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Fitzhugh Williams
Mohicanland Statesman
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July 17 2005
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 Posted - March 20 2011 : 6:23:46 PM
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On another forum recently a man who goes by Michael Archer (not his real name) has been posting some stories about Lewis Wetzel and his family. If you don't know who he is, check out Google. He is either a hero of villain depending on you point of view. But either way he is a very interesting character of a period just a bit later than the F&I. Here are some of the stories.
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"Les deux pieds contre la muraille et la tete sous le robinet" |
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Fitzhugh Williams
Mohicanland Statesman
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July 17 2005
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Posted - March 20 2011 : 6:26:03 PM
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On May 20, 1782, the various pieces of Colonel William Crawford's "Army" began to assemble at Mingo Bottom (modern Mingo Junction, OH).
It would be a disastrous campaign, especially for the reluctant Crawford.
The main body of survivors would make it back to Mingo Bottom on June 13th, but stragglers were spread out all over the place.
One such survivor was Thomas Mills, who had somehow found a horse, and made it close to the Ohoi River before the horse gave out. Mills turned it loose to graze, and made his way on foot across the Ohio River and going up Short Creek went to Van Meter's Fort.
At the fort at the time was 18 year old Lewis Wetzel. Wetzel already had a slight reputation (especially for his talent and ability to "load on the run", and Mills tried hard to enlist him on going with him to retrieve the horse. News of the Crawford disaster had lready arrived, and Wetzel was not too keen on going for a horse knowing that the Indians would have been in pursuit of Crawford's men. Plus it was already the start of the Summer Season.
Wetzel was partially wrong, not knowing that most of the Indians had largely gone back to Wapatomica and their to their own villages- but that war parties were still about hunting down stragglers.
At the fort was also Mills' 15 year old cousin, Joshua Davis, serving in the militia. Davis wanted to go along,, but Thomas would have nothing of it, but Davis argued that he was large for his age, and that three rifles were always better than two. Wetzel was for his going, and persuaded Mills' to let Davis come.
The three went down to Fort Henry (Wheeling), and early the next morning crossed the Ohio, across Wheeling Island, and went up the war trail heading west on the war trail that is now U.S. 40.
Coming to Indian Springs (later Wetzel Springs, now St. Clairsville), Wetzel and Mills spied his horse tied to a tree. Davis had fallen a bit behind, or had stopped to answer the Call of Nature. (most likely the latter.)
Wetzel advised caution, but Mills ran out of the woods to get his horse. As he did he was met by a volley of shots from a party of Indians lying in ambush. A ball went through Mills' lower leg, tumbling him. Indians rushed out of the brush. Wetzel treed, took aim, and snapped off a shot that dropped a warrior. He turned and ran back. Those Indians still with loaded guns fired at him but missed. Four dropped their guns and chased after him, knowing that Wetzel had fired his rifle and that it was empty. Davis had heard the sound of gunfire, Mills' cry of pain, and Wetzel's victory yell at the downed warrior. Davis rushed up the trail, only to see Wetzel running toward him. Then the Indians appeared down the trail.
Davis fired, but missed. He turned and bolted. Wetzel caught up, and passed him by, in the process of reloading on the run. Now loaded, Wetzel yelled out to Davis that there were only four Indians, turned, and fired at the closest Indian, dropping him. They ran together, but Davis complained that he could not keep pace with Wetzel. Wetzel told Davis to run at a trot, and reloaded again. Just as he finished reloading, a warrior jumped out of the brush next to him. The warrior had cut through the brush to close the distance rather than running up the trail. He grabbed the muzzle of Wetzel's rifle trying to wrest it away. Wetzel jerked free, pushed the muzzle against the Indian's chest, and pulled the trigger. The warrior was knocked back into the bushes. They ran off, Wetzel reloading on the run once again.. After a mile, Davis was played out. Wetzel told Davis to jump into the bushes near a creek bank and hide, and let the remainng two or more warriors run on past. He did, and Wetzel ran on.
But, one of the warriors was also winded, and stopped near the same spot where Davis was hiding.
The last warrior, ran on, after the out-of-sight Wetzel.
A minute or two later, Davis heard a rifle shot. Knowing that the other Indian had no gun, the panting Indian figured out what happened and turned to trot back.
A short time later, Lewis appeared, and he and Wetzel made their way back to the Ohio, and back to Van Meter's.
A few days later, John McCulloch (brother of "leaper" Samuel) organized a party to go and bury Mills. They found him scalped and mutilated, the ball having passed thorugh and broken his ankle.
Lewis Wetzel's reputation sky-rocketed at the Wheeling and near-by settlements.
