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Lower Shawneetown, also known as Shannoah or Sonnontio, was an 18th-century
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
village located within the Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, near South Portsmouth in
Greenup County, Kentucky Greenup County is a county located along the Ohio River in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,962. The county was founded in 1803 and named in honor of Christopher Greenup. Its co ...
and
Lewis County, Kentucky Lewis County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Its county seat is Vanceburg, Kentucky, Vanceburg. History The area presently bounded by Kentucky state lines was a part of the U.S. State of Virginia, know ...
. The population eventually occupied areas on both sides of the Ohio River, and along both sides of the Scioto River in what is now Scioto County, Ohio. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on 28 April, 1983. It is near the Bentley site, a Madisonville Horizon settlement inhabited between 1400 CE and 1625 CE. Nearby, to the east, there are also four groups of
Hopewell tradition The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from ...
mounds, built between 100 BCE and 500 CE, known as the
Portsmouth Earthworks The Portsmouth Earthworks are a large prehistoric mound complex constructed by the Native American Adena and Ohio Hopewell cultures of eastern North America (100 BCE to 500 CE). The site was one of the largest earthwork ceremonial centers cons ...
. Extensive archaelogical work has provided a clear picture of the town's appearance and activities, particularly the nature of trade, social organization, agriculture, and relationships with other Native American communities. Well-known British traders William Trent and
George Croghan George Croghan (c. 1718 – August 31, 1782) was an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America (current United States) who became a key early figure in the region. In 1746 he was appointed to the Onondaga Council, the governin ...
maintained trading posts in the town with large warehouses to store furs, skins, and other goods. Between about 1734 and 1758 Lower Shawneetown became a center for commerce and diplomacy, "a sort of republic"Thwaites, Reuben Gold
''The French Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest,''
Vol I: 1634-1760. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1908
populated mainly by Shawnee,
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
, and Delawares. By 1755, its population exceeded 1,200, making it one of the largest Native American communities in the Ohio Country, second only to
Pickawillany "ash people" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_alt = , image_map1 = OHMap-doton-Piqua.png , mapsize1 = 22 ...
.Stephen Warren
''Worlds the Shawnees Made: Migration and Violence in Early America,''
UNC Press Books, 2014
The size and diversity of the town's population attracted both French and British traders, leading to political competition between France and Britain to influence the community in the years preceding the
French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the st ...
. The town remained politically neutral in spite of frequent visits by French, British and Native American leaders. Several English captives, including
Mary Draper Ingles Mary Draper Ingles (1732 – February 1815), also known in records as Mary Inglis or Mary English, was an American pioneer and early settler of western Virginia. In the summer of 1755, she and her two young sons were among several captives taken ...
and
Samuel Stalnaker Samuel Stalnaker (1682 or 1715 – 1769) was an explorer, trapper, guide and one of the first settlers on the Virginia frontier. He established a tavern in 1752 near what is now Chilhowie, Virginia. He was held captive by Shawnee Indians at L ...
, were held captive in Lower Shawneetown in the 1750s. Lower Shawneetown was abandoned in 1758 to avoid colonial American raids during the French and Indian War, and was relocated further up the Scioto River to the Pickaway Plains.


Foundation and names

Established in the mid-1730sA. Gwynn Henderson, David Pollack
"A Native History of Kentucky: Selections from Chapter 17: Kentucky," in ''Native America: A State-by-State Historical Encyclopedia,''
edited by Daniel S. Murphree, Volume 1, pages 393-440; Greenwood Press, Santa Barbara, CA. 2012
Charles Augustus Hanna
''The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path,''
Volume 1, Putnam's sons, 1911
at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio Rivers, Lower Shawneetown was one of the earliest known Shawnee settlements on the Ohio River. The first reference to the town is found in a letter of 27 July, 1734, written by François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, describing an English trader's warehouse in "the home of the Shawnees on the Ohio River." Historian Charles A. Hanna proposes that the town was established by Shaweygila Shawnees who had been forced out of their home on the
Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-c ...
by the Six Nations chiefs.Charles Augustus Hanna
''The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path''
Volume 2, Putnam's sons, 1911
Caudill, Courtney B.
"Mischiefs So Close to Each Other": External Relations of the Ohio Valley Shawnees, 1730-1775."
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625770, May 1992
The first reference to the Lower Shawneetown by that name was in a letter by William Trent on 20 October, 1748, reporting a murder at
Kuskusky "at the falls, by the falls or rapids" unm, kwësh-kwëshelxus-kee "hogs" + -kee (suffix used in place names) "Hogs Town" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = , imagesize = , ima ...
, when a Virginia trader there was killed following an altercation over some liquor, "which he was tying up, in order to send to the Lower Shawna Town."Samuel Hazard, ed
''Pennsylvania Archives: 1st Series: Selected and Arranged from Original Documents in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Conformably to Acts of the General Assembly, February 15, 1851, and March 1, 1852.''
Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Commonwealth. J. Severns, 1853
The Shawnee name of the town is unknown, but evidence suggests that it may have been "Chillicothe," a Shawnee word meaning "principal place" and typically applied to villages of the Chalahgawtha division of the Shawnees, who dominated the town. On English maps the town was labeled "the Lower Shawonese Town," "the lower Shawanees town," "Lower Shanna Town," "the Shannoah town," or "Shawnoah." The French called it "Saint Yotoc"O. H. Marshall
"De Celoron's Expedition to the Ohio in 1749
''Magazine of American History,'' March, 1878
(which may be a corruption of Scioto), "Sinhioto," "Sononito," "Sonnioto," "Scioto," "Sonyoto," and "Cenioteaux."A. Gwynn Henderson
"The Lower Shawnee Town on Ohio: Sustaining Native Autonomy in an Indian "Republic."
In Craig Thompson Friend, ed., ''The Buzzel about Kentuck: Settling the Promised Land'', University Press of Kentucky, 1999; pp. 25-56.
Lower Shawneetown was downstream from the much smaller Upper Shawneetown, established about 1751 at the confluence of the Ohio River and the
Kanawha River The Kanawha River ( ) is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi (156 km) long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its valley has been a significant industrial region of the st ...
, near present-day
Point Pleasant, West Virginia Point Pleasant is a city in and the county seat of Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers. The population was 4,101 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Point Pleasant, ...
and known to the Shawnees as ''Chinoudaista'' or ''Chinodahichetha''.Phillip R. Shriver
"Lower Shawnee Town on the Eve of the French and Indian War,"
''Ohio Archaeologist,'' Vol 40:3, Summer 1990, pp 16-21
Andrew Lee Feight
"Lower Shawnee Town and Celoron's Expedition,"
''Scioto Historical''


