John Brickell

Life Prior To Abduction

John Brickell was born on May 24, 1781, in Pennsylvania, near a place at the time known as Stewart's Crossings, on the Youghiogheny River, about four miles from Beesontown, now Uniontown in Fayette County. Brickell was of Irish heritage on his father's side and German on his mother's. Brickell's father died when he was young, and he had gone to live with an elder brother, on a preëmption settlement, on the north-east side of the Alleghany River, about two miles from Pittsburgh.

Abduction

Brickell was abducted February 9, 1791. On the day of his abduction he had been alone, clearing out a fence row, about a quarter of a mile from his elder brother's house, when an Indian approached him. The Indian had taken the axe Brickell was using to clear the fence row and laid it upon his shoulder along with his rifle, which he had let down the cock of (Brickell stated that he had cocked the gun in approaching him). Brickell had been on terms of intimacy with the Indians, for they had been about the house he was residing in almost every day. The Indian took Brickell by the hand and pointed the direction he wanted him to go. At the moment, Brickell did not feel alarmed and went without reluctance, though he did not know him he assumed the Indian only wanted him to chop something. After walking a distance, Brickell and the Indian came upon where the Indian had lain all night, between two logs, without fire. Brickell then suspected something was wrong, and had attempted to run. The Indian, noticing, threw Brickell down on his face flat on the ground. Brickell states that every moment he expected to feel the stroke of the tomahawk on his head. The tomahawk never came, but instead the Indian had prepared a rope and tied both Brickell's hands together behind his back, and marched Brickell off. After going a little distance, they had fallen in with George Girty, who had been abducted by the Delaware Indians many years earlier. Girty spoke English, and told Brickell what the Indians had done. He said "white people had killed Indians, and that the Indians had retaliated, and now there is war, and you are a prisoner; and we will take you to our town and make an Indian of you; and you will not be killed if you go peaceably; but if you try to run away, we won't be troubled with you, but we will kill you, and take your scalp to our town." Brickell decided to go peaceably, and give the Indians no trouble, thus beginning his captive life with the Delaware Indians.

