History of
Page 830
ADAM POE,
THE INDIAN FIGHTER.
"The
dusk and swarthy foeman felt the terror of his might."
“The forest
aisles are full of story."
Adam Poe, whose name is familiar the world over with every reader of American
border warfare, was born in Washington county, Pa., in the year 1745, and died
September 23, 1838, in Stark county, four miles west of Massillon, at the
residence of his son, Andrew Poe.
He was twice married, and by the first union had but one
child, a daughter, named Barbara, who married a Mr. Cochrane, of
His second marriage was to Betsey Matthews, a widow lady,
and a native of
His second wife died December 27, 1844. By this second
marriage Adam and Betsey Poe had ten children, to wit : George, Andrew, Thomas,
Isaac, John, Barney, Adam, David, Catharine and Sarah.
George Poe, eldest son of Adam Poe, came to
Isaac Poe came to
Page 831
to near
David Williamson Poe came to
Sarah Poe, wife of Adam Kuffel, the youngest of the ten
children of Adam Poe, is the only survivor of the family, and lives in Congress
village, Congress township,
After leaving
He first settled in
Mrs. Kuffel relates the following as the circumstances of
his death : A great and enthusiastic political meeting was being held in
was a big day," says his daughter, and old as he was, being past ninety,
"he had as much pluck as any of the boys."
That day of excitement, however, sounded the death-knell of
the mighty borderer, the iron-nerved heroic Adam Poe. He returned from the political meeting prostrated,
enfeebled and sick, and soon thereafter died.
A son of Andrew Poe, at whose house Adam died, hurried to the residence
of Mrs. Kuffel, at Congress, to inform her of the dangerous illness of her
father. She received the news about
Page 832
nine o'clock, and being then forty-seven years of age,
mounted a horse and rode through the darkness and over uncertain roads,
reaching her father's in time only to see him, to whom this world had no
terrors, succumb to the King of Terrors and the Terror of Kings.
The terrible encounter of the Poe brothers — Andrew and Adam
— with the stalwart chief Bigfoot, occupies a conspicuous page in the annals of
our border strifes. It should contribute a most interesting feature to the
history of Wayne county, that we are able to furnish with extraordinary
accuracy the brief sketch of the brother, Adam, who for over twelve years was a
citizen of our county. His sons were among the earliest of the pioneers in
Congress township, and made the first improvements in that section, and he was
a pioneer of 1813 in the town of
The critical reader of our State and border history will
perceive in the exploits of the brothers Poe with Bigfoot, the most palpable
contradictions, incongruities and transpositions.
Even as good an authority as McClung, in his " Western
Adventures," published in 1837, substitutes the name of Adam for Andrew,
and that prince of brilliant historical muddlers, John S. C. Abbott, in his
recent History of Ohio, contradicts himself in the most inexcusable manner on
the pages where he seeks to describe the contest.
Royce Summerton and Michael Totten, whose sister was married
to Isaac, son of Adam Poe, confirm the statements of Mrs. Kuffel. These
gentlemen deride and flout the idea of this use of Adam for Andrew. Adam Poe
himself wondered that narrators of the occurrence could be led into such
mistakes, and he was often heard to say,
" Why, Andrew was wounded in the hand, struck with the little Indian's
hatchet, but you see no wound or scar on mine."
The statement, as
furnished by Mrs. Kuffel,* and the corresponding testimony of his neighbors,
who intimately knew him, and held daily and weekly intercourse and conversation
with him, is sufficient, in our judgment, to settle for all time the question upon
which historians have been divided. –
Mrs. Kuffel’s Statement of Adam and Andrew Poe^s Celebrated
Fight with Bigfoot. —
“A body of seven Wyandots made a raid upon a white
settlement on the Ohio river near
My uncle Andrew, who, like father, was a strong man and
always on the lookout, did not directly advance to the river, but left his
comrades and stealthily crept through the thicket to avoid any ruse of the
Indians, and, if possible, surprise them.
