Mary Campbell and the Lenape Indians

Many of you may have learned about Native Americans early in school; the various tribes and cultures were found across North America. Various clans and cultures lived here for thousands of years, but once the white settlers reached the eastern coast of the United States, the Indians were pushed westward. Tempers flared between both the natives (who felt that the land belonged to them) and the European settlers (who thought that they had a right to the land instead of the “savages”), but the angry feelings also caused issues and turmoil between the various tribes of Indians. Such discontent and warring brought the Natives right here to the Falls.

Photo from the Official Site of the Delaware Tribe of Indians – delawaretribe.org

   The Leni-Lenape (or Delaware) nation lived on the East Coast for thousands of years, according to archaeological record. By the early eighteenth century, the Dutch and English had swindled them out of their land and forced the tribes westward into Pennsylvania. It was here where forces collided and gave birth to a legendary kidnapping.

In 1758, a settler by the name of Campbell lived with his family on the banks of Canncoquin Creek in Cumberland County’s Tuscarora Valley. Their neighbors—the Stuart family—lived at a nearby farm. One day, Mrs. Stuart took a trip to visit a neighbor, entrusting her children to the care of the red-haired and freckled ten-year-old Campbell daughter. When she returned, Mrs. Stuart heard her children screaming. As she neared the house, a party of Lenape Indians rushed out the front door with the household prisoners in tow, including her infant and their babysitter, Mary Campbell. The tribe captured Mrs. Stuart as well and headed for their camp in what is now Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. According to an account from General Lucius V. Bierce, the natives soon grew tired of the Stuart baby, and they “dashed out its brains in presence of its mother.” One of Mrs. Stuart’s children, a little seven-year-old boy named Sammy, was so exhausted during the trip that he couldn’t walk another step to save his life. For three days, the Indians carried him on their backs. On the third day, the Lenape responsible for carrying Sammy fell behind the group of natives and prisoners, but he soon caught up without the child. As he came closer, Mrs. Stuart recognized the curly locks of hair hanging from his belt. Poor Sammy had been scalped.

The remainder of the trip to camp was quite a miserable journey for Mrs. Stuart. But throughout the ordeal, she, Mary and the rest of the young prisoners began to adapt to life with the Indians. The only documentation of the experience came from later recollections of Mary Campbell herself. The story, as she told it, goes that she gained the fatherly love of the tribe’s chief and (as was common practice among the Native Americans of that period) was adopted by Chief Netawatwees, leader of the Turtle Clan of the Lenape nation.

This is the eventual migration route after staying for many years in several locations in Ohio.

   The native custom of kidnapping and adopting white children and women primarily was caused by their own dwindling numbers during the mid- to late 1700s. There were many causes of death for the Indians during this time, but the main reasons were war and European diseases to which they had no natural immunity. In 1600, the Delaware population may have been as high as twenty thousand people, but within the span of one hundred years, several tribal wars and at least fourteen separate epidemics reduced their population to about four thousand. The worst time was between 1655 and 1670 when they lost 90 percent of their people.

After a fair amount of trouble with some other Pennsylvania tribes, Chief Netawatwees met with the chiefs of the Wyandot nation and told them of the wrongs suffered by him and his people. The chiefs advised Netawatwees that he should take his tribe and settle farther west on the Cuyahoga River (in present-day Ohio), leaving open the Muskingum and Big Beaver Rivers for the Wyandot. The chief took the advice, and shortly thereafter, Netawatwees and his Turtle Clan started across western Pennsylvania. They sought refuge at a series of large waterfalls along the Cuyahoga River in the fall of 1758. The falls were formed by three vertical descents of twenty-two, eighteen and sixteen feet.

The Big Falls

   According to Virginia Chase Bloetscher’s Indians of the Cuyahoga Valley and Vicinity, “There were two villages at Big Falls, about where the Ohio Edison Dam is now—a Lenape village under Chief Net-a-wat-wees on the north side of the River and an Iroquois camp on the south side.” When the Lenapes first arrived, they found a village of Iroquois on the south bank of the river, so they wintered in the cliffs on the northern side. The sheltered rock alcove was created during the last twelve thousand years when the Cuyahoga River was forced to carve a new path toward Lake Erie, when it was blocked by glacial debris. Far below, the Cuyahoga ran through a series of rapids about two miles in length. The stone alcove of the cliff face offered additional protection. A spring at the side of the alcove provided fresh water, and there was plenty of meat to be found in the forest and river. Here the tribe lived until they built a more permanent village above their cliff dwelling near what is today called Campbell Street and Francis Avenue.

