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CAESAR
Frontier Explorer
On Ohioâs frontier, a legend grew around an escaped slave from Virginia known only as Caesar. Named, ironically or defiantly, after the powerful Roman emperor, he found war and freedom north of the Ohio River decades before Ohio became a state in 1803. Caesarâs story was part myth, part truth. Now, roughly 175 years after his death, Caesarâs name is still mentioned daily, yet no one knows exactly when and where he was born, who he really was, how he arrived in Ohio, and with whom he left, or why. He is a mysterious figure whose adventures were passed down through generations of Ohioans, leaving multiple, conflicting plots. As with a mythological creature, it was as if he inhabited four bodiesâall the same man, but with different lives. This particular Caesar invokes the imagination and helps us understand more about the fate of escaped slaves.
In the late 1700s, the name âCaesarâ was common among slaves. But this man was a pioneer in a sprawling, untamed region. His story is as much a part of Ohio history as any other pioneer tale, although it began a full quarter century before the territory gained statehood.
Two centuries of Caesar storytelling and retelling make it difficult to trace his lineage and timeline. Yet, his name lives on: at Caesar Creek State Park in Warren and Clinton counties as well as at several popular businesses, including the Caesar Creek Flea Market off Interstate 71 and the Caesar Creek Vineyards in Xenia. At the parkâs attractive visitor center, a display board tells Caesarâs storyâor what is known of it. âCollege students are interested in him, but the younger kids think he is either Julius Caesar or else the pizza [chain],â said Kim Baker, a park natural resources specialist ranger with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. âWe try to tell his story to them as best we can. But we may never know the true story behind this fascinating man.â
Caesar as he might have looked in the 1780s. (Courtesy United States Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville)
According to the Ohio Division of State Parks, Caesarâs Creek was named for a black slave who had been captured by the Shawnee during a raid along the Ohio River. The Indians adopted the young man and eventually presented him with the valley where the state park is now located. He lived there during Blue Jacketâs days as Shawnee war chief, 1786 to 1795, and was said to have participated in raids against settlers.
In 1978, two hundred years after Caesar trekked through the early West, the federal and state governments built and opened the forty-seven-hundred-acre park that bears his name, as well as an adjacent twenty-five-hundred-acre wildlife site. The land and wildlife are preserved much as they were when Caesar lived there.
Warren County historian Dallas Bogan, once a Caesar skeptic, listed four different legends about the elusive frontiersman. The first is that he escaped from his southern owners and made his way to the Northwest Territory, where slavery was banned in 1787. There he lived in a cabin on the banks of Caesarâs Creek, about thirty-five miles north of the Ohio River. In the 1800s, some people of the area claimed Caesar had died by the stream and was buried there, but others believed he left for Canada on the Underground Railroad. Boganâs second legend, gleaned from George F. Robinsonâs 1902 history of Greene County, has it that in 1786 Caesar was the slave of an officer in an American army General Benjamin Logan had raised in that area to respond to the Shawneeâs theft of horses. But before the army could attack the Indians, Caesar escaped along a scenic creek and then took Kentonâs Trace, a route opened by pioneer explorer Simon Kenton that ran from Aberdeen on the Ohio River to the Shawneeâs major encampment. When he arrived, Caesar informed the tribe of the armyâs intention. Indian leaders believed him, and soon after, as Bogan wrote, âthe soldiers moved upon Old Chillicothe, destroyed crops, and burnt the village, but found the Indians had fled⌠. The creek afterwards was known as the creek where Caesar ran away. The General most certainly had slaves accompanying him, but was Caesar among them?â
Robinson noted that Caesarâs Creek was named for Caesar and said he learned this from Thomas C. Wright, who claimed he had heard the story from Simon Kenton himself. Kenton, along with Daniel Boone and Caesar, lived to old age in an era when most people didnâtâparticularly on the frontier.
The third legend, Bogan wrote briefly, is that the creek took its name from the servant of an officer who served with the American army in the Warren County area in 1794.