Captive Life

From thence Brickell and the Indians traveled to the crossings of Big Beaver. They crossed Big Beaver by a handmade raft late in the evening. In the morning after they crossed, the Indian who took Brickell left him with Girty and went off in another direction. Girty and Brickell continued on course towards the Tuscarawas. Days later, Brickell and Girty went into a nearby Indian camp. There, there were Indians with whom Brickell had known because they had been to his house frequently. Brickell and Girty stayed all night at the Indian camp, and next morning headed towards the Tuscarawas with the Indian party. At Tuscarawas Brickell met with two white prisoners, Thomas Dick and his wife Jane, who had been Brickell's nearest neighbors. The next day, about ten Indians, including the man who abducted Brickell, went to Pittsburgh to trade. On their return, the mass of Indians divided. Brickell and Girty went with the group travelling to Tuscarawas. They traveled to where Fort Seneca stood, and met two warriors going to the frontiers to war, one of whom beat Brickell one night in drunkenness. Shortly after, the Indians had arrived within a mile of the Seneca town, and next morning they paraded in with a grand entrance to begin a ceremony. All of the attending Indians formed two lines and the Indians made signs for Brickell to run between the lines towards the river. Brickell did not know what they wanted and began to run, but the Indians began to beat him until he was bruised from head to foot. A very big Indian had come up and thrown the attacking Indians off of Brickell and quickly led him to the river. Then the Indians who had beaten Brickell were the most kind and forward in washing him off and taking care of him. They stayed about two weeks at the Seneca towns. When the Indians began to travel again towards Maumee, he left many Indians he had come to know, never seeing them again. When they arrived at the Auglaize River, they met an Indian Brickell's owner called Brother. Brickell was given to this man and adopted into his family. The man's name name was Whingwy Pooshies, or Big Cat. Brickell lived with this family from about the first week in May, 1791, till his release in June, 1795. A while later, on one of the Indian's annual visits to the rapids to receive presents from the British, Jane Dick was stolen back from the Indians, her husband had been released a while earlier. Later in life, Brickell learned that he was going to be stolen back too but the Indians had watched him so closely that it was not possible. In the month of June, 1794, three Indians, two men and a boy, and Brickell, went on a candle-light hunting expedition to Blanchard's Fork of the Auglaize. They had been gone about two months and when they returned to the towns in August, they found them entirely evacuated. The next morning an Indian runner had come down the river and gave an alarm whoop, which is a kind of a yell they used for no other purpose except to spread alarm. The white men had been upon them and they were told to run for their lives. Wayne was only about four miles from where Brickell was located, and he and the boy who was with him in the hunting expedition travelled together to the rapids. Two or three days after they arrived at the rapids, Wayne's spies came right into camp and fired on the Indians. Many of the Indians were injured. The next day, the Indians were beaten and were preparing an escape. They retreated and many more of the Delawares were wounded and some were killed. The Indian's crops and every means of support were cut off, and winter was approaching at Swan Creek, near where Toledo now stands. The Indians had become entirely dependent upon the British, and they were not getting the supplies needed to survive. The starving condition of the Indians, together with the prospect of losing all of their cows and dogs, made them very impatient, and they became exasperated with the British. They said that they had been deceived by them, for they had not fulfilled one promise. It was concluded among them to send a flag to Fort Defiance in order to make a treaty with the Americans. This was successful, the Indians found the Americans ready to make a treaty. On the breaking up of spring, the Indians and Brickell went up to Fort Defiance. Whingwy Pooshies told Brickell that he had to go over to the fort. The Indian children had hung around Brickell crying, and asked him if he was going to leave them. Brickell told them that he did not know. When he got over to the fort and was seated with the officers, Whingwy Pooshies told Brickell to stand up. He spoke to Brickell in about these words: "My son, these are men the same color as yourself; there may be some of your kin here, or your kin may be a great way off from you; you have lived a long time with us; I call on you to say if I have not been a father to you? If I have not used you as a father would a son?" Brickell said: "You have used me as well as a father would a son." Whingwy Pooshies added: "I am glad you say so. you have lived long with me; You have hunted for me; but our treaty says you must be free. If you choose to go with the people of your color, I have no right to say a word; but if you choose to stay with me, your people have no right to speak. Now reflect on it, and take your choice; and tell us as soon as you make up your mind." Brickell was silent a few moments, he had thought over almost everything and Brickell eventually said: "I will go with my kin." The old man then said: "I have raised you; I have learned you to hunt; you are a good hunter; you have been better to me than my own sons; I am now getting old and cannot hunt; I thought you would be a support to my age; I leaned on you as on a staff. Now it is broken – you are going to leave me, and I have no right to say a word – but I am ruined." Whingwy Pooshies then sank back in tears into his seat. Brickell heartily joined him in tears, parted with him, and never saw nor heard of him again.

Settling In What Is Now Franklin County

It was about the 1st of June, 1795 when Brickell had parted with Whingwy Pooshies. The next day he started for Fort Greenville. Brickell rode on a horse furnished by the Americans. He was under the charge and protection of Lieut. Blue, who treated him very kindly. At Fort Greenville Brickell had a good suit of clothes made for him by a tailor. Brickell had been there about a week, when a company of men arrived from Cincinnati. Among the company that arrived was a brother of Brickell's brother's wife. He told Brickell of a sister Brickell had, who was married, and lived about nine miles from Cincinnati, up Licking, on the Kentucky side. Brickell then left Mr. Blue at Fort Greenville, and went to his sister's. She and all the neighbors had seemed to be overjoyed, and a great crowd collected to see Brickell, and hear about his living among the Indians. Brickell then went to Grant's Salt Works, up Licking, to hunt for them. He made money there by killing deer at one dollar a piece, and turkeys at twelve and a half cents.Brickell bought a house, and had money left to go to Pennsylvania. He traveled there with a man named Andrew Lewis. There was great joy again, at Brickell's brother's house, on Brickell's return, from where he was taken. In 1797, Brickell came to and settled in the place that is now Columbus, Ohio. He resided there for the rest of his life until his death on July 20, 1844, at age 64.