Ohio History Journal

EDITORIALANA.   VOL. XVIII. No. 2.                               APRIL, 1909.   NEWLY ELECTED TRUSTEES. It will be noted in the report of the Annual Meeting of the Society, held March 2, 1909, that two life members of the Society were newly elected trustees for the ensuing three years. They were Messrs. Caleb Hathaway Gallup and Walter Charles Metz.       Below  we give brief sketches of the lives of the gentlemen in question. Mr. Metz has been a member of the Society for some years and has been a student in archaeological lines. Mr. Gallup is known throughout the country for his historical scholarship and for the active and extensive work he has clone in connection with the Firelands Historical Society, of which he has been an influential and official member for a number of years.   CALEB HATHAWAY GALLUP. John  (1) Gallup, the ancestor of most of the families of that name, came to America from the Parish of Mosterne, County Dorset,

England in 1630. He became the owner and gave his name to Gallup's Island off Boston Harbor by grant from Governor Winthrop whose wife was a sister of Gallup's wife. A skillful mariner, he be- came memorable as commander of the first naval action off Block Island, fought in North American waters, to avenge the murder of his friend Captain John Oldham, by Indians in the "famous Pequot War" of 1637. His son John (2) participated in the naval engagement off Block Island and in "King Philip's War" as a captain, led a company of soldiers into the "fearful swamp of fight" at Narragansett, December 19, 1675, (within the limits of the present town of South Kingston, R. I.) where he was killed. Shortly before this war, a friendly Indian presented

him with a belt supposed to be a notice or warning of impending war. That belt or sash has descended in the family from generation to genera- tion until now it is in the possession of the Firelands Historical Society for safekeeping in its museum. Benadum was of the third generation; Benadam, his son, of the fourth; William  of the fifth generation was living at Kingston, Pennsylvania, with seven children in 1778 at the time of the "Wyoming massacre."    His son, Hallet (22 years old) escaped death by floating down the Susquehanna River, patrolled by hostile Indians, his body under water and face between two rails grasped 248

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Editorialana.                       249

 

in his hands. Twin daughters, five years of age, were carried off by the

Indians as pretty prizes, but were soon recovered by ransom.

William of the sixth, married Freelove Hathaway, a Philadelphia

Quakeress, and had Hallet of the seventh generation who was an artillery

gunner in Captain Thomas's Company of Pennsylvania Volunteers and

served under General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812.

Caleb Hathaway (second of the name) of the eighth generation of

Gallups in America, and the subject of this sketch, was born at Nor-

walk, Ohio, May 10, 1834. His father was Hallet (7) and mother

Clarissa Benedict Gallup, daughter of Platt Benedict, the first settler of

the village of Norwalk. Mr. Benedict was the promoter and to his

death, October 25, 1866, President of the Firelands Historical Society.

Brought up to hard work on a farm, Caleb's first school experience

was in the Norwalk Union Schools during the winters of 1850-1-2, then

for one year (1853) he was employed as an assistant in the Huron

County Clerk's office. In 1854 he entered the freshman class at Denison

University, Granville, Ohio, in the scientific course, and in the fall of that

year transferred to the same class and course at Madison University,

now Colgate, at Hamilton, N. Y., where he promoted the founding of

Mu Chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity.

Mr. Caleb Gallup graduated from Madison as Bachelor of Science

in 1856 and studied law in the office of Worcester and Pennewell in

Norwalk, Ohio, until the fall of 1857, when he entered the law school

of the Cincinnati College and graduated therefrom in 1858 as Bachelor

of Laws. On July 19, 1859, he was admitted to the bar of Michigan

and in 1860 was elected prosecuting attorney of Huron County, Michi-

gan, which office he held by re-election for ten consecutive years, during

two of which (1866-7) he also held by election, the office of representa-

tive in the State Legislature from that county. Among other laws and

resolutions enacted on his initiation as a legislator, was a law for relief

of a stranded colony of educated Germans, off-shoot or protege of the

"economites" of Harmony, Pa. This law gave the head of each family

a forty acre homestead of state lands.

Mr. Gallup's military service was as Deputy U. S. Marshal (1863-

4-5) "enforcing the draft" during our Civil War.   He was himself

drafted but ordered back to the service of the marshal. He rendered

five years' service 1877-82 as a member of the Ohio National Guards.

He was twice married, first to Kate V. Vredenburgh of old New

York Dutch blood, June 20, 1860, by whom he had one son, nineteen

months old at the death of his mother, May 25, 1863; second marriage,

November 3, 1869, was to Helen Alphena Glover, niece of Hon. Joel

Parker, "War Governor" of New Jersey. The death, April 8, 1872, of

his second wife leaving one daughter eighteen months and one son four

days old, caused his removal back to the old home at Norwalk, Ohio.

Mr. Gallup has been a life member of The Whittlesey Academy of

Arts and Sciences since 1877; member of its board of trustees since

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250        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   1878; chairman of its trustees since 1878; and also its treasurer since 1901; a life member of the Firelands Historical Society since 1876; a member of its board of trustees, librarian and editor of its publications since 1888; member of the National Geographical Society; member of Huron County Children's Home Association; member of its board of trustees since 1889, and its treasurer since 1902; member of the Young Men's Library and Reading Room Association of Norwalk (free public library); member of its board of trustees and chairman of its execu- tive committee since 1903. He is a member of the Norwalk Board of Commerce, and prominent in the business interests of the city. In 1888 he with other friends, founded' the financially successful Home Savings & Loan Company of Norwalk, became one of its directors and its presi- dent, which offices he has continuously held to the present. Mr. Gallup has always been an enthusiastic student of Ohio and Western history. He has written much that is interesting and accurate concerning the early settlement of the Buckeye State. He has for many years taken a great interest in the work of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society of which he became a life member at its last annual meeting.   WALTER CHARLES METZ. Walter Charles Metz is the son of Charles C. Metz and Christa Abbie Metz of Newark, Ohio. On his father's side, he is of an old

German family, which immigrated to this country in the early part of the last century, and which finally wended its way to Newark, Ohio, coming from Cleveland by way of the once beautiful Ohio Canal. On his mother's side he lost nothing, for her family is of that good old revolutionary stock of New England, that made the thirteen original colonies "free and independent states." He was born in Newark, Ohio, February 1st, 1879, and received his early education in the public schools of that place. In 1897 he went to Boise, Idaho, where he joined a Surveying Corps and spent the summer in the mountains of Northern Idaho, doing Government work in the timber re- gions. The following winter he spent in Cali-

fornia and the Western States--returning home in the spring. The next two years of his life were spent in New Hampshire, preparatory to entering the Ohio State University, from which institution he graduated with the class of 1905, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. While a student in the University he was taken into the Kappa Sigma fraternity and was also made a life member of the Archaeological and Historical Society of Ohio.

