Ever, Until Years Had Elapsed, and General Harmar Returned to P

140 HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO. have shed blood, if necessary, for his defence. It was not, how- a white renegade. Burning with revenge, they followed the ever, until years had elapsed, and General Harmar returned to trail until opposite the mouth of Captina, where the enemy Philadelphia, that it became safe for Wiseman to avow the act, had crossed. They swam the stream and discovered the In- such was the weakness of civil authority and the absolute su- dians' camp, around the fires of which lay the enemy in care- premacy of military rule on the frontier. A file an4 hammer less repose. The young woman was apparently unhurt, but soon released him from the heavy Jiandcuffs. After a night's was making much moaning and lamentation. The young man, rest had recruited his energies, he set out for fresh adventures, hardly able to restrain his rage, was for firing and rushing in- his friend having supplied him with a rifle, ammunition and stantly upon them. Wetzel, more cautious, told him to wait blanket. until daylight when there was a better chance of success in After Wetzel's escape, information reached General Harmar killing the whole party. At dawn the Indians prepared to de- of his whereabouts, and he sent a party of men in a canoe to take part. The young man selecting the white renegade, and Wet- him. As the boat neared the Virginia shore, Wetzel, with his zel the Indian, they both fired simultaneously with fatal effect. friend, and several other men, posted themselves on the bank The young man rushed forward, knife in hand to relieve the and threatened to shoot the first man who landed. Unwilling mistress of his affections, while Wetzel reloaded and pursued to venture farther, the party returned, and Lewis made his way the two surving Indians, who had taken to the woods until homeward, having been furnished by his kind friend with gun, they could ascertain the number of their enemies. Wetzel, as ammunition, tomahawk, blanket, &c. soon as he was discovered, discharged his rifle at random in Exasperated at the escape of Wetzel, General Harmar offered order to draw them from their covert. The ruse took effect, and a large reward for his apprehension, and at the same time des- taking to his heels he loaded as he ran, and suddenly wheeling patched a file of men to the neighborhood of Wheeling, with about discharged his rifle through the body of his nearest and orders to take him dead or alive. The detachment was under unsuspecting enemy. The remaining Indian seeing the fate the command of a Captain Kingsbury, who, hearing that Wet- of his companion, and that his enemy's rifle was unloaded, zel was to be at Mingo bottom, in what is now Jefferson county, rushed forward with all energy, the prospect of prompt revenge Ohio, on a certain day, marched thither to execute his orders. being fairly before him. Wetzel led him on dodging from tree An eye witness thus narrates this event: to tree, until his rifle was again ready, when suddenly turning " A company of men could as easily have drawn Beelzebub out he fired, and his remaining enemy fell dead at his feet. After of the bottomless pit, as to take Lewis Wetzel, by force, from taking their scalps, Wetzel and his friend, with their rescued the Mingo bottom settlement. On the day that Captain Kings- captive, returned in safety to the settlement. bury arrived, there was a shooting match in the neighborhood, This incident in the life of Wetzel, was mniade the subject of and Lewis was there. As soon as the object of Captain Kings- the romance, written by the novelist, Emerson Bennett, enti- bury was ascertained, it was resolved to ambush the Captain's tled, "Forest Rose," some of the scenes of which were laid. in barge, and kill him and his company. Belmont county. " Happily Major McMahan was present to prevent this catastrophe, who prevailed on Wetzel and his friends to sus- WETZEL'S SUBSEQUENT HISTORY. pend the attack till he would pay Captain Kingsbury a visit; perhaps he would induce him to return without making an A year or two after the treaty of Greenville, Wetzel left the attempt to take Wetzel. With a great deal of reluctance, they upper Ohio for the South. He first went to Kentucky, and re- agreed to suspend the attack till Major McMahan should remained there with his brother, gaining a livelihood by hunt- turn. The resentment and fury of Wetzel and his friends were ing, until the purchase of Louisiana by the United States, boiling and blowing like the steam from the scape pipe of a when he went to New Orleans. Here, for a great many years, steamboat. 