2022 Mary Harris Prizes Essays
Erin Gotwals: Newcomers (1st Place Winner)
From my earliest explorations into the older branches of my family tree, I remember one name that stood out. It’s not even a name, actually, just a generic description: “Indian maiden.” In a tree whose branches at that time were mostly populated by Annas and Marys and Johans and Jacobs from Germany, her presence is especially striking. This “Indian maiden” was supposedly my eighth great-grandmother, born around 1701. Many families have stories of Native American ancestry, some true and some fictitious. Even if this story is true, my indigenous heritage would be less than one tenth of one percent, and I had never given much thought to this family mystery.
After I came to the Coshocton area, though, my aunt commented that my move made her think about our Delaware ancestor who was too sick to join her people in their migration west and married one of our “great-somethings,” and that I was somehow completing the journey to Coshocton for her. This piqued my curiosity. I was aware of the prominent role of the Delaware people in Coshocton history, but I did not know that one of my ancestors may have been part of that story.
I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, the home area of the indigenous Lenape (later known as Delaware) people at the time of European settlement. I moved to Coshocton County after over a decade in various other places, and although I’ve been here for several years now, I still feel like a relative newcomer among local residents. Many families have been here for generations, including some who can trace their family histories to early Coshocton inhabitants of the frontier days.
My curiosity about this intriguing part of my family history led me to do some investigating. Who was this woman, and what was her story? How did she end up marrying into a German immigrant family? Was she really part of a tribe that eventually settled in Coshocton? I started with some basic genealogy research online, including at familysearch.org. Other users of the site had already populated the section of my family tree that included this Delaware woman. To my surprise, there was a name listed for her, at least an English one: Margaret Preisz. Perhaps this was the name she adopted after marrying my eighth great-grandfather, Johannes Preisz. And then came an even greater surprise: her father was listed as well, and it said his name was Chief Netawatwees.
Netawatwees, also known as Chief Newcomer, is a prominent figure in Coshocton history. He was the head leader of the Delaware in Ohio in the decades leading up to the American Revolution, and was instrumental in consolidating diverse groups from the Delaware diaspora into a centralized Delaware nation. He was the one who established the Delaware capital at Gekelemukpechünk (present-day Newcomerstown) and later moved it to Goschachgünk (present-day Coshocton). Seeing the name of this important historical figure appear in my family tree was certainly a surprise, and I was immediately skeptical. It seemed like a dubious connection, with no documentation to substantiate the claim that he was the father of the woman who married Johannes Preisz. On many genealogy websites, any individual user can enter information, and there is no guarantee of its veracity. I guessed it was wishful thinking by an amateur genealogist who wanted to be related to someone famous and entered Netawatwees into the database without any evidence. Still, I was intrigued. If I couldn’t prove that Netawatwees was this woman’s father, could I prove that he wasn’t?
To investigate this questionable connection between Netawatwees and the Preisz family, I researched the relevant time period from both families’ sides. I will first summarize here what I discovered about Preisz family history, then discuss what is known about Netawatwees, and finally analyze possible connections between the two.
The Lenape woman sometimes identified as Margaret Preisz enters the historical record because of her marriage to Johannes Preisz. Her husband’s name has several alternate spellings, including an anglicized version, John Price. Various sources converge around the general story that Johannes Preisz was born around 1702 and immigrated to Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1719 with his father and other German Brethren (Dunker) families under the leadership of Peter Becker.[1] They were among a long line of European newcomers to the Lenape homeland. In the absence of historical accounts from indigenous perspectives at the time of early European settlement, we can only imagine the extent to which entire cultures were turned upside down with the arrival of white settlers.
[1] Brumbaugh, History of the Brethren, 192.
Online genealogy sources offer quite a bit of family lore about Johannes Preisz and his wife, including many conflicting accounts and questionable details. Most sources say that this woman was Native American, and Internet genealogy sites identify her as a Lenape of the Unami group. There are even rumors that she was a “beautiful Indian princess.”[2] In a colorful narrative about Johannes and his wife by Bob Bowman, I discovered a reference to the story my aunt had told me: “According to one version of the tale, the Indian family had wanted to move with others of their tribe to Shamoken. Their 18 year old daughter, however, was too ill to move at the time. So the family entrusted her to the care of John Jacob Preisz [father of Johannes], the good Dunker elder of Indian Creek.”[3]
Most sources, including an old Price family history, say that Johannes was sickly, and his family did their best to ensure he would continue the family line:
He was seventeen years of age when with his father he came to America. He was a weakly youth and his father feared he would not live to have issue. And yet so anxious was the parent to leave a name and posterity behind him that he encouraged his son to marry while still very young. It is said that an Indian girl, on account of her excellent physique and good health, was selected and became his wife. This tradition in many forms has been firmly believed in by many of the family though denied by others.[4]
One uncontroversial fact is that they lived at the Price family farm in Indian Creek, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, less than ten miles from my own childhood home. They had two children, Daniel, born in 1723, and John, who was born after his father’s death in 1724. As Bowman describes it, “Marrying the ‘beautiful Indian princess’ may have strengthened the family line, but it did John in. After four years of married life, he died.”[5]
[2] Bowman, “Story of Johannes Preiss.”
[3] Bowman, “Story of Johannes Preiss.”
[4] Wanger, Genealogy of Descendants.
[5] Bowman, “Story of Johannes Preiss.”
After the death of Johannes, the mysteries continue. Did this Lenape woman travel west to find her people, or stay in Indian Creek? The stories vary: “The ‘beautiful Indian princess,’ it is said, went back to her people. Some say she joined in the slow westward migration of the Delaware. Others are certain that she and her family lived in a cabin on the Price farm until the late 18th century.”[6] One account asserts that the two children lived with their grandfather after their father died.[7] Stories and questions abound, but verifiable facts are scarce. Even so, we can get a sense for how the probable milestones in this woman’s life fit with what is known of Lenape history and the early life of Netawatwees.
In the 1600s, many loosely connected Native American communities with a certain measure of shared culture, history, and language lived along the Delaware River and called themselves the Lenni Lenape.[8] They included Munsee-speaking bands in the north and Unami-speaking bands in the south. The name Delaware was later applied to this broad group of people. Their history is difficult to reconstruct, with no written language or records prior to European contact. As Amy Schutt, a modern scholar of Delaware history, noted, “A major difficulty was the shortage of accounts written by colonial-era Lenapes themselves, making it highly difficult to understand their mindsets and personal identities.”[9]
Although we have some information about the Lenape in general from colonial European sources, the early history of Netawatwees is extremely vague. I set out to do some research in the local history room at the Coshocton Public Library, and with the guidance of helpful librarians and volunteers from the local genealogical society, I found a number of books that included Netawatwees. Soon, though, I learned that even prominent historians have little information about his history prior to the 1750s. Schutt observed, “Despite the significance of Netawatwees, we know little about his origins.”[10]
[6] Bowman, “Story of Johannes Preiss.”
[7] Wanger, Genealogy of Descendants.
[8] Wallace, Indians in Pennsylvania, 52.
[9] Schutt, Peoples of River Valleys, 3.
[10] Schutt, Peoples of River Valleys, 106.
The year Netawatwees was born is uncertain, but Scott Butler, a scholar of Coshocton-area history, concludes that the available information supports a birth year between 1677 and 1686.[11] Netawatwees, whose name means “Skilled Advisor,”[12] belonged to the Unami group of Lenape. His name has multiple variations, including Netotwhelmy, Netahutquemaled, and Netodwehement.[13] To add to the confusion, there was little consistency in how Europeans transcribed his name.
From a young age, Netawatwees was prepared for future leadership roles. John Heckewelder, a noted Moravian missionary who lived among the Delaware in the 1700s, provides some insights into his upbringing:
Being…a candidate for the chiefdom of the first tribe in the nation (the Turtle), and of course one day to be placed at the head of the whole, he was instructed accordingly, and had the care of all verbal speeches with wampum, bead vouchers and such as were given in writing from William Penn’s time down to the time he and many others left the Atlantic states, in consequence of their land being taken away from them, and as they thought unjustly, especially by the long walk, by which they were so abominably cheated of their lands.[14]
The “long walk” appears to be a reference to a 1737 land transaction known as the Walking Purchase. Netawatwees was likely originally from the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, land included in the Walking Purchase, and he probably relocated to western Pennsylvania in the late 1740s or early 1750s.[15]
Netawatwees lived his early years at a time of relatively peaceful coexistence between Native Americans and European settlers. He reportedly crossed paths as a young man with William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, who earned a reputation for treating the area’s indigenous inhabitants with respect. Very few details about the family life of Netawatwees seem to be documented. I found no record of his parents. Diaries of the Moravian missionaries mention that he did have a wife and children, including a daughter, but a more thorough examination of those documents would be required to find additional details.
[11] Butler, Three Great Delaware Leaders, 28.
[12] Butler, Three Great Delaware Leaders, 27.
[13] Weslager, The Delaware Indians, 243.
[14] Heckewelder, “Names,” 388.
[15] Butler, Frontier History of Coshocton, 80.
The Unami people of the lower Delaware Valley were categorized into Southern Unami and Northern Unami groups, and there seems to be some uncertainty as to which group Netawatwees belonged to.[16] [17] The documents signed by leaders of these two groups ceding their lands to Europeans provide the earliest probable traces of Netawatwees in the historical records.
Many biographical descriptions of Netawatwees say he may have signed a document in 1718 confirming the prior sale of Southern Unami lands to William Penn. The document bears the name “Nedawaway or Oliver” with his mark in place of a signature,[18] and there is speculation about whether Nedawaway was in fact Netawatwees. Heckewelder’s documentation of Delaware “Chieftains and Distinguished Men” confirms that Nedawaway was the “popular name” for Netawatwees, and adds, “This chief had been a signer to the treaty held with the Indians at Conestogo [sic] in the year 1718.”[19] If this is true, it suggests that Netawatwees used the English name Oliver at some point in his early life. Investigation of any references to Oliver in historical documents could perhaps provide new information about Netawatwees.
In the 1718 document, Nedawaway was a witness, not one of the principal Indian signers. Interestingly, it seems he was not a witness at the meeting on September 17, 1718, but rather was a witness to the signing of “Pokehais & Pepawmamen who were absent” from the gathering.[20] Pokehais and Pepawmaman both appear in Heckewelder’s list of “Forks of Delaware Chiefs, &c,” although the only details provided are the meanings of their names.[21] Perhaps we could learn more about Netawatwees from additional research on Pokehais and Pepawmaman.
[16] Butler, Three Great Delaware Leaders, 4.
[17] Butler, Frontier History of Coshocton, 505.
[18] Thomson, Enquiry, 20.
[19] Heckewelder, “Names,” 388.
[20] Thomson, Enquiry, 20.
[21] Heckewelder, “Names,” 385.
The Northern Unami remained on their original lands somewhat longer, until an infamous agreement known as the Walking Purchase of 1737 forced them to leave. William Penn’s sons and their associates, with the support of the Six Nations Iroquois (adversaries of the Lenape), employed dubious tactics to force Northern Unami bands to cede their land. One witness to the Walking Purchase document was Nectotaylemet,[22] who some believe was Netawatwees, since the name resembles other forms of his name such as Netodwehement. By comparing an image of the original Walking Purchase document[23] with a transcript of the text, I was able to locate Nectotaylemet’s mark and edit the image for clarity:
After I came to the Coshocton area, though, my aunt commented that my move made her think about our Delaware ancestor who was too sick to join her people in their migration west and married one of our “great-somethings,” and that I was somehow completing the journey to Coshocton for her. This piqued my curiosity. I was aware of the prominent role of the Delaware people in Coshocton history, but I did not know that one of my ancestors may have been part of that story.
I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, the home area of the indigenous Lenape (later known as Delaware) people at the time of European settlement. I moved to Coshocton County after over a decade in various other places, and although I’ve been here for several years now, I still feel like a relative newcomer among local residents. Many families have been here for generations, including some who can trace their family histories to early Coshocton inhabitants of the frontier days.
My curiosity about this intriguing part of my family history led me to do some investigating. Who was this woman, and what was her story? How did she end up marrying into a German immigrant family? Was she really part of a tribe that eventually settled in Coshocton? I started with some basic genealogy research online, including at familysearch.org. Other users of the site had already populated the section of my family tree that included this Delaware woman. To my surprise, there was a name listed for her, at least an English one: Margaret Preisz. Perhaps this was the name she adopted after marrying my eighth great-grandfather, Johannes Preisz. And then came an even greater surprise: her father was listed as well, and it said his name was Chief Netawatwees.
Netawatwees, also known as Chief Newcomer, is a prominent figure in Coshocton history. He was the head leader of the Delaware in Ohio in the decades leading up to the American Revolution, and was instrumental in consolidating diverse groups from the Delaware diaspora into a centralized Delaware nation. He was the one who established the Delaware capital at Gekelemukpechünk (present-day Newcomerstown) and later moved it to Goschachgünk (present-day Coshocton). Seeing the name of this important historical figure appear in my family tree was certainly a surprise, and I was immediately skeptical. It seemed like a dubious connection, with no documentation to substantiate the claim that he was the father of the woman who married Johannes Preisz. On many genealogy websites, any individual user can enter information, and there is no guarantee of its veracity. I guessed it was wishful thinking by an amateur genealogist who wanted to be related to someone famous and entered Netawatwees into the database without any evidence. Still, I was intrigued. If I couldn’t prove that Netawatwees was this woman’s father, could I prove that he wasn’t?
To investigate this questionable connection between Netawatwees and the Preisz family, I researched the relevant time period from both families’ sides. I will first summarize here what I discovered about Preisz family history, then discuss what is known about Netawatwees, and finally analyze possible connections between the two.
The Lenape woman sometimes identified as Margaret Preisz enters the historical record because of her marriage to Johannes Preisz. Her husband’s name has several alternate spellings, including an anglicized version, John Price. Various sources converge around the general story that Johannes Preisz was born around 1702 and immigrated to Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1719 with his father and other German Brethren (Dunker) families under the leadership of Peter Becker.[1] They were among a long line of European newcomers to the Lenape homeland. In the absence of historical accounts from indigenous perspectives at the time of early European settlement, we can only imagine the extent to which entire cultures were turned upside down with the arrival of white settlers.
[1] Brumbaugh, History of the Brethren, 192.
Online genealogy sources offer quite a bit of family lore about Johannes Preisz and his wife, including many conflicting accounts and questionable details. Most sources say that this woman was Native American, and Internet genealogy sites identify her as a Lenape of the Unami group. There are even rumors that she was a “beautiful Indian princess.”[2] In a colorful narrative about Johannes and his wife by Bob Bowman, I discovered a reference to the story my aunt had told me: “According to one version of the tale, the Indian family had wanted to move with others of their tribe to Shamoken. Their 18 year old daughter, however, was too ill to move at the time. So the family entrusted her to the care of John Jacob Preisz [father of Johannes], the good Dunker elder of Indian Creek.”[3]
Most sources, including an old Price family history, say that Johannes was sickly, and his family did their best to ensure he would continue the family line:
He was seventeen years of age when with his father he came to America. He was a weakly youth and his father feared he would not live to have issue. And yet so anxious was the parent to leave a name and posterity behind him that he encouraged his son to marry while still very young. It is said that an Indian girl, on account of her excellent physique and good health, was selected and became his wife. This tradition in many forms has been firmly believed in by many of the family though denied by others.[4]
One uncontroversial fact is that they lived at the Price family farm in Indian Creek, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, less than ten miles from my own childhood home. They had two children, Daniel, born in 1723, and John, who was born after his father’s death in 1724. As Bowman describes it, “Marrying the ‘beautiful Indian princess’ may have strengthened the family line, but it did John in. After four years of married life, he died.”[5]
[2] Bowman, “Story of Johannes Preiss.”
[3] Bowman, “Story of Johannes Preiss.”
[4] Wanger, Genealogy of Descendants.
[5] Bowman, “Story of Johannes Preiss.”
After the death of Johannes, the mysteries continue. Did this Lenape woman travel west to find her people, or stay in Indian Creek? The stories vary: “The ‘beautiful Indian princess,’ it is said, went back to her people. Some say she joined in the slow westward migration of the Delaware. Others are certain that she and her family lived in a cabin on the Price farm until the late 18th century.”[6] One account asserts that the two children lived with their grandfather after their father died.[7] Stories and questions abound, but verifiable facts are scarce. Even so, we can get a sense for how the probable milestones in this woman’s life fit with what is known of Lenape history and the early life of Netawatwees.
In the 1600s, many loosely connected Native American communities with a certain measure of shared culture, history, and language lived along the Delaware River and called themselves the Lenni Lenape.[8] They included Munsee-speaking bands in the north and Unami-speaking bands in the south. The name Delaware was later applied to this broad group of people. Their history is difficult to reconstruct, with no written language or records prior to European contact. As Amy Schutt, a modern scholar of Delaware history, noted, “A major difficulty was the shortage of accounts written by colonial-era Lenapes themselves, making it highly difficult to understand their mindsets and personal identities.”[9]
Although we have some information about the Lenape in general from colonial European sources, the early history of Netawatwees is extremely vague. I set out to do some research in the local history room at the Coshocton Public Library, and with the guidance of helpful librarians and volunteers from the local genealogical society, I found a number of books that included Netawatwees. Soon, though, I learned that even prominent historians have little information about his history prior to the 1750s. Schutt observed, “Despite the significance of Netawatwees, we know little about his origins.”[10]
[6] Bowman, “Story of Johannes Preiss.”
[7] Wanger, Genealogy of Descendants.
[8] Wallace, Indians in Pennsylvania, 52.
[9] Schutt, Peoples of River Valleys, 3.
[10] Schutt, Peoples of River Valleys, 106.
The year Netawatwees was born is uncertain, but Scott Butler, a scholar of Coshocton-area history, concludes that the available information supports a birth year between 1677 and 1686.[11] Netawatwees, whose name means “Skilled Advisor,”[12] belonged to the Unami group of Lenape. His name has multiple variations, including Netotwhelmy, Netahutquemaled, and Netodwehement.[13] To add to the confusion, there was little consistency in how Europeans transcribed his name.
From a young age, Netawatwees was prepared for future leadership roles. John Heckewelder, a noted Moravian missionary who lived among the Delaware in the 1700s, provides some insights into his upbringing:
Being…a candidate for the chiefdom of the first tribe in the nation (the Turtle), and of course one day to be placed at the head of the whole, he was instructed accordingly, and had the care of all verbal speeches with wampum, bead vouchers and such as were given in writing from William Penn’s time down to the time he and many others left the Atlantic states, in consequence of their land being taken away from them, and as they thought unjustly, especially by the long walk, by which they were so abominably cheated of their lands.[14]
The “long walk” appears to be a reference to a 1737 land transaction known as the Walking Purchase. Netawatwees was likely originally from the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, land included in the Walking Purchase, and he probably relocated to western Pennsylvania in the late 1740s or early 1750s.[15]
Netawatwees lived his early years at a time of relatively peaceful coexistence between Native Americans and European settlers. He reportedly crossed paths as a young man with William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, who earned a reputation for treating the area’s indigenous inhabitants with respect. Very few details about the family life of Netawatwees seem to be documented. I found no record of his parents. Diaries of the Moravian missionaries mention that he did have a wife and children, including a daughter, but a more thorough examination of those documents would be required to find additional details.
[11] Butler, Three Great Delaware Leaders, 28.
[12] Butler, Three Great Delaware Leaders, 27.
[13] Weslager, The Delaware Indians, 243.
[14] Heckewelder, “Names,” 388.
[15] Butler, Frontier History of Coshocton, 80.
The Unami people of the lower Delaware Valley were categorized into Southern Unami and Northern Unami groups, and there seems to be some uncertainty as to which group Netawatwees belonged to.[16] [17] The documents signed by leaders of these two groups ceding their lands to Europeans provide the earliest probable traces of Netawatwees in the historical records.
Many biographical descriptions of Netawatwees say he may have signed a document in 1718 confirming the prior sale of Southern Unami lands to William Penn. The document bears the name “Nedawaway or Oliver” with his mark in place of a signature,[18] and there is speculation about whether Nedawaway was in fact Netawatwees. Heckewelder’s documentation of Delaware “Chieftains and Distinguished Men” confirms that Nedawaway was the “popular name” for Netawatwees, and adds, “This chief had been a signer to the treaty held with the Indians at Conestogo [sic] in the year 1718.”[19] If this is true, it suggests that Netawatwees used the English name Oliver at some point in his early life. Investigation of any references to Oliver in historical documents could perhaps provide new information about Netawatwees.
In the 1718 document, Nedawaway was a witness, not one of the principal Indian signers. Interestingly, it seems he was not a witness at the meeting on September 17, 1718, but rather was a witness to the signing of “Pokehais & Pepawmamen who were absent” from the gathering.[20] Pokehais and Pepawmaman both appear in Heckewelder’s list of “Forks of Delaware Chiefs, &c,” although the only details provided are the meanings of their names.[21] Perhaps we could learn more about Netawatwees from additional research on Pokehais and Pepawmaman.
[16] Butler, Three Great Delaware Leaders, 4.
[17] Butler, Frontier History of Coshocton, 505.
[18] Thomson, Enquiry, 20.
[19] Heckewelder, “Names,” 388.
[20] Thomson, Enquiry, 20.
[21] Heckewelder, “Names,” 385.
The Northern Unami remained on their original lands somewhat longer, until an infamous agreement known as the Walking Purchase of 1737 forced them to leave. William Penn’s sons and their associates, with the support of the Six Nations Iroquois (adversaries of the Lenape), employed dubious tactics to force Northern Unami bands to cede their land. One witness to the Walking Purchase document was Nectotaylemet,[22] who some believe was Netawatwees, since the name resembles other forms of his name such as Netodwehement. By comparing an image of the original Walking Purchase document[23] with a transcript of the text, I was able to locate Nectotaylemet’s mark and edit the image for clarity:
I searched for images of marks made by Netawatwees on other documents to compare them, but found none. If other scholars have access to different documents with his mark, a comparison could help us understand whether Nedawaway, Nectotaylemet, and Netawatwees were the same individual.
After losing their land, many Unami bands moved westward to central Pennsylvania. Both Southern and Northern Unami relocated to Shamokin (the community where the young Lenape woman’s family reportedly settled), with the southern groups arriving in the 1720s and the northern groups in the 1740s.[24] I have found no information about where Netawatwees lived during the period following the Walking Purchase, or if he ever resided in Shamokin. After the death of Sassoonan, an important Delaware chief, in Shamokin in 1747, Netawatwees became one of the higher-ranking chiefs. [25]
The earliest definitive identification of Netawatwees in historical records appears in 1754, when he signed an important message at a council meeting in Logstown, Pennsylvania.[26] He used the English name Newcomer then, likely because he was a later arrival among the Delaware in western Pennsylvania.[27] Much is written elsewhere about the later life of Netawatwees and the pivotal role he played as chief of the Delaware people, so I will not discuss it here.
[22] Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, “The Walking Purchase.”
[23] Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, “The Walking Purchase.”
[24] Butler, Three Great Delaware Leaders, 5.
[25] Wallace, Indians in Pennsylvania, 139.
[26] State of Pennsylvania, Minutes of Provincial Council, 734.
[27] Butler, Frontier History of Coshocton, 80.
