2020 Mary Harris Prizes Essays
Erin Gotwals: History Underfoot (1st Place Winner)
Our boots crunch through leaves as we set out on our morning hike. Mushrooms emerge after the recent rain, lopsided hats of matted leaves plastered to their heads. I duck to avoid dew-studded spider webs, and carpets of moss cushion our steps. (I learned, during the toilet paper crisis of early spring, that moss was commonly used before the availability of modern toilet paper, and I took comfort in our bountiful supply.) The pond reflects the first fall leaves, and a family of ducks bursts squawking from the bank at our approach. I admire these small wonders as my two children plow ahead in search the main attraction: an old tire.
“Ta! Ta!” announces the one-year-old upon sighting the curve of black rubber nestled in pine needles. His brother, three, jumps up on the tire, and they both poke at it with sticks. The trash we encounter spoils the idyllic forest scene, but for the kids, junk is the best part of our daily excursions into the woods around our house. Bottles, cans, jugs, and pipes are captivating attractions for these budding archaeologists, and they visit the sites day after day to reexamine their newly discovered artifacts. They drum on a discarded antifreeze jug, totter precariously close to broken bottles, and stomp on faded aluminum cans, relishing the crunch of history underfoot. These relics are no match for arrowheads or ancient pottery shards, but they are a piece of history nonetheless. To these young ones, the people who tossed their junk here half a century ago might as well have been from ancient civilizations.
For some, being stuck at home during a pandemic in an isolated rural setting with two little kids would be a nightmare. For me, though, the situation has provided unique opportunities. With fewer chances to explore and socialize in the wider community, we delve deeper into the land we live on, wondering and learning about its history. I am a newcomer to this rural corner of White Eyes Township, but I am fascinated by its past.
While the junk detracts from the natural beauty of the woods, it also reminds me that many have walked this land before us, shaping the landscape in both obvious and subtle ways. The evidence is all around us: trash littering the ground, a heap of flint stones, stumps of felled trees, and the barren moonscapes left behind after strip mining. We leave our mark, too, carving out our homestead, engaging in forestry management, creating trails, and planting trees in the strip-mined areas. Even the kids leave signs of their presence, rearranging stones that subtly alter the flow of the creek and unwittingly distributing seeds as they carry buckets of acorns down the trail to feed their fallen-log “dragons.”
At first glance, there is the appearance of a wild wood, untouched by human hands, but in reality, this place has been shaped by humans for millennia. This land is a testament to the long history of people shaping the natural world, and of the natural world shaping us. On a misty morning, removed from the noise of modern civilization, I imagine taking a walk through history, through the long chain of those who have walked this land before me, from the first indigenous inhabitants to the present day.
Stones are common beneath our feet, but certain ones we encounter here – particularly the flint – bear witness to the presence of native cultures. The vast majority of human history in the Coshocton area is that of indigenous peoples. Once, in an elementary social studies lesson, my students and I created a timeline of the frontier-era events from our school curriculum on one sheet of paper. Then we added nineteen more sheets before it, stretching across the classroom floor, creating a striking visual representation of the extensive history of native cultures prior to the arrival of Europeans. Many different indigenous groups have come and gone since humans first arrived in this area more than 14,000 years ago.[1] We find glimpses of this dynamic history here on our land in the form of flint chips – remnants from the work of prehistoric flint knappers – and occasionally spear points, arrowheads, and hammer stones. While working their gardens, my husband’s family has discovered flint points ranging from about 8,000 years ago in the early archaic period through more recent times. The quantity of flint chips and worked stones indicate that a flint quarry was located somewhere in the vicinity of the gardens. Indigenous flint knappers would typically cut rough preforms from the flint there, and then carry them home to work the preforms into finished pieces. Almost all of the points we find here are unfinished defective ones, discarded by their makers near the quarry site.
Prehistoric people held Coshocton flint in high regard, and artifacts made with this flint were carried and traded for hundreds of miles.[2] Now, the flint boulders that line our lane serve as both a climbing gym for the kids and as a reminder of the countless generations of native people who were here before us.
Without written records, much of Ohio’s indigenous history remains unclear, but much more is known about the Delaware who lived in the area during the frontier era. We have not found any direct evidence of Delaware activity on this land, although the Delaware lived in the Coshocton area from around 1760 until 1781.[3] Our township bears the name of White Eyes, a Delaware leader best known for maintaining neutrality during the American Revolutionary War and encouraging Moravian missionary work.[4] While the archaeological record shows no evidence of villages in the immediate vicinity of our land, the Delaware settlement of Gekelemukpechünk (New Comer’s Town) was just a few miles away.[5] Gekelemukpechünk was founded around 1759 by Delaware Chief Netawatwees and his people. It was the Delaware nation’s Council Town until 1775, when Goschachgünk, the predecessor of modern-day Coshocton, took its place.[6] With a major cultural hub so close, it seems likely that Delaware people explored, hunted, and traveled through this place.
Like the Delaware, the early white settlers who owned this land left no obvious traces for us to examine. In fact, the original owners may have never even set foot here. Coshocton County was part of the United States Military District, a 2.5-million-acre area that Congress designated in 1796 for granting land warrants as payment to veterans of the American Revolution.[7] Martin Baum, the original proprietor of this 4,000-acre quarter of White Eyes Township, was likely a speculator who amassed enough land warrants from veterans to apply for a patent to the quarter township. From there, the land was divided into smaller parcels and sold to various settlers.
The land where my family now lives has been split apart and patched together in many different configurations over the past two centuries, a hodgepodge quilt of property lines. Barbed-wire fences in disrepair cross through the land on old borders. Historical maps and records reveal a complicated and disjointed chain of ownership. The Norman family owned much of this land in the early years of white settlement, and the family is also well represented in the old Bowman Cemetery bordering our lane. According to local lore, the mining of a coal seam in the 1950s advanced toward the cemetery until the miners began unearthing coffins. This year, the old cemetery was perfect for a pandemic-friendly excursion, with our only human company maintaining a safe six-foot distance under the ground. The kids loved exploring around the tombstones while I examined the names and dates, many from the 1800s and some weathered into illegibility, and imagined the lives of these neighbors from another era.
The steep slopes on this land make hiking with a toddler difficult, and historically, the hilly terrain meant that crop farming was never practical here. Some forested areas were cleared for pasture and used for grazing cattle as late as the 1980s, leaving behind cattle bones that my husband occasionally discovers while hunting. A 1950 aerial photo of the area also shows an orchard on this land, but later in that same decade, strip mining for coal turned the orchard, along with a large part of the rest of the property, into wasteland. Since the mining here preceded the regulations that now require basic rehabilitation of the land, the original topsoil is buried somewhere underneath the vast landscapes of overburden, the gray-black flaky shale and slate from deep underground that was left on the surface when the mining ended. The pond where the kids spend countless hours throwing chunks of shale into the water is not a natural pond at all, but the deep gash of an old coal mine that filled up with water over the years. Although the scene looks picturesque now, the water is still devoid of life because of its high acidity.
After the accessible coal here was depleted in the 1950s, the abandoned land turned into a junkyard, party site, and playground for locals driving pickups and four-wheelers over the denuded terrain. Exploring the woods now, it’s hard to imagine that most of the junk we discover predates the forest that has grown up in the meantime. In some places, the kids find individual bottles and cans, but in others, much to their delight, we come across dozens, even hundreds, in a single area. The labels on the glass bottles have long since disintegrated, but some of the aluminum cans are still recognizable with faded, outdated logos for Mountain Dew, Coca-Cola, and beer of all sorts. Were these dumping sites for household trash, or conveniently inconspicuous places where locals gathered to drive around and drink? I pick up a Miller Lite can to look for a date, and notice “PLEASE DON’T LITTER” stamped on the lid. I contemplate how we might collect the glass for recycling, but most of the bottles are filled with dirt, leaves, moss, and fungi, a wild and spontaneous terrarium collection. I roll a bottle out with my foot, and it leaves a perfect imprint in the deep moss, like it was packed for fragile shipping, journeying safely through the decades into our curious hands.
Cans and bottles are the most common treasures the kids discover, but they also find rarer gems: a car battery, half a china bowl, plastic jugs, and a motor oil can shot full of holes from someone’s target practice. There are larger items, too: metal pipes, a washing machine, 50-gallon drums, carpet half buried under leaves and moss, decomposing wooden beams, and a water heater housing a squirrel’s stash of nuts. A rusty oven leans against a tree with its door open, forever baking a casserole of pine needles and leaves into new soil. I would have said we found everything but the kitchen sink, but then we discovered one of those, too. The discarded sink is now a frequent hiking destination, and both kids squeeze into its enameled basin, turning the corroded handles and washing imaginary dishes.
After the original tire, we eventually discover more of them strewn throughout the forest, and one day we come across a veritable tire graveyard, with over a dozen tires sinking down in the orange strip-mine muck. Nearby, we spot the mangled skeleton of a car at the bottom of a steep hill, presumably an old junker pushed over the edge before the forest started to grow again on the strip-mine spoil. I peek cautiously inside, just to be sure there are no human skeletons. A white pine, six inches in diameter, now grows right up through the car’s battered hood, a testament to nature’s tenacity in persevering through human abuse.
The pines we walk through almost every day were not originally part of the forest here. In the 1990s, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources did some reclamation work on the strip-mined land, and now we hike alongside the straight rows of Virginia pines they planted. The main path we follow is an old tractor road, cleared by a recent previous owner, and it makes a bumpy but passable trail for a stroller and a bike until we venture off-road on foot.
Our family has done its own forest rehabilitation work here, beginning with my husband’s parents and grandparents on their land adjacent to ours. My husband began planting white pines on our land shortly after he first purchased it, years before we got married. My first visit to his family’s farm involved planting hundreds of white pine seedlings in the least hospitable strip-mine spoil, where no plants had previously survived. The flaky shale that covers the ground bakes in the summer sun, washes down gullies in rainstorms, and hardens like cement in drought. Our baby trees have a slim chance of survival, but slowly, over time, the ones that endure will shade the ground around them, prevent erosion by clinging to the rocky soil with their roots, and blanket the ground with needles that will add organic matter to the shale as they decompose, making it possible for the next generation of pines – and eventually, native hardwoods – to survive. Our rehabilitation work requires a whole different perspective on time, a perspective of generations and centuries, envisioning a time long after we’re gone when this marginal land might be truly vibrant again.
As the kids and I hike through strip-mine spoil and decades’ worth of litter, I find myself thinking of this place as history’s junkyard. I strategize about how we could clean up the garbage and haul it away, and my three-year-old suggests that we should find a really big trash bag for the mangled car. But apart from logistical obstacles to hauling away the trash, there’s another hesitation. For the kids, the junk is the highlight of their hikes. This place may be history’s junkyard, but it’s also history’s playground. Even for me. As the kids poke sticks into broken bottles and balance on tires, I enjoy imagining the people who left them here years ago, and the many who walked this land over the centuries before that, who left less obvious traces.
There is much I will never know about what happened on this land, and I will always have more questions than answers. My wonderings venture into the future, too, to a time after my family has faded into history. Walking around this place, what will the amateur historians of the future surmise about us? When they find a red oak growing among the pines, I bet they’ll never guess that it was planted by a couple of kids feeding the dragons.
Bibliography
Butler, Scott E. Coshocton Frontier Handbook: Facts and Sources. Katonah, NY: Katonah Publishing, 2015.
Converse, Robert N. Ohio Flint Types. The Archaeological Society of Ohio, 1994.
Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington & Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Lepper, Bradley T. Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio’s Ancient American Indian Cultures. Wilmington, OH: Orange Frazer Press, 2005.
[1] Lepper, Ohio Archaeology, 51.
[2] Converse, Ohio Flint Types, 4.
[3] Butler, Coshocton Frontier Handbook, 170.
[4] Butler, Coshocton Frontier Handbook, 95.
[5] Butler, Coshocton Frontier Handbook, 307.
[6] Butler, Coshocton Frontier Handbook, 9.
[7] Hurt, Ohio Frontier, 167.
“Ta! Ta!” announces the one-year-old upon sighting the curve of black rubber nestled in pine needles. His brother, three, jumps up on the tire, and they both poke at it with sticks. The trash we encounter spoils the idyllic forest scene, but for the kids, junk is the best part of our daily excursions into the woods around our house. Bottles, cans, jugs, and pipes are captivating attractions for these budding archaeologists, and they visit the sites day after day to reexamine their newly discovered artifacts. They drum on a discarded antifreeze jug, totter precariously close to broken bottles, and stomp on faded aluminum cans, relishing the crunch of history underfoot. These relics are no match for arrowheads or ancient pottery shards, but they are a piece of history nonetheless. To these young ones, the people who tossed their junk here half a century ago might as well have been from ancient civilizations.
For some, being stuck at home during a pandemic in an isolated rural setting with two little kids would be a nightmare. For me, though, the situation has provided unique opportunities. With fewer chances to explore and socialize in the wider community, we delve deeper into the land we live on, wondering and learning about its history. I am a newcomer to this rural corner of White Eyes Township, but I am fascinated by its past.
While the junk detracts from the natural beauty of the woods, it also reminds me that many have walked this land before us, shaping the landscape in both obvious and subtle ways. The evidence is all around us: trash littering the ground, a heap of flint stones, stumps of felled trees, and the barren moonscapes left behind after strip mining. We leave our mark, too, carving out our homestead, engaging in forestry management, creating trails, and planting trees in the strip-mined areas. Even the kids leave signs of their presence, rearranging stones that subtly alter the flow of the creek and unwittingly distributing seeds as they carry buckets of acorns down the trail to feed their fallen-log “dragons.”
At first glance, there is the appearance of a wild wood, untouched by human hands, but in reality, this place has been shaped by humans for millennia. This land is a testament to the long history of people shaping the natural world, and of the natural world shaping us. On a misty morning, removed from the noise of modern civilization, I imagine taking a walk through history, through the long chain of those who have walked this land before me, from the first indigenous inhabitants to the present day.
Stones are common beneath our feet, but certain ones we encounter here – particularly the flint – bear witness to the presence of native cultures. The vast majority of human history in the Coshocton area is that of indigenous peoples. Once, in an elementary social studies lesson, my students and I created a timeline of the frontier-era events from our school curriculum on one sheet of paper. Then we added nineteen more sheets before it, stretching across the classroom floor, creating a striking visual representation of the extensive history of native cultures prior to the arrival of Europeans. Many different indigenous groups have come and gone since humans first arrived in this area more than 14,000 years ago.[1] We find glimpses of this dynamic history here on our land in the form of flint chips – remnants from the work of prehistoric flint knappers – and occasionally spear points, arrowheads, and hammer stones. While working their gardens, my husband’s family has discovered flint points ranging from about 8,000 years ago in the early archaic period through more recent times. The quantity of flint chips and worked stones indicate that a flint quarry was located somewhere in the vicinity of the gardens. Indigenous flint knappers would typically cut rough preforms from the flint there, and then carry them home to work the preforms into finished pieces. Almost all of the points we find here are unfinished defective ones, discarded by their makers near the quarry site.
Prehistoric people held Coshocton flint in high regard, and artifacts made with this flint were carried and traded for hundreds of miles.[2] Now, the flint boulders that line our lane serve as both a climbing gym for the kids and as a reminder of the countless generations of native people who were here before us.
Without written records, much of Ohio’s indigenous history remains unclear, but much more is known about the Delaware who lived in the area during the frontier era. We have not found any direct evidence of Delaware activity on this land, although the Delaware lived in the Coshocton area from around 1760 until 1781.[3] Our township bears the name of White Eyes, a Delaware leader best known for maintaining neutrality during the American Revolutionary War and encouraging Moravian missionary work.[4] While the archaeological record shows no evidence of villages in the immediate vicinity of our land, the Delaware settlement of Gekelemukpechünk (New Comer’s Town) was just a few miles away.[5] Gekelemukpechünk was founded around 1759 by Delaware Chief Netawatwees and his people. It was the Delaware nation’s Council Town until 1775, when Goschachgünk, the predecessor of modern-day Coshocton, took its place.[6] With a major cultural hub so close, it seems likely that Delaware people explored, hunted, and traveled through this place.
Like the Delaware, the early white settlers who owned this land left no obvious traces for us to examine. In fact, the original owners may have never even set foot here. Coshocton County was part of the United States Military District, a 2.5-million-acre area that Congress designated in 1796 for granting land warrants as payment to veterans of the American Revolution.[7] Martin Baum, the original proprietor of this 4,000-acre quarter of White Eyes Township, was likely a speculator who amassed enough land warrants from veterans to apply for a patent to the quarter township. From there, the land was divided into smaller parcels and sold to various settlers.
The land where my family now lives has been split apart and patched together in many different configurations over the past two centuries, a hodgepodge quilt of property lines. Barbed-wire fences in disrepair cross through the land on old borders. Historical maps and records reveal a complicated and disjointed chain of ownership. The Norman family owned much of this land in the early years of white settlement, and the family is also well represented in the old Bowman Cemetery bordering our lane. According to local lore, the mining of a coal seam in the 1950s advanced toward the cemetery until the miners began unearthing coffins. This year, the old cemetery was perfect for a pandemic-friendly excursion, with our only human company maintaining a safe six-foot distance under the ground. The kids loved exploring around the tombstones while I examined the names and dates, many from the 1800s and some weathered into illegibility, and imagined the lives of these neighbors from another era.
The steep slopes on this land make hiking with a toddler difficult, and historically, the hilly terrain meant that crop farming was never practical here. Some forested areas were cleared for pasture and used for grazing cattle as late as the 1980s, leaving behind cattle bones that my husband occasionally discovers while hunting. A 1950 aerial photo of the area also shows an orchard on this land, but later in that same decade, strip mining for coal turned the orchard, along with a large part of the rest of the property, into wasteland. Since the mining here preceded the regulations that now require basic rehabilitation of the land, the original topsoil is buried somewhere underneath the vast landscapes of overburden, the gray-black flaky shale and slate from deep underground that was left on the surface when the mining ended. The pond where the kids spend countless hours throwing chunks of shale into the water is not a natural pond at all, but the deep gash of an old coal mine that filled up with water over the years. Although the scene looks picturesque now, the water is still devoid of life because of its high acidity.
After the accessible coal here was depleted in the 1950s, the abandoned land turned into a junkyard, party site, and playground for locals driving pickups and four-wheelers over the denuded terrain. Exploring the woods now, it’s hard to imagine that most of the junk we discover predates the forest that has grown up in the meantime. In some places, the kids find individual bottles and cans, but in others, much to their delight, we come across dozens, even hundreds, in a single area. The labels on the glass bottles have long since disintegrated, but some of the aluminum cans are still recognizable with faded, outdated logos for Mountain Dew, Coca-Cola, and beer of all sorts. Were these dumping sites for household trash, or conveniently inconspicuous places where locals gathered to drive around and drink? I pick up a Miller Lite can to look for a date, and notice “PLEASE DON’T LITTER” stamped on the lid. I contemplate how we might collect the glass for recycling, but most of the bottles are filled with dirt, leaves, moss, and fungi, a wild and spontaneous terrarium collection. I roll a bottle out with my foot, and it leaves a perfect imprint in the deep moss, like it was packed for fragile shipping, journeying safely through the decades into our curious hands.
Cans and bottles are the most common treasures the kids discover, but they also find rarer gems: a car battery, half a china bowl, plastic jugs, and a motor oil can shot full of holes from someone’s target practice. There are larger items, too: metal pipes, a washing machine, 50-gallon drums, carpet half buried under leaves and moss, decomposing wooden beams, and a water heater housing a squirrel’s stash of nuts. A rusty oven leans against a tree with its door open, forever baking a casserole of pine needles and leaves into new soil. I would have said we found everything but the kitchen sink, but then we discovered one of those, too. The discarded sink is now a frequent hiking destination, and both kids squeeze into its enameled basin, turning the corroded handles and washing imaginary dishes.
After the original tire, we eventually discover more of them strewn throughout the forest, and one day we come across a veritable tire graveyard, with over a dozen tires sinking down in the orange strip-mine muck. Nearby, we spot the mangled skeleton of a car at the bottom of a steep hill, presumably an old junker pushed over the edge before the forest started to grow again on the strip-mine spoil. I peek cautiously inside, just to be sure there are no human skeletons. A white pine, six inches in diameter, now grows right up through the car’s battered hood, a testament to nature’s tenacity in persevering through human abuse.
The pines we walk through almost every day were not originally part of the forest here. In the 1990s, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources did some reclamation work on the strip-mined land, and now we hike alongside the straight rows of Virginia pines they planted. The main path we follow is an old tractor road, cleared by a recent previous owner, and it makes a bumpy but passable trail for a stroller and a bike until we venture off-road on foot.
Our family has done its own forest rehabilitation work here, beginning with my husband’s parents and grandparents on their land adjacent to ours. My husband began planting white pines on our land shortly after he first purchased it, years before we got married. My first visit to his family’s farm involved planting hundreds of white pine seedlings in the least hospitable strip-mine spoil, where no plants had previously survived. The flaky shale that covers the ground bakes in the summer sun, washes down gullies in rainstorms, and hardens like cement in drought. Our baby trees have a slim chance of survival, but slowly, over time, the ones that endure will shade the ground around them, prevent erosion by clinging to the rocky soil with their roots, and blanket the ground with needles that will add organic matter to the shale as they decompose, making it possible for the next generation of pines – and eventually, native hardwoods – to survive. Our rehabilitation work requires a whole different perspective on time, a perspective of generations and centuries, envisioning a time long after we’re gone when this marginal land might be truly vibrant again.
As the kids and I hike through strip-mine spoil and decades’ worth of litter, I find myself thinking of this place as history’s junkyard. I strategize about how we could clean up the garbage and haul it away, and my three-year-old suggests that we should find a really big trash bag for the mangled car. But apart from logistical obstacles to hauling away the trash, there’s another hesitation. For the kids, the junk is the highlight of their hikes. This place may be history’s junkyard, but it’s also history’s playground. Even for me. As the kids poke sticks into broken bottles and balance on tires, I enjoy imagining the people who left them here years ago, and the many who walked this land over the centuries before that, who left less obvious traces.
There is much I will never know about what happened on this land, and I will always have more questions than answers. My wonderings venture into the future, too, to a time after my family has faded into history. Walking around this place, what will the amateur historians of the future surmise about us? When they find a red oak growing among the pines, I bet they’ll never guess that it was planted by a couple of kids feeding the dragons.
Bibliography
Butler, Scott E. Coshocton Frontier Handbook: Facts and Sources. Katonah, NY: Katonah Publishing, 2015.
Converse, Robert N. Ohio Flint Types. The Archaeological Society of Ohio, 1994.
Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington & Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Lepper, Bradley T. Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio’s Ancient American Indian Cultures. Wilmington, OH: Orange Frazer Press, 2005.
[1] Lepper, Ohio Archaeology, 51.
[2] Converse, Ohio Flint Types, 4.
[3] Butler, Coshocton Frontier Handbook, 170.
[4] Butler, Coshocton Frontier Handbook, 95.
[5] Butler, Coshocton Frontier Handbook, 307.
[6] Butler, Coshocton Frontier Handbook, 9.
[7] Hurt, Ohio Frontier, 167.
Megan B. Bookless: Chalfant's Church: Oldest Church in Coshocton County (2nd Place Winner)
As I listened to my voicemail, I heard my grandma say. “Hello. This is Grandma. The Chalfant’s Church Christmas dinner and program is next Sunday. I’ll be fixing my homemade noodles. I hope you can come and bring the kids. They can play a song on the piano or sing for the program.” My grandma’s voice cracked. “Love you. Bye,” she said. I sighed. The kids will not want to go, I thought. Chalfant’s Church was filled with old people, and it often bored my kids to have to go to the annual Christmas program. However, I knew grandma would be disappointed if we did not go. My mind wandered off to the many stories I had heard...
My grandmother’s history is deeply rooted in Chalfant’s Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest church in Coshocton county, Ohio, organized in 1808, just six years after the small town of Coshocton was organized in 1802. My grandmother’s family has attended Chalfant’s since the 1800s. Her Great Grandmother Anna Hunter helped varnish the woodwork in the second building, which was built in 1849. The original Chalfant’s Church was a log-hewn structure (Bahmer, 1881). The present church was built in 1893 after the second building burnt to the ground.
Grandmother Hunter's act of service in varnishing the woodwork was one of the last things she would do. As Grandmother Hunter varnished the woodwork in the new building, she noticed a storm approaching. Finishing up her work, she gathered her eight children in the back of her horse-drawn wagon, placed a tarp over them, and headed the few miles back home.
Grandmother Hunter was caught in a downpour, chilling her to the bone. Over the next several days and weeks, her condition deteriorated. At forty years old, Grandmother Hunter passed away, leaving behind eight motherless children, the youngest of whom were only four years old and one year old, and a grieving husband. Chalfant’s church members pitched in wherever they could, helping to ease the huge hole left behind by Grandmother Hunter’s death.
My grandmother grew up hearing the stories of Grandmother Hunter and the impact that Chalfant’s Church had on her family. My grandmother remained faithful to the Chalfant’s Church. She was married there and has attended there her entire life. When the church was to be razed in the 1980s, she banded together with other members and had it placed on the State and National Register of Historic Places, saving its legacy for future generations.
Chalfant’s Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest church in Coshocton county. It was founded by Mordecai Chalfant. Mordecai was the second pioneer to arrive in Washington township Coshocton county (Bahmer, 1881). Mordecai named the township after George Washington, who was a contemporary of Mordecai’s father, Chads Chalfant. Mordecai Chalfant was born in 1781 and came from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (Webster, 2010). Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania is about thirty miles west of Philadelphia, named after John Chadds, who operated a ferry over the Brandywine Creek where people could “ford” (cross) the creek, thus the name Chadds Ford.
