplies were much needed by the troops in the upper Ohio River forts. Rogers’s second in command was Capt. George Gibson, brother of Col. John Gibson of Fort Pitt, and they were now on their return with the precious cargo of gunpowder, lead, new fusees (flintlock rifles), dry goods, rum and a chest of Spanish silver dollars. The boats reached Fort Nelson at the Falls of the Ohio (the settlement there soon to become Louisville) on August 29 and remained for about a month. When it left, it was augmented with a guard of 28 soldiers under Lt. Abraham Chaplin. The entire complement in the flotilla as it left the Falls of the Ohio was 70 men, which included hired polemen and guards, plus a few passengers from the Fort Nelson area, who were largely civilians and retired officers wanting to get to Fort Pitt and points east. Maj. Rogers also carried dispatches from George Rogers Clark and Col. John Todd to Gov. Thomas Jefferson, reporting on the weakness of Clark’s command and that of the Kentucky settlements in general.