'A pretty affair this,' said they, 'to hang a man he earned a precarious living by selling the pelts captured by for killing an Indian, when they are killing some of our men him in his hunts. At last, on returning from a very successful almost every day.' Major McMahan informed Captain Kings- excursion for game, laden with a number of rich furs, he en- bury of the force and fury of the people, and assured him that countered on the wharf a sharper, who bought them in at high if he persisted in the attempt to seize Wetzel, he would have figures, palming off on Wetzel, in payment, a counterfeit bill all the settlers in the country upon him; that nothing could on one of the Orleans banks. Wetzel, who could neither read save him and his fellows from massacre but a speedy return. nor write, and only knew the amount of the notes by their The Captain took his advice, and forthwith returned to Fort figures, and who always confided in the honesty of white men, .Harmar. Wetzel considered the affair now as finally adjusted." immediately passed the counterfeit to another. The base bill Subsequently to Wetzel's escape, General Harmar removed was finally detected and traced back to Wetzel. The sharper his headquarters to Fort Washington, Cincinnati. One of his having departed, Wetzel's story availed him nothing, and first official acts there was to issue a proclamation offering a re- having no money to redeem the bill himself, nor friends to do ward for the capture and delivery of Wetzel at the garrison it for him, he was arrested and confined in prison for some time. there. Luckily for him, however, some of his friends of the upper Ohio Wetzel was never long stationary, but ranged along the river arrived, lifted the counterfeit bill, interceded for him with the from Wheeling to the falls of the Ohio. He was finally captured authorities, and he was released. As soon as the bill was at Maysville, Kentucky, by Lieutenant Lawler, of the regular handed to him, he burst into tears, tore it up and threw the army, who was going down the Ohio, and taken to General pieces into the river, exclaiming: "Too bad, too bad." Harmar, at Fort Washington. He returned to Wheeling, but only remained a few days in " The noise of Wetzel's capture-and captured, too, for only the neighborhood, and again went to the far southwest. For a killing an Indian-spread through the country like wild-fire. time he resided with a relative named Philip Sikes, living The passions of the frontiermen were roused to the highest about twenty miles in the interior from Natchez. The late pitch of fury. Petitions for his release were sent from the venerable David McIntyre, of Belmont county, met him at most influential men to the general, from every quarter where Natchez in April, 1808, and remained with him three days. the story had been heard. The general at first paid but little Sikes afterwards removed on to the Brazos, in Texas, taking attention to these; at length, however, the settlements along Wetzel with him, where, with a few companions, of the hunter the Ohio, and some of the back counties, were preparing to class, he passed the remainder of his life free and happy as the embody in military array, to release him by force of arms. untamed denizens of the forest. He died about the time that General Harmar, seeing the storm that was approaching, had Texas ceased to be a province and became an independent Wetzel's irons knocked off, and set him at liberty." state, in his seventy-fifth year, and was buried near Austin by After gaining his freedom once more, Wetzel again returned his brothers of the woods. to his friends in the vicinity of Wheeling. Shortly after this, So passed away Lewis Wetzel, the hunter, whose own hand, occurred one of the most thrilling events of his life. it is said, laid seventy odd Indian warriors low in death. RESCUE OF A GIRL CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS. JOHN WETZEL While hunting one day, Wetzel fell in with a young hunter, was twice taken prisoner by the Indians. The first event is who lived on Dunkard's creek, and was persuaded to accom- already recorded in the sketch of Lewis. The second one pany him to his home. On their arrival they found the house occurred some years later, when he was about sixteen years of in ruins and all the family murdered, except a young woman age. Four Indians prowling in the neighborhood of the old man who had been bred with them, and to whom the young man WetzePl's, had captured the horses, taken off the bell, and was ardently attached.

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