The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1890-02-06
TECUMSEH'S HORN.
Relics Which Famous Contemporary OF
Daniel Boone Preserved Until His
Death Few Years Ago.

An interesting bit of the Indian war
history of this vicinity is brought out
by the presentation TO HUFF Post, G. A.
r., at Lawrenceburg. Ind. of Il pow
derhorn. once the property of the great
Indian chieftaiu, Tecumseh.
This horn was carried slung across
Tecumseh's shoulder in the famous
| battle of the Thames. in 1913.
1t was presented TO the post by Henry
Morris, of Lawrenceburg. He is son
of William Morris, better known 10
Ohio Valley pioneers rs Indian Bill,
who figured in many savage and bloody
| encounters.
After the great fight seventy-six
years ago ''Indian Bill found the body
of the slain warrior The powder horn,
still attached to the string around Te-
cumseh's neck, lay on his breast. The
scout removed it and preserved it as
the most sacred of his relics. At his
| death few years ago he presented it
to his son Henry, who has now given
it to Huff Post, and it hangs on the
wall in that organizations post.
The horn was cut from the head of
/ the first buffalo Tecumseh killed. He
carefully scraped and polished it, and
| displayed great deal of skill and in
| genuity in fitting bottom to it and
shaping the mouth. The entire sur
face of the receptacle is covered with
| Indian characters and legends.
MIR. Morris has another and more
CORY and ghastly trophy of that famous
battle. 1t is Il strip of skin from the
middle of Tecumseh's back. The old
settlers felt about the same savage sat
isfaction in cutting up and mutilating
the bodies of their slain red foes as the
Indians did in scalping. After taking
| the horn off Tecumseh's body, old .'In-
| dian Biz turned the Chieftain on his
face, and with his scalping knife cut
strip of skin several inches wide off
| the warror's back down the entire
| length. This strip was "curedn and
| for the remainder of Bills life did SER
| vice as razor strop.
| Indian Bill Morris. at the time of his
| death, in Switzerland County, Indiana,
| few years ago. was 104 years old.
When only years old, living with his
parents near what became the site of
Lexington, Ky. he was stolen and car
ried into captivity by the Indians. Two
white men were taken prisoners with
him. When the party reached what
! is now Chilicothe, Ohio, then a great
| Indian encampment. the two white
men were skinned alive by the squaws
of the village and then slowly roasted
to death. The boy was then made a
slave by an old squaw, and suffered in
credible hardships. When she died
| Bill fell to the lot of another old wo-
man, who devised even more fiendish
treatment for him than his first mis-
tress. Bill was washing hominy at the
| river one day, when he was about 15
years old, when the old woman struck
| him with a club The infuriated lad
wrenched the weapon from her and
| dealt her a blow that knocked her
| senseless into the stream and she
| drowned. The boy was followed for
three days and nights by the savages,
aud finally escaped by hiding himself
in hollow log that was floating down
the Ohio River with other driftwood.
When he finally reached the settlement
of Cincinnati lie narrowly escaped be-
! inc shot for an Indian, so closely did
he resemble one. lie finally got back
to his parents, who had long mourned
him as dead. From that long captivity
among the Indians he got that impla
cable hatred Of the red man which dis
tinguished him in after life.
For years. in company with Daniel
Boone and other noted pioneers, Bill
followed little else than Indian trails,
and no less game than a savage red
skin satisfied his hatred. He was one
of the bravest soldiers under Colonel
! Dick Johnson, and killed nine Indians
himself in the battle OF the Thames.
When he saw Tecumseh fall under the
unerring aim of comrade, he rushed
toward and secured the powder-horn
and the strip of skin off the dead Chiefs
back G1cinl4H E'1lnMirer