CATHERINE SEE AND CHILDREN IN CAPTIVITY

The destination of the Shawnees was Old Town near the present city of Chillicothe, Ohio on the banks of the Scioto River. The captives forced along at the tireless pace of the Indians, tried valiantly to keep up for well they knew it was a matter of life or death; any who weakened and fell behind, any crying babe was ruthlessly killed. The trek ahead was long and grueling, a distance of one hundred sixty five miles as the crow flies, over some of the most rugged terrain east of the Mississippi River. Two mountain ranges lay ahead, the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny, not to mention the streams and rivers to cross.

Catherine See, keenly aware that her younger children would soon he exhausted by the hardships of the journey, resolved with a courage born of desperation, to save them from an inevitable fate. One of the warriors rode along the trudging line made up of about one hundred fifty women, young boys and children, many burdened with the loot the Indians had collected. His mount was a horse the property of Frederick See. It was perhaps the third day on the trail that Catherine requested that he give up the horse that her children might ride. This the Indian angrily refused to do. Seizing a pine knot from the ground, Catherine knocked him off the horse. He sprang up brandishing his tomahawk and would have killed her then and there, but for the interference of the other Indians who admired her fearlessness and called her the "fighting squaw." Catherine was permitted to keep the horse and use it for her family.

At length the weary prisoners and their captors reached Old Town across the Ohio River. One can well imagine the excitement that prevailed on the return of the victorious chieftain and his band; the shouting and rejoicing of the inhabitants as a great procession of both sexes and ages doubtless poured out of their dwellings on hearing the signal gun and peculiar whoop announcing the return of the raiders. Then followed the ceremonies usual for the occasion. There were the trophies to see, the utensils, tools, guns, clothing, horses, etc., all seized from the settlements; and the great number of white captives. One ceremony which provided the Indians with entertainment was an ordeal to which nearly every prisoner was subjected; it was to "run the gauntlet." It was done in this manner; a large number of squaws and Indian boys armed with clubs and switches lined up in two rows facing each other, then the prisoners were compelled to run between the lines, while the Indians struck them with their sticks and threw dirt or rubbish in their faces.

Catherine See's turn came. She was now about 48 years of age and had spent the past twenty-five years of her life on the frontier, where to remain alive was to become physically tough and mentally alert. Doubtlessly the story of her triumph in getting her horse had spread through the village and the Indians were eager to see the "fighting squaw" undergo this test. They were not to be disappointed, for to their astonishment, Catherine suddenly seized the club of the nearest Indian and swinging it lustily right and left, soon had the Indians overcome and scattered.

In accordance with Indian custom a general council decided the division of the spoils and the fate of prisoners taken by the tribe. The older daughter, Catherine, was given to the son² of Chief Cornstalk for his wife. This girl could hardly have been more than fourteen. How the older boys were placed is unknown and Catherine and the younger girl were taken into some family; at least all were under shelter except little John, who had to stay outside with the Indian dogs. One can imagine that housing was strained by the sudden addition of one hundred fifty prisoners.

It so happened one day that most of the tribe left the village for some special purpose. Catherine was left behind in charge of an aged squaw, who was subject to seizures of some kind. On this day, the old woman had one of these attacks and fell into the fire.

². Elinipsico

Catherine calmly placed her foot on the old woman's head and held it there until she died. When the Indians returned and heard Catherine's report of the happening (what she chose to tell) she received no blame as the old squaw's condition was generally known. There was one less in the wigwam and John then could sleep inside. Later he was adopted by an Indian family, as were also the Brown and Zane children.

COLONEL HENRI BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE OHIO INDIANS

With the two settlements of Muddy Creek and Clendenin's destroyed by the invasion of the Shawnees, the few remaining settlements were practically cut off from the East after 1763. The Indians continued the war and on some of their excursions went to within a few miles of Staunton, Virginia. Appeals for relief from the border country at length were heeded and the British government ordered Colonel Henri Bouquet to make an expedition against the Ohio Indians to put an end to these deprecations and force the return of their captives.

Colonel Bouquet's headquarters were at Fort Pitt, one hundred and fifty miles from the Shawnee towns on the Scioto. Here he had assembled his regular troops, the Royal Americans, and two hundred Virginia Rangers; many were volunteers. For the meeting with the Shawnee chiefs, he marched down the Ohio River to the forks of the Muskingum where a stockade camp was prepared. In 1763 Bouquet had defeated the Indians at Bushy Run with a small force - five hundred regulars against a large Indian contingent. The Indians, over-awed by his former victory and by his boldness in penetrating so far into the wilderness, were ready to make peace and give up their white prisoners.

With his army drawn up in battle array, Bouquet met in conference with the Ohio chiefs where they tendered him an offer of peace. His reply was a master stroke.