Description


Location

Pressure from the growing European populations on the east coast of North America and in southern Canada had caused Native American populations to concentrate in the
Ohio River Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinoi ...
, and Lower Shawneetown was situated at a convenient point, accessible to many communities living on tributaries of the Ohio River. The area had
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
,
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent ...
, Wyandot, and
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
communities within a few days' journey. The town also lay near the
Seneca Trail The Great Indian Warpath (GIW)—also known as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, or the Seneca Trail—was that part of the network of trails in eastern North America developed and used by Native Americans which ran through the Great Appala ...
, which was used by
Cherokees The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
and Catawbas, and the opportunity to trade for furs and to broker political alliances attracted both British and French traders. Within a few years of its establishment, the town became a key center in dealings between Native American tribes and Europeans.Gordon Calloway
''The Shawnees and the War for America''
The Penguin library of American Indian history; Penguin, 2007.
The community was initially built on the south bank of the
Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...
opposite its confluence with the
Scioto River The Scioto River ( ) is a river in central and southern Ohio more than in length. It rises in Hardin County just north of Roundhead, Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olentangy River, and meets t ...
, on floodplains and terraces, with later growth of a sub-community on the north bank of the Ohio, along the east and west banks of the Scioto. The Ohio community on the east side of the Scioto, where the village council-house was located, soon became significantly larger than the Kentucky community.


Composition

Historian Richard White characterizes Lower Shawneetown and other growing Native American settlements in the region, including
Logstown "extensive flats" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = Image:Logstown1.jpg , imagesize = 220px , image_alt = , image_map1 = Pennsylvania in United States ...
,
Pickawillany "ash people" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_alt = , image_map1 = OHMap-doton-Piqua.png , mapsize1 = 22 ...
,
Kuskusky "at the falls, by the falls or rapids" unm, kwësh-kwëshelxus-kee "hogs" + -kee (suffix used in place names) "Hogs Town" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = , imagesize = , ima ...
, and Kittanning as "Indian republics," multiethnic and autonomous, made up of a variety of smaller disparate social groups: village fragments, extended families, or individuals, often survivors of epidemics and refugees from conflicts with other Native Americans or with Europeans.Richard White
''The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815''
Cambridge studies in North American Indian history, Cambridge University Press, 1991.
According to historian Richard Warren, "It was a sprawling series of
wickiups A wigwam, wickiup, wetu (Wampanoag), or wiigiwaam (Ojibwe, in syllabics: ) is a semi-permanent domed dwelling formerly used by certain Native American tribes and First Nations people and still used for ceremonial events. The term ''wickiup'' ...
and
longhouses A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from timber and often re ...
... French and British-allied traders regarded Lower Shawneetown as one of two capitals of the Shawnee tribe." Although mainly a Shawnee village, the population included contingents of Seneca and
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
. After his visit to Lower Shawneetown in 1749,
Céloron de Blainville Céloron de Blainville is a French family of officers and colonial administrators, who notably played a role in New France beginning in the 17th century. He is the subject in a folk song by Robert Schertz entitled Celeron. Persons Famous Cél ...
wrote:
this village scomposed for the most part of Chavenois (
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
) and
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
of the Five Nations...men from the Sault St. Louis (
Kahnawake The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (french: Territoire Mohawk de Kahnawake, in the Mohawk language, ''Kahnawáˀkye'' in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Queb ...
), there are also some from the Lake of Two Mountains ( Mohawks of Kanesatake), some Loups from the
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
(
Munsee The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along ...
), and nearly all the nations from the territory of Enhault (
Pays d'en Haut The ''Pays d'en Haut'' (; ''Upper Country'') was a territory of New France covering the regions of North America located west of Montreal. The vast territory included most of the Great Lakes region, expanding west and south over time into the ...
, the territory of
New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spa ...
to the west of
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
)."


Size and housing

In 1749, Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps estimated that the entire town had about 60 cabins,Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps
"Relation du voyage de la Belle Rivière faite en 1749, sous les ordres de M. de Céloron,"
in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., ''The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents,'' 73 vols. Cleveland: Burrow Brothers, 1896-1901, vol. 69
but by 1751, the town consisted of 40 houses on the Kentucky side located along bluffs above the floodplain, and 100 houses on the Ohio side atop a forty-foot river bank lined with sycamores and willows. In the town center on the Ohio side there was a long
council house A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 ...
and a large open area or plaza for public events. Houses were clustered together according to kinship, interspersed with gardens, trash heaps and family burial plots. The remains of 23 individuals have been recovered from 16 graves at the Bentley site, among which there were 19 children and adolescents and four adults. Including its 300 warriors, the town may have had a total population of between 1,200 and 1,500. In 1753, after a flood destroyed part of the town which had been on the Scioto River's west bank, some residents relocated to the east bank, and others moved to the Kentucky side of the Ohio River.David Pollack and A. Gwynn Henderson
"A Preliminary Report on the Contact Period Occupation at Lower Shawneetown (15GP15), Greenup County, Kentucky."
Paper presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society on April 9, 1982.
James Everett Seaver, Charles Delamater Vail
''A Narrative of the Life of Mary Jemison: The White Woman of the Genesee,''
American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 1918.
According to A. Gwynn Henderson, eighteenth-century homes in this community would have resembled those of the
Fort Ancient Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from Ca. 1000-1750 CE and predominantly inhabited land near the Ohio River valley in the areas of modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana and western ...
inhabitants (a Native American culture that occupied the region from about 1000-1750 CE):
...Long rectangular buildings with rounded corners constructed of frameworks of wooden posts set singly into the ground and covered with either thatch, bark, mats or skins. Trade blankets or skins provided "doors" at the ends of the houses. Interior partitions broke up the space within each house, and hearths were located in the center of earthen floors. Pits for storage lined the walls; trash was disposed in outdoor pits or on the ground in heaps behind the house. Bundles of dried food hung from the rafters. However, Europeans described some buildings as huts, cabins or houses--structures with squared logs and covered with bark or clapboard. A few even had chimneys.


