Volume 22, Pages 492-499
ANDREW POE'S ENCOUNTER WITH INDIANS.
(From the Draper
Mss. Border Forays, 5 D-Chap 29,
Andrew Poe
was born the thirtieth of September, 1742, in
On the
twentieth of September, 1781, 1 a party of
Wyandot warriors, seven in number, was sent by the Half King, principal or head
chief of that nation, from the banks of the Walhonding,
where the latter then was on his way to the Sandusky, on a maraud upon the
white settlers to the eastward of, and across the Ohio river. Among the braves
were three sons of that sachem, the oldest of whom was Scotash
who afterward be-came chief of the Wyandots. The
latter was put in command of the party,2
which reached and crossed the river near the
1 Heckewelder (Narr., p. 279,)
speaks of an expedition leaving that day,-two sons of the Half King with the
party.
2 Thomas Edgington was, on the first day of April, 1782, captured by
a party of ten, one of whom was Scotash; and from
whom and others he received these particulars: Statement of his son. Geo. Edgington,- 1845. Compare
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mouth of
Tomlinson's run, a distance of about twelve miles from the settlement of the
Poe's on Harman's creek. The Wyandots came within one mile of Adam Poe's about midnight,
capturing one Jackson, a man about sixty years of age, whom the savages found
alone in his house. With their prisoner, they immediately set off for the
That night
there was a sharp frost-the first of the season; so that the borderers, in
pursuit, as soon as the morning dawned, had but little difficulty, although all
were mounted, in following the tracks of the savages. Rapidly they approached
the
On the river
hill, half a mile from the stream, they dismounted and tied their horses. They
were now a short distance below Tomlinson's run,4
the trail at the bottom of the hill turning down the
river. Here fresh signs of the Indians were dis-covered. Some of the men were now cautioned by their
leader to march quietly; as they were making considerable noise with their feet
in running. The fear was, that the Indians would
discover them and at once kill their prisoners. But one of the men, in
particular, was not to be restrained; so Andrew Poe turned squarely to the
right, leaving his company, and, making his way cautiously, took a straight
course to the immediate bank of the
3 Pension
Statement of Adam Poe (1833); MS. copy. The tradi-tions handed down from Andrew Poe,
agree substantially with the declaration of the former, except as to the date.
Adam gives the month as September-corroborated by Heckewelder.
It would seem to be abundantly substantiated that the incursion was made a
short time pre-vious to the arrival of the Moravian
Missionaries upon the banks of the
p. 336;
Charles McKnight's Western Border, p. 443.
4 Both Thomas
Edgington (who lived at the time a short distance
above the
present
Poe (in his
Pension Statement) agree as to the locality.
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The residue of settlers, with whom was Adam Poe, fol-lowed
the trail of the retreating Wyandots to the river,
where they discovered five Indians and the prisoner, Jackson. Four of the
savages were making a raft which they had quite com-pleted,
while the remaining Indian stood sentry and also guarded their captive. The
borderers got within twenty-five yards of the warriors before they were
discovered. Jackson saw them at the same moment, and sprang forward to escape
to his deliverers, but his savage keeper seizing a tomahawk pursued him
instantly and succeeded in striking him in the back with the weapon, fortu-nately, however, inflicting not a very serious wound.
Before the Indian could repeat the blow, he was shot dead by one of the
settlers. Thereupon, the rescued man ran up and embraced one of the
borderers-William Castleman, crying out, "Oh! Castleman! Oh! Castleman";
seeming all unconscious of his wound; so over-joyed
was he to escape.
In the meantime, the bordermen had fired upon
the four Wyandots and the latter returned the fire.
The Indians all sprang into the river; one only escaped, and he-Scotash- badly wounded in the hand. He was the elder of the
three sons of the Half King, and leader of the party. One of the settlers was
shot,-a young man by the name of Cherry. He sat down by a sugar-tree,
expressing a hope that his companions would not let the Indians scalp him. His
wound was in his left side cutting away the lower part of his left lung. Thus
ended the contest with the five savages, which, of itself, would have been a
memorable one; but, as will now be seen, it had already been eclipsed by a
hand-to-hand conflict up the river a short distance, wherein the leader of the
white men was performing prodigies of heroic daring.