But, the story would be greatly retold and later embellished by other writers. Such as making it a June of 1780 raid for horses, with the 16 year old Wetzel being in his cornfield and ask to join the dozen or so mounted settlers to get the horses back. So, he took his father's favorite mare, and joined in.
At Indian Springs the warriors turned out the horses and went to take a nap in the shade. While they were snoozing the Whites charged in, and the Indians scattered into the brush for their lives. The decision was made to take the rested horses the Indians had, and leave the worn horses the whites rode in on. And come back for them anoterh time. As they were packing up, the Indians reappeared between them and the horses.
Now the whites bolted.
But, Lewis realized he had left his father's prized horse behind. Wetzel berated his elders as cowards for having inticed him from his corn field, and for not getting the horses back, as well as losing their own in the bargain. The cowardly Whites figured their scalps were worth more than a few worn horses. But two "veterans," agreed with Wetzel that they should go back to reclaim their horses and their honor.
Their plan was to go back, spook the Indians, and then all three "tree." And pick off the Indians as they approached. But at the last second, as they burst upon the Indians, the two "veterans" panicked, and ran back- leaving Wetzel alone.
Wetzel treed. He placed his coonskin cap on the end of his ramrod, and slid it around the edge of his tree. Three Indian muskets fired at it. Lewis dropped the hat to the ground, and the warriors thinking they had got him, dropped their guns and rushed forward with tomahawks to finish him. Wetzel stepped out from behind the tree, and put a ball through the chest of the closest Indian.
The remaining two, knowing his rifle was empty leaped forward. Wetzel bolted, "loading on the run."
Keeping ahead of the two warriors, having reloaded, Wetzel turned, stopped, and dropped the closest Indian. And bolted again, reloading on the run.
Loaded, he turned and fired, killing the third and last warrior.
Wetzel returned and scalped the three warriors, and featched his father's horse, then caught up with the other settlers telling them he would rather return without his hair and with the mare, than with his hair and without the mare.
Note: in all of this "histories" there are variations, few due ot memories (many because the interviewees were sometimes four, or six, or ten years old at the time, AND many times they were sharing what they actual read later in life that had been incorrectly written or made up. OR when pressed hard for answers, made up stuff themselves on the spot, or at the moment- they they did not know.
Most all written in the 19th century by authors trying to sell books. Or authors who did no research but recyled or actually rewrote their own versions of what had previously be done.
One of my favorites is the one where the Indian who had paused to catch his breath where Joshua Davis was hiding...
Davis heard him complain out loud, in pidgen English, that "Uh, him gun always loaded." before running back. |
"Les deux pieds contre la muraille et la tete sous le robinet" |
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Fitzhugh Williams
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Posted - March 20 2011 : 6:28:33 PM
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Some of the 19th century Wetzel "histories" have the Savages bursting into the Wetzel log cabin and killing his parents.
There are numerous versions that pull the history apart, and reassemble the bits and pieces in different arrangements and orders.
The actual, factual details of the killing of Lewis Wetzel's father, John Sr., goes more like this... (Based on the later memories of Lewis cousin Lewis Bonnet Jr who claimed to have remembered when word arrived that his uncle John had been killed at the age of eight. Bonnet, in his seventies, would later suffer from "remembering' bogus stuff he had read in books.)
We tend to think of the Ohio as being pretty wide, which it kinda/sorta is in places, but it is also not all that wide in other places, such as the Grave Creek Narrows below Wheeling. So, the practice was to hug the center line, and not get too close to the shore to be within musket or trade gun range-especially for the Ohio side of the river (west and north bank) aka "Indian Territory". BUT, "hugging the shoreline" also made one harder to spot than being in the middle of the river, and could have its advantages.
Sometimes...
Atlases, maps, Google online maps, and satellites out...
On June 11, 1786, John Sr. was canoeing down the Ohio River, some 7-8 miles below Joseph Tomlinson's Station (burned in 1777 and rebuilt, now the site of an elementary school in Moundsville, WVA).) coming near to the mouth of Graveyard Run, and about a mile north Baker's Station.
With John Sr, was Lewis, two other men named Andrews and Moore (maybe Miller), and a dog. (Incorrect accounts put George Wetzel in the canoe, but he had been killed in 1782). Lewis had suddenly become sick, and asked to be dropped off on land, to rest, and then go to Baker's Station on foot. The nature of his sickness was ot recorded, but I believe he had the runs (Flux) and being in the canoe was "problematical."
They dropped him off, and continued down river.
As they neared Graveyard Run, too close to the VA side, a party of Indians appeared on the shore and yelled for them to come ashore. Knowing it would be death, they turned for the Ohio's center and the Ohio shore, and paddled for all they were worth. The warriros opened fire, the first volley putting mortal wounds into John Wetzel, Moore, and the dog. Andrews jumped out of the canoe, and swam for the Ohio side.
