Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/286

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��HISTOEY OF RICHLAND COUNTY

��CHAPTER XXVIII.

INDIAN TROUBLKS.

War ok 1812 — Alarm of thk .Settlers — Block Houses — Greentown Indians and their Removal — James Corns — His Influence over the Indians — Burning of the Indian Village — Captain Armstrong — The Killing of an Indian by Morrison and McCulloch — The Jones Tragedy — Search for the Murderers of Jones — The Killing of Ruffner and the Zimmers — Sketch of Ruffner — Battle on Black Fork and the Murder of James Copus — Removal of the ('opus Family — Mrs. Sarah Vail — Killing of two Indians near Mansfirld..

��WHEN war was declared with Great Brit- ain, in the spring of 1812, a feeling of uneasiness ran through the border settlements. The Indians had always been allies of the En- glish as against Americans ; and they would have been equally allies of any other power that would have assisted them in regaining the territory that was being rapidly wrested from them by the advancing pioneers.

Tecumseh, the brave and eloquent chief, was earnestly engaged in uniting the Indian tribes, inducing them to take up the hatchet, and, with the help of the British, drive the Americans from their country. Very few soldiers were then upon the border for the protection of the set- tlers ; block-houses and means of defense were scarce. When the American commander, flen. Hull, surrendered, this feeling of insecurity was increased to one of alarm. It was supposed that a British invading army would immedi- ately cross the State of Ohio, and that the In- dians would be let loose upon the defenseless settlers. Block-houses were immediately erect- ed for protection— they sprang up, like mush- rooms, almost in a single night. Two were erected on the site of Mansfield ; one on Rocky Fork, at Beams mill (now Goudy's mill) ; one on the Clear F<n'k of the ^lohican. and one where Ganges now stands. Within reach of these rude works the pioneers felt comparatively safe. A few of them could defend themselves aoainst

��quite a force <;)f savages ; and, as rapidly as possible, these works were occupied by sol- diers.

There had l^een, for some 3'ears, a camp of Indians at Greentown on Black Fork— about one hundred of them. A few were Mohawks, but most of them were Delawares, under an old chief named Armstrong. They had always been friendly and neighborly with the whites, and quite a settlement of white people had gathered around them. Fearing that Tecumseh would influence these Indians to engage in the war, and that they would suddenly fall upon the settlers and murder them, the military authorities determined to remove them. It was the policy of the Government to gather all the friendly Indians together as much as possi- ble — to separate the sheep from the goats, as it were — that it might knoAv who were its friends and who its enemies. This was the motive for the order removing the Greentown Indians. However unjust it might seem to drive them from their homes and hunting-grounds, it was in accoixlance with a general policy that seemed to be for the best. A great many friendly Indians were gathered near the present site of Piqua. Ohio, where they were under the protec- tion and supervision of the military. To this place it was decided to remove these Indians, and that task was intrusted to Col. Samuel Kratzer, who had arrived in Mansfield with his

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