Boganâs fourth legend recounts that when the Shawnee held fellow frontiersman Simon Kenton prisoner, Caesar was living with the tribe. When Kenton pleaded with him for help escaping, the unusual-looking Indian refused. But perhaps the former slave empathized with the white captive, because he did provide him with invaluable aidâan escape route along the creek, which would lead him to safety via the Little Miami River and on to the Ohio River.
âWhether truth or fiction,â Bogan wrote, âthis writer, while searching through the many sources regarding the Negro slave, Caesar, and the naming of Caesarâs Creek, can say with all due respect, that ground for substantiation âis in the eye of the beholder.ââ
Itâs a fascinating puzzle. How did Caesar find time to live with the Indians, perhaps start a family, accompany an American army during the Revolution, and then leave for Kentucky to spend his old age? And why did he choose Kentuckyâwhere slavery flourishedâover a free state? Could it have been Ohioâs old law that required free Negroes in the state to present a $500 bond?
Alabama author Wade Hall doesnât answer questions like these, but he does believe Caesar existed. During Black History Month of 1996, as a professor of English at Bellarmine College in Lexington, Kentucky, Hall wrote a story about Caesar for the Louisville Courier-Journal, in which he suggested that Caesar was a slave of an army officer serving with Colonel George Rogers Clarkâs western campaign during the American Revolution. Hall based his idea on the contents of an old letter, discovered earlier in the 1990s, which mentions an African American who served with General Clarkâs army during its conquest of Vincennes, a former French town in what is now Knox County in western Indiana. Henry Beard of Lexington penned the letter on March 28, 1836, to friend and business partner Thomas S. Hinde in Mt. Carmel, Illinois. He wrote: âWe are all well thank God except an old Negro Man Ceasar [sic] who was with Genl. Clarks Army at the taking of Vincennes. This Winter & Spring has been to Severe for him & I think he must [be] ⌠between 80 & 90. He is a Strict Methodist & I have no fear for his soul.â
Military historians believe Clarkâs officers took their body servants with them, so the presence of a slave or servant on the journey wouldnât be surprising. If Caesar did travel with Clarkâs band, the letter puts to rest any idea that he was a fictional pioneer; rather, he was a participant in the American Revolution.
Hall mused: âNow Ceasar [sic] has stepped from the silent shadow of more than 200 years ago. We donât know whom he served. It was probably not Col. Clark⌠. But could it have been Capt. Joseph Bowman or Robert McCarty or Robert Todd or Jesse Evans? Or was it one of the young lieutenantsâAnthony Crockett or John Roberts or Richard Brashares or Isaac Bowman? We may never know for sure. Maybe thatâs not important anyway. All we know is that he was apparently with this expedition for its entire mission.â The entire mission ran over two years and led Clarkâs small army west through both hot and cold weather.
Hall surmised that Caesarâwhether the name was spelled âCaesarâ or âCeasarâ is anyoneâs guessâleft Corn Island at the Falls of the Ohio near Louisville on June 24, 1778, with 175 officers and men under the command of the Virginian Clark, twenty-five years old and filled with courage and daring. Clarkâs little army was heading toward former French towns that the British had occupied since the French and Indian War ended in 1763.
The Proclamation of 1763, which set treaty limits between the French and British, forbade American colonists from settling on the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains, but they did so anyway. The British, who had taken over French forts on the western frontier, tried to enforce the proclamation. They used Indian war parties to kill any colonial settlers, including those in Kentucky, who ignored the terms.
Hall tried to imagine Caesarâs fear of the unknown as the little group floated west toward uncertainty. British troops outnumbered the Americans, who had gathered short-term enlistees and volunteers. On the way, Hall said, Caesar probably had to work hard doing menial tasks for his master as well as chores for the army. During a total eclipse of the sun, the soldiers rode flatboats downriver toward the western British outposts of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes. The small American force would have had to float and later walk the 240 miles over boggy ground. Though Clarkâs group was low in number, it made up for any shortcomings in desire to guard Kentucky from more British and Native American attacks.