The current carried the canoe downriver, and into the VA shore, where the Indians mutilated and scalped the bodies, left them on the bank, and used it to cross the Ohio and disappear.
When Lewis got to Baker's Station, his father and pards were not there.
The next day, a search party was organized of nine or ten men, and Lewis headed out to see what had happened. (Among the party was Henry Jolly, who is "famous" for saying that frontiersmen carried two sizes of rifle balls- the normal and also undersize balls for speed loading in emergencies.) They crossed the river to the Ohio Side at Baker's, and chased after the Indians thinking the Whites had been taken captive.
But with more than a day's head start, the Indians were gone.
A search found the bodies at Graveyard Run, and they were taken down to Baker's Station, and buried in the little "cemetery plot" about a hundred feet north of the Baker blockhouse.
A stone was chiselled with "J.W. 1786" for the grave. 19th century souvenir hunters chipped away at the stone, until someone either stole it, or threw it in the Ohio River.
Here is a hole in my knowledge...
There is a grave marker in the "Wetzel Family Plot" for John Wetzel Sr. in the McCreary Cemetery above the Wetzel homestead site.
Local legend has it that John Sr's grave was found, sometime, and what remains were in it were relocated to McCreary's.
Anyways...
Wheeling and Wetzel historian and author, pard Bill Hintzen believes otherwise.
I was invited down to archeologically search for the grave. But i forget,now, the reason it never happened. (much like why we did not go down to archeologically refind and reopen Lewis Wetzel's original grave).
I had a similar creepy feeling the first time I took my bark canoe out onto the Monongahela River. "Them" shores were awfully close, and I felt quite naked watching the banks... |
"Les deux pieds contre la muraille et la tete sous le robinet" |
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Fitzhugh Williams
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Posted - March 20 2011 : 6:32:24 PM
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How d' ye!
No, not Mark Baker. :)
Baker's Fort or Baker's Station....
In brief and to over-simplify, but one of the "Onion Rings", was the Trans-Ohio River Valley.
One of the obvious ways to "settle," was to float down the Ohio River- the concentric "onion ring" pushing out further down-river as it seemed the next available selection of land was further west than the last.
Western and SW PA, as well as western and northern VA were sometimes refered to as the "Virginia Rhineland" not only because the land looked just like western and SW "Germany," but also due to the number of "German" settlers having moved there.
The grandfather of John Sr, Hans-Martin, had arrived from "Germany" in PA in 1731. As part fo 269 "German" Lutherans. They eventually moved to Frederick County , MD where John was born in 1733. John was indentured in Philly to pay for his share of the passage form Holland. He completed his indenture in 1754, and moved to Berks County, PA. In 1755 he met Mary Bonnet, part of a family of French Huegenots, and married. John later moved to 15 miles south of Winchesrer VA, then back to PA near Lancaster PA.. then to Redstone Fort or on Dunkard Creek ("Dunkards" being German Anapbaptists because of their belief in adult baptisms or "Dunkings."). in 1769. Then to Wheeling (VA) in 1770, then back to PA in 1778, and then back to Wheeling.
(Ebenzer Zane and companions had expolred Wheeling Creek in 1769, and returned in 1770 to establish a settlelment.)
A fellow "German" was Prussian John Baker Sr. (his "German" name unknown) who built a stockaded/fortified blockhouse known as Baker's Fort or sometimes Baker's Station 7-8 miles down from Tomlinson's Station (modern Moundsville) in 1784.
Baker was born in Bingen, Prussia about 1737and came to America about 1760, arriving in Philadelphia, PA as had the Wetzels. After five years, he and his wife Elizabeth Sullivan (born in "Germany" about 1744 despite the last name) and kids moved to Winchester VA where he lived two years. From there he moved to Dunkard Creek, now in Greene County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1767 and remained there seven years. In 1774 with Dunmores War he moved his family to Redstone Old Fort, now Brownsville.
He remained at the fort for a number of years, and served in the Virginia mlitia as a captain. He went from Redstone to Catfish Camp in 1781, where he remained a short time and then removed to Round Bottom and in 1784 Baker built a blockhouse near the upper end of Cresaps Bottom. As with Tomlinson's, the Zane's at Wheeling, AND John Wetzel SR, up on Wheeling Creek, Baker chose to build his house about one mile down from a major Indian war trail ford over the Ohio... at Captiva Creek.
When looking at the Ohio River today, it is not the Ohio River of the 18th century because off all of the locks built in the 20th century to try to control flooding as well as keep the river open to commerce. "Back then," in some summers it was narrow, and in some summer draughts there were places where one could cross by avoiding puddles and pools with dry feet. Or at worst, wading across.