During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington fought against the British forces over this creek in the Battle of Brandywine, on September 11, 1777. This battle involved 29,000 soldiers, more troops than any other Revolutionary War battle. The British defeated the Continental (American) forces, and then the British moved on to take Philadelphia, hoping this would defeat the Americans. The Americans eventually prevailed though, and after a series of battles, the British signed a peace treaty with the Americans in 1783 (Harris, 2017). The name George Washington was firmly implanted in Mordecai Chalfant’s memory, and what a more fitting honor than to name Mordecai’s new township after Washington, Washington township.
Under the new American rule, the freedom of religion was established. No longer would the state control religion. The new Americans established the separation of church and state so their new government would not be able to control what they believed and how they worshipped. Under the British rule, their religious views were controlled by the Church of England.
Ironically, the Church of England was founded by King Henry VIII, who established it so the church of his time, the Catholic Church, could not control what he did. King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife and marry one of his wife’s handmaids, but he could not because the Catholic Church forbade divorce. King Henry VIII denounced the catholic religion and established the Church of England, making himself, the king, the ruling head of the Church of England. As the ruling head of the Church of England, he finally was able to divorce his wife and marry his lover, who was then pregnant with their baby (Richardson, 2012).
The Americans were familiar with the history of the Church of England and the Catholic Church. They did not want to see history repeat itself. To protect future citizens from this threat, they established the freedom of religion. With this newfound freedom, the conditions were ripe for a spiritual awakening, the Second Great Awakening, a series of religious revivals that swept through America from the 1790s to the 1830s (Kidd, 2009).
During the Second Great Awakening, a new denomination was forming, the Methodist Church. The Methodist Church was begun by brothers Charles and John Wesley in an attempt to try to reform the Church of England from within. The Wesley brothers did not agree with the Church of England’s beliefs that only certain people were predestined to be saved from their sin and that a person could attain perfection.
The Wesleys tried to reform the Church, but eventually a new movement splintered off, the methodist movement. Methodism acquired its name as an insult given to the brothers by their fellow classmates when they studied at Oxford because of their “methodical” devotion and study. Instead of being offended by the name “methodist”, Charles and John decided methodist was a fitting name for their new denomination (Richey, 2012).
Charles and John were born into a family of nineteen children. Only ten of the children made it past infancy. Their mother, Susanna Wesley, was the driving force behind the success of her children. She homeschooled all of the children, ran the family farm, endured two devastating house fires, the death of nine of her children, and led a weekly Bible study in her home which attracted almost two hundred attendees. Susanna believed that prayer should be as important as any other activity in her life, leaving at least two hours every day for prayer.
With all of her children around, Susanna found it hard to find a quiet place to talk to God. So, she came up with the idea of pulling her apron up over her head and making her own tent in which to pray. Susanna believed that her children should receive one-on-one attention from her, setting aside an hour each evening to spend with a different child. She schooled her girls the same as her boys, in classical and Biblical instruction. She disagreed with the prevailing opinion of the day, countering that girls needed to be taught to read just as much as they needed to be taught to cook and sew (Dengler, 1987).
Susanna’s children John and Charles credited their mother as the driving influence behind their devotion to God. John Wesley helped form the new Methodist church. Charles Wesley wrote approximately six thousand hymns, including “Hark The Herald Angels Sing,” ”O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing,” “Joy To The World,” and numerous others.
Out of this deep religious history came the Chalfant family. William de Chalfonte was born about 1450 and was a steward of King Henry VIII at Windsor Castle. The Chalfants’ families lived in two nearby villages, Chalfonte St. Giles and Chalfonte St. Peter, still in Buckinghamshire, England to this day. The Chalfonte family name means “chalk spring.” The name came from the area in which they lived. The area around Buckinghamshire, England has chalk hills which carry the chalk minerals down into the water supply, making the chalk springs (Nolan, 2020).
In the 1600s, one of Williams de Chalfonte’s descendants, John Chalfant, came to America. Like many other immigrants, the spelling of the name was changed. It was no longer Chalfonte, but now Chalfant. John Chalfant was a contemporary of William Penn’s. John Chalfant moved to Pennsylvania (Webster, 2010). John’s great great grandson was Mordecai Chalfant, born in 1781, the same Chalfant for which Chalfant’s Church is named. Just as the Chalfant name remains in places in England, towns in Pennsylvania still bear the Chalfant name. Chalfont, Pennsylvania is north of Philadelphia, only 47 miles from Chadds Ford, the birthplace of Mordecai Chalfant. The Chalfant Borough, just outside of Pittsburgh, was named after Henry Chalfant, another descendent of John Chalfant (“Chalfant Borough,” 2018).
Mordecai Chalfant lived from 1781 to 1846, moving to Coshocton county Washington township in 1808. One of the first things the early pioneer did was to organize a local church, the first in Coshocton county and the second methodist church in Ohio. Moredecai donated the land on which the church was built in 1811. The church was named Chalfant’s Church. A small cemetery rises behind it, as well as one across the road from the church.
Besides founding Chalfant’s Church, Mordecai was the first justice of the peace in Washington township, serving for fourteen years. Mordecai also served as the second county commissioner in Coshocton county, the first being Charlie Williams, who was the first white settler in Coshocton. Mordecai served as county commissioner for seven years (Bahmer, 1881). Mordecai and his wife are buried in the Chalfant’s Church cemetery, along with many other early pioneers.
Chalfant’s Church is not only important to my grandmother’s family, but to all families across America for what it represents. To the unknowing, Chalfant’s Church might appear to be just an old building filled with old people along the forgotten crossroads of America, but to those who know, it is a testament to the tenacity and religious convictions of the founding fathers of America. It may bear the name Chalfant, but it could bear the name of any of the early pioneer families who persevered and fought for what they believed in, to establish a future that was better than the one in which they lived.
So...yes, kids. We are going to Chalfant’s Christmas this year because…
References
Bahmer, William J. (1881). History of Coshocton County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, 1740-1881. A. A. Graham and Company, Publishers.
“Chalfant Borough.” (2018). Retrieved from chalfant-borough-pa.org/information/ Dengler, Sandy. (1987). Susanna Wesley: Servant of God. Moody Publishers.
Harris, Michael C. (2017). Brandywine: A Military History of the Battle that Lost Philadelphia but Saved America, September 11, 1777. Savas Beatie.
Kidd, Thomas S. (2009). The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America. Yale University Press.
Nolan, Fred. (2020). “History of the parish.” Retrieved from www.chalfortstgiles-pc.gov.uk/page.php?id=18
Richardson, Asha. (2012). 1491 Births: Henry VIII of England. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Richey, Russell E. (2012). American Methodism: A Compact History. Abingdon Press.
Veazey, M. G. (2020, May 27). “William Chalfont.” Retrieved from https://www.geni.com/people/william-chalfont/6000000008989354227
Webster, Tony. “Webster family sharing site. Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/websterfamilysharingsite/family-history/chalfant-roots
My grandmother’s history is deeply rooted in Chalfant’s Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest church in Coshocton county, Ohio, organized in 1808, just six years after the small town of Coshocton was organized in 1802. My grandmother’s family has attended Chalfant’s since the 1800s. Her Great Grandmother Anna Hunter helped varnish the woodwork in the second building, which was built in 1849. The original Chalfant’s Church was a log-hewn structure (Bahmer, 1881). The present church was built in 1893 after the second building burnt to the ground.
Grandmother Hunter's act of service in varnishing the woodwork was one of the last things she would do. As Grandmother Hunter varnished the woodwork in the new building, she noticed a storm approaching. Finishing up her work, she gathered her eight children in the back of her horse-drawn wagon, placed a tarp over them, and headed the few miles back home.
Grandmother Hunter was caught in a downpour, chilling her to the bone. Over the next several days and weeks, her condition deteriorated. At forty years old, Grandmother Hunter passed away, leaving behind eight motherless children, the youngest of whom were only four years old and one year old, and a grieving husband. Chalfant’s church members pitched in wherever they could, helping to ease the huge hole left behind by Grandmother Hunter’s death.
My grandmother grew up hearing the stories of Grandmother Hunter and the impact that Chalfant’s Church had on her family. My grandmother remained faithful to the Chalfant’s Church. She was married there and has attended there her entire life. When the church was to be razed in the 1980s, she banded together with other members and had it placed on the State and National Register of Historic Places, saving its legacy for future generations.
Chalfant’s Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest church in Coshocton county. It was founded by Mordecai Chalfant. Mordecai was the second pioneer to arrive in Washington township Coshocton county (Bahmer, 1881). Mordecai named the township after George Washington, who was a contemporary of Mordecai’s father, Chads Chalfant. Mordecai Chalfant was born in 1781 and came from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (Webster, 2010). Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania is about thirty miles west of Philadelphia, named after John Chadds, who operated a ferry over the Brandywine Creek where people could “ford” (cross) the creek, thus the name Chadds Ford.
During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington fought against the British forces over this creek in the Battle of Brandywine, on September 11, 1777. This battle involved 29,000 soldiers, more troops than any other Revolutionary War battle. The British defeated the Continental (American) forces, and then the British moved on to take Philadelphia, hoping this would defeat the Americans. The Americans eventually prevailed though, and after a series of battles, the British signed a peace treaty with the Americans in 1783 (Harris, 2017). The name George Washington was firmly implanted in Mordecai Chalfant’s memory, and what a more fitting honor than to name Mordecai’s new township after Washington, Washington township.
Under the new American rule, the freedom of religion was established. No longer would the state control religion. The new Americans established the separation of church and state so their new government would not be able to control what they believed and how they worshipped. Under the British rule, their religious views were controlled by the Church of England.
Ironically, the Church of England was founded by King Henry VIII, who established it so the church of his time, the Catholic Church, could not control what he did. King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife and marry one of his wife’s handmaids, but he could not because the Catholic Church forbade divorce. King Henry VIII denounced the catholic religion and established the Church of England, making himself, the king, the ruling head of the Church of England. As the ruling head of the Church of England, he finally was able to divorce his wife and marry his lover, who was then pregnant with their baby (Richardson, 2012).
The Americans were familiar with the history of the Church of England and the Catholic Church. They did not want to see history repeat itself. To protect future citizens from this threat, they established the freedom of religion. With this newfound freedom, the conditions were ripe for a spiritual awakening, the Second Great Awakening, a series of religious revivals that swept through America from the 1790s to the 1830s (Kidd, 2009).
During the Second Great Awakening, a new denomination was forming, the Methodist Church. The Methodist Church was begun by brothers Charles and John Wesley in an attempt to try to reform the Church of England from within. The Wesley brothers did not agree with the Church of England’s beliefs that only certain people were predestined to be saved from their sin and that a person could attain perfection.
The Wesleys tried to reform the Church, but eventually a new movement splintered off, the methodist movement. Methodism acquired its name as an insult given to the brothers by their fellow classmates when they studied at Oxford because of their “methodical” devotion and study. Instead of being offended by the name “methodist”, Charles and John decided methodist was a fitting name for their new denomination (Richey, 2012).
Charles and John were born into a family of nineteen children. Only ten of the children made it past infancy. Their mother, Susanna Wesley, was the driving force behind the success of her children. She homeschooled all of the children, ran the family farm, endured two devastating house fires, the death of nine of her children, and led a weekly Bible study in her home which attracted almost two hundred attendees. Susanna believed that prayer should be as important as any other activity in her life, leaving at least two hours every day for prayer.
With all of her children around, Susanna found it hard to find a quiet place to talk to God. So, she came up with the idea of pulling her apron up over her head and making her own tent in which to pray. Susanna believed that her children should receive one-on-one attention from her, setting aside an hour each evening to spend with a different child. She schooled her girls the same as her boys, in classical and Biblical instruction. She disagreed with the prevailing opinion of the day, countering that girls needed to be taught to read just as much as they needed to be taught to cook and sew (Dengler, 1987).
Susanna’s children John and Charles credited their mother as the driving influence behind their devotion to God. John Wesley helped form the new Methodist church. Charles Wesley wrote approximately six thousand hymns, including “Hark The Herald Angels Sing,” ”O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing,” “Joy To The World,” and numerous others.
Out of this deep religious history came the Chalfant family. William de Chalfonte was born about 1450 and was a steward of King Henry VIII at Windsor Castle. The Chalfants’ families lived in two nearby villages, Chalfonte St. Giles and Chalfonte St. Peter, still in Buckinghamshire, England to this day. The Chalfonte family name means “chalk spring.” The name came from the area in which they lived. The area around Buckinghamshire, England has chalk hills which carry the chalk minerals down into the water supply, making the chalk springs (Nolan, 2020).
In the 1600s, one of Williams de Chalfonte’s descendants, John Chalfant, came to America. Like many other immigrants, the spelling of the name was changed. It was no longer Chalfonte, but now Chalfant. John Chalfant was a contemporary of William Penn’s. John Chalfant moved to Pennsylvania (Webster, 2010). John’s great great grandson was Mordecai Chalfant, born in 1781, the same Chalfant for which Chalfant’s Church is named. Just as the Chalfant name remains in places in England, towns in Pennsylvania still bear the Chalfant name. Chalfont, Pennsylvania is north of Philadelphia, only 47 miles from Chadds Ford, the birthplace of Mordecai Chalfant. The Chalfant Borough, just outside of Pittsburgh, was named after Henry Chalfant, another descendent of John Chalfant (“Chalfant Borough,” 2018).
Mordecai Chalfant lived from 1781 to 1846, moving to Coshocton county Washington township in 1808. One of the first things the early pioneer did was to organize a local church, the first in Coshocton county and the second methodist church in Ohio. Moredecai donated the land on which the church was built in 1811. The church was named Chalfant’s Church. A small cemetery rises behind it, as well as one across the road from the church.
Besides founding Chalfant’s Church, Mordecai was the first justice of the peace in Washington township, serving for fourteen years. Mordecai also served as the second county commissioner in Coshocton county, the first being Charlie Williams, who was the first white settler in Coshocton. Mordecai served as county commissioner for seven years (Bahmer, 1881). Mordecai and his wife are buried in the Chalfant’s Church cemetery, along with many other early pioneers.
Chalfant’s Church is not only important to my grandmother’s family, but to all families across America for what it represents. To the unknowing, Chalfant’s Church might appear to be just an old building filled with old people along the forgotten crossroads of America, but to those who know, it is a testament to the tenacity and religious convictions of the founding fathers of America. It may bear the name Chalfant, but it could bear the name of any of the early pioneer families who persevered and fought for what they believed in, to establish a future that was better than the one in which they lived.
So...yes, kids. We are going to Chalfant’s Christmas this year because…
References
Bahmer, William J. (1881). History of Coshocton County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, 1740-1881. A. A. Graham and Company, Publishers.
“Chalfant Borough.” (2018). Retrieved from chalfant-borough-pa.org/information/ Dengler, Sandy. (1987). Susanna Wesley: Servant of God. Moody Publishers.
Harris, Michael C. (2017). Brandywine: A Military History of the Battle that Lost Philadelphia but Saved America, September 11, 1777. Savas Beatie.
Kidd, Thomas S. (2009). The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America. Yale University Press.
Nolan, Fred. (2020). “History of the parish.” Retrieved from www.chalfortstgiles-pc.gov.uk/page.php?id=18
Richardson, Asha. (2012). 1491 Births: Henry VIII of England. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Richey, Russell E. (2012). American Methodism: A Compact History. Abingdon Press.
Veazey, M. G. (2020, May 27). “William Chalfont.” Retrieved from https://www.geni.com/people/william-chalfont/6000000008989354227
Webster, Tony. “Webster family sharing site. Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/websterfamilysharingsite/family-history/chalfant-roots
Annalissa Hankinson: Roscoe Village: The Inspiration of a Frontier (3rd Place Winner)
Are you familiar with State Route 16? It runs from Columbus to Coshocton and is a major highway for a lot of traffic that runs through this area. If you live in Coshocton, you are liable to cross this road often. But did you know that this road has been around for over a hundred years and is more than a commonplace road? What if I told you that there has been a highway there since 1825? Not State Route 16 as you see it now, but in 1825 it was a different sort of highway.
If you could close your eyes and go back in time, you would see, hear, and smell a very different State Route 16. Instead of the smell of hot pavement and exhaust from cars, you would smell stagnant water and horses. Instead of the roaring noise of vehicles traveling fifty-five miles per hour, you would hear water lapping against stones, horses snorting, and the shouts of men back and forth. Instead of a solid stretch of cement road, you would see a long stretch of water running in a manmade trench. Have you guessed what’s before your eyes? You would see the canal.
Boats are traveling up and down the waterway, pulled by horses along a tow-path. There are boats for carrying passengers and boats carrying cargo. Inspection boats travel up and down, checking to see if there are leaks in the boat that need fixed. I wonder if the canal needed repaired as much as our State Route 16 highway.
If you turn just to the left and up the hill a little way, you will see the little town of Roscoe Village. This village is a bustling, busy place, full of trade and production. Visitors pass in and out of it. Traveling merchants and businessmen always find time to stop here. It wasn’t always this way however.
The story of Roscoe starts as far back as the 18th century in frontier Coshocton County when a man called James Calder was born. It was a time when American expansion was in full swing. The frontier was spreading farther and farther west and had come to Ohio. Towards the end of the 18th century, it was coming to an end, but still lived in the hearts of many settlers, including a dare devil man named James Calder. One day, bankrupt and on a bet Calder went across the Walhonding River and established the little town of Roscoe Village, then named Caldersburg after himself. The little town was a sleepy, little, rural area until nearly a decade later when the Ohio Erie Canal made its way to Coshocton County in 1825.
The canal was a world in itself, bringing life, work, and opportunity to small, out of the way places like Roscoe Village. The canal turned this tiny frontier village that had had next to no communication with the outside world into one of the largest stops on the canal! As you walk up the bank toward the toll house, you can see canal boat captains heading in and out, paying their toll for passing the locks. If the canal boat is staying overnight, you can see to the right of the toll house where the crew is unloading the boatload of goods into the large warehouse.
As you pass between the two large buildings, you come into the busy town square. Wagons, carts, and people fill the square. Children duck around horses with buckets to get water from the center of town. Shop owners stand in the doorways and call to customers and one another. A farmer carries a piece of broken equipment down the street to the blacksmith shop. A young man unloads crates of goods at the General Store, and a woman hurries to the post office to get her mail that has just arrived from the canal.
Across the street, you can see the large hotel with its iron balcony. There you can see travelers stopping for the night passing in and out. As you walk along White Woman’s Street, you pass several shops and businesses, including a pottery and a broom shop. Peaking in the windows as you go by, you can see the skilled craftsmen and their families hard at work at their trade, skillfully shaping their products. These products are some of the best on the canal.
As you come to the end of the street, you can see the blacksmith shop. You can stop in and watch as the blacksmith examines the farmer’s piece of broken equipment. Behind him, his apprentice stands over the forge employed at the tedious task of hammering nails into shape. You watch as he thrusts the piece of hot metal into the fire and turns the hand crank that blows air into the furnace, making the flames leap up. He then pulls on orange iron out of the fire, just the right color to indicate the correct temperature, and he turns to the anvil. With three or four skillful blows, he completes the nail and plunges it into a bucket of water to cool it.
Leaving the blacksmith shop, you enter the industrial part of Roscoe Village. This is where the basin is, one of the places that holds water that feeds into the canal and lock system. It is also a parking lot for canal boats that are staying overnight or laid over during the long winter months when the canal freezes. The large body of water also houses several large mills around the outside of it. The water turns the mill wheels of the mills, producing flour, lumber, and other industrial goods of the time.
You turn away from this hub of activity and walk back up the other side of the street. As you come again to the city square, you see two gentlemen standing in front of the hotel. One is Dr. Johnson, the town’s beloved doctor, the other is a relative of his visiting from out of town. As you approach, they begin to walk down the street to the doctor’s house, which is a fine three story building, quite a mansion. As the men come up to the home, they are met by two little girls, two of Dr. Johnson’s three children. His eldest daughter and wife are waiting inside and you can hear the guest being greeted joyfully as he enters the happy home.
You smile and pass on farther up the street to where the town hall is located. Inside, several of the men of the town are engaged in deep discussion, including Joseph Kerr Johnson and John Burns, two gentlemen who are very interested in promoting Roscoe in any way they can. It is said that they were the ones who convinced Dr. Johnson to leave his apprenticeship in the nearby town of Coshocton and come to Roscoe. Now they seem to be in the middle of a discussion about building a school. They had had a school building in the village before, but the buildings seem to have this habit of getting burnt down. Currently, school is being held in an empty room in the general store.
Slowly you walk back down the street, past the post office and the leather shop, past the hotel and the schoolhouse, back down past the toll house, and down again to the canal’s side. Roscoe Village is in its golden age now, just as the canal is in its golden age. Another few decades though and the railway will come through this area. The railroad is a faster mode of transportation and will have the newest and latest technology. Slowly the canal will become old fashioned and Roscoe Village’s prosperity will begin to decline. The canal will barely be used during the 1900’s. In fact, it will be used so little, when the famous flood of 1913 comes to the area and washes out what is left of the canal, no one will care.
Roscoe Village will fall from being a trade center to a small town and finally, a slum. Eventually it will become a part of Coshocton and old Roscoe Village will become nothing compared to its former glory. It will remain that way until 1968, when a man named Montgomery along with his wife… but that is a story for another time.
The little town’s glory was short, but it illustrates what an effect the frontier had on Coshocton County. The spirit of a frontier man brought change and influenced a small town’s wealth. James Calder paved the way for the canal and the success of the little town. This spirt defines Roscoe Village and Coshocton County to this day.
References
Hill Jr, N. N. (1975). History of Coshocton County, Ohio. Newark, Ohio: A.A. Graham & CO.
Hull, R. (1987). I Remember Roscoe. Bay Village, Ohio: Bob Hull Books.
Gieck, J. (1988). A Photo Album of Ohio’s Canal Era, 1825-1913. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press.
Roscoe Village Foundation. (2020). Roscoe Village Living History Tour. [Historic Village]. Coshocton, Ohio.
Roscoe Village Foundation. (Last revised 2019). Roscoe Village Employee Handbook. Published by the Roscoe Village Foundation.
If you could close your eyes and go back in time, you would see, hear, and smell a very different State Route 16. Instead of the smell of hot pavement and exhaust from cars, you would smell stagnant water and horses. Instead of the roaring noise of vehicles traveling fifty-five miles per hour, you would hear water lapping against stones, horses snorting, and the shouts of men back and forth. Instead of a solid stretch of cement road, you would see a long stretch of water running in a manmade trench. Have you guessed what’s before your eyes? You would see the canal.
Boats are traveling up and down the waterway, pulled by horses along a tow-path. There are boats for carrying passengers and boats carrying cargo. Inspection boats travel up and down, checking to see if there are leaks in the boat that need fixed. I wonder if the canal needed repaired as much as our State Route 16 highway.
If you turn just to the left and up the hill a little way, you will see the little town of Roscoe Village. This village is a bustling, busy place, full of trade and production. Visitors pass in and out of it. Traveling merchants and businessmen always find time to stop here. It wasn’t always this way however.
The story of Roscoe starts as far back as the 18th century in frontier Coshocton County when a man called James Calder was born. It was a time when American expansion was in full swing. The frontier was spreading farther and farther west and had come to Ohio. Towards the end of the 18th century, it was coming to an end, but still lived in the hearts of many settlers, including a dare devil man named James Calder. One day, bankrupt and on a bet Calder went across the Walhonding River and established the little town of Roscoe Village, then named Caldersburg after himself. The little town was a sleepy, little, rural area until nearly a decade later when the Ohio Erie Canal made its way to Coshocton County in 1825.
The canal was a world in itself, bringing life, work, and opportunity to small, out of the way places like Roscoe Village. The canal turned this tiny frontier village that had had next to no communication with the outside world into one of the largest stops on the canal! As you walk up the bank toward the toll house, you can see canal boat captains heading in and out, paying their toll for passing the locks. If the canal boat is staying overnight, you can see to the right of the toll house where the crew is unloading the boatload of goods into the large warehouse.
As you pass between the two large buildings, you come into the busy town square. Wagons, carts, and people fill the square. Children duck around horses with buckets to get water from the center of town. Shop owners stand in the doorways and call to customers and one another. A farmer carries a piece of broken equipment down the street to the blacksmith shop. A young man unloads crates of goods at the General Store, and a woman hurries to the post office to get her mail that has just arrived from the canal.
Across the street, you can see the large hotel with its iron balcony. There you can see travelers stopping for the night passing in and out. As you walk along White Woman’s Street, you pass several shops and businesses, including a pottery and a broom shop. Peaking in the windows as you go by, you can see the skilled craftsmen and their families hard at work at their trade, skillfully shaping their products. These products are some of the best on the canal.
As you come to the end of the street, you can see the blacksmith shop. You can stop in and watch as the blacksmith examines the farmer’s piece of broken equipment. Behind him, his apprentice stands over the forge employed at the tedious task of hammering nails into shape. You watch as he thrusts the piece of hot metal into the fire and turns the hand crank that blows air into the furnace, making the flames leap up. He then pulls on orange iron out of the fire, just the right color to indicate the correct temperature, and he turns to the anvil. With three or four skillful blows, he completes the nail and plunges it into a bucket of water to cool it.
