Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-09-24

. ou and ever thing not impenitrstaele
a. 5.yhresk on September ID the Indian
- r,;sed the siege and marched on
Tha fort stood alone amid smoking anu
d;solate waste. Every house in the viilsse
had been burnt to the ground, ana notnins
but Nackened chimneys
roIa where wheeling Had STOOD.
7, the surrounding country it was little
It., Rsrns and dwellings had been des'
t,nys5 horses, cattle, sheep ana otner
Somestic animals had been killed: ana on
eyerv side could be seen traces OF the disota,
,;on tbat had swept over the beautitui
colony. The people found themselves
homeless and destitute, and the winter was
coming on. Few" says an historian,
~iew were left the enjoyment OF . ped or
the humble qualification oil the coarso ~
part of bread and milk. n,
The siege Of Fdrt Henry was soon to.'
lowed by calamity little less apps'nlS
bsd brsvely come 20 the assistance OF the
suffering people of Wheeling, fell into an
ambuscade in the Narrows OF Grave Creek,
and he with twenty-One OF his men, was
killed. After this it was continued Stus-
ole between the settlers and the INDIANS
Int Wheeling was not again besiged ui,
Ifsl At that time an army OF one hundred
indians suddenly appeared and set the
town ON fire. But not being strong
enough to attack the fort no fnrther
damage was done.
The next year. 1882, on the llth OF Sep
TENDER, occurred the third, the last ana tne
greatest siege of all. Ii is the centennial 9i
This that We are to-day celebrating Wheei-
ing was again burnt, making three
times that il was destroyed IN hve years.
The perseverance of the Carthagenians In
their city, repeatedly ruined;
was not superior to that OF the people %
primitive Wheeling. But this was the last
Time. II was never again threatened by an
invasion. This army was the last Oh oHen-
sive var that the Indians of the Ohio Val
lev ever led into the field. 1t is memora'
HE ON that account. Although the war
with undated tierceness thirteen
wears longer, an Indian army never again
crossed the frontiers.
This wear, 1882. was one Of immense I'M
mort i'm our early border history. In this
Year was enacted one of the blacklist TRACE
dies ever recorded in the annals OF crime
the massacre OF the Moravions on the upper
waters of the Muskingum. This was soon
followed by the expedition OF Col. crawford
to the Sandusky, where bis army was CUT
10 pieces and himself taken prisoner ana
burnt. In August the grand convention ,,i
of the Indian confederacy met az Cnilh'
Gothic and organized two campaigns, one
AGAINST Kentucky and the other, against
West Virginia. Simon Girty, ~ tue neau
of six hundred Indians.
Led the Kentucky Iavaston,
and laid siege to Bryant's Station. He was
driven of, and few days later occurred
the desperate battle Of the Blue ihcks,
where the whites were defeated, ana the
flower of Kentucky's chivalry was lett deao
on the field. w..
Virginia and the siege Of Fort Henry. II
is supposed that the army making TINS IN
yasion was under the leadership OF simon
Girty, and that the original design was to
attack Point Pleasant instead OF wheeling.
But from some reason the design was
changed, the army was countermsrched
and Fort Henry was besieged OH the llth
of September, 1882 The experience OF this
wear taught the Indians that their greatest
strength lay not in massing and marching
armies, but in guerilla warfare ana In the
movement of small and independently
bodies After the year 1882 the history OF
the Indian wars about Wheeling Is simply
a series of personal narratives and indiyid-
ual adventure. 1t is highly interesting
and is worthy Of study, but 1t cannot DC
dwelt upon here.
the founding or the most important colony
in West Virginia. Nothing but the vol
umes OF history would convey a
full idea of the dangers, the trials,
the perils and the tribulatiOns through
which our little mountain State has fought
its way. No State in this Union has more
10 boast of in the way OF ancestry than
West Virginia has. Her founders were
honest and free, not ashamed TO work for
their bread, and not afraid to fight for their
rights. Massachusetts may boast OF her Pu-
ritans, and of her Miles Standish; Rhode
Island may set up her Roger Williamsa as a
model of purity and heroism; New YORK
may name her Hudson and her Stuy-
vesant; Pennsylvania her VIM. Penn, ana
Virginia her Capt. Smith, the Carolinas
NAV claim Randolph for their foun der,
and Georgia may name an Oglethorpe as
hers. Other States may rear monuments
of granite and marble TO perpetuate the
names OF their deathless heroes, and bow
before them with superstitious idolatry !:
but amid all this pageantry West Virginia
stands boldly out, proud Of those who made
her what she is.
And we'll may she be proud Of such q
name! Well may we feel something OF
pride and admiration stir within us as We
look back through the sheen and shadow
of a hundred years and bear in mind that
we are filling their places and continuing
the work begun by them! Where in the
worlds history will you find Drawer war
riors,
Men Truer to Trust?
Where will you find men more generous
to friends and more hostile to enemies? ?
Not the ideal heroes and demigods OF
Greece and Rome can stand pre-eminent
in this respect. Not Eneas, Ulysses, Do
mede, Ajax or Achilles was Drawer or truer,
or wiser or better. But they were the
work Of fiction, creations Of poetic magma.
tions, while ours are real. They lived, not
only on the guided pages Of romance, but
in the hunters cabin, in the dense forest,
in the front OF battle, in the terror OF de-
feat or in the honor OF victory. they lived,
they worked they endured. they conquer
ed and they built for themselves an ever.
lasting name.
Some OF the philosophers OF Europe tell
us that in q few more generations history
will no longer be read. All that IL has TO
teach will have been learned, and man will
cease to investigate the past and turn his
attention TO the present. This may be true;
but the time for laying history aside has
HOt YET COIne. lucIc ID otlll oOtuttIiuB W
be learned by studying the thoughts and
the actions and the hopes and the aspira.
tions OF those who have gone before Us.
The prime and the only object In studying
history is to teach ourselves to meet and to
answer the great questions Of life as they
are presented to us. The men who found
ed and defended West Virginia have still Q
lesson for us here. They teach that full
determination to succeed, urged forward
and supported by reverence for the right,
is the true beacon star that will
Guide Us 20 the Harb0P Of Peace,
though dangers and enemies and discour.
agements are on every side.
There was once great battle that bad
been raging with stubborn determination
nearly two days and nights. Messans had
been stationed on an eminence, which IL
lost would lose the day. There he and bis
heroic Frenchmen had stood for forty hours
amid the whistling bullets, the bursting
shells and the crashing cannon balls OF the
enemy, who were putting forth their ut
most endeavors TO drive him from the post.
In the midst of this terrible tempest OF
death and destruction q messenger arrived
from Napoleon, and asked: "How long can
you hold outy' Messaus turned, his looks
II -,