The Pennsylvania Gazette

October 11, 1764

 Taken by the Indians, from Cumberland County, May 21st,
1758, a certain Mary Campbell, then in her 10th Year, red
haired, and much freckled. Her Father hearing that she is now
at Albany, and being unable to go so far, begs that she may,
by all good People, be helped on her Way to him, as he, and
her aged Mother, are very desirous of seeing her.

 

During the border wars of the last half of the last century, the Indian villages, in what is now Summit County, were actively engaged. They sent numerous small bands to Western Pennsylvania to massacre the white pioneers in the border, and destroy their habitations. It is extremely probable that some of the borderers who were captured on these expeditions were tortured to death at the villages in Summit County. Perhaps these spots, now so quite and peaceful, once echoed with the frenzied death-cries of white men, while around, on every hand, circled the leaping and exulting savages, tearing up with hot iron the bleeding flesh of the despairing sufferers, and filling the air with their dreadful yells of revenge. Here the dusky savages, decked in the gaudy ornaments of border war, invoked the favor of their god before descending like death upon the defenseless settlements. Here could be heard their wild chants  - “Ne-gau niu-ne gau nissau - Kitchi-mau-li-sau-negau nissau” (I will kill - I will kill - The white man - I will kill) before they started on those expeditions, of which we read in histories. In 1759, there lived in Cumberland County Penn., a family named Campbell, consisting of the father and a bright girl, about seven years old, named Mary. Residing in the same house was another family named Stuart, consisting of the husband and wife and four or five children, one of those being an infant. One day, when the men were absent, Mrs. Stuart left her children in charge of the little girl Mary, and when a mile or two distant to the house of a neighbor. In her absence, a small band of Delaware Indians took possession of the cabin, and made all the children prisoners, much to the consternation of little Mary, who was old enough to know some awful   calamity was pending. The Indians, knowing that the adult members of the family were not far away, made preparations to receive them. As Mrs. Stuart, on her return, approached the house, she heard the children screaming, and hurried forward, but was instantly made prisoner by the savages, who then thought it best not to wait the return of the men, but, with their prisoner, started for their camp in Armstrong County. They soon became tired of carrying the infant, which was fretful, and one of them finally took it, and in the presence of its shrieking mother, dashed its brains out against a tree, and cast its quivering body in the bushes. The Indians pushed on rapidly, urging their weary and agonized prisoners to their best pace, and carrying those that finally gave out. A little boy about seven years old, named Sammy, was carried upon the back of one of the Indians until the latter was tired. On the third day, this Indians fell behind the others, and when he again appeared, the little boy was missing while at his belt Mrs. Stuart recognized the curly locks of her little Sammy. The poor mother and her children were hurried on until at last weary and footsore, they reached the Indian village. Here they were soon separated, and one or more of them was adopted by the Indians. The following year, Netawatwees, the chief of this band, removed with his followers and prisoners to their village at the “Big Falls” of the Cuyahoga, now in Summit County, Ohio. Mary had been adopted by the chief, and was treated with uniform kindness, occupying a position of equality with the Indian children. Here the prisoners remained until 1764, when they were delivered to Col. Bouquet, at his fort in Tuscarawas County, and soon afterward were returned to their friends in Pennsylvania. It is very probable that other white prisoners from the Indian villages in Summit County were delivered up at this treaty.  Col. Bouquet had come out with an army of 1,500 men. The appearance of this force awed the Indians, and they sued for peace in the most abject manner, delivering up at the same time, some 300 white captives. Fathers, brothers and husbands    Had come out in hopes of finding their lost friends, and when the captives were given up the scene beggars description. “There were seen,” says a writer in the Historical Record, “fathers and mothers recognizing and clasping their once captive little ones; husbands hung around newly-recovered wives; brothers and sisters met after long separation, scarcely able to speak the same language , or to realize that they were children of the same parents!  In the interviews, there was inexpressible joy and rapture; while, in some cases, feelings of a very different character were manifested by looks of language. Many were flying from place to place, making eager inquiries after relatives not found, trembling to receive answers to their questions, distracted with doubts, hopes and fears; distressed and grieved on obtaining no information about the friends they sought, and, in some cases, petrified into living monuments of horror and woe on learning their unhappy fate.” “In many cases,” Albach    Says, “strong attachments had grown up between the savages and their captives, so that they were reluctantly surrendered, some even not without tears, accompanied with some token of remembrance.” The girl, Mary Campbell, and Mrs. Stuart and her children, were the first white persons known to have lived in what is now Summit County.

