Chief Cornstalk’s Grave

Come see the grave of Hokoleskwa, or Chief Cornstalk, a Mekoche Shawnee chieftain and war leader, master strategist, and impressive orator. He organized the various Ohio tribes in their resistance to British and Colonial expansion, and in 1774, led them in war against Lord Dunmore and Andrew Lewis’ Virginia militia. He fought Lewis’ Southern Army to a near draw during the Battle of Point Pleasant, but faced with Dunmore’s Northern Army nearing his and his sister Nonhelema’s towns near present day Circleville, Ohio. Cornstalk signed the Treaty of Camp Charlotte establishing the Ohio River as the border between the English colonies and Native American lands.

While on a peace mission to Fort Randolph during the American Revolution, he and three other chieftains were brutally murdered, shattering the fragile peace and forcing a Native-British alliance. In the 1840s, his grave was discovered and moved to the Mason County Courthouse lawn. During the construction of the present courthouse in 1954, his grave was moved to Tu-Endie-Wei State Park where it rests today.