Ohio History Journal

The Pioneer Poet Lawyer.              305

 

 

THE PIONEER POET LAWYER.

 

BY N. B. C. LOVE, D. D.

A volume lies before me, the property of the Way Library,

Perrysburg, Ohio. It is called

 

"THE FOREST RANGERS."

It is a tale of the northwest wilderness of 1794. Wayne's March

and battles are a prominent feature, with possible incidents con-

nected therewith, both of fact and fiction.

The author was Andrew Coffinberry. Wright and Leg

were the publishers, Columbus, Ohio, 1842. I do not know

how large the edition, or the price, or popularity of the book. I

have knowledge of but two copies. I saw the author in Sidney,

Ohio, when I was a boy, in 1856, when he was 68 years old.

He came there horseback, dressed in Colonial style, excepting

the short knee breeches. He had a fine horse and his old style

and somewhat stately appearance attracted attention as he rode

through the streets.

Mr. Coffinberry was born in Martinsburg, Berkeley County,

Virginia, August 20, 1788. His parents were German. They

moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1806, and to Lancaster, Ohio, 1807,

where he studied law, and to Perrysburg in 1836, when he acted

as the legal adviser of Governor Lucas in the "Michigan and

Ohio Boundary War."

Here, this year he was associated with Leonard B. Gurley,

the pioneer poet preacher, who was presiding elder of the Mau-

mee District, Michigan Conference.

As a lawyer Mr. Coffinberry ranked with his coadjutors,

such as Thomas Ewing, C. H. Sherman, William and Henry

Stanbery, G. B. Way, John C. Spink, H. S. Commager, M. R.

Waite and others. He had a grace and stateliness in court that

secured to him the title of "Count."

Judge James M. Coffinberry, Cleveland, Ohio, was his son,

sometime deceased. But it is not my purpose to write a memoir,

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nor give incidents of his pioneer life in the practice of law in

Northern and Western Ohio, but to review his pioneer poem,

"The Forest Rangers."

In some parts it has real merit, but is quaint in its plot and

arrangement. Incidents, too, are introduced that clog instead

of beautifying the poem.

When it was written in 1842, Northwestern Ohio was largely

a wilderness. The Wyandot Indians were yet in their Sandusky

Reservation, and the various Indian tribes along the Maumee

had emigrated only four or five years before.

The poem is flavored with the aroma of the rivers, forests,

the wild, free life of the early Northwest, rather than with the

halls of learning and the environment of the culture of an older

civilization. It is divided into seven Cantos: The Capture, The

Narration, The March, The Hazard, The Rescue, The Prepara-

tion and The Conclusion.

In the Prelude, the primeval forests are described, and

a prayer offered to

"The sweet genius of the forest shade,

Where nature's treasures bloom,

And Flora decorates the glade."

 

*      *       *      *      *      *       *

Deign thy enchantment to impart,

To fan the latent flame

That swells and animates his heart,

A Bard without a name,

Who fain would sing of wildwood fare,

The redman's vast retreat,

And paint its ills and terrors where

Its varied evils meet.

The first scene is on the Auglaize River, where the

"Woodland warblers woke their lays,

Till the extended forest run

With joyous notes of Sylvan song."

Here we are introduced to a lone white man:

"A wildered stranger in the land,

All drenched with dew drops, reached her strand."

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The Pioneer Poet Lawyer.                   307

 

"He cautious trod the brushwood o'er,

Until he reached the River's shore,

Then bended low, his brows to lave

Beneath her cool and limpid wave,

To sooth and calm his fevered blood;

Then slaked his thirst from her pure flood-

Arising then, erect he stood,

And seemed the genius of the wood."

And as the poet scans him he exclaims:

"The man was six feet high in stature;

Genius and beauty marked each feature,

And whomsover glanced on him,

Discerned Herculean strength of limb."

His age seemed to be twenty-four years; he was dressed

in dark green homespun, soiled with traces of blood. He seemed

intent on some important mission:

 

"The stranger here surveyed each pass-

Each inlet, copse and soft morass,

Observant still of every sound,

That woke the solitude around;

And every impress of the sand

His restless eye with caution scanned."

He then unpacked his sack and ate a hasty meal of har-

dened deer meat, then passed northward along the river's bank.

There is no mistaking here the Ranger of the Northwest

territory of a hundred years ago. And this stranger figures in

the poem to the end. Caution was necessary, for the Indians

were on the alert, and were congregating to meet Mad Anthony

Wayne. At the mouth of the Auglaize were

"Mustering strong the Kaskaskies,

Wyandots and Miamies,

Also the Potawatames,

The Delaware and Chippewas,

The Kickapoos and Ottawas,

Shawnoes and many strays

From almost every Indian nation."

These and other Indians had almost full occupancy of the

Northwest, and even after St. Clair's defeat up to the victory of

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Wayne. Many backwoodsmen and forest rangers, captured, had

been burned at the stake, or butchered in the presence of wife

and children.