Leaving the blacksmith shop, you enter the industrial part of Roscoe Village. This is where the basin is, one of the places that holds water that feeds into the canal and lock system. It is also a parking lot for canal boats that are staying overnight or laid over during the long winter months when the canal freezes. The large body of water also houses several large mills around the outside of it. The water turns the mill wheels of the mills, producing flour, lumber, and other industrial goods of the time.
You turn away from this hub of activity and walk back up the other side of the street. As you come again to the city square, you see two gentlemen standing in front of the hotel. One is Dr. Johnson, the town’s beloved doctor, the other is a relative of his visiting from out of town. As you approach, they begin to walk down the street to the doctor’s house, which is a fine three story building, quite a mansion. As the men come up to the home, they are met by two little girls, two of Dr. Johnson’s three children. His eldest daughter and wife are waiting inside and you can hear the guest being greeted joyfully as he enters the happy home.
You smile and pass on farther up the street to where the town hall is located. Inside, several of the men of the town are engaged in deep discussion, including Joseph Kerr Johnson and John Burns, two gentlemen who are very interested in promoting Roscoe in any way they can. It is said that they were the ones who convinced Dr. Johnson to leave his apprenticeship in the nearby town of Coshocton and come to Roscoe. Now they seem to be in the middle of a discussion about building a school. They had had a school building in the village before, but the buildings seem to have this habit of getting burnt down. Currently, school is being held in an empty room in the general store.
Slowly you walk back down the street, past the post office and the leather shop, past the hotel and the schoolhouse, back down past the toll house, and down again to the canal’s side. Roscoe Village is in its golden age now, just as the canal is in its golden age. Another few decades though and the railway will come through this area. The railroad is a faster mode of transportation and will have the newest and latest technology. Slowly the canal will become old fashioned and Roscoe Village’s prosperity will begin to decline. The canal will barely be used during the 1900’s. In fact, it will be used so little, when the famous flood of 1913 comes to the area and washes out what is left of the canal, no one will care.
Roscoe Village will fall from being a trade center to a small town and finally, a slum. Eventually it will become a part of Coshocton and old Roscoe Village will become nothing compared to its former glory. It will remain that way until 1968, when a man named Montgomery along with his wife… but that is a story for another time.
The little town’s glory was short, but it illustrates what an effect the frontier had on Coshocton County. The spirit of a frontier man brought change and influenced a small town’s wealth. James Calder paved the way for the canal and the success of the little town. This spirt defines Roscoe Village and Coshocton County to this day.
References
Hill Jr, N. N. (1975). History of Coshocton County, Ohio. Newark, Ohio: A.A. Graham & CO.
Hull, R. (1987). I Remember Roscoe. Bay Village, Ohio: Bob Hull Books.
Gieck, J. (1988). A Photo Album of Ohio’s Canal Era, 1825-1913. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press.
Roscoe Village Foundation. (2020). Roscoe Village Living History Tour. [Historic Village]. Coshocton, Ohio.
Roscoe Village Foundation. (Last revised 2019). Roscoe Village Employee Handbook. Published by the Roscoe Village Foundation.
Christine R. Sycks: James Smith: Just Passing Through (Honorable Mention Winner)
From the earliest indigenous peoples to the white men that came later, Coshocton County has been home to many notable persons. Founders of villages and warriors, generals and soldiers, including a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, and, more recently, labor union creators, musicians, athletes, and others all called it home at one time or another. There was one notable person, with a rather ordinary name, however, that was just passing through and did so by no plans of his own. He was to find himself with a very extraordinary name and in very extraordinary situations through the twists and turns his life took.
James Smith was a Pennsylvania native, being born in 1737 in Franklin County, and growing up as any youngster would have during that time in history (Smith v; Smith et al 7). One would assume a young boy in the frontier of Colonial America would be filling his days with work on the family homestead and helping his father provide for the family. Young James Smith would probably have had no inkling what adventures and dangers he would undergo during his lifetime.
In May of 1755, James’ brother-in-law, William Smith, was appointed commissioner to oversee the three hundred men promised by Pennsylvania to build a road from Fort Loudon, in the southern part of the province as part of Braddock’s road. A young man of just 18 years, he had fallen in love and thought he would take on this job to earn money and then return in a few months to his lady love (Smith 5-6; Smith et al 18). This was not to be so.
July of that same year, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, Robert Hunter Morris, received a letter informing him the enemy had deduced that the roads being built were an important part of Great Britain’s war tactics. The French and their Indian allies began to harass the builders. James Smith had found himself working at one of the many provisions depots along the route. His commander, Robert McCay, sent Smith on an errand to check on supply wagons, to see why they were delayed, and to inform the waggoneers that the provisions were sorely needed. Along the way, Smith met up with one Arnold Vigorous, a military supplier’s employee, and they traveled together to carry out McCay’s orders (Spero 472). On the way back they were ambushed. Vigorous was killed and Smith was taken as a prisoner after being thrown from his horse (Smith 6; Smith et al 20).
Spero writes that, once the wagons arrived at the outpost, McCay and his men realized that something had happened to Smith and sent out a search party. They found Vigorous’ body with two gunshot wounds and missing his scalp, but the only clue they found regarding Smith was his hat (472).
This occurrence started a five year ordeal that changed Smith’s life forever. He went from fearing for his life to acclimating so much to his captives that he was told later he emulated them in “both gait and gesture” (Smith 105; Smith et al 120). When first captured, he was forced by his abductors to travel miles, joining with other bands of Indians along the way, until they reached Fort Duquesne. There Smith was beaten and blinded by sand by his captors (Smith 7-8; Smith et al 21-22).
Crocker writes in his book describing Major General Edward Braddock’s March about the day that Smith was brought in to the fort, “…the Indians had brought in a young American, eighteen-year-old James Smith, whom they had captured working on the Pennsylvania road under construction between Rays Town and the Youghiogheny. Held prisoner, he had been temporarily blinded with sand, beaten, and interrogated (205-206).” Smith was made to ‘run the gauntlet’ which was a typical practice of the Native Americans for all male captives. It involved traveling between two rows of men while they beat the prisoner as he went, giving a more severe beating to those who showed fear rather than courage, which was admired. Because of the sheer numbers of warriors gathered at Fort Duquesne waiting to attack Braddock’s army, Smith’s beating was severe (Smith et al 22). Crocker writes that there were 637 Indians according to one French count as Smith watched Captain Beaujeu lead them off to attack Braddock (206).
After a period of captivity at Fort Duquesne, Smith was moved again, this time in a canoe, to an Indian town about forty miles north of the fort, and then, after a few weeks, to a town called Tullihas, where Delawares, Caughnewagos and Mohicans lived (Smith 13; Smith et al 28). This last leg of his unfortunate journey, was what brought him into the hills of Coshocton County, at the location described in reference to several Indian trails and rivers as:
…the Ohio Indian town of Tullihas, located at or near where the Mohican and Owl Creek join to form the Walhonding. The “Great Trail” between Fort Duquesne and Detroit passed some miles to the north. From it the “Muskingum Trail” led south and struck the “Walhonding Trail” at Coshocton. The Walhonding Trail passed Tullihas, then ran southwest to the famous “Warriors’ Path” in the Scioto Valley. (Smith et al 29)
It was in this Coshocton County Ohio Indian town that Smith was sure he was going to die, after seeing many deaths at the hands of Indians along the route since his capture. The next day after arriving in Tullihas, he was taken by some Indians who started to pull the hair out of his head. They plucked it a lock at a time, until he was bald except for about a four inch area on the crown of his head. They cut this with scissors, leaving three locks, one of which was braided with silver jewelry inserted, and the other two decorated with beaded garters. They also adorned him with earrings and jewelry after piercing his ears and nose. Smith was dressed only in a breech-clout and his head, face, and body were painted. More adornment in the form of wampum and silver bands were added to his new attire.
After this preparation, the entire population of Tullihas came out and the chief held Smith’s hand, made a long speech, none of which Smith understood, and then sent him to the river with three women. Smith was sure he was about to be executed by drowning. Instead, unbeknownst to him, Smith was going through the customary ceremony needed to be adopted into their people. The submersion into the river water was to “wash all the white blood out of him” (Smith 14-16; Smith et al 28-31).
From this point, and for the next five years or so, James Smith learned from his new family. He accompanied his new family members on several hunting excursions north, even as far as the Great Lakes (Wilcox and McGill 87). He observed their ways, their traditions, their religions, their hunting, and even their war techniques. He was able to keep a journal of all this, which, for the most part is all the documentation that is available about his life while in captivity until his escape. However, there were a few works that were done that examined different aspects of his writings and life in a little more detail.
One of these was written by Anna Dill Gamble, who expounded on the truthfulness, or perhaps bias, of Smith’s journal, especially when it came to the parts of the Indians’ religion. Gamble seems to be offended on behalf of the Catholic Church and accuses him of writing to please his Protestant readers. This is because Smith, in her words, was betraying his own religious prejudices by deliberately omitting the Christian influence of the Catholic Church in the history of the Caughnewagas (3):
So he pretends that the old Indian is a pagan and introduces us to his “theological sentiments” as characteristic of the “customs, manners, and traditions” of the Indians. The Caughnawaga family which adopted Smith was intermarried with the Wyandots and Ottawas. Smith learned all three of these languages; but in speaking of their “traditions,” he makes little distinction among them, nor does he show the slightest awareness of the Christian traditions of the Caughnawagas nor that their very tribal existence depended upon their conversion to Catholicity. (3)
Although this study may cast doubt on whether a bias entered into Smith’s writings regarding the religious beliefs of his adoptive family, his records of the war tactics and strategies of the Native Americans proved to be not only accurate, but very helpful in future military campaigns. Smith’s journaling was published four years after the Greenville Treaty was signed, at the time when Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, was gathering his forces and organizing his plan to push back against the white men threatening his way of life. Since Smith fought in Pontiac’s War, he could have seen the similarities of what was happening under Tecumseh’s leadership and predicted that another struggle with the Indians may be on the horizon (Smith et al 17). In the preface of his journal, Colonel Smith writes, “The principal advantage that I expect will result to the public, from the publication of the following sheets is the observations on the Indian mode of warfare.” He was convinced that the better schooled in their ways of warfare, the better the white man’s chances of defeating the Indians would be. (Smith 4; Smith et al 17).
In 1763, Smith was appointed as captain of a company of rangers charged with protecting Pennsylvanian settlers from Indian attacks. He taught some of his own Indian warfare observations to the rifle-men and “succeeded beyond expectation in defending the frontiers” (Smith 107; Smith et al 121). The next year, five years after his escape from his life as Scoouwa, Smith became a lieutenant in the service of Colonel Henry Bouquet.
It was during this campaign, under the leadership of Bouquet, that James Smith found himself once again temporarily within the boundaries of Coshocton County. Colonial Bouquet’s army arrived in Coshocton County on October 25, 1764, and created Camp Number 16 in the vicinity of the joining of the Walhonding and Tuscarawas rivers as they formed the Muskingum. This location was chosen as the best area to receive prisoners because of its strategic proximity to several Native American towns (Butler 44).
Smith spent his later years in the state of Kentucky. Dr. Atkins writes in her article that he was a “frontiersman, pioneer, explorer, Indian captive, ‘Indian fighter’, Revolutionary War soldier, Pennsylvania State Assemblyman, Kentucky State Assemblyman, Presbyterian preacher, published author, and my 4th Great Grandfather.” Atkins also included the obituary from The Reporter’s May 8, 1813, issue in her work. It reads:
He is to be lamented by all for his warin zeal in behalf of his country’s good. He has devoted a long life in the service of his country, and was generally esteemed by all that knew him.
James Smith, the man with the ordinary name, ended up with quite an extraordinary life story. It not only brought him into Coshocton County twice for a season, but it also inspired a historical novel, a John Wayne movie, and a Fort Loudon, Pennsylvania, museum (Spero 471). Quite the saga for a simple eighteenth century Pennsylvania boy!
Works Cited
Atkins, Martha Ann, PhD. “Colonel James Smith’s Death Verified” A publication of the
Kentucky Historical Society, 2014. kentuckyancestors.org/colonel-james-smiths-death-verified/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020.
Butler, Scott E., PhD. Mary Harris “The White Woman” of the Ohio Frontier in 1750. Butler,
2016.
Crocker, Thomas E. Braddock’s March: How the Man Sent to Seize a Continent Changed
American History. Westholme Publishing, LLC, 2009.
Gamble, Anna Dill. “Col. James Smith and the Caughnawaga Indians.” Records of the
American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, vol. 49, no. 1, 1938, pp. 1–26. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44209320. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020.
Smith, James. An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Col. James
Smith (Now a Citizen of Bourbon County, Kentucky) During His Captivity with the
Indians, in the Years 1755, ’56, ’57, ’58, and ’59. Cincinnati, OH, Robert Clarke & Co.,
1870.
Smith, James, William M. Darlington and John J. Barsotti. Scoouwa: James Smith's Indian
Captivity Narrative. Ohio Historical Society, 1978.
Spero, Patrick. “Recreating James Smith at the Pennsylvania State Archives.” Pennsylvania
History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 76, no. 4, 2009, pp. 474–483. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/27778926. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020.
Wilcox, Frank N., and William A. McGill. Ohio Indian Trails. 3rd ed. The Kent State University
Press, 2015.
James Smith was a Pennsylvania native, being born in 1737 in Franklin County, and growing up as any youngster would have during that time in history (Smith v; Smith et al 7). One would assume a young boy in the frontier of Colonial America would be filling his days with work on the family homestead and helping his father provide for the family. Young James Smith would probably have had no inkling what adventures and dangers he would undergo during his lifetime.
In May of 1755, James’ brother-in-law, William Smith, was appointed commissioner to oversee the three hundred men promised by Pennsylvania to build a road from Fort Loudon, in the southern part of the province as part of Braddock’s road. A young man of just 18 years, he had fallen in love and thought he would take on this job to earn money and then return in a few months to his lady love (Smith 5-6; Smith et al 18). This was not to be so.
July of that same year, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, Robert Hunter Morris, received a letter informing him the enemy had deduced that the roads being built were an important part of Great Britain’s war tactics. The French and their Indian allies began to harass the builders. James Smith had found himself working at one of the many provisions depots along the route. His commander, Robert McCay, sent Smith on an errand to check on supply wagons, to see why they were delayed, and to inform the waggoneers that the provisions were sorely needed. Along the way, Smith met up with one Arnold Vigorous, a military supplier’s employee, and they traveled together to carry out McCay’s orders (Spero 472). On the way back they were ambushed. Vigorous was killed and Smith was taken as a prisoner after being thrown from his horse (Smith 6; Smith et al 20).
Spero writes that, once the wagons arrived at the outpost, McCay and his men realized that something had happened to Smith and sent out a search party. They found Vigorous’ body with two gunshot wounds and missing his scalp, but the only clue they found regarding Smith was his hat (472).
This occurrence started a five year ordeal that changed Smith’s life forever. He went from fearing for his life to acclimating so much to his captives that he was told later he emulated them in “both gait and gesture” (Smith 105; Smith et al 120). When first captured, he was forced by his abductors to travel miles, joining with other bands of Indians along the way, until they reached Fort Duquesne. There Smith was beaten and blinded by sand by his captors (Smith 7-8; Smith et al 21-22).
Crocker writes in his book describing Major General Edward Braddock’s March about the day that Smith was brought in to the fort, “…the Indians had brought in a young American, eighteen-year-old James Smith, whom they had captured working on the Pennsylvania road under construction between Rays Town and the Youghiogheny. Held prisoner, he had been temporarily blinded with sand, beaten, and interrogated (205-206).” Smith was made to ‘run the gauntlet’ which was a typical practice of the Native Americans for all male captives. It involved traveling between two rows of men while they beat the prisoner as he went, giving a more severe beating to those who showed fear rather than courage, which was admired. Because of the sheer numbers of warriors gathered at Fort Duquesne waiting to attack Braddock’s army, Smith’s beating was severe (Smith et al 22). Crocker writes that there were 637 Indians according to one French count as Smith watched Captain Beaujeu lead them off to attack Braddock (206).
After a period of captivity at Fort Duquesne, Smith was moved again, this time in a canoe, to an Indian town about forty miles north of the fort, and then, after a few weeks, to a town called Tullihas, where Delawares, Caughnewagos and Mohicans lived (Smith 13; Smith et al 28). This last leg of his unfortunate journey, was what brought him into the hills of Coshocton County, at the location described in reference to several Indian trails and rivers as:
…the Ohio Indian town of Tullihas, located at or near where the Mohican and Owl Creek join to form the Walhonding. The “Great Trail” between Fort Duquesne and Detroit passed some miles to the north. From it the “Muskingum Trail” led south and struck the “Walhonding Trail” at Coshocton. The Walhonding Trail passed Tullihas, then ran southwest to the famous “Warriors’ Path” in the Scioto Valley. (Smith et al 29)
It was in this Coshocton County Ohio Indian town that Smith was sure he was going to die, after seeing many deaths at the hands of Indians along the route since his capture. The next day after arriving in Tullihas, he was taken by some Indians who started to pull the hair out of his head. They plucked it a lock at a time, until he was bald except for about a four inch area on the crown of his head. They cut this with scissors, leaving three locks, one of which was braided with silver jewelry inserted, and the other two decorated with beaded garters. They also adorned him with earrings and jewelry after piercing his ears and nose. Smith was dressed only in a breech-clout and his head, face, and body were painted. More adornment in the form of wampum and silver bands were added to his new attire.
After this preparation, the entire population of Tullihas came out and the chief held Smith’s hand, made a long speech, none of which Smith understood, and then sent him to the river with three women. Smith was sure he was about to be executed by drowning. Instead, unbeknownst to him, Smith was going through the customary ceremony needed to be adopted into their people. The submersion into the river water was to “wash all the white blood out of him” (Smith 14-16; Smith et al 28-31).
From this point, and for the next five years or so, James Smith learned from his new family. He accompanied his new family members on several hunting excursions north, even as far as the Great Lakes (Wilcox and McGill 87). He observed their ways, their traditions, their religions, their hunting, and even their war techniques. He was able to keep a journal of all this, which, for the most part is all the documentation that is available about his life while in captivity until his escape. However, there were a few works that were done that examined different aspects of his writings and life in a little more detail.
One of these was written by Anna Dill Gamble, who expounded on the truthfulness, or perhaps bias, of Smith’s journal, especially when it came to the parts of the Indians’ religion. Gamble seems to be offended on behalf of the Catholic Church and accuses him of writing to please his Protestant readers. This is because Smith, in her words, was betraying his own religious prejudices by deliberately omitting the Christian influence of the Catholic Church in the history of the Caughnewagas (3):
So he pretends that the old Indian is a pagan and introduces us to his “theological sentiments” as characteristic of the “customs, manners, and traditions” of the Indians. The Caughnawaga family which adopted Smith was intermarried with the Wyandots and Ottawas. Smith learned all three of these languages; but in speaking of their “traditions,” he makes little distinction among them, nor does he show the slightest awareness of the Christian traditions of the Caughnawagas nor that their very tribal existence depended upon their conversion to Catholicity. (3)
Although this study may cast doubt on whether a bias entered into Smith’s writings regarding the religious beliefs of his adoptive family, his records of the war tactics and strategies of the Native Americans proved to be not only accurate, but very helpful in future military campaigns. Smith’s journaling was published four years after the Greenville Treaty was signed, at the time when Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, was gathering his forces and organizing his plan to push back against the white men threatening his way of life. Since Smith fought in Pontiac’s War, he could have seen the similarities of what was happening under Tecumseh’s leadership and predicted that another struggle with the Indians may be on the horizon (Smith et al 17). In the preface of his journal, Colonel Smith writes, “The principal advantage that I expect will result to the public, from the publication of the following sheets is the observations on the Indian mode of warfare.” He was convinced that the better schooled in their ways of warfare, the better the white man’s chances of defeating the Indians would be. (Smith 4; Smith et al 17).
In 1763, Smith was appointed as captain of a company of rangers charged with protecting Pennsylvanian settlers from Indian attacks. He taught some of his own Indian warfare observations to the rifle-men and “succeeded beyond expectation in defending the frontiers” (Smith 107; Smith et al 121). The next year, five years after his escape from his life as Scoouwa, Smith became a lieutenant in the service of Colonel Henry Bouquet.
It was during this campaign, under the leadership of Bouquet, that James Smith found himself once again temporarily within the boundaries of Coshocton County. Colonial Bouquet’s army arrived in Coshocton County on October 25, 1764, and created Camp Number 16 in the vicinity of the joining of the Walhonding and Tuscarawas rivers as they formed the Muskingum. This location was chosen as the best area to receive prisoners because of its strategic proximity to several Native American towns (Butler 44).
Smith spent his later years in the state of Kentucky. Dr. Atkins writes in her article that he was a “frontiersman, pioneer, explorer, Indian captive, ‘Indian fighter’, Revolutionary War soldier, Pennsylvania State Assemblyman, Kentucky State Assemblyman, Presbyterian preacher, published author, and my 4th Great Grandfather.” Atkins also included the obituary from The Reporter’s May 8, 1813, issue in her work. It reads:
He is to be lamented by all for his warin zeal in behalf of his country’s good. He has devoted a long life in the service of his country, and was generally esteemed by all that knew him.
James Smith, the man with the ordinary name, ended up with quite an extraordinary life story. It not only brought him into Coshocton County twice for a season, but it also inspired a historical novel, a John Wayne movie, and a Fort Loudon, Pennsylvania, museum (Spero 471). Quite the saga for a simple eighteenth century Pennsylvania boy!
Works Cited
Atkins, Martha Ann, PhD. “Colonel James Smith’s Death Verified” A publication of the
Kentucky Historical Society, 2014. kentuckyancestors.org/colonel-james-smiths-death-verified/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020.
Butler, Scott E., PhD. Mary Harris “The White Woman” of the Ohio Frontier in 1750. Butler,
2016.
Crocker, Thomas E. Braddock’s March: How the Man Sent to Seize a Continent Changed
American History. Westholme Publishing, LLC, 2009.
Gamble, Anna Dill. “Col. James Smith and the Caughnawaga Indians.” Records of the
American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, vol. 49, no. 1, 1938, pp. 1–26. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44209320. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020.
Smith, James. An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Col. James
Smith (Now a Citizen of Bourbon County, Kentucky) During His Captivity with the
Indians, in the Years 1755, ’56, ’57, ’58, and ’59. Cincinnati, OH, Robert Clarke & Co.,
1870.
Smith, James, William M. Darlington and John J. Barsotti. Scoouwa: James Smith's Indian
Captivity Narrative. Ohio Historical Society, 1978.
Spero, Patrick. “Recreating James Smith at the Pennsylvania State Archives.” Pennsylvania
History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 76, no. 4, 2009, pp. 474–483. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/27778926. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020.
Wilcox, Frank N., and William A. McGill. Ohio Indian Trails. 3rd ed. The Kent State University
Press, 2015.
Dana M. Kittner: Colonel Henry Bouquet & the Black Watch (HONORABLE MENTION WINNER)
The European fight for world expansion included a bitter struggle for the Ohio Frontier. Great Britain, having completed a war against Spain, soon entered a long-drawn out conflict with France on multiple fronts. Known as the 7 Years War or French and Indian War, Britain was desperate to gain a lasting stronghold into the interior of North America. Established as a military might, Great Britain sought strong leaders to engage and defeat their enemies. Colonel Henry Bouquet’s military expertise combined with hardy soldiers of the frontier and abroad helped not only succeed in critical engagements but define history. Scotland’s 42nd Highland Regiment was one of the key components assisting Bouquet in his military endeavors. These men of valor and might helped defeat the enemy at all odds. The 42nd Highland Regiment, along with other militia and frontiers men allowed England to gain peaceful access to the frontier for settlement and trade, opening a new chapter in the development of the Ohio Frontier.
With ongoing uprisings among the mountainous clans of Scotland, King George II chose to adopt a “military force” in 1729 to provide police-like duties to ensure control by employing military men of the Highlands. These Highland men were considered “far better qualified than soldiers from the Lowlands” (Cannon 1845, 27). This regiment was known as The Black Watch, due to the black within the plaid of their colored uniforms, created especially for Lord Crawford (Groves 1893, 2). Within those first nine years, The Black Watch had proved to be a great asset to King George in keeping order amongst the clans; he then solicited more Highland regiments to serve England in the war against Spain. As a result, new recruits and regiments were created, thus forming the 43d Highland regiment, eventually renamed the 42nd.
The regiment was unique from all other British foot soldiers in their attire, with “their uniform being the ancient habit of the Scottish” (Grofe Esq. 1801, 163). They dressed in “scarlet overcoats, belted plaids and red, blue and green ‘bonnets’ for parade... The sword-belt was of black leather; the cartouche-box was worn in front supported by a waist-belt” (Grofe Esq. 1801, 156). The government provided each soldier with the standard “fire-lock” musket and bayonet, but beyond these weapons, the Highlanders carried “large basket-hilted broad swords, and daggers of about eighteen inches long, called dirks” (Groves 1893, 2). The officers carried fusils, or short muskets, after the fashion of officers of fusilier and light-infantry corps; the sergeants retained their formidable Lochaber axes (Groves 1893, 2).
With ongoing uprisings among the mountainous clans of Scotland, King George II chose to adopt a “military force” in 1729 to provide police-like duties to ensure control by employing military men of the Highlands. These Highland men were considered “far better qualified than soldiers from the Lowlands” (Cannon 1845, 27). This regiment was known as The Black Watch, due to the black within the plaid of their colored uniforms, created especially for Lord Crawford (Groves 1893, 2). Within those first nine years, The Black Watch had proved to be a great asset to King George in keeping order amongst the clans; he then solicited more Highland regiments to serve England in the war against Spain. As a result, new recruits and regiments were created, thus forming the 43d Highland regiment, eventually renamed the 42nd.