He at once detected evidences of their presence at the
river, but not seeing them, he quietly crept down to its bank with his gun
fixed to fire. He had not far descended when he spied Bigfoot and a little
Indian with him, both of whom had guns, and stood watching along the river in
the direction whence the remainder of the party were. He (Andrew) now concluded
to shoot Bigfoot, and fired at him, but his gun did not discharge its contents.
The situation instantly became terrific.
*Mrs. Kuffel is in full possession of her
faculties, lives by herself, does her own work, and delights to dwell upon the
exploits of her father and uncle. She wonders how the names have got mixed,
for, says she, " It was Andrew that wrestled with Bigfoot, and went into
the water, but it was father (Adam) who shot him."
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The snapping of the gun alarmed the Indians, who, looking around, discovered
Andrew. It was too late for him to run, and I doubt if he would have retreated
if he could, for he was a great wrestler, and coveted conflict with the
Indians. So he dropped his gun, and bounding from where he stood, caught both
the Indians and thrust them upon the ground. Though he fell uppermost in the
struggle he found the grip of Bigfoot to be of iron, and, as a consequence, the
little Indian soon extricated himself, and instantly seized his tomahawk and
advanced with fatal purpose toward Andrew. To better assist and aid the little
Indian, who had the tomahawk aimed at the head of Andrew, Bigfoot hugged and held him with a giant's
grasp, but Andrew, when he struck at him, threw up his foot and kicked the
tomahawk out of the little Indian's hand. This made Bigfoot indignant at the
little savage, who soon repeated his experiment with the tomahawk, indulging in
numerous feints before he delivered the main blow, which Andrew parried from
his head and received upon his wrist. Andrew now, by a desperate endeavor,
wrenched himself from the clutches of Bigfoot, and seizing the gun of one of
the savages shot the little Indian.
Bigfoot, regaining his perpendicularity, got Andrew in his
grasp and hurled him down upon the bank, but he instantly arose, when a second
collision occurred, the issue of which threw them both into the water, and the
struggle now was for the one to drown the other. Andrew finally caught Bigfoot
by the hair, and plunged him in the water, holding him there until he imagined
he was drowned, a conclusion in which he was sadly mistaken. Bigfoot was only
playing off and soon recovered his position and was prepared for a second
encounter. The current of the river had by this time borne them into deep
water, when it became necessary to disengage themselves and seek to escape
immediate destruction. A mutual effort was at once made to reach the shore and
get possession of a gun and close the struggle with powder and lead. Bigfoot
was a glib swimmer, and was the first to reach the bank. In this contingency Andrew
wheeled about and swam further out into the river to avoid, if possible, being
shot, by diving strategies. The big chief, lucklessly to him, seized the
unloaded gun with which Andrew had shot the little Indian.
Meantime, Adam Poe, having missed his brother and hearing a
gun-shot, inferred he was either killed or in a fight with the Indians, and
hastened toward him. Adam now being discovered by Andrew, the latter called to
the former to shoot Bigfoot. Unfortunately Adam's gun was empty as was the big
Indian's. The strife now was between the two as to which could load quickest,
but Bigfoot in his haste drew his ramrod too violently from the gun. thimbles,
when it escaped from his hand and was thrown some distance, but which he
rapidly recovered, which accident gave Adam the advantage, when he shot Bigfoot
as he was in the act of drawing his gun upon him. Having disposed of Bigfoot,
and seeing his brother, who was wounded, floating in the river, he instantly
sprang into the water to assist him, but Andrew, desiring the scalp of the
great chief, called to Adam to scalp him, that he could save himself and reach
the shore. Adam's anxiety for the safety of his brother was too intense to obey
the mandate, and Bigfoot, determined to not let his scalp be counted amongst
the trophies of his antagonist, in the horrid pangs of death, rolled into the
river, and his carcass was swept from the eye of man forever. Andrew, however,
when in the stream, made another narrow escape from death, as just as Adam
arrived at the bank for his protection, one of the number who came after him
mistook Andrew in the water for an Indian, and shot at him, the bullet striking
him in the shoulder, causing a severe wound, from which he, in course of time,
recovered.
