Some time after the commencement of the Revolutionary war, when the
northern Indians were beginning to make inroads on the people living
on the east side of the Ohio river, General O’Hara having come out
to the upper Moravian town, on the Muskingum, on business, and there
taken lodging with a respectable and decent family of Indians in the
village—I had one evening scarcely laid down to sleep when I was
suddenly roused from my bed by an Indian runner, (or messenger) who
in the night had been sent to me, 9 miles, with the following verbal
message: “My friend, see that our friend O’Hara, now at your town, be
immediately taken off to the settlement of white people, avoiding all
paths leading to that river. Fail not in taking my advice, for there is
no time to lose—and hear my son further on the subject.”
The fact was, that eleven warriors from Sandusky, were far advanced on
their way to take or murder O’Hara; who at break of day would be at
this place for the purpose. I immediately sent for this gentleman, and
told him that I would furnish him with a conductor, on whom he might
depend, and having sent for Anthony, (otherwise called Luke Holland)
informed him of the circumstance and requested his services; he (the
Indian) wished first to know, whether my friend placed _confidence_ in
him, and trusted to his fidelity; which question being answered by
O’Hara himself, and to his full satisfaction; he replied, ‘well, our
lives cannot be separated! we must stand or fall together! but take
courage, for no enemy shall discover us!’
The Indian then took Mr. O’Hara through the woods, and arriving within
a short distance of the Ohio river, pointed out to him a hiding place,
until he, by strolling up and down the river, should discover white
people on the opposite shore; when finally observing a house where two
white men were cleaning out a canoe for use, he hurried back to bring
on his friend, who, when near the spot, advised his Indian conductor to
hide himself, knowing those people to be bad men, he feared they might
kill him, for his services. The Indian finally seeing his friend safe
across the river, returned and made report thereof.
The young Indian, who had been the bearer of the message from his
father to me, had immediately returned on seeing O’Hara off, in order
to play a further deception on the war party, for the purpose of
preventing them even from going to our town, fearing, that if there,
and not finding their object, they might probably hunt for his track,
and finding this, pursue him. He indeed effected his purpose so
completely, that while they were looking for him in one direction, his
conductor was taking him off in another.
The father of the young lad, who was the principal cause that O’Hara’s
life had been saved, had long been admired by all who knew him for his
_philanthropy_; on account of which the traders had given him the name
of “_the gentleman_.” Otherwise this Indian was not in connection with
the Christian Indian Society, though a friend to them. He lived with
his family retired and in a decent manner.
While I feel a delight in offering to the relatives and friends of the
deceased, as also to the public, this _true_ and _faithful_ picture of
Indian _fidelity_—I regret that, on necessarily having had to recur
to the names ‘Anthony’ and ‘Luke Holland,’ I am drawn from scenes of
pleasure, to crimes of the _blackest hue_. The very Indian just named,
who at that time joyfully reported to me his having conducted his
friend out of danger, to a place of safety, some years after approached
me with the doleful news that every one of his children, (all minors)
together with his hoary headed parents, _had been murdered by the white
people_, at Gradenhutten, on the Muskingum.