Andrew Poe, when he left his companions, and had reached the river bank,
peered cautiously over it. He discovered two Indians near the water's edge,
both half bent, with their guns in their hands, and looking intently down the
river. The two savages were brothers of Scotash and
sons of the Half King;
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neither was remarkable for size; 5 one,
however, was a trifle smaller than the other; nor was either of them a chief of
the Wyandots; but their father being head-sachem of
the nation, they, of course, were of distinction and importance.6 When
first discovered by Poe, they were evidently alarmed at the noise of the
approaching party farther down the stream.
Andrew Poe instantly concluded to shoot the larger Indian and then, with
his butcher-knife, jump down the bank-about fifteen feet at that point to the
water's edge and attack the other before he could turn and use his gun. It was
a most desperate resolve. He had not been discovered; so, taking deliberate
aim, he pulled the trigger-but his gun missed fire. Both Indians at once turned
around, with a "Waugh !" of surprise. Poe,
as quick as thought, dropping his gun, jumped down the declivity, in-tending
first to dispatch the larger savage with his knife, and then the smaller one.
As he alighted upon them, he caught each around the neck. His weight and the
force acquired from the distance he had jumped, brought the larger Indian upon
his back and Poe upon his breast, the other savage being brought down, also,
and held there by Poe's right arm and his right leg over the fellow's body.
Both their guns fell from their hands as Poe descended upon them.
The smaller savage made violent efforts to disengage him-self from the
clasp of his antagonist; but he was held by Poe as in a vice; meanwhile the
latter tried to reach his knife which was in a scabbard attached to his
shot-pouch and was partly under him as he lay upon the larger Indian. The
savage com-prehending his intention, seized his left
hand; the other Indian
5 This fact would seem to be fairly authenticated. Edgington
was not only so informed, the next Spring, by Scotash and Simon Girty, but by
several others who knew them well. It is equally certain that neither bore the
name of Big Foot. No printed account gives the "Big Indian" that name
within fifty years after the occurrence mentioned in this chapter.
6 As early, at least, as the Spring of 1779, the
three brothers had gone to war against the border: "This day six warriors
came in here, all Wyandots, and three of them the
Half King's sons;-they killed two men somewhere above Redstone."-Heckewelder to Brodhead, 9 Apr., 1779, from Coshocton. MS.
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all the while struggling to get loose.
Poe now thought he would make a desperate effort to get hold of his knife
handle and draw the weapon from its sheath with his right hand, even if, in so
doing, he should release the smaller savage, trusting to his ef-forts and prowess with the weapon to dispatch the two.
He had, however no sooner loosened his right hand grip and seized hold of his
knife with his thumb and finger, and made a jerk, than the Indian under him let
go of his left hand-the knife came easily from its scabbard; so easily, in
fact, that the jerk caused it to fly several feet from him upon the shore. This
effort of Poe necessarily, gave the smaller Indian a chance to free himself
from his foe.
The chances now were decidedly in favor of the Indians. The larger one
clasped his strong arms around Poe holding him fast, while the other seized a
tomahawk lying upon a raft which was fastened to the shore not more than six
feet away, and aimed a blow at the head of his antagonist; seeing which, the
latter threw up his right foot, the toe of his shoe striking the Indian's wrist
as the weapon was descending-sending the toma-hawk
flying into the river. There was still one in reserve upon the raft, which the
savage lost no time in securing and after two or three feints, levelled another blow at Poe's head. The latter threw up
his right hand and received the weapon on the wrist, cutting off one of the
bones and the cords of three of his fingers. The tomahawk sticking fast among
the sinews, was drawn from the Indian's hand as Poe threw back his arm,
drop-ping some distance away upon the ground.7 The larger Indian now
loosened his hold of Poe who immediately jumped up, seizing one of the guns as
he rose, with his left hand, and it being al-ready cocked, he shot the smaller
Indian dead. This somewhat lessened the odds against him.
Scarcely had the fatal shot been fired, when the other In-dian jumping to his feet, seized Poe and threw him into the
river; but the latter, at the same time grasped the savage's breech-clout with
his left hand and brought him tumbling along with him into the stream. The
water was deep and both went
7 This
weapon, still preserved in the Poe family, is seven and one-quarter inches
long, and the blade two inches wide.