The regiment was unique from all other British foot soldiers in their attire, with “their uniform being the ancient habit of the Scottish” (Grofe Esq. 1801, 163). They dressed in “scarlet overcoats, belted plaids and red, blue and green ‘bonnets’ for parade... The sword-belt was of black leather; the cartouche-box was worn in front supported by a waist-belt” (Grofe Esq. 1801, 156). The government provided each soldier with the standard “fire-lock” musket and bayonet, but beyond these weapons, the Highlanders carried “large basket-hilted broad swords, and daggers of about eighteen inches long, called dirks” (Groves 1893, 2). The officers carried fusils, or short muskets, after the fashion of officers of fusilier and light-infantry corps; the sergeants retained their formidable Lochaber axes (Groves 1893, 2).
P.A. Ravinole, Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association: ... Annual Meeting with Constitution and By-Laws and List of Members, Volume 10; Volume 12 (New York State Historical Association, January 1911), https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=lxIzAQAAIAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA403.
During the outbreak of the French and Indian War, the 42nd Highlanders had been called up to serve Britain’s colonies in North America. After arriving in Albany, New York, they trained in bush fighting extensively during the fall of 1756 through the spring 1757, with little activity the following year. In the spring of 1758, the 42nd was ordered to attack Fort Ticonderoga. Upon landing by boat in July, they marched through thick forests while being attacked by the enemy (French and French loyal Native Americans), with both the 42nd and 55th regiments placed at the rear of the army, serving as reserves during the attack of the fort.
However, the physical embankments and reinforcements to the fort proved to be extremely difficult to overcome, causing much loss to the regiments in the front; as they attempted to break into the fort, they suffered great losses due to musket and artillery fire. As a result, the 42nd Highlanders rushed forward from the reserve, hewed their way through the obstacles with their broadswords, and no ladders having been provided made strenuous efforts to carry the breast- work, partly by mounting on each other's shoulders, and partly by placing their feet in holes which they dug with their swords and bayonets in the face of the work.
However, the fort was well defended and after a four hour “desperate struggle” General Abercromby [sic] “seeing no possible chance of success, ordered a retreat an order which had to be thrice repeated before the Highlanders would withdraw from the unequal contest”(Groves 1893, 7). It would take more troops reinforcements as well as time before another attack was led on the fort.
In 1758, King George II, held the 42 Highlanders in such esteem for their brave acts of service that he changed the regiment’s name to reflect his appreciation. He extended the title “Royal Highland Regiment." The Royal Highland Regiment continued to serve the King in commissions in the West Indies, Barbados, Spain and Cuba then, back to New York for another 5 years to fight on the frontier (1763-1767) (Stewart 1822, 588).
While in New York, the 42nd came under the leadership of Colonel Bouquet (Smith, 2015). Henry Bouquet, a Swiss army officer serving England during the French Indian Wars, had proven his leadership and military capabilities during other campaigns in New York and the south. The 42nd Highlanders in his employ fought alongside other foot soldiers, militia and regiment troops native to the colonies (“Bouquet's Expedition against the Indians (1764)”, 1953).
By 1763, the Native Americans were collectively attacking colonists west of the Appalachian Mountains from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh. These acts of revenge stemmed from Native American frustrations about the constant encroachment of colonial settlers immigrating over the mountains unto their lands. In what became known as Pontiac’s Rebellion, many native tribes banded together under Ottawa leader, Pontiac, to drive out British settlers and traders on the Ohio frontier (“Bouquet’s Expedition - Ohio History Central” n.d.). The killings and burning of homes caused colonists to fear and flee the frontier. When these uprising began occurring, Great Britain’s military responded by ordering Colonel Bouquet to Fort Pitt and provide relief; his superior, General Amherst committed the last troops he could collect — to the very last man -- to march with the packtrain to the relief of beleaguered Fort Pitt. The veteran survivors of disease and battle casualties from the West Indies, 214 of the 42nd Royal Highlanders (the Black Watch), 133 of the 77th Highlanders (Montgomery's), together with 150 of the Royal Americans, comprised the little force (Peckham 1994, 210–13).
Amherst wrote back to Bouquet, June 23, 1763: "...I have now forwarded from hence Every Man that was here .. ."(Bouquet n.d., 198). In total, just under 1,000 men were secured. From 1763-1767, “the 42nd Royal Highlanders were employed on most harassing service against the Indian tribes in North America, and the regiment particularly distinguished itself at Bushy Run, in July 1763” (Groves, 1893, page 6). “Colonel Bouquet was appointed to march to the relief of this fort, with large quantity of military stores and provisions, escorted by the shattered remainder of the 42nd and 77th regiments, lately returned in a dismal condition from the
West-Indies, and far from being recovered of their fatigues at the siege of the Havannah. General Amherst, having at that time no other troops to spare, was obliged to employ them in a service which would have required men of the strongest constitution and vigor, (Smith 1907, Pg. 10).
Twenty-eight miles from Fort Pitt, they came upon Bushy Run, a steep sided narrow pass in which the terrain around the pass had high hills on each side. A thich woods covered the area, providing cover for the Native Indians who suddenly attacked at the end of the day. The attack lasted two days with Bouquet and his men outnumbered against very skilled warriors (Peckham 1994, 212-213). The Light infantry of the 42d regiment were ordered to the support of the advanced guard: drove the enemy from the ambuscade, pursuing them to a considerable distance. But the Indians soon returned, and took possession of some neighboring heights. From these they were again driven; but no sooner were they forced from one position than they appeared on another, till, by continual reinforcements, they became so numerous, that they soon surrounded the detachment, when the action became general. The enemy made their attacks on every side with increasing vigor but were constantly repulsed. Night concluded the combat, which was renewed early the following morning by the enemy, who kept up an incessant fire, invariably retiring as often as any part of the troops advanced upon them. Encumbered by the convoy of provisions, and afraid of leaving their wounded to fall into the hands of the enemy, our troops were prevented from pursuing to any distance. The enemy becoming bolder by every fresh attack, a stratagem was attempted to entice them to come to closer action. Preparations being made for a feigned retreat, two companies, which were in advance, were ordered to retire and fall within the square, while the troops opened their files, as if preparing to cover a retreat. This, with some other dispositions, had the desired effect. The Indians, believing themselves certain of victory, and forgetting their usual precaution of covering themselves with trees or bushes, rushed forward with much impetuosity. Being thus fully exposed, and coming within reach, they were vigorously charged in front, while two companies, making a sudden movement, and running round a hill, which concealed their approach, attacked them in flank. They were thus thrown into great confusion; and, in retreating, they were pursued to such a distance that they did not venture to rally. Colonel Bouquet resumed his march, and reached Port Pitt without farther [sic] molestation. (Stewart, 1822).
The Native Americans quickly fled once it was clear they had lost and headed to homes as far as the Muskingum, a 130 mile trac. Bouquet wrote to Gov. James Hamilton, on Aug. 11, 1763: " ..it [follow-up action] cannot be Attempted ... With the Troops I have left ... we may have the whole to do Over again" (Bouquet n.d., p. 16). Colonel Bouquet and his weakened army continued on to Fort Pitt and spent the winter there.
Upon his success in defeating the French at Fort Duquesne (renamed Fort Pitt), Colonel Bouquet received new orders that had been issued by almost a year earlier to reduce or dismiss troops who had served their term. To complicate matters, Bouquet had also been given orders by General Amherst to engage in a two pronged campaign to eliminate the American Indians on the Ohio frontier. He had made plans to penetrate the heart of the Navtive lands and burn their villages as he went. With his soldiers being discharged from the army, Bouquet was left begging for help from Pennsylvania Congress so he might meet the challenges on the frontier (Hannum 1976, 55).
In October, 1764, after a year of planning his attack, Bouquet and his army began moving by taking “The Great Trail” (located north of Pittsburgh) to Beaver River then onto the Tuscarawas, home of the Delaware, known today as Coshocton (Williams 1959, 180). The 42nd likely served again as the reserve in the rear of the columns as they marched on to Coshocton (Hannum 1976, 84). While camping on the Tuscarawas River heading toward the Delaware and Mingo villages, a small group of Native Americans approached Bouquet to tell him “the villages were ready to make peace in order to avoid destruction” (Hurt 1998, 50). Capitalizing on this opportunity, Bouquet made starting with an immediate cessation of hostilities. He also demanded the delivery of “all the prisoners in your possession, without any exception” (Smith 1907, 47). Only after these conditions were met would deputies meet to conclude peace treaties. Bouquet, on Thursday, October 25thm, marched his troops to the Forks of Muskingum to receive the prisoners (Smith 1907, 49). Thus, “Bouquet accomplished his mission without firing a shot”(Hannum 1976, 87).
With pride and service, members of the 42nd Highlander regiment chose to follow Colonel Bouquet into the Ohio wilderness to crush the American Indians. In their time of service, the 42nd Regiment contributed to the Bouquet’s success at the Battle of Bush Run and Fort Pitt against overwhelming odds. Bouquet’s reputation following this battle turned the opinions of the Native American opposition forces, prompting them to seek peace. Bouquet’s peace negotiation fostered the release of over 300 captives without further bloodshed. This November 1764 landmark event occurred in the center of the Delaware Nation, known today as Coshocton, Ohio. Following this great victory, Colonel Bouquet was honored with the title General. The close of this era brought great changes and ushered in a period of lasting peace on the frontier for almost twenty five years. Not uncommon at the close of a career, the 42nd Royal Regiment returned to their homeland; “At length, after many years of faithful and arduous service, the gallant 42nd, now reduced to a mere skeleton battalion, was ordered home, and embarking at Philadelphia in July 1767” (Groves 1893, page 10). Great leaders like Colonel Bouquet were able to be great because of men who served as loyally and valiantly as those of the 42nd Royal Regiment.
Bibliography
“Bouquet's Expedition against the Indians (1764).” Bouquet's Expedition against the Indians 1764. William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan, 1953. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsead/umich-wcl-M-938bou?view=text.
Bouquet, Henry. n.d. The Papers of Col. Henry Bouquet / Prepared by Frontier Forts and Trails Survey, Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration; Edited by Sylvester K. Stevens and Donald H. Kent. Dept. of Public Instruction, Pennsylvania Historical Commission. Accessed November 1, 2020. http://archive.org/details/papersofcolhenry00bouq_0.
Cannon, Richard. 1845. Historical Records of the British Army Comprising the History of every Regiment in Her Majesty's Service. London: London: Parker, Furnivall, & Parker. https://archive.org/details/cihm_48390.
Grofe Esq., Francis. 1801. Military Antiquities Respecting a History of The English Army From the Conquest to the Present Time. London: T. Egerton, Whitehall & G. Kearsley, Fleet St.
Groves, Lt. Colonel Percy. 1893. Illustrated histories of the Scottish Regiments: book No. 1, 1st Battalion, The Black Watch Royal highlanders 42nd Foot. Edinburgh and London: W. &
A. K. Johnston. https://ia802606.us.archive.org/20/items/historyof42ndroy00grovuoft/historyof42ndroy0 0grovuoft.pdf.
Hannum, MAJ Patrick H. 1976. “Henry Bouquet: A Study of Three Military Campaigns in North America, 1758-1764,” 130.
Hurt, R. Douglas. 1998. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Indiana University Press.
Peckham, Howard Henry. 1994. Pontiac and the Indian Uprising. Wayne State University Press. Ravinole , P.A. Grenadier, 42nd Reg, 1751 (From a Painting at Windsor Castle.).
Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association: ... Annual Meeting with
Constitution and By-Laws and List of Members, Volume 10; Volume 12. New York State Historical Association, January 1911.
Smith, Preston. “History of the 42nd In North America.” History of the 42nd in North America, December 15, 2015. http://www.42ndrhr.org/history.php.
Smith, William. 1907. Historical Account of Bouquet’s Expedition Against the Ohio Indians in 1764. Applewood Books.
Stewart, David. Sketches of the Character, Manners and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland with Details of the Military Service of the Highland Regiments. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1822. (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsead/umich-wcl-M-938bou?view=text).
Williams, Edward G. 1959. “The Orderly Book of Colonel Henry Bouquet’s Expedition Against the Ohio Indians, 1764; Second Installment.” Western Pennsylvania History: 1918 - 2018, May, 179–200.
During the outbreak of the French and Indian War, the 42nd Highlanders had been called up to serve Britain’s colonies in North America. After arriving in Albany, New York, they trained in bush fighting extensively during the fall of 1756 through the spring 1757, with little activity the following year. In the spring of 1758, the 42nd was ordered to attack Fort Ticonderoga. Upon landing by boat in July, they marched through thick forests while being attacked by the enemy (French and French loyal Native Americans), with both the 42nd and 55th regiments placed at the rear of the army, serving as reserves during the attack of the fort.
However, the physical embankments and reinforcements to the fort proved to be extremely difficult to overcome, causing much loss to the regiments in the front; as they attempted to break into the fort, they suffered great losses due to musket and artillery fire. As a result, the 42nd Highlanders rushed forward from the reserve, hewed their way through the obstacles with their broadswords, and no ladders having been provided made strenuous efforts to carry the breast- work, partly by mounting on each other's shoulders, and partly by placing their feet in holes which they dug with their swords and bayonets in the face of the work.
However, the fort was well defended and after a four hour “desperate struggle” General Abercromby [sic] “seeing no possible chance of success, ordered a retreat an order which had to be thrice repeated before the Highlanders would withdraw from the unequal contest”(Groves 1893, 7). It would take more troops reinforcements as well as time before another attack was led on the fort.
In 1758, King George II, held the 42 Highlanders in such esteem for their brave acts of service that he changed the regiment’s name to reflect his appreciation. He extended the title “Royal Highland Regiment." The Royal Highland Regiment continued to serve the King in commissions in the West Indies, Barbados, Spain and Cuba then, back to New York for another 5 years to fight on the frontier (1763-1767) (Stewart 1822, 588).
While in New York, the 42nd came under the leadership of Colonel Bouquet (Smith, 2015). Henry Bouquet, a Swiss army officer serving England during the French Indian Wars, had proven his leadership and military capabilities during other campaigns in New York and the south. The 42nd Highlanders in his employ fought alongside other foot soldiers, militia and regiment troops native to the colonies (“Bouquet's Expedition against the Indians (1764)”, 1953).
By 1763, the Native Americans were collectively attacking colonists west of the Appalachian Mountains from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh. These acts of revenge stemmed from Native American frustrations about the constant encroachment of colonial settlers immigrating over the mountains unto their lands. In what became known as Pontiac’s Rebellion, many native tribes banded together under Ottawa leader, Pontiac, to drive out British settlers and traders on the Ohio frontier (“Bouquet’s Expedition - Ohio History Central” n.d.). The killings and burning of homes caused colonists to fear and flee the frontier. When these uprising began occurring, Great Britain’s military responded by ordering Colonel Bouquet to Fort Pitt and provide relief; his superior, General Amherst committed the last troops he could collect — to the very last man -- to march with the packtrain to the relief of beleaguered Fort Pitt. The veteran survivors of disease and battle casualties from the West Indies, 214 of the 42nd Royal Highlanders (the Black Watch), 133 of the 77th Highlanders (Montgomery's), together with 150 of the Royal Americans, comprised the little force (Peckham 1994, 210–13).
Amherst wrote back to Bouquet, June 23, 1763: "...I have now forwarded from hence Every Man that was here .. ."(Bouquet n.d., 198). In total, just under 1,000 men were secured. From 1763-1767, “the 42nd Royal Highlanders were employed on most harassing service against the Indian tribes in North America, and the regiment particularly distinguished itself at Bushy Run, in July 1763” (Groves, 1893, page 6). “Colonel Bouquet was appointed to march to the relief of this fort, with large quantity of military stores and provisions, escorted by the shattered remainder of the 42nd and 77th regiments, lately returned in a dismal condition from the
West-Indies, and far from being recovered of their fatigues at the siege of the Havannah. General Amherst, having at that time no other troops to spare, was obliged to employ them in a service which would have required men of the strongest constitution and vigor, (Smith 1907, Pg. 10).
Twenty-eight miles from Fort Pitt, they came upon Bushy Run, a steep sided narrow pass in which the terrain around the pass had high hills on each side. A thich woods covered the area, providing cover for the Native Indians who suddenly attacked at the end of the day. The attack lasted two days with Bouquet and his men outnumbered against very skilled warriors (Peckham 1994, 212-213). The Light infantry of the 42d regiment were ordered to the support of the advanced guard: drove the enemy from the ambuscade, pursuing them to a considerable distance. But the Indians soon returned, and took possession of some neighboring heights. From these they were again driven; but no sooner were they forced from one position than they appeared on another, till, by continual reinforcements, they became so numerous, that they soon surrounded the detachment, when the action became general. The enemy made their attacks on every side with increasing vigor but were constantly repulsed. Night concluded the combat, which was renewed early the following morning by the enemy, who kept up an incessant fire, invariably retiring as often as any part of the troops advanced upon them. Encumbered by the convoy of provisions, and afraid of leaving their wounded to fall into the hands of the enemy, our troops were prevented from pursuing to any distance. The enemy becoming bolder by every fresh attack, a stratagem was attempted to entice them to come to closer action. Preparations being made for a feigned retreat, two companies, which were in advance, were ordered to retire and fall within the square, while the troops opened their files, as if preparing to cover a retreat. This, with some other dispositions, had the desired effect. The Indians, believing themselves certain of victory, and forgetting their usual precaution of covering themselves with trees or bushes, rushed forward with much impetuosity. Being thus fully exposed, and coming within reach, they were vigorously charged in front, while two companies, making a sudden movement, and running round a hill, which concealed their approach, attacked them in flank. They were thus thrown into great confusion; and, in retreating, they were pursued to such a distance that they did not venture to rally. Colonel Bouquet resumed his march, and reached Port Pitt without farther [sic] molestation. (Stewart, 1822).
The Native Americans quickly fled once it was clear they had lost and headed to homes as far as the Muskingum, a 130 mile trac. Bouquet wrote to Gov. James Hamilton, on Aug. 11, 1763: " ..it [follow-up action] cannot be Attempted ... With the Troops I have left ... we may have the whole to do Over again" (Bouquet n.d., p. 16). Colonel Bouquet and his weakened army continued on to Fort Pitt and spent the winter there.
Upon his success in defeating the French at Fort Duquesne (renamed Fort Pitt), Colonel Bouquet received new orders that had been issued by almost a year earlier to reduce or dismiss troops who had served their term. To complicate matters, Bouquet had also been given orders by General Amherst to engage in a two pronged campaign to eliminate the American Indians on the Ohio frontier. He had made plans to penetrate the heart of the Navtive lands and burn their villages as he went. With his soldiers being discharged from the army, Bouquet was left begging for help from Pennsylvania Congress so he might meet the challenges on the frontier (Hannum 1976, 55).
In October, 1764, after a year of planning his attack, Bouquet and his army began moving by taking “The Great Trail” (located north of Pittsburgh) to Beaver River then onto the Tuscarawas, home of the Delaware, known today as Coshocton (Williams 1959, 180). The 42nd likely served again as the reserve in the rear of the columns as they marched on to Coshocton (Hannum 1976, 84). While camping on the Tuscarawas River heading toward the Delaware and Mingo villages, a small group of Native Americans approached Bouquet to tell him “the villages were ready to make peace in order to avoid destruction” (Hurt 1998, 50). Capitalizing on this opportunity, Bouquet made starting with an immediate cessation of hostilities. He also demanded the delivery of “all the prisoners in your possession, without any exception” (Smith 1907, 47). Only after these conditions were met would deputies meet to conclude peace treaties. Bouquet, on Thursday, October 25thm, marched his troops to the Forks of Muskingum to receive the prisoners (Smith 1907, 49). Thus, “Bouquet accomplished his mission without firing a shot”(Hannum 1976, 87).
With pride and service, members of the 42nd Highlander regiment chose to follow Colonel Bouquet into the Ohio wilderness to crush the American Indians. In their time of service, the 42nd Regiment contributed to the Bouquet’s success at the Battle of Bush Run and Fort Pitt against overwhelming odds. Bouquet’s reputation following this battle turned the opinions of the Native American opposition forces, prompting them to seek peace. Bouquet’s peace negotiation fostered the release of over 300 captives without further bloodshed. This November 1764 landmark event occurred in the center of the Delaware Nation, known today as Coshocton, Ohio. Following this great victory, Colonel Bouquet was honored with the title General. The close of this era brought great changes and ushered in a period of lasting peace on the frontier for almost twenty five years. Not uncommon at the close of a career, the 42nd Royal Regiment returned to their homeland; “At length, after many years of faithful and arduous service, the gallant 42nd, now reduced to a mere skeleton battalion, was ordered home, and embarking at Philadelphia in July 1767” (Groves 1893, page 10). Great leaders like Colonel Bouquet were able to be great because of men who served as loyally and valiantly as those of the 42nd Royal Regiment.
Bibliography
“Bouquet's Expedition against the Indians (1764).” Bouquet's Expedition against the Indians 1764. William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan, 1953. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsead/umich-wcl-M-938bou?view=text.
Bouquet, Henry. n.d. The Papers of Col. Henry Bouquet / Prepared by Frontier Forts and Trails Survey, Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration; Edited by Sylvester K. Stevens and Donald H. Kent. Dept. of Public Instruction, Pennsylvania Historical Commission. Accessed November 1, 2020. http://archive.org/details/papersofcolhenry00bouq_0.
Cannon, Richard. 1845. Historical Records of the British Army Comprising the History of every Regiment in Her Majesty's Service. London: London: Parker, Furnivall, & Parker. https://archive.org/details/cihm_48390.
Grofe Esq., Francis. 1801. Military Antiquities Respecting a History of The English Army From the Conquest to the Present Time. London: T. Egerton, Whitehall & G. Kearsley, Fleet St.
Groves, Lt. Colonel Percy. 1893. Illustrated histories of the Scottish Regiments: book No. 1, 1st Battalion, The Black Watch Royal highlanders 42nd Foot. Edinburgh and London: W. &
A. K. Johnston. https://ia802606.us.archive.org/20/items/historyof42ndroy00grovuoft/historyof42ndroy0 0grovuoft.pdf.
Hannum, MAJ Patrick H. 1976. “Henry Bouquet: A Study of Three Military Campaigns in North America, 1758-1764,” 130.
Hurt, R. Douglas. 1998. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Indiana University Press.
Peckham, Howard Henry. 1994. Pontiac and the Indian Uprising. Wayne State University Press. Ravinole , P.A. Grenadier, 42nd Reg, 1751 (From a Painting at Windsor Castle.).
Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association: ... Annual Meeting with
Constitution and By-Laws and List of Members, Volume 10; Volume 12. New York State Historical Association, January 1911.
Smith, Preston. “History of the 42nd In North America.” History of the 42nd in North America, December 15, 2015. http://www.42ndrhr.org/history.php.
Smith, William. 1907. Historical Account of Bouquet’s Expedition Against the Ohio Indians in 1764. Applewood Books.
Stewart, David. Sketches of the Character, Manners and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland with Details of the Military Service of the Highland Regiments. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1822. (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsead/umich-wcl-M-938bou?view=text).
Williams, Edward G. 1959. “The Orderly Book of Colonel Henry Bouquet’s Expedition Against the Ohio Indians, 1764; Second Installment.” Western Pennsylvania History: 1918 - 2018, May, 179–200.
Pamela K. Morrison: Disquiet at the Forks of the Muskingum (HONORABLE MENTION WINNER)
Silence. A reverent deafening hollowness. As the vaporous fog marches across the yellowed cornstalks, abandoned and broken, a beam of light pierces the blanket of ebony. Golden, russet, and blood red leaves hang frozen in time. Haunting tales of a ghostly specter of a lone horseman, garbed in British pre-Revolutionary War regalia, have transcended the centuries. Sadly, on this night only a granite historical marker interrupts the serenity of the solemn area, flanked by the waters of the Muskingum. “On the hill north of here was made in 1764 the memorable treaty which brought almost continuous peace between the Indians and the whites…” (Bouquet’s Camp) Fraught with a lack of communication, misunderstanding, prejudice, and cultural differences, the Ohio Native Americans and Colonel Henry Bouquet’s story transcends time and exemplifies the constantly evolving struggle for unity and equality in this land of the free..
As the glaciated ice retreated toward the polar caps, the Great Lakes were filled, and Ohio’s topography was forever altered. With Lake Erie as a rejuvenating fountain, numerous rivers spawned great forests and fertile valleys. The Ohio Valley became a very desirable place to inhabit with a variety of wildlife suitable for food, as well as furs.
By the mid-eighteenth century, the once nomadic Ohio Native Americans became semi- agricultural and raised crops of beans, squash, tobacco and corn. In fact, when Colonel Bouquet first observed over 3,000 acres of cleared land, where the Muskingum and Tuscarawas rivers met, he was astounded. (Bond 18)
Prior to the French and Indian War, the most prominent native tribes in eastern Ohio were the Shawnees, who inhabited the Scioto and Muskingum river valleys; Wyandots of northern Ohio; (Hurt 13) and the Lenni Lenape of eastern Ohio, who were renamed Delawares by the English settlers. Thomas West, Lord de la Warr was the highly respected governor of Virginia at this time. The Delawares were a peaceful tribe; however, the frontiersmen greatly feared them. (Hurt 16)
Because of the fertile river valleys and the abundance of wildlife, by 1850 the Wyandots and the Delawares had established major villages in eastern and southern Ohio. Conchake, present day Coshocton, soon became the Delaware tribal center. (Hurt 17) For years the native tribes coexisted in this verdant land, but eventually the French and English fur traders and settlers pressed westward to the land beyond the Ohio River. A clash was inevitable.
