Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state...Godcharles, Frederic Antes
History
Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state...
Godcharles, Frederic Antes
Pennsylvania -- Biography; Pennsylvania -- History
Many of this settlement accompanied military scouting parties, and were
of much service in the defense of the Western frontier. Chief Killbuck,
also known as Gelemend, meaning “leader,” became a soldier and officer
in the United States Army. He died in 1811.
In the spring of 1782, which was unusually early, came the marauding
Indians. The first blow fell February 8, when John Fink was killed near
Buchanan’s Fort, on the upper Monongahela. On Sunday, February 10, a
large body of Indians visited the dwelling of Robert Wallace, on Raccoon
Creek, Beaver County. The head of the family being absent at the time,
the savages killed all his cattle and hogs, plundered the house of its
contents and carried away Mrs. Wallace and her three children.
About February 15, six Indians captured John Carpenter and two of his
horses on the Dutch Fork, of Buffalo Creek. They crossed the Ohio at
Mingo Bottom and made off toward the Tuscarawa villages. Four of these
Indians were Wyandot. Two spoke Dutch, and told Carpenter they were
Moravians. On the morning of the second day, Carpenter was sent to the
woods to get the horses. Finding them some distance from the camp fire,
he mounted one of the horses and dashed for Fort Pitt, where he told his
story to Colonel Gibson.
Gibson mustered 160 young men of Washington County, and placed Colonel
Williamson in command of the expedition, which moved immediately. The
Ohio was at flood height and they effected a crossing Monday, March 4,
and hastened along the beaten trail toward Gnadenhuetten on the
Muskingum. As may well be imagined Robert Wallace was an eager volunteer
in this expedition.
They had not proceeded far until they found the torn corpse of Mrs.
Wallace, impaled on the trunk of a sapling, just off the path. The
mutilated body of her infant lay nearby. The infuriated frontiersmen
remounted their horses, reached the environs of Gnadenhuetten in the
evening of March 6, when their scouts brought back word that the village
was now full of Indians.
Colonel Williamson divided his force into three parties, sending one
command to strike the river below the town, a second to cross the stream
above and cut off retreat in that direction, the third forming the
center to advance upon the place directly.
The attack was begun on the morning of March 7, and not a shot was fired
by the center or left. The presence of women and children warned the
frontiersmen that it was not occupied simply by a war party, and Colonel
Williamson quickly learned the Indians were Moravians. No resistance was
made and soon the frontiersmen were conversing with the Indians who
could speak English. In a council the colonel told them they must go to
Fort Pitt, which the Indians appeared willing to do. The Indians sent
messengers down the river to Salem to tell their people to come to
Gnadenhuetten.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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