One can only imagine what Caesar thought as he trudged through the wetlands on his way to the Illinois country. He was a part of the small army of white men, one of them his own master, who wanted to kill Indians and British, who had not harmed him. Did he sympathize with the dark-skinned people who were losing their lives, culture, and homeland to white settlers? Or did he share the whitesâ fear of the Native Americans? Did he have a choice?
After traveling ten days, the American troops arrived at Kaskaskia on the Mississippi in the Illinois country, where the small band was able to defeat the well-entrenched British, thanks to Clarkâs tenacity and bravado. Assuming the invadersâ numbers were far greater, the British surrendered on July 4. So too did those at Cahokia, about fifty miles to the north. No shots were fired. Then larger Vincennes, a former French colony won by the English during the French and Indian War, gave up too.
But the American victory there was short-lived. On December 17, 1778, the British retook Fort Sackville, and a grueling winter set in. Clark planned to return. He knew the weather worked in his favor because the British were suffering too, and they didnât know how large a force he commanded. They planned a spring offensive to regain control of their lost forts.
The town of Vincennes soon welcomed the Americans. Some French men joined the Revolutionary army, believing they would fare better with the Americans and have a better chance of hanging onto their land.
Clark boldly demanded unconditional surrender from the British troops inside Fort Sackville on February 23, 1779. Some fighting followed, but after negotiations the British surrendered again. Two days later, at 10:00 A.M., the red-clad garrison marched out of the fort; the West was in American hands. Clark quickly renamed the outpost Fort Patrick Henry. He also captured the notorious Henry Hamilton, the British lieutenant governor based in Canada, who had organized the retaking of the fort. The despised Hamilton was nicknamed âHair Buyerâ because he paid Indians for settlersâ scalps in Detroit.
Caesar witnessed and participated in the unlikely American victory in the West, which hindered the British and Native Americans in their attacks on colonial pioneers in Kentucky and other remote areas. Three years later, the new land would become Americaâs Northwest Territory. Congress would pass the Ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude in the territory. But Caesar would not be there to enjoy it; he would move to Kentucky, where he lived the rest of his life. Nevertheless, according to Wade Hall, there was a âkind of long-term, cosmic justice that Caesar had helped set in motion. He and his unnamed black brethren who had served bravely alongside their white masters ⌠had helped prepare his way to freedom for all people, black and white, whether north or south of the Ohio River.â
When Lebanon, Ohioâs former librarian Dennis Dalton decided to fight the federal government over a missing ââsâ in the name âCaesar Creek,â some people told him he should find a hobby. He told them he already had oneâhistoryâand it is the reason he will preserve Caesarâs story. âSomeone has to do it for the people who come after us,â he said. âThis manâone of the early nonnative explorersâshould be remembered. Enslaved by white people as well as the Indians, he was caught between two worlds, trying to make a place for himself in a new land. Iâm not surprised that heâs nearly forgotten. A lot of whites of the 1800s overlooked black people. So we have to preserve what we do know of him.â
Dalton believes he might as well be the man to rediscover faded historical figures. After all, he has been interested in genealogy and history since his boyhood in Waynesville in the 1950s, and he is a direct descendant of Joseph Boone Sr., Daniel Booneâs uncle.
For decades, Caesarâs legend has fascinated Dalton, who has always believed the man was real. âHeâs a little hard to pin down,â Dalton said with a laugh. âI keep at it, though.â Daltonâs genealogical search takes him through country cemeteries, small-town libraries, and the back pages of history. When heâs not working on another history project, the retired nursing-home activities director studies state and regional history, making him as qualified as anybody to find the trail that Caesar left cold in the early 1800s.