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So that it
was my uncle Andrew that had the wrestle on the bank with Bigfoot, and the
struggle with him in the river, and it was my father, Adam Poe, who shot
Bigfoot when he came to shore. The wound that my father received, he got in the
fight with the body of six Indians who were overtaken, five of whom were
killed, with a loss of three of their pursuers and the hurt done to my father.
The locality on the Ohio river where the struggle occurred is in
He has a Terrible
Fight with Five Indians and Whips them*. — While living on this side of the
In the
course of two hours, and after they awoke from their drunken slumber, they
discovered that their rifles were missing, when they immediately returned to
Poe's house, and after inquiring for their guns and being told they knew
nothing about them, they boldly accused him of stealing them and insolently
demanded them. Poe was apprehensive of trouble, and turning his eyes in the
direction whence they came, discovered three more Indians approaching. Without
manifesting any symptoms of surprise or alarm, he coolly withdrew to the house,
and saying to his wife, "There is a fight and more fun ahead," told
her to hasten slyly to the cornfield nearby with the children, and there hide.
This being accomplished he seized his gun and confronted the five Indians, who
were then in the yard surrounding the house, and trying to force open the door.
He at once
discovered that the two Indians who came first had not yet found their guns and
that the other three were unarmed. So he dropped his gun, as he did not want to
kill any of them unless the exigency required it, and attacked them with his
fist, and after a terrific hand to hand encounter of ten minutes, crushed them
to the earth in one promiscuous heap, and having thus vanquished and subdued
them, seized them one at a time and threw them over the fence and out of the
yard. *This adventure has never been given to the public before, and comes from
his daughter.
Page 425
MICHAEL
TOTTEN. John Totten, the father
of Michael Totten, was born in
He next
went to
But prior
to his removing to
He removed
to Stark, now Carroll county,
In 1809 he
removed, with his family, four miles west of
He was a
massive, muscular man, who performed gallant service for his country in two of
its wars, always enjoying good health and never confined to a bed of sickness
until prostrated by the disease that ended his life. On one occasion he was
shot in a fight with Indians, and had his thigh broken.
Hon.
Michael Totten was born May 11, 1800, and had five brothers and sisters being
dead. After his father’s death, in
February, 1813, Michael removed to
Page 426
the family.
They remained in
From
Wooster Mr. Totten's family removed to, and located one-half mile east of the
After they had left
Mr. Totten
lived in Congress township seventeen years, and in 1832 removed to
Mr. Totten
has been twice married ; first to Louisa Crawford, of Congress township, by
which marriage there resulted two children, Matilda and Henry, the former marrying
James Freeman and dying in Illinois; the latter, Henry, being joined in
marriage to Jane Ramsey, and living in Chicago; second, November 16, 1830, to
Mrs. Susanna Ramsey, of Washington county, Pennsylvania, daughter of William
Ewing, deceased, of Canaan township, and wife of Samuel Ramsey, of the
aforenamed county, who died in November, 1824. By her first marriage, with Mr.
Ramsey, she had four children, George, William, Jane and Samuel, the latter a
retired physician in
By this
second of Mr. Totten there resulted the following issue: Nancy, Susan, John,
Enoch, Hiram E. and Melissa A.* *John and
Hiram are dead. Hiram was a Lieutenant in the i2Oth Regiment, and in the battle
of
Page 427
Mr. Totten
has been a citizen of Wayne county for 65 years, and can be properly classed
with the oldest of the living pioneers, there being but few indeed who have
lived so long as he within the limits of the county. His settlement in it dates
back to the year immediately succeeding the organization of the county.
His life
has been an extremely active and eventful one, replete with hazardous
adventures, many hardships and exciting situations. He was a man well suited to
the times in which his activities were exerted. His courage no man dared to
question, and, the associate of the Poes and other brave spirits of the early days, he
learned daring in the shadow of danger, and neither wild beast, Indian nor
tomahawk possessed terror to him. He entered Congress township when it was in
the wilderness of the centuries preceding it, and many are the acres of forest
that fell before his strong arms, and the fields that he cleared, that now
blossom and
ripen with bountiful harvests.