With the information available about Netawatwees and the Lenape woman sometimes identified as Margaret Preisz, we can make some educated guesses about the claim that she was his daughter. Given the limited and potentially inaccurate details we have, though, it is difficult to reach any firm conclusions. Comparing the ages of the two individuals, we see that if Netawatwees was born in 1677, he would have been about 24 in 1701 when some say Margaret was born, which seems a reasonable age to have children. However, if he was born in 1686, he would have been only 15 in 1701.
The locations of known events provide more clues to the puzzle. The Price family farm is located in the area ceded by the Southern Unami in the 1718 document described above. If the story about the young Lenape woman’s family moving to Shamokin is true, then she was probably a Southern Unami, since some of them relocated to Shamokin around the time of her marriage, while the Northern Unami did not settle there until later. Netawatwees, on the other hand, “was likely a Northern Unami, based on his experience with the Walking Purchase,” according to Butler.[28] Additionally, if Netawatwees was the Nectotaylemet who signed the Walking Purchase document in 1737, he was apparently still living in eastern Pennsylvania at that point. If the young woman’s family traveled west to Shamokin before her marriage, this suggests that Netawatwees was not one of them.
It seems that the more information I discover, the more questions arise. I hope to continue this research, possibly tracing the various Preisz family stories back to their original sources to shed more light on the situation. Old Brethren records from historical libraries in Pennsylvania could prove useful as well. With the information I have been able to gather so far, though, I am only able to hypothesize about probable circumstances. While I cannot yet conclusively disprove a family connection between Netawatwees and the Lenape woman who married Johannes Preisz, the facts available show no suggestion that he was her father. Maybe the claim was simply based on the rumors that this woman was a princess and the fact that Netawatwees was sometimes described as the “king” of the Delaware people. The available information, though, does suggest that the two individuals were both from Unami communities and lived during the same time period on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, so a connection would not have been impossible.
[28] Butler, Frontier History of Coshocton, 505.
Even though it appears highly unlikely that Netawatwees was one of my ancestors, I would not be where I am now if it weren’t for him. Without his influence, the history of the Coshocton area would surely have unfolded differently. All of us living here, long-time residents and newcomers alike, continue to live a history shaped by the leadership and vision of Netawatwees, and the many missing pages in his life story will continue to provide a source of intrigue for future researchers. Every family tree has its mysteries, some of which are impossible to solve. Sometimes, though, it is those tantalizing mysteries that will inspire other curious individuals to dig into the vast world of historical records and discover some hidden treasure. Or maybe even better, more mysteries to explore.
Bibliography
Bowman, Bob. “The Story of Rev. Johannes Preiss and Indian Wife.” Accessed October 15, 2022. https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/33893048?p=29593969&returnLabel=Rev%20Johannes%20Preis%20%20%22%20Price%22%20(LDYX-1P3)&returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.familysearch.org%2Ftree%2Fperson%2Fmemories%2FLDYX-1P3.
Brumbaugh, Martin Grove. A History of the German Baptist Brethren in Europe and America. Mount Morris, Illinois: Brethren Publishing House, 1899. http://ellerfamilyassociation.com/books/brethren.pdf.
Butler, Scott E. Frontier History of Coshocton. Sugarcreek, Ohio: Carlisle Printing, 2020.
Butler, Scott E. Three Great Delaware Leaders of the Coshocton Frontier: Netawatwees – “Newcomer”, Koquethagechton – “White Eyes” and Gelelemend – “John Killbuck.” Katonah, New York: Katonah Publishing, 2015.
Heckewelder, John, and Peter S. Du Ponceau. “Names which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, who once inhabited this country, had given to Rivers, Streams, Places, &c. &c. within the now States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia: and also Names of Chieftains and distinguished Men of that Nation; with the Significations of those Names, and Biographical Sketches of some of those Men.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 4 (1834): 351-396. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1004837.
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. “The Walking Purchase – August 25, 1737.” Last modified August 26, 2015. http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/documents/1681-1776/walking-purchase.html.
Schutt, Amy C. People of the River Valleys: The Odyssey of the Delaware Indians. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
State of Pennsylvania. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, From the Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government, Vol. 5. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Theo. Fenn & Co., 1851.
Thomson, Charles. An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawanese Indians from the British Interest, and the Measures Taken for Recovering Their Friendship. London: J. Wilkie, 1759. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/public/gdcmassbookdig/journalofchristi00post/journalofchristi00post.pdf.
Wallace, Paul A.W. Indians in Pennsylvania. Second edition. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1993.
Wanger, George F.P. A Genealogy of The Descendants of Rev. Jacob Price, Evangelist – Pioneer. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Evangelical Press, 1926.
Weslager, C.A. The Delaware Indians: A History. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1972.
After losing their land, many Unami bands moved westward to central Pennsylvania. Both Southern and Northern Unami relocated to Shamokin (the community where the young Lenape woman’s family reportedly settled), with the southern groups arriving in the 1720s and the northern groups in the 1740s.[24] I have found no information about where Netawatwees lived during the period following the Walking Purchase, or if he ever resided in Shamokin. After the death of Sassoonan, an important Delaware chief, in Shamokin in 1747, Netawatwees became one of the higher-ranking chiefs. [25]
The earliest definitive identification of Netawatwees in historical records appears in 1754, when he signed an important message at a council meeting in Logstown, Pennsylvania.[26] He used the English name Newcomer then, likely because he was a later arrival among the Delaware in western Pennsylvania.[27] Much is written elsewhere about the later life of Netawatwees and the pivotal role he played as chief of the Delaware people, so I will not discuss it here.
[22] Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, “The Walking Purchase.”
[23] Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, “The Walking Purchase.”
[24] Butler, Three Great Delaware Leaders, 5.
[25] Wallace, Indians in Pennsylvania, 139.
[26] State of Pennsylvania, Minutes of Provincial Council, 734.
[27] Butler, Frontier History of Coshocton, 80.
With the information available about Netawatwees and the Lenape woman sometimes identified as Margaret Preisz, we can make some educated guesses about the claim that she was his daughter. Given the limited and potentially inaccurate details we have, though, it is difficult to reach any firm conclusions. Comparing the ages of the two individuals, we see that if Netawatwees was born in 1677, he would have been about 24 in 1701 when some say Margaret was born, which seems a reasonable age to have children. However, if he was born in 1686, he would have been only 15 in 1701.
The locations of known events provide more clues to the puzzle. The Price family farm is located in the area ceded by the Southern Unami in the 1718 document described above. If the story about the young Lenape woman’s family moving to Shamokin is true, then she was probably a Southern Unami, since some of them relocated to Shamokin around the time of her marriage, while the Northern Unami did not settle there until later. Netawatwees, on the other hand, “was likely a Northern Unami, based on his experience with the Walking Purchase,” according to Butler.[28] Additionally, if Netawatwees was the Nectotaylemet who signed the Walking Purchase document in 1737, he was apparently still living in eastern Pennsylvania at that point. If the young woman’s family traveled west to Shamokin before her marriage, this suggests that Netawatwees was not one of them.
It seems that the more information I discover, the more questions arise. I hope to continue this research, possibly tracing the various Preisz family stories back to their original sources to shed more light on the situation. Old Brethren records from historical libraries in Pennsylvania could prove useful as well. With the information I have been able to gather so far, though, I am only able to hypothesize about probable circumstances. While I cannot yet conclusively disprove a family connection between Netawatwees and the Lenape woman who married Johannes Preisz, the facts available show no suggestion that he was her father. Maybe the claim was simply based on the rumors that this woman was a princess and the fact that Netawatwees was sometimes described as the “king” of the Delaware people. The available information, though, does suggest that the two individuals were both from Unami communities and lived during the same time period on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, so a connection would not have been impossible.
[28] Butler, Frontier History of Coshocton, 505.
Even though it appears highly unlikely that Netawatwees was one of my ancestors, I would not be where I am now if it weren’t for him. Without his influence, the history of the Coshocton area would surely have unfolded differently. All of us living here, long-time residents and newcomers alike, continue to live a history shaped by the leadership and vision of Netawatwees, and the many missing pages in his life story will continue to provide a source of intrigue for future researchers. Every family tree has its mysteries, some of which are impossible to solve. Sometimes, though, it is those tantalizing mysteries that will inspire other curious individuals to dig into the vast world of historical records and discover some hidden treasure. Or maybe even better, more mysteries to explore.
Bibliography
Bowman, Bob. “The Story of Rev. Johannes Preiss and Indian Wife.” Accessed October 15, 2022. https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/33893048?p=29593969&returnLabel=Rev%20Johannes%20Preis%20%20%22%20Price%22%20(LDYX-1P3)&returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.familysearch.org%2Ftree%2Fperson%2Fmemories%2FLDYX-1P3.
Brumbaugh, Martin Grove. A History of the German Baptist Brethren in Europe and America. Mount Morris, Illinois: Brethren Publishing House, 1899. http://ellerfamilyassociation.com/books/brethren.pdf.
Butler, Scott E. Frontier History of Coshocton. Sugarcreek, Ohio: Carlisle Printing, 2020.
Butler, Scott E. Three Great Delaware Leaders of the Coshocton Frontier: Netawatwees – “Newcomer”, Koquethagechton – “White Eyes” and Gelelemend – “John Killbuck.” Katonah, New York: Katonah Publishing, 2015.
Heckewelder, John, and Peter S. Du Ponceau. “Names which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, who once inhabited this country, had given to Rivers, Streams, Places, &c. &c. within the now States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia: and also Names of Chieftains and distinguished Men of that Nation; with the Significations of those Names, and Biographical Sketches of some of those Men.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 4 (1834): 351-396. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1004837.
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. “The Walking Purchase – August 25, 1737.” Last modified August 26, 2015. http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/documents/1681-1776/walking-purchase.html.
Schutt, Amy C. People of the River Valleys: The Odyssey of the Delaware Indians. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
State of Pennsylvania. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, From the Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government, Vol. 5. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Theo. Fenn & Co., 1851.
Thomson, Charles. An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawanese Indians from the British Interest, and the Measures Taken for Recovering Their Friendship. London: J. Wilkie, 1759. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/public/gdcmassbookdig/journalofchristi00post/journalofchristi00post.pdf.
Wallace, Paul A.W. Indians in Pennsylvania. Second edition. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1993.
Wanger, George F.P. A Genealogy of The Descendants of Rev. Jacob Price, Evangelist – Pioneer. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Evangelical Press, 1926.
Weslager, C.A. The Delaware Indians: A History. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1972.
Megan Thomas: The House of the Merchant (2nd Place Winner)
If these walls could speak, oh, the tales they would tell, tales of the dead lying in wait for respects to be paid to them and tales of the living, breathing, and dreaming pioneer families who helped shape the landscapes and early communities of Coshocton County. Some tales seem too tall to believe. These are the tales of the old Marquand Place just outside of Conesville, Ohio.
Early pioneer homes like the Marquand home dot the landscape of towns and countrysides throughout the world, each with its own unique story. The old Marquand pioneer home stands just off township road 483C in Conesville, Ohio. This road was once a main thoroughfare between Coshocton and Adams Mills and ran directly beside the old Ohio and Erie Canal bed. The old Marquand home is a large, stately Italianate home. During the time of its construction, Italianate architecture was the most popular style for homes in America from the 1840s until after the Civil War (Bicknell, 2009). The exterior of the home is built of brick, not just a single layer, but of two bricks thick with a space in between. The tall, rounded windows and large decorative brackets known as corbels surrounding the eaves of the house give the home its Italianate distinction. It is evident that this home does not fit in among the surrounding houses. Those who pass by cannot help but wonder about its origin.
The old Marquand Place is known by the Thomas family who owns it as the house of the doctor, Dr. Marquand of Conesville. The Thomas family has raised several generations in the home. Many were born in the home; many died in the home. Many of the dead were laid out in the front room to receive their final respects.
Before the Thomas family owned the home, the home site was part of the Major William Robinson military land grant of 4,000 acres and the later site of the Marquand family homestead. In the center of the current Thomas farm stands a small, almost forgotten family cemetery, the final resting place of Major William Robinson and many of his family members. Major William Robinson was a Revolutionary War soldier, who was famous for his capture and release from the local Mingo Tribe in Wakatomika, the current-day site of Dresden, Ohio. Major William Robinson’s experience as a Mingo captive was recorded in Thomas Jefferson’s 1775 book, Notes on the State of Virginia, and in Theodore Roosevelt’s 1889 book, The Winning of the West, Volume 1.
In 1774, Major William Robinson was living at a fort in Clarksburg, Virginia. While Major Robinson and two other men were outside the fort gathering flax, the men were attacked by members of the Mingo tribe and the famous Chief John Logan. Chief John Logan was a peaceful Native American until his sister and other family members were massacred by a white man in the infamous Yellow Creek Massacre in the spring of 1774. Logan accused Colonel Michael Cresap, who was known for many Native American murders, of the massacre. It was later determined that the massacre was probably perpetrated by a man named Daniel Greathouse (Hurt, 1998).
During Logan’s attack on the Virginia fort where Major Robinson was stationed, the Mingos killed one man and took Major Robinson and another man captive. The Mingos brought Major Robinson and the other captive back to Ohio and marched them through the fertile land beside the current-day Conesville, Ohio. Major Robinson admired the lay of this land with the river running beside it. Robinson vowed to one day return to this land. The Mingos took their captives on to their village of Wakatomika.
Major Robinson and the other captive were forced to run the gauntlet, which was a race wherein the Native Americans tested the toughness of their captives. The Native Americans would force the captive to run between two facing lines of the Native Americans, with each side clubbing the captive with sticks or throwing stones at the captive. The Native Amercans would watch their captive’s behavior closely during this race to determine if the captor’s life was worth sparing.
Major Robinson survived the running of the gauntlet. The other captive did not make it completely through the gauntlet, and the Mingos began beating him. Robinson quickly pulled the man to safety. This captive was then adopted into a Mingo family. Throughout Robinson’s captivity, he was tied to a stake to be burned three different times. Each time, however, Chief John Logan debated with the other Mingos to allow Major Robinson to live. Major Robinson later recalled that Chief John Logan was the most powerful orator whom he had ever heard. The Native American council consented to Logan’s entreaties for Major Robinson, who was adopted by an old squaw.
While in captivity, Chief Logan asked Major Robinson to write a letter that Logan dictated to him. Logan later left this letter on the door of a house whose occupants Logan massacred in retaliation for the Yellow Creek Massacre. The letter said,
General Cresap:
What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white people killed my people at Conestoga, a great while ago, and I thought nothing of that. But you killed my kin on Yellow Creek and took my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill too, and I have been three times to war since, but the Indians are not angry, only myself.
July 21, 1774. Captain John Logan.
After four months in captivity, Major Robinson was released by the Mingos with the signing of the treaty that concluded Dunmore’s War, which was a conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo tribes. The treaty proclaimed that the Native Americans would relinquish their right to hunt in the colonists’ area, specifically Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the white man would agree that the Ohio River would be the boundary between the Native Americans and the Thirteen Colonies (Thwaites & Kellogg, 2012).
Logan became famous for his speech at the signing of this treaty in Circleville, Ohio. Afterwards, Logan’s lament was recited by many people. The speech was included in books, such as the McGuffey’s Readers for children and Noah Webster’s 1791 Little Reader’s Assistant. The white people were astonished that someone whom they considered a savage could be so eloquent. Logan’s speech is as follows:
I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan’s cabin hungry and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin as an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, ‘Logan is the friend of the white man.’
I had even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man. Captain Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relatives of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called in me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace, but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one. (Jefferson, 1889)
After the treaty was signed and Major Robinson was released, Robinson returned to Clarksburg, Virginia. In Clarksburg, Robinson served as the Mayor and the third Sheriff of Harrison County, Virginia, now West Virginia. In 1781, Robinson was honorably discharged from his duties in the military, due to bad health (Bahmer, 1909). In 1800, Major Robinson signed a deed for the beautiful Ohio land with the river running beside it, the same land he had admired twenty-six years earlier as a Mingo captive. Robinson took over the military land grant of William Edgar, Jr., of Middlesex County, New Jersey. The military land grant was for 4,000 acres of military land in Franklin Township, Coshocton County.
In 1801, Major Robinson settled on the land, along with many members of his family. The family opened a tavern, which, at the time, was the only stopping point between Coshocton and Zanesville. Major William Robinson died in 1815, but his descendants continued to live and farm on the land.
When the current owners of the land, the Thomas family, purchased the land more than one hundred years after Major Robinson’s death, some of the land still belonged to Robinson’s descendants. Charles Thomas purchased the land in 1926 from Ella Rowena (Robinson) McCabe, the granddaughter of Major William Robinson. Before Charles Thomas purchased the land, some of the Robinson land had been sold to the Marquand family. Charles Thomas purchased the land on which the Italianate home sits from James Marquand. The Marquands were one of the earliest pioneer families to the area. James Marquand was the grandson of the original Marquand immigrant and the father of Dr. Marquand of Conesville, Ohio.
The Marquands were the first pioneer family to settle in Monroe township in Muskingum county. Monroe is situated just across the county line from Coshocton. The Marquands came from the isle of Guernsey, the same isle of Guernsey from which James LeRetilley emigrated. James LeRetilley was the first merchant in Roscoe Village, Coshocton county. He established a dry goods store in a log cabin there. James LeRetilley later became one of the associate judges of Coshocton County (Hunt, 1876). The Le Marquands, like James LeRetilley, were French. The Marquand name originally meant “the merchant” in French. When the Marquands arrived in Ohio from the Isle of Guernsey, they spoke French fluently.
The Isle of Guernsey is a small island in the English Channel. The Marquands were a prominent family on the Isle of Guernsey and was known as both Le Marquand and Le Marchant. Their family held the position of bailiff of the isle of Guernsey from the fourteenth century through the 1800s. A street in St. Peter’s Port, isle of Guernsey, is named after them: Le Marchant Street. Both Le Marchant Library of Elizabeth College and Fort Le Marchant, L’Ancresse, are named after them (Berry, 2011). Despite their status on the isle of Guernsey, the Marquand family longed for more freedom and room to grow.
Charles Le Marquand, the great uncle of James Marquand, left the Isle of Guernsey first; the former boarded a ship at St. Peter’s Port on the Isle of Guernsey and began his long journey to America on a ship called the Eliza of Boston. Charles arrived in Norfolk, Virginia on June 3, 1806 (Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Musk. Co., 1892). Like many other immigrants, Charles Le Marquand’s last name was changed. The “Le” was dropped, and he became known as Charles Marquand. He made his way first to Georgetown, D.C., the original name for Washington, D.C. From Georgetown, D.C., Charles traveled by horse and wagon to the wild frontier land of Ohio. He first came to what is now Cambridge, Ohio in 1806. Charles, along with others from the isle of Guernsey, named the place Guernsey County as a tribute to their homeland (Hickman, 1999). Once Charles arrived in Cambridge, he sent for the rest of his family. His brother John Marquand and their wives and children arrived in 1810 (Wolfe, 1943). John Marquand was the grandfather of James Marquand and grandfather of Dr. Marquand of Conesville.
From Cambridge, Charles Marquand set out for Muskingum County and the wilds of Wills Creek, just over the county line from Coshocton. When Charles arrived in Monroe township of Muskingum County, no land had been cleared. Charles, along with his sons, cleared land of timber and built a salt mill, grist mill, saw mill, and a carding and fulling mill. They built a dam over Wills Creek to serve as the power source for the mills. Charles opened a general store in 1834 to serve the early pioneer families. In 1836-1837, Charles built a large two-story brick home, which, at that time, was the only brick home in Monroe Township. Charles emassed 625 acres and named the small town that developed around the mill, Marquand Mills. Marquand Mills is now extinct, but was located just off State Route 83 south where it crosses Wills Creek, before the small town of Otsego, Ohio. Charles Marquand, the original immigrant, lived a long life and died at ninety-three years old, in 1856. (Everhart & Graham, 1882).
Charles’ son, Solomon Marquand, worked at the mill, and in 1833, Solomon married Eliza Hanks, the daughter of Jeremiah and Catherine (Shively) Hanks. Eliza’s father, Jeremiah Hanks, was the great-great-great-great grandfather of the present resident of the Thomas farm, Trevor Thomas. Eliza (Hanks) Marquand was Trevor Thomas’ great-great-great-great aunt. As irony would have it, Solomon and Eliza (Hanks) Marquand were also the great-uncle and great-aunt of Dr. Marquand of the Marquand home, the same home that now stands upon the Thomas farm. Both the Marquands and the current Thomas family resident are related through this common ancestor.
Though Solomon and Eliza stayed to tend the mill, not all of the Marquand family stayed at Marquand Mills. Solomon’s uncle John Marquand, Charles Marquand’s brother, relocated across the county line to Coshocton County. It was John’s son Charles Marquand who purchased part of the Major William Robinson land, a total of 115 acres, more or less, for eleven hundred dollars in 1836. It is this land upon which the Marquand home sits.
Charles had a son in 1838 and named him James Scott Marquand. James continued to live on the Marquand family farm. James married Mary Cave from Adams Mills, a small mill town close to Conesville. Mary’s father was Pollard Cave, who owned a small grocery store in Adams Mills. The Cave’s neighbor wrote of the family in his diary. He wrote of the children’s births and deaths. He wrote of Pollard Cave’s mare dying after being attacked by wild cats and of Pollard killing thirty wild hogs. The land of Coshocton County looked much differently then, with wild animals abounding that are no longer present today, animals like wild cats and wild hogs.
James Scott Marquand lived in Conesville his entire life and made a good living. He had a store and was the postmaster of Conesville for a time. He bought and sold a lot of land in the area. James devoted his life to teaching and farming and built the large, imposing two story Italianate home. James invested in the town of Conesville, and in 1893, even conveyed part of his property to become a subdivision in Conesville and acknowledged that he would “dedicate the streets and alleys to the public use forever.” It is no accident that the main street running through Conesville, Ohio, is named Marquand Avenue.
One of James Scott Marquand’s ten children was Dr. Burt Allen Marquand, who was born in 1874 in the family home. At twenty-one years old, Burt began teaching and earned enough money to go to medical school at the Ohio State University in 1902. Burt became a doctor and began practicing medicine in Keene, Coshocton County, Ohio. Eventually, Dr. Marquand moved to Dover, Ohio, to practice medicine. In 1918, Dr. Marquand was commissioned as a surgeon in Petersburg, Virginia, during World War I. After the war, in 1919, Dr. Marquand returned to New Philadelphia, Ohio, and resumed his practice. Dr. Marquand married Bertha Carr of Warsaw, Ohio. After their death, Dr. Marquand and his wife were buried in Valley View Cemetery in Warsaw, Ohio (Galbreath, 1925). The Marquands left a legacy for the generations of people around Conesville to enjoy, in the form of a housing division and the old Italianate home now owned by the Thomas family.
If the walls of the old Marquand home could speak, they would tell of larger-than-life tales of pioneers who left far away islands to battle raging seas, to conquer new lands, to brave Native American tribes, to forge a wilderness in a land of wild cats and wild hogs with the hope of a better life for their family. The story of the home is not just a tale of the Robinsons, or the Marquands, or the Thomases; it is a tale of the American struggle for a dream, and the toughness that it took to achieve it. Each house has a tale, if one will but take the time to learn its wild and larger-than-life tales.
References
Bahmer, W., (1909). Centennial History of Coshocton County Ohio. The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company.
Berry, W., (2011). History of the island of Guernsey from the Remotest Period of Antiquity to the Year 1814. British Library Historical Print Editions.
Bicknell, A., (2009). Bicknell’s Victorian Buildings. Dover Publications.
Biographical and historical memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio: Embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the county and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy families and individuals (1892). Goodspeed Publishing Company.
