by Allan Eckert
620. George Greer’s name has been spelled Green in some accounts; Greer is believed correct.
621. So far as can be determined, there were in all of Wheeling at the time of the attack 63 individuals, including 30 men, 17 wives, 12 girls and unmarried young women, and 4 young boys. In addition to the five men in Zane’s house, the 23 men of fighting age in the fort included Silas, Jonathan and Andrew Zane; Matthew Carr and his grown sons Hamilton and Archibald; Tom Mills, Sr., still recovering from his wounds and unable to fight, and his only surviving son, Edward; Alexander McDowell, John Tate, Stephen Burkham and James Clark; George, Andrew and Jacob Reagan; Franklin and Henry Clark; Conrad Wheat, Edward Wright, James Salter, Conrad Stoup, Peter Neisinger; and James Smith, Sr., and his two grown sons, Thomas and Henry. There were also four boys in the fort who were less than 14 years old: Matthew Carr’s other sons, George and Matthew, Jr., James Smith, Jr., and James Boggs. In addition to the four women in the Zane house, within the fort were 14 wives and 11 girls and young unmarried women, including 18-year-olds Lydia Boggs and Nancy Richards. Three men were added to the contingent in the fort after the battle began—boat Capt. Cobus (Cobe) Sullivan (identified as Daniel Sullivan in some accounts) and his two crewmen.
622. At least one account states that it was Abraham McCulloch whom he met. The more reliable accounts indicate it was Ebenezer McCulloch.
623. One account states that at this point, Francis Duke, son-in-law of Col. Shepherd, declared his intention to go in anyway and help them and was killed in the effort. That, of course, is incorrect and confuses this siege with the first siege in 1777, when, as already shown, Francis Duke, approaching from Vanmetre’s Fort, not Shepherd’s, unexpectedly ran into the attackers and was killed.
624. No surname has been discovered for the slave called Old Daddy Sam, who was 65 years old at this time. A native of Guinea on the African continent, he had been captured by slavers when just a young boy and shipped to America.
625. More than one historian has stated that the second siege of Wheeling can justifiably be called the last battle of the American Revolutionary War and that the last shot fired by a British soldier in that war was fired at Fort Henry in Wheeling.
626. Full details of Clark’s second campaign against the Shawnees may be found in the author’s A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh.
627. Haldimand, on direction from King George III, relayed instructions to Maj. de Peyster to tell the Indians that for the time being they should not “push the War into the Enemies Country.… Nothing is more natural than this desire [of the Indians to continue their attacks]. Yet, under the express orders I have received it is impossible I can comply with their Request.”
628. Killbuck’s Island, some four acres in extent, had often been used by whites and Indians alike on which to raise corn. It was not suitable for permanent habitation because it was inundated by spring flooding almost every year. The island finally washed away entirely about 1785.
629. Site of the present city of Parkersburg, Wood Co., W.Va.
630. The Chapman claim took in part of what is now the town of New Cumberland, Hancock Co., W.Va.
631. Skyles was never heard of again. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman built a bigger and better house and lived there until their deaths, naturally, in advanced years, never having once been bothered by Indians.
632. Soon after Brady’s death, his partners, Capts. Lodge and Carnahan, also died — one by illness, the other by drowning—and the Kentucky land claims of the three were disputed by numerous counterclaims. The result was that the Brady heirs lost the land and never realized one dollar from it.
633. One of the principal emissaries sent out by the secretary of war for this delicate and dangerous mission of setting up a peace treaty with the Indians was an individual who had lived many years among them as a trader, spoke their language fluently and had established a reputation among them of being a fair and honest man—Maj. (later Gen.) Ephraim Douglas. He began his mission from Fort Pitt and, with horses and attendants, passed through the hostile wilderness to the Sandusky, then to British posts at Detroit, Niagara, Upper Canada and Oswego, in which effort he was aided by Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott, Delaware Chief Pimoacan and, on behalf of the Iroquois, Mohawk Chief Thayendanegea.
