Prehistoric Indian Camp Is Uncovered Near Reno

 The Marietta Daily Times, May 15, 1968

Earth moving equipment being operated along Ohio 7 near Reno, several days ago cut into what may have been the site of a small prehistoric Indian camp or village, almost completely destroying the archaeological find.

According to Richard P. Patterson, regional collaborator for Ohio State Archaeological Society and editor of the magazine, "The Ohio Archaeologist," what was left after the machinery dug into the earth along the river was chiefly "just a pile of useless bones."

Patterson, who examined and retrieved what he could from the discovery, said a small number of refuse pits had been disturbed by the blade of the machine, the pits having contained debris in the form of broken animal bones; fire-cracked river stones broken by the heat of the Indian campfires; flint debris; charcoal and mussel shells and a few small bits of broken pottery sherds. The pottery bits, he said, are representative of the most diagnostic artifact type, providing information about the group of people that lived at this location.

The pottery, tempered with crushed shell, indicates the Late Prehistoric Time Period, roughly after 12 A.D. to 1650. Patterson pointed out that the clay of the riverbank was mixed with crushed shell to temper it, or keep it from shrinking when it was baked.

He also indicated the destroyed site may have been a larger camp or village at one time, one that could have been destroyed largely by the river cutting into the banks. The portion uncovered and crushed by the machinery probably represented what was left of the original camp.

Size of the parts of human bones examined by Patterson suggest they may have been from two bodies, an adult male and an adult female. He said it was reasonable to assume they had been buried in a flexed position (knees tightly against chest) in a small space and that apparently no burial offerings had been placed in the graves with the bodies.

In fact, he noted, the bodies may have been buried in the refuse pits, which were usually quite near the Indian dwellings. These, he said, were often built in a circle inside a palisades, possibly for protection against warring tribes. Bodies were generally buried on their side or back in as small a space as possible, since these Fort Ancient Culture Indians had very little in the way of digging tools, only sticks or the shoulder bone of an animal.

The broken bones and the debris within the pits are the same types as those uncovered last year at the boat launching facility at the fairgrounds.

"It is regrettable," stated Patterson, "that it was not possible to halt the operation once the machinery dug into the pits until properly qualified persons could make careful excavations and prevent damage." 

History of the Log Cabin on the Armory Lot - Putnam Street

The Marietta Leader, June 26 1888

Marietta, June 23, '88

My Dear Sir:

I have not the time at my command just now to write to you in full of the cabin. Dr. Hildreth in his Pioneer History says:

"In the month of September 1788 the Cornplanter, principal chief of the Seneca tribe, with about forty Indians arrived at Fort Harmar escorted by a company of soldiers. This chief was an influential man with the six nations, and very friendly to the United States.

A son of the celebrated Brant, with two hundred warriors, was at the falls of the Muskingum in November, and sent a messenger to Gov. St. Clair with the request that the treaty might be held at that place. He returned a mild, but decided refusal.

On the 13th December about two hundred Indians from the different tribes arrived at the garrison.

The following day the council fire was kindled in the Council house, which was a large log house that stood near the north east bastion, on the outside of the fort.

Governor St. Clair was quite ill with an attach of the gout, to which he was subject, during the course of the treaty, and was carried daily by the soldiers in a large chair to the Council.

The treaty was on the 9th of January 1789, signed by Governor St. Clair and 24 of the chief men of the six nations."  

But how about the cabin, say you?

Dr. Hildreth says the Council was in a log house that stood near the northeast bastion of the outside of the fort. What became of that log house?

David Barber, Esq., (son of Col. Levi Barber) who died last year, and who from childhood lived near the old fort location, repeatedly told me that Solomon Dickey removed and lived in that log house near the west bank of the Muskingum. Capt. Levi Barber, who was born in the same locality, and never lived elsewhere, repeatedly told me the same thing and in one of his recent long illnesses, we visited the old cabin, which he identified and reaffirmed what he often before had to me stated.