Everhart, J. & Graham, A., (1882). HIstory of Muskingum County Ohio. F.J. Everhart and Company.
Galbreath, C., (1925). The History of Ohio. The American Historical Society, Inc.
Hickman, S., (1999, Spring). From Guernsey Channel Islands to Guernsey, Ohio. Review of the Guernsey Society.
Hunt, W., (1876). Historical Collections of Coshocton County Ohio. Robert Clarke and Company.Wolfe, W., (1943). Stories of Guernsey County. HIgginson Book Company.
Hurt, D., (1998). The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest. Indiana University Press.
Jefferson, T., (1889). The Winning of the West. (n.p.)
Thwaites, R., & Kellogg, L., (2012). Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, 1774. Ulan Press.
Early pioneer homes like the Marquand home dot the landscape of towns and countrysides throughout the world, each with its own unique story. The old Marquand pioneer home stands just off township road 483C in Conesville, Ohio. This road was once a main thoroughfare between Coshocton and Adams Mills and ran directly beside the old Ohio and Erie Canal bed. The old Marquand home is a large, stately Italianate home. During the time of its construction, Italianate architecture was the most popular style for homes in America from the 1840s until after the Civil War (Bicknell, 2009). The exterior of the home is built of brick, not just a single layer, but of two bricks thick with a space in between. The tall, rounded windows and large decorative brackets known as corbels surrounding the eaves of the house give the home its Italianate distinction. It is evident that this home does not fit in among the surrounding houses. Those who pass by cannot help but wonder about its origin.
The old Marquand Place is known by the Thomas family who owns it as the house of the doctor, Dr. Marquand of Conesville. The Thomas family has raised several generations in the home. Many were born in the home; many died in the home. Many of the dead were laid out in the front room to receive their final respects.
Before the Thomas family owned the home, the home site was part of the Major William Robinson military land grant of 4,000 acres and the later site of the Marquand family homestead. In the center of the current Thomas farm stands a small, almost forgotten family cemetery, the final resting place of Major William Robinson and many of his family members. Major William Robinson was a Revolutionary War soldier, who was famous for his capture and release from the local Mingo Tribe in Wakatomika, the current-day site of Dresden, Ohio. Major William Robinson’s experience as a Mingo captive was recorded in Thomas Jefferson’s 1775 book, Notes on the State of Virginia, and in Theodore Roosevelt’s 1889 book, The Winning of the West, Volume 1.
In 1774, Major William Robinson was living at a fort in Clarksburg, Virginia. While Major Robinson and two other men were outside the fort gathering flax, the men were attacked by members of the Mingo tribe and the famous Chief John Logan. Chief John Logan was a peaceful Native American until his sister and other family members were massacred by a white man in the infamous Yellow Creek Massacre in the spring of 1774. Logan accused Colonel Michael Cresap, who was known for many Native American murders, of the massacre. It was later determined that the massacre was probably perpetrated by a man named Daniel Greathouse (Hurt, 1998).
During Logan’s attack on the Virginia fort where Major Robinson was stationed, the Mingos killed one man and took Major Robinson and another man captive. The Mingos brought Major Robinson and the other captive back to Ohio and marched them through the fertile land beside the current-day Conesville, Ohio. Major Robinson admired the lay of this land with the river running beside it. Robinson vowed to one day return to this land. The Mingos took their captives on to their village of Wakatomika.
Major Robinson and the other captive were forced to run the gauntlet, which was a race wherein the Native Americans tested the toughness of their captives. The Native Americans would force the captive to run between two facing lines of the Native Americans, with each side clubbing the captive with sticks or throwing stones at the captive. The Native Amercans would watch their captive’s behavior closely during this race to determine if the captor’s life was worth sparing.
Major Robinson survived the running of the gauntlet. The other captive did not make it completely through the gauntlet, and the Mingos began beating him. Robinson quickly pulled the man to safety. This captive was then adopted into a Mingo family. Throughout Robinson’s captivity, he was tied to a stake to be burned three different times. Each time, however, Chief John Logan debated with the other Mingos to allow Major Robinson to live. Major Robinson later recalled that Chief John Logan was the most powerful orator whom he had ever heard. The Native American council consented to Logan’s entreaties for Major Robinson, who was adopted by an old squaw.
While in captivity, Chief Logan asked Major Robinson to write a letter that Logan dictated to him. Logan later left this letter on the door of a house whose occupants Logan massacred in retaliation for the Yellow Creek Massacre. The letter said,
General Cresap:
What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white people killed my people at Conestoga, a great while ago, and I thought nothing of that. But you killed my kin on Yellow Creek and took my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill too, and I have been three times to war since, but the Indians are not angry, only myself.
July 21, 1774. Captain John Logan.
After four months in captivity, Major Robinson was released by the Mingos with the signing of the treaty that concluded Dunmore’s War, which was a conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo tribes. The treaty proclaimed that the Native Americans would relinquish their right to hunt in the colonists’ area, specifically Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the white man would agree that the Ohio River would be the boundary between the Native Americans and the Thirteen Colonies (Thwaites & Kellogg, 2012).
Logan became famous for his speech at the signing of this treaty in Circleville, Ohio. Afterwards, Logan’s lament was recited by many people. The speech was included in books, such as the McGuffey’s Readers for children and Noah Webster’s 1791 Little Reader’s Assistant. The white people were astonished that someone whom they considered a savage could be so eloquent. Logan’s speech is as follows:
I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan’s cabin hungry and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin as an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, ‘Logan is the friend of the white man.’
I had even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man. Captain Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relatives of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called in me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace, but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one. (Jefferson, 1889)
After the treaty was signed and Major Robinson was released, Robinson returned to Clarksburg, Virginia. In Clarksburg, Robinson served as the Mayor and the third Sheriff of Harrison County, Virginia, now West Virginia. In 1781, Robinson was honorably discharged from his duties in the military, due to bad health (Bahmer, 1909). In 1800, Major Robinson signed a deed for the beautiful Ohio land with the river running beside it, the same land he had admired twenty-six years earlier as a Mingo captive. Robinson took over the military land grant of William Edgar, Jr., of Middlesex County, New Jersey. The military land grant was for 4,000 acres of military land in Franklin Township, Coshocton County.
In 1801, Major Robinson settled on the land, along with many members of his family. The family opened a tavern, which, at the time, was the only stopping point between Coshocton and Zanesville. Major William Robinson died in 1815, but his descendants continued to live and farm on the land.
When the current owners of the land, the Thomas family, purchased the land more than one hundred years after Major Robinson’s death, some of the land still belonged to Robinson’s descendants. Charles Thomas purchased the land in 1926 from Ella Rowena (Robinson) McCabe, the granddaughter of Major William Robinson. Before Charles Thomas purchased the land, some of the Robinson land had been sold to the Marquand family. Charles Thomas purchased the land on which the Italianate home sits from James Marquand. The Marquands were one of the earliest pioneer families to the area. James Marquand was the grandson of the original Marquand immigrant and the father of Dr. Marquand of Conesville, Ohio.
The Marquands were the first pioneer family to settle in Monroe township in Muskingum county. Monroe is situated just across the county line from Coshocton. The Marquands came from the isle of Guernsey, the same isle of Guernsey from which James LeRetilley emigrated. James LeRetilley was the first merchant in Roscoe Village, Coshocton county. He established a dry goods store in a log cabin there. James LeRetilley later became one of the associate judges of Coshocton County (Hunt, 1876). The Le Marquands, like James LeRetilley, were French. The Marquand name originally meant “the merchant” in French. When the Marquands arrived in Ohio from the Isle of Guernsey, they spoke French fluently.
The Isle of Guernsey is a small island in the English Channel. The Marquands were a prominent family on the Isle of Guernsey and was known as both Le Marquand and Le Marchant. Their family held the position of bailiff of the isle of Guernsey from the fourteenth century through the 1800s. A street in St. Peter’s Port, isle of Guernsey, is named after them: Le Marchant Street. Both Le Marchant Library of Elizabeth College and Fort Le Marchant, L’Ancresse, are named after them (Berry, 2011). Despite their status on the isle of Guernsey, the Marquand family longed for more freedom and room to grow.
Charles Le Marquand, the great uncle of James Marquand, left the Isle of Guernsey first; the former boarded a ship at St. Peter’s Port on the Isle of Guernsey and began his long journey to America on a ship called the Eliza of Boston. Charles arrived in Norfolk, Virginia on June 3, 1806 (Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Musk. Co., 1892). Like many other immigrants, Charles Le Marquand’s last name was changed. The “Le” was dropped, and he became known as Charles Marquand. He made his way first to Georgetown, D.C., the original name for Washington, D.C. From Georgetown, D.C., Charles traveled by horse and wagon to the wild frontier land of Ohio. He first came to what is now Cambridge, Ohio in 1806. Charles, along with others from the isle of Guernsey, named the place Guernsey County as a tribute to their homeland (Hickman, 1999). Once Charles arrived in Cambridge, he sent for the rest of his family. His brother John Marquand and their wives and children arrived in 1810 (Wolfe, 1943). John Marquand was the grandfather of James Marquand and grandfather of Dr. Marquand of Conesville.
From Cambridge, Charles Marquand set out for Muskingum County and the wilds of Wills Creek, just over the county line from Coshocton. When Charles arrived in Monroe township of Muskingum County, no land had been cleared. Charles, along with his sons, cleared land of timber and built a salt mill, grist mill, saw mill, and a carding and fulling mill. They built a dam over Wills Creek to serve as the power source for the mills. Charles opened a general store in 1834 to serve the early pioneer families. In 1836-1837, Charles built a large two-story brick home, which, at that time, was the only brick home in Monroe Township. Charles emassed 625 acres and named the small town that developed around the mill, Marquand Mills. Marquand Mills is now extinct, but was located just off State Route 83 south where it crosses Wills Creek, before the small town of Otsego, Ohio. Charles Marquand, the original immigrant, lived a long life and died at ninety-three years old, in 1856. (Everhart & Graham, 1882).
Charles’ son, Solomon Marquand, worked at the mill, and in 1833, Solomon married Eliza Hanks, the daughter of Jeremiah and Catherine (Shively) Hanks. Eliza’s father, Jeremiah Hanks, was the great-great-great-great grandfather of the present resident of the Thomas farm, Trevor Thomas. Eliza (Hanks) Marquand was Trevor Thomas’ great-great-great-great aunt. As irony would have it, Solomon and Eliza (Hanks) Marquand were also the great-uncle and great-aunt of Dr. Marquand of the Marquand home, the same home that now stands upon the Thomas farm. Both the Marquands and the current Thomas family resident are related through this common ancestor.
Though Solomon and Eliza stayed to tend the mill, not all of the Marquand family stayed at Marquand Mills. Solomon’s uncle John Marquand, Charles Marquand’s brother, relocated across the county line to Coshocton County. It was John’s son Charles Marquand who purchased part of the Major William Robinson land, a total of 115 acres, more or less, for eleven hundred dollars in 1836. It is this land upon which the Marquand home sits.
Charles had a son in 1838 and named him James Scott Marquand. James continued to live on the Marquand family farm. James married Mary Cave from Adams Mills, a small mill town close to Conesville. Mary’s father was Pollard Cave, who owned a small grocery store in Adams Mills. The Cave’s neighbor wrote of the family in his diary. He wrote of the children’s births and deaths. He wrote of Pollard Cave’s mare dying after being attacked by wild cats and of Pollard killing thirty wild hogs. The land of Coshocton County looked much differently then, with wild animals abounding that are no longer present today, animals like wild cats and wild hogs.
James Scott Marquand lived in Conesville his entire life and made a good living. He had a store and was the postmaster of Conesville for a time. He bought and sold a lot of land in the area. James devoted his life to teaching and farming and built the large, imposing two story Italianate home. James invested in the town of Conesville, and in 1893, even conveyed part of his property to become a subdivision in Conesville and acknowledged that he would “dedicate the streets and alleys to the public use forever.” It is no accident that the main street running through Conesville, Ohio, is named Marquand Avenue.
One of James Scott Marquand’s ten children was Dr. Burt Allen Marquand, who was born in 1874 in the family home. At twenty-one years old, Burt began teaching and earned enough money to go to medical school at the Ohio State University in 1902. Burt became a doctor and began practicing medicine in Keene, Coshocton County, Ohio. Eventually, Dr. Marquand moved to Dover, Ohio, to practice medicine. In 1918, Dr. Marquand was commissioned as a surgeon in Petersburg, Virginia, during World War I. After the war, in 1919, Dr. Marquand returned to New Philadelphia, Ohio, and resumed his practice. Dr. Marquand married Bertha Carr of Warsaw, Ohio. After their death, Dr. Marquand and his wife were buried in Valley View Cemetery in Warsaw, Ohio (Galbreath, 1925). The Marquands left a legacy for the generations of people around Conesville to enjoy, in the form of a housing division and the old Italianate home now owned by the Thomas family.
If the walls of the old Marquand home could speak, they would tell of larger-than-life tales of pioneers who left far away islands to battle raging seas, to conquer new lands, to brave Native American tribes, to forge a wilderness in a land of wild cats and wild hogs with the hope of a better life for their family. The story of the home is not just a tale of the Robinsons, or the Marquands, or the Thomases; it is a tale of the American struggle for a dream, and the toughness that it took to achieve it. Each house has a tale, if one will but take the time to learn its wild and larger-than-life tales.
References
Bahmer, W., (1909). Centennial History of Coshocton County Ohio. The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company.
Berry, W., (2011). History of the island of Guernsey from the Remotest Period of Antiquity to the Year 1814. British Library Historical Print Editions.
Bicknell, A., (2009). Bicknell’s Victorian Buildings. Dover Publications.
Biographical and historical memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio: Embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the county and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy families and individuals (1892). Goodspeed Publishing Company.
Everhart, J. & Graham, A., (1882). HIstory of Muskingum County Ohio. F.J. Everhart and Company.
Galbreath, C., (1925). The History of Ohio. The American Historical Society, Inc.
Hickman, S., (1999, Spring). From Guernsey Channel Islands to Guernsey, Ohio. Review of the Guernsey Society.
Hunt, W., (1876). Historical Collections of Coshocton County Ohio. Robert Clarke and Company.Wolfe, W., (1943). Stories of Guernsey County. HIgginson Book Company.
Hurt, D., (1998). The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest. Indiana University Press.
Jefferson, T., (1889). The Winning of the West. (n.p.)
Thwaites, R., & Kellogg, L., (2012). Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, 1774. Ulan Press.
Larry K. Stahl: Coshocton County's Only Revolutionary War Casualty (2nd Place Winner)
That the area that later became Coshocton County played an important part in the War for Freedom from England, in what is commonly known as the Revolutionary War, cannot be denied. There is much documentation from the area thanks to the Delaware Nation of Native Americans capital Goschachgunk, now known as Coshocton, being located at the forks of the Muskingum and the Moravian Mission town of Lichtenau being located about two miles below the aforementioned Delaware town. Unfortunately, much of it has not been easily available to read until recently.
Probably the greatest source of local history is the diaries kept by the Moravian Missionaries. These were written in German and kept at the Moravian Archives in Nazareth. These were finally translated into English and published in 2005. It is from Moravian Diaries written at Lichtenau in 1778 we have the full story of John Nash, Revolutionary Soldier who lost his life in a skirmish near Goschachgunk and lies in an unknown grave within our current county borders.
Lichtenau was the third Moravian Mission town established in the Tuscarawas and Muskingum River Valleys. The first was Schoenbrunn, then Gnadenhutten. The powerful and respected old Delaware Chief Netawatwees had requested the Moravian Missionary David Zeisberger to establish a town near his residence in the Delaware Nation’s capital of Goschachgunk. Zeisberger and a group of his Christian Indians accepted the invitation and the town of Lichtenau, which means “Pastures of Light” was founded in April of 1776.
For a while all was good. The town flourished and grew. Zeisberger was respected by most of the Delaware Nation and he was adding to his congregation of followers. We can speculate today how this may have turned out had it not been for several unfortunate incidents that would eventually doom Lichtenau and eventually end the Moravian villages.
Three months after the founding of Lichtenau, the American Colonies declared war on England. England still had a strong presence on the Western frontier, especially in what became Canada. The British took every opportunity they could to work with the different Native Tribes to get them to side with them and attack the Colonists. Several of the Indian Nations did indeed align themselves with the British, the Wyandots being one of them that would have a large impact in the future of the Moravian Mission towns and the Delaware Nation.
The next adverse event was the death on August 31, 1776 of Netawatwees. His successor, Gelelemend, was in favor of the Moravian Mission towns but he was not as strong a Chief as Netawatwees was. The Delaware Chief known as White Eyes was also a powerful Chief and he also was in favor of the Moravian Missionaries cause and peace. He later aligned with the American Colonists against the British. The Delaware Chief known as Captain Pipe, also had a following. Captain Pipe, though friendly towards the Moravians, was not in favor of the American Colonists and aligned his allegiance with the British cause.
The Moravians kept a neutral stance. They did not side with either the British or the Colonists and did everything they could to keep the Delaware Nation also neutral. The Moravians would feed and shelter anyone passing through their town. Because of this, they were looked upon by both sides as suspicious, but were allowed to live in the area and continue as they had been living.
The Wyandots made several efforts to get the Delaware Nation to join them with the British to fight the Colonists. At this time, the Delaware Nation remained neutral through the efforts of White Eyes and Gelelemend. The Chief of the Wyandots, known as Half-King was headquartered at Sandusky. He had warned the Delaware Nation not to aid or communicate with the American Colonists. He had sent a correspondence by messenger that if they did aid or “if I see you there, I will consider you as a Virginian, and kill you the same as I will kill the Virginians.” This correspondence is found in Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio, 1778-1779, which was published in 1916 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Collections 23, Draper Series 4.
The Revolutionary War continued through 1777 and on into 1778. All the major battles were in the actual Colonies, but skirmishes did occur on the Western frontier. By the middle of 1778 the American Colonists had several battle victories. The British were becoming more desperate to end the war and secure a victory. As such they increased their efforts to engage the Indian Nations to attack the Colonists. As war parties were increasingly passing through the Mission towns on their way to battle, the Moravians felt that their towns were in danger and the residents at risk. Since the Delaware capital was still at Goschachgunk and they were still maintaining neutrality, Zeisberger felt it best to abandon the towns of Schoenbrunn and Gnadenhutten and move all residents to Lichtenau. This gave them a relative security as they were within two miles of the Delaware capital and the Mission population according to the Moravian records was 328 after all were moved there giving a stronger presence in one place.
The next adverse event was in the fall of 1778 when the powerful Chief and peace advocate White Eyes died. White Eyes had actually shortly before his death joined the Colonists in their opposition of the British. Some say White Eyes was murdered, others say he died of smallpox. Either way his death was a major blow to the Moravian Missionaries and their town. Without his presence, Gelelemend was not a powerful Chief and Captain Pipe gained more influence and continued try and influence the Delaware Nation to join the Wyandot and British and oppose the Colonists.
On June 11, 1778 the Continental Congress Authorized an expedition against the British at Detroit. General George Washington appointed General Lachlan McIntosh to be the commander. There were many delays getting organized and the force did not set out until October 23. After reaching within 20 miles of Pittsburgh, they built Fort McIntosh and gathered supplies for the expedition. More delays occurred while trying to obtain provisions and the march to Detroit did not start until November 4, 1778.
General McIntosh had about 1,200 men of which 900 to 1000 were actually militia. The militia were mainly the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment and the Thirteenth Virginia. There were also some French officers and about 40 North Carolina Dragoons. By the time the force reached the Tuscarawas River near the present village of Bolivar they were so short of provisions it was decided to go no farther. This being November, it was decided to build a fort, which was named Fort Laurens in honor to the President of the Continental Congress, Henry Laurens. The weather turning bad, General McIntosh gave up attacking the British and Indians and marched back to Fort McIntosh in six inches of snow on December 9, 1778. He left behind 150 men to guard the Fort.
For the 150 men left behind, they found themselves in terrible circumstances. It was a bitter winter and they had few supplies. They were attacked multiple times by the British and the Indians. One group heading back to Fort McIntosh were surprised and killed and a mailbag containing letters from Zeisberger telling of British and Indian intentions was found, proving that the Missionaries were in fact helping the American Colonists. Another group of sixteen men were surprised and killed within sight of the fort.
By January of 1779 the men were so starving and desperate that Quartermaster Samuel Samples took 7 men and proceeded to Goschachgunk and Lichtenau to try and get supplies from the friendly Delaware and the Moravians. On January 23 they arrived at Goschachgunk and were immediately fired upon by hostile Indians. John Nash, one of the soldiers was struck and killed, the other seven men made it to the safety of the Delaware village. John Nash was a member of the 13’th Virginia Regiment. The hostile Indians scalped the body of John Nash, according to a letter dated February 13, 1779 from Colonel John Gibson to General Lachlan McIntosh. This put the Delaware in a precautious position. They wanted to help and protect the militia men, but in doing so they were harboring the enemy of the British and Wyandot.
The next day, January 24, the remaining seven militia were still at Goschachgunk. As rumors of 60 warriors were ready to cross the river and kill the white people, 10 of the Brethren from Lichtenau kept watch on the town. On the 25’th the rumor of warriors persisted so the seven militia members were removed to Lichtenau at night. Now the Missionaries were in danger and fearful that if the warriors attacked, they too may be killed.
Discussions were held on what to do. The commander at Fort Laurens wrote that if the Moravians thought it best, they could all remove to the fort. Zeisberger did not agree to this, as he knew that war always followed the forts. Zeisberger was always strongly against having a fort near a Mission town as he knew that it would be attacked and put the Mission and the occupants at risk.
On the night of January 27’th two suspicious warriors with rifles and spears were spotted near the towns. Word was sent to Goschachgunk to keep a good watch over the white people there. The suspicious warriors were chased away and the next morning, January 28, 1779 they were brought into town and questioned. They promised to do no harm to the white people and were let go. The next day, the 29’th, two of the white people, part of the militia who have been there now six days, were going from Goschachgunk to Lichtenau when they were fired upon by the two warriors. One of the militia men, Peter Parchment of the 13th Virginia Regiment was struck in the arm, breaking it and the bullet proceeded into and lodged in his chest, severely wounding him. Moravian convert Israel was on the road not far behind and yelled at the warriors who ran away and escaped.
The Quartermaster, Mr. Samples had written to the Commandant of Fort Laurens to send soldiers to pick up his people and himself and take them back to Fort Laurens. The Commandant informed him that he could not send any men. It was then decided that the converts at Lichtenau would send ten men and the Delaware at Goschachgunk would send ten men and escort the men back to the fort. This was done on January 30, 1779. The injured Peter Parchment was taken by water (Tuscarawas River) back to Fort Laurens.
The native Indians who escorted the soldiers back did so at a great risk to themselves. If they were caught, they could have all been killed as well as the white people. They knew they had to get them out of the towns as eventually warriors would come for them and knew they would get no help from the soldiers at Fort Laurens.
From the written records there is no doubt that John Nash died in the service of his country. It can be certain he was buried here as the remaining soldiers were here for seven days after his murder and it would not have been prudent with the danger of returning to Fort Laurens to take his body back. His place of burial is not mentioned in any of the records, so it is unknown.