The British wished total supremacy over the Ohio region, and that meant the French and Native Americans had to be expunged. From 1754 to 1763, a very unorganized war, comprised of makeshift battles and a series of raids, ensued. Although the Native Americans appreciated the trade goods which the British provided, the lure of French muskets enticed them to support the French. (Hurt 40) Throughout the French and Indian War, the Shawnee, Delaware and Miami tribes remained loyal to the French. (Hurt 41)
Hoping to ease the hostilities as the interminable war continued, George Croghan, “the official agent of the British Indian Department,” (Hurt 42) held a conference at Fort Pitt in August 1760. He invited representatives from the Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee, Mingo and Miami tribes. The British were exasperated with the natives for stealing horses, but, more importantly, capturing white settlers. The British planned to limit trade until these issues were resolved. (Hurt 43) Because the British assumed the role of conquerors, the Native Americans feared that the British would destroy their villages if they did not have the white settlers there. Perhaps the Native Americans’ greatest fear, however, was losing their beloved wives, husbands and children, whom they had assimilated into their tribal culture. (Hurt 45)
After nine long years, the French were defeated. The British forced the French to abandon their forts, as well as their claims in the New World. This act left the Native Americans in a very precarious position. Eventually, the Native Americans signed a peace treaty but claimed that there would be no lasting peace until all French and British left the Ohio Valley. The Delawares, in particular, did not just want the fur trade. They demanded control of their homeland. (Hurt 41) The British agreed to improve trade but refused to relinquish the land that they felt they had won as spoils of war. The Native Americans, however, did not believe that they had been defeated at all.
Hostilities intensified. The Native Americans captured even more English and French settlers to replace the natives killed in the French and Indian War. The British demanded the return of these captives, but the Delawares, Shawnees and Mingos were reluctant to comply. (Hurt 45) To force the issue, the British placed restrictions on traded goods: knives, razors, tomahawks, flints and guns. The Native Americans believed the British restrictions were an attempt to destroy their culture and, essentially, their way of life. They considered these trade limitations an act of war. (Hurt 44)
After the French and Indian War, the Shawnees, Delawares and other Ohio tribes became more warlike. In what is now known as Pontiac’s Rebellion, the Ohio tribes retaliated in a series of raids and skirmishes. (Smith 5) At first, the British felt secure and overconfident. However, as valuable settlements and outlying forts were being continuously attacked, the frontier became depopulated. Soon only Niagara, Detroit and Fort Pitt remained in British control mainly because they were better staffed and supplied. (Smith 7)
After Pontiac’s attack at Fort Sandusky, the British were infuriated. At this time George Croghan estimated that over 3,000 Delawares inhabited the eastern region of Ohio from Lake Erie southward. (Hurt 18) Therefore, the British amassed formidable forces under the leadership of Colonel John Bradstreet and Colonel Henry Bouquet. While Colonel Bradstreet was dispatched to the Sandusky area, Colonel Bouquet was sent from Fort Pitt to destroy the hostile natives along the Tuscarawas River. (Hurt 49)
Colonel Henry Bouquet proved a formidable foe to the marauding natives. He inspired confidence and respect in his followers because of his firmness, tenacity, and calmness in the face of danger. (Smith xvii) Born in Rolle, Switzerland, in 1736, he studied military arts and mathematics. (Smith xviii) He was a lieutenant colonel in The Royal American Regiment by the time he arrived in New York in 1756. (Williams 12) He also helped fortify Fort Pitt during Pontiac’s Rebellion. (Williams 13)
As Colonel Bouquet prepared to meet the hostile natives at the Muskingum River valley, he believed force would most assuredly be necessary in his quest to secure the white captives. As a result, when representatives from the Ohio tribes went to Fort Pitt on October 1, 1764, they attempted to discourage Colonel Bouquet. There was tremendous mistrust and fear on both sides. Bouquet quickly dismissed these representatives as spies and scoffed at the purported numbers of natives in eastern Ohio. He then demanded to speak to the Delaware and Shawnee leaders in person. (Smith 38)
Confident of success, Colonel Bouquet stated, “No doubt but this war would soon be ended.” (Smith 40) On October 3, 1764, fifteen hundred Pennsylvanians, Virginians, the Forty-second and Sixtieth regiments, wagon drivers, two nurses, and laundresses, who were also undoubtedly prostitutes, all left Fort Pitt. (Hurt 50) The journey was fraught with danger. The woods were dense and unexplored. There were no roads, posts, or settlements. Each person was required to carry his own ammunition, bags, tools, and provisions. (Smith 32) Plus, there was always the danger of sudden attack, so stealth and silence were required. (Bond 171)
Because they were experienced woodsmen, the Virginian volunteers led, guarded both sides of the convoy, and provided the rear guard. They were followed by the axmen and infantry. The regulars and Pennsylvanians marched in single file, a mere two yards from each other. Colonel Bouquet did not plan a sneak attack, but rather a massive display of British military force. His obvious motive was to intimidate the Ohio Valley natives. (Hurt 50)
Bouquet’s army reached the Tuscarawas River near present day Bolivar on October 13, 1764. After witnessing firsthand the formidable British army and fearing total destruction, six representatives from the Ohio tribes met with Colonel Bouquet. They stated that their tribes wished for peace. (Hurt 50) Needing to secure his camp, Colonel Bouquet agreed to meet in two day’s time. On October 15, 1764, forty warriors, mostly Delawares with a few Shawnees and Senecas, agreed to meet and discuss terms of peace. Bouquet was adamant about the return of the white captives. Of course, the Native Americans were reluctant because they now considered the white captives an essential part of their tribes. (Hurt 51)
By October 20, 1764, Bouquet informed the representatives that he was sick of their excuses. He felt that the young warriors’ barbaric attacks on the white settlements were indefensible. Stretching the truth, Bouquet claimed that many of his armed party were relatives of those slaughtered and were seeking vengeance. He also threatened that the other Tuscarawas tribes had already made peace with the British; that their allies in the area, the French, were already subjects of Great Britain; and that they were completely surrounded and in danger of being annihilated. He then boldly demanded that all prisoners- English, French, and African- be brought to his camp within twelve day’s time. (Hurt 50) By October 25, 1764, Bouquet had marched his colossal army to the forks of the Muskingum near present day Coshocton. Coshocton proved to be easily accessible and more central to the Ohio tribes’ villages. (Smith 50)
Fearing Bouquet’s threats and realizing the danger posed by the British army, small parties of natives stealthily came to Bouquet’s camp to return their captives, eighteen at a time. (Smith 52) By November 9,1764, eighty-one males and 125 females and children had been brought to his camp. The Shawnees promised to bring an additional one hundred more to Fort Pitt the following spring. (Smith 64) As a part of the agreement, the Delaware, Shawnee, and Seneca tribes were also required to provide horses and supplies needed by the prisoners for their return to Fort Pitt. (Hurt 52)
As can be imagined, many of the white captives were not overjoyed to be given their freedom. The captives were disoriented and confused. Since their capture in Pennsylvania and Virginia, many years had passed. Recognition was a major problem. (Hurt 52)
The children were particularly vulnerable and frightened. The children were biracial, they did not speak English, and they were confused about going to Fort Pitt and the English way of life. (Hurt 52) In fact, some children were “brought to the camp tied hand and foot.” (Hurt 53) Perhaps the most touching part of the experience was that the Native American tribes had grown to love and show affection for their captives and, therefore, felt that their families were being torn apart. Not wanting to be separated and eventually losing their children, many native parents travelled back to Fort Pitt with them. (Hurt 53)
Not all adults wished to return either. Some had to be bound. A few women escaped and returned to their Native American husbands. Also, the captives were treated poorly by the other whites, who could not understand why these returned prisoners did not embrace “the blessings of improved life and the light of religion.” (Hurt 53) Obviously, cultural bias, misunderstanding, and the notion of white superiority was a serious threat to equality even then. (Smith 77)
Always the diplomat, Colonel Bouquet claimed that if the Shawnee, Delaware and Seneca tribes each sent two hostages to Fort Pitt with him and guaranteed to return all of the other hostages, a lasting peace treaty would be signed in the spring. He falsely claimed that the British would protect their tribal villages. He also implied that through compliance with his demands, the natives could avoid forfeiture of their Ohio homeland. (Hurt 54) With this tenuous agreement in place, Bouquet’s army left the Muskingum Valley on Sunday, November 18, 1764. They marched through increasingly perilous weather conditions and reached Fort Pitt on November 28. (Smith 81)
The British considered Colonel Bouquet’s mission a complete military success because of his genius in negotiation and his military prowess. In truth, not one battle was fought on the expedition. (Williams 11) Due to his success in cultivating peace in the Ohio Valley, the king of Great Britain then honored him as brigadier general in all Southern Colonies in British America. He died in Pensacola, Florida, in 1765 less than a year after the adventure which forever etched his name in the annals of American history. (Smith xxiii)
Colonel Bouquet and the Native Americans’ idealistic quest for peace has been shattered time and time again, but the phantom hope of future equality remains. Throughout the centuries the natural beauty of the Muskingum River valley has silently and patiently watched over the hallowed ground, where “206 white men women and children prisoners [were] liberated from Indian captivity.” (Bouquet’s Camp) The ageless trees are now divested of their colorful fronds. Their skeletal fingers bend to capture the ghosts of the past while reaching towards the heavens for a peaceful future. While all around is the echo of resounding silence….
Works Cited
Bond, Beverley W. Jr. The Foundations of Ohio. Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.
Bouquet’s Camp. Historical Marker. County Road 24, Coshocton, Ohio.
Hurt, Douglas R. The Ohio Frontier Crucible of the Old Northwest 1720-1830. Indiana University Press, 1996.
Smith, William, editor. Historical Account of Bouquet’s Expedition in 1764. Robert Clarke and Company, 1868.
Williams, Edward G., editor. The Orderly Book of Colonel Henry Bouquet’s Expedition Against the Ohio Indians, 1764. The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1959.
As the glaciated ice retreated toward the polar caps, the Great Lakes were filled, and Ohio’s topography was forever altered. With Lake Erie as a rejuvenating fountain, numerous rivers spawned great forests and fertile valleys. The Ohio Valley became a very desirable place to inhabit with a variety of wildlife suitable for food, as well as furs.
By the mid-eighteenth century, the once nomadic Ohio Native Americans became semi- agricultural and raised crops of beans, squash, tobacco and corn. In fact, when Colonel Bouquet first observed over 3,000 acres of cleared land, where the Muskingum and Tuscarawas rivers met, he was astounded. (Bond 18)
Prior to the French and Indian War, the most prominent native tribes in eastern Ohio were the Shawnees, who inhabited the Scioto and Muskingum river valleys; Wyandots of northern Ohio; (Hurt 13) and the Lenni Lenape of eastern Ohio, who were renamed Delawares by the English settlers. Thomas West, Lord de la Warr was the highly respected governor of Virginia at this time. The Delawares were a peaceful tribe; however, the frontiersmen greatly feared them. (Hurt 16)
Because of the fertile river valleys and the abundance of wildlife, by 1850 the Wyandots and the Delawares had established major villages in eastern and southern Ohio. Conchake, present day Coshocton, soon became the Delaware tribal center. (Hurt 17) For years the native tribes coexisted in this verdant land, but eventually the French and English fur traders and settlers pressed westward to the land beyond the Ohio River. A clash was inevitable.
The British wished total supremacy over the Ohio region, and that meant the French and Native Americans had to be expunged. From 1754 to 1763, a very unorganized war, comprised of makeshift battles and a series of raids, ensued. Although the Native Americans appreciated the trade goods which the British provided, the lure of French muskets enticed them to support the French. (Hurt 40) Throughout the French and Indian War, the Shawnee, Delaware and Miami tribes remained loyal to the French. (Hurt 41)
Hoping to ease the hostilities as the interminable war continued, George Croghan, “the official agent of the British Indian Department,” (Hurt 42) held a conference at Fort Pitt in August 1760. He invited representatives from the Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee, Mingo and Miami tribes. The British were exasperated with the natives for stealing horses, but, more importantly, capturing white settlers. The British planned to limit trade until these issues were resolved. (Hurt 43) Because the British assumed the role of conquerors, the Native Americans feared that the British would destroy their villages if they did not have the white settlers there. Perhaps the Native Americans’ greatest fear, however, was losing their beloved wives, husbands and children, whom they had assimilated into their tribal culture. (Hurt 45)
After nine long years, the French were defeated. The British forced the French to abandon their forts, as well as their claims in the New World. This act left the Native Americans in a very precarious position. Eventually, the Native Americans signed a peace treaty but claimed that there would be no lasting peace until all French and British left the Ohio Valley. The Delawares, in particular, did not just want the fur trade. They demanded control of their homeland. (Hurt 41) The British agreed to improve trade but refused to relinquish the land that they felt they had won as spoils of war. The Native Americans, however, did not believe that they had been defeated at all.
Hostilities intensified. The Native Americans captured even more English and French settlers to replace the natives killed in the French and Indian War. The British demanded the return of these captives, but the Delawares, Shawnees and Mingos were reluctant to comply. (Hurt 45) To force the issue, the British placed restrictions on traded goods: knives, razors, tomahawks, flints and guns. The Native Americans believed the British restrictions were an attempt to destroy their culture and, essentially, their way of life. They considered these trade limitations an act of war. (Hurt 44)
After the French and Indian War, the Shawnees, Delawares and other Ohio tribes became more warlike. In what is now known as Pontiac’s Rebellion, the Ohio tribes retaliated in a series of raids and skirmishes. (Smith 5) At first, the British felt secure and overconfident. However, as valuable settlements and outlying forts were being continuously attacked, the frontier became depopulated. Soon only Niagara, Detroit and Fort Pitt remained in British control mainly because they were better staffed and supplied. (Smith 7)
After Pontiac’s attack at Fort Sandusky, the British were infuriated. At this time George Croghan estimated that over 3,000 Delawares inhabited the eastern region of Ohio from Lake Erie southward. (Hurt 18) Therefore, the British amassed formidable forces under the leadership of Colonel John Bradstreet and Colonel Henry Bouquet. While Colonel Bradstreet was dispatched to the Sandusky area, Colonel Bouquet was sent from Fort Pitt to destroy the hostile natives along the Tuscarawas River. (Hurt 49)
Colonel Henry Bouquet proved a formidable foe to the marauding natives. He inspired confidence and respect in his followers because of his firmness, tenacity, and calmness in the face of danger. (Smith xvii) Born in Rolle, Switzerland, in 1736, he studied military arts and mathematics. (Smith xviii) He was a lieutenant colonel in The Royal American Regiment by the time he arrived in New York in 1756. (Williams 12) He also helped fortify Fort Pitt during Pontiac’s Rebellion. (Williams 13)
As Colonel Bouquet prepared to meet the hostile natives at the Muskingum River valley, he believed force would most assuredly be necessary in his quest to secure the white captives. As a result, when representatives from the Ohio tribes went to Fort Pitt on October 1, 1764, they attempted to discourage Colonel Bouquet. There was tremendous mistrust and fear on both sides. Bouquet quickly dismissed these representatives as spies and scoffed at the purported numbers of natives in eastern Ohio. He then demanded to speak to the Delaware and Shawnee leaders in person. (Smith 38)
Confident of success, Colonel Bouquet stated, “No doubt but this war would soon be ended.” (Smith 40) On October 3, 1764, fifteen hundred Pennsylvanians, Virginians, the Forty-second and Sixtieth regiments, wagon drivers, two nurses, and laundresses, who were also undoubtedly prostitutes, all left Fort Pitt. (Hurt 50) The journey was fraught with danger. The woods were dense and unexplored. There were no roads, posts, or settlements. Each person was required to carry his own ammunition, bags, tools, and provisions. (Smith 32) Plus, there was always the danger of sudden attack, so stealth and silence were required. (Bond 171)
Because they were experienced woodsmen, the Virginian volunteers led, guarded both sides of the convoy, and provided the rear guard. They were followed by the axmen and infantry. The regulars and Pennsylvanians marched in single file, a mere two yards from each other. Colonel Bouquet did not plan a sneak attack, but rather a massive display of British military force. His obvious motive was to intimidate the Ohio Valley natives. (Hurt 50)
Bouquet’s army reached the Tuscarawas River near present day Bolivar on October 13, 1764. After witnessing firsthand the formidable British army and fearing total destruction, six representatives from the Ohio tribes met with Colonel Bouquet. They stated that their tribes wished for peace. (Hurt 50) Needing to secure his camp, Colonel Bouquet agreed to meet in two day’s time. On October 15, 1764, forty warriors, mostly Delawares with a few Shawnees and Senecas, agreed to meet and discuss terms of peace. Bouquet was adamant about the return of the white captives. Of course, the Native Americans were reluctant because they now considered the white captives an essential part of their tribes. (Hurt 51)
By October 20, 1764, Bouquet informed the representatives that he was sick of their excuses. He felt that the young warriors’ barbaric attacks on the white settlements were indefensible. Stretching the truth, Bouquet claimed that many of his armed party were relatives of those slaughtered and were seeking vengeance. He also threatened that the other Tuscarawas tribes had already made peace with the British; that their allies in the area, the French, were already subjects of Great Britain; and that they were completely surrounded and in danger of being annihilated. He then boldly demanded that all prisoners- English, French, and African- be brought to his camp within twelve day’s time. (Hurt 50) By October 25, 1764, Bouquet had marched his colossal army to the forks of the Muskingum near present day Coshocton. Coshocton proved to be easily accessible and more central to the Ohio tribes’ villages. (Smith 50)
Fearing Bouquet’s threats and realizing the danger posed by the British army, small parties of natives stealthily came to Bouquet’s camp to return their captives, eighteen at a time. (Smith 52) By November 9,1764, eighty-one males and 125 females and children had been brought to his camp. The Shawnees promised to bring an additional one hundred more to Fort Pitt the following spring. (Smith 64) As a part of the agreement, the Delaware, Shawnee, and Seneca tribes were also required to provide horses and supplies needed by the prisoners for their return to Fort Pitt. (Hurt 52)
As can be imagined, many of the white captives were not overjoyed to be given their freedom. The captives were disoriented and confused. Since their capture in Pennsylvania and Virginia, many years had passed. Recognition was a major problem. (Hurt 52)
The children were particularly vulnerable and frightened. The children were biracial, they did not speak English, and they were confused about going to Fort Pitt and the English way of life. (Hurt 52) In fact, some children were “brought to the camp tied hand and foot.” (Hurt 53) Perhaps the most touching part of the experience was that the Native American tribes had grown to love and show affection for their captives and, therefore, felt that their families were being torn apart. Not wanting to be separated and eventually losing their children, many native parents travelled back to Fort Pitt with them. (Hurt 53)
Not all adults wished to return either. Some had to be bound. A few women escaped and returned to their Native American husbands. Also, the captives were treated poorly by the other whites, who could not understand why these returned prisoners did not embrace “the blessings of improved life and the light of religion.” (Hurt 53) Obviously, cultural bias, misunderstanding, and the notion of white superiority was a serious threat to equality even then. (Smith 77)
Always the diplomat, Colonel Bouquet claimed that if the Shawnee, Delaware and Seneca tribes each sent two hostages to Fort Pitt with him and guaranteed to return all of the other hostages, a lasting peace treaty would be signed in the spring. He falsely claimed that the British would protect their tribal villages. He also implied that through compliance with his demands, the natives could avoid forfeiture of their Ohio homeland. (Hurt 54) With this tenuous agreement in place, Bouquet’s army left the Muskingum Valley on Sunday, November 18, 1764. They marched through increasingly perilous weather conditions and reached Fort Pitt on November 28. (Smith 81)
The British considered Colonel Bouquet’s mission a complete military success because of his genius in negotiation and his military prowess. In truth, not one battle was fought on the expedition. (Williams 11) Due to his success in cultivating peace in the Ohio Valley, the king of Great Britain then honored him as brigadier general in all Southern Colonies in British America. He died in Pensacola, Florida, in 1765 less than a year after the adventure which forever etched his name in the annals of American history. (Smith xxiii)
Colonel Bouquet and the Native Americans’ idealistic quest for peace has been shattered time and time again, but the phantom hope of future equality remains. Throughout the centuries the natural beauty of the Muskingum River valley has silently and patiently watched over the hallowed ground, where “206 white men women and children prisoners [were] liberated from Indian captivity.” (Bouquet’s Camp) The ageless trees are now divested of their colorful fronds. Their skeletal fingers bend to capture the ghosts of the past while reaching towards the heavens for a peaceful future. While all around is the echo of resounding silence….
Works Cited
Bond, Beverley W. Jr. The Foundations of Ohio. Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.
Bouquet’s Camp. Historical Marker. County Road 24, Coshocton, Ohio.
Hurt, Douglas R. The Ohio Frontier Crucible of the Old Northwest 1720-1830. Indiana University Press, 1996.
Smith, William, editor. Historical Account of Bouquet’s Expedition in 1764. Robert Clarke and Company, 1868.
Williams, Edward G., editor. The Orderly Book of Colonel Henry Bouquet’s Expedition Against the Ohio Indians, 1764. The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1959.
Rick Bailey: Frontier Day of Infamy (HONORABLE MENTION WINNER)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy. His remarks were delivered to Congress and the Nation the day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. March 8, 1782 could be called the Frontier Day of Infamy. On that cold winter Friday morning along the Tuscarawas River in the Northwest Territory, Ohio today, a unit of militia from Mingo Bottom, Pennsylvania, murdered 90 Moravian Indians. Mingo Bottom is located 70 miles from Pittsburgh. David Williamson was elected the leader of the group of about two hundred men. He took the title of Colonel. Their mission was quittance for the deaths of settlers by hostile Indian war parties which had raided communities on the western frontier (Gray 73).
Gnadenhutten was settled on October 9, 1772 by Joshua, a Moravian Mohican also called Lenape Elder. He led a large group of Christian Indians to this location. On this site the first white child was born in the Northwest Territory. John Lewis Roth was born on July 4, 1773. Moravian Missionaries, Rev. David Ziesberger and Rev. John Heckewelder had success converting large numbers of Mohican and Delaware Indians to Christianity. Two other Moravian settlements were in this area. New Schonbrunn, the largest, was up the Tuscarawas River and Salem was a few miles down (Gnadenhutten).
Thursday morning, Williamson divided his force in half. One was to attack directly across the Tuscarawas. The other would circle around the village which prevented any escape. One man swam the river and got a dugout which was used to store maple sap. Using the canoe, several men managed to cross. The first Indian they saw came down the bank looking for a lost horse. He was quickly killed and scalped (Gnadenhutten).
When the militia arrived at the village also called Huts of Grace, they found most of the people in a rush to finish gathering the corn crop. Williamson called a friendly greeting. The gesture was returned. Because most of the crop was already loaded, plans were to leave after the noon meal. The Moravian Indians told the militia that they had been forced to leave their homes last September, before the crop could be harvested. A few British troops and hundreds of Wyandot and Shawnee warriors forced the residents of all three Moravian villages to leave the area. In the area of Upper Sandusky also called Captives Town some hundred and fifty miles to the north, there had been almost no shelter or food all winter (Martin).
Williamson told the leaders of the village that they were going to escort them back to Fort Pitt. When the other half of his men arrived, he requested the villagers give up all weapons. The Jesus Indians of Gnadenhutten were overjoyed to finally be safe. All weapons were given up without protest. Now, armed men were there for protection. The men of Mingo Bottom were invited to share a meal. Some of the older men in the settlement had met some of the militia men on trips to Fort Pitt for trading and supplies. Most of the day was spent sharing food and stories. Games were played between some of the militia men and Indian youth. One elder, a converted Christian, told his favorite biblical story. A messenger was sent to Salem for everyone to come to Gnadenhutten with haste. They brought their supplies in short order and were thrilled at being rescued by the Americans (Gray 73).
Late that afternoon the mood changed. Men were bound and ordered to go into one log cabin and the women and children in another. Williamson put a vote to his men. All who wanted to escort these captives back to Fort Pitt were to form a second rank in front. It is recorded that either sixteen or eighteen stepped forward. Ten times that number had voted to kill them all (DeSchweintz 547).
When the Christian Indians were told of their fate, they were astonished! They tried in vain to tell their captors that they had no part in the raids of the hostile Indian tribes. One of the soldiers had found a bloody dress that he said belonged to his wife. When it became fruitless to raise any logical objection, there was one request. They wanted to make peace with God and were given one night. During the darkness, hymns were sung, prayers said, confessions made. (Heckewelder 319).
Just after daybreak on March eighth, lots were cast for the ‘honor’ of exacting revenge. Killing would begin with the men. A large mallet was located on a workbench near the cabin. One remarked, “This exactly fits the business at hand” (Martin 42). Abraham, the oldest was elected to be the first executed. As he was being led into the cabin, one of the Mingo Bottom men spoke of his long gray hair, “What a fine scalp this will make” (Martin 42).
With his hands bound, Abraham was shoved in a cabin, called ‘the slaughter house,’ and ordered to face the wall. With a skinning knife, the murderer sliced his head and ripped off his scalp. After he had killed fourteen men with a mallet, his arm grew weary. Handing the hammer to one of his fellow murderers, he said, “My arm fails me! Go on in the same way! I think I have done pretty well” (Heckewelder 320)! Fourteen more men were killed in the same way. Some had asked for mercy, some had prayed. Others remained as silent as their savior on the night before crucifixion.
