Indians!

A lot of families have stories about having a great grandmother or other ancestors who was a Native American. My family doesn't. And my DNA shows no Native American ancestry. But that doesn't mean they didn't have a part in the story. When one people colonizes another's land, pushes them out, and takes over their land, there are interactions to say the least. But my ancestors were settlers, not frontiersmen. They were immigrants, not colonists. They were farmers, not soldiers. But not in every case...

The following are various bits and pieces that I've gathered over the years on my ancestors. It may seem a bit rambling and disconnected, but my hope is it helps the reader put Indian relationships with our family in perspective.I use the term "Indian", rather than "Native American", since I think that is what my ancestors would have called them.

I think my brother still has a big old Indian doll that he collected on some family trip. And my dad made a point of taking a picture of some Indians on one of his adventures out west in the 30s.

I suppose a trip out west back then wouldn't be complete without seeing Indians.

My grandmother, Maude Turner Stephenson, grew up in Paradise Township, Crawford County, Iowa in the late 1800s. She told that she would often see Indians in wagon trains as she walked to and from school. And her teachers would occasionally find that some Indians had slept in the school house.

My aunt, Inez Busch, related a story told her about how Maude's mother, Blanche Squibb, would race the Indian boys on horseback near Charter Oak as a child.

The Denison Review published a story February 5, 1954 about an Indian carving in Paradise Township. The carving, perhaps still there, showed an arrow, a hatchet and snake, presumably marking the grave of a Sioux chief. Apparently, this was along an old Indian trail running between  the Spirit Lake area in northwest Iowa and Council Bluffs, along the Missouri River. Henry Bell, relates in the story that the site of Dow City was a Sioux camp of 5,000 yet in 1856. Indian raids were a bit of a problem for these early settlers. This was at the time of the 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre, perpetrated by a band of renegade Sioux in an act of revenge. None of my ancestors were anywhere near Spirit Lake or even Denison at this time. But the Squibbs were in eastern Iowa by this time, and the Davises were in southern Iowa as well - but well away from the frontier that defined western Iowa in the mid 1800s. And it would be twenty years later, before the Mesenbrinks and the Squibbs would move to the Charter Oak area. Indians were still around, but fortunately the hostilities were over. I think that is probably pretty typical for my ancestors of the 1800s. By the time they settled in an area, Indians weren't a major concern.

A possible exception might be John B. Davis, a 3rd great grandfather, from Maryland. He served from 1819 to 1821 in the U.S. Army as a member of the elite Rifle Regiment. It is where he served that is most interesting though, Fort Atkinson. This fort was the westernmost fort in the United States at that time, and the first fort west of the Missouri. It was located on the western banks of the Missouri River, north of Omaha, near Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. This fort was established  fifteen years after Louis and Clark met with the Indians on nearby bluffs, and twenty years before the region would start to be settled.

The Indians near the camp were friendly, and John B. Davis was probably not involved in any action against them. The Indians were occasional visitors to the camp, and although the camp maintained a high state of alert at these times, the Indians were regarded as much of a curiosity as a threat.

John B. Davis settled in Ohio after his service. Ohio in the early 1800s had Indians, although most were pushed westward by this time. The Van Gundys, Combses, and Baums settled in what became Wyandot county, which had an Indian Reservation, Indian mill and mission church.

The earliest known Van Gundy immigrant, Peter Van Gundy, was likely killed by Indians in 1763. He lived in Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. That was an area that was being settled by  Mennonite immigrants. The French and Indian War was coming to an end at this time, and that might explain the a motive, but I suspect Peter Van Gundy's death had a more local cause. We probably will never know for sure.

John Griest was an even earlier settler. He became known as the first white squatter west of the Susquehanna in 1721. The Indians complained about his encroachment, assault and abuse. He was forcibly removed from the Indian's land, jailed and fined for his offense. John Griest had been married as a Quaker, and Quakers were known for their fair treatment of Indians, so perhaps John was an exception. He would later legally own land on both sides of the Susquehanna River, and even adjacent to the Susquehannock/Conestoga settlement. (After John's death, these Indians were massacred by some renegades.) In 1738, he built a two story block house for his family's protection from the Indians. This building was eventually sold and used as an inn (eg., Ye Olde Valley Inn) for decades, even having the reputation of having George Washington and others stop there at various times. The building stood at its original site until 1962.

That this building stood for so long is a testament to some incredible construction, no doubt meant to withstand any Indian attack. Unfortunately, it fell victim to a shopping center in 1962. It was partially rebuilt at the Susquehanna Memorial Gardens.

Susquehanna Memorial Garden - Photo from York Daily Record

A reasonable person might think that it would be impossible to report Indian relations much further back. But that would be wrong. My mother's maternal grandmother was a Davis, and a member of the oldest family in the United States. That line goes back to Captain James Davis, who in 1607 helped found the Popham colony in what is now Maine. Davis sailed for the Virginia Company of Plymouth. just months after Captain John Smith helped establish Jamestown for the competing Virginia Company of London.

Drawing of Fort George, Popham Colony

The Popham colonists had made good progress with the local Indian tribes, but relations worsened and resulted in the Indians killing 13 of the colonists in an attack on their fort. The Popham colony disbanded after just a year, the colonists returned to England, and Davis joined his counterpart in Jamestown.When Davis arrived at Jamestown, he was put in charge of Fort Algernon. His predecessor, John Ratcliffe, was killed by the Powhatans, so this was a dangerous assignment. Davis was agressive, sometimes ruthless, with the Indians. Attacks continued, but he was successful in helping the English secure the colony. Davis died as late as 1632, having lived through two of three Anglo-Powhatan wars. He had a large family, and many descendants.