In N. N. Hill, Jr.’s 1881 Coshocton County History on page 604 when describing an old burial ground of unknown origin, mention is made “in one of them was a skeleton with pieces of oak boards and iron wrought nails. The corpse had evidently been dismembered before burial as the skull was found among the bones of the pelvis, and other bones were displaced. The skull itself was triangular in shape, much flattened at the sides and back, and in the posterior part having an orifice, evidently made by some weapon of war, or a bullet.” Perhaps this was the body of John Nash as the excavation was made about fifty-five years after his murder. As this cemetery was destroyed and plowed over, we will never know for sure. It is my hope this narrative will get John Nash a marker and Veterans Flag so that his story, his service and his sacrifice is never forgotten.
As the Delaware at Goschachgunk began favoring the British and Wyandot against the Colonists, the location of Lichtenau became a liability instead of an asset. As the Mission was deemed in danger, it was abandoned in April of 1780. The Missionaries and their converts moved to a new town located between the present villages of Newcomerstown and Port Washington that they called Salem. It was here that in 1781 the Wyandot captured the Missionaries and converts and moved them to the Sandusky region. Later a group of the Christian Indians came back to Gnadenhutten and Salem to gather corn. They were captured and massacred by a group of Pennsylvania militia under Colonel Williamson. Among those killed was Israel, the convert who saved Peter Parchment’s life and, in all likelihood, most if not all of the ones who saved the remaining soldiers lives and returned them to Fort Laurens.
After the Christian Indians and Missionaries left Lichtenau, it was inhabited by the Delaware siding with the British. In April of 1781 a militia headed by Colonel Daniel Brodhead surrounded the villages of Lichtenau and Goschachgunk and captured the residents. Fifteen warriors were executed, and the rest taken prisoner. Brodhead burnt both towns, completely destroying all remaining structures.
The soldiers remaining at Fort Laurens did defend the fort and were not defeated by the British and Wyandot. The fort was eventually abandoned August 2, 1779. Today a nice memorial and museum tells it’s story.
To the best of my knowledge this is the first time the story of John Nash has been shared to the general public and it is my hope that as previously mentioned a suitable marker can be erected in his memory.
Bibliography and source material:
Kellogg, Louise P., ed. Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio, 1778-1779. Publications of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, Collections 23, Draper Series 4. Madison, Wisconsin 1916. Pages 224 to 226
Hill, N. N. Jr., History of Coshocton County, Ohio: It’s Past and Present, 1740 – 1881. A. A. Graham & Co. Publisher. Newark, Ohio 1881. Page 604
Wellenreuther, Herman and Weber, Julie Tomberlin, The Moravian Mission Diaries of David Zeisberger 1772 – 1781. The Pennsylvania State University Press. University Park, Pennsylvania. 2005. Pages 491 to 492.
Probably the greatest source of local history is the diaries kept by the Moravian Missionaries. These were written in German and kept at the Moravian Archives in Nazareth. These were finally translated into English and published in 2005. It is from Moravian Diaries written at Lichtenau in 1778 we have the full story of John Nash, Revolutionary Soldier who lost his life in a skirmish near Goschachgunk and lies in an unknown grave within our current county borders.
Lichtenau was the third Moravian Mission town established in the Tuscarawas and Muskingum River Valleys. The first was Schoenbrunn, then Gnadenhutten. The powerful and respected old Delaware Chief Netawatwees had requested the Moravian Missionary David Zeisberger to establish a town near his residence in the Delaware Nation’s capital of Goschachgunk. Zeisberger and a group of his Christian Indians accepted the invitation and the town of Lichtenau, which means “Pastures of Light” was founded in April of 1776.
For a while all was good. The town flourished and grew. Zeisberger was respected by most of the Delaware Nation and he was adding to his congregation of followers. We can speculate today how this may have turned out had it not been for several unfortunate incidents that would eventually doom Lichtenau and eventually end the Moravian villages.
Three months after the founding of Lichtenau, the American Colonies declared war on England. England still had a strong presence on the Western frontier, especially in what became Canada. The British took every opportunity they could to work with the different Native Tribes to get them to side with them and attack the Colonists. Several of the Indian Nations did indeed align themselves with the British, the Wyandots being one of them that would have a large impact in the future of the Moravian Mission towns and the Delaware Nation.
The next adverse event was the death on August 31, 1776 of Netawatwees. His successor, Gelelemend, was in favor of the Moravian Mission towns but he was not as strong a Chief as Netawatwees was. The Delaware Chief known as White Eyes was also a powerful Chief and he also was in favor of the Moravian Missionaries cause and peace. He later aligned with the American Colonists against the British. The Delaware Chief known as Captain Pipe, also had a following. Captain Pipe, though friendly towards the Moravians, was not in favor of the American Colonists and aligned his allegiance with the British cause.
The Moravians kept a neutral stance. They did not side with either the British or the Colonists and did everything they could to keep the Delaware Nation also neutral. The Moravians would feed and shelter anyone passing through their town. Because of this, they were looked upon by both sides as suspicious, but were allowed to live in the area and continue as they had been living.
The Wyandots made several efforts to get the Delaware Nation to join them with the British to fight the Colonists. At this time, the Delaware Nation remained neutral through the efforts of White Eyes and Gelelemend. The Chief of the Wyandots, known as Half-King was headquartered at Sandusky. He had warned the Delaware Nation not to aid or communicate with the American Colonists. He had sent a correspondence by messenger that if they did aid or “if I see you there, I will consider you as a Virginian, and kill you the same as I will kill the Virginians.” This correspondence is found in Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio, 1778-1779, which was published in 1916 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Collections 23, Draper Series 4.
The Revolutionary War continued through 1777 and on into 1778. All the major battles were in the actual Colonies, but skirmishes did occur on the Western frontier. By the middle of 1778 the American Colonists had several battle victories. The British were becoming more desperate to end the war and secure a victory. As such they increased their efforts to engage the Indian Nations to attack the Colonists. As war parties were increasingly passing through the Mission towns on their way to battle, the Moravians felt that their towns were in danger and the residents at risk. Since the Delaware capital was still at Goschachgunk and they were still maintaining neutrality, Zeisberger felt it best to abandon the towns of Schoenbrunn and Gnadenhutten and move all residents to Lichtenau. This gave them a relative security as they were within two miles of the Delaware capital and the Mission population according to the Moravian records was 328 after all were moved there giving a stronger presence in one place.
The next adverse event was in the fall of 1778 when the powerful Chief and peace advocate White Eyes died. White Eyes had actually shortly before his death joined the Colonists in their opposition of the British. Some say White Eyes was murdered, others say he died of smallpox. Either way his death was a major blow to the Moravian Missionaries and their town. Without his presence, Gelelemend was not a powerful Chief and Captain Pipe gained more influence and continued try and influence the Delaware Nation to join the Wyandot and British and oppose the Colonists.
On June 11, 1778 the Continental Congress Authorized an expedition against the British at Detroit. General George Washington appointed General Lachlan McIntosh to be the commander. There were many delays getting organized and the force did not set out until October 23. After reaching within 20 miles of Pittsburgh, they built Fort McIntosh and gathered supplies for the expedition. More delays occurred while trying to obtain provisions and the march to Detroit did not start until November 4, 1778.
General McIntosh had about 1,200 men of which 900 to 1000 were actually militia. The militia were mainly the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment and the Thirteenth Virginia. There were also some French officers and about 40 North Carolina Dragoons. By the time the force reached the Tuscarawas River near the present village of Bolivar they were so short of provisions it was decided to go no farther. This being November, it was decided to build a fort, which was named Fort Laurens in honor to the President of the Continental Congress, Henry Laurens. The weather turning bad, General McIntosh gave up attacking the British and Indians and marched back to Fort McIntosh in six inches of snow on December 9, 1778. He left behind 150 men to guard the Fort.
For the 150 men left behind, they found themselves in terrible circumstances. It was a bitter winter and they had few supplies. They were attacked multiple times by the British and the Indians. One group heading back to Fort McIntosh were surprised and killed and a mailbag containing letters from Zeisberger telling of British and Indian intentions was found, proving that the Missionaries were in fact helping the American Colonists. Another group of sixteen men were surprised and killed within sight of the fort.
By January of 1779 the men were so starving and desperate that Quartermaster Samuel Samples took 7 men and proceeded to Goschachgunk and Lichtenau to try and get supplies from the friendly Delaware and the Moravians. On January 23 they arrived at Goschachgunk and were immediately fired upon by hostile Indians. John Nash, one of the soldiers was struck and killed, the other seven men made it to the safety of the Delaware village. John Nash was a member of the 13’th Virginia Regiment. The hostile Indians scalped the body of John Nash, according to a letter dated February 13, 1779 from Colonel John Gibson to General Lachlan McIntosh. This put the Delaware in a precautious position. They wanted to help and protect the militia men, but in doing so they were harboring the enemy of the British and Wyandot.
The next day, January 24, the remaining seven militia were still at Goschachgunk. As rumors of 60 warriors were ready to cross the river and kill the white people, 10 of the Brethren from Lichtenau kept watch on the town. On the 25’th the rumor of warriors persisted so the seven militia members were removed to Lichtenau at night. Now the Missionaries were in danger and fearful that if the warriors attacked, they too may be killed.
Discussions were held on what to do. The commander at Fort Laurens wrote that if the Moravians thought it best, they could all remove to the fort. Zeisberger did not agree to this, as he knew that war always followed the forts. Zeisberger was always strongly against having a fort near a Mission town as he knew that it would be attacked and put the Mission and the occupants at risk.
On the night of January 27’th two suspicious warriors with rifles and spears were spotted near the towns. Word was sent to Goschachgunk to keep a good watch over the white people there. The suspicious warriors were chased away and the next morning, January 28, 1779 they were brought into town and questioned. They promised to do no harm to the white people and were let go. The next day, the 29’th, two of the white people, part of the militia who have been there now six days, were going from Goschachgunk to Lichtenau when they were fired upon by the two warriors. One of the militia men, Peter Parchment of the 13th Virginia Regiment was struck in the arm, breaking it and the bullet proceeded into and lodged in his chest, severely wounding him. Moravian convert Israel was on the road not far behind and yelled at the warriors who ran away and escaped.
The Quartermaster, Mr. Samples had written to the Commandant of Fort Laurens to send soldiers to pick up his people and himself and take them back to Fort Laurens. The Commandant informed him that he could not send any men. It was then decided that the converts at Lichtenau would send ten men and the Delaware at Goschachgunk would send ten men and escort the men back to the fort. This was done on January 30, 1779. The injured Peter Parchment was taken by water (Tuscarawas River) back to Fort Laurens.
The native Indians who escorted the soldiers back did so at a great risk to themselves. If they were caught, they could have all been killed as well as the white people. They knew they had to get them out of the towns as eventually warriors would come for them and knew they would get no help from the soldiers at Fort Laurens.
From the written records there is no doubt that John Nash died in the service of his country. It can be certain he was buried here as the remaining soldiers were here for seven days after his murder and it would not have been prudent with the danger of returning to Fort Laurens to take his body back. His place of burial is not mentioned in any of the records, so it is unknown.
In N. N. Hill, Jr.’s 1881 Coshocton County History on page 604 when describing an old burial ground of unknown origin, mention is made “in one of them was a skeleton with pieces of oak boards and iron wrought nails. The corpse had evidently been dismembered before burial as the skull was found among the bones of the pelvis, and other bones were displaced. The skull itself was triangular in shape, much flattened at the sides and back, and in the posterior part having an orifice, evidently made by some weapon of war, or a bullet.” Perhaps this was the body of John Nash as the excavation was made about fifty-five years after his murder. As this cemetery was destroyed and plowed over, we will never know for sure. It is my hope this narrative will get John Nash a marker and Veterans Flag so that his story, his service and his sacrifice is never forgotten.
As the Delaware at Goschachgunk began favoring the British and Wyandot against the Colonists, the location of Lichtenau became a liability instead of an asset. As the Mission was deemed in danger, it was abandoned in April of 1780. The Missionaries and their converts moved to a new town located between the present villages of Newcomerstown and Port Washington that they called Salem. It was here that in 1781 the Wyandot captured the Missionaries and converts and moved them to the Sandusky region. Later a group of the Christian Indians came back to Gnadenhutten and Salem to gather corn. They were captured and massacred by a group of Pennsylvania militia under Colonel Williamson. Among those killed was Israel, the convert who saved Peter Parchment’s life and, in all likelihood, most if not all of the ones who saved the remaining soldiers lives and returned them to Fort Laurens.
After the Christian Indians and Missionaries left Lichtenau, it was inhabited by the Delaware siding with the British. In April of 1781 a militia headed by Colonel Daniel Brodhead surrounded the villages of Lichtenau and Goschachgunk and captured the residents. Fifteen warriors were executed, and the rest taken prisoner. Brodhead burnt both towns, completely destroying all remaining structures.
The soldiers remaining at Fort Laurens did defend the fort and were not defeated by the British and Wyandot. The fort was eventually abandoned August 2, 1779. Today a nice memorial and museum tells it’s story.
To the best of my knowledge this is the first time the story of John Nash has been shared to the general public and it is my hope that as previously mentioned a suitable marker can be erected in his memory.
Bibliography and source material:
Kellogg, Louise P., ed. Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio, 1778-1779. Publications of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, Collections 23, Draper Series 4. Madison, Wisconsin 1916. Pages 224 to 226
Hill, N. N. Jr., History of Coshocton County, Ohio: It’s Past and Present, 1740 – 1881. A. A. Graham & Co. Publisher. Newark, Ohio 1881. Page 604
Wellenreuther, Herman and Weber, Julie Tomberlin, The Moravian Mission Diaries of David Zeisberger 1772 – 1781. The Pennsylvania State University Press. University Park, Pennsylvania. 2005. Pages 491 to 492.
Tom Edwards: Coal and Coshocton (Honorable Mention Winner)
December 19, 2021 a wake occurred in Conesville, Ohio. The AEP Coal fired electric generating plant conducted an implosion of three smokestacks, thereby ending the Coal era in Coshocton County. As thousands watched from a safe distance; they reminisced about the good paying jobs as green energy took its toll on the local economy.
For over fifty years AEP had used Coshocton County’s abundant natural resources to service the electrical grid and their eleven million customers. Many family coal mines had fed the Conesville plant and one behemoth conglomerate, Peabody Coal. Peabody brought in miners from West Virginia and Kentucky to work with local farmers who wanted to supplement their farm income. Until Federal Reclamation Legislation was passed, Coal companies were not good stewards of the land. High walls, outcroppings, strip ponds and orange-colored creeks doted the countryside. John Denver’s lyrics in his 1971 song “Paradise” said it all:[1]
“And the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away”.
Reclamation funds to correct past coal land sins, are slow to make a difference. Peabody gave thousands of acres of mined land to the State of Ohio for the establishment of Woodbury Wildlife Area. The deer population grew and put Coshocton on the Whitetail Deer Hunters map as having the largest gun season harvest year in and year out. However, the land will never be developed into a industrial or residential site, and the land does not add to the tax base for the local school districts.
Coal fueled the Industrial Revolution that started around 1760 in England. The making of Cast Iron was a major factor in the changes to manufacturing. The process began in a bloomery furnace with Welsh Anthracite Coal. The ore, coal and cast-iron ingots moved around by a system of canals. The bloomery Hopewell Furnace in 1770 Pennsylvania was our country’s first and they used the abundant wood from surrounding forest to make the charcoal to fuel the furnace. Hopewell experimented with anthracite coal, but the cost to haul the coal in from the east was just too expensive. Hopewell closed in 1883 because of newer furnaces on the Schuylkill River used the railroads to haul in anthracite coal from nearby mines to make the cast iron cheaper. George Washington chose Harper’s Ferry, WV as the site for the nation’s second Armory and Arsenal because of the nearby bloomery iron furnace, also using charcoal. The Arsenal switched to coal in 1845.
Coal and Canals were instrumental to the growth of Coshocton in the 19th century. Welsh coal miners settled in the Ohio Valley to work the coal. One such family settled in Coshocton. William Green a first-generation Welshman, rose to become the President of the newly formed Coal Miners Union and later he was elected to the Ohio Senate. As a Democrat in the Ohio Senate, he worked with Buckeye Casting Company’s owner Prescott Bush (a Republican with lineage to the two Bush U. S. Presidents) to legislate one of our country’s first Workers Compensation laws. The Roosevelt’s New Deal administration tapped William Green to lead in the legislation for the National Labor Relations laws with the help of New York’s Republican Governor LaGuardia. William was elected the first President of the new AFLCIO (American Federation Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization). The tallest building in Columbus, Ohio is named the William Green building. William Green was eventually ousted because of his views that union workers should share in the company’s profits and have a seat on the company’s board of directors. That did not set well with the United Auto Workers. Interesting that worker participation is what Toyota and Honda believe in. Looking at the parking lot of any church or business in Coshocton and count the number of Japanese cars; William Green must have been correct.
The earliest recorded commercial coal mine in Coshocton was in 1833 upon Hardscrabble Hill.[2] People were clearing trees to make more farmland and the plentiful firewood heated homes and shops and powered the stills to make whiskey. Coal did not catch on to heat homes, because the coal stoves of the time allow a lot of soot to go up the chimney and on to the neighbors’ yards. Once Benjamin Franklin type cast iron coal stoves’ efficiency evolved, people burned coal. Once Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton’s whiskey excise tax was repelled, small distilleries opened for business. Coal and its higher heat replaced the laborious task of cutting and splitting firewood on the farm to make their whiskey. More whiskey could be distilled cheaper with the higher heat of coal. Burning coal in turn allowed more free time for men to drink store bought Whiskey in local taverns. That in turn brought about the founding of the Anti-Saloon League in Oberlin, OH 1893 (today their League’s Museum is in Westerville, OH). The Frontier Women could take only so much from drunk husbands, the women started marching for Prohibition.
With the signing of treaties of Paris which ended the British and French wars with the Indians around 1763 and 1774 and following the conclusion of Lord Dunmore War; the late 1700’s saw a lot of land in Coshocton being awarded to Revolutionary War Soldiers and others. Families moved to Ohio without fear of being attacked by Indians. Immigration to the new American Frontier was given romantic impressions by the “Letters from the American Farmer” in the 1780’s as compiled by the Frenchman St. John de Crevecoeur and read throughout Europe. [3]One letter was about a fellow from Great Britain who settled in the American Frontier, married a Dutch Woman. They had a son who married a French woman and they had four sons and their wives were from four different countries. His goal was to own his land, accumulate some wealth and pass on to his sons. He was not beholding to a King or a Prince and the laws in the Frontier were few, but fair. The American Dream. That letter describes what we today call American as a Melting Pot. That term “Melting Pot” became popular based on a play in 1908 by the same name written about a Russian Jewish family that immigrated and assimilated into the American Culture.
Beginning in 1835 Alexis de Tocqueville an emissary from France wrote about his impressions of American, his writings too were widely read in Europe. de Tocqueville spoke of the hard work and rewards that can be had in American. “I, for one, do not hesitate to say that although women in the United States seldom venture outside the domestic sphere, where in some respects they remain quite dependent, nowhere has their position seemed to me to be higher. And now that I am nearing the end of this book, in which I have described so many considerable American accomplishments, if someone were to ask me what I think is primarily responsible for the singular prosperity and growing power of this people, I would answer that it is the superiority of their women.” Tocqueville wrote about what he saw was wrong too. Slavery was immoral but he felt because of the new American way of governing, wrongs would eventually be righted. Tocqueville too painted a picture for Europeans to come live the American dream, especially women.
What was known about coal in Coshocton in the 1700’s? George Washington noted in 1754 as he traveled from Ft. Pitt (which burned a little coal) a lot of the land on both sides of the Ohio River had coal deposits and pieces of coal laying in creeks (stone coal some journals refer to).[4] George camped on the banks of Captina Creek in what is now Powhatan Point, in Belmont County, OH.[5] Today there are pieces of loose coal on the banks of that creek, were there lumps of coal on the banks during George’s visit and did they know what it was? My wife’s family were Polish coal miners for Belmont County’s North American Coal Company in the late 1800’s to even this year 2022. The local lore at Hanks Tavern in Powhatan Point sometimes turned to what George Washington did during his stay. The old, retired miners talked about the town’s history and they believed Washington’s troops stoked their wood campfires with some loose coal? 1n 1774 the storekeeper at Ft. Pitt, James Kenny bagged some coal and traded with some Traders for a barrel of Rum. Rum was not to be traded with the Indians and Tribes would punish members who drank. The Indians called coal “burning rocks”. George Washington heard of a coal fire that burned for a year in 1748 near what is now Bolivar, Ohio. The Moravians knew of coal at their settlement at Schoenbrunn in 1772 (Tuscarawas County).[6] Black beads made of coal made into wampum’s were discovered in the Lindenweir Archaeological Site in Colorado.[7]
In 1750 the newly formed Ohio Company hired a friend of George Washington, an accomplished explorer, surveyor and frontiersman, Christopher Gist to map the Ohio River Valley.[8] He makes mention that he learned from the Indians and British Fur Traders about Coal. Gist traveled down what is now the Kentucky River and saw abundant deposit of coal on the cliffs along the river. Several Indian tribes have hunted the area and mined flint for making arrowheads and other tools. [9] The Indians used some black shinny rocks, Coal Stone to make jewelry to trade with the Fur Traders too.
A hunter named Necho Allen was near Pottsville, PA one evening in 1770 and made a campfire, only to awake to a roaring fire fueled by anthracite coal lying on the ground. Pottsville became a leader in coal fired furnaces for making cast iron. The coal was later used to boil the wort in the making of Yuengling beer. As a side note, beer too played an important role in the birth of our nation. Boston’s’ Green Dragon Tavern served up the beer that gave the colonists the liquid fuel courage to protest by throwing tea overboard on a British ship. It is said that in the Philadelphia City Tavern’s beers and ales gave the founding fathers courage to write the Declaration of Independence.
18th, 19th and 20th century Coshocton was powered by coal. What will the County’s future be without coal?
We enter this new era with governments at all levels enticing investors to build solar farms, windmills, and EV charging stations. “Not in my backyard” are the voices of many residents. However, governments use that magic word “jobs” to force new green energy projects. As of September 14, 2022, Coshocton County Job and Family Services had over 200 job openings, with few takers. Where are the workers going to come from for current jobs and New Green jobs? Green Jobs come about with tax abatements and another loss of income for local school districts.
As I explored the past, I found niches I would like to circle back and read more. British Fur Traders, the lives of the captives freed by Colonel Bouquet, the role the Catholic and Methodist Churches played in the social history, to name a few topics. I wish to thank Dr. Butler for his book, Frontier History of Coshocton for opening my eyes to Coshocton’s past and the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum for sponsoring this contest.
One of my favorite writers was Mark Twain who is credited with many zany quotes. “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter” he is said to have written a friend. If I had more time, I would like to write a shorter essay on the other topics I discovered.
References
GeoFacts No 14 Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Ohio History Journal : The Knowledge of Coal and Iron in Ohio Before 1835
History of Ohio Coshocton County, OH Past and Present, 1740-1881 Coshocton Public Library
Bulletin 659 U S Geological Survey 1918
Geological Survey of Ohio Volume V 1884
Administration of U S Department of Energy, Timeline of Coal, and American Coal Foundation
Smithsonian Magazine, Clive Thompson July 2022
Guernsey County Historical Society on line
Coal Mining Coshocton County; Arthur S. Bennett, Coshocton Public Library
History of Coshocton, William Bahmer Coshocton Public Library
History of American Indian Tribes of Ohio 1654-1843 Ohio Historical Society
Journal of James Kenny 1761-1763 Storekeeper Ft. Pitt, Penn State University archives
Christopher Gists Journals, www.forgottenbooks.com
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Leah Taber, Public Affairs Specialist
Dr. Thomas Walker, Kentucky Historic Site
Letters from American Farmer, St. John deCrevecoeur
Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in American 1835-40
Frontier History of Coshocton, Scott E. Butler PhD
[1] Paradise Kentucky is in Western Kentucky near my mother’s birthplace.