634. This speech by Sagoyewatha is often stated in histories as having been given in 1822, but that is incorrect. It was made to Gen. Washington himself as soon as details of the Paris Treaty were made known and U.S. commissioners were authorized to purchase their lands.
635. In the land suits filed for possession of lands earlier claimed by Washington and his agents, the cases dragged on for many years before finally being settled in the favor of Washington, only because he had been very careful in keeping close records of the locations that had been claimed. Many others, who had been less careful in marking their lands, establishing their boundaries and carefully filing their claims, lost everything they had worked so hard to obtain.
636. Roughly, this border follows a line from present downtown Cleveland, O., south through Akron and Massilon to just below Navarre, then almost due west across the state to west of Indian Lake and then south through Sidney, Piqua, Troy, Dayton, Middletown and Hamilton to the point where the Great Miami joins the Ohio River at the Indiana line, eight miles west of present Cincinnati. The area encompassed by this boundary, to the south and east of the new line and north and west of the Ohio River, takes in approximately two-thirds of the entire present state of Ohio.
637. Weylendeweyhing is pronounced Way-lendy-WAY-hing.
638. It is uncertain exactly what location was meant by Kookhassing, a place name not repeated thereafter in documents.
639. The site of Fort Harmar, in the present Harmar suburb of Marietta, Washington Co., O., is now occupied by the Fort Harmar Monument.
640. Though the terminology Northwest Territory was coming into extensive usage at this period, it was not until sometime later that the designation became official and encompassed the area of the present states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and that portion of Minnesota east of the Mississippi River.
641. The site where the Patrick party landed near the mouth of the Scioto was the site of present Portsmouth, Scioto Co., O. Up the Scioto he carved his initials, P.P., into beech trees; those initials, discovered later, resulted in the naming of present Pee Pee Creek and Pee Pee Township in Pike Co., O.
642. Neal’s Station later was renamed Monroe, which itself, in time, was incorporated into present Parkersburg, W.Va.
643. Site of present Belleville, Wood Co., W.Va.
644. Whortem’s Station was situated on the site of present Majorsville, Marshall Co., W.Va., almost on the Pennsylvania line.
645. Langfitt’s claim was made on the site of present Hookstown, Beaver Co., Pa.
646. There were four basic reasons why Kentuckians were seeking statehood: They objected to Virginia’s taxes, the Virginia government’s inability to adapt its laws to the frontier, the state’s refusal to permit pursuit of Indians north of the Ohio, and the fact that all cases appealed to a higher court had to be retried in Richmond.
647. Some accounts assume the body of Old John Wetzel was left where first buried by Lewis Wetzel near Baker’s Station, but that is not true. A large stone was, indeed, crudely engraved with the letters J. W. and the year and remained at this site for many years, but the permanent burial was on the Wetzel farm above the forks of Wheeling Creek.
648. One account states that there were four Indians in this party, that the fourth escaped and ran off into the woods and that Wetzel, when he returned to Wheeling, was asked if he’d had any luck. The report says he replied, “Not much. I treed four Injens, but one got away.” The other accounts, which agree on three Indians in the party, seem more accurate. Though Lewis Wetzel had killed quite a few Indians before this time, the death of his father seemed to trigger a remorseless vendetta within him against the Indians. There are dozens of accounts similar to this, i
n which he entered an Indian camp alone and killed the occupant(s)—so many, in fact, that they become repetitious. Thus, only a few that are representative or particularly significant will be dwelt upon here.
649. James Madison, of course, was elected fourth President of the United States in 1808.
650. This new fort, soon to be named Fort Finney, was constructed a short distance up from the river on the site of the present power plant, located just over a mile from the mouth of the Great Miami River, 20 miles downstream from present downtown Cincinnati, and a mile southwest of the community of Finney, at the base of the high bluffs upon which is located present Shawnee Lookout County Park, which the author had the honor to name when the park was first established.