The oldest son of Esq. Dickey says that this is the identical cabin in which the family lived from about 1818 to the death of his father, which occurred as he thinks in 1835.

I distinctly remember Solomon Dickey. He was a character in his day and generations. I remember to have heard him on one public occasion (rather in a boastful way) claim that he lived in a log cabin that had the Indian smell on it yet, and further claiming it as the house in which St. Clair's treaty was held.

I have written to a very old lady at Mansfield who should know much on this subject.

I might here add that all above claimed is verified by the recollections of a very old and honorable man who from childhood lived in this county and only left us five years ago, and is now among us to renew old friendship.

George M. Woodbridge.

City of Adelphi - 1788

The Marietta Register, March 15, 1887

Extracts of a letter from a gentleman at the Muskingum, to the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, written on the spot where the first city of that territory is to be built.

Adelphi, May 16, 1788.

Mr. Thomas:

I am much pleased with the purchase we have made, and am fully determined to fix my residence here. That part of the purchase I have been over far exceeds my expectations. From our eastern boundary to the Muskingum (a distance of about five miles), the intervals, or what the people of this country call bottoms, are from one-half to three-quarters of a mile wide; these, in richness and apparent fertility of soil, exceed anything I ever saw east of the Allegheny mountains. 

Next to these are what is called second bottoms, which are elevated plains, and gentle risings of the richest uplands and as free from stone as the lower first bottom, except in some few instances where these elevated plains consist of a shallow, light, and sometimes sandy soil, under which appears an open, loose earth. 

Back of these commence the hills which, in general, are considerably uneven and separated by deep hollow grounds, where flow innumerable rivulets which have their source from springs which rise among the hills, the most of which are free from stone, and consist of a rich and deep soil suited to the culture of wheat, grazing, etc. In this distance fall into the Ohio two very considerable creeks, called Little Muskingum and Duck Creek. In the spring these are navigable for boats more than twenty miles, and afford large tracts of the best bottoms and uplands for farming.

We have surveyed the lots of one mile square on both sides the Muskingum for fifteen miles up. A description of the lands in this distance would be only a repetition of that already given of that on the Ohio. The timber growing on the lands above described are of the kind mentioned by Mr. Hutchins and others, but I must confess the trees are larger and more numerous than I expected to find.

We have found plenty of limestone, as well as fine building stone at a small distance up the Muskingum, sufficient for building the city, or any other purpose for which they may be wanted. At present we go 20 miles up the river for pit-coal, but there is no doubt plenty will be found nearer; we have found several salt-licks within our surveys, and are assured there is a salt spring about 40 miles up the Muskingum, from which a sufficient quantity of salt for the supply of the country may be made. Some gentlemen at Fort Harmar doubt this information, but say a sufficient quantity may be made at a spring on the banks of the Scioto.

We have had no time yet to go in search of iron ore; but one of our people has brought in a small stone taken from one of the neighboring hills, which I found on trial, to contain a rich iron ore. We find the seasons here much more forward than even at Pittsburg; by the 7th of April there was as good feed for cattle on the banks of the Muskingum, as you will generally find by the middle of May in the best enclosures in the county of Worcester.

To give some idea of beginning a settlement in this country, compared with Vermont or any new country to the northward, I state the following fact: About a dozen families removed to this place about a year ago last March, and settled opposite Fort Harmar, on the Virginia side of the Ohio; these lands were the same as ours, and evidently new; they raised 1000 bushels of corn last season, and although the last winter was very severe, they wintered, without any hay (making use of their husks and stalks with some corn) between 60 and 70 horses and neat cattle, fatted a sufficient quantity of pork for their own consumption, besides wintering over a large number of swine.

From the plot of ground laid out for building the city of Adelphi, we have a most delightful prospect; from this ground you will have a full view of the waters of the Ohio, eight or nine miles up that river, and five below, and of the Muskingum from the mouth five or six miles up. The front line of house lots is 95 yards from the Muskingum and parallel thereto. All the space between them and the river is to remain an open space or common. The course of this street is north 40 degrees west, and extends in length one mile. All the streets are parallel or at right angles with that, but from some hollow ground and rivulets the city will not be parallelogram, although that figure has been aimed at as much as the situation would admit. 