[2] Coal Mining Coshocton County; Arthur Bennet
[3] Letter from American Farmer; St. John deCrevecoeur
[4] Journal of James Kenny Storekeeper Ft. Pitt
[5] Belmont County Tourism Council
[6] Geo Facts #14 Ohio Department of Natural Resources
[7] Arrowheads.com
[8] Ohio History Journal; Coal and Iron in Ohio
[9] Christopher Gists Journals, www.forgottenbooks.com
For over fifty years AEP had used Coshocton County’s abundant natural resources to service the electrical grid and their eleven million customers. Many family coal mines had fed the Conesville plant and one behemoth conglomerate, Peabody Coal. Peabody brought in miners from West Virginia and Kentucky to work with local farmers who wanted to supplement their farm income. Until Federal Reclamation Legislation was passed, Coal companies were not good stewards of the land. High walls, outcroppings, strip ponds and orange-colored creeks doted the countryside. John Denver’s lyrics in his 1971 song “Paradise” said it all:[1]
“And the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away”.
Reclamation funds to correct past coal land sins, are slow to make a difference. Peabody gave thousands of acres of mined land to the State of Ohio for the establishment of Woodbury Wildlife Area. The deer population grew and put Coshocton on the Whitetail Deer Hunters map as having the largest gun season harvest year in and year out. However, the land will never be developed into a industrial or residential site, and the land does not add to the tax base for the local school districts.
Coal fueled the Industrial Revolution that started around 1760 in England. The making of Cast Iron was a major factor in the changes to manufacturing. The process began in a bloomery furnace with Welsh Anthracite Coal. The ore, coal and cast-iron ingots moved around by a system of canals. The bloomery Hopewell Furnace in 1770 Pennsylvania was our country’s first and they used the abundant wood from surrounding forest to make the charcoal to fuel the furnace. Hopewell experimented with anthracite coal, but the cost to haul the coal in from the east was just too expensive. Hopewell closed in 1883 because of newer furnaces on the Schuylkill River used the railroads to haul in anthracite coal from nearby mines to make the cast iron cheaper. George Washington chose Harper’s Ferry, WV as the site for the nation’s second Armory and Arsenal because of the nearby bloomery iron furnace, also using charcoal. The Arsenal switched to coal in 1845.
Coal and Canals were instrumental to the growth of Coshocton in the 19th century. Welsh coal miners settled in the Ohio Valley to work the coal. One such family settled in Coshocton. William Green a first-generation Welshman, rose to become the President of the newly formed Coal Miners Union and later he was elected to the Ohio Senate. As a Democrat in the Ohio Senate, he worked with Buckeye Casting Company’s owner Prescott Bush (a Republican with lineage to the two Bush U. S. Presidents) to legislate one of our country’s first Workers Compensation laws. The Roosevelt’s New Deal administration tapped William Green to lead in the legislation for the National Labor Relations laws with the help of New York’s Republican Governor LaGuardia. William was elected the first President of the new AFLCIO (American Federation Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization). The tallest building in Columbus, Ohio is named the William Green building. William Green was eventually ousted because of his views that union workers should share in the company’s profits and have a seat on the company’s board of directors. That did not set well with the United Auto Workers. Interesting that worker participation is what Toyota and Honda believe in. Looking at the parking lot of any church or business in Coshocton and count the number of Japanese cars; William Green must have been correct.
The earliest recorded commercial coal mine in Coshocton was in 1833 upon Hardscrabble Hill.[2] People were clearing trees to make more farmland and the plentiful firewood heated homes and shops and powered the stills to make whiskey. Coal did not catch on to heat homes, because the coal stoves of the time allow a lot of soot to go up the chimney and on to the neighbors’ yards. Once Benjamin Franklin type cast iron coal stoves’ efficiency evolved, people burned coal. Once Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton’s whiskey excise tax was repelled, small distilleries opened for business. Coal and its higher heat replaced the laborious task of cutting and splitting firewood on the farm to make their whiskey. More whiskey could be distilled cheaper with the higher heat of coal. Burning coal in turn allowed more free time for men to drink store bought Whiskey in local taverns. That in turn brought about the founding of the Anti-Saloon League in Oberlin, OH 1893 (today their League’s Museum is in Westerville, OH). The Frontier Women could take only so much from drunk husbands, the women started marching for Prohibition.
With the signing of treaties of Paris which ended the British and French wars with the Indians around 1763 and 1774 and following the conclusion of Lord Dunmore War; the late 1700’s saw a lot of land in Coshocton being awarded to Revolutionary War Soldiers and others. Families moved to Ohio without fear of being attacked by Indians. Immigration to the new American Frontier was given romantic impressions by the “Letters from the American Farmer” in the 1780’s as compiled by the Frenchman St. John de Crevecoeur and read throughout Europe. [3]One letter was about a fellow from Great Britain who settled in the American Frontier, married a Dutch Woman. They had a son who married a French woman and they had four sons and their wives were from four different countries. His goal was to own his land, accumulate some wealth and pass on to his sons. He was not beholding to a King or a Prince and the laws in the Frontier were few, but fair. The American Dream. That letter describes what we today call American as a Melting Pot. That term “Melting Pot” became popular based on a play in 1908 by the same name written about a Russian Jewish family that immigrated and assimilated into the American Culture.
Beginning in 1835 Alexis de Tocqueville an emissary from France wrote about his impressions of American, his writings too were widely read in Europe. de Tocqueville spoke of the hard work and rewards that can be had in American. “I, for one, do not hesitate to say that although women in the United States seldom venture outside the domestic sphere, where in some respects they remain quite dependent, nowhere has their position seemed to me to be higher. And now that I am nearing the end of this book, in which I have described so many considerable American accomplishments, if someone were to ask me what I think is primarily responsible for the singular prosperity and growing power of this people, I would answer that it is the superiority of their women.” Tocqueville wrote about what he saw was wrong too. Slavery was immoral but he felt because of the new American way of governing, wrongs would eventually be righted. Tocqueville too painted a picture for Europeans to come live the American dream, especially women.
What was known about coal in Coshocton in the 1700’s? George Washington noted in 1754 as he traveled from Ft. Pitt (which burned a little coal) a lot of the land on both sides of the Ohio River had coal deposits and pieces of coal laying in creeks (stone coal some journals refer to).[4] George camped on the banks of Captina Creek in what is now Powhatan Point, in Belmont County, OH.[5] Today there are pieces of loose coal on the banks of that creek, were there lumps of coal on the banks during George’s visit and did they know what it was? My wife’s family were Polish coal miners for Belmont County’s North American Coal Company in the late 1800’s to even this year 2022. The local lore at Hanks Tavern in Powhatan Point sometimes turned to what George Washington did during his stay. The old, retired miners talked about the town’s history and they believed Washington’s troops stoked their wood campfires with some loose coal? 1n 1774 the storekeeper at Ft. Pitt, James Kenny bagged some coal and traded with some Traders for a barrel of Rum. Rum was not to be traded with the Indians and Tribes would punish members who drank. The Indians called coal “burning rocks”. George Washington heard of a coal fire that burned for a year in 1748 near what is now Bolivar, Ohio. The Moravians knew of coal at their settlement at Schoenbrunn in 1772 (Tuscarawas County).[6] Black beads made of coal made into wampum’s were discovered in the Lindenweir Archaeological Site in Colorado.[7]
In 1750 the newly formed Ohio Company hired a friend of George Washington, an accomplished explorer, surveyor and frontiersman, Christopher Gist to map the Ohio River Valley.[8] He makes mention that he learned from the Indians and British Fur Traders about Coal. Gist traveled down what is now the Kentucky River and saw abundant deposit of coal on the cliffs along the river. Several Indian tribes have hunted the area and mined flint for making arrowheads and other tools. [9] The Indians used some black shinny rocks, Coal Stone to make jewelry to trade with the Fur Traders too.
A hunter named Necho Allen was near Pottsville, PA one evening in 1770 and made a campfire, only to awake to a roaring fire fueled by anthracite coal lying on the ground. Pottsville became a leader in coal fired furnaces for making cast iron. The coal was later used to boil the wort in the making of Yuengling beer. As a side note, beer too played an important role in the birth of our nation. Boston’s’ Green Dragon Tavern served up the beer that gave the colonists the liquid fuel courage to protest by throwing tea overboard on a British ship. It is said that in the Philadelphia City Tavern’s beers and ales gave the founding fathers courage to write the Declaration of Independence.
18th, 19th and 20th century Coshocton was powered by coal. What will the County’s future be without coal?
We enter this new era with governments at all levels enticing investors to build solar farms, windmills, and EV charging stations. “Not in my backyard” are the voices of many residents. However, governments use that magic word “jobs” to force new green energy projects. As of September 14, 2022, Coshocton County Job and Family Services had over 200 job openings, with few takers. Where are the workers going to come from for current jobs and New Green jobs? Green Jobs come about with tax abatements and another loss of income for local school districts.
As I explored the past, I found niches I would like to circle back and read more. British Fur Traders, the lives of the captives freed by Colonel Bouquet, the role the Catholic and Methodist Churches played in the social history, to name a few topics. I wish to thank Dr. Butler for his book, Frontier History of Coshocton for opening my eyes to Coshocton’s past and the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum for sponsoring this contest.
One of my favorite writers was Mark Twain who is credited with many zany quotes. “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter” he is said to have written a friend. If I had more time, I would like to write a shorter essay on the other topics I discovered.
References
GeoFacts No 14 Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Ohio History Journal : The Knowledge of Coal and Iron in Ohio Before 1835
History of Ohio Coshocton County, OH Past and Present, 1740-1881 Coshocton Public Library
Bulletin 659 U S Geological Survey 1918
Geological Survey of Ohio Volume V 1884
Administration of U S Department of Energy, Timeline of Coal, and American Coal Foundation
Smithsonian Magazine, Clive Thompson July 2022
Guernsey County Historical Society on line
Coal Mining Coshocton County; Arthur S. Bennett, Coshocton Public Library
History of Coshocton, William Bahmer Coshocton Public Library
History of American Indian Tribes of Ohio 1654-1843 Ohio Historical Society
Journal of James Kenny 1761-1763 Storekeeper Ft. Pitt, Penn State University archives
Christopher Gists Journals, www.forgottenbooks.com
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Leah Taber, Public Affairs Specialist
Dr. Thomas Walker, Kentucky Historic Site
Letters from American Farmer, St. John deCrevecoeur
Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in American 1835-40
Frontier History of Coshocton, Scott E. Butler PhD
[1] Paradise Kentucky is in Western Kentucky near my mother’s birthplace.
[2] Coal Mining Coshocton County; Arthur Bennet
[3] Letter from American Farmer; St. John deCrevecoeur
[4] Journal of James Kenny Storekeeper Ft. Pitt
[5] Belmont County Tourism Council
[6] Geo Facts #14 Ohio Department of Natural Resources
[7] Arrowheads.com
[8] Ohio History Journal; Coal and Iron in Ohio
[9] Christopher Gists Journals, www.forgottenbooks.com
Martha Richardson: Results of Traditional Female Role Rejection During Settlement on the Ohio Frontier (Honorable Mention Winner)
“Your mother is crazy” might be a phrase one would not necessarily associate with life on
the Ohio frontier, yet the declaration, and many like it could be heard across the frontier during
the middle and latter years of frontier settlement. And what could cause such an odd outcry
during a time when progress was being made in so many areas of agriculture, banking and
commerce, and education? The answer to that query is imbedded in the very fabric of frontier
life, but it might take a little digging and investigation to reveal its source.
Establishing and maintaining a homestead was a difficult job for all members of the frontier
family. Even after the land had been cleared, the cabin built, and crops were planted, the typical
frontier family usually worked from sunrise to sunset. The frontier wife worked beside her
husband and the children were given chores to do as soon as they were old enough to help. But
the frontier wife not only helped her husband. She also was almost solely responsible for raising
their children, keeping the cabin in order, fixing meals and preserving extra food for winter. She
might have to maintain a garden, make clothing for the family, and take care of their farm
animals. And she probably had to do this for days on her own while her husband was away from
the homestead trying to secure food for the family. This was the scenario and expectation in every
frontier home and the women in each family were expected to accept the role without question.
It was just how things were and had been (Foster, 2002).
Eastern and Western cultures throughout the ages have accepted and emphasized that a
woman’s primary social role is that of mother and that view has not changed much over the
years. Her duties and responsibilities may change from culture to culture and era to era, but she
is still viewed as the entity responsible for the survival of the species. This certainly was the view
that was held for women on the Ohio frontier. Such an important role surely should have had the
latitude to make the major decisions in her life and move it in the direction she wished, but that is
not how the process evolved. On the frontier she had little authority and had almost no choice in
her destiny. The inscription on an early nineteenth century Ohio tombstone clearly pointed out
the unfortunate view and life that was the tale of many a frontier wife:
Thirteen years I was a virgin,
Two years I was a wife,
One year I was a mother,
the next year took my life . . .
(Sochen, J. 1976, p.37).
Although most wives accepted this and silently played the role they had been handed, a
significant number of frontier women decided that they were not willing to blindly follow those
who had gone before them. They voiced their displeasure, attempted to make decisions on their
own, and refused to quietly do what was expected of them. Their actions caused a rumble not
only throughout the social community of the frontier, but in the medical and psychological
communities as well. Unfortunately, the rumble was the igniter of change, but not in the way that
answered the dissatisfaction of these young women.
The result for these women was usually very quickly finding themselves securely locked
behind the heavy metal doors of an asylum or other various institution. According to the
emerging theory of the day, those who either refused to fall silently into their expected roles or,
even worse, not so silently voiced their refusal, were considered to be “sick”. For hundreds of
years women’s natures and actions had been linked to their sexuality and their reproductive
organs with the belief that the natural order of things was that women would be fulfilled and
happy in their role as wives and mothers. When women of the nineteenth century began to
question these roles, the only logical association the male-dominated fields of medicine and
psychiatry had to explain this rebellion was that they were, “sick”, “mad”, or “insane”, and the
only treatment was to confine them until they recovered or died. And this incarceration could
occur for something as minor as reading or voicing their own opinion (Lovely, 2019). The process
for commitment was surprisingly simple in that a woman’s husband merely had to request that
she be put away. The practice was so common that women could be committed for a long and
indefinable list of symptoms such as studying too hard, “insane behavior” aka, change of life, and
“uterine derangement”. Commitment from menses-related symptoms were seen so frequently
that mothers were encouraged to attempt to delay their daughters’ menses by such practices of
making them soak in cold water, refrain from eating meat and not allowing them to read books.
There were so many women being committed that in 1860, at one Ohio facility, 231 women were
squeezed into one small hospital ward with 240 more on a waiting list (Moore, 2021).
The incarceration at the institutions might not be the worst consequence for the women’s
non-compliance. While there, they could expect to be subjected to other forms of medical and
psychological treatment. This could include the use of chloroform and ether, restraint in a
straight jacket, or surgery. Since the theory of their failure to accept the norm was linked to their
gender, some of the more horrific treatments involved removal of reproductive organs, injecting
ice water into sexual orifices, or applying leeches to the sexual organs. The only way for women
to be released from these tortures was to do what was expected. They had to remain silent about
any topic on which they did not agree with their spouse. Every genuine feeling these women had
needed to be hidden and suppressed (Marland, 2004).
This was the situation that women faced until the mid to late twentieth century when
women began to launch a strong challenge to gender roles and women’s mental health treatment
changes began to occur. The women’s suffrage movement of the early twentieth century had
begun to lay the foundation for change and it continued throughout the century as medical
discoveries and psychological theory dispelled earlier beliefs. Many illnesses were discovered to be
linked to hormones and infertility, cysts, infections and other medical condition were identified
and linked to the mental health and outward manifestations that had been misdiagnosed as noncompliance
and “craziness” over the years (Lovely, 2019). For the first time women were diagnosed and treated appropriately and male society began to accept the independent decisions women made.
This discussion of the treatment of women on the Ohio frontier points out the
misconceptions surrounding women’s issues at the time, but also emphasizes the resilience of the
Ohio frontier woman. She was not “crazy”, as she was referred to earlier, but a helpmate to her
husband and caretaker of her children as well as a woman who helped to establish acceptance of
women’s independence and strong social foundations.
REFERENCES
Foster, E. (2002, May 7). American Grit: A Woman’s Letters From the Ohio Frontier.
University Press. https://american-grit-a-woman’s-letters-from-the-ohio-frontier/
Lovely, J. (2019, September 9). Women’s Mental Health in the Nineteenth Century.
Digital Commons. https: //women’s-mental-health-in-the-nineteenth-century/
Marland, H. (2004, April 11). Women and Madness. Center for the History of
Medicine. https: //women-and-madness/
Moore, K. (2021, June 22). The American History of Silencing Women Through
Psychiatry. https: //american-history-of-silencing-women-through-psychiatry/
Sochen, J. (1976, November). Frontier Women: A Model for all Women? SDHS
Journal. https://frontier-women-a-model-for-all-women/
5
the Ohio frontier, yet the declaration, and many like it could be heard across the frontier during
the middle and latter years of frontier settlement. And what could cause such an odd outcry
during a time when progress was being made in so many areas of agriculture, banking and
commerce, and education? The answer to that query is imbedded in the very fabric of frontier
life, but it might take a little digging and investigation to reveal its source.
Establishing and maintaining a homestead was a difficult job for all members of the frontier
family. Even after the land had been cleared, the cabin built, and crops were planted, the typical
frontier family usually worked from sunrise to sunset. The frontier wife worked beside her
husband and the children were given chores to do as soon as they were old enough to help. But
the frontier wife not only helped her husband. She also was almost solely responsible for raising
their children, keeping the cabin in order, fixing meals and preserving extra food for winter. She
might have to maintain a garden, make clothing for the family, and take care of their farm
animals. And she probably had to do this for days on her own while her husband was away from
the homestead trying to secure food for the family. This was the scenario and expectation in every
frontier home and the women in each family were expected to accept the role without question.
It was just how things were and had been (Foster, 2002).
Eastern and Western cultures throughout the ages have accepted and emphasized that a
woman’s primary social role is that of mother and that view has not changed much over the
years. Her duties and responsibilities may change from culture to culture and era to era, but she
is still viewed as the entity responsible for the survival of the species. This certainly was the view
that was held for women on the Ohio frontier. Such an important role surely should have had the
latitude to make the major decisions in her life and move it in the direction she wished, but that is
not how the process evolved. On the frontier she had little authority and had almost no choice in
her destiny. The inscription on an early nineteenth century Ohio tombstone clearly pointed out
the unfortunate view and life that was the tale of many a frontier wife:
Thirteen years I was a virgin,
Two years I was a wife,
One year I was a mother,
the next year took my life . . .
(Sochen, J. 1976, p.37).
Although most wives accepted this and silently played the role they had been handed, a
significant number of frontier women decided that they were not willing to blindly follow those
who had gone before them. They voiced their displeasure, attempted to make decisions on their
own, and refused to quietly do what was expected of them. Their actions caused a rumble not
only throughout the social community of the frontier, but in the medical and psychological
communities as well. Unfortunately, the rumble was the igniter of change, but not in the way that
answered the dissatisfaction of these young women.
The result for these women was usually very quickly finding themselves securely locked
behind the heavy metal doors of an asylum or other various institution. According to the
emerging theory of the day, those who either refused to fall silently into their expected roles or,
even worse, not so silently voiced their refusal, were considered to be “sick”. For hundreds of
years women’s natures and actions had been linked to their sexuality and their reproductive
organs with the belief that the natural order of things was that women would be fulfilled and
happy in their role as wives and mothers. When women of the nineteenth century began to
question these roles, the only logical association the male-dominated fields of medicine and
psychiatry had to explain this rebellion was that they were, “sick”, “mad”, or “insane”, and the
only treatment was to confine them until they recovered or died. And this incarceration could
occur for something as minor as reading or voicing their own opinion (Lovely, 2019). The process
for commitment was surprisingly simple in that a woman’s husband merely had to request that
she be put away. The practice was so common that women could be committed for a long and
indefinable list of symptoms such as studying too hard, “insane behavior” aka, change of life, and
“uterine derangement”. Commitment from menses-related symptoms were seen so frequently
that mothers were encouraged to attempt to delay their daughters’ menses by such practices of
making them soak in cold water, refrain from eating meat and not allowing them to read books.
There were so many women being committed that in 1860, at one Ohio facility, 231 women were
squeezed into one small hospital ward with 240 more on a waiting list (Moore, 2021).
The incarceration at the institutions might not be the worst consequence for the women’s
non-compliance. While there, they could expect to be subjected to other forms of medical and
psychological treatment. This could include the use of chloroform and ether, restraint in a
straight jacket, or surgery. Since the theory of their failure to accept the norm was linked to their
gender, some of the more horrific treatments involved removal of reproductive organs, injecting
ice water into sexual orifices, or applying leeches to the sexual organs. The only way for women
to be released from these tortures was to do what was expected. They had to remain silent about
any topic on which they did not agree with their spouse. Every genuine feeling these women had
needed to be hidden and suppressed (Marland, 2004).
This was the situation that women faced until the mid to late twentieth century when
women began to launch a strong challenge to gender roles and women’s mental health treatment
changes began to occur. The women’s suffrage movement of the early twentieth century had
begun to lay the foundation for change and it continued throughout the century as medical
discoveries and psychological theory dispelled earlier beliefs. Many illnesses were discovered to be
linked to hormones and infertility, cysts, infections and other medical condition were identified
and linked to the mental health and outward manifestations that had been misdiagnosed as noncompliance
and “craziness” over the years (Lovely, 2019). For the first time women were diagnosed and treated appropriately and male society began to accept the independent decisions women made.
This discussion of the treatment of women on the Ohio frontier points out the
misconceptions surrounding women’s issues at the time, but also emphasizes the resilience of the
Ohio frontier woman. She was not “crazy”, as she was referred to earlier, but a helpmate to her
husband and caretaker of her children as well as a woman who helped to establish acceptance of
women’s independence and strong social foundations.
REFERENCES
Foster, E. (2002, May 7). American Grit: A Woman’s Letters From the Ohio Frontier.
University Press. https://american-grit-a-woman’s-letters-from-the-ohio-frontier/
Lovely, J. (2019, September 9). Women’s Mental Health in the Nineteenth Century.
Digital Commons. https: //women’s-mental-health-in-the-nineteenth-century/
Marland, H. (2004, April 11). Women and Madness. Center for the History of
Medicine. https: //women-and-madness/
Moore, K. (2021, June 22). The American History of Silencing Women Through
Psychiatry. https: //american-history-of-silencing-women-through-psychiatry/
Sochen, J. (1976, November). Frontier Women: A Model for all Women? SDHS
Journal. https://frontier-women-a-model-for-all-women/
5
Robbie Kehl: The Pigmy Puzzle (HONORABLE MENTION WINNER)
History is a complex and tangled web filled mostly with evidence that has long been disintegrated back into the earth. When concrete proof is long gone, then the only thing left is educated conjectures. Ideas that are built on the backs of dedicated researchers across the world, all working together to try to determine where we came from and what our ancestors were like. There is a question that has been stumping residents of Coshocton County for centuries and the answer might not be anything that was expected. The puzzle is the lost history of the pygmy tribe of Coshocton County.