 

"And thus the ruthless savage legion,

All the trackless Western region,

Save when the band of gallant Wayne,

Lay further westward in campaign."

 

Had full control. General Wayne's army at this time, May,

1794, was being augmented at Fort Wayne, where the City of

Fort Wayne now stands. At evening time the "Stranger" found

himself in the vicinity of an Indian village, Ockenoxy. It was

afterwards known as Sharloe, and was the old "Seat of Justice"

for Paulding County, Ohio.

A hungry panther followed the stranger as night drew on.

He was in a dilemma: a fire would protect from wild beasts but

would expose him to the Indians.

Just then, looking up a deep ravine,

 

"A hunter's fire he discried,

Then peering through with doubt and care,

He saw the hunter on his lair

Of broken bough all fresh and green,

Just wrenched from an adjacent linn."

 

The American "panther's eye behind him glared" and before him

the camp fire blazed. Then he resolved

 

"To rush on the human foe,

And life or death the truth to know."

 

And rushing up,

 

"By the nigh fire's flickering light

He saw the hunter's skin was white."

 

They were glad to meet each other and this second person, the

hunter, said, in the backwoodsmen's vernacular:

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"Stranger, you're welcome to my fire,

Unloose your pack and set up nigher,

I tuck you for some Ingin whelp,

A sneaking around to get my skelp,

But then I thought it curious quite,

That my dog, Tray, should show no fight;

Well now sit down and dry your feet

While I get suthin' good to eat."

A conversation between the two followed, and the story in

smoothly flowing rhyme is given. The hunter's story was in

brief:

"I used to live on the Kenawas

Till burnt out by the devlish 'Tawas,

They killed my wife, the poor, dear critter,

I never, never can forgit her."

His wife was not killed and burned in his cabin as he supposed

but was in captivity.

The supper prepared by the "hunter" for the "Stranger"

friend was:

"Wild turkey reking from the coals,

And venison dried on slender poles,

Wild honeycomb as clear as air,

And water from the brook as fair,

Now furnished him a simple fast,

Most grateful to his hungering taste."

These together agreed to range the forest and hunt "Injins."

They found an open small prairie, and hid in some bushes that

they might see any one passing near.

They concluded, however, that it was better to find and

join the Army of Wayne, for

"Watch as you may that sooner or late,

You will fall a victim to their hate."

The stranger tells his friend his story:

"I go to seek a captive maid

And trust in heaven to give her aid

With belief that General Wayne

In this dire strait, may lend some train,

I now persue this toilsome route

To range the wood and find him out.

*      *      *       *      *      *

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The maid and I were seized together,

As thoughtlessly we trod the heather

Between the River and the Bayou,

Along the margin of the Ohio."

He tells how he killed his captors and escaped, all of which is

sensational, yet no doubt true to life. He had thought himself

lost in the great forest, and was happy to know nearly where

he was.

The hunter's sympathy was aroused, and he said to the

stranger: -

"And so I will go with you through,

And help you hunt for General Wayne,

And if so be he gives you men,

To hunt your gal the wildwood through,

Then, stranger, I'll hunt with you too."

 

This hunter's name was Thomas Gibbs. As the two men and

Tray slowly crawled through the tangled woods, the dog silently

indicated the nearness of Indians. The hunter put his ear hard

on the ground, and said he heard three men walking, and, peer-

ing closely he saw the three about a hundred yards distant.

Picking their men, with two balls they did their work, and two

Indians fell. The third escaped.

Rushing up they found one dead, but the other only stunned.

He proved to be a white man in Indian costume, and was the

notorious Simon Girty. They were happy and continued toward

Wayne's Army, but were waylaid, and in turn were taken pris-

oners, and Girty taunted them with the horrid execution they

should receive.

The Poet leaves the rangers in captivity and takes the reader

to Girty's Point or Island, six miles above Napoleon, Ohio.

When the writer visited this historic scene thirty years ago, the

place belonged to Elijah Gunn. The island then was clothed in

great luxuriance of native timber, such as walnut, elm, poplar,

sycamore and linn, also a smaller growth of willows and iron-

wood. I have heard the early pioneers tell many interesting

stories of this location in the pioneer days, which I will not

repeat here.

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The Pioneer Poet Lawyer.                  311

 

At this place in 1794 was Girty's headquarters and to this

point was "Julia" brought, "A maiden of seventeen years" and

the married woman known as "Nancy." This woman was evi-

dently of Scotch-Irish origin and was a fair specimen of the

uncultured pioneer young wife, loyal, brave and kind.

 

"The matron's age seemed to be

Tween twenty-one and twenty-three;

Her constitution firm and sound,

Her stature, graceful, tall and round,

Her visage though much weather tanned,

Was open, generous and blond;

Her eye with kind affection beamed,

And time had been when she was deemed

A rural belle, and did obtain

The praise of many a rustic swain."

