Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-04-13
RED VS.. WHITE.
The Early History Of Wheeling
Recalled,
BY a Writer in the SteubenyilIe Gazette
interesting Facts Concerning
the Pioneers Of this
Section.

LSEuCO u NDaN OAAAoA AO ~
trials and troubles of the pioneers of this
city, and the region of country Immediately
surrounding US, and although the facts are
more or less well known to the great major
i;y of our readers, we have no hesitancy in
saving that the following extracts will be
perused with interest by our people. After
recouutiDg the events Immediately following
Cresap's massacre, at Yellow Creek, IN
April, l774, and the capture of John Shop
taw, the article continues:
during this time the Indians OF the
Northwest had allied themselves with the
British, and in many cases were accom-
panied By British officers. This accounts
for the fact that they took many prisoners
NOM the settlers. Previous to the attack
on Fort Henry the Indians had planned an
attack upon Cat6shtown, now Washington;
but the scouts were able to give the inhao-
itants of that unprotected village warning
in time for them to reach Wheeling. The
Indians. hearing of this, and inturated at
the blasting Of their hopes of blood and spoils,
determined to massacre their prisoners,
and preparations were immediately
made to carry this fearful resolution into
effect. The torture and massacre OF these
unfortunate victims Of savage wrath-par-
ents mercilessly mangled in the presence OF
their children and husbands laceratedin the
sight of their wives-forms probably the
most heart rending and appalling scene
among the many horrible events concurring
in the Northwest Territory. Never did the
savages more fully and e~fectually CRAFTY
their hereditary hatred against the whites;
never did they so glut their appetite for
blood by any deed of direr cruelty; and
never did they more thoroughly
avenge their slaughtered kindred who had
fallen in the struggle to repel the invasion
of their homes. The exact location Of this
terrible massacre and the number who were
slaughtered has never been known, but it
was certainly done somewhere not far from
the Ohio river, and either in what is now JEFF
ferson, Columbiana or Belmont county, as
the expedition for the capture of Catfish
town was separated into two divisions, one
to cross the Ohio at what is now Nessleys
Island and the other at Beach Bottom Bar.
"Gloating over this massacre, and with
their ~tomahawks reekiug with the blood Of
their white prisoners, the band Of Indians,
now increased to 400, fastened to attack
Fort Henry, which was garrisoned by q
force OF 60 men and boys under the com.
mand Of Colonies Shepherd and Zane"
The facts Of the siege, the relief of the
garrison by the detachment under con-
mard of Major Sam McColloch, the pursuit
and narrow escape OF that officer by his
famous leap from the crest of the hill near
Mt. Wood cemetery to the creek bottom,
and the retreat of the Indiads are then de-
scribed in a most interesting manner
Speaking Of Major McColloch, the writer
saws:
"As an Indian fighter, Sam McColloch
had no superior, and to this day his name is
known far more in the vicinity where the
events OF his life occurred than that Of any
other pioneer. In 1882, while r%econnoiter
ing the river paths with his brother John.
near Short Creek, to ascertain whether
there were any Indians in the neighborhood,
he was shot by a savage; but John escaped
to the fort and gave the alarm. On
the following day a large number
vent to the spot where he fell
and found his body terribly mutilated;
after the Indians had scalped him, they
opened his body and took out his heart,
which they afterwards ate that they might
be brave and strong like him. Thus per,
ished a man who was able to preside at
court, who was q commander excelled by
none on the frontier, and who in hapd.to-
hand conflicts with the red men at fearful
odds always escaped. He was buried near
the mouth of Short Creek, it is said, though
there are no marks now to.indicate where"
Speaking of the massacre of hunters by a
party Of Shswnees, near the mouth Of what
is now Croxton's Run, midway between
Calumet and Toronto, where the victims
were afterwards found scalped, their eyes
put out, and bowles torn out, the writer
says there were several other occurrences
Of this kind which took place in what is now
Jefferson county, especially along the river
bank, and several traces were subsequently
found in Smithfeld and Wayne townships,
and the Eastern part of Harrison, which
would indicate that several sharp and fatal
contests occurred even in the interior.
There are several spots in the localities
named where recently have been picked up
hunting knives and psrts of guns almost
rusted to pieces"
John Shoptaw, mentioned in one Of the
first ofthese extracts, was one OF a party OF
soldiers who made a stop at the cabin Of
Captain Kirkwood, just north Of Martins
Ferry, IL 1871. During the night the cabin
was attacked BY a party OF Indians, who
attempted to capture the scslps of the in
mates BY setting FIRE to the cabin and thus
driving them out. The family, with the
| aid OF the soldiers, succeeded in keeping the
FIRE in check By throwing on the flames
milk, water, and damp earth from The floor
CT the cabin, although in doing so seven
men were wounded By shots fred into the
! cabin by the Indians, who surrounded it
and attempted to break in the door.
Upon daylight appearing the Indians left
and the wounded were cared for az Fort
Henry. Kirkwood left that locality soon
after and Joined General St. Clair, was
made a colonel, and fell on the day Of that
great defeat in November of the same year.
Concluding, the writer Of this article
says:
While there is little in the career OF John
Shoptaw that belongs to the history Of JET.
ferson county, he having taken more part
in events that occurred near Wheeling and
Belmont county, yet the greater part ofthe
tales that are located here have been pre-
served by those who have recorded them as
he told them. There are two citizens Of
this county who recollect him living AZ
The mouth of Capina creek, where he died
in 1920. 1t was upon the stories related BY
him, which had been handed down, that
Emerson Bennett founded his novel of
Forest Queen" which was in those times
very popular, owing to many Of the scenes
beng laid in this neighborhood. We are
certainly indebted to him for many of the
traditions of the early pioneers of the Ohio
Valley"