In part he said . . . "and now I am come among you to force you to make atonement for the injuries you have done us. I have brought with me the relatives of those you have murdered. They are eager for vengeance, and nothing restrains them from taking it but my assurance that this army shall not leave your country until you have given them ample satisfaction. I give you twelve days from this date to deliver into my hands all prisoners in your possession, without exception; Englishmen, Frenchmen, and children; whether adopted into your tribe, married, or living among you under any denomination or pretense whatsoever; and you are to furnish these prisoners with clothing, provisions and horses to carry them to Fort Pitt. When you have fully complied with terms you may obtain the peace you sue for."

On November ninth the Indians delivered two hundred six prisoners at the stockade and on the eighteenth they were taken to Fort Pitt; but with the Shawnees there remained about one hundred more, which they promised to deliver the following Spring.

The chief sources for Bouquet's expedition are thirty manuscript volumes in the British Museum which were transcribed for the Canadian Archives in Ottawa. The following is from a photostatic copy of pages 317-318:

List of Prisoners going to Fort Pitt under the command of Capt. Lewis Nov. ye 15th 1764.

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Camp at Muskingum Nov. ye 15 1764

Received from Capt. Lewis Durry A. D. Q. M C, the above Sixty Captives which I am to deliver to the commanding officer at Fort Pitt having signed two receipts of this same Tenor and date. - Chas. Lewis

Endorsed: List of Prisoners Sent by Captain Lewis to Fort Pitt the 15th November 1764.

These most certainly are names of Virginia captives. There is Mrs. Gilmore and two children; Margaret Yokeham, the wife of either Felty or Valentine; Peggy Reyneck (Renick); the two See boys and Mary See, which could be Mary Catherine See, the mother or younger sister. The list reveals the physical condition of children; the fact that some either didn't know their own names or the clerk was lax in recording it.

When the day came for the captivated's departure, scenes of grief and anguish prevailed for many Indians refused to give up their beloved adopted children and many half-savage children clung frantically to their foster parents. Despite orders from Colonel Bouquet many of the Indians followed the returning army at a distance. Only a night or two after leaving the Muskingum, little John See stole away from the encampment and rejoined the Indians.

Tradition tells that his Uncle Michael See gave a trader one hundred dollars to get him back. John See returned to Hampshire to live with his uncle's family. He told Nancy Greenlee See when he visited at Point Pleasant in Mason County, Virginia on his way from Kanawha Falls to Indiana about 1825 that when he was a lad returned from the Indians his Aunt Barbara used to tell some of the family to watch and follow him on his excursions into the forest for fear he would return to the Indians.

We can well imagine the rigors of this winter journey through the forest to the fort at the forks of the Ohio. Later the captives were taken by their military escort to Carlisle, Penn. where their relatives had been awaiting to be reunited with the long lost, the supposed dead. That scene defies description. There was joy, sorrow, tragedy, and disappointment; many were unclaimed and utterly homeless.

Catherine See had her burden of grief for her daughter, Elizabeth (Catherine) did not return with the captives; legend recites that she was the mother of an Indian babe and either remained with the Shawnees by choice or restraint. Her story is unknown. Only one fact is recorded. It is found in the diary of Van Meter, who with George Harness, whose wife was a See, and a Stump made a trip from Moorefield, Virginia to Chillicothe, Ohio and met a Mrs. Johnson who was related to them all. She was a daughter of Frederick See, who had been killed by Indians. (From Ohio Archaeological Records).

The Virginia captives were doubtlessly placed in the custody of Captain Morgan of the Virginia Rangers. One source says they were taken to Staunton where they were restored to their relatives.

The See family returned to Hampshire County to live with their kindred. Catherine See married John Hardy, pioneer of Hardy County. Later they all returned to the Greenbrier, where John Hardy's name appears on the county tax list in 1783-1786. There is no record of the daughter, Lois, but tradition relates that she married ______ Van Bibber, as yet this fact is unconfirmed. There is little, too, regarding the youngest Catherine (Elizabeth). But a tattered copy of Reverend John Anderson's marriage records from 1776 to about 1785 gives Peter Tho- or Sho- to Elizabeth Lee (See) in January 1776.

This Peter Tho- or Sho- is probably Peter Shoemaker and Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick See. Whether Elizabeth or Catherine were older, or the names interchanged, one can only guess. Peter Shoemaker was in Greenbrier County 1783-1786. They are said to have moved to Kentucky to the Big Sandy. Catherine See, known in later life as "Aunt Kitty" Hardy died in 1806 or 18O7. Truly her history is remarkable, a span of four score years and ten in time; in distance- from the Rhine River to the Greenbrier. Nancy Greenlee See remembered seeing her- this grandmother of her husband, Michael See III.