Surrounding countryside

Lower Shawneetown was surrounded by fertile, alluvial flatlands that were ideal for growing corn, beans, squash, gourds, tobacco, and sunflowers. The remains of charred Northern
flint corn Flint corn ('' Zea mays'' var. ''indurata''; also known as Indian corn or sometimes calico corn) is a variant of maize, the same species as common corn. Because each kernel has a hard outer layer to protect the soft endosperm, it is likened to be ...
have been documented archaeologically.A. Gwynn Henderson
"Dispelling the Myth: Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Indian Life in Kentucky,"
''The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society,'' Vol. 90, No. 1, ''The KentuckyImage'' (Bicentennial Issue), pp. 1-25, Kentucky Historical Society
The area around the town contained abundant resources: hardwood forests, grasslands,
canebrakes A canebrake or canebreak is a thicket of any of a variety of ''Arundinaria'' grasses: '' A. gigantea'', '' A. tecta'' and '' A. appalachiana''. As a bamboo, these giant grasses grow in thickets up to 24 ft tall. ''A. gigantea'' is generally ...
, nut-bearing trees, freshwater springs and some with brine. Wildlife included bear, deer, elk, and
bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North A ...
. Tools and pottery could be made from
chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a ...
-bearing bedrock and clay riverbanks. In a journal entry from February, 1751,
Christopher Gist Christopher Gist (1706–1759) was an explorer, surveyor, and frontiersman active in Colonial America. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country (the present-day states of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and nort ...
describes the Ohio country in the area of Lower Shawneetown:
All the Way from the Shannoah Town...is fine, rich, level, Land, well timbered with large Walnut, Ash, Sugar Trees, Cherry Trees, &c; it is well watered with a great Number of little Streams or Rivulets, and full of beautiful natural Meadows, covered with
wild Rye Wild rye is a common name used for several grasses. Wild ryes belong to any of three genera: * '' Elymus'' (wheatgrasses) * ''Leymus ''Leymus'' is a genus of plants in the grass family Poaceae (Gramineae). It is widespread across Europe, Asia, ...
, blue Grass, and Clover, and abounds with Turkeys, Deer, Elks, and most Sorts of Game, particularly Buffaloes, thirty or forty of which are frequently seen feeding in one Meadow...a most delightful Country. The Ohio and all the large Branches are said to be full of fine Fish of several Kinds, particularly a Sort of
Cat Fish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...
of a prodigious Size.Christopher Gist
"The Journal of Christopher Gist, 1750–1751,"
From Lewis P. Summers, 1929, ''Annals of Southwest Virginia,'' 1769–1800. Abingdon, VA.
Residents of the town used Raven Rock, a 500-foot-high sandstone rock formation on the Ohio side, as a lookout point to observe traffic on the Ohio River. Located about 5.5 miles southwest of the town center, the rock allowed lookouts to survey a 14-mile stretch of the river upstream and downstream. It is today part of Raven Rock State Nature Preserve.Andrew Lee Feight
"Raven Rock State Nature Preserve,"
''Scioto Historical''


Visit by the Baron de Longueuil, 1739

The earliest eyewitness account is a report by
Charles III Le Moyne Charles III Le Moyne (Longueuil, (18 October 1687 – 17 January 1755) was the second baron de Longueuil. He succeeded his father Charles le Moyne de Longueuil, Baron de Longueuil in 1729. He became Governor of Montreal, and administrator by ...
, Baron de Longueuil from July, 1739. A French military expedition made up of 123 French soldiers and 319 Native American warriors from
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
, under the command of Longueuil, was on its way to help defend
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
from the
Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...
, who were attacking the city on behalf of
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
. While on their journey down the
Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...
towards the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
, they met with local chiefs in a village on the banks of the Scioto, which was probably Lower Shawneetown, "where the Shawnees gave them a friendly reception and furnished reinforcements." Among Longueuil's officers was the young Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville, who returned to Lower Shawneetown in 1749.Henry W. Temple
"Logstown," ''The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine,''
Vol. 1, No. 1. January, 1918. Pittsburg: Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania


Visit by Peter Chartier, 1745

In April, 1745, Peter Chartier, a
métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United State ...
of Shawnee and French-Canadian parentage, opposed the sale of alcohol in Native American communities and threatened to destroy any shipments of rum that he found, defying Pennsylvania governor
Governor Patrick Gordon A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of politica ...
. Chartier persuaded about 400
Pekowi Pekowi was the name of one of the five divisions (or bands) of the Shawnee, a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people, during the 18th century. The other four divisions were the Chalahgawtha, Mekoche, Kispoko, and Hathawekela. ...
Shawnee to leave Pennsylvania with him and migrate south, taking refuge in Lower Shawneetown. In May, an anonymous French trader visiting Lower Shawneetown brought a letter from the French government in Quebec, and a French flag, and watched as Chartier attempted unsuccessfully to persuade the leaders of Lower Shawneetown to form an alliance with the French:
They held a council to...hear the reading of
Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River directly ac ...
's letter. After this hartiertook the
rench The Rench is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau ( Central Baden, Germany). It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is that of the ...
flag and planted it in front of one of the big chiefs of the village, saying to them: "This is what our French allysends you, to continue to othe bidding of the general." They all took up arms, saying...they would have nothing to do with it...
hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
it was only to make slaves of them...but hartiertold them that he would not listen to them."Anonymous Diary of a Trip from Detroit to the Ohio River, May 22 - August 24, 1745,"
in ''PAPIERS CONTRECOEUR Le Conflit Angelo - Francias Sur L' Ohio De 1745 a 1756.'' English translation of documents in the Quebec Seminary by Donald Kent, 1952
The same French trader witnessed Chartier's Shawnees performing a two-day "Death Feast," a ceremony conducted before abandoning a village. After staying in Lower Shawneetown for a few weeks, they left the town on 24 June and proceeded down the Ohio River, then in August headed south into Kentucky to found the community of Eskippakithiki.