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under. Now a mighty struggle was made by each to drown the
other. Sometimes one was under, sometimes the other, and fre-quently
both. Poe getting his antagonist by the tuft of hair upon his scalp held his
head under the water until he thought him drowned. They had been by this time
carried by the cur-rent quite a distance from shore. Letting go the savage's
hair and pressing him down with his right arm over his neck, Poe endeavored to
swim with his left hand, getting at this time his head above the surface to
breathe. But the Indian immediately slipped out from under his arm, rose to the
surface, also, and swam for shore with all possible speed, followed by his dis-abled antagonist who was unable to overtake the
uninjured savage.
The moment the Indian reached the shore, he sprang for
the loaded gun, seeing which, Poe quickly turned and swam back into the
current, to escape the shot. The savage in cocking the gun broke the lock.
Throwing it down, he picked up the empty gun and sprang to the raft for a
shot-pouch and powder-horn and commenced loading. Meanwhile Poe continued to
swim away from shore, turning upon his back and exposing only his face; at the
same time calling aloud for his brother Adam whom he supposed could not be far
away; and he was not mis-taken; for the latter, after
the contest was over with the Indians down the stream, missing his brother and
hearing the report of a gun up the river, hastened to the spot. It was a very
op-portune arrival; for he reached the top of the
bank with his gun, unloaded, however, and caught sight of the savage just as he
was in the act of commencing to load. Adam remained unperceived by the Indian
but was discovered by Andrew in the water who called to him to load quickly.
It
was now a question whether the savage would shoot An-drew or Adam the savage;
it all depended upon who should load first. The Indian would have had the first
shot, had he not, in drawing the ramrod let it fly from his hand upon the
beach.
This
gave his unseen antagonist the advantage; for, by the time he had recovered the
ramrod, rammed down the ball, and raised the gun to shoot, the crack of Adam's
rifle brought him down,
Vol. XXII.-- 32.
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mortally wounded, but able to spring
into the river, where he struggled as if in the agonies of death. Seeing this
turn of affairs Andrew commenced swimming again toward the shore; at the same
time calling to his brother to catch the savage or he would get away. While
Adam was descending the bank and endeavoring to reach the Indian, others of the
party who had made their way up the stream after the conflict with the five In-dians, now espying Andrew in the river and supposing him to
be an Indian shot at him;-one ball splashing the water into his face, another
cutting his hunting-shirt, while a third one wounded him dangerously.
Adam observing the accident paid no more attention to the savage, but
sprang into the river and assisted his wounded brother ashore. The Indian sank
and was seen no more. All things considered, the encounter must be set down as
one of the most remarkable ever known to have taken place upon the border in
all the wars with the savages of the West. As soon as it was over, young Cherry
was brought up and placed beside Andrew upon the beach; he died in half an
hour. The wounded man and the dead one were taken up the hill and back to the
spot where the horses were tied, when a litter was made and Andrew placed upon
it. Both were carried to the settlement, 8 where Cherry was buried.
Andrew Poe did not get well of his wound for nearly a year; indeed, he never
fully recovered the use of the three injured fingers; and his right hand became
smaller than the other. He died in Green township,
Scotash, the Wyandot who escaped,
although badly wounded in the hand, as had been shown, swam the river and hid
until night came on when he re-crossed the stream, found the dead body of his
brother, who was shot by Andrew Poe on the shore, and buried his as well as he
could where a tree, near by, had turned up the earth.9 He then made
his way homeward, com-
8Compare Smith's Hist. Jeff. Coll., p. 391 note.
9The late William Walker, of
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nunicating the news of the disaster to
the Half King.10 The sachem afterward took ample revenge for the
death of his two sons, by his unremitting hostility to the Americans; but that
the nation at large ever attempted to requite the injuries done them by sending
one of their number to murder Andrew Poe, after peace had been declared, or at
any other time, is a pre-vailing tradition,-but one
wholly unworthy of credit.11
10Just where the Half King was informed of the death of his two sons, whether
upon the Walhonding or the
11See Finley's Wyandot Mission, p. 254, for the
tradition; and TheCadiz, (0.) Sentinel, Nov. 29,
1854, for its complete refutation.
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