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Editorialana.                       251

 

Immediately upon leaving College, he entered the employ of the

Newark Trust Company. After filling the various clerical positions in

the bank, his earnest work won for him the election of Assistant Sec-

retary and Treasurer. In the fall of 1907 he was elected to the chief

office, which position he now holds. On the 17th day of September,

1908, he was united in marriage to Miss Helen Mariette Weiant of

Newark.

It was when but yet a youngster, that the peculiar shaped mounds

and odd flint pieces appealed to him as being very curious. Curiosity,

turned loose in Licking County, the unrivaled field of prehistoric mounds

and stone pieces, developed into scientific research. At the early age

of ten years, Mr. Metz started a collection of stone implements, but

soon this did not satisfy him and much of his time was spent in opening

burial mounds, that he might learn more of the habits of this pre-

historic race. As a result of his untiring energy, over thirty-five hun-

dred relics of the Mound Builders' Age have been brought together-

the showing being the representative one of that locality.

The work of Mr. Metz has consisted not only in search for articles

left by this ancient people, but also in the investigation of the nature

and purpose of the various mounds and their relation to one another.

That Mr. Metz has made great progress into the hidden lore of this

long departed race, is evidenced by the small booklet, which he wrote

and published. It is entitled "Prehistoric Remains of Licking County,

Ohio," and gives, in a concise way, a description of what has been found

and now is to be seen in Licking County. The little brochure is illus-

trated with diagrams and photographs made by the author. The book

is worthy of much consideration and evidences the interest of the author

in his subject and the extensive knowledge he has acquired concerning

the Mound Builders and their works in that section of the State.

Mr. Metz is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church and

is eligible to the Sons of the American Revolution, his mother being a

member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

 

 

AVERY'S UNITED STATES.

The Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, Ohio, have issued, from

their press, the fifth volume of the "History of the United States and

its People" from the earliest records to the present time by Elroy

McKendree Avery. We have been a careful reader of this work begin-

ning with its first volume, and have briefly commented upon the previous

four volumes in the editorial columns of this Quarterly. The Fifth

Volume, now at hand, takes up the sequence of events at the close of the

French and Indian War. The first chapter entitled "For the Building

of a Nation" gives an admirable and interesting statement of the con-

dition of the people at that time, the various racial immigrations, the

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252        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

social life of the people, their customs, intellectual and educational status,

their agricultural pursuits, primitive industries and manufactories. Speak-

ing of their arts and literature, the author says: "Literature and the

fine arts do not flourish on a new soil. Broadly speaking, there were

neither artists nor literary writers of merit, on the one hand, nor patrons

of leisure and means on the other. Benjamin West and John Singleton

Copley, almost the only colonial artists now remembered had just en-

tered upon their careers, and they were obliged to seek instruction and

much of their patronage abroad. Most of the few pictures and statues

that might be found had been imported from Europe. John Adams once

said that there were no painters or sculptors in America and he hoped

there never would be. Aside from newspaper writing, authorship was

chiefly confined to political and theological themes. Thomas Hutchinson,

the first volume of whose History of Massachusetts Bay appeared in

1764, Jonathan Edwards, the author of the profound Inquiry into the

Freedom of the Will, and Benjamin Franklin, the only one of the three

to attain truly cosmopolitan fame, were the only notable writers of the

period. There were no novelists, and the poetical effusions of the time

do not rise to the level of literature." What a transition from that day

of non-literature to the present time when something like ten thousand

new books pour forth like a flood in one year from the American press.

Mr. Avery says by the end of 1765 forty-three newspapers and four

literary magazines had been established but many of them were no

longer published. The circulation of a newspaper was always small. It

has been estimated that the combined circulation of the thirty-seven

newspapers printed in 1775 was about five thousand copies. There was

no daily publication until 1784. Travel between the centers of popula-

tion was almost solely upon horseback, in private conveyances or public

stages. By means of the latter it took twenty days to go from Phila-

delphia to Pittsburg. In 1761, only thirty-eight private citizens of Phila-

delphia kept a coach or carriage.

The preliminary events leading to the American Revolution are

fully stated, both those occurring in the colonies and in England. The

stamp act and its repeal are thoroughly discussed; likewise the Town-

send acts and their repeal. One of the most interesting portions of this

book, and told more succinctly and clearly than by any American History

in our recall, are the chapters on "Strengthening the Colonial Body"

and "The Beginning of Colonial Union," showing how, without even the

remote idea of independence the Colonies began to appreciate and utilize

the idea of union for self protection against the continued encroachments

of the tyranny and oppression by the mother country. The chapter en-

titled "Over the Mountains" is especially interesting to the reader of the

Trans-Alleghany section of the country, and to the student of the history

of the Northwest. This phase of our national growth, as we have taken

occasion to previously remark, is too often slightly treated or totally

neglected by our leading historians. Mr. Avery remarks: "The struggle

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Editorialana.                      253

 

for political rights did not absorb all the energies of all the colonists

of this period.  While British ministries were unwisely arousing a

spirit that was to result in the disruption of the empire, the pioneers

of the western border were beginning a movement that was to result

in the settlement of the great valley beyond the mountains--an his-

torical event almost or quite as important as the Revolution itself.