French political concerns

The French had focused much attention on Canada, allowing English traders to establish themselves in the Ohio Valley, but in the late 1740s they took notice of Lower Shawneetown's size and commercial dependence on British trade. In February, 1748, Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, French Secretary of State of the Navy (which included the Bureau of the Colonies), wrote that
...it is reported that since the War, he Shawneeshave been joined by a considerable number of savages of all nations, forming a sort of republic t Lower Shawnee Town dominated by some Iroquois of the Five Nations who form part of it; and that, as the English almost entirely supply their needs, it is to be feared that they may succeed in seducing them...I am writing to Monsieur de Vaudreuil regarding that union, so that he may strive to break it.
In May, 1749,
Antoine Louis Rouillé Antoine-Louis Rouillé, comte de Jouy (, 7 June 1689 – 20 September 1761) was a French statesman and comte of Jouy-en-Josas. Born in Paris, the son of Marie-Louis-Paulin Rouillé and Marie-Angélique d'Aquin, he was in succession conseiller t ...
, the French
Foreign minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...
, described the town as:
...Established at Sonontio, where it forms a sort of republic with a fairly large number of bad characters of various nations who have retired thither...In fact, there is reason to fear that the bad example of the savages...will lead them to do something evil.
He urged the Marquis de la Jonquière, the
Governor-General of New France Governor General of New France was the vice-regal post in New France from 1663 until 1760, and it was the last French vice-regal post. It was replaced by the British post of Governor of the Province of Quebec following the fall of New France ...
, to send envoys to persuade the Shawnee population of the town to relocate "either to Canada or
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...
" for fear the British would recruit Shawnee warriors "to stir up the nations and cause them to undertake expeditions against the French." He added: "If you succeed in inducing the hawneesto leave, it ower Shawneetownwill be weakened to such an extent that it need no longer be feared." He also suggested that British traders be expelled from Shawnee communities to discourage trade with the British.


Visit by Céloron de Blainville, 1749

In the summer of 1749 Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville, leading a force of eight officers, six cadets, an armorer, 20 soldiers, 180 Canadians, 30 Iroquois and 25
Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pre ...
s, moved down the Ohio River on a flotilla of 23 large boats and birch-bark canoes, on his "lead plate expedition," burying lead plates at six locations where major tributaries entered the Ohio. The plates were inscribed to claim the area for France. Céloron also sought out British traders and warned them to leave this territory which belonged to France. Céloron approached the town of "St. Yotoc" on 21 August, where a Lenape Indian they met informed them that the town consisted of "about 80 cabins there, and perhaps 100."Orsamus Holmes Marshall, Andrew Arnold Lambing
''Expedition of Céloron to the Ohio Country in 1749,''
F.J. Heer Printing Company, 1921
Father Bonnecamps, the geographer of Céloron's expedition, wrote:
The situation of the village of the Chaouanons is quite pleasant, at least, it is not masked by the mountains, like the other villages through which we had passed. The Sinhioto River, which bounds it on the west, has given it its name. It is composed of about sixty cabins. The Englishmen there numbered five.
On that morning, several of Céloron's Native American guides warned him that the town's inhabitants might be preparing to ambush Céloron's force, in the mistaken belief that the French were coming to attack the town. Céloron decided to send a delegation ahead, made up of
Kahnawake The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (french: Territoire Mohawk de Kahnawake, in the Mohawk language, ''Kahnawáˀkye'' in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Queb ...
and Abenaki Indians led by
Philippe-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire Philippe-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire (), also known as Nitachinon by the Iroquois, was a French army officer and interpreter in New France who established Fort Machault in the 18th century. During his career, he largely served as a diplomat with t ...
(who was raised in a Seneca community), to announce that the French were not intending to attack them. Hearing that a French military force was approaching, the inhabitants had hastily erected a
stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...
. Joncaire described it as a "stone fort, strongly built and in good condition for their defense." As Joncaire's delegation approached the town by canoe, warriors manning the stockade fired three shots at them, all of which struck the French flag they were carrying. Joncaire boldly continued, and when the delegation landed, the Shawnees conducted them to the council house in the center of the town. There, as Joncaire was explaining the purpose of Céloron's expedition, an Indian interrupted him, "saying that the French deceived them and that they came only to destroy them and their families." A number of warriors then "rushed to arms, saying that these Frenchmen should be killed" and Céloron and the others waiting upriver in the canoes should be ambushed. Fortunately, "an Iroquois chief averted the storm." With his help, Joncaire was released to return under guard to the canoes waiting upstream with Céloron and the rest of the expedition. The others who had accompanied Joncaire were held hostage by the Shawnees. Céloron selected a guard of fifty reliable soldiers and went to the riverbank opposite the town. As he approached, the Shawnees saluted him by firing their guns into the air. The town's chiefs and elders crossed the river and came with flags and pipes of peace. They had cut the grass to prepare a meeting place and everyone sat together. The men taken hostage with Joncaire were brought forward and handed over. The Shawnees invited Céloron to enter the town and address them in their
council house A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 ...
, but Céloron was wary of being ambushed:
I was aware of the weakness of my detachment; two-thirds were recruits who had never made an attack... he Indiansbeing much displeased, it would have been a great imprudence to go to their village.
He instead invited them to visit his encampment to hear an announcement. The next day, a canoe bearing a white flag approached Céloron's camp, and Shawnee and Iroquois leaders from Lower Shawneetown met with Céloron. They apologized for their "great mistake" eferring to the shots fired at the French delegation Céloron negotiated with the leaders of the town for two days but he was unable to persuade them to abandon their loyalty to the English, as "the cheap merchandise which the English furnished was very seducing motive for them to remain attached to the latter." At one point he referred to the visit he had made to Lower Shawneetown as an officer with the Baron de Longueuil in 1739: "What have you done, Shawnese, with the sense you had ten years ago when M. de Longueuil passed here?...You showed to him the kindness of your hearts and your sentiments. He even raised a troop of your young men to follow him." The Shawnee leaders refused to acknowledge any French loyalty, however. On 25 August he summoned the five Pennsylvania traders who were then living in the town and ordered them to leave, stating that "they had no right to trade or aught else on the hioRiver." Céloron considered confiscating their goods, but as he was confronted by a large and well-armed Shawnee force, he decided to leave. He wrote in his journal:
My instructions enjoin me to summon the English traders in Sinhioto and instruct them to withdraw on pain of what might ensue, and even to pillage the English should their response be antagonistic, but I am not strong enough and as these traders are well-established in a village and well-supported by the Indians, the attempt would have failed and put the French to shame. I have therefore withdrawn.
In his description of the meeting between Céloron and the English traders, Bonnecamps says, "The Englishmen...were ordered to withdraw, and promised to do so," although he adds elsewhere, "firmly resolved, doubtless, to do nothing of the kind, as soon as our backs were turned." Céloron's expedition was intended to impress the inhabitants of the Ohio River Valley with the capability of the French to maintain control over the region, but it met with defiance and resulted in a weakening of the French position.


