Revenge of the Burning at the Stake and Murder of Colonel Crawford
History of Ashland County, Ohio 1909
"Another legend claims that friends and relatives of Colonel Crawford swore uncompromising revenge against every Indian who helped handle the fagots that tortured him and that they carried this oath out to the letter. That they were with Harmer, St. Clair and Wayne marking these Indians and shooting them at every opportunity and even made a hunt on the banks of the San dusky for this bloody purpose. It is said the last one was shot in Holmes county in time of peace. Here is the Story : "An Indian once came to a tavern in Killbuck, where under the influence of liquor he boasted that he was present at the burning of Colonel Crawford and said that after the Big White Chief had fallen that he and several other Indians jumped on him and cut his heart out and he had eaten a piece of the raw heart, and, smacking his lips, said it tasted good. Billy Crawford heard this boast and when the Indian left he followed him. Billy afterward admitted that he had killed him near Holmesville and buried the body and gun in a pile of stone. Years afterward the body was found, but such was the sympathy of the people for those who suffered from Indian outrages that nothing was ever thought about it.
"Society in those days had been worked up to a fearful spirit of revenge. Men had suffered under Indian outrages until their natures became fierce and drove out that high sense of human love taught by the Savior, and they went forth, guns in their hands, to hunt and shoot Indians as though they were wolves or bears."
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