Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/225

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

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��CHAPTER XXI.

FIRST WHITE MEN IN THE COUNTY. James Smith and his Captivity-Ma.i. Robert Rogers and his M.litia-The Old Sandusky Trail-G.rtt AND other White Renegades— Moravians and their Missionaries -Crawford s March through the County— Captivity of Christian Fast— Explorers and Hunters.

��" Dressed for travel, armed for hunting." A S far as is now known, James Smith, a -l\- native of Western Pennsylvania, was the first white man to set foot on the land embraced in "Old Richland." He was captured near Bedford, Penn., when about eighteen years of age, by three Indians on a marauding expedi- tion in the spring of 1755, a short time before the defeat of Gen. Braddock. He was taken to the Indian village on the Alleghany opposite Fort Du Quesne, and compelled to run the gantlet, where he nearly lost his life by the blow of a club from a stalwart savage. After his recovery and the defeat of Gen. Braddock, he was taken by his captors on a long journey through the forest to the village of Tullihas, on the west bank of the Muskingum River, about twenty miles above the forks. This vil- lage was occupied by Mohicans, Caryhnewagas and Delawares. Here he was adopted by the Indians into one of their tribes. The ceremony consisted in first plucking all the hair from his head except the scalp lock, which they fixed ac- cording to their fashion; in boring his ears and nose and placing ornaments therein; in putting on a breech-clout and painting his body and face in fantastic colors, and in washing him several times in the river to wash out all the white blood in his veins. This last ceremony was performed by three young squaws, and, as Smith was unacquainted with their usages, he thought they intended to drown him, and re- sisted at first with all his might, to the great amusement of the multitude on the river's

��bank. One of the young squaws finally made out to say " Me no hurt you," and he gave them privilege to souse and rub him as they desired. When brought from the river he was allowed other clothes, and in solemn council, in an im- pressive speech, he was admitted to full mem- bership in the nation. He says in his journal, he always fared as they, no exceptions being made.

He remained at this town till the next Octo- ber, when he accompanied his adopted brother, Tontileaugo, who had a Wyandot wife on the shores of Lake Erie, on a visit to that nation. " Their route," says Dr. Hill, "was up the Lake Fork to near the present village of Tylertown, thence up the Jerome Fork, through the town- ships of Mohican, Montgomery and Orange, to the south borders of Sullivan, and across the same to the head branches of the Black River, called by the Indians, Canesadooharie. Then they journeyed across Medina and Lorain Coun- ties, following the Canesadooharie to where it falls into the lake, some distance north of Elyria, where they found a large camp of the Wyau- dots, and the wife of Tontileaugo."

Smith remained among the Wyandots, Otta- was and Mohicans about four years, traversing all parts of Northern Ohio. He undoubtedly hunted over this part of the State, as the streams here afforded good hunting-grounds. He was probably the first white man who saw these valleys in their pristine beauty. At any rate, he is the first one known to have been here. If any preceded him they were French

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