The women were next. Judith, a highly educated and beloved leader in the group, got on her knees and begged Williamson for mercy. His reply, “I cannot help you” (Martin 43). After smashing her head, the hair was taken. Twenty-six women followed her to their death (Martin 43).
Martin reports that the worst atrocity followed: eleven boys, eleven girls, and twelve babies were slaughtered like animals. Their innocent lives were taken with a blow and slice. With the killings finished, ninety bodies were piled into cabins. Six others were killed in the area of the Gnadenhutten huts. The final death toll was ninety-six souls (Gnadenhutten).
This gruesome tale is known because of two boys. Jacob and Thomas had witnessed the carnage from two different points of view. Jacob was about to call out to his father in law, but the man was shot and killed. Jacob hid in the woods and watched the horrible event unfolding. Thomas’s viewpoint was from the inside of the slaughter house. He had been hit in the head and scalped. The blow had knocked him out. He awoke under the bodies of his friends and family. Crawling over them, he managed to escape. Abel, his friend, was killed in front of him. Jacob and Thomas met by the river and made their way to Schonbrunn. After warning the others, they made the long trip to Upper Sandusky. While fishing years later, Thomas, damaged by head trauma, drowns (DeSchweintz 551).
Saturday morning, the men of Mingo Bottom secured all the plunder possible. Over fifty horses were needed for the Indian corn and cooking utensils. They set the village on fire before returning to their homes in Pennsylvania. The frontier settlers were glad the Indians has been given a taste of their own medicine (Gray 74).
Ben Franklin heard the report a month later. He was in Paris negotiating the Peace treaty between America and the British. He wrote: “The abominable murders committed by some of the frontier people on the poor Moravian Indians, has given me pain and vexation. The dispensations of Providence in this world puzzle my weak reason. I cannot comprehend why cruel men should have been permitted to destroy their fellow creatures” (Franklin letter).
The historical events leading to the ‘Day of Shame’ were geographical, cultural, and political. The easiest to understand is geographical. The Tuscarawas River valley was called the Muskingum in Colonial times. This area was between the British outpost at Fort Detroit to the north and Colonial garrison at Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh today, to the east. The Muskingum flows into the Ohio River and then to the fathers of waters, the Mississippi. The river system to the native Americans is like the interstate highway system of today.
Considering the cultural aspect, the native Americans viewpoint of the land was different from the European settlers who were moving west in an unstoppable wave. For thousands of years the Indians view of the land was like that of the rivers and sky. They were used to sustaining land, not owning it. Having a deed to the hills and valleys was as foreign to their culture as owning the moon. The people of Europe had a totally different viewpoint. Most who came to America were poor. They came from village owned by elite noblemen. The land on the continent was all owned by the Lords and Earls. They were thrilled when land could be theirs if they cleared the forests and cultivated the fields. When this news reached the underclass, they flocked to America.
Moravian Missionary Zeisberger came to the Tuscarawas Valley with the Delaware or Lenape Tribe from Pennsylvania. These natives had previously lived along the Delaware River in New Jersey. Later the American government would forcibly move this group of people to Oklahoma. There is also a remnant in Canada today. Zeisberger had a tremendous following among the Delaware. He ministered to the Indians for seventy years. During a smallpox outbreak, the Moravians had preached and prayed for divine protection. Not another member of the tribe would be claimed by the disease. The Chief of the Delaware or Koquethagechton gave Zeisberger his choice of land along the Tuscarawas to establish a settlement. Zeisberger selected New Schoenbrunn or beautiful springs, New Philadelphia, Ohio today. At the peak more than four hundred Christian Indians lived in the community (Heckewelder 300).
The Moravian missionaries hope was that if the Indians lived in villages like Europeans and used their farming methods they would be accepted when the land was settled. They tried in vain to keep their communities neutral during the Revolutionary War.
Politically, the British and the Colonials distrusted the Moravian Indian villages. The British commander at Fort Detroit, Lieutenant Governor DePeyster effectively used agents like the Girty Brothers. These men and others like them were embedded with the warring tribes like the Wyandot, Seneca, Miami, and the Shawnee. These tribes controlled most of the area of Central and Eastern Ohio today. The agents encouraged the warriors with gifts and alcohol to attack the settlers along the western Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier. One could hardly find a family that had not lost a sister, brother, mother or father to the savages in that area,
A note was intercepted by one of the agents written by Ziesberger warning of an impending raids. It was intended for the Colonial leader at Fort Pitt. Both Ziesberger and Heckewelder were brought to Detroit to stand trial for aiding the enemy. Amazingly, a Wyandot chief spoke in their defense. They were released. These men were highly regarded even by their enemies (Gray 68).
The Colonial army and the people living on the western frontier held a strong opinion that the three Moravian villages were half-way houses. They believe the peaceful Indians gave aid to the raiding parties. It was true. The culture of the Native Americans was to be hospitable to anyone who needed food or shelter.
Almost a year before the Gnadenhutten Massacre, Colonel Daniel Brodhead had led a force of eight hundred soldiers and militia from Virginia and Pennsylvania on a punitive offense against the hostile Delaware. After Chief White Eyes died and a large part of his tribe took up arms against the Americans. Brodhead was careful not to harm the Jesus Indians. He wrote to Hecklewelder saying, “Nothing would give me greater pain, than to hear that any one of the Moravian Indians had been molested. As these Indiana had conducted themselves from the commencement of the war, in a manner that did them proud” (DeHass 1).
Brodhead’s campaign did wipe out the Delaware Village at the place the rivers meet in Coshocton. Twenty Indian warriors were captured, marched in the woods and killed. This became known as the Brodhead Massacre. It occurred April 20, 1781. All of the cattle were killed in the village, and it was set on fire. The women and children were taken back to Fort Pitt along with a vast amount of captured furs the sum of 80,000 pounds was collected whey they were sold (Westmoreland 3).
Life on the frontier was very difficult. However, nothing could justify the carnage which occurred at Gnadenhutten. President Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “A stain on frontier character that the lapse of time cannot wash away” (Roosevelt 145).
In 1785 Heckewelder returned to Gnadenhutten and collected all human remains. They were gathered in a single grave which has never been disturbed. One hundred years later, a thirty- foot marker was erected on the site. Engraved are these words, ‘Here Triumphed in death ninety Christian Indians, March 8, 1792. Another historical marker can be found on Chestnut Street in Coshocton that memorializes the Brodhead massacre.
Sources:
DeHass. The Murder of the Moravian Indians. (Reprinted from History of the Early
Settlements and Indian Wars of West Virginia. McClain Printing Company,
Parsons, West Virginia. 1851. Retrieved from
http://www.patc.us/history/native/brodhead.html
DeSchweintz, Edmund. The Life and Times of David Ziesberger The Western Pioneer
and Apostle of the Indians. J. B. Lippincott and Co. Philadelphia. 1870
Franklin, Benjamin letter to James Hutton, 7 July 1782 Founders Online. https://
Founders. Archives. Gov./
Gnadenhutten, brochure Historic Gnadenhutten. Ohio’s oldest settlement certified by
Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums
Gray, Elma E. Wilderness Christians The Moravian Mission to the Delaware Indians.
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. 1956
Heckewelder, John. A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware
And Mohegan Indians, From its commencement, in the year 1740 to the close of the
Year 1808. Philadelphia: published by McCarty and Davis 1820
Martin, Harry Edwin. The Tents of Grace: A Tragedy and Four Short Stories. Cincinnati:
Press of Jennings and Graham, 1910
Roosevelt, Theodore. The Winning of the West, Volume 2. G. P. Putnam’s and sons,
New York, 1889
Westmoreland. The Destruction of Coshocton, Chapter XIX. Retrieved from
https://www.pa-roots.com/westmoreland/oldwestmoreland/chapter 19. html
Gnadenhutten was settled on October 9, 1772 by Joshua, a Moravian Mohican also called Lenape Elder. He led a large group of Christian Indians to this location. On this site the first white child was born in the Northwest Territory. John Lewis Roth was born on July 4, 1773. Moravian Missionaries, Rev. David Ziesberger and Rev. John Heckewelder had success converting large numbers of Mohican and Delaware Indians to Christianity. Two other Moravian settlements were in this area. New Schonbrunn, the largest, was up the Tuscarawas River and Salem was a few miles down (Gnadenhutten).
Thursday morning, Williamson divided his force in half. One was to attack directly across the Tuscarawas. The other would circle around the village which prevented any escape. One man swam the river and got a dugout which was used to store maple sap. Using the canoe, several men managed to cross. The first Indian they saw came down the bank looking for a lost horse. He was quickly killed and scalped (Gnadenhutten).
When the militia arrived at the village also called Huts of Grace, they found most of the people in a rush to finish gathering the corn crop. Williamson called a friendly greeting. The gesture was returned. Because most of the crop was already loaded, plans were to leave after the noon meal. The Moravian Indians told the militia that they had been forced to leave their homes last September, before the crop could be harvested. A few British troops and hundreds of Wyandot and Shawnee warriors forced the residents of all three Moravian villages to leave the area. In the area of Upper Sandusky also called Captives Town some hundred and fifty miles to the north, there had been almost no shelter or food all winter (Martin).
Williamson told the leaders of the village that they were going to escort them back to Fort Pitt. When the other half of his men arrived, he requested the villagers give up all weapons. The Jesus Indians of Gnadenhutten were overjoyed to finally be safe. All weapons were given up without protest. Now, armed men were there for protection. The men of Mingo Bottom were invited to share a meal. Some of the older men in the settlement had met some of the militia men on trips to Fort Pitt for trading and supplies. Most of the day was spent sharing food and stories. Games were played between some of the militia men and Indian youth. One elder, a converted Christian, told his favorite biblical story. A messenger was sent to Salem for everyone to come to Gnadenhutten with haste. They brought their supplies in short order and were thrilled at being rescued by the Americans (Gray 73).
Late that afternoon the mood changed. Men were bound and ordered to go into one log cabin and the women and children in another. Williamson put a vote to his men. All who wanted to escort these captives back to Fort Pitt were to form a second rank in front. It is recorded that either sixteen or eighteen stepped forward. Ten times that number had voted to kill them all (DeSchweintz 547).
When the Christian Indians were told of their fate, they were astonished! They tried in vain to tell their captors that they had no part in the raids of the hostile Indian tribes. One of the soldiers had found a bloody dress that he said belonged to his wife. When it became fruitless to raise any logical objection, there was one request. They wanted to make peace with God and were given one night. During the darkness, hymns were sung, prayers said, confessions made. (Heckewelder 319).
Just after daybreak on March eighth, lots were cast for the ‘honor’ of exacting revenge. Killing would begin with the men. A large mallet was located on a workbench near the cabin. One remarked, “This exactly fits the business at hand” (Martin 42). Abraham, the oldest was elected to be the first executed. As he was being led into the cabin, one of the Mingo Bottom men spoke of his long gray hair, “What a fine scalp this will make” (Martin 42).
With his hands bound, Abraham was shoved in a cabin, called ‘the slaughter house,’ and ordered to face the wall. With a skinning knife, the murderer sliced his head and ripped off his scalp. After he had killed fourteen men with a mallet, his arm grew weary. Handing the hammer to one of his fellow murderers, he said, “My arm fails me! Go on in the same way! I think I have done pretty well” (Heckewelder 320)! Fourteen more men were killed in the same way. Some had asked for mercy, some had prayed. Others remained as silent as their savior on the night before crucifixion.
The women were next. Judith, a highly educated and beloved leader in the group, got on her knees and begged Williamson for mercy. His reply, “I cannot help you” (Martin 43). After smashing her head, the hair was taken. Twenty-six women followed her to their death (Martin 43).
Martin reports that the worst atrocity followed: eleven boys, eleven girls, and twelve babies were slaughtered like animals. Their innocent lives were taken with a blow and slice. With the killings finished, ninety bodies were piled into cabins. Six others were killed in the area of the Gnadenhutten huts. The final death toll was ninety-six souls (Gnadenhutten).
This gruesome tale is known because of two boys. Jacob and Thomas had witnessed the carnage from two different points of view. Jacob was about to call out to his father in law, but the man was shot and killed. Jacob hid in the woods and watched the horrible event unfolding. Thomas’s viewpoint was from the inside of the slaughter house. He had been hit in the head and scalped. The blow had knocked him out. He awoke under the bodies of his friends and family. Crawling over them, he managed to escape. Abel, his friend, was killed in front of him. Jacob and Thomas met by the river and made their way to Schonbrunn. After warning the others, they made the long trip to Upper Sandusky. While fishing years later, Thomas, damaged by head trauma, drowns (DeSchweintz 551).
Saturday morning, the men of Mingo Bottom secured all the plunder possible. Over fifty horses were needed for the Indian corn and cooking utensils. They set the village on fire before returning to their homes in Pennsylvania. The frontier settlers were glad the Indians has been given a taste of their own medicine (Gray 74).
Ben Franklin heard the report a month later. He was in Paris negotiating the Peace treaty between America and the British. He wrote: “The abominable murders committed by some of the frontier people on the poor Moravian Indians, has given me pain and vexation. The dispensations of Providence in this world puzzle my weak reason. I cannot comprehend why cruel men should have been permitted to destroy their fellow creatures” (Franklin letter).
The historical events leading to the ‘Day of Shame’ were geographical, cultural, and political. The easiest to understand is geographical. The Tuscarawas River valley was called the Muskingum in Colonial times. This area was between the British outpost at Fort Detroit to the north and Colonial garrison at Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh today, to the east. The Muskingum flows into the Ohio River and then to the fathers of waters, the Mississippi. The river system to the native Americans is like the interstate highway system of today.
Considering the cultural aspect, the native Americans viewpoint of the land was different from the European settlers who were moving west in an unstoppable wave. For thousands of years the Indians view of the land was like that of the rivers and sky. They were used to sustaining land, not owning it. Having a deed to the hills and valleys was as foreign to their culture as owning the moon. The people of Europe had a totally different viewpoint. Most who came to America were poor. They came from village owned by elite noblemen. The land on the continent was all owned by the Lords and Earls. They were thrilled when land could be theirs if they cleared the forests and cultivated the fields. When this news reached the underclass, they flocked to America.
Moravian Missionary Zeisberger came to the Tuscarawas Valley with the Delaware or Lenape Tribe from Pennsylvania. These natives had previously lived along the Delaware River in New Jersey. Later the American government would forcibly move this group of people to Oklahoma. There is also a remnant in Canada today. Zeisberger had a tremendous following among the Delaware. He ministered to the Indians for seventy years. During a smallpox outbreak, the Moravians had preached and prayed for divine protection. Not another member of the tribe would be claimed by the disease. The Chief of the Delaware or Koquethagechton gave Zeisberger his choice of land along the Tuscarawas to establish a settlement. Zeisberger selected New Schoenbrunn or beautiful springs, New Philadelphia, Ohio today. At the peak more than four hundred Christian Indians lived in the community (Heckewelder 300).
The Moravian missionaries hope was that if the Indians lived in villages like Europeans and used their farming methods they would be accepted when the land was settled. They tried in vain to keep their communities neutral during the Revolutionary War.
Politically, the British and the Colonials distrusted the Moravian Indian villages. The British commander at Fort Detroit, Lieutenant Governor DePeyster effectively used agents like the Girty Brothers. These men and others like them were embedded with the warring tribes like the Wyandot, Seneca, Miami, and the Shawnee. These tribes controlled most of the area of Central and Eastern Ohio today. The agents encouraged the warriors with gifts and alcohol to attack the settlers along the western Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier. One could hardly find a family that had not lost a sister, brother, mother or father to the savages in that area,
A note was intercepted by one of the agents written by Ziesberger warning of an impending raids. It was intended for the Colonial leader at Fort Pitt. Both Ziesberger and Heckewelder were brought to Detroit to stand trial for aiding the enemy. Amazingly, a Wyandot chief spoke in their defense. They were released. These men were highly regarded even by their enemies (Gray 68).
The Colonial army and the people living on the western frontier held a strong opinion that the three Moravian villages were half-way houses. They believe the peaceful Indians gave aid to the raiding parties. It was true. The culture of the Native Americans was to be hospitable to anyone who needed food or shelter.
Almost a year before the Gnadenhutten Massacre, Colonel Daniel Brodhead had led a force of eight hundred soldiers and militia from Virginia and Pennsylvania on a punitive offense against the hostile Delaware. After Chief White Eyes died and a large part of his tribe took up arms against the Americans. Brodhead was careful not to harm the Jesus Indians. He wrote to Hecklewelder saying, “Nothing would give me greater pain, than to hear that any one of the Moravian Indians had been molested. As these Indiana had conducted themselves from the commencement of the war, in a manner that did them proud” (DeHass 1).
Brodhead’s campaign did wipe out the Delaware Village at the place the rivers meet in Coshocton. Twenty Indian warriors were captured, marched in the woods and killed. This became known as the Brodhead Massacre. It occurred April 20, 1781. All of the cattle were killed in the village, and it was set on fire. The women and children were taken back to Fort Pitt along with a vast amount of captured furs the sum of 80,000 pounds was collected whey they were sold (Westmoreland 3).
Life on the frontier was very difficult. However, nothing could justify the carnage which occurred at Gnadenhutten. President Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “A stain on frontier character that the lapse of time cannot wash away” (Roosevelt 145).
In 1785 Heckewelder returned to Gnadenhutten and collected all human remains. They were gathered in a single grave which has never been disturbed. One hundred years later, a thirty- foot marker was erected on the site. Engraved are these words, ‘Here Triumphed in death ninety Christian Indians, March 8, 1792. Another historical marker can be found on Chestnut Street in Coshocton that memorializes the Brodhead massacre.
Sources:
DeHass. The Murder of the Moravian Indians. (Reprinted from History of the Early
Settlements and Indian Wars of West Virginia. McClain Printing Company,
Parsons, West Virginia. 1851. Retrieved from
http://www.patc.us/history/native/brodhead.html
DeSchweintz, Edmund. The Life and Times of David Ziesberger The Western Pioneer
and Apostle of the Indians. J. B. Lippincott and Co. Philadelphia. 1870
Franklin, Benjamin letter to James Hutton, 7 July 1782 Founders Online. https://
Founders. Archives. Gov./
Gnadenhutten, brochure Historic Gnadenhutten. Ohio’s oldest settlement certified by
Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums
Gray, Elma E. Wilderness Christians The Moravian Mission to the Delaware Indians.
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. 1956
Heckewelder, John. A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware
And Mohegan Indians, From its commencement, in the year 1740 to the close of the
Year 1808. Philadelphia: published by McCarty and Davis 1820
Martin, Harry Edwin. The Tents of Grace: A Tragedy and Four Short Stories. Cincinnati:
Press of Jennings and Graham, 1910
Roosevelt, Theodore. The Winning of the West, Volume 2. G. P. Putnam’s and sons,
New York, 1889
Westmoreland. The Destruction of Coshocton, Chapter XIX. Retrieved from
https://www.pa-roots.com/westmoreland/oldwestmoreland/chapter 19. html
Shelly Webb: Human Perception of God During Illness & Crisis (Honorable Mention Winner)
According to a recent survey administered by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the COVID-19 pandemic is a message from God. Many participants of the poll believe that God is not pleased with the manner in which, society is conducting itself, and that COVID-19 is a ‘wake-up call’ of sorts (Lofton and Zubrzycki). In fact, 63% of the participants, nearly half (31%) “feel strongly that the virus is a sign of God telling humanity to change”, with the remaining 32% feeling the same, but only somewhat, not strongly (Press).
The results of the survey should come as no surprise. Throughout history humanity as a whole, has sought to rectify the age old question, “why is this happening”. Educated scholars define this thought process as, theodicy. Theodicy is from Greek origins, theos, “god”, and dike, “justice”. The Britannica Dictionary defines the word as, an explanation of why a perfectly good, almighty, and all-knowing God permits evil (Britannica).
Although many human beliefs regarding God and His sovereignty have been advocated throughout history, the philosophy of justifying why tragic events (pandemics, epidemics, natural disasters etc…) occur on this earth is one that all people have pondered.
The Delaware Indians living in the Ohio country during the Coshocton Frontier timeframe (18th Century) were no different, theologically, from the 63% of participants in the aforementioned survey. “The spiritual beliefs of the Delaware Indians provided one vital tool for confronting the stresses and crises of the world” (Conrad). In a similar manner the Delaware Indians pondered the harsh winters, the unsuccessful hunts, the plague of smallpox and other challenges they faced on a daily basis. Although their religious theology was uncomplicated with doctrines and ideology, it did focus on spiritual foundations and beliefs that directly impacted their thought process and personal life (Conrad).
Many in our present day society believe in God, as the creator of the universe and all that it inhabits. The Delaware Indians believed that The Great Spirit created the world and provided the "creative energy of all things" (Conrad). Just as many religious people today pray and give offerings into their church or synagogue, to honor God for all He has done; the Delaware Indians also prayed and made offerings to the Great Spirit. They did this to show their thanksgiving for past blessings, and to try and remain in the good graces of the Great Spirit for future successes.
In 1767 David Zeisberger began his Moravian mission to the Delaware Indians in Ohio, introducing them to Christianity. As the Delaware Indians evolved in their theology, some began to mingle their own beliefs with that of Zeisberger’s (Conrad).
Like some individuals today, regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, many Native Americans were not as concerned with the notion that disease was transmitted between individuals. Instead, they ascribed disease to supernatural forces (Halverson).
For example, during the early 1700s, some native groups believed smallpox to be a “personification of the Bad Spirit” (Halverson). In fact, disease was often thought of as punishment by the "Master of Life" for mistreatment of animals or other people (Halverson).
Smallpox effected many white men as well as Indian tribes during the 1700s. And as it is today with COVID-19, all those effected attempted to reason and justify, “why”. The Creeks and Cherokees considered the spread of smallpox to be punishment for violations of tribal laws, such as sexual intercourse in the cornfields and village-wide violations (Halverson). By 1784, the Cree attributed the epidemics to be anger from God.
Witchcraft was also considered a valid explanation for disease during this time, and one that many Delaware Indians embraced (Conrad). Some, however blamed white missionaries for the relentless ailments that plagued their people (Halverson).
Many tribes during the 18th century were seeking answers to epidemics, illnesses and pandemics. Further north, the Jesuits were the ones to be blamed when an ill individual person died after having Holy water sprinkled on them (Halverson). In fact, the Huron tribes were so terrified of the Jesuits that they literally prohibited them from entering their villages (Halverson).
While all the suspicion and justification was rumored through various tribes as to why smallpox had been unleashed upon them, we now have learned from historical references, of deliberate transmission of smallpox from Europeans to Native Americans. “In 1763, the British general Jeffrey Amherst gave blankets taken from infected corpses to deliberately infect nearby natives. Many legends of similar instances of intentional transmission exist throughout the contact period. Written documents indicate that many Europeans were using smallpox on their side ("It has pleased Our Lord to give the said people a pestilence of smallpox that does not cease…")” (Halverson).
It seems the theology and thinking of present day humanity has not evolved much, in the willingness to speak for God regarding disease and pestilence. Before the latest global pandemic of COVID-19, the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918 infected approximately 500 million of the 1.8 billion people living on earth between 1918-1920 (Krijger). Just as the Delaware Indians and other native tribes before them, and many Americans today, the orthodox Protestants determined the Spanish flu to be retribution from God, “urging both Christians and non-Christians to repent of their sins and seek God through His Word” (Krijger). Also the neo-Calvinist theologian Gerard Wisse during this time delivered a whole series of messages saying the Spanish flu was “a wake-up call” from God (Krijger).
For as long as man has existed, he has pondered the meaning of life, the reason for his existence and the whys of life. Are pandemics a curse from God? Perhaps, perhaps not. According to scripture from the King James Bible, which many pastors and theologians cite, Christ stated to His disciple that in this world, they would have trouble, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). While it is a common belief among many people, (regardless of their race, culture, background or the era in which they live, or have lived), that God causes specific events as a punishment for the ills of society, no person can be certain of this.
It is interesting, however that throughout the annals of time, societies have taken the blame of pandemics and illnesses upon themselves as some horrible retribution from, “The Great Spirit”, “God”, “Master of Life”, or whatever name they use to call upon the Creator. And many times perpetuating this belief or solidifying it, is a clergy member, a priest, a pastor, a missionary, a rabbi or some other religious leader in their community.
Looking back from how many people in 2020 are interpreting COVID-19 as a message from God, to 1918 and how the Spanish flu was perceived as a vision of His wrath being poured out on a sinful society; and then looking further back to the 1700s, as to how Smallpox was viewed by the Delaware Indians and other tribes as some sort of punishment from The Creator; it is obvious that the sovereignty of God is beyond all human understanding.
Work Cited
Lofton, Kathryn, and Geneviève Zubrzycki. “If COVID-19 Is a Message from God, What's the Message?” Courant.com, Hartford Courant, 4 June 2020, www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-lofton-beyerlein-nirenberg-zubrzycki-god-covid-0605-20200605-fijukv2szrezxixdol4b2ouw6e-story.html.
“Theodicy.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/theodicy-theology.
Press, Associated. “Poll: 63% of Religious Americans Believe COVID-19 Pandemic Is Message from God for Humanity to Change.” FOX 2 Detroit, FOX 2 Detroit, 17 May 2020, www.fox2detroit.com/news/poll-63-of-religious-americans-believe-covid-19-pandemic-is-message-from-god-for-humanity-to-change.
Conrad, Maia Turner. “A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department o f History The College of William and Mary in Virginia.” , 1998, core.ac.uk/.
