I happen to live in the town with Allen Echart. Good books but sad to say I have not read him all. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 3:39 PM Subject: Re: [HCGS] question about Bulltown Indian massacre > Thank you. I googled Bulltown massacre and found lots of information. > Recently I reread and read three of Allen Eckart's books, The > Frontiersman, The > Conqueror, and Wilderness. They have some of the best information on the > Indians from about 1700 to 1830's that I had seen before. > > Linda > > > In a message dated 1/26/2010 2:46:04 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, > [email protected] writes: > > There's some uncertainty about the Bulltown massacre, and I don't know if > it's something we can still resolve. > > Captain Bull the son of Teedyuscung is usually assumed to have been the > "Bull" of Bulltown. I imagine this is right though I wouldn't say there > was > positive proof. I've heard it said that the son of Teedyuscung lived in > later years on the White River in Indiana. I personally don't have proof > of > that either, but Delaware specialists would know. > > According to the traditional account of the Bulltown massacre Bull and > the > rest of the people in his village were killed by a settler band that > included John Cutright, Jesse Hughes and several others, in 1772. > Withers > > published the story in 1831 and it's been current ever since. > > Bob Smith of HCPD published a brief study of the subject in the Hackers > Creek Journal years ago, suggesting that in reality the settler band > found > an abandoned village and invented the massacre story as a way of > reassuring > frightened families that the danger was past. > > I should point out that such a massacre of peaceful Delawares, had it > ever > been discovered, would have guaranteed a season of deadly raiding in > revenge. And no such raiding followed. At the least it would have been > necessary to negotiate an alternative to such vengeance. Again nothing of > the kind is known to have occured. So I'm inclined to agree with Bob > Smith > that the massacre story was a fiction of some sort. > > Now, in 1781 another settler band--call them militia, I suppose--went in > pursuit of a party that raided the Leading Creek settlements in the > Tygart > valley. William Lowther led this group. It included John Cutright, > Jesse > > Hughes and about a dozen others. > > The pursuers caught up with the raiders on the Hughes River and shot and > killed several from ambush. This is a well known story too. > Interestingly, > the raiders are said traditionally to have been Delawares led by Captain > Bull and Captain Johnny. > > The historical Bull and Johnny were both at some stage Moravian converts. > Both had responsibilities among the Delaware that would have led in > wartime > to a conflict over the proper role to adopt. We know that in > Pennsylvania > during the French and Indian War Bull led a merciless raid in vengeance > for > the apparent murder of his father and the destruction of two Delaware > villages. We know that during the Revolution Johnny was one of the > Delawares who were prominent--though not very numerous--allies of the > Patriots. So it seems a little unlikely that he was raiding in the > Tygart > Valley in '81, though I suppose he may have shifted his alliance, as > others > did in that season. > > As for his death, Johnny and his wife were among the slain at > Gnadenhutten > in '82. > > I bring this up to show how difficult it can be to bring history and > tradition into any sort of alignment. > > One of the principal sources of the Bulltown story is the Cutright > tradition, and in his old age it doesn't seem that John Cutright was able > to > distinguish the events of 1772 (the alleged Bulltown massacre) from the > events of 1781 (the Leading Creek pursuit), with the result that Jesse > Hughes had the honor, so to speak, of killing Captain Bull on two > occasions. > > What's to be made of all this? I wish I knew. > > As a massacre story Bulltown is almost a miniature of Gnadenhutten. > Angry > settlers kill Indians associated with the Moravian missions, giving the > justification that clothing found matched the clothing of slain settlers, > etc. > > In later years it became a sort of game to name the participants in these > infamous acts. > > John Cutright is made to confess on his deathbed, as if he were accepting > salvation at last and admitting that he could not justify the conduct of > his > life. > > In other words, the story of the story makes sense. But this doesn't > take > us back to the facts. > > (Now I'll have to go back to the sources and see what I've gotten wrong.) > > David Houchin > Special Collections > Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> > Cc: <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 8:55 PM > Subject: [HCGS] question about Bulltown Indian massacre > > >> Can someone tell me if the Indians were killed at Bulltown or not? It >> seems to me that i read somewhere that they actually moved to Ohio. >> >> Linda >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >> in the subject and the body of the message > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the > body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature database 4808 (20100126) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4808 (20100126) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com