To begin to understand the magnitude of this potential discovery, first the definition of what a pygmy is has to be determined. Then, why pygmies being here is important and finally where did they come from. A pygmy is generally defined as the average male height of the tribe being under 4’ 11’’. There are great records of African pygmies in existence throughout history and today as well. Asian pygmies are also rather well documented including the newly discovered species of Homo floresiensis which occupied the island of Flores some 50,000 years ago. There is no debate about whether pygmies exist, but rather why they exist and the extent of which they did. When dealing with North American pygmies, the waters begin to get much murkier.
North American pygmies are only discussed as a fact after the 1700’s saw introduction of African pygmies brought over as slaves. Before this time, it is mostly all legends. If you do any searching into history further back than the 20th century, you’ll undoubtably come across legends, fairy tales and myths that permeate all native cultures. Humans have always been great story tellers, but usually because there is a hint of truth in the stories that they tell. These stories span thousands of miles and many different tribes, but yet there are things in them that are similar. Native American legends speak often of races of little people. Not just a few tribes of Native Americans on one side of the country or the other had these stories either, but rather most tribes throughout the country had some sort of tale of little people existing. The legends do differ though between them. The tribes of the western United States seemed to have a darker view of little people legends. The Shoshone tribe called the little people Nimerigar and saw them as a plight to mankind. Legends told that they were cannibals which is what Nimerigar roughly translates to, people-eater. The Arapaho, Crow, and Choctaw also had similar tales of such evil little people. In 1932, evidence for the existence of Nimerigar was believed to have been finally found when the San Pedros Mountain Mummy was discovered. The mummy was 14 inches tall and had an unusual shape to it that made it appear to be of adult physique. For many years, it was believed to have been proof of the existence of a pygmy race in North America. Modern science intervened though and it is widely accepted now that the mummy was an infant with anencephaly.
Other legends of little people usually refer to them as harmless or good natured. They commonly dwelt in forests and would protect and help natives unless they were threatened. Stories passed down to teach kids to be kind to nature it would seem. These tales appear much more akin to European fairy folklore. Whether good or evil, little people are included in most Native American tales and yet no evidence of their existence seems to be found in North America. Did pygmies exist and interact with Native Americans in some way? Are these legends simply altered stories of these interactions? Maybe they are just myths made up for storytelling purposes. No matter the reasoning for their existence, the native tribes never claim the pygmies as a part of their own and there are no stories of native pygmy tribes.
Pygmies always seem to take a backseat to giants. Tales of taller than normal human beings have fascinated everyone back to ancient mythologies. There are many noted examples of ancient giant bones found in North America including some found even in Coshocton. On the farm of one of Coshocton’s famous residents, Colonel Pren Metham, a sandstone grave was found that contained remains of a skeleton that was more than seven feet tall. But when it comes to pygmies, the matter just doesn’t bring about as much interest.
That is what makes it even more interesting when David Zeisburger made a discovery in Coshocton. When he settled his town of Lichtenau in 1776 in what is now Coshocton County, he did so because of the vast culture of the natives around. He believed there was evidence that ancient cultures buried in the area were more civilized than the natives he was encountering at the time. The only evidence remaining today is that of the missionaries’ accounts that were made nearly 250 years ago. Those accounts stated that there was only little for them to see as well, but they believed that the ancient races previous to the natives used the ax, made pottery, and were able to divide the land up in squares.
The missionaries found a large graveyard which covered approximately 10 acres of land. The remains that they found in these graves were only about 3 to 4 and a half feet in height. The bodies were buried neatly in rows with all their heads facing west and feet facing east. This was interpreted to mean that the race was a sun worshipping one and they would be able to see the sun rise every day. The bones were already turning to dust when they were found, but by estimating that twenty bodies could be buried in a square rod, it was possible that this grave yard could house over thirty thousand deceased pygmies. If these people lived an average life span of around thirty-three years, it could be further estimated that it would take at least one hundred years for the race to fill up a grave yard that big, if it had the population of 11,000 like the city of Coshocton has today. If this graveyard is as big as the missionaries believed it to be, then it would show that not only were there some pygmies in North America, but they were able to survive and populate villages for generations.
According to Thomas Hunt, author of Historical Collections of Coshocton County 1764-1876, there was a similar incident that took place outside of St. Louis that occurred many years before Hunt’s time. A large ancient burial ground was found with many remains of bodies that were of less stature than the average man. The main difference between the two though is that the bodies found in Coshocton were buried in wooden coffins and the ones in St. Louis were buried in stone coffins. Also, like Coshocton, the remains were mostly chalky ash and not much else could be deduced by them.
These two possible pygmy graveyards being discovered is enough to begin the discussion of actual pygmy tribes being plausible, but it’s the next discovery that really led into conversations about them being real and where they might have come from. There is one more well documented pygmy gravesite found in the United States and this is in Tennessee. In 1820, the Nashville Whig newspaper reported that two to three hundred small graves were found. These graves were only about a foot and a half long each and were attested to by multiple people. More graves were found on more farms in the area as well. The number could possibly be in the thousands. It was even noted that the skulls of those found were entirely closed and solid. Just one reason they were believed at the time to belong to adult pygmies and not children.
Historian John Haywood made extensive notes about the pygmy graves in his book Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee. In this, he discusses measuring the skull and bones of the remains as well as many other details. The graves were shallow, only a foot or so underground. Although the graves were mostly only 2 feet long, the remains found were curled up a bit and thus were measured at 2 feet 10 inches to 3 feet long on average. Many also found with their heads towards the West and feet to the East.
It’s still possible to debate whether all the measurements were off or if a very elaborate hoax was occurring across decades and states, but there is a doctor that not only believes that the pygmies were real but also believes he knows where they came from. In the early 1990’s Dr. V.R. Pilapil studied the records and concluded that the small remains found in grave sites there belong to pygmies and not small children. His supporting arguments were that the cranium was of volume equivalent to a non-pygmy seven-year old but the teeth were completely developed and showed wear as that of a mature human. More importantly, he spent his life studying Philippine culture and the skulls were very much like those of the Philippine Aetas, which are a pygmy race. It is his belief that they are of that lineage. Dr. Pilapil was just one of the men who didn’t believe these pygmies to be a tribe of Native Americans, but rather people that came from much further away.
Why weren’t there more of these graveyards spread out across the country if there were possibly so many of them? It could be that given the age of them, most graveyards were just plowed over and never found since the ones that were found seemed only buried a foot underground. They could also be laying beneath the surface where forests have overtaken over the years. There’s another possible explanation for this too.
The Nanticoke Indians of Maryland had a custom of exhuming their dead long after burial. They would then cut off the flesh and burn it while drying the bones and wrapping them in clean cloths. They would then rebury these bones and whenever they moved, they would dig them back up and take them with them. This tribe had moved down to western Pennsylvania and some came to the Muskingum valley with the Shawanese. There were two former Nanticoke tribesman who converted at Shoenbrunn who were with Zeisberger while he was in Lichtenau. One of them supposedly confirmed that this pygmy graveyard was in fact an ancient Nanticoke burying ground and the final resting place of their ancestors who were carried from one place to another for hundreds of years before finally ending up in Coshocton County. Either these pygmies really were a part of a Native American tribe, or they could have had similar traits. It may be that these pygmy graveyards are the results of hundreds of years of a tribe bringing their ancestor’s remains with them, which leads to a single vast graveyard dotting the landscape occasionally as the tribe moved.
Therefore, either these pygmies are a part of a Native American tribe that there are no stories passed down about at all or there is something else that occurred. Since there are no remaining skeletons to examine, conjecture can only be used at this point. If we follow the theory proposed by Dr. Virgilio R. Pilapil and combine that with recent discoveries, a bigger picture starts to emerge. In 2020, researchers from all over the world formed a team headed by Eske Willerslev, the head of the Danish National Research Foundation, and have been mapping the genetic immigration of Southeast Asians to determine what happened to the pygmies there. Thousands of years ago, Southeast Asia’s inhabitants would resemble African pygmies and not those of what we see today. They were of small stature and most likely were Africans that had migrated there. DNA from bones and teeth of these inhabitants were examined of those that lived there within 8,000 years ago. It appears that there were four immigrations that changed the peoples of the area.
About 60,000-70,000 years ago, African pygmies left their continent and would eventually settle into Southeastern Asia around 40,000 years ago. They lived there relatively undisturbed for about 36,000 years. Around 4,000 years ago a group from the present Chinese area immigrated there and brought agriculture and rice with them. Another immigration occurred about 2,000 years ago as well. When these immigrations occurred, it appears that some of the original pygmies withdrew to the smaller Southeast Asian islands and others mixed with the groups immigrating in with them. This leads to two interesting possibilities. It very well could be a reason that most Southeast Asians are physically smaller than Europeans because there is evidence that the pygmies interbred with the immigrants. It could also be why the Philippines and Malaysia still contain pygmies to this day and that these are the direct descendants. The research does show us though that there was a movement of these people about 4,000 years ago to other places.
Dr. Pilapil’s theory already states that he believes that the pygmies of Tennessee are these same Southeast Asian pygmies, by comparison of the notes on the pygmies found in Tennessee with that of the Aeta tribes and how their bone structure was similar. If these pygmies travelled from Southeast Asia all the way to Tennessee, it’s not difficult to imagine that they could easily travel more and the pygmies of Missouri and Coshocton are not Native Americans but rather displaced Southeast Asians that made their way to America sometime in the last 4,000 years. He stated this theory nearly 30 years before research showed that these people did emigrate at around that time frame. Of course, these inhabitants couldn’t just walk across the water, but their possible relatives could show us an example of how ancient people sometimes defied the odds and ended up where they shouldn’t have been able to be.
Homo Floresiensis is considered a separate species from Homo Sapiens and the island they were found on is completely isolated even at the shallowest moments. The people most likely got there by some sort of raft or similar instance in a complete stroke of luck that paleontologists refer to as a sweepstakes. It is unlikely that the pygmies that ended up in North America had little to any relation to H. Floresiensis but they are a good example of how a primitive society somehow found its way onto an island it was not native to and managed to live for a vast amount of time.
Surprisingly, John Haywood had a similar theory 200 years ago. Haywood was an intelligent man and wrote many books on history and law. He served on the Tennessee Supreme Court and many of his legal texts are still used today. He believed that the pygmies in Tennessee originated in India, China and Tibet and then emigrated to Sarmatia, which is in present day Iran, between 500 BC to 400 AD. Then they went to Greece and then Finland. His theory then ends with them crossing from Greenland into North America. Which, if they followed this route downwards, it’s possible they would go through Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and then Tennessee or west to Missouri. There is some evidence to back his claims up as well. In the 16th century, an Italian historian wrote of pygmies in the regions of Finland and Sweden. There were also many jade-like stone instruments found in the graves buried with the pygmies in Tennessee. Jade is more commonly found in India and China and could have been something these people carried with them throughout the migration.
Haywood’s research was thorough and intriguing. So much so that Joseph Henry took an interest. Henry was the first secretary of the Smithsonian at the time and Henry sent a team to investigate the Tennessee pygmies in 1876 for a Smithsonian exhibit. The team unearthed a newly discovered pygmy grave measuring just twenty-six inches long but having a full set of adult teeth. The team estimated that the bones were between 300-400 years old and seemed to be evidence that there was no hoax occurring and the pygmy graveyards being found are indeed real. Unfortunately, Haywood and Henry would die soon after this and their mutual interest in the pygmy graves would fade away from the scientific community.
Taking those broken fragments of history and trying to weave a complete picture isn’t easy and most likely, nobody will ever know the truth. It is known that pygmies exist and it’s also fairly accepted that pygmies seemed to originate in Africa and then move to Asia. The graveyards found in North America do appear to have contained actual pygmies, although the amount will never be able to be verified. Even though Native American tribes speak of pygmies and little people, none lay claim to having them as a part of them. Given the scientific study of modern pygmies and relating these to the documented skeletal remains found in the graves in North America, the two do seem comparable. Finally, the newly released research of the emigration of Southeast Asian pygmies and their known leaving of the areas they lived in about 4,000 years ago shows that they did indeed move about and possibly could have made it to North America. It could be theorized then, that the pygmy puzzle of Coshocton County and even of North America is that Southeast Asian pygmies and not Native American pygmies are who occupied these very lands hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Sources:
To begin to understand the magnitude of this potential discovery, first the definition of what a pygmy is has to be determined. Then, why pygmies being here is important and finally where did they come from. A pygmy is generally defined as the average male height of the tribe being under 4’ 11’’. There are great records of African pygmies in existence throughout history and today as well. Asian pygmies are also rather well documented including the newly discovered species of Homo floresiensis which occupied the island of Flores some 50,000 years ago. There is no debate about whether pygmies exist, but rather why they exist and the extent of which they did. When dealing with North American pygmies, the waters begin to get much murkier.
North American pygmies are only discussed as a fact after the 1700’s saw introduction of African pygmies brought over as slaves. Before this time, it is mostly all legends. If you do any searching into history further back than the 20th century, you’ll undoubtably come across legends, fairy tales and myths that permeate all native cultures. Humans have always been great story tellers, but usually because there is a hint of truth in the stories that they tell. These stories span thousands of miles and many different tribes, but yet there are things in them that are similar. Native American legends speak often of races of little people. Not just a few tribes of Native Americans on one side of the country or the other had these stories either, but rather most tribes throughout the country had some sort of tale of little people existing. The legends do differ though between them. The tribes of the western United States seemed to have a darker view of little people legends. The Shoshone tribe called the little people Nimerigar and saw them as a plight to mankind. Legends told that they were cannibals which is what Nimerigar roughly translates to, people-eater. The Arapaho, Crow, and Choctaw also had similar tales of such evil little people. In 1932, evidence for the existence of Nimerigar was believed to have been finally found when the San Pedros Mountain Mummy was discovered. The mummy was 14 inches tall and had an unusual shape to it that made it appear to be of adult physique. For many years, it was believed to have been proof of the existence of a pygmy race in North America. Modern science intervened though and it is widely accepted now that the mummy was an infant with anencephaly.
Other legends of little people usually refer to them as harmless or good natured. They commonly dwelt in forests and would protect and help natives unless they were threatened. Stories passed down to teach kids to be kind to nature it would seem. These tales appear much more akin to European fairy folklore. Whether good or evil, little people are included in most Native American tales and yet no evidence of their existence seems to be found in North America. Did pygmies exist and interact with Native Americans in some way? Are these legends simply altered stories of these interactions? Maybe they are just myths made up for storytelling purposes. No matter the reasoning for their existence, the native tribes never claim the pygmies as a part of their own and there are no stories of native pygmy tribes.
Pygmies always seem to take a backseat to giants. Tales of taller than normal human beings have fascinated everyone back to ancient mythologies. There are many noted examples of ancient giant bones found in North America including some found even in Coshocton. On the farm of one of Coshocton’s famous residents, Colonel Pren Metham, a sandstone grave was found that contained remains of a skeleton that was more than seven feet tall. But when it comes to pygmies, the matter just doesn’t bring about as much interest.
That is what makes it even more interesting when David Zeisburger made a discovery in Coshocton. When he settled his town of Lichtenau in 1776 in what is now Coshocton County, he did so because of the vast culture of the natives around. He believed there was evidence that ancient cultures buried in the area were more civilized than the natives he was encountering at the time. The only evidence remaining today is that of the missionaries’ accounts that were made nearly 250 years ago. Those accounts stated that there was only little for them to see as well, but they believed that the ancient races previous to the natives used the ax, made pottery, and were able to divide the land up in squares.
The missionaries found a large graveyard which covered approximately 10 acres of land. The remains that they found in these graves were only about 3 to 4 and a half feet in height. The bodies were buried neatly in rows with all their heads facing west and feet facing east. This was interpreted to mean that the race was a sun worshipping one and they would be able to see the sun rise every day. The bones were already turning to dust when they were found, but by estimating that twenty bodies could be buried in a square rod, it was possible that this grave yard could house over thirty thousand deceased pygmies. If these people lived an average life span of around thirty-three years, it could be further estimated that it would take at least one hundred years for the race to fill up a grave yard that big, if it had the population of 11,000 like the city of Coshocton has today. If this graveyard is as big as the missionaries believed it to be, then it would show that not only were there some pygmies in North America, but they were able to survive and populate villages for generations.
According to Thomas Hunt, author of Historical Collections of Coshocton County 1764-1876, there was a similar incident that took place outside of St. Louis that occurred many years before Hunt’s time. A large ancient burial ground was found with many remains of bodies that were of less stature than the average man. The main difference between the two though is that the bodies found in Coshocton were buried in wooden coffins and the ones in St. Louis were buried in stone coffins. Also, like Coshocton, the remains were mostly chalky ash and not much else could be deduced by them.
These two possible pygmy graveyards being discovered is enough to begin the discussion of actual pygmy tribes being plausible, but it’s the next discovery that really led into conversations about them being real and where they might have come from. There is one more well documented pygmy gravesite found in the United States and this is in Tennessee. In 1820, the Nashville Whig newspaper reported that two to three hundred small graves were found. These graves were only about a foot and a half long each and were attested to by multiple people. More graves were found on more farms in the area as well. The number could possibly be in the thousands. It was even noted that the skulls of those found were entirely closed and solid. Just one reason they were believed at the time to belong to adult pygmies and not children.
Historian John Haywood made extensive notes about the pygmy graves in his book Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee. In this, he discusses measuring the skull and bones of the remains as well as many other details. The graves were shallow, only a foot or so underground. Although the graves were mostly only 2 feet long, the remains found were curled up a bit and thus were measured at 2 feet 10 inches to 3 feet long on average. Many also found with their heads towards the West and feet to the East.
It’s still possible to debate whether all the measurements were off or if a very elaborate hoax was occurring across decades and states, but there is a doctor that not only believes that the pygmies were real but also believes he knows where they came from. In the early 1990’s Dr. V.R. Pilapil studied the records and concluded that the small remains found in grave sites there belong to pygmies and not small children. His supporting arguments were that the cranium was of volume equivalent to a non-pygmy seven-year old but the teeth were completely developed and showed wear as that of a mature human. More importantly, he spent his life studying Philippine culture and the skulls were very much like those of the Philippine Aetas, which are a pygmy race. It is his belief that they are of that lineage. Dr. Pilapil was just one of the men who didn’t believe these pygmies to be a tribe of Native Americans, but rather people that came from much further away.
Why weren’t there more of these graveyards spread out across the country if there were possibly so many of them? It could be that given the age of them, most graveyards were just plowed over and never found since the ones that were found seemed only buried a foot underground. They could also be laying beneath the surface where forests have overtaken over the years. There’s another possible explanation for this too.
The Nanticoke Indians of Maryland had a custom of exhuming their dead long after burial. They would then cut off the flesh and burn it while drying the bones and wrapping them in clean cloths. They would then rebury these bones and whenever they moved, they would dig them back up and take them with them. This tribe had moved down to western Pennsylvania and some came to the Muskingum valley with the Shawanese. There were two former Nanticoke tribesman who converted at Shoenbrunn who were with Zeisberger while he was in Lichtenau. One of them supposedly confirmed that this pygmy graveyard was in fact an ancient Nanticoke burying ground and the final resting place of their ancestors who were carried from one place to another for hundreds of years before finally ending up in Coshocton County. Either these pygmies really were a part of a Native American tribe, or they could have had similar traits. It may be that these pygmy graveyards are the results of hundreds of years of a tribe bringing their ancestor’s remains with them, which leads to a single vast graveyard dotting the landscape occasionally as the tribe moved.
Therefore, either these pygmies are a part of a Native American tribe that there are no stories passed down about at all or there is something else that occurred. Since there are no remaining skeletons to examine, conjecture can only be used at this point. If we follow the theory proposed by Dr. Virgilio R. Pilapil and combine that with recent discoveries, a bigger picture starts to emerge. In 2020, researchers from all over the world formed a team headed by Eske Willerslev, the head of the Danish National Research Foundation, and have been mapping the genetic immigration of Southeast Asians to determine what happened to the pygmies there. Thousands of years ago, Southeast Asia’s inhabitants would resemble African pygmies and not those of what we see today. They were of small stature and most likely were Africans that had migrated there. DNA from bones and teeth of these inhabitants were examined of those that lived there within 8,000 years ago. It appears that there were four immigrations that changed the peoples of the area.
About 60,000-70,000 years ago, African pygmies left their continent and would eventually settle into Southeastern Asia around 40,000 years ago. They lived there relatively undisturbed for about 36,000 years. Around 4,000 years ago a group from the present Chinese area immigrated there and brought agriculture and rice with them. Another immigration occurred about 2,000 years ago as well. When these immigrations occurred, it appears that some of the original pygmies withdrew to the smaller Southeast Asian islands and others mixed with the groups immigrating in with them. This leads to two interesting possibilities. It very well could be a reason that most Southeast Asians are physically smaller than Europeans because there is evidence that the pygmies interbred with the immigrants. It could also be why the Philippines and Malaysia still contain pygmies to this day and that these are the direct descendants. The research does show us though that there was a movement of these people about 4,000 years ago to other places.
Dr. Pilapil’s theory already states that he believes that the pygmies of Tennessee are these same Southeast Asian pygmies, by comparison of the notes on the pygmies found in Tennessee with that of the Aeta tribes and how their bone structure was similar. If these pygmies travelled from Southeast Asia all the way to Tennessee, it’s not difficult to imagine that they could easily travel more and the pygmies of Missouri and Coshocton are not Native Americans but rather displaced Southeast Asians that made their way to America sometime in the last 4,000 years. He stated this theory nearly 30 years before research showed that these people did emigrate at around that time frame. Of course, these inhabitants couldn’t just walk across the water, but their possible relatives could show us an example of how ancient people sometimes defied the odds and ended up where they shouldn’t have been able to be.
Homo Floresiensis is considered a separate species from Homo Sapiens and the island they were found on is completely isolated even at the shallowest moments. The people most likely got there by some sort of raft or similar instance in a complete stroke of luck that paleontologists refer to as a sweepstakes. It is unlikely that the pygmies that ended up in North America had little to any relation to H. Floresiensis but they are a good example of how a primitive society somehow found its way onto an island it was not native to and managed to live for a vast amount of time.
Surprisingly, John Haywood had a similar theory 200 years ago. Haywood was an intelligent man and wrote many books on history and law. He served on the Tennessee Supreme Court and many of his legal texts are still used today. He believed that the pygmies in Tennessee originated in India, China and Tibet and then emigrated to Sarmatia, which is in present day Iran, between 500 BC to 400 AD. Then they went to Greece and then Finland. His theory then ends with them crossing from Greenland into North America. Which, if they followed this route downwards, it’s possible they would go through Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and then Tennessee or west to Missouri. There is some evidence to back his claims up as well. In the 16th century, an Italian historian wrote of pygmies in the regions of Finland and Sweden. There were also many jade-like stone instruments found in the graves buried with the pygmies in Tennessee. Jade is more commonly found in India and China and could have been something these people carried with them throughout the migration.
Haywood’s research was thorough and intriguing. So much so that Joseph Henry took an interest. Henry was the first secretary of the Smithsonian at the time and Henry sent a team to investigate the Tennessee pygmies in 1876 for a Smithsonian exhibit. The team unearthed a newly discovered pygmy grave measuring just twenty-six inches long but having a full set of adult teeth. The team estimated that the bones were between 300-400 years old and seemed to be evidence that there was no hoax occurring and the pygmy graveyards being found are indeed real. Unfortunately, Haywood and Henry would die soon after this and their mutual interest in the pygmy graves would fade away from the scientific community.