Lofton, Kathryn, and Geneviève Zubrzycki. “If COVID-19 Is a Message from God, What's the Message?” Courant.com, Hartford Courant, 4 June 2020, www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-lofton-beyerlein-nirenberg-zubrzycki-god-covid-0605-20200605-fijukv2szrezxixdol4b2ouw6e-story.html.
Krijger, Dr. Tom-Eric. Coping with Covid-19 in Dutch Christianity: A Comparison with the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic (Part One). 27 Apr. 2020, www.rug.nl/research/centre-for-religious-studies/religion-conflict-globalization/blog/coping-with-covid-19-in-dutch-christianity-comparison-with-the-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-24-04-2020?lang=en.
“John 16:33.” Holy Bible.
The results of the survey should come as no surprise. Throughout history humanity as a whole, has sought to rectify the age old question, “why is this happening”. Educated scholars define this thought process as, theodicy. Theodicy is from Greek origins, theos, “god”, and dike, “justice”. The Britannica Dictionary defines the word as, an explanation of why a perfectly good, almighty, and all-knowing God permits evil (Britannica).
Although many human beliefs regarding God and His sovereignty have been advocated throughout history, the philosophy of justifying why tragic events (pandemics, epidemics, natural disasters etc…) occur on this earth is one that all people have pondered.
The Delaware Indians living in the Ohio country during the Coshocton Frontier timeframe (18th Century) were no different, theologically, from the 63% of participants in the aforementioned survey. “The spiritual beliefs of the Delaware Indians provided one vital tool for confronting the stresses and crises of the world” (Conrad). In a similar manner the Delaware Indians pondered the harsh winters, the unsuccessful hunts, the plague of smallpox and other challenges they faced on a daily basis. Although their religious theology was uncomplicated with doctrines and ideology, it did focus on spiritual foundations and beliefs that directly impacted their thought process and personal life (Conrad).
Many in our present day society believe in God, as the creator of the universe and all that it inhabits. The Delaware Indians believed that The Great Spirit created the world and provided the "creative energy of all things" (Conrad). Just as many religious people today pray and give offerings into their church or synagogue, to honor God for all He has done; the Delaware Indians also prayed and made offerings to the Great Spirit. They did this to show their thanksgiving for past blessings, and to try and remain in the good graces of the Great Spirit for future successes.
In 1767 David Zeisberger began his Moravian mission to the Delaware Indians in Ohio, introducing them to Christianity. As the Delaware Indians evolved in their theology, some began to mingle their own beliefs with that of Zeisberger’s (Conrad).
Like some individuals today, regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, many Native Americans were not as concerned with the notion that disease was transmitted between individuals. Instead, they ascribed disease to supernatural forces (Halverson).
For example, during the early 1700s, some native groups believed smallpox to be a “personification of the Bad Spirit” (Halverson). In fact, disease was often thought of as punishment by the "Master of Life" for mistreatment of animals or other people (Halverson).
Smallpox effected many white men as well as Indian tribes during the 1700s. And as it is today with COVID-19, all those effected attempted to reason and justify, “why”. The Creeks and Cherokees considered the spread of smallpox to be punishment for violations of tribal laws, such as sexual intercourse in the cornfields and village-wide violations (Halverson). By 1784, the Cree attributed the epidemics to be anger from God.
Witchcraft was also considered a valid explanation for disease during this time, and one that many Delaware Indians embraced (Conrad). Some, however blamed white missionaries for the relentless ailments that plagued their people (Halverson).
Many tribes during the 18th century were seeking answers to epidemics, illnesses and pandemics. Further north, the Jesuits were the ones to be blamed when an ill individual person died after having Holy water sprinkled on them (Halverson). In fact, the Huron tribes were so terrified of the Jesuits that they literally prohibited them from entering their villages (Halverson).
While all the suspicion and justification was rumored through various tribes as to why smallpox had been unleashed upon them, we now have learned from historical references, of deliberate transmission of smallpox from Europeans to Native Americans. “In 1763, the British general Jeffrey Amherst gave blankets taken from infected corpses to deliberately infect nearby natives. Many legends of similar instances of intentional transmission exist throughout the contact period. Written documents indicate that many Europeans were using smallpox on their side ("It has pleased Our Lord to give the said people a pestilence of smallpox that does not cease…")” (Halverson).
It seems the theology and thinking of present day humanity has not evolved much, in the willingness to speak for God regarding disease and pestilence. Before the latest global pandemic of COVID-19, the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918 infected approximately 500 million of the 1.8 billion people living on earth between 1918-1920 (Krijger). Just as the Delaware Indians and other native tribes before them, and many Americans today, the orthodox Protestants determined the Spanish flu to be retribution from God, “urging both Christians and non-Christians to repent of their sins and seek God through His Word” (Krijger). Also the neo-Calvinist theologian Gerard Wisse during this time delivered a whole series of messages saying the Spanish flu was “a wake-up call” from God (Krijger).
For as long as man has existed, he has pondered the meaning of life, the reason for his existence and the whys of life. Are pandemics a curse from God? Perhaps, perhaps not. According to scripture from the King James Bible, which many pastors and theologians cite, Christ stated to His disciple that in this world, they would have trouble, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). While it is a common belief among many people, (regardless of their race, culture, background or the era in which they live, or have lived), that God causes specific events as a punishment for the ills of society, no person can be certain of this.
It is interesting, however that throughout the annals of time, societies have taken the blame of pandemics and illnesses upon themselves as some horrible retribution from, “The Great Spirit”, “God”, “Master of Life”, or whatever name they use to call upon the Creator. And many times perpetuating this belief or solidifying it, is a clergy member, a priest, a pastor, a missionary, a rabbi or some other religious leader in their community.
Looking back from how many people in 2020 are interpreting COVID-19 as a message from God, to 1918 and how the Spanish flu was perceived as a vision of His wrath being poured out on a sinful society; and then looking further back to the 1700s, as to how Smallpox was viewed by the Delaware Indians and other tribes as some sort of punishment from The Creator; it is obvious that the sovereignty of God is beyond all human understanding.
Work Cited
Lofton, Kathryn, and Geneviève Zubrzycki. “If COVID-19 Is a Message from God, What's the Message?” Courant.com, Hartford Courant, 4 June 2020, www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-lofton-beyerlein-nirenberg-zubrzycki-god-covid-0605-20200605-fijukv2szrezxixdol4b2ouw6e-story.html.
“Theodicy.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/theodicy-theology.
Press, Associated. “Poll: 63% of Religious Americans Believe COVID-19 Pandemic Is Message from God for Humanity to Change.” FOX 2 Detroit, FOX 2 Detroit, 17 May 2020, www.fox2detroit.com/news/poll-63-of-religious-americans-believe-covid-19-pandemic-is-message-from-god-for-humanity-to-change.
Conrad, Maia Turner. “A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department o f History The College of William and Mary in Virginia.” , 1998, core.ac.uk/.
Lofton, Kathryn, and Geneviève Zubrzycki. “If COVID-19 Is a Message from God, What's the Message?” Courant.com, Hartford Courant, 4 June 2020, www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-lofton-beyerlein-nirenberg-zubrzycki-god-covid-0605-20200605-fijukv2szrezxixdol4b2ouw6e-story.html.
Krijger, Dr. Tom-Eric. Coping with Covid-19 in Dutch Christianity: A Comparison with the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic (Part One). 27 Apr. 2020, www.rug.nl/research/centre-for-religious-studies/religion-conflict-globalization/blog/coping-with-covid-19-in-dutch-christianity-comparison-with-the-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-24-04-2020?lang=en.
“John 16:33.” Holy Bible.
Jennifer Wilkes: Life in Coshocton County Ohio in the 18th Century (Honorable Mention Winner)
Beautiful Ohio
Can you picture what Coshocton County, Ohio would have looked like in the early 1700’s? Close your eyes and imagine a land of endless forest, old growth giants stretching from one side of the county to the other. What an abundance of wildlife and bird life, the forest full of sound and movement: Black bear, elk, woodland bison, timber wolves, fishers, lynx and mountain lion (Hissong). In these huge white oak/maple tree forests, you would hear tree frogs croaking, see a grey fox slinking by a Trillium flower while a Great Horned Owl whispers overhead (epa). See yourself pausing at a the water to see the Muskingum, Walhonding or Tuscarawas Rivers running clear and clean, full of fishes: Shiners, Sturgeon, Gar and Mollusks with names like: Ring Pink, Rough Pigtoe and Orangefoot Pimpleback (odnrwildlife).
You would not be the only person in this paradise, the local Native American population thrived. Their culture was many thousands of years old and had developed a way of life that included agriculture, fishing, hunting and gathering (odnrforests).
“At the Forks of the Muskingum River was the principal village of the Turtle tribe of the Delawares, called Goschachgunk or what we now call Coshocton. It occupied the site of the lower streets of the city, stretching along the river bank. It was rather a large place with 40-80 houses built of logs, limbs and bark. They were arranged in parallel rows, making regular streets between. Most prominent was the council-house in which the braves of the different tribes assembled, smoked their pipes and conducted councils in dignity and with decorum. In 1778 it’s been said that 700 warriors assembled in the place(freepages).”
Only a few miles below the Forks of the river, you would find the Moravian missionaries in 1776. The Rev. Zeisberger and Hickswelder had eight families living there numbering thirty-five persons. The mission was called Lichtenau and was allowed to be there thanks to Netawatwees, a friendly Delaware chief. The chief and his family had become Christianized so he and is villagers would meet on the river’s bank, under the gum trees, as the Rev Zeisberger preached about Jesus and the repentance of sin.
“The large number of Indian towns along the Muskingum River and its branches made this region of great interest thus frequented by white hunters and traders. In war, large numbers of white captives were brought here from the East (freepages).”
In 1750 Captain Christopher Gist, employee of the Ohio Land Company of Virginia, was sent out to explore the Ohio to territory to secure possession for the English. From his journal he wrote:
“I reached an Indian town near the junction of the Tuscarawas and the White Woman (Walhonding River) which contained about 100 families. Here I met George Croghan, an English trader, who had his headquarters in this town, also Andrew Montour, a half-breed of the Seneca nation. I remained at this village from December 14, 1750 until January 15, 1751, a month and a day. Some white men lived here: Thomas Burney, a blacksmith and Barney Curran. I conducted religious services in the presence of some white men and a few Indians. I went west to White Woman’s Creek, on which is a small town”(freepages).
These stories paint an idyllic picture at the ‘forks of the Muskingum’ but further reading illustrates some harsh realities of life during this time:
“Mary Harris’s husband Eagle Feather brought home another white woman as a wife, whom Mary called the ‘Newcomer’. Jealousies arose and finally Eagle Feather was found with his head split open and the tomahawk remaining in his skull; but the Newcomer had fled. She was overtaken and was brought back and was killed by the Indians December 26, 1761, while I was in the White Woman’s town. The place where she was captured was afterwards called Newcomer’s-town in Tuscarawas county”(freepages.)
A Delaware Chief, White-eyes 1730-1778 made history near the Forks. White-eyes Town was located 10 miles east of the Forks and negotiated the first peace treaty to try to secure his territory. Unfortunately, he died of Smallpox or as some people believe he was put to death quietly (ohiohistory).
Outside forces were awakening to disturb life along ‘The Forks’:
1753-1763 French Indian War was won by Great Britain against the French.
1775 Lord Dunmore’s War commanded a force to defeat the Shawnee
1775-1783 The American Revolutionary War against the British for Independence(warpaths2).
Hostile Wyandots and Mingo Warriors on the war path destroyed the Lichtenau mission in 1779. In 1781 Commander Daniel Brodhead destroyed the village of Goschachgunk, fearing the Neutral Delaware Indians would join the British (freepages). With the destruction of the Indian Village and the signing of the Greenville Treaty in 1795 a swarm of settlement by whites began (Britannica). “The whites had brought the Native Americans new ideas, customs, religions, weapons, transportation(the horse & wheel), livestock(cattle & sheep) and disease which profoundly affected their way of life” (warpath2).
Frontier Life
The ‘Colonist’ or frontier families that moved in from the East, brought many of their traditions from the old country and made use of Ohio’s natural resources to carve their niche. Trees were cleared for farming and towns took the place of forests. Immigrants brought their culture with them often naming towns after where they had come from. Foods were often also used to comfort any pangs of homesickness. If you were German, you brought beer sauerkraut and sausages, the English brought pasties or meat pies, bread pudding and roast with potatoes. Italians brought pastas and native cheeses and meatballs were introduced by the Scandinavians.
A farm family had to supply its own food. Corn was used as a staple making corn-meal mush, corn muffins and griddle cakes. Luxuries such as white sugar and white flour were hard to come by on the frontier. Food was sweetened with maple sugar, honey or molasses. Some farmers had fruit trees and meat came from your farm animals. A cow supplied milk, cream, butter and cheese. Farm wives would usually tend the garden and canned and dried much of the crop for winter use. Hunting, fishing and gathering wild fruits added to the diet (slatta).
Life on the farm you were self-sufficient. You would have made or gathered your own clothing, food, shelter and fuel. Many farmers kept sheep for food and wool. Woman prepared the wool and spun and wove it into cloth.
Isolation on the farm meant that you would have to make your own fun. Reading and music offered good sources of entertainment. Guitars, fiddles, harmonicas provided music for occasional dances and a quilting bee produced needed bedding and offered women a break from isolation. Holidays and religious services provided a chance to socialize and celebrate (Slatta). One-room school houses began to appear, teachers taught students from grades 1-8. Students use writing slates and soap stone to write with and brought their lunch in metal pails (Roscoe Village).
Thanks to the Northwest Ordinance that was enacted as an Act of Congress in 1787 the people that lived in what would be called Ohio where given four promises:
This Northwest Ordinance also established the Ohio River as the boundary between free and slave states. In 1803 Ohio would be the first state formed from this Territory (Roscoe Village).
Imagine how it must have been living along ‘The Forks’ in those frontier days. Settlers would have cut down most of the trees in the area to build homes and to clear land for crops. The community would have gotten together to build a church that would also be used as a school house during the week. Dances, socials, holiday and birthday celebrations would have gotten folks together. Music would make the air come alive with sound and merriment. But mostly it would be hard work living in this era. Most of your time would be used to survive: plowing and planting fields, harvesting crops and preserving food, cutting firewood, taking care of the children and tending the livestock. Then there was always the fear of being set upon by rough men or natives taking what you have worked so hard to attain.
Back to the Future
Life has changed here in Coshocton County after more than 200 years. We no longer have the abundance of wildlife, the rivers are brown, the Native Americans have been assimilated and the old growth forests are gone. But we do have reminders of what used to be. Deer are more populated than ever, the turkey have been successfully reintroduced and the bald eagles fly over the Muskingum River again. In the news recently, a 373 year old White Oak tree was discovered in SE Ohio. The oldest recorded hardwood east of the Mississippi (sciencedaily). We can learn about the past and appreciate where we have come from while we embrace the future. We no longer have to walk or take canoes to travel long distances, we have air travel and the ability to communicate with cell phones with people from all over the world. While people once traveled West to a back breaking existence, we now can move freely from place to place, exploring exotic destinations and cultures. Even though Coshocton has a 94% white population there is that 6% consisting of mixed race, black or Asian showing how we too are becoming diversified (worldpopulation). Thankfully, we have learned to appreciate new people and cultures and instead of clashing with them and have also learned to appreciate the natural world that has been given us in our beautiful Ohio along ‘The Forks’.
Bibliography
Roscoe Village Foundation Employee Manual, October 2003, Coshocton, Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency, Epa.state.oh.us/portals/AA%forests%
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife.ohiodnr.gov, 2012
Hissong, Tom, 2010, Audubon Adventures, Columbus, Ohio, Audubon Society
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Forest.ohiodnr.gov/history, 2012
Slatta, Richard W. 2006 Western Frontier Life, Chicago, IL, World Book
Freepages.rootsweb.com/henryhowesbook/genealogy/Coshocton.html
Ohio History Connection, Remarkableohio.org/index, 2017
Warpaths2peacepipes.com/history-of-native-americans/history–of-indians.htm
Sciencedaily.com/releases/2019
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010
Worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/Coshocton-oh-population/,2019
Can you picture what Coshocton County, Ohio would have looked like in the early 1700’s? Close your eyes and imagine a land of endless forest, old growth giants stretching from one side of the county to the other. What an abundance of wildlife and bird life, the forest full of sound and movement: Black bear, elk, woodland bison, timber wolves, fishers, lynx and mountain lion (Hissong). In these huge white oak/maple tree forests, you would hear tree frogs croaking, see a grey fox slinking by a Trillium flower while a Great Horned Owl whispers overhead (epa). See yourself pausing at a the water to see the Muskingum, Walhonding or Tuscarawas Rivers running clear and clean, full of fishes: Shiners, Sturgeon, Gar and Mollusks with names like: Ring Pink, Rough Pigtoe and Orangefoot Pimpleback (odnrwildlife).
You would not be the only person in this paradise, the local Native American population thrived. Their culture was many thousands of years old and had developed a way of life that included agriculture, fishing, hunting and gathering (odnrforests).
“At the Forks of the Muskingum River was the principal village of the Turtle tribe of the Delawares, called Goschachgunk or what we now call Coshocton. It occupied the site of the lower streets of the city, stretching along the river bank. It was rather a large place with 40-80 houses built of logs, limbs and bark. They were arranged in parallel rows, making regular streets between. Most prominent was the council-house in which the braves of the different tribes assembled, smoked their pipes and conducted councils in dignity and with decorum. In 1778 it’s been said that 700 warriors assembled in the place(freepages).”
Only a few miles below the Forks of the river, you would find the Moravian missionaries in 1776. The Rev. Zeisberger and Hickswelder had eight families living there numbering thirty-five persons. The mission was called Lichtenau and was allowed to be there thanks to Netawatwees, a friendly Delaware chief. The chief and his family had become Christianized so he and is villagers would meet on the river’s bank, under the gum trees, as the Rev Zeisberger preached about Jesus and the repentance of sin.
“The large number of Indian towns along the Muskingum River and its branches made this region of great interest thus frequented by white hunters and traders. In war, large numbers of white captives were brought here from the East (freepages).”
In 1750 Captain Christopher Gist, employee of the Ohio Land Company of Virginia, was sent out to explore the Ohio to territory to secure possession for the English. From his journal he wrote:
“I reached an Indian town near the junction of the Tuscarawas and the White Woman (Walhonding River) which contained about 100 families. Here I met George Croghan, an English trader, who had his headquarters in this town, also Andrew Montour, a half-breed of the Seneca nation. I remained at this village from December 14, 1750 until January 15, 1751, a month and a day. Some white men lived here: Thomas Burney, a blacksmith and Barney Curran. I conducted religious services in the presence of some white men and a few Indians. I went west to White Woman’s Creek, on which is a small town”(freepages).
These stories paint an idyllic picture at the ‘forks of the Muskingum’ but further reading illustrates some harsh realities of life during this time:
“Mary Harris’s husband Eagle Feather brought home another white woman as a wife, whom Mary called the ‘Newcomer’. Jealousies arose and finally Eagle Feather was found with his head split open and the tomahawk remaining in his skull; but the Newcomer had fled. She was overtaken and was brought back and was killed by the Indians December 26, 1761, while I was in the White Woman’s town. The place where she was captured was afterwards called Newcomer’s-town in Tuscarawas county”(freepages.)
A Delaware Chief, White-eyes 1730-1778 made history near the Forks. White-eyes Town was located 10 miles east of the Forks and negotiated the first peace treaty to try to secure his territory. Unfortunately, he died of Smallpox or as some people believe he was put to death quietly (ohiohistory).
Outside forces were awakening to disturb life along ‘The Forks’:
1753-1763 French Indian War was won by Great Britain against the French.
1775 Lord Dunmore’s War commanded a force to defeat the Shawnee
1775-1783 The American Revolutionary War against the British for Independence(warpaths2).
Hostile Wyandots and Mingo Warriors on the war path destroyed the Lichtenau mission in 1779. In 1781 Commander Daniel Brodhead destroyed the village of Goschachgunk, fearing the Neutral Delaware Indians would join the British (freepages). With the destruction of the Indian Village and the signing of the Greenville Treaty in 1795 a swarm of settlement by whites began (Britannica). “The whites had brought the Native Americans new ideas, customs, religions, weapons, transportation(the horse & wheel), livestock(cattle & sheep) and disease which profoundly affected their way of life” (warpath2).
Frontier Life
The ‘Colonist’ or frontier families that moved in from the East, brought many of their traditions from the old country and made use of Ohio’s natural resources to carve their niche. Trees were cleared for farming and towns took the place of forests. Immigrants brought their culture with them often naming towns after where they had come from. Foods were often also used to comfort any pangs of homesickness. If you were German, you brought beer sauerkraut and sausages, the English brought pasties or meat pies, bread pudding and roast with potatoes. Italians brought pastas and native cheeses and meatballs were introduced by the Scandinavians.
A farm family had to supply its own food. Corn was used as a staple making corn-meal mush, corn muffins and griddle cakes. Luxuries such as white sugar and white flour were hard to come by on the frontier. Food was sweetened with maple sugar, honey or molasses. Some farmers had fruit trees and meat came from your farm animals. A cow supplied milk, cream, butter and cheese. Farm wives would usually tend the garden and canned and dried much of the crop for winter use. Hunting, fishing and gathering wild fruits added to the diet (slatta).
Life on the farm you were self-sufficient. You would have made or gathered your own clothing, food, shelter and fuel. Many farmers kept sheep for food and wool. Woman prepared the wool and spun and wove it into cloth.
Isolation on the farm meant that you would have to make your own fun. Reading and music offered good sources of entertainment. Guitars, fiddles, harmonicas provided music for occasional dances and a quilting bee produced needed bedding and offered women a break from isolation. Holidays and religious services provided a chance to socialize and celebrate (Slatta). One-room school houses began to appear, teachers taught students from grades 1-8. Students use writing slates and soap stone to write with and brought their lunch in metal pails (Roscoe Village).
Thanks to the Northwest Ordinance that was enacted as an Act of Congress in 1787 the people that lived in what would be called Ohio where given four promises:
- To enter the Union on equal footing as the original states.
- The revenue generated from the sale of townships would fund public education and be land set aside for schools.
- No slavery or servitude.
- A good faith effort will be made to respect the Indians of the territory.
This Northwest Ordinance also established the Ohio River as the boundary between free and slave states. In 1803 Ohio would be the first state formed from this Territory (Roscoe Village).
Imagine how it must have been living along ‘The Forks’ in those frontier days. Settlers would have cut down most of the trees in the area to build homes and to clear land for crops. The community would have gotten together to build a church that would also be used as a school house during the week. Dances, socials, holiday and birthday celebrations would have gotten folks together. Music would make the air come alive with sound and merriment. But mostly it would be hard work living in this era. Most of your time would be used to survive: plowing and planting fields, harvesting crops and preserving food, cutting firewood, taking care of the children and tending the livestock. Then there was always the fear of being set upon by rough men or natives taking what you have worked so hard to attain.
Back to the Future
Life has changed here in Coshocton County after more than 200 years. We no longer have the abundance of wildlife, the rivers are brown, the Native Americans have been assimilated and the old growth forests are gone. But we do have reminders of what used to be. Deer are more populated than ever, the turkey have been successfully reintroduced and the bald eagles fly over the Muskingum River again. In the news recently, a 373 year old White Oak tree was discovered in SE Ohio. The oldest recorded hardwood east of the Mississippi (sciencedaily). We can learn about the past and appreciate where we have come from while we embrace the future. We no longer have to walk or take canoes to travel long distances, we have air travel and the ability to communicate with cell phones with people from all over the world. While people once traveled West to a back breaking existence, we now can move freely from place to place, exploring exotic destinations and cultures. Even though Coshocton has a 94% white population there is that 6% consisting of mixed race, black or Asian showing how we too are becoming diversified (worldpopulation). Thankfully, we have learned to appreciate new people and cultures and instead of clashing with them and have also learned to appreciate the natural world that has been given us in our beautiful Ohio along ‘The Forks’.
Bibliography
Roscoe Village Foundation Employee Manual, October 2003, Coshocton, Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency, Epa.state.oh.us/portals/AA%forests%
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife.ohiodnr.gov, 2012
Hissong, Tom, 2010, Audubon Adventures, Columbus, Ohio, Audubon Society
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Forest.ohiodnr.gov/history, 2012
Slatta, Richard W. 2006 Western Frontier Life, Chicago, IL, World Book
Freepages.rootsweb.com/henryhowesbook/genealogy/Coshocton.html
Ohio History Connection, Remarkableohio.org/index, 2017
Warpaths2peacepipes.com/history-of-native-americans/history–of-indians.htm
Sciencedaily.com/releases/2019
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010
Worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/Coshocton-oh-population/,2019
Robbie Kehl: Two Kings (Honorable Mention Winner)
The most intriguing part of history is that there is just enough doubt and skepticism to make people want to dig deeper. Everyone wants to find that one buried Egyptian tomb that carries all the answers we’ve been searching to find for centuries. The past has left us bread crumbs. From these, we try to distinguish what four course meal was had. Since we will never know for sure exactly what occurred at all moments of the past, we are left with speculation. Stories passed down through generations and autobiographies of men boasting about themselves can paint a type of picture. Discerning whether this is the correct picture is another matter. One thing is for certain about the past, the world was much smaller then and the deeds of a man could shake it entirely.
Louis Philippe I was born into a world of pure expectation for him on October 6, 1773. His father, Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans having been born himself as Duke of Montpensier in 1747, was made Duke of Chartres then Duke of Orléans in 1785. Louis’ father was one of the richest men in all of France. It’s fairly easy to assume that young Louis had the world at his fingertips and the means to make big changes in it. The only problem for him was that he happened to be living in the period of extreme turmoil in Europe.
