[Pg. 440]
NEGOTIATIONS UPON THE GALLOWS.
his neck in that direction, he stepped to one of
the posts and put his arm around it. The Sheriff
approached him to loose his hold, and for a moment it was
doubtful whether O'MIC would not throw him to the ground.
Mr. CARTER ascended to the platform and a negotiation in
regular diplomatic style was had. It was in the native
tongue, ad I understood at the time. Mr. CARTER
appealed to O'MIC to display his courage, narrating what
he had said
about showing pale faces how an Indian could die, but it had no
effect. Finally O'MIC made a proposition, that if
Mr. CARTER would give him half a pint of whisky he
would consent to die. The whisky was soon on hand, in a
large glass tumbler, real old Monongahela, for which an old
settler would almost be willing to be hung, if he could now
obtain the like. The glass was given to O'MIC and
he drank the whisky, in as little time as he could have turned
it out of the glass. Mr. CARTER again came
down, and the Sheriff again drew down the cap and the same scene
was re-enacted, O'MIC expressing the same terror. Mr.
Carter again ascended to the platform, and O'MIC gave him
the honor of an Indian, in pledge that he would not longer
resist the sentence of the court, if he should have another half
pint of whisky. Mr. CARTER, representing the
people of Ohio and the dignity of the laws, thought the terms
were reasonable, and the whisky was forth coming on short order.
The tumbler was not given
[Pg. 441]
[Pg. 442]
[Pg. 443]
[Pg. 444]
[Pg. 445]
[Pg. 446]
[Pg. 447]
[Pg. 448]
[Pg. 449]
[Pg. 450]
[Pg. 451]
[Pg. 452]
[Pg. 453]
[Pg. 454]
[Pg. 455]
[Pg. 456]
[Pg. 457]
[Pg. 458]
[Pg. 459]
storm, Capt. THORN's vessel soon
came ashore, not far from JOHNSON's run, which enters the
lake near the Marine Hospital. The crew got safely ashore,
and concluded to pass the winter on the spot. They built a
cabin on the bank, near the corner of Clinton and Wilson
streets, the remains of which were there in 1800 and in
subsequent years. The guns were taken from the hold, and
carried partly up the bank, wrapped in a sail, well greased,
securely plugged, and buried beneath a leaning tree on one of
the benches, or slips, of the shore.
When the first settlers came here, and even as late as
1830, there were evidences of the clearing which Captain
THORN made around this cabin, in old stumps and in the
second growth of timber. Capt. LORENZO CARTER,
father of Alonzo, procured from the wreck, in the year 1807, the
irons for the rudder of his new schooner the Zephyr.
Capt. LEVI JOHNSON says he procured
spikes and bolts for one of his first vessels from the same
place. A piece of iron from Capt. THORN's
schooner is still to be seen forming the hinges, of Mr.
CARTER's gate at his homestead at Newburg.
The guns were frequently sought after by the early
settlers, but no trace of them has yet been found. No
doubt the encroachment of the lake has left them long since
beneath its waters, deep sunk in the quicksands of this shore.
Captain THORN was a Canadian, who in the
war
<
CLICK HERE to CONTINUE to PAGE 460 >
< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO
TABLE OF CONTENTS > |