Taking those broken fragments of history and trying to weave a complete picture isn’t easy and most likely, nobody will ever know the truth. It is known that pygmies exist and it’s also fairly accepted that pygmies seemed to originate in Africa and then move to Asia. The graveyards found in North America do appear to have contained actual pygmies, although the amount will never be able to be verified. Even though Native American tribes speak of pygmies and little people, none lay claim to having them as a part of them. Given the scientific study of modern pygmies and relating these to the documented skeletal remains found in the graves in North America, the two do seem comparable. Finally, the newly released research of the emigration of Southeast Asian pygmies and their known leaving of the areas they lived in about 4,000 years ago shows that they did indeed move about and possibly could have made it to North America. It could be theorized then, that the pygmy puzzle of Coshocton County and even of North America is that Southeast Asian pygmies and not Native American pygmies are who occupied these very lands hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Sources:
- Pilapil, Virgilio R.; "Was There a Prehistoric Migration of the Philippine Aetas to America?" Epigraphic Society, Occasional Papers, 20:150, 1991.
- Haywood, J. (1823). The natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee up to the first settlements therein by the White People, in the year 1768. Printed by G. Wilson.
- Bahmer, W. J. (1983). Centennial History of Coshocton County, Ohio. S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
- A Departed Race of Pygmies. (1876, January 7). The Columbian, pp. 1.
- Archaic migrations to North America& Robert Morritt. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2022, from http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/bronze/archaic.htm
- Tennessee Pygmies. (1876, March 24). The New York Times.
- Jungers, W. and Baab, K. (2009), The geometry of hobbits: Homo floresiensis and human evolution. Significance, 6: 159-164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2009.00389.x
- Smith, K. E. (2013). Tennessee’s Ancient Pygmy Graveyards: The “Wonder of the Western Country.” Tennessee Archaeology, 7(1), 42–75.
- Aidup. (2020, November 5). Ancient pygmy genes traced in Southeast Asia's genetic landscape. Danish National Research Foundation. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://dg.dk/en/ancient-pygmy-genes-traced-in-southeast-asias-genetic-landscape/
- Native American Little People of myth and legend. Native American Indian Little People. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2022, from http://www.native-languages.org/little-people.htm
- Hunt, W. E. (1993). Historical Collections of Coshocton County, Ohio: A complete panorama of the county, from the time of the earliest known occupants of the territory unto the present time, 1764-1876. Higginson Book Co.
- Weir, J. (1896, May). The Pygmy in the United States. Popular Science Monthly, 49, 47–56.
Bianca Roberson: Waterways of Coshocton County (HONORABLE MENTION WINNER)
Throughout the county of Coshocton in east central Ohio, many waterways can be
discovered. The rivers being the Muskingum, Walhonding, Kokosing, Tuscarawas, and Mohican
along with many creeks that serve as tributaries to these rivers. The primary of these rivers being
the Muskingum; the Walhonding, Mohican, and Tuscarawas river are all principal tributaries of
it. Combined, these rivers cover a total of approximately 362 miles. In addition to these rivers,
there are multiple dams in relation to them and various creeks that are tributaries branching out
from them. The most notable of these dams being the Mohawk Dam, Wills Creek Dam, and the
Six Mile Dam. Each of these water sources provide greatly for both the individuals living in
Coshocton County and the wildlife, as well as many appearing throughout historical events that
have occurred within the county.
The Muskingum River is the largest river in Ohio with a total length of approximately
112 miles and is a tributary to the Ohio River (“Muskingum River”). The river starts in
Coshocton county with the conjunction of the Walhonding and Tuscarawas rivers. From there the
river is joined by the Licking River before finally draining into the Ohio River in Marietta, Ohio.
A large variety of fish call the Muskingum River home. Such as walleye, flathead catfish,
largemouth bass, channel catfish, and many others (“Fish Muskingum River”). A plethora of
birds and other wildlife also find their habitat to be located alongside the river (“Muskingum
River State Park”). The Muskingum River proves to be vastly important throughout much of
Ohio’s early history. Initially, the Muskingum was rather difficult to use for means of
transportation for the founders of Marietta and this continued through the beginning of Ohio’s
statehood. As previously stated, the Muskingum River is formed by the Walhonding and
Tuscarawas Rivers. In present day Coshocton, we mark the confluence of these two rivers with
the Three Rivers Bridge of State Route 541 to take you into the City of Coshocton. There was
once a Delaware Settlement where this bridge is located today. This settlement had the name
Koshachkink which appeared in Moravian documents being spelled as Goschachkung. The
meaning of the word Koshachkink is shown in Munsee dialect form to mean “where there is a
river crossing”. This definition is very fitting for the particular area being nearly surrounded by
flowing rivers on either side. It would be fair to make the assumption that the word Coshocton
was a poor interpretation of Koshachkink, it is more closely related to the Delaware word
“Kosh'/'ochk/t/oon” which similarly means a river-crossing device (Mahr 145). A large amount
of current day Coshocton is due to the creations that stemmed from the Delaware Tribe and their
usage of the land that is considered present day Coshocton County.
Being one of the only rivers to start and end within the same county, the Walhonding
River is another addition to the rivers within Coshocton County. At a mere 24 miles long, it is
still influential to the creation of the Muskingum River. At the confluence of the Kokosing and
Mohican Rivers, thus begins the start of the Walhonding. The ending of the river is located at
what is known as the Three Rivers Bridge in Coshocton where the Walhonding and Tuscarawas
Rivers meet to form the Muskingum. There are claims that the name Walhonding comes from the
Indian name for “White Woman” (Walhonding Valley Historical Society).
The Kokosing River is one of the rivers that usually runs more shallow but still reaches
57 miles in length and contributes to the Mississippi River watershed. While the Kokosing starts
in Morrow County east of Coshocton County, the mouth of the river is the previously mentioned
Walhonding River. The river is part of the Kokosing Lake Wildlife Center which was created as
a way to control flooding and recreational purposes by the United States Army Corps in 1971
(“Kokosing Lake Wildlife Area”). As also stated on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources
website about the Kokosing Lake Wildlife Center, the Wildlife Division of the ODNR has
licenses for over one thousand acres of land to be used for wildlife purposes. Similar to most
rivers within Coshocton, some of the major fish that can be found are largemouth bass, bluegill,
channel catfish, and crappie.
As one of the longest rivers in Coshocton County, the Tuscarawas River reaches 129
miles in length and is known to be a principal tributary of the Muskingum River. With having
such a great length, the river passes through four separate counties. Being all the way in Akron, it
flows until meeting with the Walhonding River in order to create the Muskingum River
(“Tuscarawas River Water Trail”). Located along the river is the Tuscarawas River Water Trail
which provides great opportunities of fishing, kayaking, and swimming for local individuals.
This river was essential to the Delaware Tribe as they used it for both travel and trade routes. The
name for the river stems from the word Tuscarawi which was used to commemorate the
Iroquoian Tuscarora Indians (Mahr 145). The Delaware Tribe called the Tuscarawas Valley home
and with this came the wonderful resource of the river being readily available.
While only a small portion of the Mohican River flows in Coshocton County, it is a
primary tributary to the Walhonding River. At 40 miles in length, the Mohican River flows from
Ashland County through Holmes and Knox Counties before ending in Coshocton after meeting
the Kokosing River. The Mohican River Water Trail was created in order for there to be
improved public access to all the river has to offer. The Water Trail allows access to paved trails,
picnic areas, and various activities to be done on the water (“Mohican River Water Trail”).
Coshocton County contains many important watersheds of the Mississippi and Ohio
Rivers. The Muskingum, Walhonding, Kokosing, Tuscarawas, and Mohican Rivers all play
important roles to the wildlife of Coshocton and the neighboring counties. These rivers all
provide an environment for wildlife and vegetation to thrive in and were essential elements to the
formation of Coshocton County. With looking into the history of Coshocton it is clear to see that
Native American Tribes were able to thrive as well as history shows due to the fact of how
nearby flowing rivers and streams were with all of their needed resources. Having such
prosperous flowing water throughout the country was essential in the establishment of such a
wonderful land and without these rivers and Native American Tribes, the development of
Coshocton County would appear differently throughout history.
Works Cited
“Fish Muskingum River - Coshocton County, Ohio.” Lake-Link,
https://www.lake-link.com/ohio-lakes/coshocton-county/muskingum-river/23594/?CFID
=396104442&CFTOKEN=1f7f73e4f5fe207d-DDDC2DBF-E035-AF44-EABAE3BEE83
4CBEC. Accessed 22 October 2022.
“Kokosing Lake Wildlife Area.” Ohio Department of Natural Resources,
https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/kokosing-lake-wildlife-area.
Accessed 29 October 2022.
Mahr, August C. “Indian River and Place Names in Ohio.” OHJ Archive,
https://resources.ohiohistory.org/ohj/search/display.php?page=10&ipp=20&vol=66&page
s=137-158. Accessed 29 October 2022.
“Mohican River Water Trail.” Ohio Department of Natural Resources,
https://ohiodnr.gov/static/documents/parks/watertrails/MohicanRiverWaterTrail.pdf.
Accessed 1 November 2022.
“Muskingum River State Park.” Ohio Department of Natural Resources,
https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/muskingum-river-state-park.
Accessed 22 October 2022.
“Muskingum River | Three Rivers Quest | West Virginia University.” Three Rivers Quest, 30
October 2019, https://3riversquest.wvu.edu/news/blog/2019/10/30/muskingum-river.
Accessed 9 October 2022.
“Native American Place and River Names in the Coshocton County Area.” Visit Coshocton -,
https://www.visitcoshocton.com/images/Native-American-Place-and-River-Names-Cosh
octon-Ohio.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2022.
“Top Dams in Coshocton County, OH.” Anyplace America,
https://www.anyplaceamerica.com/directory/oh/coshocton-county-39031/dams/.
Accessed 21 October 2022.
“Tuscarawas River.” NTR Canoe Livery, http://www.canoe-ohio.com/river.html. Accessed 1
November 2022.
“Tuscarawas River Water Trail - Tuscarawas River Water Trail.” Muskingum Watershed,
https://www.mwcd.org/enjoy-our-lakes/trail-system/water-trails/tuscarawas-river-water-tr
ail. Accessed 29 October 2022.
discovered. The rivers being the Muskingum, Walhonding, Kokosing, Tuscarawas, and Mohican
along with many creeks that serve as tributaries to these rivers. The primary of these rivers being
the Muskingum; the Walhonding, Mohican, and Tuscarawas river are all principal tributaries of
it. Combined, these rivers cover a total of approximately 362 miles. In addition to these rivers,
there are multiple dams in relation to them and various creeks that are tributaries branching out
from them. The most notable of these dams being the Mohawk Dam, Wills Creek Dam, and the
Six Mile Dam. Each of these water sources provide greatly for both the individuals living in
Coshocton County and the wildlife, as well as many appearing throughout historical events that
have occurred within the county.
The Muskingum River is the largest river in Ohio with a total length of approximately
112 miles and is a tributary to the Ohio River (“Muskingum River”). The river starts in
Coshocton county with the conjunction of the Walhonding and Tuscarawas rivers. From there the
river is joined by the Licking River before finally draining into the Ohio River in Marietta, Ohio.
A large variety of fish call the Muskingum River home. Such as walleye, flathead catfish,
largemouth bass, channel catfish, and many others (“Fish Muskingum River”). A plethora of
birds and other wildlife also find their habitat to be located alongside the river (“Muskingum
River State Park”). The Muskingum River proves to be vastly important throughout much of
Ohio’s early history. Initially, the Muskingum was rather difficult to use for means of
transportation for the founders of Marietta and this continued through the beginning of Ohio’s
statehood. As previously stated, the Muskingum River is formed by the Walhonding and
Tuscarawas Rivers. In present day Coshocton, we mark the confluence of these two rivers with
the Three Rivers Bridge of State Route 541 to take you into the City of Coshocton. There was
once a Delaware Settlement where this bridge is located today. This settlement had the name
Koshachkink which appeared in Moravian documents being spelled as Goschachkung. The
meaning of the word Koshachkink is shown in Munsee dialect form to mean “where there is a
river crossing”. This definition is very fitting for the particular area being nearly surrounded by
flowing rivers on either side. It would be fair to make the assumption that the word Coshocton
was a poor interpretation of Koshachkink, it is more closely related to the Delaware word
“Kosh'/'ochk/t/oon” which similarly means a river-crossing device (Mahr 145). A large amount
of current day Coshocton is due to the creations that stemmed from the Delaware Tribe and their
usage of the land that is considered present day Coshocton County.
Being one of the only rivers to start and end within the same county, the Walhonding
River is another addition to the rivers within Coshocton County. At a mere 24 miles long, it is
still influential to the creation of the Muskingum River. At the confluence of the Kokosing and
Mohican Rivers, thus begins the start of the Walhonding. The ending of the river is located at
what is known as the Three Rivers Bridge in Coshocton where the Walhonding and Tuscarawas
Rivers meet to form the Muskingum. There are claims that the name Walhonding comes from the
Indian name for “White Woman” (Walhonding Valley Historical Society).
The Kokosing River is one of the rivers that usually runs more shallow but still reaches
57 miles in length and contributes to the Mississippi River watershed. While the Kokosing starts
in Morrow County east of Coshocton County, the mouth of the river is the previously mentioned
Walhonding River. The river is part of the Kokosing Lake Wildlife Center which was created as
a way to control flooding and recreational purposes by the United States Army Corps in 1971
(“Kokosing Lake Wildlife Area”). As also stated on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources
website about the Kokosing Lake Wildlife Center, the Wildlife Division of the ODNR has
licenses for over one thousand acres of land to be used for wildlife purposes. Similar to most
rivers within Coshocton, some of the major fish that can be found are largemouth bass, bluegill,
channel catfish, and crappie.
As one of the longest rivers in Coshocton County, the Tuscarawas River reaches 129
miles in length and is known to be a principal tributary of the Muskingum River. With having
such a great length, the river passes through four separate counties. Being all the way in Akron, it
flows until meeting with the Walhonding River in order to create the Muskingum River
(“Tuscarawas River Water Trail”). Located along the river is the Tuscarawas River Water Trail
which provides great opportunities of fishing, kayaking, and swimming for local individuals.
This river was essential to the Delaware Tribe as they used it for both travel and trade routes. The
name for the river stems from the word Tuscarawi which was used to commemorate the
Iroquoian Tuscarora Indians (Mahr 145). The Delaware Tribe called the Tuscarawas Valley home
and with this came the wonderful resource of the river being readily available.
While only a small portion of the Mohican River flows in Coshocton County, it is a
primary tributary to the Walhonding River. At 40 miles in length, the Mohican River flows from
Ashland County through Holmes and Knox Counties before ending in Coshocton after meeting
the Kokosing River. The Mohican River Water Trail was created in order for there to be
improved public access to all the river has to offer. The Water Trail allows access to paved trails,
picnic areas, and various activities to be done on the water (“Mohican River Water Trail”).
Coshocton County contains many important watersheds of the Mississippi and Ohio
Rivers. The Muskingum, Walhonding, Kokosing, Tuscarawas, and Mohican Rivers all play
important roles to the wildlife of Coshocton and the neighboring counties. These rivers all
provide an environment for wildlife and vegetation to thrive in and were essential elements to the
formation of Coshocton County. With looking into the history of Coshocton it is clear to see that
Native American Tribes were able to thrive as well as history shows due to the fact of how
nearby flowing rivers and streams were with all of their needed resources. Having such
prosperous flowing water throughout the country was essential in the establishment of such a
wonderful land and without these rivers and Native American Tribes, the development of
Coshocton County would appear differently throughout history.
Works Cited
“Fish Muskingum River - Coshocton County, Ohio.” Lake-Link,
https://www.lake-link.com/ohio-lakes/coshocton-county/muskingum-river/23594/?CFID
=396104442&CFTOKEN=1f7f73e4f5fe207d-DDDC2DBF-E035-AF44-EABAE3BEE83
4CBEC. Accessed 22 October 2022.
“Kokosing Lake Wildlife Area.” Ohio Department of Natural Resources,
https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/kokosing-lake-wildlife-area.
Accessed 29 October 2022.
Mahr, August C. “Indian River and Place Names in Ohio.” OHJ Archive,
https://resources.ohiohistory.org/ohj/search/display.php?page=10&ipp=20&vol=66&page
s=137-158. Accessed 29 October 2022.
“Mohican River Water Trail.” Ohio Department of Natural Resources,
https://ohiodnr.gov/static/documents/parks/watertrails/MohicanRiverWaterTrail.pdf.
Accessed 1 November 2022.
“Muskingum River State Park.” Ohio Department of Natural Resources,
https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/muskingum-river-state-park.
Accessed 22 October 2022.
“Muskingum River | Three Rivers Quest | West Virginia University.” Three Rivers Quest, 30
October 2019, https://3riversquest.wvu.edu/news/blog/2019/10/30/muskingum-river.
Accessed 9 October 2022.
“Native American Place and River Names in the Coshocton County Area.” Visit Coshocton -,
https://www.visitcoshocton.com/images/Native-American-Place-and-River-Names-Cosh
octon-Ohio.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2022.
“Top Dams in Coshocton County, OH.” Anyplace America,
https://www.anyplaceamerica.com/directory/oh/coshocton-county-39031/dams/.
Accessed 21 October 2022.
“Tuscarawas River.” NTR Canoe Livery, http://www.canoe-ohio.com/river.html. Accessed 1
November 2022.
“Tuscarawas River Water Trail - Tuscarawas River Water Trail.” Muskingum Watershed,
https://www.mwcd.org/enjoy-our-lakes/trail-system/water-trails/tuscarawas-river-water-tr
ail. Accessed 29 October 2022.
Jennifer Wilkes: We Walk in the Footsteps of Many (Honorable Mention Winner)
As you live, work and breath in this great state of Ohio have you ever wondered who was here before you? Who else has walked where you now walk? As I drive along the Muskingum River or kayak down the Wakatomika, I think of all the people that have seen this same view as me, the flowing river, hills topped with trees, rocks, and valley views. Who were these people that were here before me? How long ago did they live here and what did they leave behind? To tell this story we need to travel back in time. Many people think of only the Native American Woodland Indians as living in Ohio before we did. In this story you will find out there were many other peoples and cultures that made this land their home in Ohio long before the ‘Indians’.
“Wait, who’s a sister and who’s a cousin?
There’s so many people
How do you keep them all straight?” (Madrigal Song, 2022)
100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us.
Homo sapiens, evolved out of eastern Africa, and spread throughout the world, crossing over the Bering Strait into North America approximately 20,000 years ago. Originally adapted to hunting in the Artic, they soon adjusted to an amazing variety of climates and ecosystems. (Harari 2011) New evidence also points to some Homo Sapiens arriving by boat rather than foot. (Wright 1999)
Regardless of how they got here:
“No other animal had ever moved into such a huge variety of different habitats so quickly, using their same genetic makeup. As we will see, the spread of these foragers would cause a ‘first wave of extinction’ of native animals. (Harari 2011)
“Homo Sapiens hold the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinction. This wave of Sapiens colonization was one of the biggest and swiftest ecological disasters to befall the animal kingdom.” (Harari 2011 P. 72)
“Wait, who’s a sister and who’s a cousin?
There’s so many people
How do you keep them all straight?” (Madrigal Song, 2022)
100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us.
Homo sapiens, evolved out of eastern Africa, and spread throughout the world, crossing over the Bering Strait into North America approximately 20,000 years ago. Originally adapted to hunting in the Artic, they soon adjusted to an amazing variety of climates and ecosystems. (Harari 2011) New evidence also points to some Homo Sapiens arriving by boat rather than foot. (Wright 1999)
Regardless of how they got here:
“No other animal had ever moved into such a huge variety of different habitats so quickly, using their same genetic makeup. As we will see, the spread of these foragers would cause a ‘first wave of extinction’ of native animals. (Harari 2011)
“Homo Sapiens hold the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinction. This wave of Sapiens colonization was one of the biggest and swiftest ecological disasters to befall the animal kingdom.” (Harari 2011 P. 72)
13,000 BC- 5,000 BC – Paleo Indians
At this time, North American and our area of the world was populated by giant animals more commonly called Megafauna: Giant armadillos, Beaver, and Sloths 20’ tall, Wooly Mammoths, Saber toothed Tigers, Short-faced Bears, the American lion and Cheetah; three types of Camels evolved here as well as the Horse. (Balter 2014) Our ancestors, this new dominant predator, we now call Paleo-Indians, over-hunted these giant beasts over a period of 2,000 years. (Harari 2011)
“Homo Sapiens drove to extinction about half of the planet’s big beast long before humans invented the wheel, writing or iron tools. (Harari 2011 P. 72)
There were several factors that contributed to the giant’s demise. First, large animals breed slowly, and soon deaths outnumbered births. Secondly, these Paleo-Indians had honed their hunting skills and used fire agriculture. They deliberately burned vast acres to create open grasslands which made it even easier to hunt game. (Harari 2011) Additionally, some scientist attribute climate change as a factor to their extinction. (Balter 2014)
In Coshocton County, we have our own important Paleo-Indian site, Honey Run, located at the confluence of the Walhonding River and Honey Run creek. The enormous glacier that covered the northern hemisphere of our world ended just above this area, the unglaciated part of Ohio, thus this area has been unchanged for thousands of years. Projectile points, blades, scrapers, and flakes from this period have been found and it has been concluded that it was a workshop for making tools and then the finished articles were exported to other areas. (Prufer/McKenzie 1967 P. 232) Imagine being at Honey Run with these peoples, sharpening their tools, getting ready for a Mastodon hunt!
For more than 10,000 years ancient Indians used flint to make their tools and the flint was quarried right here in Ohio, at what now we call Flint Ridge located just southeast of present-day Newark, Ohio. This was the most important quarry east of the Mississippi River and is known as the ‘Great Indian Quarry of OhIo’. Its Flint was traded throughout North America and quarry pits and workshops are scattered for miles along the 9-mile ridge covering 2,000 acres. Hundreds of shallow pits are still visible when you visit ‘Flint Ridge State Memorial’ which has been quarried for flint for thousands of years. In more recent times, Ohio settlers quarried the flint to be used as fire starters, flintlock guns and grindstones. (Leper, 2009)
At this time, North American and our area of the world was populated by giant animals more commonly called Megafauna: Giant armadillos, Beaver, and Sloths 20’ tall, Wooly Mammoths, Saber toothed Tigers, Short-faced Bears, the American lion and Cheetah; three types of Camels evolved here as well as the Horse. (Balter 2014) Our ancestors, this new dominant predator, we now call Paleo-Indians, over-hunted these giant beasts over a period of 2,000 years. (Harari 2011)
“Homo Sapiens drove to extinction about half of the planet’s big beast long before humans invented the wheel, writing or iron tools. (Harari 2011 P. 72)
There were several factors that contributed to the giant’s demise. First, large animals breed slowly, and soon deaths outnumbered births. Secondly, these Paleo-Indians had honed their hunting skills and used fire agriculture. They deliberately burned vast acres to create open grasslands which made it even easier to hunt game. (Harari 2011) Additionally, some scientist attribute climate change as a factor to their extinction. (Balter 2014)
In Coshocton County, we have our own important Paleo-Indian site, Honey Run, located at the confluence of the Walhonding River and Honey Run creek. The enormous glacier that covered the northern hemisphere of our world ended just above this area, the unglaciated part of Ohio, thus this area has been unchanged for thousands of years. Projectile points, blades, scrapers, and flakes from this period have been found and it has been concluded that it was a workshop for making tools and then the finished articles were exported to other areas. (Prufer/McKenzie 1967 P. 232) Imagine being at Honey Run with these peoples, sharpening their tools, getting ready for a Mastodon hunt!