The northeast end thereof is bordered by a beautiful brook, which I am informed, runs all the year; the southeast end and part of the rear is bounded by another creek larger than the former, which will afford a good canal for boats to pass up when the waters of the Muskingum are high. The house lots, in their nearest approach to the Ohio, are distant therefrom 25 perch and separated from it by the last mentioned creek and low interval lands of the first quality; a part of the house lots towards the rear are separated from the rest by a deep hollow ground, through which the last mentioned creek passes. These lots are situated on ground gently ascending toward the northeast, which further on terminates in very considerable hills, in which rise eight springs, the sources of the creek last mentioned. These, with a comparative small expense, may be collected into one great reservoir and conducted to any part of the city.

The city plot includes the ruins of some ancient town or works, of which the world has heard much of late. I have not had time to take an accurate survey of them all, therefore must omit a particular description thereof, but I must confess I was greatly surprised in finding those works so perfect as to put it beyond all doubt that they are the remains of a work erected at an amazing expense, perhaps some thousand years since, but a people who had very considerable knowledge in fortifications. In laying out our city we have preserved some of the work from becoming private property by including them within lots or squares appropriated to public uses, viz: An advanced work containing a mound of earth in the figure of a cone, the base of which is 376 feet in circumference and in thirty feet perpendicular, surrounded by a parapet 580 feet in circumference and 15 feet thick, having a ditch 15 feet wide, and at present about three feet deep, and on the side next the town, or principal works, an open space without parapet or ditch, where it is presumed was the gate or place of entrance.

We have also, in the same manner, secured for public use two elevated mounds of earth situated within the walls of the great oblong square, or principal fortification; one of them is nearly of a square figure, the sides measuring 153.45 feet by 135.7 feet, is raised about five feet above the common surface, and on the top a horizontal plain of the above dimensions, having on three sides thereof gentle ascents projecting out, of about 20 feet wide, in the form of glacis, for the convenience of walking up; and on the fourth side is an indented ascent of the same width. 

The other elevated square is an oblong of 200 feet by 124 feet, of about the same height, and as level on the top as the other, and regular projecting ascents on each side thereof. These appear to have been the foundation of some spacious public buildings, but however that may be, they are very convenient, and now reserved for that purpose. The rest of the works can remain, when the city is built, on paper only.

As to the natives, the ensuing treaty I trust will be conducted on principles of honor and justice and end to the satisfaction of that, as I conceive, much injured people. When we arrived at this place we fortunately found Captain Pipes, the chief of the Delaware tribe, with about 70 men, women and children, of that and the Wyandotte tribe, at Fort Harmar, who had come down to trade. We were introduced to them by the commanding officer. Capt. Pipes some days after, with about twenty others, came over and dined with me. We gave them to understand our business and that we hoped to live in friendship, and should be glad to see them or any of their friends at all times. Captain Pipes told us that they should be happy to live by us, but did not expect any people would come on to settle before the treaty. We told him we had brought no families, nor would any come until after the treaty, when we expected everything would be settled to their satisfaction. In the meantime it was necessary we should plant some corn. Captain Pipes appeared fully satisfied, and parted with avowing his friendship should continue as long as the sun and moon endured. 

Since making up his new acquaintance, we have more or less of our Indian friends to visit us almost every day, who appear in perfect good humor, and fully as happy as we in the new acquaintance, but nothing is said about our settlement, except one of their chiefs who is now at the fort, and appears to be a very sensible, sober old gentleman; on one of his visits to us told me that "he thanked God that the way was cleared so that they could come down with safety to trade. That Captain Pipes told him he and all the Indians were used exceedingly well by us; that he was very glad to see me here, but there was some things he should not speak of until they met in the great council, meaning the treaty." 

