American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-08-16

.7f4t.rt --tt''S' -Z.f s7- p. '~ so
- .,As early as the year l79o, the block
house aud stockaIe abuye fhy mouth ofthe
Hooking River, WIS frontier post for the
u hardy pioneers Of tie North Western Ter
80. ritofy. There nature was in her undistur-
, bed livery Of dark aud thick. forests inter-
~ spersed with green and flowing pfaries,
~ Then the forest had not heard the sound of
a., tie Woo iman's aSei nor The plow Of the
~ husbandmsn openedthe bosom ofthe earth,
g, Then the beautiful pr,iries waved their
y, golleh bloom to thp Col Of Nature. aud a.
mong the most lnxuriant Of these were
:. those which lAy along the Hooking Valley:
- and especially that portion oft on which
the town of Lancaster now stands. This
. place. for beauty, itsriclmess of soil, and
picturesque scenery, was selected as To-
cation foran Indian village. This afford
, e. cd asui!able. place for the Sambol Of the
Indian sportsman, as we'll as central spot
W., .fcr. edncentrating- the Indian warriors,
Is lsg Here the tribes Of the north and west
s',grnet.to couasel and from this Spoiled forth
the war-pail in different directions. On
one of these occasions, when tho war spir-
X moved nightly among the sons of nat
6 urc, and the tomahawk leaped inits scab-
bard, sand the spirits OF their friends who
Il had died in the field of battle visited the
',,sswarrior, in his night visions, and called
g loudly for revenge, it was ascertainedat
e" the garrison above the,mouth Of the Hook
.-y'ing. River, that;the Indians were gathering
in great numbers, for thc purpose Of stfik-
4 ing blow on some post Of the, frontiers.
= '4To7meet this crisis, two of the most skilled
and ihdcfatigable spies we're dispatched TO
sfe'weteh flieir movements andteportA t''
M'Clelant and White, two spies that
q never quailcd atdanger,- and as saneou-
as the Lybian lon.; in the month
~ ~. ,sof' October. and on one oflhs baimy days
? pf, Indian, summer, took leave oftheir fel
"a lows and moved through The thick pftn
~ snd i,aSel bushes with the noiseless tread
: ,s,s Of panthsrs, armed with their unefting &
y ., siyisty rifles. They continued their march
tho prairiss tllthey reached that
most remarkable prominence now knowf
Z hy.lhe name Of Mount Pleasant, the, west
's,se ern termination ofwlich isn perpeudictla,
t.,5e1.cliffof rocks Of some hundreds Of fee
'"sh high. and whose summit, from a western
view. towers TO the clouds and overlook:
the vast plains below. When this spo
was gained, our hardy spies held u posi-
d, tion from which they could see every move
.As netit of the Indians below the valley
{. < -. Every day added a few accessions o
~ warriors to the company. They wiIncs
g ased their exercises Of horse-racing, run
fiing8O jumping. throwing, tb'
tomahawk and dancing, the old saehemj
looking on with Indian Indifference, th'
~ % sGuaws engaged in their usual drudgery
+, as and tile children engaged in their playful
rambols. The arrival Of a new warrtfo
was greeted with terrible shouts, vhiel
striking the muralface of Mount Pleasant
Z. were driven back in the various indenta
tions Of the sounding hills,producing re
1,.is';syerberations and echoes asiften THOUSAND
tends were gathered at a universal levee
) Such yells would have struck terror, =
y, those unaccustomed to Indian reyelry.