The Massacre of the Ruffner FamilyThere was living at this time-said Mr. Nail -on the Black Fork of the Mohican, about half a mile west of where Petersburgh_now is [now Mifflin], a Mr. Martin Ruffner. Haying removed his family for safety, no person was with him in his cabin, excepting a bound boy. About two miles southeast stood the cabin of the Seymours. This family consisted of the parents-both very old people -a maiden daughter Catharine, and her brother Philip, who was a bachelor.

One evening Mr. Ruffner sent out the lad to the creek bottom, to bring home the cows, when he discovered four Indians and ran. They called to him, saying that they would not harm him, but wished to speak to him. Having ascertained from him that the Seymours were at home, they left, and he hurried back and told Ruffner of the circumstance; upon which he took down his rifle and started for Seymour's. He arrived there, and was advising young Seymour to go to the cabin of a Mr. Copus, and get old Mr. Copus and his son to come up and help take the Indians prisoners, when the latter were seen approaching. Upon this young Seymour passed out of the back door and hurried to Copus's, while the Indians entered the front door, with their rifles in hand.

The Seymours received them with an apparent cordiality, and the daughter spread the table for them. The Indians, however, did not appear to be inclined to eat, but soon arose and commenced the attack. Ruffner, who was a powerful man, made a desperate resistance. He clubbed his rifle, and broke the stock to pieces; but he fell before superior numbers, and was afterwards found dead and scalped in the yard, with two rifle balls through him, and several fingers cut off by a tomahawk. The old people and daughter were found tomahawked and scalped in the house.

In an hour or so after dark, young Seymour returned with Mr. Copus and son, making their way through the woods by the light of a hickory bark torch. Approaching the cabin, they found all dark and silent within. Young Seymour attempted to open the door, when it flew back. Reaching forward, he touched the corpse of the old man, and exclaimed in tones of anguish, "here is the blood of my poor father!" Before they reached the place, they heard the Indians whistling on their powder chargers, upon which they put out the light and were not molested.

These murders, supposed to have been committed by some of the Greentown Indians, spread terror among the settlers, who immediately fortified their cabins and erected several block-houses. Among the block-houses erected was Nails', on the Clear fork of the Mohican Beams', on the Rocky fork; one on the site of Ganges, and a picketed house on the Black Fork, owned by Thomas Coulter.

The Copus Tragedy.-Shortly after this, a party of twelve or fourteen militia from Guernsey county, who were out on a scout, without any authority burnt the Indian village of Greentown, at this time deserted. At night they stopped at the cabin of Mr. Copus, on the Black Fork, about nine miles from Mansfield. The next morning, as four of them were at a spring washing, a few rods from the cabin, they were fired upon by a party of Indians in ambush. They all ran for the house, except. Warnock, who retreated in another direction, and was afterwards found dead in the woods, about half a mile distant. His body was resting against a tree, with his handkerchief stuffed in a wound in his bowels. Two of the others, George Shipley and John Tedrick, were killed and scalped between the spring and the house. The fourth man, Robert Dye, in passing between the shed and cabin, suddenly met a warrior with his uplifted tomahawk. He dodged and escaped into the house, carrying with him a bullet in his thigh.

Mr. Copus at the first alarm had opened the door, and was mortally wounded by a rifle ball in his breast. He was laid on the bed, and the Indians shortly attacked the cabin. "Fight and save my family," exclaimed he, for I am a dead man.' The attack was fiercely made, and several balls came through the door, upon which they pulled up the puncheons from the floor and placed them against it. Mrs. Copus and her daughter went up into the loft for safety, and the last was slightly wounded in the thigh, from a ball fired from a neighboring hill. One of the soldiers, George Launtz, was in the act of removing a chunk of wood to fire through, when a ball entered the hole and broke his arm. this, he watched and saw an Indian put his head from behind a stump. He fired, and the fellow's brains were scattered over it. After about an hour the Indians, having suffered severe loss, retreated. Had they first attacked the house, it is probable an easy victory would have been gained by them.

After

Martin Ruffner and brother-in-law Richard Hughes erected cabins near each other in the spring of 1812, about half a mile northwest of the present site of Mifflin. Mr. Frederick Zimmer, Sr., put up a cabin two and a half miles southeast of Mr. Martin Ruffner and occupied it with his wife, daughter Catherine, Zimmer's son Philip Zimmer, aged 19, and

Michael Ruffner, brother of Martin, whom he hired to assist him. Martin Ruffner and a bound boy, Levi Berkinhizer, occupied the Ruffner cabin.

One day in September Michael Ruffner met two well-armed Indians near the Zimmer cabin, and being suspicious of their intentions he mounted a fleet horse and rode rapidly

to Zimmer's and put them on their guard, and Philip Zimmer was despatched to inform James Copus, who lived two miles further south. Having warned Copus he proceeded to inform John Lambright, who returned with him and was joined by Mr. Copus; proceeding to the Zimmer cabin, which they reached early in the evening. Finding no light in the cabin Copus crept cautiously up to it; the door was ajar, but with some obstruction against it: cautiously feeling his way, he placed his hand in a pool of blood. Returning to his companions he informed them of his discovery, and further investigation proved that Frederick Zimmer, wife and daughter and Martin Ruffner had been murdered. Ruffner had made a desperate resistance; he had fought his way from the cabin into the yard, his gun being bent nearly double from clubbing it; several of his fingers had been chopped off by a tomahawk and he was shot twice through the body. The fiends had scalped their victims, who had been treacherously set upon while furnishing them refreshment, as was indicated by the table being nigh spread.