"Since the formation and practical failure of the Ohio Company,

(1748), a number of schemes had been formed for establishing colonies

in the new region. Soon after the Albany Congress of 1754, Benjamin

Franklin projected two colonies, to be settled under charters from the

king, one in what is now northeastern Ohio and northwestern Penn-

sylvania, the other in the region of the Scioto River. Franklin's plan

came to nothing, as did that of Samuel Hazard, a Philadelphia merch-

ant, who wished to obtain a charter to all of the Ohio valley and part

of the Mississippi valley and to settle there a colony in which only

Protestants could hold office and in which Roman Catholics should be

debarred from owning land or having 'Mass Houses or Popish Chapels.'

The suggestion of the writer of a pamphlet published at Edinburgh at

the close of the French and Indian war that the western boundary of

Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania should be a line extending up

the Maumee and down the Wabash and the Ohio to the Mississippi, and

that beyond this there should be established a new colony 'which might

be called Charlotiana, in honor of her Majesty, our present most excellent

Queen,' also went unheeded."

These schemes were also rendered futile because of the well known

Quebec act in 1763 in which England forbade the making of settle-

ments by the colonists in the Northwest Territory reserving that part

of England's newly acquired domain for an Indian reserve. Bouquet's

Treaty of 1764 provided for the withdrawal of the Indians living south

of the Ohio to the region north of it--an extremely important step in

clearing the way. In 1768 the six nations sold to the proprietors of

Pennsylvania an extensive tract on the western borders of their pro-

vince and by the treaty of Ft. Stanwix ceded to the crown their claims

to what is now the state of Kentucky east of the Tennessee River

(then called the Cherokee) and a large part of West Virginia. Then

comes the colonizing scheme of Thomas Walpole and Benjamin Frank-

lin in the organization of what was called the Vandalia Company. "After

some negotiation, the lords of the treasury agreed, in consideration of

the sum of ten thousand pounds, to convey to the company practically

all of what is now West Virginia and so much of what is Kentucky as

lay east of a line drawn from the mouth of the Scioto to Cumberland

Gap. The bounds included the grant to the old Ohio company, but the

English agent of that company agreed to merge that company's interest

in the new project. The new company also agreed to grant the two

hundred thousand acres that had been promised to Washington and

those who had served under him in the first campaign of the French

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254        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

and Indian war. Lord Hillsborough and Governor Dunmore opposed

the project, but, after long delay, the king in council gave it his approval.

At the same time, the bounds of the projected colony were extended to

the Kentucky River. By the spring of 1775, a royal charter was ready

for execution, but the outbreak of rebellion wrecked Vandalia."

Then follow the pushing westward of the settlements from Vir-

ginia and North Carolina, the settlements of the Watauga Association

and the attempt by James Robertson and others in what was known as

the Watauga commonwealth. While the foundations of the state of Ten-

nessee were being laid, equally hardy and venturesome pioneers were

exploring and settling what was to be Kentucky. In the primitive an-

nals of this state to be, Daniel Boone is the romantic figure and of whom

Mr. Avery treats briefly. "In the fall of 1767, with one or two com-

panions, he crossed the mountain wall and spent the winter at a salt-

lick about ten miles from the present town of Prestonburg. Convinced

that they were not in the promised land, they returned to the Yadkin.

In the spring of 1769, Daniel Boone, Finley, John Stuart, and three

others, clad in deerskin hunting-shirts and mounted on good horses,

set out again. Threading their way through tangled mountain mass and

gloomy forest, they passed through Cumberland Gap and, following the

Warrior's Path, broke into the beautiful blue-grass region with its run-

ning waters, groves, glades, and prairies, and its herds of countless

buffalo, deer, and round-horned elk. Making their chief camp on what

is now Station Camp Creek in Estill County, they, for six months,

hunted in the heart of Kentucky."

There is no period of our western history so romantic as that of

the Trans-Alleghany settlements in the country, both north and south

of the Ohio River. While Mr. Avery necessarily must condense the

vast material, he has done so not only in a clear and comprehensive

but entertaining way, weaving his narrative through the wilderness,

across the mountain Tastnesses, along the rivers, in a way that gives

one the most satisfactory and complete view of these early, in some

respects desultory, but historically considered, foundation events in the

subsequent growth of the great west. Dunmore's war, and the trouble

with the Ohio Indians in 1773 and 4 are appreciatively related. The battle

of Point Pleasant between the twelve hundred Virginia backwoodsmen

under Col. Andrew Lewis and an equal number of Indians, the chosen

braves of the many Ohio tribes under the famous Shawnee Chief Corn-

stalk, fought on the banks of the Ohio in October, 1774, was one of the

most bloody and desperate battles ever fought between the redmen and

the white men. About one-fifth of the white men were killed or wounded,

and as Mr. Avery remarks "Had the battle of Point Pleasant been

fought on New England soil, the pages of history would have been filled

with the name of Andrew Lewis." The Indians were defeated and

driven back into Ohio, and on the Pickaway plains, not far from the

present site of Chillicothe, the army of Andrew Lewis joined the army

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Editorialana.                       255

 

of Governor Dunmore. A treaty was made with the Indians of Ohio,

by which "the Indians abandoned all claims to lands south of the Ohio,

surrendered their white captives and stolen horses, and gave hostages

for future good behavior." It was in connection with this event that

Logan the great Mingo Chief made his appearance and delivered--it is

said--that famous speech which has been recited by thousands of school

boys since. Logan refused to enter the council for the treaty and in his

defense made the oration which has placed him at the head of the

orators of Western Indian history.

The opening events of the American Revolution are now hardby.

The First Continental Congress met September 5, 1774, at Carpenter's

Hall in Philadelphia. There were fifty-five delegates present who chose

the aged Randolph as their President. The delegates, according to John

Adams, were in representation, "one-third Whigs, another Tories, the

rest Mongrel." Then follows Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill. The

volume graphically follows the trend of events to and including the

Declaration of Independence. This is an oft repeated story, but Mr.