Visit by Christopher Gist, 1751

In 1750, the
Ohio Company The Ohio Company, formally known as the Ohio Company of Virginia, was a land speculation company organized for the settlement by Virginians of the Ohio Country (approximately the present U.S. state of Ohio) and to trade with the Native Americ ...
hired
Christopher Gist Christopher Gist (1706–1759) was an explorer, surveyor, and frontiersman active in Colonial America. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country (the present-day states of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and nort ...
, a skilled woodsman and
surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ...
, to explore the
Ohio Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illin ...
in order to identify lands for potential settlement, and to undo any French influence lingering after Céloron's expedition. He surveyed the Kanawhan Region and the Ohio Valley tributaries in 1750–1751 and 1753, following the trail of Céloron through the Ohio country, visiting the same Indian towns the French expedition had visited and meeting with chiefs. In 1751 Gist, Indian trader
George Croghan George Croghan (c. 1718 – August 31, 1782) was an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America (current United States) who became a key early figure in the region. In 1746 he was appointed to the Onondaga Council, the governin ...
and
Andrew Montour Andrew Montour ( – 1772), also known as Sattelihu, Eghnisara,Hagedorn, 57 and Henry,Montour was also called Henry, possibly due to the similarity of sound with the French ''"Andre".'' was an important mixed interpreter and negotiator in t ...
(interpreter), accompanied by Robert Callender, visited Lower Shawneetown. Gist's journal entry from January, 1751, states:
Tuesday anuary29 - Set out...to the Mouth of Sciodoe Creek opposite to the Shannoah Town, here we fired our Guns to alarm the Traders, who soon answered, and came and ferryed Us over to the Town — The Land about the Mouth of Sciodoe Creek is rich but broken fine Bottoms upon the River & Creek. The Shannoah Town is situate upon both Sides the River Ohio, just below the Mouth of Sciodoe Creek, and contains about 300 Men, there are about 40 Houses on the S Side of the River and about 100 on the N Side, with a Kind of Longhouses of the indigenous peoples of North America, State-House of about 90 Feet long, with a light Cover of Bark in which they hold their Councils.
The day after they arrived, Gist, Croghan, Callender and Montour met in the council house with the town's elders and a chief whom Gist identifies as Big Hannaona (probably Big Hominy, also known as Meshemethequater). Croghan made a speech in which he informed the chiefs that "the French offered a large sum of Money to any person who would bring them the said Croghan and Andrew Montour the Interpreter alive, or if dead their scalps." This was apparently a further attempt by the French to drive out the English traders, and Croghan evidently felt safe enough in the community to reveal that there was a Bounty (reward), bounty on his head. He then promised "a large Present of Goods...which was under the Care of the Governor of Virginia (at that time, Robert Dinwiddie), who had sent Me out to invite them to come and see Him, & partake of their Father's Present next Summer." Big Hannaona responded with a warm speech which concluded: "We hope that the Friendship now subsisting between us & our Brothers will last as long as the Sun Shines or the Moon gives light." The journal terminates with a detailed description of a wedding festival Gist witnessed during his 12-day stay in Lower Shawneetown.


Commerce with English traders

Indian trader William Trent established a storehouse in Lower Shawneetown in the mid-1730s, and the Shawnees kept it secure in order to encourage further trade with the British. Between 1748 and 1751 the British traders
Andrew Montour Andrew Montour ( – 1772), also known as Sattelihu, Eghnisara,Hagedorn, 57 and Henry,Montour was also called Henry, possibly due to the similarity of sound with the French ''"Andre".'' was an important mixed interpreter and negotiator in t ...
and
George Croghan George Croghan (c. 1718 – August 31, 1782) was an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America (current United States) who became a key early figure in the region. In 1746 he was appointed to the Onondaga Council, the governin ...
visited the town three times. In 1749 Croghan built a trading post in Lower Shawneetown (probably outside the town near the main overland trail or the Ohio River bank where traders could beach their canoes), operating in conjunction with his trading posts already established at Pine Creek (Allegheny River tributary), Pine Creek, Oswegle Bottom, Muskingum (village), Muskingum, and Pickawillany, dominating the Ohio Valley deerskin trade. He may have spent the winter of 1752-1753 in Lower Shawneetown. Lower Shawneetown's size and connections to neighboring communities allowed traders to establish storehouses for incoming and outgoing goods, managed by European men who lived in the town year-round and sometimes married Native American women. These trading posts attracted local hunters to bring skins and furs to the town, meaning that a post in Lower Shawneetown could do profitable business with dozens of villages without requiring the traders themselves to travel, as they had done previously. The town's location on the Ohio River allowed traders to send furs and skins by canoe up to
Logstown "extensive flats" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = Image:Logstown1.jpg , imagesize = 220px , image_alt = , image_map1 = Pennsylvania in United States ...
, where they were taken by packhorses over the mountains, transferred into wagons for a fourteen-day journey to Philadelphia and then shipped to London. On 6 August, 1749, Céloron de Blainville met six English traders near Kittanning, who had left Lower Shawneetown and were on their way to Philadelphia with "fifty horses and about one hundred and fifty bales of furs." Father Joseph Bonnecamps examined the furs and described them as the skins of "bears, otters, cats, précans [possibly raccoons], and roe-deer, with the hair retained, for neither martens nor beavers are seen there."