Woodbridge Letter

The Marietta Intelligencer, April 8, 1858

Chillicothe, April 3, 1858.

William R. Putnam, Esquire, and others of the committee:

Gentlemen - Your invitation to the celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the landing at Marietta has served to revive memories of the past, which had slept for years.

My earliest recollection is of becoming lost in the thicket of bushes and grape vines that then covered the "Point," a brother two years my senior, and myself having wandered a few rods from our cabin.

Some eleven years later, the native growths of the soil had given place to the various materials used in ship building; the point was no longer a forest, but a ship-yard, where was built the brig St. Clair, and from whence she sailed under the command of Commodore Whipple, freighted with some of the surplus of land, cleared and cultivated for the most part, with rifle in hand, giving thus a foreshadowing of the energy and enterprise which have ever characterized the inhabitants of that place -- astonishing the commercial world by an arrival from a town scarcely if at all, heard of, and by a route not yet dreamed of.

After the Commodore's return, he was heard to say that he had achieved two things that no man could again do - fired the first gun, on shipboard, of the revolutionary war, and navigated the first sea vessel down the river Ohio.

My intervening memories are fraught with incidents, some sufficiently startling at the time, others ludicrous.

The surrounding country was traversed daily by spies.  This dangerous duty was undertaken by volunteers, going usually two together.  When signs indicated the presence of Indians, timely notice was given, sometimes by the discharge of a gun, that all occupied abroad might retire within the pickets.  These alarm guns were sometimes heard in the night, when the women would dress hastily, and the children were hustled up, preparatory to taking refuge in the blockhouses.  At other times, when all else was still, the calls of the sentinels were heard during each hour of the night - "look out sharp," with the response, "All's well," from the guard houses, one on the bank of each river, the other at the inner angle of the picketed enclosure.

Several lives were lost in broad day, notwithstanding this vigilance.  Robert Warth was killed whilst working in his "truck patch," on the Fort Harmar side.  Those who sallied out at the report of the Indian's rifle, reached the field in time to see the Indian leap the fence on the opposite side, having secured the scalp of his victim.

Rogers, one of the spies, was shot down by the side of his comrade.  Henderson, after discharging his gun, with what effect was not known, had no chance for his life but to flee.  In doing so he vowed to avenge his comrade by taking the scalp of one of their enemies.  This he accomplished, and it was borne in triumph through the streets, followed by a numerous procession.

The death of Mr. Carr was attended with yet more aggravating circumstances.  He was quite old and was, at the time, on the island, safe, as was supposed, from his insular position.  He was, however, approached, so stealthily as to be overtaken and tomahawked, no gun being fired, but his cries were heard, and the Indians were seen to escape to the main land in a canoe.

His son, Hamilton Carr, at once offered his services as a spy, or ranger, as they were sometimes called, and that he might be the sole avenger of his Father, he insisted on going alone, although the greater hazard of doing so was strongly urged in opposition.  He succeeded, and not satisfied with the usual trophy, he bore the head home with him, and that too, elevated on a pole, was the ghastly processor of the triumphal march.

It is known that Indians will hazard their lives to conceal their slain, saving the scalp being with them a point of honor.  Hence the whites, long engaged in Indian warfare, scalped the slain, not to secure a trophy, but as a means of striking terror into their savage enemies.  I am not informed whether the practice obtained precedence on either side in the Indian wars of New England.

Mr. Coquet, a Frenchman, excited, no doubt, by the acts of bravery, and hair-breadth escapes that were so frequently occurring, to become himself the hero of some adventure, was seen running at full speed, hat in hand, from an improvement near the first run below Fort Harmar.  A crowd soon gathered around him, to whom he exhibited his hat, perforated in the crown by a bullet from the gun, as he said, of an Indian.  Congratulations for his narrow escape were poured in upon him under great and increasing excitement, when an elderly person, who was cool, examining the hat, asked Mr. Coquet to put it on.  To the astonishment of all, the holes were found to be a considerable distance below the top of the head!