651. Butler here refers to the present Maumee River. The portage from the upper waters of the Great Miami connects with the Auglaize River in the vicinity of present Wapakoneta, Auglaize Co., O., which in turn flows northward and empties into the Maumee (also called Miami-of-the-Lake and Omee River), at the site of present Defiance in Defiance Co., O. The Maumee from that point flows northeast some 60 miles and empties into the southwestern end of Lake Erie at present Toledo, Lucas Co., O.
652. Kekewapilethy, pronounced KEK-ee-wop-pill-LETH-ee, has also been spelled Kekewepellethe in some accounts. He was a member of the Thawegila sept of the Shawnees and served for a brief period as third subchief of Wapatomica.
653. Monakaduto—Half King—had evidently fallen into ill health, which prevented his attendance.
654. The treaty was attested to by the treaty commissioners’ clerk, Alexander Campbell, as well as by Maj. William Finlay, Capt. Thomas Doyle, Nathan M. Donnell, James Montgomery, Daniel Elliott, John Boyce, James Rinkings, Nathaniel Smith, Isaac Teans and James Sufferance. All the chiefs mentioned in the text signed the treaty with the exception of Blue Jacket, though some accounts (including The Frontiersmen) erroneously say that he did.
655. The Indian country, in this instance, meaning about three-quarters of the present state of Indiana.
656. This letter, before being dispatched, was also signed by two Maykujay subchiefs, Painted Pole and Shade.
657. Maj. Robert Finney, commander of the fort bearing his name, had ordered the fort evacuated as the river began rising precipitately following several days of heavy rainfall. Taking all their most essential gear with them, the garrison had moved to the top of the ridge on the west side of the Great Miami and camped there, expecting there would be some minor flooding and a major cleanup in store as soon as they could reoccupy the place. Within two days, however, the fort had been all but wholly inundated and, even as they had watched, was damaged severely by the juggernaut logs and trees propelled along by the irresistible current. Only three hours before the Shawnee war party under Blue Jacket showed up, Maj. Finney gave the order to move out, and the entire company headed west and south along the Ohio’s north shore. When they reached the high ground opposite Louisville at the Falls of the Ohio, he ordered the construction of a new fort, this one, like the first, to be named Fort Finney.
658. Col. John Donelson, who had earlier been involved in surveying the Kentucky-Tennessee boundary, was the father-in-law of Andrew Jackson, later President of the United States.
659. The area chosen by Madison for land-claiming included the site of the present town of Burnaugh, Boyd Co., Ky.
660. Wetzel never received a penny of the payment that was due him, and neither restitution for his expenses nor the thousand acres of land that was promised.
661. Fred Earlywine’s body was found the following day in the woods where the Delaware had tomahawked and scalped him. He was buried on the spot. Some accounts erroneously give his name as Abraham, but that was his father’s name.
662. The run upon which they camped was the present Tom’s Run, which they encountered just west of the present community of Limestone, four miles upstream from its mouth at Middle Grave Creek.
663. The canoe that was set adrift continued floating down the Ohio and finally wedged along the shore at Limestone, 300 miles downstream, the dead pig still in the bottom of the boat.
664. Greater details of the establishment of Marietta and adjacent areas and the land fraud perpetrated in France to lure settlers from there to settle on the Ohio in this area—resulting in the French Grant—may be found in the author’s The Frontiersmen.
665. A tenth child had just been born to Ebenezer and Elizabeth Zane: a daughter named Hetty who, when grown, married Elijah Woods. The other living Zane children at this time were Catherine (17), Ann (14), Sarah (13), Rebecca (10), Noah (8), John (6), and Samuel (2). Two other sons had died in infancy, the first Noah (in 1774) and the first Samuel (in 1782).
666. Full details of Logan’s expedition against the Shawnee towns may be found in the author’s The Frontiersmen (for the white perspective) and A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh (for the Indian perspective).