Trade goods

Archeological evidence shows that, by the 1750s, trade had transformed the lives of the residents of the town. Traders brought guns, metal tools, knives, saddles, hatchets, glass and ceramic beads, strouds (a kind of coarse blanket), ruffled and plain shirts, coats, clay tobacco pipes, brass and iron pots, and rum to trade for the furs and skins of deer, elk, bison, bear, beaver, raccoon, fox, wildcat, muskrat, mink and Fisher (animal), fisher. Town residents wore European-style glass beads, silver earrings, armbands, and brooches, rather than traditional Native American beads and pendants made from shell, animal teeth, or animal bone. Cloth matchcoats, wool blankets, linen skirts and shirts and leather shoes supplemented moccasins and garments manufactured from animal skins. Large cast-iron pots began to replace ceramic vessels in the preparation of salt or maple sugar. Strings of glass beads, metal pendants, silver earrings and brooches of European manufacture were buried with the dead. European trade goods found at the site include gun spalls and Flint#Flintlocks, gunflints, gun parts (sideplate, mainspring, ramrod, ram pipes, and breech plugs), Glass beads#Wound glass beads, wire-wound and Glass beads#Drawn glass beads, drawn glass beads, tinkling cones, a button, a brass pendant, an earring, cutlery, kettle ears, a key, nails, chisels, hooks, a buckle, a Jew's harp, and pieces of a pair of iron scissors.


Survivors from the raid on Pickawillany

On 29 June, 1752, William Trent had just left Logstown when he learned of the Raid on Pickawillany, a large Native American village that was attacked by French and Ottawa forces and destroyed. Trent's storehouse there had been plundered. He traveled to Lower Shawneetown, where he met on 3 July in the council-house with Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer, two English traders who had escaped during the fighting, who gave Trent a full account of the raid. On 4 August, 1752, Trent met with a group of survivors from Pickawillany, including the wife and son of La Demoiselle, Memeskia, the Piankeshaw chief who had been killed in the raid, and presented them with gifts. He engaged in talks with village elders in an attempt to strengthen the alliance between the Shawnees and the British government. He later visited the ruined town to recover what remained of his furs, bringing back what survived for safekeeping in Lower Shawneetown.


1753 floods

The portion of Lower Shawneetown east of the Scioto was destroyed by floods in 1753. George Croghan described the event in a journal entry:
On the Ohio, just below the mouth of the Scioto, on a high bank, near forty feet, formerly stood the Shawnesse Town called the Lower Town, which was all carried away, except three or four houses, by a great flood in the Scioto. I was in the town at the time. Though the banks of the Ohio were so high, the water was nine feet [deep] on the top, which obliged the whole Town to take to their canoes, and move with their effects to the hills. The Shawnesse afterwards built their Town on the opposite side of the River, which, during the [French and Indian War], they abandoned...and removed to the Plains of the Scioto.
British traders relocated with the rest of the town's population, intending to maintain their profitable businesses. In the 1918 edition of ''Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison,'' George P. Donehoo, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, records:
Shortly after 1753 the village...was destroyed by a flood. The town was then built up on the south side of the Ohio. George Croghan, William Trent and other Indian traders had trading houses at this place. Croghan's large store...was destroyed by the French and Indians in 1754.


Expulsion of the English traders, 1754

In 1753, Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville, Governor Duquesne sent over two thousand French and Canadian troupes de la marine from
New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spa ...
(in what is now eastern Canada) to the south shore of Lake Erie, under the command of Paul Marin de la Malgue, to build a road and construct a series of forts (Fort Presque Isle, Fort Le Boeuf, and Fort Machault). On 1 September, supplies were sent to this force from Fort de Chartres in Illinois, escorted by one hundred infantry under the command of Captain Demazilière and Lieutenant Portneuf. They reached the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area, falls of the Ohio (the site of present-day Louisville, Kentucky) and Lt. Portneuf was sent on ahead with nine men to see if Marin's troops were further upriver. Portneuf traveled for a week before reaching Lower Shawneetown. He observed English traders living in the town, as well as a few deserters from the French army, "some of whom had taken wives there." Portneuf was invited to a conference with a Shawnee chief, who "advised him to leave, adding that their young men were beginning to lose their minds and wanted to kill him." Portneuf and his men left that night and returned to Fort de Chartres. In January, 1754, a
Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...
man reported a slightly different version of this event to George Croghan:
...We hear that there is a large body of French at the Falls of the Ohio...[with] abundance of Provisions and Powder and Lead with them...coming up the river to meet the Army from Canada coming down. He says a Canoe with Ten French Men in her came up to the Lower Shawonese Town with him, but on some of the English Traders threatening to take them, they set back that night without telling their business.Thwaites, Reuben Gold
''Early Western Travels, 1748-1846: Journals of Conrad Weiser (1748), George Croghan (1750-1765), Christian Frederick Post (1758), and Thomas Morris (1764).''
Vol. 2. Clark, 1904.
The Shawnees then learned that "several hundreds" of Odawa, Ottaway warriors "are gathering together on this side Lake Erie...in order to cutt off the Shawonese at the Lower Shawonese Town. The French and Ottaways offered the hatchet [proposed a military alliance] to the Wyandot people, Owendats but they refused to join them." This threat, plus the presence of French troops in the Ohio Valley as well as French military victories at Fort Prince George and the Battle of Fort Necessity, persuaded the residents of Lower Shawneetown and several other communities that the balance of power was about to change, and they expelled the English traders in 1754, as much for their safety as to indicate that they were showing no favor towards the English.''Colonial records of Pennsylvania: Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania from the organization to the termination of the proprietary government,''
Vol. 6. April 1754 - January 1756. Theo. Fenn, Harrisburg 1851.
George Croghan reported that he had lost his storehouses and their contents at Pine Creek, Logstown, Muskingum (village), Muskingum and the newly-built storehouse at Lower Shawneetown that he shared with William Trent and Robert Callender: "One large House on the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the River Scioto, where the Shawanese had built their new Town, called the Lower Shawanese Town, which House we learn by the Indians is now in the possession of a French Trader." Croghan's cornfields, canoes and Bateau, bateauxWilliam McCullough Darlington
''Christopher Gist's Journals: With Historical, Geographical and Ethnological Notes and Biographies of His Contemporaries by William M. Darlington.''
J. R. Weldin & Company, 1893.
were also confiscated and turned over to French traders by the Shawnees.


