How dangerous was the Ohio/Kentucky frontier? An interview with an early Kentucky pionee woman, Mrs. General Webb said it best;,
In previous blogs I've purposely avoided writing too many gruesome details of what life was like on the frontier, particularly in the Ohio and Kentucky territories thinking it really served no purpose. That all changed after reading a book called "Frontier Memories II," a collection of interviews by Rev. John Dabney Shane as compiled from the Draper manuscripts. Through his interviews with early settlers Shane helps dispel the perception that life was like a typical romanticized Daniel Boone movie, when in fact it was anything but. It was a brutal existence where life was cheap and death waited just outside the cabin door. So for those who still believe the frontier was a wilderness utopia with occasional problems with Indians, buckle up because here's a dose of reality as the interviewers would say, "straight from the horses mouth."
May it please your excellency,
At the request of the Seneca Chief, I hereby send your Excellency, under the care of James Hoyd, eight packages of scalps, cured, dried, hooped and painted with all the triumphal marks of which the following is the invoice and explanation:
No. 1. Containing forty-three scalps of Congress soldiers, killed in different skirmishes. These are stretched on black hoops, four inches in diameter. The inside of the skin is painted red with a small black spot to denote their being killed with bullets; the hoops painted red, the skin painted brown, and marked with a hoe’ a black circle all around to denote their being surprised in the night; and a black hatchet in the middle, signifying their being killed with that weapon.
No. 2. Containing ninety-eight farmers killed in their houses; hoops red, figure of a hoe, to mark their profession; great white circle and sun, to show they were surprised in the day time; a little red foot to show that they stood upon their defense and died fighting for their lives and families.
No. 3. Containing ninety-seven of farmers; hoops green to show they were killed in the fields; a large white circle with a little round mark on it , for a sun to show it was in the daytime; black bullet mark on some, a hatchet mark on others.
No. 4. Containing one hundred and two of farmers, mixture of several of the marks above; only eighteen marked with a little yellow flame, to denote their being prisoners burnt alive, after being scalped; their nails pulled out by the roots and other torments. One of these latter being supposed to be an American clergyman, his hand being fixed to the hook of his scalp. Most of the farmers appear, by their hair, to have been young or middle aged men, their being but sixty-seven very gray heads among them all, which makes the service more essential.
No. 5. Containing eight-eight scalps of women; hair long, braided in Indian fashion, to show they were mothers; hoops blue, skin yellow ground, with little red tadpoles, to represent by way of triumph the tears of grief occasioned to their relatives; a black scalping knife or hatched at the bottom to mark their being killed by those instruments. Seventeen others, hair very gray, black hoops, plain brown colors, no marks but the short club or castete to show they were knocked down dead, or had their brains beat out
No. 6. Containing one hundred and ninety-three boys scalps of various ages. Small green hoops, whitish ground on the skin, with red tears in the middle and black marks, knife, hatchet or clubs as their death happened.
No. 7. Containing two hundred and eleven girls, scalps big and little, small yellow hoops, white ground tears, hatchet and scalping knife
No. 8. This package is a mixture of all the varieties above mentioned to the number of one hundred and twenty-two, with a box of birch bark, containing twenty-nine little infants scalps of various sizes; small white hoops with white ground.”
During the 10 year period 1780 to 1789, Indians, with the help of their British allies had murdered over 1500 settlers in southern Ohio and across the Ohio River in northern Kentucky. In a letter dated, May 7, 1782, a British officer sent a letter and eight packages to Col. Haldiman, the British Governor of Canada, containing the scalps of 983 men, women and children the Indians had murdered on the frontier.
Note: While the interviews were conducted with white people, it should be remembered that while the brutality and savagery of the Indians mentioned in the interviews below, actions perpetrated by whites on the Indians were often equally savage and in some cases, far more horrendous. For and example click on this link:
"It was the morning just after breakfast. The Indians were at the door before we seen them. The dog baked and I went to the door with the child in my arms, and as soon as I came out, one Indian took hold of me and another pulled the child from me and took it by the legs and knocked it's brains against the wall and then went into the house killed my mother and two other little children and after taking all out of the house they wanted to carry with them, and they stripping all the clothes off my mother and the children they killed, they then drew the dead bodies out of the house and set it on fire and it was burnt."
"Washington County, Ohio. Mrs. Cunningham who was taken captive, when her house was raided by Indians, and several family members killed and scalped, stated upon her return from captivity that for ten days all she had to eat was the head of a wild turkey and three paw paws. That the skin on her feet was scalded by the frequent wading of the streams and upon arrival at a Delaware village, when she removed her stockings and shoes her skin and nails came off with them."
"In 1778 Nicholas Dyfert was made a prisoner and given to an old squaw to replace a son that had been killed. He suffered severely from hunger on his way to Canada. One day when almost famished, he observed his new mother make several attempts to eat a hot dumpling, which she could not master for the want of teeth. After rolling it around her mouth for some time, she cast it to her dog; but hardly had the animal seized it in his teeth, when Dyfert caught him by the ears and after a long shake he forced the dainty morsel from his jaws and transferred it to his own. The inference of her son with her will displeased the old woman and seizing him by his ears, which freedom he dared not resist, she shook him until he restored the dog with his dinner."
The most disastrous defeat of a United States Army took place 30 miles southwest of Lima, Ohio. Of the 932 soldiers who arrived at the battle site only 23 returned to Cincinnati unharmed. Most of the 250 women and 50 children were either murdered or taken captive.