It is supposed eight or ten Indians were engaged in the slaughter, whose enmity Mr. Zimmer had incurred by tying clap-boards to their ponies' tails to frighten them away from the corn fields: any injury to an Indian's dog or pony being a cause for enduring resentment. Martin Ruffner and the Zimmers were buried in one large grave on a knoll near the scene of the tragedy. The cabins of Martin Zimmer and Richard Hughes near the Zimmers' were not disturbed, young Berkinhizer having slept alone in that of Ruffner the night of the tragedy, Ruffner having been very friendly with the Indians, although perfectly fearless in his dealings with them.

After his discovery of the murder of the Zimmers Mr. Copus and Mr. Lambright returned to their cabins for their families, and removed them to the block-house at Jacob Beams'.

After several days in the block-house Mr. Copus, believing the Indians owed him no ill will, insisted on returning with his family to his cabin on the Black Fork. Capt. Martin protested against it, but as Copus persisted in going he sent nine soldiers with him as an escort. They reached the cabin in safety and retired for the night, the soldiers occupying the barn. In the night the dogs kept up a continuous barking and Mr. Copus got up toward daylight and invited the soldiers into the cabin.

In the morning the soldiers leaning their guns against the cabin (although cautioned to keep possession of them by Mr. Copus) passed out to the spring at the base of a hill near the sixth cabin for the purpose of wash

ing. They had reached the spring, when some Indians from their concealment in a corn field near by rushed out, cut off their retreat and began hooting and tomahawking them. Mr. Copus seizing his gun rushed for the cabin door; just as he opened it, he met an Indian; both fired at the same instant and both were mortally wounded. The ball from the Indian's gun passed through the leather strap sustaining Mr. Copus's powder horn (which is now in the possession of Mr. Wesley Copus) and into his breast: he staggered to his bed and died in a short time, begging the soldiers to defend and save his family. Two of the soldiers fled toward the forest, but were soon overtaken, killed and scalped; another, Mr. Warnock, succeeded in escaping his pursuers, but was shot through the bowels and foot; his body was afterwards found seated leaning against a tree with his handkerchief stuffed into the wound in his bowels. Mr. Geo. Dye, another soldier, was shot through the thigh just as he was entering the cabin.

The knoll near the cabin being covered with dwarfed timber served the Indians as a shelter from which they fired volley after volley into the cabin, wounding Nancy Copus, a little girl, above the knee and breaking the arm of Geo. Launtz, a soldier, who had the satisfaction however of returning his compli ments with a bullet which caused the Indian who had shot him to bound into the air and roll down the hill on the way to the "happy" hunting grounds of his fathers.

The battle lasted about five hours, after which the Indians withdrew, carrying off their dead and wounded, but fired a parting salute into a flock of Mr. Copus's sheep, killing most of them.

An

After the withdrawal of the Indians a soldier was despatched to the block-house at Beams for assistance. Shortly after Capt. Martin, having been out with a party of soldiers on a scouting expedition, arrived at the cabin, too late to be of any assistance. effort was made to pursue the Indians, but was abandoned as useless. Mr. Copus and the soldiers were buried in a large grave a rod or two from the cabin, under an apple tree. Capt. Martin then took the family and returned to the block-house. Mrs. Copus and her children remaining in the block-house several weeks removed to Guernsey county, but in the spring of 1815 returned to their cabin.

The number of Indians engaged in this attack was estimated at forty-five, there having been discovered back of the corn field the remains of forty-five fires in holes scooped in the ground, to prevent observation, over which the Indians roasted ears of corn the evening before the attack.

The date for the unveiling of the RuffnerCopus Monument was fixed for Friday, September 15, 1882, just seventy years to the day when the tragic scenes took place, and preparations were made for what was expected would be a memorable day in the history of Ohio. The expectations of the committee were more than realized. Early in the day the people began to arrive at the Copus Hill from every direction; a-foot, on horseback and in every imaginable kind of conveyance, until fully 6,000 had assembled in the forest overlooking the scene of the Copus battle. The day was balmy-one of those pleasant fall days-and the thousands present came with baskets filled ready for the pic-nic. The exercises opened with music by the Mt. Zion band, followed by prayer by Rev. J. A. Hall, then music, then the address of welcome by the gentleman above named. Rev. P R. Roseberry followed in a few remarks, after which the venerable Dr. Wm. Bushnell, of Mansfield, and Andrew Mason, Esq., cf Ashland, in response to calls, entertained the audience. Mrs. Sarah Vail, daughter of James Copus,

who was present at the time her father and the three soldiers were killed, and who now resides hard by at the age of eighty-four years, was introduced to the multitude. Mrs. Baughman, mother of A. J. Baughman, was also introduced to the audience: this lady's father, Capt. Cunningham, assisted in burying the dead at Copus Hill. A recess was then taken for the pic-nic and an hour later R. M. Campbell, Esq., of Ashland, was introduced and spoke at length. Hon. Henry C. Hedges, of Mansfield, was then introduced and made some touching remarks; at the close of his address the Huff Brothers Band played a dirge; following this, Dr. P. H. Clark, of Ashland, delivered an appropriate address which was full of interest for the occasion; at its close a procession of vehicles to the number of about 1,200 was formed and passed by the Copus Monument as it was unveiled. The multitude then proceeded to the Ruffner Monument, when it was also unveiled. Thus the ceremonies of the day ended; a day long to be remembered.