As with all of this stories, there ar emany versions ansd twists- the more common was that John Wetzel Sr, and son George were there as part of the this story in 1787 (but John had been killed in 1786 and George in 1782).
In 1787, a number of Indians were observed over on the Ohio side of the Ohio River, across from Baker's Station, just milling about- apparently confident that they were safe from an rifle shots from the blockhouse.
For some reason, some say boredom, some say a wager, some say just on a lark, John Baker took his longrifle, lined up a shot, and fired a round across the river- dropping a warrior on the bank while the rest scattered.
Baker and two men, usually said be the already killed John Wetzel Sr, and son George, but more likely Lewis and Jacob, or possibly Lewis and Martin (Martin having been captured in 1778 and escape in 1781 going to Boonesborough but almost executed as an Indian.. and returning to Wheeling shortly after 1782.. but that's another story) came to a canoe across the Ohio to check out the dead Indian and likely take some souvenirs.
What they did not know was the Indians expected someone to come for the scalp, and hid in ambush.
As the three men beached, and climbed up the bank, the Indians opened fire, hitting Baker, while the two Wetzels treed and returned fire.
Watching from the VA shore, and seeing/hearing the firing, Baker's son John Jr. and several men took to canoes and paddled furiously across the river. Seeing the rescue party, the Indians ran off. The Wetzel's took the wound Baker Sr, back across the river to the Station in their canoe, where he died a few hours later.
He was buried in the cemetery plot, next to John Wetzel, Sr.
The "shot" became legendary. (although the actual distance may have been around 200-250 plus yards or so).
Eventually, the Station was abandoned. Later, a rail line went through, and the near-by coal mine used the site as a slag pile dump.
As previously shared, local legend has that John Wetzel, Sr, was found and reinterred in the Wetzel plot at McCreary Cemetery. But Wheeling/Wetzel historian/author believes John's grave is symbolic, and empty, and his remains are still in the cemetery plot at the site of Baker's Station.
An archeological dig was planned to find the cemetery, and I was invited. But as far as I know it was an idea, and never organized or executed.
(I suspect the cemetery if likley still there, but with a number of burials just not Wetzel Sr, and Baker Sr.
AND, it is always MESSY when talking about, let alone going about, "digging up" "White People's" graves, especially local legends...
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Fitzhugh Williams
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Posted - March 20 2011 : 6:36:21 PM
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How d' ye!
Of all of the bogus Lewis Wetzel stories and history is the 1784 "Rescue of the Forest Rose."
It is the worst of them all, when it comes to factual/actual history, oral history, oral tradition, lore, legend, hearsay, bad memory, confused recolelctions, 19th century literary style, and AND 19th century fiction and romanticism.
And basically four main versions.
The most believeable or reliable comes from Jacob Wetzel's son, Cyrus to Lyman Draper.
A young man had arrived at Wheeling, by the name of Frazier who fell ill, and was cared for Rose Forrest. Frazier fell in love with Forest. After he recovered, he went with her on horseback up to a settlment on Short Creek, a few miles above Wheeling, to visit some friends she had there.
(Yeah. Insert the Michael Archer Broken Record that they were following an Indian war trail...)
Shortly on the way, a deer appeared on the trail, and Frazier thought it would be nice to arrive at Rose's friends with a gift of meat, and fired from the saddle. He hit it, but it ran off. Frazier dismounted, and tracked off after the deer.
Indians, having heard the shot, came up, captured Rose and took the two horses. Coming back, he found them gone, and ran back to Fort Henry/Wheeling. A pursuit party was suggested to get them back, and 21 year old Lewis Wetzel was the first to be asked to join in. Wetzel declined, saying that a party of settlers would like get Rose killed (Wetzel knew her, and called her "Forrest Rose"). Wetzel said he would go alone, but Frazier would have nothing of it, and pleaded to go along. (This may be true or romantic, I do not know. It is not like Wetzel to risk himself with a Newcomer babe in the woods...) Wetzel, said okay, of Frazier would do what he said.
Lewis Wetzel had just come back from a scout, and had found an Indian canoe "sunk" at the mouth of Short Creek ("Virginia Short Creek" on the WVA side as opposed to Indian or Ohio Short Creek on the OH side). It was a common way for Indians to hide their canoes, or to keep them swelled. Filled with rocks, the canoes are sent underwater and out of sight.)
Figuring that the Indians would cross at Short Creek,coming down the VA portion of the war trail to cross and pick up the OH portion of the war trail, Wetzel and Frazier set up an ambush and hid near the canoe.
Before long, two warriors with Rose in tow appeared. The two raised the canoe, put Rose in the middle, and got in to paddle off (I am not sure why Wetzel waited other than for them to to the work of raising the canoe, but..) Wetzel and Frazier fired, killing the Indians.
