Three night last week the ghost of Simon Girty has made its appearance on Girty Island, seven miles up the river from Napoleon. He appears a solitary figure in a bark canoe, rowing slowly and stealthily in and out of the little inlets of the island. He is dressed in Indian costume, with a silk handkerchief about his head to conceal the ugly wound which was the the cause of his death.
Every five years the ghost comes back, and the form and dress of the old renegada are as well known in the locality as they were seventy years ago, when he terrorized the early settlers of the county.
Simon Girty was a white man who fell into the hands of the Seneca Indians when a child. He was reared by them, and became more blood thirsty and cruel than the savages themselves.
At the head of a band of outlaws Indians he made his headquarters in the Maumee valley. He delighted in torturing his prisoners, especially women and children, and his name still conjures up unknown terrors. When hard pressed Girty and his band would escape to the island, fortify themselves, and defy capture. He it was who led the attack on Colonel Crawford and burned the captured men at stake.
Before his death Girty became blind and suffered excruciating pain from rheumatism. He continued game to the last, and was literally hacked to pieces when Colonel Johnson's men defeated Proctor's force.
P.S. Good ghost story, bad history, someday I will do Girty's story. Dave
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