For more than 10,000 years ancient Indians used flint to make their tools and the flint was quarried right here in Ohio, at what now we call Flint Ridge located just southeast of present-day Newark, Ohio. This was the most important quarry east of the Mississippi River and is known as the ‘Great Indian Quarry of OhIo’. Its Flint was traded throughout North America and quarry pits and workshops are scattered for miles along the 9-mile ridge covering 2,000 acres. Hundreds of shallow pits are still visible when you visit ‘Flint Ridge State Memorial’ which has been quarried for flint for thousands of years. In more recent times, Ohio settlers quarried the flint to be used as fire starters, flintlock guns and grindstones. (Leper, 2009)
Paleo-Indians
5,000 BC - 100 AD - Archaic People
Ask anyone the name of the oldest city in North America and some might say St. Augustine, FL or perhaps an area in the fertile valleys of Ohio. Rather, the first city in North America was located in Louisiana; you can still walk these earth works called Poverty Point, North America’s first true city. This incredible earth work covered more than 400 acres and at its height was the home of several thousand people. In sheer size, it would remain unmatched for another 1,500 years. (Gear, 2003)
These people traded for goods as far north as Wisconsin and their distinctive artifacts have been found as far away as Florida and Ohio. Their architecture suggests two social divisions that contain three clans each. They were hunter-gatherers; intensive corn production would not catch on for another 2,000 years. They ate everything that walked, crawled, swam, burrowed, and grew in their environment. The surplus in resources allowed this remarkable cultural achievement. (Gear, 2003)
“We believe that Poverty Point was to North America what the Fertile Crescent was to Europe: The place that generated and disseminated cultural concepts that would influence subsequent cultures across the eastern woodlands.” (Gear, 2003 P. 5)
Ask anyone the name of the oldest city in North America and some might say St. Augustine, FL or perhaps an area in the fertile valleys of Ohio. Rather, the first city in North America was located in Louisiana; you can still walk these earth works called Poverty Point, North America’s first true city. This incredible earth work covered more than 400 acres and at its height was the home of several thousand people. In sheer size, it would remain unmatched for another 1,500 years. (Gear, 2003)
These people traded for goods as far north as Wisconsin and their distinctive artifacts have been found as far away as Florida and Ohio. Their architecture suggests two social divisions that contain three clans each. They were hunter-gatherers; intensive corn production would not catch on for another 2,000 years. They ate everything that walked, crawled, swam, burrowed, and grew in their environment. The surplus in resources allowed this remarkable cultural achievement. (Gear, 2003)
“We believe that Poverty Point was to North America what the Fertile Crescent was to Europe: The place that generated and disseminated cultural concepts that would influence subsequent cultures across the eastern woodlands.” (Gear, 2003 P. 5)
Poverty Point
0 AD – 400 AD Middle Woodland
Around the time of Christ, what are now called Middle Woodland People lived throughout eastern North
America. Remnants of their magnificent culture are scattered from Canada to Florida and as far west as
Texas. They were known by many names but the two groups we had living here in Ohio were the Aden Hopewell. The Ohio Adena actually date back to 700 BC; Burial remains have shown the Adena to have a flat head, most likely caused by being bound tightly to a cradleboard as infants, excavated skulls actually have a flat shape! The Ohio Hopewell, seems to have merged with the Adena to produce a golden age beginning around 1 AD. (Gear, 1994)
They were sophisticated traders, artisans, and monument builders. But they nevertheless appear to have had no cities or chiefs. Rather, they traded everywhere, traversing the rivers and in so doing they spread knowledge of patterned pottery, geometric earthworks, exotic burial tombs and stone and metal trade goods. Thousands of gigantic ceremonial earthworks and lavish tombs are found throughout the eastern half of the continent but fewer than a dozen of their houses have been located. (Gear, 1994)
Around the time of Christ, what are now called Middle Woodland People lived throughout eastern North
America. Remnants of their magnificent culture are scattered from Canada to Florida and as far west as
Texas. They were known by many names but the two groups we had living here in Ohio were the Aden Hopewell. The Ohio Adena actually date back to 700 BC; Burial remains have shown the Adena to have a flat head, most likely caused by being bound tightly to a cradleboard as infants, excavated skulls actually have a flat shape! The Ohio Hopewell, seems to have merged with the Adena to produce a golden age beginning around 1 AD. (Gear, 1994)
They were sophisticated traders, artisans, and monument builders. But they nevertheless appear to have had no cities or chiefs. Rather, they traded everywhere, traversing the rivers and in so doing they spread knowledge of patterned pottery, geometric earthworks, exotic burial tombs and stone and metal trade goods. Thousands of gigantic ceremonial earthworks and lavish tombs are found throughout the eastern half of the continent but fewer than a dozen of their houses have been located. (Gear, 1994)
Serpent Mound – with Solar Alignments
The Hopewell people are also called Mound Builders, named for what they left behind - Earthen
Mounds. I think we have all heard of some of the mounds that they left behind: Serpent Mound, The Newark Earthworks, but you may be surprised to know that there are still hundreds of mounds, forts, and animal effigies still visible today in the state of Ohio. According to Zimmerman’s A travel guide to the ancient ruins of the Ohio valley, 34 of the 88 counties in Ohio still have evidence of these ancient peoples! Some include an elaborate Fort Ancient north of Chillicothe – called Mound City, an effigy alligator south of Newark or the stonework Fort 10’ high in Perry County. There are hundreds of mounds visible in Ohio you just need to know where to look. Some have been excavated and studied, most were leveled with a plow or built on or around. (Zimmerman,2010)
Mounds. I think we have all heard of some of the mounds that they left behind: Serpent Mound, The Newark Earthworks, but you may be surprised to know that there are still hundreds of mounds, forts, and animal effigies still visible today in the state of Ohio. According to Zimmerman’s A travel guide to the ancient ruins of the Ohio valley, 34 of the 88 counties in Ohio still have evidence of these ancient peoples! Some include an elaborate Fort Ancient north of Chillicothe – called Mound City, an effigy alligator south of Newark or the stonework Fort 10’ high in Perry County. There are hundreds of mounds visible in Ohio you just need to know where to look. Some have been excavated and studied, most were leveled with a plow or built on or around. (Zimmerman,2010)
Hopewell-Adena Earthworks/Newark
I found an old scrap book at the Licking County Historical Society that explained what the 4 square miles of the Newark Earthwork Mounds looked like when Europeans first ‘discovered them’:
“This group of mounds first became known to white settlers of Licking Valley, in 1800, all of them being then covered with dense growth of forest trees, many of the trees having a circumference of more than 10’ in diameter and showing with their growth rings having an age of 500 years. A heavy undergrowth also covered the works, almost hiding them from view. In short, they were situated in the wilderness when the pioneers of the valley discovered them” (Licking C. P. 2) It has been said that the woodland Indians at this time had no idea who built these mounds, and the builders were just referred to as the ‘old ones.’
It is interesting to note the Mound Builders Golf Course in Newark has had people playing golf inside of the Octagon Mound for years. There is now talk of closing the golf course and making it an historical site. Usually when a mound is opened skeletons are found, copper beads, spearheads, mica, pearls, shells, and pot shards. Here is an excerpt from the Athens Messenger in 1878 of an opening of a mound entitled: ‘A Homer Township Mound Opened’
“Mr. Carpenter hitched his team to a road scraper and took off about 2’ off the top, a vault 4’ deep was discovered. Nine skeletons were packed in with a large flat stone on each. Curiosity seekers are beginning to carry away portions of the skeletons, the teeth were sound as a dollar. The neighbor boys have about all tried their hand in extracting them until not more than 2-3 are left. Mr. Parson told us a good many interesting things about this wonderful Mound and its dead. He said they belong to a race of people of greater antiquity than the red devils who are making such a row in the Northwest just now. Humph! We call this the new world. Wouldn’t it be better to call it the old? Who are these “Moundbuilders?” (Zimmerman, P.47)
I cringe to hear how callous and without ceremony past lives were dug up. I like the story of the cemetery in Preble County where they used a mound to bury soldiers in the 1860’s but also kept the past occupant:
“They uncovered the bones of an entire human skeleton, a large man buried standing up. They deposited the box of the soldiers in the center and built up the foundation and a monument over the box: the modern soldiers and the ancient warrior peacefully asleep side by side.” (Zimmerman, P. 127)
The Mound at Miamisburg in Montgomery County is Ohio’s tallest Mound. A stairway goes to the viewing stand 68’ high and 852’ in circumference. (Hill, 1861) There’s even Mounds in Coshocton County. They are located 2 miles south of Coshocton city on the Porteus estate. In 1896 it was examined; there was pottery fragments, charcoal, bones, a 6” spearhead and some flint chips. The mounds can still be seen and are located off 83S, along County Road 271. (Zimmerman,2010)
This Hopewell culture domesticated many plants that we now consider weeds: goosefoot, marsh elder, knotweed, maygrass, little barley. Only the sunflower and squash remain. Some traces of corn appeared during this time, but it did not catch on until 400 AD. In fact, some believe that corn might have contributed to the demise of the Hopewellian world by producing food surplus causing a collapse of their small farmsteads and trade. This change would then form the next cultural group, the Late Woodland people. (Gear 1994)
400 AD- 800 AD Late Woodland
The late woodland period is characterized by a sharp decline in mound building and the absence of exotic trade goods. Villages began to appear, many with fortified earth or log enclosures. This indicated social stress and perhaps even warfare. (Gear 1994)
Ohio has quite a few cultural sites from this period that have been excavated. Chesser Cave, located in Southeastern Vinton County has been confirmed by Radiocarbon dating and Pottery, flint tools, shells and bone tools are also confirmed to be from this time period. Written Rock, located in Fairfield County is located beneath a rock ledge of Black Hand stone and lies along Clear Creek. It is 800’ above sea level and the shelter 60’ X 10’ deep and contained pottery and projectile points. (Gear 2010)
“This group of mounds first became known to white settlers of Licking Valley, in 1800, all of them being then covered with dense growth of forest trees, many of the trees having a circumference of more than 10’ in diameter and showing with their growth rings having an age of 500 years. A heavy undergrowth also covered the works, almost hiding them from view. In short, they were situated in the wilderness when the pioneers of the valley discovered them” (Licking C. P. 2) It has been said that the woodland Indians at this time had no idea who built these mounds, and the builders were just referred to as the ‘old ones.’
It is interesting to note the Mound Builders Golf Course in Newark has had people playing golf inside of the Octagon Mound for years. There is now talk of closing the golf course and making it an historical site. Usually when a mound is opened skeletons are found, copper beads, spearheads, mica, pearls, shells, and pot shards. Here is an excerpt from the Athens Messenger in 1878 of an opening of a mound entitled: ‘A Homer Township Mound Opened’
“Mr. Carpenter hitched his team to a road scraper and took off about 2’ off the top, a vault 4’ deep was discovered. Nine skeletons were packed in with a large flat stone on each. Curiosity seekers are beginning to carry away portions of the skeletons, the teeth were sound as a dollar. The neighbor boys have about all tried their hand in extracting them until not more than 2-3 are left. Mr. Parson told us a good many interesting things about this wonderful Mound and its dead. He said they belong to a race of people of greater antiquity than the red devils who are making such a row in the Northwest just now. Humph! We call this the new world. Wouldn’t it be better to call it the old? Who are these “Moundbuilders?” (Zimmerman, P.47)
I cringe to hear how callous and without ceremony past lives were dug up. I like the story of the cemetery in Preble County where they used a mound to bury soldiers in the 1860’s but also kept the past occupant:
“They uncovered the bones of an entire human skeleton, a large man buried standing up. They deposited the box of the soldiers in the center and built up the foundation and a monument over the box: the modern soldiers and the ancient warrior peacefully asleep side by side.” (Zimmerman, P. 127)
The Mound at Miamisburg in Montgomery County is Ohio’s tallest Mound. A stairway goes to the viewing stand 68’ high and 852’ in circumference. (Hill, 1861) There’s even Mounds in Coshocton County. They are located 2 miles south of Coshocton city on the Porteus estate. In 1896 it was examined; there was pottery fragments, charcoal, bones, a 6” spearhead and some flint chips. The mounds can still be seen and are located off 83S, along County Road 271. (Zimmerman,2010)
This Hopewell culture domesticated many plants that we now consider weeds: goosefoot, marsh elder, knotweed, maygrass, little barley. Only the sunflower and squash remain. Some traces of corn appeared during this time, but it did not catch on until 400 AD. In fact, some believe that corn might have contributed to the demise of the Hopewellian world by producing food surplus causing a collapse of their small farmsteads and trade. This change would then form the next cultural group, the Late Woodland people. (Gear 1994)
400 AD- 800 AD Late Woodland
The late woodland period is characterized by a sharp decline in mound building and the absence of exotic trade goods. Villages began to appear, many with fortified earth or log enclosures. This indicated social stress and perhaps even warfare. (Gear 1994)
Ohio has quite a few cultural sites from this period that have been excavated. Chesser Cave, located in Southeastern Vinton County has been confirmed by Radiocarbon dating and Pottery, flint tools, shells and bone tools are also confirmed to be from this time period. Written Rock, located in Fairfield County is located beneath a rock ledge of Black Hand stone and lies along Clear Creek. It is 800’ above sea level and the shelter 60’ X 10’ deep and contained pottery and projectile points. (Gear 2010)
1,000 AD – 1350 AD Iroquoian Culture
1,000 AD was the beginning of the Iroquoian period and something dramatic happened that would change the world as we know it. This period started out with persons living in small villages, usually by water and ended up with persons crowding together with palisaded walls of what were called Longhouses, some having been excavated were over 200’ X 300’! These people became matrilineal, tracing their descent through the female and became dependent on corn-beans-squash. Cannibalism appeared in the form of cut and cooked human bones and artifacts made from bones are plentiful. Some of these include ground & polished leg bones, arm bones used for scraping tools and beads. Jaws, fingers, and toe bones were used for pendants. They had beautiful burial rituals to make certain their loved ones reached the Land of the Dead but since these human bones were not cared for in that fashion it suggests the bones came from their enemy captives. (Gear, 2010)
So why were people crowded behind walls, suggesting that there was war? The climate had grown cooler and drier, drought was more frequent and food shortages more common. The necessity of moving the village more frequently brought them in conflict with other people who also desperately needed food sources, which means they were not fighting off strangers, they were fighting their neighbors for survival.
But this violence was the catalyst for one of the most important events in the history of the world. It led to the establishment of the ‘Great Law of Peace’ and the founding of the ‘League of the Iroquois’. Without the League, the U.S. would not exist today or our unique understanding of Democracy, one-person, one-vote. These were not European beliefs, they were Iroquoian. (Gear, 2010)
1,000 AD was the beginning of the Iroquoian period and something dramatic happened that would change the world as we know it. This period started out with persons living in small villages, usually by water and ended up with persons crowding together with palisaded walls of what were called Longhouses, some having been excavated were over 200’ X 300’! These people became matrilineal, tracing their descent through the female and became dependent on corn-beans-squash. Cannibalism appeared in the form of cut and cooked human bones and artifacts made from bones are plentiful. Some of these include ground & polished leg bones, arm bones used for scraping tools and beads. Jaws, fingers, and toe bones were used for pendants. They had beautiful burial rituals to make certain their loved ones reached the Land of the Dead but since these human bones were not cared for in that fashion it suggests the bones came from their enemy captives. (Gear, 2010)
So why were people crowded behind walls, suggesting that there was war? The climate had grown cooler and drier, drought was more frequent and food shortages more common. The necessity of moving the village more frequently brought them in conflict with other people who also desperately needed food sources, which means they were not fighting off strangers, they were fighting their neighbors for survival.
But this violence was the catalyst for one of the most important events in the history of the world. It led to the establishment of the ‘Great Law of Peace’ and the founding of the ‘League of the Iroquois’. Without the League, the U.S. would not exist today or our unique understanding of Democracy, one-person, one-vote. These were not European beliefs, they were Iroquoian. (Gear, 2010)
“The Iroquois refused to put power in the hands of any single person, lest that power be abused. The League taught that a system of government should preserve individual rights while striving to ensure public welfare; it should reward initiative, champion tolerance, and establish in alienable human rights. They accepted as fact that men and women were equal and respected diversity of peoples, their religion, economic and political ideals, their dreams.” (Gear, 2010 P.18)
That passion for democracy would race around the globe and shape what would be known as the ‘Free World’.
1700 AD - Delaware Indians in Coshocton County
In the early 1700’s the Iroquois needed more resources and expanded their territory into Ohio. Fleeing
European settlers, the Delaware migrated in from the East and the Shawnee from the Southeast into Ohio. Where Coshocton County is now located is where the Delaware settled or as they like to be called the Lenape or ‘Original people’ since many tribes are offshoots of the Delaware.
That passion for democracy would race around the globe and shape what would be known as the ‘Free World’.
1700 AD - Delaware Indians in Coshocton County
In the early 1700’s the Iroquois needed more resources and expanded their territory into Ohio. Fleeing
European settlers, the Delaware migrated in from the East and the Shawnee from the Southeast into Ohio. Where Coshocton County is now located is where the Delaware settled or as they like to be called the Lenape or ‘Original people’ since many tribes are offshoots of the Delaware.
The present-day Delaware tribe numbering 1,400 people call Oklahoma their home. They believe that because they joined the war against the British, the Colonist were able to win independence during the Revolutionary War. The Delaware were the first Indian Nation to sign a Treaty with the Europeans and in 1778 was promised Statehood to become the 14th state in the Union, earning a seat in Congress. But before the treaty could be signed, ‘Colonel’ Chief White Eyes, leader of the Delaware was shot.
Colonel Chief White Eyes
The Delaware were sent to the reservation in Oklahoma where they now want to be acknowledged for their part in American History. The present day members of the Delaware tribe are proud of their heritage, language, and history. (Delaware, 2009)
So Many Feet
I think it is interesting to note that some of the excavated sites located in Coshocton County contain artifacts from ALL of these past people that walked here before us and in these different periods of history.
For instance, the Bently Site, located overlooking the Hocking River and Monday Creek include a glacial lake that extends approximately 50 acres and apparently, was a very good location! This site contains Paleo-Indian projectiles points, Archaic scrapers, Early Woodland points, Hopewell triangular points as well as Late Woodland drills. This gives us the evidence that the location was a unique, favorable site and was used continuously though out many thousands of years of human habitation! (Prufer/McKenzie, 1967)
Now you know who walked on this land before you! Even before Homo Sapiens arrived back in 20,000 BC the Huge, Megaflora animal giants transversed this land more than 2 million years ago. When Man arrived in North American, they were barefoot, as their culture progressed, they wore shoes of plant fibers, corn husks and leather. We are walking in the footsteps of many other peoples that have come here before us. These peoples left behind their tools, bones, and earthen monuments. What will WE, you might wonder, as a ‘modern’ society leave behind for other future peoples to discover about us?
So Many Feet
I think it is interesting to note that some of the excavated sites located in Coshocton County contain artifacts from ALL of these past people that walked here before us and in these different periods of history.
For instance, the Bently Site, located overlooking the Hocking River and Monday Creek include a glacial lake that extends approximately 50 acres and apparently, was a very good location! This site contains Paleo-Indian projectiles points, Archaic scrapers, Early Woodland points, Hopewell triangular points as well as Late Woodland drills. This gives us the evidence that the location was a unique, favorable site and was used continuously though out many thousands of years of human habitation! (Prufer/McKenzie, 1967)
Now you know who walked on this land before you! Even before Homo Sapiens arrived back in 20,000 BC the Huge, Megaflora animal giants transversed this land more than 2 million years ago. When Man arrived in North American, they were barefoot, as their culture progressed, they wore shoes of plant fibers, corn husks and leather. We are walking in the footsteps of many other peoples that have come here before us. These peoples left behind their tools, bones, and earthen monuments. What will WE, you might wonder, as a ‘modern’ society leave behind for other future peoples to discover about us?
Indigenous shoes of N. America
References:
Prufer, Olaf & McKenzie, Douglas (1965) Studies of Ohio Archaeology, Ohio, Kent State University Press
Harari, Yuval Noah, (2011) Sapiens- A Brief History of Mankind, Israel, Dvir Publishing House Ltd. Harper
Balter, Michael (2014) https://www.science.org/content/article/what-killed-great-beasts-north-america
Zimmerman, Fritz (2010) The Nephilion Chronicles – A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley, Published by Fritz Zimmerman
Gear, W. Michael & O’Neal Gear, Kathleen (2003) People of the Owl, New York, NY, A Forge Book
Gear, W. Michael & O’Neal Gear, Kathleen (1994) People of the Lake, New York, NY, A Forge Book
Gear, W. Michael & O’Neal Gear, Kathleen (2010) People of the Longbow, New York, NY, A Forge Book
Delaware Nation Documentary, (November 19, 2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWFeMGmJne4
Licking County Historical Society (1928-1931) Indian Mound Scrap Book #2 Ancient Earthworks
Hill, N.N. Jr. (1861) History of Coshocton County Ohio its Past and Present, Newark, Ohio, Graham and Co. Publisher.
Leper, Brad (Feb 2009) Ohio’s First Industry: The archaelogy of Flint Ridge, https://www.ohiohistory.org/ohios-first-industry-the-archaeology-of-flint-ridge/
Ohio Historical Society Flint Ridge Signage 2014
Wright, Karen (February 1999) First Americans The World of Science: Discover Magazine
Encanto song, Walt Disney (November 2021)Mirabel and others and performed by Stephanie Beatriz, Olga Merediz and the Cast of Encanto.
Prufer, Olaf & McKenzie, Douglas (1965) Studies of Ohio Archaeology, Ohio, Kent State University Press
Harari, Yuval Noah, (2011) Sapiens- A Brief History of Mankind, Israel, Dvir Publishing House Ltd. Harper
Balter, Michael (2014) https://www.science.org/content/article/what-killed-great-beasts-north-america
Zimmerman, Fritz (2010) The Nephilion Chronicles – A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley, Published by Fritz Zimmerman
Gear, W. Michael & O’Neal Gear, Kathleen (2003) People of the Owl, New York, NY, A Forge Book
Gear, W. Michael & O’Neal Gear, Kathleen (1994) People of the Lake, New York, NY, A Forge Book
Gear, W. Michael & O’Neal Gear, Kathleen (2010) People of the Longbow, New York, NY, A Forge Book
Delaware Nation Documentary, (November 19, 2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWFeMGmJne4
Licking County Historical Society (1928-1931) Indian Mound Scrap Book #2 Ancient Earthworks
Hill, N.N. Jr. (1861) History of Coshocton County Ohio its Past and Present, Newark, Ohio, Graham and Co. Publisher.
Leper, Brad (Feb 2009) Ohio’s First Industry: The archaelogy of Flint Ridge, https://www.ohiohistory.org/ohios-first-industry-the-archaeology-of-flint-ridge/
Ohio Historical Society Flint Ridge Signage 2014
Wright, Karen (February 1999) First Americans The World of Science: Discover Magazine
Encanto song, Walt Disney (November 2021)Mirabel and others and performed by Stephanie Beatriz, Olga Merediz and the Cast of Encanto.