In his more
vigorous days he bore a conspicuous part in the progressive enterprises and
measures of the community, and was an aggressive, public spirited citizen and
man. As early as 1829 he served with Michael Funk and John Vanosdall as one of
the Trustees of Congress township, and
in all his local positions of public trust sustained a reputation for zeal in
the fulfillment of his duties. In 1836 he was elected to the office of Auditor
of Wayne county, and re-elected in 1838. He served in the Ohio Legislature from
December 1, 1845, to December 7, 1846, and from December 6, 1847, to December
4, 1848, in all of which capacities he acquitted himself with credit and honor.
Since Mr.
Totten's residence in
Fifty years ago Mr. Totten was one of the best
specimens of the heroic backwoodsman ; a stout, athletic, daring adventurer,
and a hunter
Page 428
whose
delight was in the thickets and ravines of the woods. He encountered the
Indians in contests for game, met them in their camps and settlements, slept in
their bark huts, well knowing their treachery, but too brave a man to fear
them. He frequently met old Captain Lyon and Tom Jelloway ; knew Baptiste
Jerome,*after whom Jeromeville, in
* Jerome was
a Canadian Frenchman, and, says Knapp, "was a man of positive character,
impulsive, generous and brave, devoted in his friendships, and bitter in his
enmities. His natural gifts of mind were good. He could converse fluently in
French and Indian, and so as to be understood in English. To the early settlers
he was of great service in furnishing them with provisions, some having
expressed the opinion that they would have incurred the hazard of starvation,
had it not been for the aid afforded by him."
MICHAEL
TOTTEN CHALLENGED BY A BEAR.
When his mother and the family were living in the cabin which stood on the old
brick kiln site, he went up on the hill, about half a mile from the house, to
look after the cows, and while sitting on a log, listening for the cow bell, a
big black bear passed close by him, pausing a moment and looking at him, and
then going on. He ran at the top of his speed back to the house and gave the
alarm, whereupon Archibald Clark, John, George, Elijah and William Glasgow
started in pursuit of bruin with dogs and guns, Mr. Totten also accompanying
the party. The dogs tracked it some distance, and treed it about half a mile
west of where John McKee, Esq., lives — a mile north of the University. All that
had guns fired at it, and,after receiving thirteen bullets, it tumbled to the
ground. This was in August, 1814.
A TERRIBLE NIGHT
IN THE WOODS.
While Mr. Totten was living in Congress township, and soon after his removal
there, Isaac Poe, who then lived on the Henry Myers farm, had been up in
Congress township, where he afterward moved, and on his return home he found
that his horses had strayed away, and were for two weeks lost, as he supposed.
Mr. Totten, then but fifteen years of age, being in the woods in search of the
cattle, came in contact with Mr. Poe's horses, and knowing that they were his,
concluded to take them home. He got elm-bark and made halters for them, and
started toward
Page 429
PACKING
SALT ON HORSEBACK.
Michael Totten's brother William, and James Gaff, of Stark county, bored for
salt on Killbuck — went down 440 feet and broke the augur. They procured salt
water, but could not manufacture over a half bushel of salt per day. Michael
packed it from the well up to the farm in Congress township, on horseback. Salt
was then worth four dollars per bushel and wet at that.
In 1813 he
was water-boy to the harvest hands cutting wheat on the Avery farm, then owned
by George and Isaac Poe. The crop consisted of about ten acres, and it was
principally "sick wheat." He has no explanation of the cause of this
sick wheat. On the Byers farm, then owned by a Scotchman, named Billy Clark, a
harvest was cut that year.
A LOST BOY
IN THE OLDEN TIME.