The men of that day, the actors in those scenes of toil and danger, have no doubt passed away, and I could hardly hope to meet those who in childhood had set foot on the soil so early as the spring of 1789.  Even St. Clair Kelley, to whom was donated a hundred acre lot in honor of his being the first born male, is said to be no more.

There are, however, many friends and acquaintances of later years, whom it would afford me great pleasure to meet, and by whom I hope still to be held in remembrance.

Trusting that the celebration of this year will be so pleasant as to be long remembered.

I remain, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

J. Woodbridge.

A Sketch of Early Times

The Marietta Register, August 28, 1873

Record of Mrs. Lucinda Fuller, daughter of the late Major Azariah Pratt, pioneer of the Northwestern territory in 1788, with his family.  Mrs. Fuller relates the following reminiscence of early times about Marietta:

Three boys by the names of Return J. Meigs, Joseph Kelly, and Thomas Kelly were engaged in planting corn on the west point of the Muskingum when, on a sudden, a squad of Indians rushed from the forest.  The boys rushed for the river and gained the sand island.  Thomas Kelly being the smallest, was taken prisoner on the island, and conveyed to Sandusky, the headquarters of the tribe, and held as a prisoner until Wayne's treaty, when he with the other prisoners was released.  The other two made their escape to Campus Martius.  Daniel Converse of old Waterford was taken prisoner by the same squad of Indians, about the same time.  When young Kelly returned home he was tall and straight, his hair black and long, his complexion of a red bronze, his whole appearance like an Indian.  He always liked their mode of living.

Mrs. Fuller says that as late as 1811 the Indians in squads would visit General Putnam (whom they called father) and encamp on the banks of the Muskingum, foot of Campus Martius, for the purpose of hunting and fishing.  They would often call at her father's shop to have their guns repaired.  The squaws had their papooses tied on a board, and at sunrise every morning would dip them in the river, and hang them on trees to drain.  She says she never saw a sick or dead papoose.

Mrs. Fuller says the pioneers had to grind their corn on hand mills and hominy blocks, and eat from wooden bowls.  Their daily meat was opossum, turkey, deer and raccoon and during the long confinement in Campus Martius, they suffered untold hardships and privations.  She says that during the bloody Indian war of five years, no emigrants arrived within the territory, that on hearing of the massacre on Big Bottom of the Muskingum, of the settlers, that the pioneers within Campus Martius hourly looked for a general massacre of all the settlers throughout the Northwest.  Alarming news was received that Farmers' Castle, Belpre, on the Ohio, had been taken by the Indians, and all the inmates murdered.  This, however, proved false.  The Fort was attacked by a squad of Indians, but the veterans within had served as officers and soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and proved too much for the Indians, who were glad to give up the attack, and made hasty their retreat.

Mrs. Fuller has promised to give, to the best of her recollection, items about the exciting times in 1806.  Colonel Burr, Blennerhassett, his noted Island, reminiscences of early habits, customs, fashions, general musters, first made drum and its history, names of first preachers, school teachers, school houses, singing schools, log rollings, huskings, quiltings, &c., which will no doubt amuse the numerous readers of the Advertiser, so I close the present brief sketch of early times by stating that Mrs. Fuller is now a resident of Twin Township, Ross County, with her son, Seth Fuller on 700 acres of choice land, and although advanced in years, she is up at five o'clock in the morning, milking her six cows, and does her share of other work.  She possesses the nerve and iron constitution of her father and can outwork forty young girls of the present age.

From the Chillicothe Advertiser.
 