The canoe floated adrift, and Frazier jumped out to get the canoe.
It was there that two more Indians appeared on the bank. with the two horses. They had been a party of four, not two. And, somehow the horses had been forgotten about in the need for speed to chase after Rose.
For some reason the two Indians did not fire, perhaps knowing that two Whites had just fired and had empty rifles. And they jumped down the bank. But Wetzel reloaded, fired, and dropped one before they could fire. Frazier was in the river manhandling the canoe. Wetzel drew his knife and lunged at the reamaining warrior. In the fight, Wetzel stabbed and killed him.
The last Indian was known to the Whites as "Crossfire" or "Old Crossfire" because he was left-handed and used right-handed guns from the "wrong side."
Frazier and Forest were later married, and moved on to KY.
According to Cyrus Wetzel, who said he was told the story by is father, Lewis' youngest brother Jacob, and Cyrus sharing it with Draper.
The more commonly known version was that of a descendant of Wetzel's named C. B. Allman who wrote in the 1920's and 1930's.
But Allman did poor research, not uncommon in that era. He took the account an 1850 book titled "The Forest Rose" written by Emerson Bennett. BUT BEnnet was writing a fictionalized romantic version of an actual occurrance involving a woman named Washburn, her finance named White, and a forntiersman named Robert McClelland (IIRC, the McClelland's shared a double cabin with the Archers at Fort Jackson (modern Waynesburg, PA).
AND, "adapted" it because it kinda/sorta matched Lewis Bonnet's 1849 letters to Draper where Bonnett thought he remembered the woman as Rode (sic) Kennedy and the fiance as Reynolds. (Lewis was six years old at the time, vesus Cyrus' version, Cyris being born in 1800.) But Bonnet first wrote in 1847 he did not remember the names. But then in 1849 "remembered" Kennedy and Reynolds.
The Rose Forrest/Forrest Rose story also gets muddled in a similar form, for Allman's "The Search for Lilly" story which was taken from the largely fictional R.C.V. Meyer's fake biogarahy of Wetzel. And twists in Simon Bonnett for Frazier and a Rose Tilly for Rose Forrest and Frazier for Albert Maywood and Rose Forester.... and, and ....
The State of Ohio put up markers and made a little "Forest Rose" park near Lancaster, OH... |
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Fitzhugh Williams
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Posted - March 20 2011 : 6:39:59 PM
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The pan-religious revivals of the 1800's thrugh the 1830's also changed "history."
Even the Archer family, recorded as the first Roman Catholic family in SW PA, and founders of the first Roman Catholic Church in Ohio... got caught up in the "'Second Great Awakening" that lead to the rise of the Methodists and the Free-Will Baptists. (belieivng that people could, by the act of self-will, accept Salvation from Christ). And abandoned Catholicism for Methodism (and their descendants remain so today.)
Anyways, there was also a "rivalist" in the crowds named Simon Kenton. And, as history moved into romanticism, so did his past.
But that would largely lay dormant, until the oft-forgotten Simon Kenton was given a new lease in Popular History by Allan Eckert.
Anyways....
It is said that children model what they live, and the other "bookend" in the Wetzel family was Jacob, the last son, and second youngest born in 1765. And who would be captured as a kid along with Lewis...
Jacob first gets attention for his and Lewis' capture and escape. Then he resurfaces as the maker of the "False Man" mannequin the Wetzels would put in the doorway of their cabin when first opening the door in the morning to foil the Indian tactic of waiting to shoot the man-of-the-house as he stepped out to tend to his animals. It would be soon be put to use when two Indians showed up while the rest of the Wetzels were away, with only Jacob and the youngest daughter Susannah at home. Susannah opened the door, holding up the dummy, while Jacob stood to the other side. Two shot passed through it. Susannah dropped it, and the two warriors rush out from cover toward the door. Jacob stepped into the doorway, fired, and dropped the leading warrior. He stepped back to speed load, as Susannah slammed and barred the door. Jacob relaoded in a flash, basically puirng down powder and two loose balls. As the Indian gained the door, he stuck the muzzle into the port, and fired- killing the second Indian.
Sometime around 1790, Jacob moved west in KY, to Kenton's Station on Lawrence Creek (modern Washington, KY). Jacob would join Kenton's "ranger/spy" group, and two became friends. (yeah, revised history later distanced itself from Kenton's association and connection with the Wetzel family.)
One Fall, Simon and Jacob had made plans for a hunt near the Kentucky River. But when they arrived at the spot chosen for their camp, at the mouth of the KY River, they saw Indian sign. Giving up the hunt, they decided to "recon" the Indians as to number and possible intent. (Yeah, another war trail fording place..)