 

Upon the return of Mrs. Stuart from her neighbors she heard the screaming of her frightened children long before she reached the cabins. Starting on a run she was horrified upon opening the door to find the room filled with savages. She was instantly made a prisoner, and hurried preparations were immediately begun for departure. The younger children were divided among their captors who made off with them and their plunder on their backs; Mrs. Stuart carrying the infant which was fretful and hard to keep quite. The savages convinced that it retarded their flight, in spite of the woman’s entreaties, took it from her arms, and in the presence of the shrinking mother, dashed its brains out against a tree and threw its yet quivering body into the bushes besides the path and increased their speed, urging their tired, alarmed and grief stricken captives to their best pace. Among the prisoners was Sammy Stuart, a little 7 year old boy, who found it difficult to keep up with the others, and was frequently carried on the back of the Indian to whom he was assigned. On the third day out from the cabin, the savage who was carrying little Sammy dropped behind the others but soon reappeared alone, with a fresh scalp hanging at his belt which the frantic mother recognized as that of her little son. There was no time for grief, as the savages were continually nagging their captives to a greater speed by frequent use of blows and threats.

Arriving at the Indian village the family was separated. All of the children, except Mary were taken to other villages, and upon the expulsion of the Delaware from Pennsylvania valleys in 1759-60, Netawatwees and his tribe, with Mrs. Stuart and Mary Campbell, moved to the Cuyahoga valley, settling at the Big Falls of the Cuyahoga, Hopocan, as the Indians called it. Mary Campbell’s first home in the Ohio country, was in the AOld Maid’s Kitchen, where the squaws and papooses were temporarily domiciled, until the village could be built. This spot, for a time long unknown had been the site of an Indian village. Previous to 1650, the Eries, that little known and very mysterious race, had a village here. After their massacre and dispersion as a race by the combined Five Nations, the Iroquois built a village on the south side of the river; a little later, Netawatwees erected his village on the north bank. As far back as is known, the plain of North Hill was without signs of ancient forest growth. The entire plain, as well as certain points of the Cuyahoga valley, was used by the Indians as corn fields.

When first seen by the whites the North Hill was a green oasis of a waist-high, waving mass of variegated wild flowers, beautiful beyond comparison, hemmed in and around by gigantic trees of an ancient forest growth. It was here that little Mary Campbell hoed corn 72 years before Akron became a village. She had been adopted by the King of all Delaware tribes in the Ohio country, and was kindly treated. She spent much of her time at the northern terminus of Portage Path, fishing, nutting, and gathering berries, and as far as is known was the first white female ever on or near the historic path.

Not only this, but as far as is known, Mrs. Stuart and Mary Campbell were the first female captives with the limits of the Western Reserve.

During the winter of 1755, Col. James Smith was held captive at the falls of Elyria. In making his escape he made his way through Medina County and presumably along the Central Sandusky and Fort Pitt Indian Trail, crossing the northern part of Portage Path at Old Portage.

The year that first saw Mrs. Stuart and Mary Campbell prisoner also brought that great historical figure, Pontiac, prominently before the American people.  His camp, further down the Cuyahoga, was known to the borders as Ponty’s Camp, and became a great historical landmark. Major Rogers with 200 British soldiers were at that time camped on the Cuyahoga.

In 1764, Mary Campbell was turned over to Gen. Bouquet, on the Tuscarawas, and was returned home where she was afterwards married to Joseph Wilford, in the year 1771. She afterwards resided in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, where she raised a large family of children.  Her son became one of the earliest pioneers of Stark County, and his son, her grandchild, afterwards became a member of the Ohio Legislature, from Wayne County. He was named after his grandfather, Joseph Wilford.