667. Tarhe, at this time and afterward, evidently becomes the most important chief among the Wyandots. Monakaduto, who had long held this position of influence, had been ailing all this year of 1786 and had become very frail. Though present for this Grand Council, he did not speak for the Wyandots as did Tarhe. Monakaduto’s health continued degenerating and seems to have resulted in his death shortly after the Grand Council. At any rate, while no account of his death seems to exist, he apparently disappears from the pages of history after this time.
668. Pronunciations of the names of these chiefs are: Sindathon (SIN-duh-thon), Monakaduto (MON-uh-kuh-DUE-toe), Topenebe (Toe-PEN-uh-bee), Nanimisea (Nan-nuh-MISS-ee-yuh), Nescotnemeg (Nee-SCOT-nee-meg), Nichinesica (Nitch-ee-NESS-sik-kuh), Oulamy (OOOH-luh-mee), Wafrugahquealied (Wuh-FROO-guh-QUEE-uh-leed), Sekahos (See-KAH-hoes) and Wabacumaga (WAH-buh-koo-MAH-guh).
669. Some accounts contend that Blue Jacket led an attack against the Americans at Vincennes on December 17. Undoubtedly Shawnee attacks were occurring there and in Kentucky, but they were not on this occasion led by Blue Jacket, who was indisputably at the Grand Council at the mouth of the Detroit River.
670. The Weas and Piankeshaws later became recognized as full tribes in their own right. The Pepicokias, also called the Eel River Miamis, became absorbed into the Piankeshaws. The Kalatikas, the Mengakonias and the Ouiatenons ceased to exist as subtribes by the mid-nineteenth century through both attrition and absorption into the main body of Miamis. Smaller regional groupings such as those known as Mississinewas, Tippecanoes, Salamonies and Mishawakas never did receive the fullest recognition as subtribes and their designations were short-lived, though they remain as geographical names in present Indiana.
671. The prisoner exchange occurred on the site of the present village of Aberdeen, Brown Co., O.
672. These boundaries are basically the boundaries of the present states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
673. The Ohio Land Company purchase here was bounded by the Ohio River from the mouth of the Scioto to the intersection of the Seventh Range of Townships, then being surveyed; thence by said boundary to the northern boundary of the Tenth Range of Townships; thence by a due-west line to the Scioto and back down that stream to the point of beginning. Initially 1.5 million acres was petitioned for, but this was subsequently diminished to 964,285 acres.
674. Campus Martius was located within the present city of Marietta, Washington Co., O. The site, at Second and Washington streets, is presently marked by the Campus Martius Museum.
675. Site of present West Liberty, Ohio Co., W.Va.
676. The dates of ratification of the U.S. Constitution for these six states this year were: Georgia on February 6, Maryland on April 28, South Carolina on May 23, New Hampshire on June 21, Virginia on June 25 and New York on July 26.
677. Ginseng root is still highly prized, especially in the Orient, for medicinal purposes, and a cargo the size of Boone’s would today be worth about half a million dollars.
678. The island where Boone’s boat sank was present Gallipolis Island, three miles below the m
outh of the Kanawha River.
679. A skeleton found some years later where a body had been stuffed into a hollow sycamore tree was believed to be that of John Filson, though never positively identified. Losantiville was founded at what is presently downtown Cincinnati, Hamilton Co., O. It was begun with the erection of four cabins, the first of which was built on present Front Street, near but east of Main Street. The lower table of land was at that time covered with sycamore and apple trees, the upper with beech and oak. Through this dense forest the streets were laid out, their corners marked upon the trees. This survey extended from Eastern Row (now Broadway) to Western Row (now Central Avenue) and from the river as far north as Northern Row (now Seventh Street).
680. Fort Clendenin was established on the site of the present capital city of Charleston, W.Va. The unnamed fort a mile above was sometimes called the Ruffner Fort because it was built (probably by Clendenin) adjacent to the cabin of Silas Ruffner, one of his tenant farmers.