Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/229

 HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

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��hurriedly retreated over the route by which it came. He was captured, in company with Dr. Knight, Lieut. Ashley- and Capt. Biggs, as they were endeavoring to escape, about a half-mile south of the site of the former camp at Lees- ville. The band of Delaware Indians were under command of a chief named Wingenund, to whose camp Crawford and the Doctor were taken, where they found several other prisoners, stragglers like themselves.

Capt. Pipe was among the warriors, and was the chief instigator in the cruel death of Craw- ford, which ended the ill-fated expedition, Dr. Knight making his escape and saving himself from a horrible death.

It should be stated, to the credit of Capt. Pipe and other Indians, that, had Williamson been captured, Crawford would doubtless have been spared. As it was, he was put to the most cruel death they could devise, at the Del- aware village of Capt. Pipe, situated a short distance northeast of the present town of Ci'awfordsville. Almost all other prisoners were horribl}' tortured in one form and another, but none so fearfull}- as the "Big Captain," as the Indians called Crawford, on whom all the hate of their passions was expended.

The failure of the expedition excited the fears of the borderers, none of whom cared to venture far into the Indian country. A few venturesome spirits made the attempt along the Ohio River, but the danger was too great, and, moreover, the validity of claims not well established. Not till 1788, when the "Ordi- nance of 1787" had secured freeholders in their rights in the " Territory northwest of the Ohio," was a permanent settlement made in the State.

x\nother captive among the Indians before the settlement l\y the whites was Christian Fast, 8r., afterward one of the earliest settlers in Orange Township. He often narrated the incidents of his capture and captivity, which

��Mr. Knapp preserves in his " History of Ashland County." Mr. Knapp says:

" When a boy of sixteen, Mr. Fast was capt- ured by the Delaware Indians near the Falls of the Ohio. He had enlisted in Fayette County, Penn., in a company of 200 men, organ- ized for the purpose of chastising the In- dians, for depredations committed upon the frontier settlements. Such expeditions were of frequent occurrence in those times. This force descended the Ohio in boats, and. some distance above the falls, became separated into two parties, 3'oung Fast being among those in the rear. The advance party had driven posts in the river, upon the top of which they placed written directions, addressed to those who were following them, indicating the point where they would find the anchorage of the party, who would be in waiting for them. These written directions, it was supposed, fell into the hands of the Indians, who had whites among them competent to read, and who thus became in- formed of the movements of their foes. Before the latter could form a junction of their forces, the rear part}', a short distance above the falls, was attacked b}' parties of Indians on both sides of the river, while the men in the boats were making toward the shore to cook a heifer they had killed. The largest boat in the fleet, in which was Mr. Fast, had landed, and the others were making preparations to do so when the attack commenced. The smaller boats im- mediately put up stream, but the larger one was hard aground and could not get off. Of the one hundred, all but about thirty were killed. Young Fast jumped into the water, receiving, at the same instant, a flesh-wound in the hip, and swam to the opposite shore, where he was met by three Indians, who demanded that he should surrender, assuring him of friendly treatment. He declined their request and again plunged into the current, the three Indians firing at him as he swam, one of the balls grazing his cheek, momentarilv stunning him.

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