Visit by Twightwee leaders, 1754

Following the 1752 raid on Pickawillany and subsequent attacks, the leaders of Lower Shawneetown had refused to join the Miami Indians, Twightwee Indians in their fight against the French. Even after the expulsion of the English traders, Lower Shawneetown's chiefs remained stubbornly neutral. In October, 1754, Twightwee leaders visited Lower Shawneetown demanding that Shawnee chiefs support them against the French:
You know that the French have invaded our Country on all Sides; Why do you sit so still? Will you be Slaves to the French, and suffer them to be Masters of all the Land and all the Game? Rise up, take the Hatchet, and follow our Example. We kill'd not long ago, Fifty Frenchmen, all Warriors, in one Day. Five other Nations have join'd us; and if you, and your Grandfathers, the Lenape, Delaware, will but stir, the French will soon be forced to fly.
Shawnee leaders at Lower Shawneetown replied:
Brethren, the Twightwees, We are surpriz'd at your Request. The Iroquois confederacy, Six United Nations have desir'd us to sit still, and not mind the French; and that we must keep our Ears and Eyes towards the Six United Nations; and so do our Grandfathers the Delawares. We desire you would spare us and leave our Town before the French hear of you, and come and kill you here, and plunge us into the War, before the Six United Nations begin it.


Captives

At least nine captives taken during raids on American pioneer settlements are known to have lived in or visited Lower Shawneetown.


Catherine Gougar

Catherine Gougar (1732–1801) was kidnapped in 1744 from her home in Berks County, Pennsylvania and lived in Lower Shawneetown for five years. She was eventually sold to French-Canadian traders and after two more years in Canada, managed to return home in 1751.


Mary Draper Ingles

Mary Draper Ingles Mary Draper Ingles (1732 – February 1815), also known in records as Mary Inglis or Mary English, was an American pioneer and early settler of western Virginia. In the summer of 1755, she and her two young sons were among several captives taken ...
(1732–1815) was kidnapped during the Draper's Meadow massacre in July, 1755, along with her two sons, her sister-in-law Bettie Robertson Draper, and her neighbor Henry Lenard (or Leonard), all of whom were taken to Lower Shawneetown. Upon arrival at the town, the prisoners were made to undergo the ritual of running the gauntlet:
When their Warriors arrive within half a Mile of their Towns, it is their custom to whip those who have been so unfortunate as to fall into their Hands, all the Remainder of the Way till they get to the Town, and that it was in this Manner our poor unhappy Neighbors from Virginia had been treated by them.Contemporary newspaper account of Mary Ingles' escape in the ''New York Mercury,'' 26 January 1756, p. 3, col. 1; in ''Early Documents Relating to Mary Ingles and the Escape from Big Bone Lick,'' transcribed by James Duvall, Boone County Public Library, Burlington, KY 2008
/ref>
According to her son John, Mary was not required to do this. Mary stayed in the town for about three weeks, during which time her sons George and Thomas Ingles were taken from her and adopted by Shawnee families. Mary's sister-in-law Bettie was given to a widowed Cherokee chief.Addington, Luther F., "Captivity of Mary Draper Ingles," in ''Sketches of Southwest Virginia,'' Southwest Virginia Historical Society, 1967, No 2 French traders were living in the town at that time, selling cloth, and Mary demonstrated her skill in sewing shirts, for which she was paid "in goods." Mary was eventually taken to Big Bone Lick to make salt by boiling brine. She and another captive escaped in mid-October, 1755, and walked several hundred miles to return home. One source states that Mary's neighbor Henry Leonard also escaped.


Samuel Stalnaker

An article in the ''New-York Mercury'' of 16 February, 1756, describing Mary's capture and escape, mentions that while in Lower Shawneetown she saw "a considerable Number of English Prisoners, who have been taken Captives from the Frontiers of Virginia." The same newspaper article states that she saw
Samuel Stalnaker Samuel Stalnaker (1682 or 1715 – 1769) was an explorer, trapper, guide and one of the first settlers on the Virginia frontier. He established a tavern in 1752 near what is now Chilhowie, Virginia. He was held captive by Shawnee Indians at L ...
(1715-1769), who had been captured during a raid on his homestead on the north fork of the Holston River in Virginia on 18 June, 1755. Stalnaker escaped on 10 May, 1756, and traveled to Williamsburg to warn Robert Dinwiddie, Governor Robert Dinwiddie of impending attacks on Virginia settlements.Robert A. Brock, ed
''The official records of Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1751-1758,''
Richmond: The Society, 1883-84
"Captain Samuel Stalnaker, Colonial Soldier and Early Pioneer," i

/ref> On 1 July, 1756, the ''Pennsylvania Gazette'' reported:
"Williamsburg, June 11 -- Capt. Stalnacker, who was taken Prisoner by the Shawnese, the 18th of June last, on Holston's River, and has been at the Shawnese Town, and Ouabach [Wabash] Fort ever since, till the tenth of last Month, when he made his Escape from them, is come to this Town, and informs us, that on the evening before he made his escape (9 May, 1756), 1,000 Indians and six French officers came to the Shawnese Town, destined for Fort Duquesne, to wait there some time to see whether any attempt would be made upon it, and if not, to disperse themselves, and fall upon the Frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania."


Moses Moore and Isham Bernat

Moses Moore and Isham Bernat were captured in Virginia and taken to Lower Shawneetown in early 1758. Bernat was living at his plantation near the Smith River (Virginia), Irwin River when he was taken prisoner by a party of Shawnees, Wyandots, Delawares and Mingoes on 31 March, 1758. Moore was hunting beaver in Augusta County, Virginia, Augusta County when he was taken prisoner by a party of Wyandots in April, 1758. They were held for a few days in Lower Shawneetown before being taken to another town. In 1759 they escaped and walked for 23 days to reach Pittsburgh.