Avery retells it with a freshness and picturesqueness and discrimination

that win the reader's attention as if it were new. Mr. Avery begins

his chapter on Independence with the paragraph: "While the American

revolution had long been inevitable, it did not spring from a desire to

separate from Great Britain. Despite their independence of spirit, the

colonists had a deep reverence and a sincere love for the British empire,

they rejoiced in its power and glory, they looked to it for aid and pro-

tection -as much then as do Australia and Canada today. Though they

rebelled, it was to safeguard their rights as Englishmen, not because

they wished to found an independent state. They had fought, but only

to preserve the rights and privileges to which, 'by the immutable laws

of nature, the principles of the English Constitution, and the several

Charters or Compacts' they were entitled. 'Long before the colonists

took up arms, there had been prophecies to the effect that, owing to the

distance between England and America and to diverging interests, the

colonies would one day throw off their allegiance; we sometimes hear

such prophecies regarding the present British colonies. As early as 1705,

there appeared in an English print the prediction that 'The colonists will,

in process of time, cast off their allegiance to England and set up a

government of their own.' Jeremiah Dummer, the defender of the second

Massachusetts charter, heard English noblemen say that, if not crushed,

the colonies would in time declare their independence. In 1750, Turgot,

the great French statesman and philosopher, said: 'Colonies are like

fruits which cling to the tree only till they ripen, as soon as America

can take care of itself, it will do what Carthage did.' Ten years later,

Thomas Pownall expressed the opinion that the independence of the

colonies was near at hand. Such expressions were, however, mere specu-

lations based upon the seeming natural course of events. Prior to the

fateful Lexington and Concord day, there was hardly a man of promi-

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256        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

nence in America who desired or expected a separation from England.

The testimony to this effect is overwhelming.  Hutchinson, the Tory

historian of Massachusetts, wrote: 'An empire, separate or distinct from

Britain, no man then (1758) alive expected or desired to see.' In Octo-

ber, 1774, Washington wrote that no such thing is desired by any think-

ing man in all North America.' In the following March, Franklin

assured the Earl of Chatham that he had never 'heard in any Conversation

from any Person, drunk or sober, the least Expression of a wish for a

Separation, or a Hint that such a Thing would be advantageous to

America.' Thirty-seven days before the war began, John Adams pro-

nounced the assertion that the inhabitants panted after independence

as great a slander on the province as ever was committed to writing.'

Years after the conflict was over, Thomas Jefferson declared that be-

fore the nineteenth of April, 1775, 'I never had heard a whisper of a

disposition to separate from Great Britain.' Even after blood had been

spilled on Lexington Green, there was no immediate general movement

in favor of independence. Some began to see that that was the only

logical outcome of the struggle, but the vast majority still looked for-

ward to reconciliation. The question began to be more and more dis-

cussed, but few were bold enough openly to declare their desire for a

separation. After Lexington and Concord, Joseph Warren said: 'The

next news from England must be conciliatory, or the connection between

us ends.' After Bunker Hill, Franklin wrote to an English friend: 'It

has been with much difficulty that we have carried another humble peti-

tion to the Crown, to give Britain one more chance, one opportunity

mere, of recovering the friendship of the colonies; which, however, I

think she has not sense enough to embrace, and so I conclude she has

lost them forever'."

Speaking of the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Avery in a few

words, presents the facts concerning the Mecklenburg Resolutions--a

subject of much dispute and so frequently asked about that we insert

the author's statement: "In this period occurred an event around which

has developed one of the bitterest controversies in American history.

As nearly as I can determine, the leading facts are as follows: The

North Carolina convention of August, 1774, had advised the several

counties to constitute committees to carry out the plans of the general

congress, and thirty-six of the counties had chosen such committees.

On the thirty-first of May, 1775, the Mecklenburg committee met at

Charlotte and adopted a preamble and nineteen resolves, declaring, among

other things, that each provincial congress, 'under the direction of the

Great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and execu-

tive Powers within their respective Provinces,' and that this state of

affairs should continue until the 'General Congress' should provide other-

wise, 'or the Legislative Body of Great Britain resign its injust and

arbitrary Pretensions with respect to America.' The resolutions were

read to the people from the steps of the court-house and were printed

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Editorialana.                        257

 

in several newspapers, north and south. In April, 1819, after the records

of the Mecklenburg committee had been destroyed by fire and the reso-

lutions of the thirty-first of May had been almost forgotten, the Raleigh

Register and North Carolina Gazette published a set of resolutions that,

it was alleged, had been adopted by a convention in Mecklenburg County

on the twentieth of May, 1775. These resolutions had been rewritten

several years before, from memory, by John McKnitt Alexander who

now styled the reproduction a 'Declaration of Independence.' The lan-

guage of the alleged 'Declaration' is more radical than is that of the

resolutions of the thirty-first and, in some of its phrases, is suspiciously

like the corresponding parts of the declaration adopted at Philadelphia

in July, 1776. Jefferson resented the implication of plagiarism and de-

clared the 'Mecklenburg Declaration' to be an 'unjustifiable quiz.' Froth-

ingham and others were unable to find any contemporary reference, in

manuscript or in print, to such a convention or public meeting, and critical

students of American history generally refuse to accept the 'Mecklen-

burg Declaration' as authentic. It is probable that, in attempting to re-

produce the lost resolutions of the thirty-first of May, Mr. Alexander

unconsciously changed the dates and wrote into his draft words made

familiar to him  and us by Jefferson's immortal document.    In the

bitterness of the controversy, it has been too generally overlooked that

the authenticity of the resolves of the thirty-first is unquestioned and

that they breathed a spirit of defiance that made them little less than a

real declaration of independence."

Concerning the final adoption of the Declaration of Independence

by the Continental Congress, Mr. Avery notes that other "elements" be-

side patriotism were factors in hastening the culmination of affairs:

"The debate was continued until the afternoon of the fourth;

according to a story that Jefferson later loved to tell, it might have

run on indefinitely at any other season of the year. 'But the weather

was oppressively warm and the room occupied by the deputies was hard

by a stable, whence the hungry flies swarmed thick and fierce, alighting

on the legs of the delegates and biting hard through their thin silk

stockings.  Treason was preferable to discomfort,' and the delegates

finally accepted the declaration before it had been discussed by all of

those who wished to speak upon it. Then the committee of the whole

arose and Harrison reported the declaration back to congress.   The

declaration was read again and received the final sanction of the dele-

gates of twelve states 'as the justification of the act that established a

new nation among the powers of the world'."

Up to this time we had supposed "there were no flies on" our

American forefathers-the historic fact makes it appear otherwise. We

might further add that the incident reveals the punishment resulting at

times from belonging to the "silk stocking" section of society. These

reflections are not from Mr. Avery but are gratuitous on our part.

Vol XVIII-17.

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258        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

The value of this volume, like that of its predecessors, is greatly

enhanced by the numerous illustrations, many of them colored according

to the originals, fac-similes of original documents, maps, diagrams, etc.

No book ever issued by any American press has been so profusely and

artistically illustrated.

 

HECKEWELDER'S NARRATIVE.

Elsewhere in this Quarterly we publish the proceedings of the

Zeisberger Centennial, in which the life and services of David Zeis-

berger, one of the foremost Moravian missionaries to the Ohio Indians,

are fully set forth. Before us, on our editorial desk, lies a magnificent

volume in royal octavo size containing "the narrative of the mission of

the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohican Indians from

the commencement in the year 1740 to the close of the year 1808," by

John Heckewelder. This narrative is edited in a most painstaking and

scholarly manner by William Elsey Connelley. The volume is from the

press of the Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, Ohio, and is pub-

lished in the elegant and artistic manner for which this firm is so well

known.   Mr. Connelley, the editor, a life member of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society, was born on the Wolf Pen Branch

of the Middle Fork of Jennies Creek, Johnson County, Kentucky, March

15, 1855. There he resided until 1881 when he moved to Kansas and is

now residing at Topeka. He has been greatly interested in historical

subjects, and is the author of several well known works, among them

"John Brown," "Wyandot Folk-Lore," "Kansas Territorial Governors,"

"Doniphan's Expedition, Mexican War," "Provisional Government of

Nebraska Territory," etc., etc. The work in question is a translation

from  the original autograph manuscript of Heckewelder, consisting of

445 neatly written quarto pages. This Narrative was first published in

Philadelphia in 1820 by McCarty and Davis. The Narrative itself is

preceded by Heckewelder's Journal of 1797, an account of Heckewelder's

journey with other Missionaries to Gnadenhutten on the Muskingum,

and by Heckewelder's Narrative of 1792, his journey to the Wabash.

There is also a brief account of the Church of the Unitas Fratrum,

the Moravian Church, and a Memoir of Heckewelder. From these the

reader may obtain a full and interesting account of the history of the

Moravian Church, which dates back to a very early origin, having more

or less of a continuous historic connection with the early Christian and

Greek Church. In the year 940, the Roman Emperor, Otho the First,

invaded Bohemia and attached it to the Western Empire. The Roman

Church sought to induce the conquered people to abandon their ancient

mode of worship and become subjects of the Papal See. The persecu-

tions resulting therefrom continued for a period of more than two hun-

dred years. The Waldenses in Italy and France, in the pre-reformation

period, in large numbers took refuge in Bohemia and Moravia. In order

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Editorialana.                       259

 

to subjugate these followers of the early faith the Church of Rome

established the University of Prague. In due time, according to well

known church history, John Huss of Prague, following the lead of

Wickliff of England, became the great reformer of his time preceding

the Lutheran Reformation. The followers of Huss, who was burned

at the stake (1415), instituted the original organization of the ancient

Church of the Brethren. It was the beginning of the organized Mo-

ravian sect bearing the title Unitas Fratrum until 1847, when the Am-

erican Church adopted the name "Moravian Brethren." The Moravians,

therefore, come forth from the earliest struggles against Romanism and

antedate the German Reformation.   This Church consecrated its first

bishop, David Nitschman, at Berlin, 1735. The Trustees of Georgia, of

whom General James Oglethorpe was the principal member, offered

certain members of this sect a free passage to America. They arrived

at Charlestown, S. C., in 1734, founding a village at Savannah, and be-

gan missionary work among the Creek Indians. The Georgia Colony

of the Brethren was broken up by the war between Great Britain and

Spain. Some of the Brethren accompanied Whitefield to Pennsylvania

where, about the year 1740, they established the settlements at Nazareth

and Bethlehem. They immediately began to send missionaries among

the various Indian tribes.

John Heckewelder was born at Bedford, England, March 12, 1743,

and died at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1823. His father,

David Heckewelder, was one of the Moravian exiles who came to

Herrnhut, the village of refuge founded by Count Zinzendorf on his

estate of Berthelsdorf, Saxony. David Heckewelder was sent to Eng-

land and was there residing when his son John was born. At the age

of eleven Heckewelder came with his parents to America, arriving at

Bethlehem in 1754. In the year 1761, Christian Frederick Post, another

Moravian missionary, built a house on the Tuscarawas in what is now

the state of Ohio, and prepared to begin a mission there among the

Delawares. In the spring of 1762, Post returning to Bethlehem secured

Heckewelder as a companion, and together they traveled by foot some

five hundred miles to the Tuscarawas station. Heckewelder wrote an

intensely interesting account of this thrilling tramp through the un-

broken forests and across the Alleghany mountains. The two intrepid

missionaries remained at Post's cabin until the threatening hostility of

the Indians compelled their return to Pennsylvania. The real mission-

ary life of Heckewelder began in 1771, in which year he was made an

assistant to Zeisberger and sent to Friedenstadt on the Beaver river.

In 1773 this place was abandoned and the mission established on the

Tuscarawas. Heckewelder has given us in his Narrative the history of

the mission there during the perilous and stormy days of the Revolu-

tion. His daring saved the mission from ruin in 1778. He was taken

captive by the Indians and British and carried away to Sandusky and,

finally to Detroit, by the savages under the half-king and captain Pipe.

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260        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

This captivity and exileship in connection with Zeisberger is briefly de-

scribed in the account of the Zeisberger Centennial. When the Indian

Christians with their Moravian missionaries returned to Ohio after the

Revolution, it was with the expectation of enjoying peace and a perma-

nent home. But this was not permitted them. It became necessary to

return to Canada to avoid extermination. They there sojourned some

years. In 1786 Heckewelder returned from Cuyahoga, where he had

temporarily remained, to Bethlehem.  He became the business agent

of the Mission and conducted their affairs at that point. He made

journeys to the Ohio country to look after the lands granted the Chris-

tian Indians by Congress. He finally removed with his family to Gnad-

enhutten (Ohio) in 1801 and resided on the Tuscarawas until 1810.

He was postmaster of the village and acted as agent for owners of

large tracts of land. Many land titles in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, rest

on contracts made by Heckewelder with the first settlers. Heckewelder

was married in 1780 to Miss Sarah Ohneberg. She went with him to

the wilderness of the Muskingum. Their daughter Johanna Maria was

born April 6, 1781, at Salem, now in Tuscarawas County.    She was

the "first white female child born in the confines of the State," and the

first child born in the state of permanent settlers - "the first white child

born in a home in Ohio." Their second child Anna Salome, was born

August 13, 1784, at New Gnadenhutten on the Huron (Clinton) River,

Michigan. Susanna was born at Bethlehem, December 31, 1786. These

daughters survived Heckewelder.  Johanna Maria died unmarried at

Bethlehem, September 19, 1868. Anna Salome married Mr. Joseph Rice

of Bethlehem; died January 15, 1857. Rev. William  H. Rice, Trustee

of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, and now re-

siding at South Bethlehem, (Pa.) is the son of this union. Susanna

married J. Christian Luckenbach of Bethlehem and died February 8,

1867. Heckewelder's wife died in 1815. Heckewelder spent his old age

in Bethlehem, (Pa.) employing much of his time in writing of his

experiences with the Indians in the wilderness. His principal works are

"The History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations," and his

"Narrative." The latter is the work which is published as noted above

and edited by Mr. Connelley.

Of the Narrative itself we can only speak too briefly. This is

history at first hand. Mr. Heckewelder was a man of keen observation.

Nothing seems to have escaped his notice, and he records his experi-

ences and the facts noted in a very clear and graphic manner. You

are carried at once into the midst of the unbroken forests of Penn-

sylvania and Ohio, and into the minute details of the Indian pioneer life.

No romance could be more entertaining. This Narrative, and the sim-

ilar writings of Zeisberger mentioned elsewhere in this Quarterly, are

to primeval Ohio what the Jesuit relations were to the country farther

west and south. Mr. Connelley's annotations are copious and scholarly.

Places and personages mentioned in the Narrative are thoroughly ex-

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Editorialana.                         261

 

plained. Indeed the annotations themselves have a value second only to

the text which they explain. They constitute a compendium of informa-

tion that evidences the faithfulness and enthusiasm with which Mr. Con-

nelley has performed his work. We cite only one instance especially

interesting to Ohio readers. It is Mr. Connelley's note on the meaning

of the word "Ohio."   He says: "Ohio is derived from     the Iroquois.

The original is variously spoken in the different dialects. In Wyandot

it is Ohezhu; in Mohawk and Cayuga it is oheyo; in Onondaga and

Tuscarora it is Oheye; in Oneida it is Ohe; in Seneca it is very nearly

the same as in Wyandot. Darlington, in his Christopher Gist's Journals,

p. 94, and Morgan in his League of the Iroquois, say this means 'fair,'

'beautiful,' and that the Iroquois called the Ohio the Beautiful River.

The French so called it (La Belle Riviere), but there is no evidence

that they secured the name from any Indian original. The word does

not mean 'fair,' neither does it mean 'beautiful.' It means great. The

Iroquois, therefore, called the Ohio the Great River. The Wyandots

call it Ohezhu Yandawaye--Great River. And in the various dialects

of the Iroquois it is so called without exception. They give the stream

that name from it source to the Gulf of Mexico; with them it is the

main stream and has but one name. When I became acquainted with

the Wyandots they told me of hunting trips to the 'Sunken Lands' on

the Ohio. 'But,' I replied, 'there are no sunken lands on the Ohio.'

'Yes,' they said, 'plenty on Ohio; plenty by New Madrid.' 'But New

Madrid is on the Mississippi,' I insisted. 'We call him Ohio-all along,

Ohio; not call him Mississippi any place.' The Iroquois must have had

at some time a name for the Mississippi above the mouth of the Ohio,

but those I have met do not remember it."

 

GRAVE CREEK MOUND.

 

[One of the most interesting and noted mounds of the West is the one

located at Moundsville, W. Va. It was recently reported that the proprietor

had offered it for sale to any historical society and that in default of a purchaser

he would destroy it, in order to have the use of the grounds for agricultural

purposes. It appears, however, that the West Virginia legislature laudably came

to the rescue and secured the property for preservation. The following interesting

history of this mound and its explorations is from the pen of Mr. Wills De Haas.

The article appeared in a late number of The Philadelphia Ledger. We repro-

duce it in full with an accompanying cut of the famous ancient tablet found in

the mound.-EDITOR.]

The Legislature of West Virginia at its late session did a praise-

worthy act in purchasing the great mound at Moundsville, one of the

largest and most interesting prehistoric tumuli in central North America.

This important mound has long interested scholars and antiquarians, and

has also provoked controversy. A description and a statement of the

controversy may not be uninteresting at this time. The tumulus is a

typical structure of the Mound period--conical, symmetrical and 70 feet

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262        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   in height, covered with forest trees, some of primeval growth. It stands on a second terrace of a crescent-shaped plateau, one third of a mile from the Ohio River. Pioneer settlement of "Grave Creek Flats" was made by Joseph Tomlinson, 1770, who discovered the great mound and system of earth- works, then in good preservation. He refused to have the large mound disturbed, but early in the last century an excavation was made near the summit and 60 copper beads found. Dr. Doddridge of Wellsburg, procured ten of these and sent them to a museum in Philadelphia, which fact is stated in a communication published in Vol. I "Archaeologia Americanae." In 1838 Jesse Tomlinson, who had inherited the property, decided by the advice of friends, to explore the mound. Accordingly a tunnel, 5 by 7 feet, was driven from the northeast base to the centre--111 feet-where a chamber 8 by 12 feet was discovered. It had been con-

structed  of undressed  stone                                 and wood, and contained two                                       human skeletons, with several hundred shells (Marginella apicinos), over six hun- dred beads cut from the Buscyco perveorum, some mica plates, and a steatite. Enlarging the chamber ten additional skeletons were found sur- rounding the crypt. Continuing exploration, a shaft was sunk from summit to base, disclosing a second chamber mid- distant from base to summit. This

had been constructed like the first (both were in ruins), but contained only one skeleton in tolerable preservation; the cranium was sent to Dr. Morton of Philadelphia, and is figured in "Crania Americae"; it is in the Academy of Science. Beads, shells and five copper wristlets, show- ing advance of the builders from stone to copper age, were found. A more important discovery was a small stone tablet, inscribed with un- known characters. This is the celebrated Grave Creek Tablet, about which much has been written and considerable controversy made. It is a small, thin, flat pebble of compact, hard-grain dark sand- stone, probably taken from the river beach. The workmanship is rude, but distinct. The inscription consists of 22 characters and one idiograph. The discovery attracted attention. Dr. Clemens of Wheeling, prepared a careful report of his investigations for Dr. Morton. Dr. Townsend, of Prof. Rodger's geological staff, communicated to the Cincinnati Chronicle (monthly) a detailed account of the mound and discoveries.   A pen drawing of the tablet accompanied his sketch, which was used by Prof.

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Editorialana.                       263

 

Raflio, Baron Jomard and other European scholars, and not being en-

tirely accurate, has been slightly misleading.

Arthur T. Boreman, then a resident of Elizabethland (Mounds-

ville), communicated to the American Pioneer a sketch of the mound, its

exploration, and containing quite a good impression of the tablet. Mr.

Boreman was the first Governor of West Virginia and later U. S. Senator.

Mr. Schoolcraft visited the mound and made a painstaking and

exhaustive examination, which he reported to the Ethnological Society.

His great work on Indian history and archaeology fully describes the

mound and contents.   Other visitors and writers of distinction have

published descriptions and opinions.

The tablet was deposited temporarily in the Smithsonian Institu-

tion, where casts were made in wax, plaster, etc., and generally dis-

tributed. Professors Henry, Baird and Foreman were interested and

stimulated research in Western archaeology.

Of foreign savants who have written on the inscription, mention

may be made of Professor Raflio, of the Society of Northern Anti-

quaries; the Baron Jomard, Sir J. E. Alexander, Professor Wilson,

Doctor Bing, the Marquis de Naidillac and others.

In this country, Mr. Schoolcraft, the Rev. Dr. Hawks, with scores

of others, have written on the subject. Our learned societies discussed

it, and almost every work on American archaeology treated it.

Several years after the discovery, E. G. Squier, who had been

associated with Doctor Davis in preparing a work on the "Ancient

Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," visited the mound, and in a cap-

tious spirit discredited the tablet because anomalous. This opinion he

repeated in a paper before the American Ethnological Society. Citizens

of Wheeling and Moundsville, familiar with the facts of discovery, and

investigators who had examined and expressed confidence in its authen-

ticity, were indignant at Mr. Squier's attempted impeachment, and re-

solved to establish the authenticity of the tablet. The writer, then re-

siding at Washington, was consulted, and accepted an invitation of the

Ethnological Society to prepare for the society a paper embodying the

facts and discussing fully the authenticity of the tablet.

A meeting comprising most of the prominent literary, scientific and

professional men of New York city, was held, supplemented with a ban-

quet at the residence of the president. A carefully prepared paper, with

a mass of testimony authenticating the discovery of the tablet, was sub-

mitted. Mr. Squier was present, and followed the speaker with a candid

disclaimer of any intention to discredit the tablet. He was convinced

by the facts presented, and moved a vote of thanks.

The tablet is recognized by linguists and archaeologists as a valuable

discovery, but its true character has not been determined. It is prob-

ably a prayer, medal or legend. The character resembles the old Phoe-

necian as found along the Mediterranean. As other chambers have been

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264         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

disclosed by the falling in of walls, it is hoped that further explorations

may develop additional tablets and other important relics.

In this connection it may not be inappropriate to state that an in-

scribed stone was taken from another mound of the Grave Creek system

many years ago, and deposited in the museum of Hampden-Sydney Col-

lege, Virginia. It cannot be found, but Doctor Marters, member of the

House of Delegates, who carried the relic to Richmond, testifies to the

fact.

 

JOHN FILSON.

[The following sketch of the life of John Filson is reprinted from The Cin-

cinnati Times-Star of recent date. John Filson was one of the most influential char-

acters in the early history of Ohio and Kentucky, and the following article is well

worthy of permanent preservation.-EDITOR.]

One of the least familiar and at the same time one of the most

fascinating chapters in the history of Cincinnati and of Kentucky is the

story of the life of John Filson, the actual founder of Cincinnati, the

first historian and geographer of Kentucky, the biographer of Daniel

Boone, the man of peace among the warlike pioneers of the Middle

West of the eighteenth century. Filson's name is barely mentioned by

the historians of a later day.  Some of the most complete historical

works, such as that of Bancroft, overlook him entirely. To his memory

there is not a single monument. Even the street in Cincinnati which

was named after him has had its title changed and is now known as

Plum street. The picturesque name, "Losantiville," which he gave to the

city he had laid out opposite the most northerly point of Kentucky, has

vanished from the maps and the gazetteers. Filson's memory is kept

green only through one organization, the Filson Club of Louisville, which

has published a biography of the pioneer, embodying all the known facts

of his life and his services to his country.

One reason why Filson's name has not been preserved in history

to a greater extent may be found in the fact that he was not a fighting

man. In an era when deeds of bloodshed were celebrated to the exclu-

sion of the more peaceful but more useful arts of the teacher, the sur-

veyor and the farmer, such an oversight is quite natural.

Even the date of John Filson's birth is not known. It is known

that he was the second son of Davidson Filson of Brandywine, Pa.,

himself the son of one John Filson) an English pioneer. John Filson,

the explorer, probably was born about 1741, but there is only collateral

evidence of that fact. What his early life and education were can only

be conjectured by piecing together the accounts that have come down

of what colonial life in general was in the middle of the eighteenth

century. It is recorded, however, that he received some instruction in

his youth from the Rev. Samuel Finley, afterwards president of New

Jersey College, and it was from this learned man that he probably obtained

the smattering of Latin, Greek and French he is known to have possessed.

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Editorialana.                       265

 

Essentially a man of peace, he did not take an active part in the

Revolutionary War, so far as any records show. But when his brothers

returned from the victorious fight against British rule, John Filson joined

the tide of emigration that was setting westward towards Kentucky.

Traveling by the most direct route from his home in Eastern Pennsyl-

vania to Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg, Filson descended the Ohio

River to what is now Maysville, but then was known as Limestone, and

thence struck inland through the forests to Lexington. This was some

time before 1782, less than thirty years after McBride, the first pioneer,

had explored the "Dark and Bloody Ground."

In the year 1782 John Filson is found teaching school in Lexing-

ton and writing the wonderful "Life of Daniel Boone," the militant

pioneer and Indian-killer, whose thirteen years' of exploits in Kentucky

had already made him a semi-mythical figure in the imaginations of the

pioneers. Filson joined in the rush for free lands, and in 1783 entered

claim to 12,3681/2 acres, besides purchasing 1,500 acres in Jefferson county

from Boone. At the same time he began his journeys over the State,

asking more questions, it is recorded, than any man who had ever been

seen in those parts. Having some skill as a surveyor, he laid out bound-

aries for settlers, measured distances by the rude but efficient method of

pacing them off, noted the geographical formations while listening to the

tales of fights with the redskins, and in 1784 issued his "History of

Kentucky," a work that stands today as the indispensable basis of all

written accounts of the beginnings of the West, even as the marvelously

accurate map which accompanied it is invaluable from  its location of

the "buffalo roads," the block houses, forts and outposts and the branch

trails that led off the great "Wilderness road" through the Cumberland

gap.

Filson went to Wilmington, Delaware, to have his book published.

He returned to Kentucky in 1785, driving overland in a Jersey wagon

to Pittsburg, and thence by flatboat to "the mouth of Beargrass creek,"

where Louisville now stands. The new book caused a sensation. It

was translated into French and printed in Paris in 1785. In 1793 an

English writer on North America appropriated Filson's book bodily,

and in the same year a New York publisher brought out an edition.

A Philadelphia periodical published it as a serial without credit, prior

to 1790, the same magazine that printed his "Life of Daniel Boone" and

credited it to Boone himself. Another London publisher brought out a

complete edition of the history, from the narratives in which practically

all later accounts of the pioneers of Kentucky have been drawn.

Filson sold all his possessions in Pennsylvania and turned his steps

towards the "Illinois country." He traveled by canoe and took copious

notes for another book, which never was published. He paddled in the

fall of 1785 up the Wabash to Post St. Vincent, a distance of 450 miles

from Louisville. In the course of his travels he had an interesting ex-

perience with hostile Indians at Vincennes, Ind. In 1786 he returned

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266         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

to Pennsylvania on horseback, made his will and returned to Kentucky

the next year. Here he roamed about for some time, apparently very

poor, until Matthias Denham of New Jersey, who had bought from

John Cleves Symmes eight hundred acres on the banks of the Ohio,

opposite the mouth of the Licking river, sought for some well-known

men to join him in "syndicating" the property. He chose Filson and

Robert Patterson, a popular soldier. They became equal partners, pay-

ing Denham $33.33 each for a third interest in the 800-acre tract.

Arriving at the tract, Filson again proved his ingenuity by devis-

ing a name for it. Calling his classical learning to mind, he constructed

a cognomen familiar in the local tradition, "Losantiville." It was made

by taking the initial "L" for Licking river, the Latin words "os" (mouth),

and "anti" (opposite), and adding the French suffix "ville" to signify

the city opposite the mouth of the Licking. True, the name was dis-

carded by General St. Clair, the first territorial governor of Ohio, who

selected that of Cincinnati instead, but it was a picturesque and original

name, as names for localities went in those days.

This was in 1788. Chain in hand, Filson proceeded to lay out the

streets of the new city. He builded better than most of the pioneer

town-cobblers. Instead of the narrow, alley-like thoroughfares that pre-

vailed in his day, he projected wide streets, laid out in symmetrical

regularity at right angles. The lower part of Cincinnati stands today

substantially as Filson mapped it. The boundaries that he laid out

began on the east with "Eastern Row," now Broadway, intended to strike

directly north from the mouth of the Licking, and "Western Row," now

Central avenue. What is now Plum street was "Filson street."

Filson's death is shrouded in mystery. With a party sent out by

Judge Symmes to explore the latter's great possessions, he went towards

the Great Miami, surveying and platting the township lines. Near the

upper line of the fifth range of townships, Filson suddenly disappeared

one night. Not a sign or vestige of him was ever seen again, nor did

any word come from him. There had been Indians in the neighbor-

hood, there were ferocious wild beasts not far away, the Great Miami

flowed swiftly and deep. By which, if any of these agencies, Filson met

his fate, is not known. Not long after his death, it was whispered

abroad that he had turned his back voluntarily on the rude civilization

of the frontier and had cast in his lot with the Indians. Contemporary

chroniclers, however, recorded it as a fact that he had been killed by

Indians.

Few mementoes of Filson beyond his published works exist. Fil-

son, however, not only gave Cincinnati its plan and its location, but the

memory of Daniel Boone and the Story of the settlement of Kentucky

were preserved alone by his pen.

• 19