As an incident of the year 1820, Michael Totten relates the excitement created
by the search for a lost boy, named James Durfee, eight years old, whose
parents lived near Perrysburg, seven miles north-west of Congress, then in
When the uncle at length came back, the boy was gone, and it having snowed
heavily in the meantime, no trace of "Little Jim" could be seen. He
made a wide search for him, hallooed, but without result, then gave alarm to
the family and neighbors. Everybody turned out, Mr. Totten among the number,
and for three days the hunt was vigorously prosecuted, but finally had to be
abandoned as hopeless.
Weeks afterwards, in March, two miles from where he was lost, the body of the
little fellow was found in the woods, near a brook, into which it is supposed
he had fallen, and, getting out, had frozen to death, covered by snow. His eyes
had been picked out by ravens, and locks of his hair were afterwards found
strewn over the snow, by Mr. Totten, when out coon hunting. During the search
for the boy Mr. Totten entered a "Yankee slash," and there shot a
huge buck.
SAVES A
BOY'S LIFE.
In 1815 he saved John Mowry from drowning, who was then a lad of 16, in• Little
Killbuck. He had sunk in the water when Mr. Totten sprang in after him and,
assisted by John Shinneman, succeeded in getting him out of the water. When
taken out he was speechless, but recovered.
Michael
Totten's mother was the second white person who died in Congress township
(1821), Amasa Warner's wife being the first, dying on the farm now owned by
Royce Summerton, his mother being buried in the Rumbaugh graveyard.
Page 651
Nathan
Warner, son of Nathan Warner, was born in
He then
removed to Plain township, settling on a piece of land which he purchased,
north of the residence of Rev. Jesse Warner, deceased. Here he lived seven
years, when he removed to the present residence of Daniel Thomas, east of
Page 652
of
He had nine children, and had been a member of
the Methodist church for sixty-two years.
Mr. Warner
was a man characterized by many noble and remarkable qualities. He was a born
mechanic, and in this direction there was scarcely any limit to the range of
his genius. He could make anything he undertook, from a leather boot-jack to a
threshing-machine. He manufactured the first fanning mill for winnowing wheat
that was ever made or used in
He was
always a busy man, and did not rust from idleness. His son has a powder-horn
over a foot long, on the heavy end of which is horizontally cut with his
pocket-knife, " N. Warner — 1809," and perpendicularly on it,
"Nathan Warner's powder-horn." He has a pouch also, made of a
'coon-skin, with the hair all worn off; a finely silver-mounted rifle, with
which he killed deer and bears, and a coat with but few rents, and on it a row
(nine) of silver-gilt buttons, the property of his great grandfather, and
descending to him, he being the third custodian of it by the name of Nathan.
He was a
conspicuous man in the early history of his township and county. He was one of
the earliest of its tax collectors ; the receiver of public funds to make
material improvements ; one of the trustees of his township in 1835 ; one
of the first grand jury ever impaneled
in Wayne county, his name being identified with the early history of the
county, as the record exhibits, in its most notable and vital enterprises.
After the
surrender of
Page 653
Better by
the lives of such men? His good wife and
he toiled a struggled and lived to the the dawning and the light.
They shunned not labor when 'twas due,
They wrought with right good will;
And for the homes they won for them
Their children bless them still."
Rev. Joshua
Warner, son of Nathan, was born July 22, 1827, on the Daniel Thomas farm, east
of
Page 811
Reminiscences
of
In 1815 the
first families moved into what is now Congress township. Some time during the
first week in February Michael and Henry Totten accompanied George and Isaac
Poe, and cut a trail from
We encamped
with George Poe, about one-half mile from the village, until we could erect a
cabin, which we built on section 27, on the lands owned by John Garver. When we
got our cabin completed, some time during the month of February, 1815, Henry
and myself went to Wooster and moved our mother and our sister Catharine the
first two white women in the township) and all the household furniture on a
sled from Wooster to our cabin.
On the
first of April following George and Isaac Poe and other families came into the
township and settled upon the same section. The same spring Peter Warner,
with his family, moved into the south-west corner of the township. In 1816
Matthew Brewer and James Carlin, with their families, moved to the same farms
upon which they lived till their deaths.