On the second day, near dark, they found the Indians' camp of five warriors. Planning to attack before dawn, they found a large downed or fallen tree, and decided to hide for the night. Before daylight, with just enough light to see to shoot, they attacked.
Simon happened to have a "Wender" or double rifle. He fired first, followed by Jacob. Kenton revolved the second barrel, and fired. Three sleeping Indians were hit. The two unhit warriors, awoken by three shots, thought themsleves outnumbered at least 3:2, and bolted with Simon and Jacob in pursuit. They ran them down, and scalped them, before returning to the Indian camp to take the remaining three and any plunder.
In March of 1791, Jacob, the brother of Daniel Greathouse of "Logan fame," had started down the Ohio with a large party of settlers bound for land in KY. Coming up the Ohio, was a group of soldiers whose enlistments had expired and were returning to Fort Pitt- travelling with a group of traders going back for new supplies for "safety in numbers." On March 19, near the mouth of the Scioto River (yeah, sigh, another war trail and ford...) Indians from the Ohio side opened fire and killed several of the soldiers. On March 25 the party that included the Greathouses... passed by the same place and were fired upon (possibly by the same Indians.)
One of the boats made it to Limestone with the news. The lads were rounded up by Alexander Orr, numbering a substantial 300 men who went off to investigate and maybe catch the Indians. Eight miles up from the mouth of the Scioto River, they found the remains of the traders from two weeks before. A half mile to the north, up the Sciota, a scouitng party consisting of Kenton, Jacob Wetzel, Joe Lemon, and some others
found the bodies ofo three dead and rotting Indians haivng been placed in the hole left by a fallen tree's roots, and covered with a little dirt. Despite the stench, Lemon went down into the hole for the three scalps.
Seeing no further sign of interest, the scouts went down to the Ohio and headed west. Three miles below the mouth of the Scioto, they found the site of an attack. And found the mutilated bodies tha tincluded Jacob Greathouse and his wife, disembowled with the sapling method. Plus, left for dead and dying, the Indians left them for the pigs that had been turned loose from the settlers' boats, and the vultures.
Kenton and Jacob Wetzel endured the stench long enough to bury the Greathouses. (In the summer of 1771, 16 year old Kenton, aka "Butler" had first met Greathouse and Fort Pitt, and had bee invited to join his hunting party of William Grills and the two Mahon brothers.) But they could not, or would not, go on. One of the other men in the scouting party, named Luther Calvin, managed to scrape the remains of the other 14 settlers and the slaughtered farm animals and push or drag them to the bank and into the Ohio River.
Next: revenge. |
"Les deux pieds contre la muraille et la tete sous le robinet" |
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Fitzhugh Williams
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Posted - March 20 2011 : 6:43:02 PM
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The men had barely returned back home from the "Greathouse" attack at the Scioto River, when words came in the a large war party had come down the Scioto, passed Limestone Creek, and had moved on into KY. It was thought that they might be the same Indians responsible for the Greathouse business.
Another patrol of spies came in, and reported finding four large war canoes sunk at the mouth of Snag Creek (by the usual metod of hiding canoes by sinking them and filling them with rocks...).
A party of men was quickly organized that included Simon Kenton, Jacob Wetzel, Daniel Boone's cousin Jacob Boone, Fielding Figgans, and Neal Washburn.
After covering about 25 miles downstream, they came to the mouth of Snag Creek, and crossed over the Ohio, setting up a camp inland and lying in ambush back form the shore for the Indians to return. And waited. And waited through the next day. And into the third day...
Finally a canoe with three Indians swimming seven stolen horses was seen. As the canoe aproached the Ohio bank, they opened fire, killing two and wounding the third Indian. They waded out, and tomahawked the wounded Indian to death. Jacob Wetzel drew his knife to flay one of the Indians to pieces to make a razor strop, but Kenton talked him out of it.
The Indians were dumped in the river, the canoe hidden, the horses taken a ways off shore, and the ambush reset.
The next day, three of warriors appeared on the KY side and started to raise ar canoe at Snag Creek, with five horses in tow.
As before, they were allowed to paddle across swimming teh five horses, and as they neared the Ohio shore they were shot down.
And once again, the ambush reset.
The next day, late at night, a number of Indians called out to the Ohio side expecting to hear from the other warriors who were to meet up and rendezvous with them there. But there was only silence. The Indians sent a spy across unbeknownst to the frontiersmen, who spied their camp, and returned across the Ohio to warn the rest.
The next morning, the Indians had not crossed or even been seen on the KY shore. The Kentuckians decided they were gone, and crossed back to the KY side. Figuring they had hung aorund in one spot long enough, and might be needed elsewhere in KY, they had to be content with killing six Indians in revenge for the 16 Whites killed at the mouth of the Scioto River, and the 12 horses recovered (assumed to have plunder on them, but it was not recorded).