Notes on the Settlement of the West

American Friend & Marietta Gazette, September 19, 1827

On the 30th day of July, in the year 1782, Henry Smith, Hamilton Kerr and Thomas Mills, went out from Wheeling Fort on a fishing party; they ascended the river about four miles, and coming within about forty paces of the Ohio shore, they were fired upon by a large party of Indians who were concealed in the grass and willows, and at the first fire Mills received eight balls, which made sixteen or seventeen wounds - fortunately, he fell in the canoe - a part of the Indians leaving their guns on the shore, attempted to board the canoe by wading, but the water being shoulder deep, Kerr kept them off with his fish gig; the Indians finding it very difficult to board in such deep water, returned to shore and commenced firing, which they continued until the canoe had got near the Virginia shore, poured a heavy fire at them, but seeing armed men on the point of the island, they proceeded no farther.  Hamilton Kerr got into the fort unhurt; Smith received a small flesh wound; and Mills, to the astonishment of all who saw him at that time, recovered, and is now upwards of sixty years of age, living in Monroe county, Ohio, enjoying tolerably good health.

There is no doubt (says Mills), but it was the deliberate courage and activity of Hamilton Kerr that prevented their falling into the hands of the Indians.  The same party, the next day, killed Major Samuel McColloch, while reconnoitering.  The loss of Major McColloch was considered a public calamity to the frontier settlement.

In the month of April in the year 1784, two Indians came to the flats of Grave Creek, where Joseph Tomlinson had come on with part of his family for the purpose of raising a crop of corn; when they came to a fence near the door, one of them hailed, and out stepped an old woman; one of them accosted her (to use her own language), "good morning mother! (and threw his filthy arms about my neck, and hugged me all the way into the house); mother, said he, what is in that bag?  It is flour, said she.  I must have some of it, said the Indian."  The woman then told the children to go and tell Joe.  The Indian forbid it under the penalty of the tomahawk.  He then took one of the old woman's petticoats, for which she contended, and told him "the shame a bit of it he should have."  The Indian then took some of the flour, in his blanket, and went to his companions, who were watching not far off, and then went off without committing any further depredations.  So far goes the old woman's story, which was not doubted.  The same Indians went from thence perhaps ten or twelve miles, to an old farm, known as Crow's Old Place, where they killed two men, to wit, Nathaniel Redford and Randall Death.  Death was an amiable young man - he received six wounds in one day in the revolutionary war, five of them with the bayonet; the writer of this was well acquainted with him.

In September, in the year 1787, two boys, John Wetsil and Frederick Erlewine, perhaps about 16 or 17 years of age, went out from Wetsil's fort on Wheeling creek, to hunt their horses.  They had not gone far when they heard the horse-bell, and going to the place found the horses tied in a thicket, and a party of five Indians watching them, who made prisoners of both the boys, and went off towards the Ohio.  The young Erlewine continued crying - after travelling about a mile, they silenced him with the tomahawk, and pushed with the other prisoner and the two horses until they came to the river at the mouth of Big Grave Creek.  Two of the Indians undertook to cross the river with the horses, while the other three with the prisoner, got into a canoe they found in the creek, and were paddling into the river, when three men, viz. Isaac Williams, Hamilton Kerr, and James Salter, hearing the snorting of the horses, hastened to the mouth of the creek, where they arrived undiscovered, at the moment the Indians were passing into the river - Kerr and Williams instantly fired and killed two - Kerr dropped his gun, took Salter's out of his hand and shot the third.  Thus were three Indians killed, and a prisoner liberated with the firing of three guns.  The other Indians, with the horses, gained the opposite shore and made their escape.

Sometime in September, in the year 1787, a negro man, belonging to Philip Whitten, Esq., while hunting bees on the waters of Wheeling, was surprised and taken prisoner by two Indians; they immediately pinioned his arms - put a very heavy rifle gun on his shoulder, and went off towards the Ohio.  When within about a mile of the river (it was nearly dark), they heard a bell, and one of them went off towards it, saying "now I get a horse;" the other, and the negro, sat for some time, the Indian telling him he would furnish him with a wife, &c. until his comrade gave a signal, by making a noise resembling that of a screech-owl - he then said to the negro, "now we go."  They had to descend a very steep hill - the negro, walking behind the Indian, had the advantage of the ground, and gave him a blow on the head with the gun the Indian compelled him to carry, which brought him to the ground.  He then squatting seized the Indian's tomahawk and struck it several times into his brains, and escaped; he had to go about two miles to Williamson's Block House, where he was unshackled, told his story, and a party of men went with him to the place where the Indian lay dead, and found all he had stated to be true.