Erosion has taken a toll on the ground space of the “Campbell Cave” alcove.

   Once they created their permanent village of Lenapehoking (or “Lenape Land”), they did not live in teepees but rather in wigwams or longhouses made of bark. First, a wooden framework was built, usually in a rectangular or oval shape, which was then covered with large sheets of bark. In the summer months, the houses were sometimes covered with reed mats. The village was composed of northern and southern sections. Houses to the south were mainly built for a single family, while the northern bark houses were larger, rounded, multiple-family structures where several related families usually lived together.

Bloetscher mentioned that “[r]ecords [indicate]…there were two white captives living at the Delaware village of Chief Netawatwees on the River, near the site of the present Ohio Edison dam.” So Mary lived, played and worked along the Cuyahoga River at Big Falls, spending her preteen and teenage years not far from the alcove (or “cave”) where the Lenape spent the first winter. She went living her life with the tribe, never knowing that in October 1764 her father placed an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette asking for someone to bring his little red-headed girl home to him.

Pennsylvania Gazette October 1764

   Though Mary was missed by her family, children were considered valued members of Lenape society. They were loved and well cared for while they helped out with family chores. Some of Mary’s daily tasks included housekeeping and gardening. Still, she also had plenty of time to play; many Native American games helped tribal children build the skills they would need later in life. Mary and her Indian sisters played house with dolls made of leather, wood and cornhusks. They also played the “cup and pin game.” In this game of skill, a hollow bone (or a piece of hard leather with a hole through it) was tied to a pin with a short string. The bone or leather piece was tossed into the air, and the player tried to put the pin through the hole.

Image of Lenape Home example from the Lenni Lenape Organization

   Dancing accompanied by music and singing was a favorite pastime for the tribe. Mary listened to hide-and-water drums, bird bone whistles and wooden flutes played by the Lenapes, along with rattles made of turtle shell, bark and gourds. She and her Native American siblings were told exciting stories as a fun way to pass the time. They looked forward to long winter evenings by the fire, listening to the tales told by the elders. But these stories also served a serious purpose; legends and tales explained native beliefs about creation and social values and preserved historic past events, making storytelling an important part of a child’s upbringing.

This peaceful life went on for several years, until Chief Netawatwees and the Turtle Clan fled south in 1764 to avoid Pontiac’s War. They truly regretted leaving their peaceful haven at Big Falls; the Lenapes relocated to Newcomerstown along the lower Tuscarawas River. Soon, the battle was over and a peace treaty signed. With this treaty came a promise from the natives to release any white prisoners.

At the age of sixteen, Mary Campbell was returned to a European settlement in November 1764 during the famous release of captives orchestrated by Colonel Henry Bouquet at the close of Pontiac’s War. Family tradition among Mary Campbell’s descendants indicates that she was, at least at first, unhappy with being separated from the Lenapes. Historical records state that about half of the captives turned over to Colonel Bouquet attempted to return to their native kidnappers, a development that reportedly puzzled both the army and the communities to which the captives were being returned.

Being uprooted from her Lenape family and torn from her Indian brothers and sisters was just as traumatic for Mary as when she first was taken from her white family at ten years of age. Now closer to adulthood, it is likely that Mary dreamed of starting her own Lenape family and had planned delightedly on being a warrior’s wife all her remaining years. She may even have had her eye on a handsome young native. Returning to her former life crushed these dreams forever. The rest of her life would be very different from those magical times at Big Falls.

Today, Chief Netawatwees stands watch over the city of Cuyahoga Falls in the form of a twenty-six-foot-tall carving on an island of land across from River Front Park. The carving is the handiwork of local resident Joe Frohnapfel and was dedicated on July 5, 2004.

The rock shelter where Mary Campbell and the Lenapes wintered in 1758 can still be found in Cuyahoga Falls along a hiking trail in Gorge Metro Park. For many years, it was known as Old Maid’s Kitchen, until the Daughters of the American Revolution renamed it Mary Campbell Cave. A small plaque in the center of the cave gives visitors the story of her capture by Native Americans.

Several years ago I researched for months before writing this account for a book called Haunted Akron. Before posting it here, I’ve changed a few words and added photos. ~ Jeri Holland