The "Indian Wars" would start in January of 1791 at Big Bottom.
In the Spring of 1792 after the Arthur St. CLair disaster in November 1791, the winter on the frontier had been pretty rough due to the unchecked Indians.
St. CLair had been sacked, and replaced by "Mad" Anthony Wayne who prepared for another invasion. But there were "doves" in Congress hoping for peace with the Indians, and in April a bill was passed making it illegal to pursue Indians north of the Ohio River or to go campaigning into "Indian Country (Ohio).
Not so much for Simon Kenton...
On April 7, 1792, Kenton with about 40 mounted men- including his favorites of Lemon, Figgans, Calvin, Washburn, Alex McIntire, Samukel Frazee, Jacob Wetzel, and Joshua Davis (cousin of the Thomas Mills killed with Lewis Wetzel back at Indian Springs (St. Clairsville.) headed across the Ohio River off toward a Shawnee camp said to located on the Little Miami River.
(Insert Michael Archer Broken Record mantra about war trails here...)
But aside from Kenton's small group "favorites," there were other KY locals not that keen on breaking the "law," and not that keen on their small number going against a whole village. On teh second day, about ten were quite vocal. At nightfall, pretending to go get water for their camp, they kept on going and headed back to KY.
They were not that wrong...
The rest continued up the Little Miami trail, and the next night their forward spies came back to report they had found the Shawnee camp. And a fine camp it was. Unknown to them at the time, was a large war party including such notables as Black Snake, Black Hoof, and even a young Tecumseh.
McIntire and Washburn were sent to spy on the camp, and reported back that they thought there were too many warriros for the 30 Kentuckians to attack in daylight.
Kenton called a conference.
The men were divided on what to do. Some wanted to leave and go back to KY. Some wanted to fortify their camp and build breastworks to defend against a Shawnee attack. But the more bold, wanted to use the Indian ways against them, and attack before first dawn in the morning. Somehow the decision was made to attack.
Samuel Frazee and Jacob Wetzel were sent as "night spies" to watch the Shawnee, and to get close enough to see by the light of their fires how the camp was laid out or organized.
Later, Wetzel and Frazee returned reporting that the camp was large, consisting mostly of bark shelters and a large officer's marquee taken from St. Clair's men (believed set up for the chiefs)..
Wetzel's recon was not well received by the less than enthusiastic Kentuckians who had given in about attacking. Again, a faction wanted to pull out. Somehow they were persuaded not to (the romantic version credits Wetzel's passionate and eloquent speech about if no others would go, he would still go alone and kill at least one Indian.
Kenton wisely divided up his men to get a "mix" in each of three groups of ten. He took command of the center group, and with McIntire and Calvin on either flank, they moved toward the camp in the darkk of night. They crept up upon the sleeping camp, the Shawnees confident they were safe based on where they were at. And they waited for dawn, some three hours away.
But, a camp dog smelled them on the wind, and started barking. A number of Indians got up to investigate and followed after the dark towards Calvin's men. As the Indians approached, the more nervous men in Calvin's group cocked their rifles. The element of srprise lost, Calvin dropped the leading Indian closest to him, and the fight was on.
It was dark, and the fighting was off-and-on as individual warriors or small groups of warriors found individual or small groups of Kentuckians to shoot or engage hand-to-hand.
That continued until near first light, when Calvin heard splashing from the creek he had placed his men in front of, and an Indian bullet cut down the man in front of him, Samuel Barr. ThHnking that the Indians had them surrounded, Calvin yelled that they were surrounded.
For some reason, first one man or two, and then all of the surviving 30 men, heard things as "run away," and they all bolted for their camp, paired off in prearranged two's, and rode off toward KY.
Kenton and Lemon were the last two to come into the redezvous site (one of Robert Rogers' "rules" from the F & I War actually).
Two Kentuckians were lost- Samuel Barr that Calvin had seen killed, and Alexander McIntire ("little red-headed Aleck") who was missing and presumed KIA or capture/tortured/killed.
Years later, it would be learned that the Shawnee had lost 17 killed or wounded.
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"Les deux pieds contre la muraille et la tete sous le robinet" |
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Fitzhugh Williams
Mohicanland Statesman
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
July 17 2005
Status: offline
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Posted - March 20 2011 : 6:46:27 PM
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How d' ye!
Outside of Wheeling, WVA...
Those folks making their way past the Golden Palaces of "Krishnaland" will come to McCreary Cemetery with its "Wetzel Family Plot."
There is now Lewis' grave, with the 1942 WWII era veteran marker, and behind it the modern "Davey Crockett" gravestone.
On Lewis' right, is brother Martin.