And the young lady captive is described:

 

"The nymph was beautiful as light,

Her skin was almost alabaster white,

Save, to her cheeks was lent

The damask roses' richest tint,

Her lips when parted did disclose,

Two fair and perfect pearly rows,

Her silky inglets, jetty hue

O'er her fairneck their contrast threw;

Her raven brow in arch praise,

Lent grace and lustre to her eyes;

Those sparkling orbs of purest blue,

Evinced a kindly heart and true;

Proportions of the fairest mould."

Oft repeated efforts at winning the hand and heart of this

beautiful captive were made by Girty, and by intimidation and

the persuasive powers of the matron were, as Girty thought, in

the same direction, but without avail.

The matron was claimed by a high and honorable minded

Chief who saw only in her redemption money. The maiden had

a history. I give it briefly in part, epitomizing the poem:

"Her father's name was Henry Gray

And dwelt on Chesapeake bay."

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She was sent to college and just a short time before her gradu-

ation her parents died, her uncle being executor and he dying,

his son came into possession of the estate and business. This

cousin became infatuated with her. She had, however, fallen

in love with George Vernon, a fellow student. Her cousin by

intercepting letters and interpolating, secured an estrangement

between the young lady and George.

Her cousin selling out all the possessions, with his mother,

sister and Julia started for New Orleans, by the way of Wheel-

ing, promising the latter to set her off in Kentucky, so she

might live with an uncle. This promise he did not propose keep-

ing, and his sister told Julia all about his designs. These she

communicated to George by letter and pleaded with him to rescue

her. This he did by intercepting the flat boat and getting

aboard, he induced the cousin of Julia to tie the boat up until

he could confer with her, which was done on the Ohio side.

When ashore George and Julia were captured by the Indians

and carried by different captors into the wilderness. The story

is told in verse and often well, although much of it is rhyming

prose.

Julia ends the narrative saying:

 

"I saw not but as if entranced,

I felt myself with force advanced,

Far up the rugged wood crowned hill

By painted ruffians at their will."

 

The next division has to do with the marching of Wayne's

Army.

The inroads of the Indians and their triumph over General

Harman's and Wayne's armies made them      insolent and ag-

gressive:

And a nation's tears and wrongs,

Roused to her aid heroic throngs,

To quell her border strife-

Into the forest depths they go,

And fight where lurks the foe,

Or cease with ceasing life.'

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The Pioneer Poet Lawyer.                313

 

yne's Army assembled;

"Where the St. Joseph swept along-

And the St. Mary's poured her purling tide."

And here the backwoodsmen,

"Each with his sack beneath his head,

Lay on simple greensward bed."

Which was more comfortable

"Than midst a sultry August air,

In a narrow crowded tent."

With the morning;

"The doubling sounds of drum and fife,

Awoke a scene of busy life,

And did for the stern march prepare,

Along with Miami's banks where

They hoped to meet the lurking foe,

In steady combat, blow to blow."

While the descriptions of the make-up of the Army, its

commissary clothing, military drill, marching, amusements, etc.,

are often entertaining and instructive, I cannot use the space to

transfer them in this article.

The army underway plodded through swamps and forests,

planted a fort at Defiance, and soon sought and found the massed

Indian brows under Turkeyfoot at the foot of the Rapids -the

results are known. The poem at length describes all. During

this time the captives were with Girty's band. The stranger

and Gibbs the Hunter saw the captives bound to the stake and

the lighting of the fires about them, and slipping in the darkness

nearer from the river, filled their caps with water and with yells

and great noise rushed to their rescue and quenched the lighted

fires and their persecutors panic-stricken fled; and the captives,

in the night, no one speaking a word, with their deliverers

reached Wayne's Army, which was then only a few miles distant.

The Forest Rangers turned over their captives. Next

morning when Gibbs called to see the captives, to his great

astonishment and joy, found Nancy, the matron, as one raised

from the dead, and his beautiful boy whom he had not before

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seen. George Vernon calling a few minutes later recognized

Julia, his affianced, and-

"Julia was all blushing in her charms,

Was given to her lover's arms."

And thus ended all the toils and dangers

Of these praiseworthy "Forest Rangers.'

Simon Girty fought in the battle of the "Fallen Timber"

and wounded and branded by white men and red fled to Canada.

Here ends this early epic poem of the Maumee Valley. It

is worthy a place in the Library of all who delight in pioneer

literature, which gives correct and graphic views of this heroic

period of 1794. While a hundred years ago there were those

in the Northwest who wrote verses, most of which were the

crudest doggerels, yet an occasional gem fell from their pens,

but one only wrote an epic, Count Coffinberry. Critically there

is little to be said of the poem, it has faults and blemishes but

it is correct in rhythm, accent, rhyme, and flows as gracefully

along as the Miami of the Lakes in the leafy month of June.

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