Louis was given a proper education of course. One that he seemed to love and thrive off of. He began to flirt with liberal thoughts and would use those sympathies to side with the Revolution that was brewing in France. His father was a strong supporter of the Revolution as well and thus encouraged Louis in his initiatives. Therefore, in June of 1791, Louis got his chance to truly do some good. He had been appointed as Colonel of the Chartres Dragoons six years previous. This was based strictly on inheritance. Louis wasn’t satisfied with just being granted esteem. He wanted to earn it and he did this with honors. His first true act of valor occurred when a crowd, encircling an inn, became violently passionate because of a fight brewing between two priests and a vicar. Louis, in his 18 years of confidence and urge to do good, pushed through the crowd and helped the two priests escape unharmed. It wasn’t to be over though. That same day another crowd caught up with the priests at a river crossing and threatened them with harm again. Louis jumped in front of the priests and between a peasant with a gun. All in order to save their lives. It worked and his esteem began to build. It wouldn’t take long for him to gain more. The very next day, after that event took place, a local engineer was drowning in the river. Louis jumped in and saved his life, earning him a civic crown from the city for his actions.
His brigade was moved to Flanders at the end of 1791 and they started to grow distinction for their actions. This was the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars though. Louis was just starting to taste the battles that were yet to come. He continued to fight bravely and was promoted to brigadier after rallying retreating soldiers and helping to win the Battle of Quiévrain. Fight after fight rang out in France and Louis continued to prove himself time and again. He was promoted to lieutenant-general and he commanded a division as it began its march into the Austrian Netherlands. Louis was praised by the French General Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez for his actions in the military. Everything was looking great for the young upstart royalty. He was living up to his expectations and surpassing them.
Paris would be the epicenter for the tumultuous future for Louis. The newly appointed Girondist named Jean-Nicolas Pache could not handle his new duties and thus left Louis and the Army of the North with next to no provisions or supplies. It didn’t take long for men to begin to desert. Louis began thinking about leaving France, but he had a duty to his army and he would not falter in that. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much choice in the matter soon. Demouriez had devised a plan in which he would ally himself with the Austrians, that they were just fighting, and march on Paris to restore the Constitution of 1791. He met with Louis to try to get him to join him. With the absolute hell that France was falling into, Louis decided to leave. He went with Dumouriez to the Austrian camp but they were caught. Soldiers, who had fought with each other for many battles now, had to decide what to do with each other and who were the true traitors. Sometime during the officers debating, their soldiers grew weary of the talk and shots rang out. Some of Dumouriez’s troops deserted him. The nineteen-year-old Louis is forced to leave his home where he was supposed to be given everything and take up a life of exile in the unknown.
After Louis fled, his father appeared before the National Convention and publicly condemned his son. This was all a ruse though. Someone had found letters that he had been writing with Louis. It wouldn’t take long before Louis’s father and two younger brothers were all arrested. Louis kept on the move this whole time. He bounced around Switzerland, where he was forced to sell all his possessions except for one horse. A few years before he was nearly the richest man in all of Europe and now he looked so haggard from traveling and hiding that he was being turned away from monasteries who thought he was nothing but trouble. He even awoke down the barrel of a musket one morning as he crashed inside a man’s barn. This was his life now. Never staying in one area for more than two days. It was nearly 6 months of him and his entourage traveling like this before Louis found a job as a teacher in a boy’s boarding school. It was there that Louis heard the news that his father had been guillotined back in France.
Louis eventually ended up in the United States, where he was joined by his brothers. They stayed there for four years. He taught French and met some of the pivotal figures in American History, including Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. He visited Cape Cod during a time in which the town of Eastham split into two. The new one now bearing the name Orleans, most likely in his honor. He traveled over much of the country in his time there, slightly before the turn of the 19th century. Some of Louis’ escapades here will be discussed later. Louis and his brothers heard news that their mother had been exiled to Spain. They set off immediately to head back. They planned to sail from Havana and then Spain but were caught up in the middle of a war between Spain and Great Britain. They ended up getting stuck in Cuba for a year before getting expelled to Nova Scotia. In Nova Scotia, Louis met with the Duke of Kent. Who happened to be the son of King George III and one day the father of Queen Victoria. It was at this time when Louis built his long-standing relationship with the royalty of Britain. Once he made it to England, Louis taught mathematics and geography at what was considered at the time, the best private school in all of England.
In the coming years, Louis would be wedded to Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. She happened to be the niece of Marie Antoinette and Louis’ father was considered a conspirator in her execution. This caused controversy but they continued on with it. After Napoleon was abdicated, Louis finally got his chance to return to France after 21 years. He had now been away from his country longer than he lived there. He first patched things up with his cousin who was still King but he truly became close with his cousin’s brother, Charles X. Charles would take over the throne in 1824. A few years later, in 1830, Louis’ life would change drastically. The infamous July Revolution would see the overthrow of Charles X. Charles abdicated his throne to his 10-year-old grandson and named Louis to announce to the elected Chamber of Deputies this desire. Louis decided that he didn’t want to do that. He believed that he would have a chance to succeed Charles X on his own. He was correct and his popularity and policies were so well known that in 1830 Louis became the King of the French.
All recordings of Louis say that he ruled in a humble manner. The people described him as charming even though he lacked majesty. He did not spend all the coffers of the kingdom. The people loved Louis and called him the “Citizen King”. During his reign, the press and speech were always free. This man who was born into everything had earned the respect of the military through his own merits, lost all he had, fought his way back by teaching others his knowledge and was now the ruler of France and one of the most powerful men in the world. Life doesn’t have fairy tale endings though. The conditions of France deteriorated. The poor became poorer and an industrial and agricultural depression in 1846 led to revolutions. Louis was abdicated soon after. He escaped France by riding out in an ordinary cab and calling himself Mr. Smith. The people soon elected Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as the first president of France. Soon he called himself president for life. Then eventually calling himself Emperor Napoleon III. Louis lived out his life in exile in Great Britain as the last King of France. His sad fall from grace is immortalized by Victor Hugo in Les Misérables.
Charlie Williams was born a long way away from France to two unknown parents who are presumably of Scottish and Irish descent. He was born in Maryland in the United States, around ten years before Louis. There’s not much concrete proof of this since the records were destroyed. His parents weren’t rich and he didn’t have a country to run, just a life to live. His family were forced to Pennsylvania and then Virginia when the Revolutionary War began. When Charlie hit manhood he was a bit late to prove himself in war, so he decided to leave home and cross the Ohio river. He met a woman there named Susannah Carpenter. Poor Charlie was so lowly that Susannah’s father didn’t want her to marry him. Even though her father had 16 other children to worry about. This forced Charlie and Susannah to elope. They did this with the help of their friend Samuel Morrison.
Charlie would take his family all around Ohio for a few years before eventually coming upon an open area in which was to become Coshocton. He had been about this area a few times in his trade with the Indians here. Some watered-down whiskey in exchange for goods from the Indians gave Charlie a reason to come back. He eventually built a house in, what some historians think is, present day Prairie Chapel. Coshocton was at this time occupied by Indians. Charlie quickly made friends of them and soon moved into the location of the city itself. It is now when he is considered to be the first white settler in this area. A twelve square foot house in which he shared with his wife, two children, Samuel Morrison, Isaac and Henry Hoagland, their wives and one or two children apiece with them. Not long after this, he would build a log tavern in Coshocton. He was described by some as a dominant character to be feared by his enemies. Not very tall, but powerful and stout.
There are not scholars who have studied the history of Charlie Williams or anyone mentioning him in grand plays. There’s word of mouth passed down through generations. There’re stories wrote a hundred years later based on these legends. There is also the word of Charlie himself. Left in the form of an autobiography that he wrote in his unique speech. He was not an educated man. His speech and actions would disgust most who were in the company of Louis at the time. Even with this drawback, he supposedly showed sympathy towards those who were not treated fairly. He would fight anyone at the drop of a hat and one legend speaks of him wrestling a bear with his hands just to see if he could. His legend grew and he began to be described as cunning, resourceful, and self-reliant. The community of Coshocton began to grow; and with it, Charlie Williams. He was a trapper, hunter, Indian scout, trader and held nearly every office in the county; including road supervisor, tax collector and a member of the state legislature. He was even Sheriff for quite a few years. He was quoted as saying “I ben a man of strong min but no learnin and fot it to the last.” Elections at this time were recorded as taking place in Charlie’s own tavern. After the free drinks and potatoes were imbibed and the laughs were considered aplenty, a vote was then cast by the fifteen or so people in attendance for the various local offices.
Right after settling in Coshocton, one legend speaks of Charlie chasing a group of Indian horse thieves. He was on foot and he followed them all the way to Upper Sandusky. When he arrived, there were three hundred screaming savages there to greet him in a war dance. Charlie walked right into the middle of them all and demanded the horses back or the savages would pay dearly. The Indians were so astonished that they immediately returned the horses while Charlie continued to chastise them about the sins of stealing. Charlie then recounted that there was never a horse stolen by an Indian in Coshocton County again.
When the battle of 1812 began, Charlie immediately rowed a boat across Lake Erie to Detroit where he joined General Harrison. He was commissioned a Colonel of the United States Army right away and commanded the troops from Coshocton county. The troops were prepared to fight the savages and soon an alarm was spread by Johnny Appleseed of an attack to come. It never did. Many attributed this to the fact that the Indians knew Charlie Williams was there, and they knew not to mess with him. Charlies’ myth and feats only grew over the years until he died in his eighties in the town that he helped to begin.
These two men couldn’t have had any more different of lives. It was because of this clash of perspectives that we arrive at the most famous local story about Charlie Williams. There is only one side of this story that was recorded and this is what was described from that point of view right around the year 1800. Like a lot of his nights, he was working at his tavern. It’s noted that it was a particularly exciting night there with the dancing and merrymaking abundant. That was when the door flew open and all eyes went to the strange man standing there. He was dressed entirely in black and his gauntleted hand on his hip held his cloak behind him. He only had one other man with him but had the boldness of an entire following at his will. He exclaimed, “supper.” Charlie served the man but did not like him. The tales passed down say that the stranger loathed all the conversation that was occurring there and was remarking on how shabby and downtrodden the tavern was. When news of this found Charlie, he confronted the man and shouting ensued.
The man called Charlie a “plebian.”
In reply, Charlie told him. “This is my house. If you don’t like it, there’s the door.”
The words got more heated and Charlie was ready to do as he always does, fight. Telling the man. “I’ll not be attacked by every stinkin’ upstart that comes to our country!”
This seemed to get to the stranger. His demeanor shifted and he looked about before addressing all of the tavern. “I am Louis Philippe, heir to the French throne.”
The stranger was very let down in the response from the crowd for no one seemed to care what his words meant.
“King of France, what of it? We are all kings here and I’ll show you!” Charlie retorted as he threw open the door. Even more embellishment on this story says that the stranger was assisted by the toe of “King Charlie’s” boot.
These two men, who epitomize their nations and the age they lived in, could have met. A chance encounter in a time when one country was on the brink of taking down its government and the other country just finished their fighting and was being reborn by free men. The truth is lost to history, but the bread crumbs left are enticing to ponder over. Louis completed many heroic deeds in his life and truly seemed to fight the good fight for intelligence and honor. It earned him the kingdom of France. But, people are fickle. They didn’t like his rule and smeared his name for the rest of history. Charlie was a man who was of much more meager means in comparison. He was hard working and helped to establish a budding new city. Providing alcohol and good times for those around him resulted in their praise of him never faltering. He may never have become a king in the same sense as Louis, but nearly all stories written of Charlie are in the highest regard.
Some while after Louis went back to France, an attorney from Coshocton named George Silliman visited Paris and acted as a diplomatic courier. He interviewed Louis Phillipe in person and asked him if he had ever been to Charlie Williams’ tavern. Louis said that he once visited a point where two rivers came together and described the place and owner. Silliman believes this to be the correct one. Louis’ only comment on the occasion was that he was “shabbily treated” there.
Sources
Louis Philippe I was born into a world of pure expectation for him on October 6, 1773. His father, Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans having been born himself as Duke of Montpensier in 1747, was made Duke of Chartres then Duke of Orléans in 1785. Louis’ father was one of the richest men in all of France. It’s fairly easy to assume that young Louis had the world at his fingertips and the means to make big changes in it. The only problem for him was that he happened to be living in the period of extreme turmoil in Europe.
Louis was given a proper education of course. One that he seemed to love and thrive off of. He began to flirt with liberal thoughts and would use those sympathies to side with the Revolution that was brewing in France. His father was a strong supporter of the Revolution as well and thus encouraged Louis in his initiatives. Therefore, in June of 1791, Louis got his chance to truly do some good. He had been appointed as Colonel of the Chartres Dragoons six years previous. This was based strictly on inheritance. Louis wasn’t satisfied with just being granted esteem. He wanted to earn it and he did this with honors. His first true act of valor occurred when a crowd, encircling an inn, became violently passionate because of a fight brewing between two priests and a vicar. Louis, in his 18 years of confidence and urge to do good, pushed through the crowd and helped the two priests escape unharmed. It wasn’t to be over though. That same day another crowd caught up with the priests at a river crossing and threatened them with harm again. Louis jumped in front of the priests and between a peasant with a gun. All in order to save their lives. It worked and his esteem began to build. It wouldn’t take long for him to gain more. The very next day, after that event took place, a local engineer was drowning in the river. Louis jumped in and saved his life, earning him a civic crown from the city for his actions.
His brigade was moved to Flanders at the end of 1791 and they started to grow distinction for their actions. This was the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars though. Louis was just starting to taste the battles that were yet to come. He continued to fight bravely and was promoted to brigadier after rallying retreating soldiers and helping to win the Battle of Quiévrain. Fight after fight rang out in France and Louis continued to prove himself time and again. He was promoted to lieutenant-general and he commanded a division as it began its march into the Austrian Netherlands. Louis was praised by the French General Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez for his actions in the military. Everything was looking great for the young upstart royalty. He was living up to his expectations and surpassing them.
Paris would be the epicenter for the tumultuous future for Louis. The newly appointed Girondist named Jean-Nicolas Pache could not handle his new duties and thus left Louis and the Army of the North with next to no provisions or supplies. It didn’t take long for men to begin to desert. Louis began thinking about leaving France, but he had a duty to his army and he would not falter in that. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much choice in the matter soon. Demouriez had devised a plan in which he would ally himself with the Austrians, that they were just fighting, and march on Paris to restore the Constitution of 1791. He met with Louis to try to get him to join him. With the absolute hell that France was falling into, Louis decided to leave. He went with Dumouriez to the Austrian camp but they were caught. Soldiers, who had fought with each other for many battles now, had to decide what to do with each other and who were the true traitors. Sometime during the officers debating, their soldiers grew weary of the talk and shots rang out. Some of Dumouriez’s troops deserted him. The nineteen-year-old Louis is forced to leave his home where he was supposed to be given everything and take up a life of exile in the unknown.
After Louis fled, his father appeared before the National Convention and publicly condemned his son. This was all a ruse though. Someone had found letters that he had been writing with Louis. It wouldn’t take long before Louis’s father and two younger brothers were all arrested. Louis kept on the move this whole time. He bounced around Switzerland, where he was forced to sell all his possessions except for one horse. A few years before he was nearly the richest man in all of Europe and now he looked so haggard from traveling and hiding that he was being turned away from monasteries who thought he was nothing but trouble. He even awoke down the barrel of a musket one morning as he crashed inside a man’s barn. This was his life now. Never staying in one area for more than two days. It was nearly 6 months of him and his entourage traveling like this before Louis found a job as a teacher in a boy’s boarding school. It was there that Louis heard the news that his father had been guillotined back in France.
Louis eventually ended up in the United States, where he was joined by his brothers. They stayed there for four years. He taught French and met some of the pivotal figures in American History, including Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. He visited Cape Cod during a time in which the town of Eastham split into two. The new one now bearing the name Orleans, most likely in his honor. He traveled over much of the country in his time there, slightly before the turn of the 19th century. Some of Louis’ escapades here will be discussed later. Louis and his brothers heard news that their mother had been exiled to Spain. They set off immediately to head back. They planned to sail from Havana and then Spain but were caught up in the middle of a war between Spain and Great Britain. They ended up getting stuck in Cuba for a year before getting expelled to Nova Scotia. In Nova Scotia, Louis met with the Duke of Kent. Who happened to be the son of King George III and one day the father of Queen Victoria. It was at this time when Louis built his long-standing relationship with the royalty of Britain. Once he made it to England, Louis taught mathematics and geography at what was considered at the time, the best private school in all of England.
In the coming years, Louis would be wedded to Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. She happened to be the niece of Marie Antoinette and Louis’ father was considered a conspirator in her execution. This caused controversy but they continued on with it. After Napoleon was abdicated, Louis finally got his chance to return to France after 21 years. He had now been away from his country longer than he lived there. He first patched things up with his cousin who was still King but he truly became close with his cousin’s brother, Charles X. Charles would take over the throne in 1824. A few years later, in 1830, Louis’ life would change drastically. The infamous July Revolution would see the overthrow of Charles X. Charles abdicated his throne to his 10-year-old grandson and named Louis to announce to the elected Chamber of Deputies this desire. Louis decided that he didn’t want to do that. He believed that he would have a chance to succeed Charles X on his own. He was correct and his popularity and policies were so well known that in 1830 Louis became the King of the French.
All recordings of Louis say that he ruled in a humble manner. The people described him as charming even though he lacked majesty. He did not spend all the coffers of the kingdom. The people loved Louis and called him the “Citizen King”. During his reign, the press and speech were always free. This man who was born into everything had earned the respect of the military through his own merits, lost all he had, fought his way back by teaching others his knowledge and was now the ruler of France and one of the most powerful men in the world. Life doesn’t have fairy tale endings though. The conditions of France deteriorated. The poor became poorer and an industrial and agricultural depression in 1846 led to revolutions. Louis was abdicated soon after. He escaped France by riding out in an ordinary cab and calling himself Mr. Smith. The people soon elected Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as the first president of France. Soon he called himself president for life. Then eventually calling himself Emperor Napoleon III. Louis lived out his life in exile in Great Britain as the last King of France. His sad fall from grace is immortalized by Victor Hugo in Les Misérables.
Charlie Williams was born a long way away from France to two unknown parents who are presumably of Scottish and Irish descent. He was born in Maryland in the United States, around ten years before Louis. There’s not much concrete proof of this since the records were destroyed. His parents weren’t rich and he didn’t have a country to run, just a life to live. His family were forced to Pennsylvania and then Virginia when the Revolutionary War began. When Charlie hit manhood he was a bit late to prove himself in war, so he decided to leave home and cross the Ohio river. He met a woman there named Susannah Carpenter. Poor Charlie was so lowly that Susannah’s father didn’t want her to marry him. Even though her father had 16 other children to worry about. This forced Charlie and Susannah to elope. They did this with the help of their friend Samuel Morrison.
Charlie would take his family all around Ohio for a few years before eventually coming upon an open area in which was to become Coshocton. He had been about this area a few times in his trade with the Indians here. Some watered-down whiskey in exchange for goods from the Indians gave Charlie a reason to come back. He eventually built a house in, what some historians think is, present day Prairie Chapel. Coshocton was at this time occupied by Indians. Charlie quickly made friends of them and soon moved into the location of the city itself. It is now when he is considered to be the first white settler in this area. A twelve square foot house in which he shared with his wife, two children, Samuel Morrison, Isaac and Henry Hoagland, their wives and one or two children apiece with them. Not long after this, he would build a log tavern in Coshocton. He was described by some as a dominant character to be feared by his enemies. Not very tall, but powerful and stout.
There are not scholars who have studied the history of Charlie Williams or anyone mentioning him in grand plays. There’s word of mouth passed down through generations. There’re stories wrote a hundred years later based on these legends. There is also the word of Charlie himself. Left in the form of an autobiography that he wrote in his unique speech. He was not an educated man. His speech and actions would disgust most who were in the company of Louis at the time. Even with this drawback, he supposedly showed sympathy towards those who were not treated fairly. He would fight anyone at the drop of a hat and one legend speaks of him wrestling a bear with his hands just to see if he could. His legend grew and he began to be described as cunning, resourceful, and self-reliant. The community of Coshocton began to grow; and with it, Charlie Williams. He was a trapper, hunter, Indian scout, trader and held nearly every office in the county; including road supervisor, tax collector and a member of the state legislature. He was even Sheriff for quite a few years. He was quoted as saying “I ben a man of strong min but no learnin and fot it to the last.” Elections at this time were recorded as taking place in Charlie’s own tavern. After the free drinks and potatoes were imbibed and the laughs were considered aplenty, a vote was then cast by the fifteen or so people in attendance for the various local offices.
Right after settling in Coshocton, one legend speaks of Charlie chasing a group of Indian horse thieves. He was on foot and he followed them all the way to Upper Sandusky. When he arrived, there were three hundred screaming savages there to greet him in a war dance. Charlie walked right into the middle of them all and demanded the horses back or the savages would pay dearly. The Indians were so astonished that they immediately returned the horses while Charlie continued to chastise them about the sins of stealing. Charlie then recounted that there was never a horse stolen by an Indian in Coshocton County again.
When the battle of 1812 began, Charlie immediately rowed a boat across Lake Erie to Detroit where he joined General Harrison. He was commissioned a Colonel of the United States Army right away and commanded the troops from Coshocton county. The troops were prepared to fight the savages and soon an alarm was spread by Johnny Appleseed of an attack to come. It never did. Many attributed this to the fact that the Indians knew Charlie Williams was there, and they knew not to mess with him. Charlies’ myth and feats only grew over the years until he died in his eighties in the town that he helped to begin.
These two men couldn’t have had any more different of lives. It was because of this clash of perspectives that we arrive at the most famous local story about Charlie Williams. There is only one side of this story that was recorded and this is what was described from that point of view right around the year 1800. Like a lot of his nights, he was working at his tavern. It’s noted that it was a particularly exciting night there with the dancing and merrymaking abundant. That was when the door flew open and all eyes went to the strange man standing there. He was dressed entirely in black and his gauntleted hand on his hip held his cloak behind him. He only had one other man with him but had the boldness of an entire following at his will. He exclaimed, “supper.” Charlie served the man but did not like him. The tales passed down say that the stranger loathed all the conversation that was occurring there and was remarking on how shabby and downtrodden the tavern was. When news of this found Charlie, he confronted the man and shouting ensued.
The man called Charlie a “plebian.”
In reply, Charlie told him. “This is my house. If you don’t like it, there’s the door.”
The words got more heated and Charlie was ready to do as he always does, fight. Telling the man. “I’ll not be attacked by every stinkin’ upstart that comes to our country!”
This seemed to get to the stranger. His demeanor shifted and he looked about before addressing all of the tavern. “I am Louis Philippe, heir to the French throne.”
The stranger was very let down in the response from the crowd for no one seemed to care what his words meant.
“King of France, what of it? We are all kings here and I’ll show you!” Charlie retorted as he threw open the door. Even more embellishment on this story says that the stranger was assisted by the toe of “King Charlie’s” boot.
These two men, who epitomize their nations and the age they lived in, could have met. A chance encounter in a time when one country was on the brink of taking down its government and the other country just finished their fighting and was being reborn by free men. The truth is lost to history, but the bread crumbs left are enticing to ponder over. Louis completed many heroic deeds in his life and truly seemed to fight the good fight for intelligence and honor. It earned him the kingdom of France. But, people are fickle. They didn’t like his rule and smeared his name for the rest of history. Charlie was a man who was of much more meager means in comparison. He was hard working and helped to establish a budding new city. Providing alcohol and good times for those around him resulted in their praise of him never faltering. He may never have become a king in the same sense as Louis, but nearly all stories written of Charlie are in the highest regard.
Some while after Louis went back to France, an attorney from Coshocton named George Silliman visited Paris and acted as a diplomatic courier. He interviewed Louis Phillipe in person and asked him if he had ever been to Charlie Williams’ tavern. Louis said that he once visited a point where two rivers came together and described the place and owner. Silliman believes this to be the correct one. Louis’ only comment on the occasion was that he was “shabbily treated” there.
Sources
- “Colorful Charlie Williams Was First Settler Here”. The Tribune (Coshocton, Ohio), 20 Aug 1961, Sun, https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=30403790&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjMyMjE2OTU2NiwiaWF0IjoxNjAyNjkzNzc2LCJleHAiOjE2MDI3ODAxNzZ9.HkVt9V4QsckBol8YbUw6jLdalTZnlBq5rRhgEcqguhY.
- Hill, N. N. Jr. History of Coshocton County Ohio: Its Past and Present. Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & Co., Publishers, 1881.
- Bahmer, William J. Centennial history of Coshocton County, Ohio” Chicago, Illinois, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1909.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Louis-Philippe”. Encyclopaedia Britannica, October 02, 2020,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Philippe.
- Hugo, Victor. Les Miserables. New York, Washington Square Press, 1964.
- Bishop, Morris. “Louis Philippe In America”. American Heritage, American Heritage Publishing Co., 01 October 2020, https://www.americanheritage.com/louis-philippe-america, Originally published in American Heritage Volume 20, Issue 3, 1969.
- Philippe, Louis, Biographical Memoirs of Louis Philippe the First, Ex King of the French; With a Sketch of the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848. London, Cradock and Co., 1848.
- Biography.com Editors. “Louis-Philippe.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 23 Aug. 2019, www.biography.com/royalty/louis-philippe.