On Martin's right is two broken, black, pieces of Mary Bonnett Wetzel, their mother.
On Mary's right is the 1940 gravestone (and unknown to most)the empty plot) of husband John Wetzel, Sr.
Empty.
Recap:
On June 11, 1786, John Sr. was canoeing down the Ohio River, some 7-8 miles below Joseph Tomlinson's Station (burned in 1777 and rebuilt, now the site of an elementary school in Moundsville, WVA).) coming near to the mouth of Graveyard Run, and about a mile north Baker's Station.
With John Sr, was Lewis, two other men named Andrews and Moore (maybe Miller), and a dog. (Incorrect accounts put George Wetzel in the canoe, but he had been killed in 1782).
Lewis had suddenly become sick, and asked to be dropped off on land, to rest, and then go to Baker's Station on foot. The nature of his sickness was not recorded, but I believe he had the runs (Flux) and being in the canoe was "problematical."
They dropped him off, and continued down river.
As they neared Graveyard Run, too close to the VA side, a party of Indians appeared on the shore and yelled for them to come ashore.
Knowing it would be death, they turned for the Ohio's center and the Ohio shore, and paddled for all they were worth. The warriros opened fire, the first volley putting mortal wounds into John Wetzel, Moore, and the dog. Andrews jumped out of the canoe, and swam for the Ohio side.
The current carried the canoe downriver, and into the VA shore, where the Indians mutilated and scalped the bodies, left them on the bank, and used it to cross the Ohio and disappear.
When Lewis got to Baker's Station, his father and pards were not there.
The next day, a search party was organized of nine or ten men, and Lewis headed out to see what had happened. (Among the party was Henry Jolly, who is "famous" for saying that frontiersmen carried two sizes of rifle balls- the normal and also undersize balls for speed loading in emergencies.) They crossed the river to the Ohio Side at Baker's, and chased after the Indians thinking the Whites had been taken captive.
But with more than a day's head start, the Indians were gone.
A search found the bodies at Graveyard Run, and they were taken down to Baker's Station, and buried in the little "cemetery plot" about a hundred feet north of the Baker blockhouse.
A stone was chiselled with "J.W. 1786" for the grave. 19th century souvenir hunters chipped away at the stone, until someone either stole it, or threw it in the Ohio River.
Baker's Station would be abandoned and disappear over time., evenutally growing up in brush and trees.
A road, now WVA Route 2, went through the site. Add the
B & O railroad tracks and bed. Add an access road for a nearby coal mine operation. And a slag (aka "gob") pile dump.
And a nearby "rest stop" or "roadside park" named "Americana Park."
In the 1930's the Earl Francis Post No. 3, American Legion took a intererst in the local history. And John Wetzel, Sr.
At his grave on Grave Yard Run, Marshall County, on WVA Route 2, near Cresaps, WVA...
They arranged for a "government tombstone" for John Wetzel Sr. that read:
"Captain John Whetzell
Va. Rangers, Rev. War
June 19, 1786"
On July 21, 1940, at 2:20 P.M. a formal program was held for the dedication.
A large crowd was expected. All members of the D.A.R. were invited. The WVA State Police directed traffic.
The program was:
Presenting of the Colors by the Legionannaires
Singing of the song "America."
A biogrpahy of John Wetzel by a Legionnaire
The unveiling of the marker by Joan Clyker
The Rev. E. M. Flanigan of the First Presbyterian Church of Moundsville gave a talk on pioneer patriotism.
The Hon. C. E. Carrigan a Moundsville lawyer gave an address
A rifle salure was fired by the Legionnaires
"Taps" were played
A benediction was given by the Reverend.
It was the third gravestone dedicatred by the Earl Francis Post, the first to Martin Wetzel, and the second to James McMahon.
Well, it was believed that the cemetery plot for Baker's Station had been on the slope of the hillside at Graveyard Run covered by "...a huge slip and gob dump."
"On account of huge slip, gob dump," and the B & O R.R., and the state highway covering the graves of the Wetzels and others buried there.."
According to an article written by C.B. Allman for the "Wheeling Intelligencer" of July 26, 1940....
it was necessary to set the headstone on the left of Rt 2, directly on the left of Graveyard Run.
When Rt 2 was modernized and widened, the gravestone was moved to the roadside rest/mini park named "Americana Park."
When Americana Park was abandoned, John Wetzel Sr's, tombstone was moved to McCreary Cemetery and set u[p on the empty plot next to his wife Mary Bonnett.
I do not know when this took actually took place. But Lewis's grave would not be found in Rosetta/Natchez, Mississippi until 1942 by Albert Bowser and reinterred in the McCreary Plot.
I suspect sometime after that, likely the late 1940's or 1950's. |
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