Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/47

 •>.:

��HISTORY OF OHIO.

��35

��made an ineffectual attempt to settle near the same place. They were from Kentucky, but were driven away by the Indians a short time after they arrived, not being allowed to build cabins, and had only made preparations to plant corn and other necessaries of life. While the men were encamped near the vicinity of Piketown, in Pike County, when on a hunting expedition, they were surprised by the Indians, and two of them slain. The others hastened back to the encampment at the mouth of the Scioto, and hurriedly gathering the families together, fortu- nately got them on a flat-boat, at tfcat hour on its way down the river. By the aid of the boat, they were enabled to reach Maysville, and gave up the attempt to settle north of the Ohio.

The famous "old Scioto Salt Works," in Jack- son County, on the banks of Salt Creek, a tributary of the Scioto, were long known to the whites before any attempt was made to settle in Ohio. They were indicated on the maps published in 1755. They were the resort, for generations, of the In- dians in all parts of the West, who annually came here to make salt. They often brought white prisoners with them, and thus the salt works be- came known. There were no attempts made to settle here, however, until after the Indian war, which closed in 1795. As soon as peace was as- sured, the whites came here for salt, and soon after made a settlement. Another early salt spring was in what is now Trumbull County. It is also noted on Evan's map of 1755. They were occu- pied by the Indians, French, and by the Americans as early as 1780, and perhaps earlier.

As early as 1761 Moravian missionaries came among the Ohio Indians and began their labors. In a few years, under the lead of Revs. Fredrick Post and John Heckewelder, permanent stations were established in several parts of the State, chief- ly on the Tuscarawas River in Tuscarawas County. Here were the three Indian villages — Shoenburn, Gnadenhutten and Salem. The site of the first is about two miles south of New Philadelphia ; Gna- denhutten was seven miles further south, and about five miles still on was Salem, a short distance from the present village of Port Washington. The first and last named of these villages were on the west side of the Tuscarawas River, near the margin of the Ohio Canal. Gnadenhutten was on the east side of the river. It was here that the brutal massacre of these Christian Indians, by the rangers under Col. Williamson, occurred March 8, 17S2. The account of the massacre and of these tribes

��appears in these pages, and it only remains to notice what became of them.

The hospitable and friendly character of these Indians had extended beyond their white breth- ren on the Ohio. The American people at large looked on the act of Williamson and his men as an outrage on humanity. Congress felt its influence, and gave them a tract of twelve thousand acres, embracing their former homes, and induced them to return from the northern towns whither they had fled. As the whites came into the country, their manners degenerated until it became necessary to remove them. Through Gen. Cass, of Michigan, an agreement was made with them, whereby Con- gress paid them over $6,000, an annuity of $400, and 24,000 acres in some territory to be designated by the United States. This treaty, by some means, was never effectually carried out, and the princi- pal part of them took up their • residence near a Moravian missionary station on the River Thames, in Canada. Their old churchyard still exists on the Tuscarawas River, and here rest the bones of several of their devoted teachers. It is proper to remark here, that Mary Heckewelder, daughter of the missionary, is generally believed to have been the first white child born in Ohio. How- ever, this is largely conjecture. Captive women among the Indians, before the birth of Mary Heckewelder, are known to have borne children, which afterward, with their mothers, were restored to their friends. The assertion that Mary Heckewelder was the first child born in Ohio, is therefore incorrect. She is the first of whom any definite record is made.

These outposts and the Gallipolis settlement are about all that are known to have existed prior to the settlement at Marietta. About one-half mile below Bolivar, on the western line of Tuscarawas County, are the remains of Fort Laurens, erected in 1778 by a detachment of 1,000 men under Gen. Mc- intosh, from Fort Pitt. It was, however, occu- pied but a short time, vacated in August, 1779, as it was deemed untenable at such a distance from the frontier.

During the existence of the six years' Indian war, a settlement of French emigrants was made on the Ohio River, that deserves notice. It illus- trates very clearly the extreme ignorance and credulity prevalent at that day. In May or June of 1788, Joel Barlow left this country for Europe, " authorized to dispose of a very large body of land in the West. " In 1790, he distributed pro- posals in Paris for the disposal of lands at five

�� �