The next to
come were George Aukerman and John Nead, with their families. After this period emigrants came in so fast
and settled in such widely different parts of the township that it would be
impossible to trace them, or where they located. The first white person who died was Mrs.
Amasa Warner, and the second my
Page 812
mother.
The first
school ever taught was by John Totten in the first cabin built. George Poe was
the first Justice of the township. The first school-house was built in 1819, on
the south-west quarter of section 37.
The first
year after moving into the township my brother Henry and I cleared five acres
and planted it in corn, which we cut off in the fall and put down in wheat, and
which was the first corn and wheat raised in the township. Game was very
plenty, and for some time after our arrival it was our chief article of food.
We could not raise hogs or sheep after our settlement, as they would be
devoured by wolves. One winter we had twelve sheep enclosed in the same lot in
which the house stood, thinking they were safe, and that the dogs would guard
them, but a herd of wolves, during the night, assailed them and destroyed
eleven ; the remaining and last one escaped, and running into the house, awoke
the family, but the hungry scavengers of the woods had fled. The next day,
there being snow on the ground, I pursued them as far as the
Among other
early settlers of the township were John Jeffrey, Walter Elgin, David Gardner,
Jacob Holmes, Jacob Shellebarger, Peter and Samuel Chasey, G. W. Howey, David
Nelson, the father of James Grimes, James Boyd, Hector Burns, Samuel Sheets, N.
N. Perrine, A. Yocum, John Vanasdoll, Rev. John Hazard and family, Isaac
Matthews, and others.
James
Carlin says : The first couple married in Congress township was Jesse Matteson
and Eleanor Carlin, the ceremony by Judge James Robison, and that the first
sermon preached was by a Presbyterian minister, Matthews, who spoke with a
sword girded to his body.
The first
grist-mill was built by Naftzger, where a man named Buchanan was killed,
waiting for a grist. George Howey was the first blacksmith, and Michael Funk
the first merchant. The first physician was a Mr. Mills, and the first
carpenter and joiner was Jacob Matthews.
Daniel
Chasey was a native of
Samuel
Chasey was born in
Thomas
McKee was born in
Page 813
but which
in later years was largely added to by other lands. His wife died January 25,
185 1, aged 46 years. They had ten children, as follows : Joseph, Mary, Thomas,
Margaret, Ephraim, William, John, George B., A. E. and Sindalena. By industry
and good management he has succeeded in surrounding himself with the wealth and
comforts of life, and now, in his old age, enjoys the proceeds of a remarkably
well- spent life. He is the firmest of Democrats, and popular with his fellow
citizens, having been elected Trustee and to other township offices, and was
honored with being made one of the first County Infirmary Directors under the
new constitution.
Jacob
Leatherman came to Congress township March 26, 1842, settling on a farm two
miles south west of the
In 1857 he
quit farming and removed to Congress village, there engaging in the dry goods
business, and in April, 1864, went to
John Dulin
was born near
Page 814
John Keeler
was born within four miles of
John,
however, remained in
They had
four children, two of whom are dead, one dying when a child. William, a son,
was a soldier in Company F, 1O2d Regiment, and was killed by the explosion of
the steamer Sultana, on the
Congress. —
This village, originally called Waynesburg, was laid out March 6, 1827, by
Philip Gates and David Newcomer, and surveyed by Peter Emery; plat and
certificate recorded March 27, 1827, and can be found in vol. 6, page 24,
County Records. Robert Lowry, a gallant soldier of the Mexican war and the last
conflict between the North and South, informs us that Michael Funk and Elmer
Yocum built the first house in the village of Congress, and that it was
situated upon the site of the present Methodist church ; that Jacob Hare was
the first postmaster, the office being kept on lot No. 5, in the village ; that
Dr. Mills was the first permanent physician ; that George Wicks kept the first
hotel, and that David W. Poe established the first tannery in the village. An
Indian died in the house now occupied by the Beard family, and was buried in
the old Congress graveyard. The old Indian and his wife were on a tramp, and
stopped at