Relocation, 1758

Lower Shawneetown was moved upriver to the Pickaway Plains in 1758 during the
French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the st ...
because the Shawnees were, in George Croghan's words, in "fear of the Virginians." This was possibly a reference to the failed Sandy Creek Expedition of spring, 1756, in which several companies of United_States_Army_Rangers#Colonial_period, Virginia Rangers and a group of Cherokee warriors had marched up the Big Sandy River, intending to attack Lower Shawneetown. Harsh weather and lack of food forced them to turn back before they reached the town.Johnston, David Emmons
''A History of Middle New River Settlements And Contiguous Territory,''
chapter 2. Huntington: Standard Printing & Publishing Co., 1906
In his journal under the date 28 November, 1758, Croghan writes:
Set off at seven o'clock, in company with six Delawares, and that night arrived at Logs Town, which we found deserted by its late inhabitants. On inquiring the reason of their speedy flight, the Delawares informed me the Lower Shanoes [inhabitants of Lower Shawneetown] had removed off the River up Sihotta [Sciota], to a great plain called Pickaway Plains, Moguck, and sent for those that lived here to come there and live with them, and quit the French, and at the same time the deputies of the Six Nations, which I had sent from Easton, came and hastened their departure.
When Mary Jemison, a captive of the Seneca, spent the winter at the mouth of the Scioto River in 1758–1759, Lower Shawneetown had been abandoned and relocated further up the Scioto River. This new village was Chalahgawtha at the site of present-day Chillicothe, Ohio. James Everett Seaver, who co-authored ''Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison'' (1824), says:
In 1758, the first year of Mary Jemison's going there, the Shawnees moved their town (the Lower Shawnee Town) from the mouth of the Scioto to the upper plains of the Scioto, sending for the Shawnees of
Logstown "extensive flats" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = Image:Logstown1.jpg , imagesize = 220px , image_alt = , image_map1 = Pennsylvania in United States ...
to join them there and possibly also for the Shawnees of the [Upper] Shawnee Town at the mouth of the Kanawha River, Great Kanawha to do the same.


Legacy

A. Gwynn Henderson argues that multiethnic "supervillages" such as Lower Shawneetown might be considered early Native American city-states because of their political autonomy and the new opportunities they created for different tribes as well as for the interaction of Native Americans with Europeans. Trade with other tribes led to Interethnic marriage, intermarriage and increased ethnic diversity. Lower Shawneetown's diversity prevented it from operating as a political entity, however. Independent factions, themselves often divided, responded individually to events, to the frustration of European envoys. Community leaders were rarely able to unify a majority in backing policy decisions, which prevented Europeans from establishing firm diplomatic relations with Lower Shawneetown as they did (to some extent) at
Logstown "extensive flats" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = Image:Logstown1.jpg , imagesize = 220px , image_alt = , image_map1 = Pennsylvania in United States ...
.


Portsmouth floodwall murals

In 1992 mural, muralist Robert Dafford was commissioned to create a Portsmouth,_Ohio#Floods_and_floodwalls, series of murals depicting the history of Portsmouth, Ohio, on the floodwall, built in 1937 to protect the city from periodic floods after the Ohio River flood of 1937. Between 1992 and 2003 Dafford created 65 paintings covering Ohio history from the Hopewell tradition, Hopewell mound builders to the present day. The first mural shows how the Hopewell mounds near Portsmouth might have appeared soon after their construction. The second mural depicts Lower Shawneetown as it might have appeared on a winter day in 1730. The third mural shows Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Blainville meeting with Native American residents of Lower Shawneetown and a few British traders during his visit on 25 August, 1749."Scioto County, Experience Our Heritage,"
September 10, 2012


Lower Shawneetown Archeological District

The Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, in
Greenup County, Kentucky Greenup County is a county located along the Ohio River in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,962. The county was founded in 1803 and named in honor of Christopher Greenup. Its co ...
and
Lewis County, Kentucky Lewis County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Its county seat is Vanceburg, Kentucky, Vanceburg. History The area presently bounded by Kentucky state lines was a part of the U.S. State of Virginia, know ...
near South Portsmouth, is a historic district (United States), historic district which was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1985. With The site was listed for its information potential and includes the Lower Shawneetown village site, human burials, and five more contributing sites: the Bentley site, Forest Home, Laughlin, Thompson, and Old Fort Earthworks, based on ancient artifact assemblages and radiocarbon dating. The district includes the
Portsmouth Earthworks The Portsmouth Earthworks are a large prehistoric mound complex constructed by the Native American Adena and Ohio Hopewell cultures of eastern North America (100 BCE to 500 CE). The site was one of the largest earthwork ceremonial centers cons ...
, one of the largest Earthwork (archaeology), earthwork ceremonial centers constructed by the Hopewell tradition#Ohio Hopewell culture, Ohio Hopewell culture Mound builder (people), mound builder indigenous peoples between 100 BCE and 500 CE. The Kentucky portion of the site was initially discovered in the 1920s during road construction. It was investigated at that time by a team from the University of Kentucky, however
Fort Ancient Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from Ca. 1000-1750 CE and predominantly inhabited land near the Ohio River valley in the areas of modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana and western ...
materials recovered from the site were not analyzed until the 1960s. Sites on both sides of the Ohio River were excavated again between 1984 and 1987 and all have produced Late Fort Ancient Montour Phase (1550 to 1750) artifacts, including mid-18th century Euro-American trade goods and human and animal remains.


See also

*
Logstown "extensive flats" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = Image:Logstown1.jpg , imagesize = 220px , image_alt = , image_map1 = Pennsylvania in United States ...
*
Pickawillany "ash people" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_alt = , image_map1 = OHMap-doton-Piqua.png , mapsize1 = 22 ...
* Kittanning (village) *
Kuskusky "at the falls, by the falls or rapids" unm, kwësh-kwëshelxus-kee "hogs" + -kee (suffix used in place names) "Hogs Town" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = , imagesize = , ima ...
* Sandy Creek Expedition


References

{{authority control Shawnee history Pre-statehood history of Ohio Native American populated places Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Native American history of Ohio Native American history of Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Greenup County, Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Lewis County, Kentucky Captives of Native Americans Former Native American populated places in the United States 1758 disestablishments National Register of Historic Places in Scioto County, Ohio Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio