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,
Vol. X-20
306 Ohio
Arch. and His. Society Publications.
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."
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
308 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
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:
The Pioneer Poet Lawyer. 309
"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.
* *
* * *
*
310
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
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.
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."
312 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
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.'
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
314 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications
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.