The negro, after liberating himself from the Indians, thought proper to continue no longer a slave, and to effect his purpose, ran away from his master.  He was said to be living at Malden, Upper Canada, at the time of the last war.

Death of James Patten

American Friend & Marietta Gazette, February 14, 1827

Obituary.

Died, at Belpre, on the 31st January last, James Patten, one of the first settlers of Washington County, and an inmate of the Log House that was stormed by the Indians at Big Bottom, in the Fall of 1790.

The writer of this notice, had from Mr. Patten, a short time since, the substance of the following concise account:  There were eleven men at the house, and they had taken lodgings on the floor for the night, unsuspicious of danger.  At a late hour the Indians, (about thirty in number,) approaching by stealth, put the muzzles of their guns through the apertures between the logs, and poured in upon them a most deadly fire.  The bursting open of the door and rush of the Indians into the house were simultaneous with the discharge of the guns.  Such of the inmates as did not pass immediately from the sleep of time to that of eternity, by the fire, were instantly seized, one only making resistance.  William James, whose limbs were as agile as they were herculean, whose undaunted soul could meet danger and even death in any form, thrust from him his first assailants, and with no other weapon than hi fist, laid several of them at his feet.  But even the "Warrior Oak" cannot withstand the lightning's shock.  He was assailed with tomahawks, war clubs, and knives, on the right and left, front and rear, and was literally hewn down.  Mr. Patten and two others survived the carnage, and were taken prisoners to Sandusky, where, after a few years captivity, they were released by the thunder of Wayne's Artillery.

Earthquake

Western Spectator, December 21, 1811

On the morning of Monday the 16th instant, at 35 minutes past 2 A.M. the inhabitants of Marietta and the vicinity were alarmed by a violent shaking of their houses, which was soon found to proceed from an earthquake. The same motion was felt at 20 minutes past three and at half past seven, when the tremor of the ground continued, we are informed until about eight o’clock – and was again felt with less violence, on the following day, a few minutes before noon.

The sensations of different individuals on the first shock were different of course, but were generally those of alarm, aggravated beyond even what must naturally be felt on such occasion. We suggested in our last the groundless apprehensions of our citizens concerning the Indian hunters, squaws and papooses, encamped at no great distance from us. We regret to add, that instances of thieving and even housebreaking have of late been alarmingly frequent among us. The motion and noise caused by the earthquake we believe was rather calculated to impress people just waking from a sound sleep with the idea that some persons were breaking into their houses. To many the idea of invading Indians! was suggested with all its horrors – and several seized their weapons to repel the tomahawk. Some dodged with great skill to avoid being caught by invaders whom they fancied to have entered their castles. To others the idea of house breakers more naturally occurred.

The first shock was certainly very strong – but quite different from earthquakes which have previously been felt by the writer of this article. It was of much longer continuance and stronger with more regular motion, and less trembling.

By some, an explosion was heard – resembling the noise made by emptying loads of small stones, or that of a carriage in rapid motion on a pavement.

* * *

Gov. Meigs has issued a proclamation, reciting that whereas an unusual number of Indians are hunting on our grounds – to which they have a right by the treaty of Greenville – it being also forbidden by a law of Ohio to sell them spirituous liquors – all persons are enjoined not to molest said Indians while they demean themselves peaceably; and to forbear selling them spirituous liquors.

Shawnoe Indians

Western Spectator, December 14, 1811

Some people of our city have taken no small alarm on account of a number of Shawnoe Indians hunting in this vicinity, some of whom were in town yesterday. As they have with them their squaws and papooses we believe there is no cause of apprehension on their account. When asked why they do not go and fight with the prophet, they answered toh! he bad man. A considerable number of them are hunting within sixty or seventy miles of this place.