Though Caesar didnât make it into The Ohio Almanac, he is not a myth. Allan Eckert wrote about him briefly in The Frontiersman, claiming that Caesar, who lived with the Indians, warned captive frontiersman Simon Kenton that the Indians planned to kill him. The almanac did list Kenton, who was âcaptured by the British and Indians, ran the gauntlet eight times, was tortured, thrice escaped burning at the stake, saved Daniel Booneâs life, and died at 81âin bed.â
Daltonâs best guess is that Caesar came down the Ohio with his white family when the Ohio Country was wilderness. Caesarâs black skin saved him when a group of Shawnee warriors killed the whites and either rescued or captured him.
Exactly when he came into the Ohio Country is open to question. Opinions have varied. âWe think he arrived in the bloody sevensâ1777,â said the Reverend Fred Shaw, of Neeake, a minister of the United Methodist Church and an official storyteller of the Shawnee Nation, United Remnant Band. âWhen the flatboat was taken, he became a part of the tribe. We donât know a lot about Caesar, but there are references to him by Indians and colonists of the period. I think he was a strong man, well respected, but he was not a warrior.â
Dalton surmises that Caesarâs time with the Indians came after he had served in the military campaigns in the 1780s. âVery little was ever written down about him,â he said. âA lot of it was passed on orally through the generations. Probably it is something that will always remain a mystery.â The Shawnee either invited Caesar to move into Old Town, their big community that stood near the present city of Xenia, or ordered him to do so. Later, according to some stories, they supposedly gave him property on a small tributary, now known as Caesarâs Creek. Perhaps that is when Caesar left the Shawnee.
âAt some point he became a servant to the military and he came through with Clarkâs army, which camped along the Little Miami River,â Dalton said. âPeople have found swords and other army pieces buried along there over the years. I believe this is where Caesar first learned of the beautiful area in what is today Warren County.â
Later, Dalton said, Caesar took the first name Charles and moved to Lexington, where he did indeed die at an old age. âI am still trying to find his grave,â Dalton said. âMy guess is that it is unmarked and around Lexington. Because he was a former slave, I doubt if he had a marked grave, and I doubt if anyone would even consider bringing him back to Ohio in ⌠the 1830s. I wonât stop looking. After all, he was one of our stateâs early explorers. He showed Daniel Boone escape routes to flee from the Indians. They were valuable then. But finding Caesar has been difficult; he had only one name early in his life, so it was tough to trace his descendants. Then I remembered that classical slave names like his were changed about 1800. That made the search a little easier. Caesar became the last name. I found a Charles Caesar living in Lebanon in 1825. Iâm convinced he was a descendant of our Caesar.â
Each year, Dalton uncovers more clues in brittle courthouse records, eighteenth-century histories, and dusty genealogiesâand in telephone directories from southern Ohio and North Carolina. Dalton contacted Nancye Caesar Donaldson, her familyâs historian, who has been tracing Caesar for years. They became a team; they are convinced that she is Caesarâs great-great-great-great-granddaughter. âWhen I was young,â she said, âpeople used to tease my family about being named after him. We didnât know much about our background. Many years later, a friend told me about the black man named Caesar, and how there is a park named after him. I was fascinated. I tried to connect him to us. Going back several generations, I ran into trouble. Dennis helped.â
Daltonâwith assistance from fellow Warren County historiansâcompiled a dossier on Caesar, based on hundreds of hours of research. While he was writing a pioneer history for the Caesar Creek State Park Visitors Center decades ago, he became more interested in Caesar. He was not satisfied with gathering only dates and names. With Donaldsonâs help, he organized a Caesar family reunion at the park in July 1996. Dressed in a colonial town crierâs outfit (he was then the town crier for the village of Waynesville), Dalton addressed fifty-three family members about Caesar the explorer.
A patch of Caesarâs wilderness still exists at the state park, which opened in the late 1970s, after decades of preparation. The United States Army Corps of Engineers dammed Caesarâs Creek to create the parkâs 2,830-acre recreational lake, between Waynesville and Harveysburg. The corps obtained the land and leased it to the state. L...