Collection #
M 0605

HALFORD R. MCNAUGHTON
PAPERS, 1972–1978

Processed by
Charles Latham
31 January 1992
Updated 26 January 2005

Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269

www.indianahistory.org

collection INFORMATION

VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 manuscript box

COLLECTION DATES: circa 1970

PROVENANCE: Halford R. McNaughton, Muncie IN, February 1978

ACCESSION NUMBERS: 1978.0306 (Buckongahelas); 1992.0165X (Trader's Path)

NOTES: Part of collection (Folders 1-6) transferred from SC 1921

Halford R. McNaughton (b. 1892) was born in Franklin, Indiana, but moved to Muncie with his family four years later. He graduated from Muncie High School, and attended Muncie Normal School (later Ball State University). He had some experience on newspapers, first as a stringer on the Muncie Star, then (after 1913) on the staff of the Toledo (Ohio) Times. He then spent a few years in advertising, punctuated by brief military service during World War I. Most of his business career was with Indiana Steel and Wire Company, from which he retired in 1963.

After his retirement, McNaughton spent a good deal of time writing. Research into family history led him into the history of the Indian wars of the late eighteenth century. This led in turn to the production of the two unpublished manuscripts which constitute this collection.

Sources: Materials in collection
Recorder, newsletter of Indiana Oral History
Roundtable, May 1978, Vol. 6 No. 2

SCOPE AND CONTENT note

This collection, filling one manuscript box, consists of the typescripts of two unpublished manuscripts.

The collection begins with a folder of genealogical material and of information about the writing of the books.

The first manuscript, "Buckongahelas, last of the great Delaware war chiefs," (341 pages), in Folders 2-6, is centered on the life of Buckongahelas, but also deals with the history of the Delaware Indians in the eighteenth century, including their contacts with whites and with other Indiana tribes.

The second typescript, "Trader's Path," (280 pages), in Folders 7-11, tells the story of Jane Lowry and her infant daughter Sally, captured by Delaware Indians during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763 and then rescued. The story goes on to tell of Sally's later marriage to John Leith, John's part as interpreter and guide during the American Revolution, his work as an Indian trader, and Sally's life in a Moravian mission village. Most of the narrative covers events between 1775 and 1795.

As will be seen by comparing the chapter headings, appended under the Folder Listing, the two accounts go over a good deal of the same territory, the first from the Native American point of view, the second from that of a white pioneer.

FOLDER LISTING

FOLDER

Folder 1: Biographical

Folder 2:
Buckongahelas-- warrior, statesman, counselor, orator, humanitarian
The Lenni Lenape and the early white settlers
The Delawares and William Penn
The subjugation of the Delawares
Buckongahelas and the dispersal of the Delawares
A people without a country
The French invade the Ohio Valley

Folder 3:
Delawares on the warpath
An uneasy peace
Pontiac lures the Delawares into war
Bouquet goes to the relief of Fort Pitt
Pennsylvania threatened by civil war
Ohio Indians surrender white prisoners
Treaty brings temporary peace
The Shawnees and Lord Dunmore's war
Delawares divided by Revolutionary War

Folder 4:
Americans take aggressive action
More Delawares defect to British
Christians forced to abandon their homes on the Tuscaroras
The Gnadenhutten affair
The War in the West continues
An era of broken treaties

Folder 5:
The deterioration of the Delawares continues
Ohio lands opened for public sale
Delawares settle in Maumee valley
General Harmar's ill-fated expedition
St. Clair suffers humiliating defeat
President and Cabinet consider abandoning northwest lands
The successful campaign of General Wayne
The crucial battle of Fallen Timbers
Treaty of Greenville brings lasting peace
The dispersal of the Delawares

Folder 6:
The Delawares on White River
Buckongahelas invites the Christian Delawares to the Wapahani
Journey to the Wapahani
Congress creates Indiana Territory
Christian Indians create trouble
Buckongahelas retires as war captain
Buckongehelas reveals his thoughts about the white man’s religion.
President Jefferson's "unofficial" Indian policy
The death of Buckongahelas
Epilogue

Folder 7: "Trader's Path"
Foreword
Fires along the frontier
The Lowry legend
The conquests of Col. Bouquet
The Indians face a crisis
The Savages sue for peace

Folder 8:
Return to civilization
Sally Lowry-- child of the wilderness
The early life of John Leith
John confronts the "Hair Buyer"
John Leith takes a wife

Folder 9:
Life in the Moravian mission
Captives' Town
The Gnadenhutten affair
Upper Sandusky-- base for Indian raids
The horrific death of Col. Crawford

Folder 10:
The Indians grow bolder
The further adventures of an Indian trader
The Moravians return from exile
Exodus from Cuyahoga
Mission on the Pettquotting
Sally reunited with her family

Folder 11:
A treaty that failed to bring peace
Indians turn back Harmar expedition
The flight to freedom
The more tranquil years

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://opac.indianahistory.org/

2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.

3. Select "Call Number" from the "Search In:" box.

4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, M 0605).

5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

Collection # M 0605