USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 1 > Part 23
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The captain, however, discovered it soon, and followed. They had not gone far before they met Major Fontaine, who had returned to inform them of Colonel Hardin's Inovements. They were moved on at a quick pace, but in a short time met two of the mounted men, riding at full speed, having each a wounded man behind him. They called out " Retreat! retreat! The main body in front is entirely defeated, and there are Indians enough to eat us all up." Captain Faulkner and his men, how- ever, moved on until they gained an elevated piece of ground, when they discovered our troops in rapid retreat, the Indians in close pursuit, shouting and yelling like demons. The party to which Ensign Irwin belonged halted and formed a line ou each side of the trace, and secreted themselves behind trees, intending to give the Indians a fire when they came up. The officers of the defeated party stopped when they reached where Captain Faulkner was, and remained in that position until all the retreating troops had passed by. When the Indians came up, the small party on either side of the trace gave them a fire, which checked them for a moment, and the detachment then slowly retreated, covering the fugitives. The latter continued coming into camp until twelve of one o'clock at night. It seemed that the Indians had set a trap for our troops, and we were caught in it.
tinguish themselves, and wipe off the stigma they had ineurred a few days before, determined to attack the In- dians. Ensign Irwin and seven men volunteered from Captain Faulkner's company. The troops were divided into two parties. Major Fontaine, who was in advance, stumbled upon a small number of men, who shot him as he sat upon his horse. This gave the alarm. The fight soon became general; the Indians fought with the great- est bravery and resolution, and stubbornly maintained their ground. At length, however, they yielled, and re- treated. Our loss was great, but if the forces had been larger, it was the general opinion we should have inflicted upon them a lasting chastisement. In this engagement there were killed, on the American side, one hundred and seventy-eight, and twenty-one were wounded. The number of Indians killed could never be ascertained, but Mr. Irwin was of opinion that their loss was very heavy.
An affecting incident occurred at the place of cross- ing the river. A young Indian, with his father and brother, was crossing the river, when a ball from the rifle of a white man passed through the body of the young Indian. The old man, seeing his boy fall, dropped his gun, and attempted to raise his son, in order to carry him beyond reach. At this moment his other son was also.shot at his side. The old man drew them both to the shore, and then sat down between them, and with fearless composure awaited the approach of the pursuing fue, who soon came up, and killed him also.
Dunean MeArthur, formerly governor of the State of Ohio, who was in this battle, relates the following circum- stance, which tends to show the cool, undaunted courage of Mr. Irwin. While his company was covering the re- treat of the troops, and slowly retiring before the fire of the enemy, the strap which held his powder-horn was cut from his shoulder by a ball. As soon as he missed it, he turned about, ran back several paces in the full face of a considerable body of the enemy, secured his powder -? horn, and then again joined his companions in their re- treat. He was soon again observed to halt am com- meuce picking the flint of his gun. MeArthur, who was close by him at the time, addressing him, said : "Damn it, come along ; the Indians are upon ns." Irwin coolly replied: "I want to get one more shot before I leave them."
The army took up its line of march for Fort Washi- ington the day after the battle, arriving on the third day of November. The Indians porsned them. in sight of the army, almost the whole distance. without, however. committing any serious depredations. As soon as the army arrived at the fort, the militia were disbanded and dismissed, and General Darmar lett soon afterward for Philadelphia, the seat of government. After the diis- bandment, Mr. Irwin remained in Cincinnati chaine the ensuing Winter and Summer.
After destroying every thing practicable, the army sec ont on its return march on the 21st of October. A few men were left to watch the proceedings of the Indians. They reported to Colonel Hardin the same night. and said that the Tufians had returned to their camp, and were engaged in hunting for buried provisions. Colonel While in that city, an attack was made upon the set- Hardin, inflamed with a desire to allow his troops to dis- I tlers at Dunlap's Station. Two or three hundred Indians
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PIONEERS AND SOLDIERS.
surrounded the fort, and began firing at those within. Cox, afterward one of the first to take up lands in Union Township, happened to be out hunting in that neighbor- hood, and being satisfied in his own mind as to the cause, went to Cincinnati, and informed Governor St. Clair. A volunteer force of twenty-five or thirty men, of whom Irwin was one (being in Cincinnati at the time), turned out immediately. The same number of men were taken from the regulars, the whole being placed under the command of Captain Truman; and about twenty volun- teered to go from Columbia the next morning. The In- dians had, however, left before the troops reached the station. Two of the savages were found lying dead, as well as a white man, named Hunt, whom they had cap- tured the day before.
About the 1st of September, 1791, Thomas Irwin joined St. Clair's army. He was engaged as one of the wagoners who had charge of the gun-carriages for trans- porting the eannon. The army moved from Ludlow's Station on the 17th of September, and marched, under the command of Colonel William Darke, to the Great Miami "River, striking it about half a mile below where the court-house now is, -in the city of Hamilton. There were two companies that had charge of the artillery wagons, Mr. Irwin belonging to one of these companies. They lay at this camp until the fort was built. or at least so far completed as to be in a condition to receive a garrison.
We have sufficiently described the events of the cam- paign elsewhere, and shall ouly mention those matters which particularly concerned Mr. Irwin. At the disas- trous defeat he was posted near the artillery, which was in the center of each wing, and against which the great weight of the attack was directed. The enemy, impelled to vigorous exertions by all the motives which operate on the savage mind, rushed up boldly, toma- hawks in hand, to the very mouths of the cannon, and fought with the daring courage of men whose trade is war. The artillerymen were driven from thei . posts with great slaughter, and two pieces were captured by the enemy. Shortly after. Colonel Darke charged the In- dians with bayonets. and drove them out of their coverts with consternation. The artillery was retaken, and the Indians driven across the creek out of sight, when the colonel gave the order to march bark. This they did through the mass of Indians, those they had driven back following and keeping up a deadly fire in their rear. When they arrived where the artillery and baggage- wagons stood, they Said them in the possession of the Indians, and surrounded by them in great numbers. By duis time there were not more than thirty or forty of I'donel Darke's command left standing . the rest had heen shot down, and were either killed or wounded. To avoid this fato for the repriinder of the men, the little bind charged again, and at the same time a charge was made on the other side by the battalions commanded by
Majors Butler and Clark. It was successful, and the artillery was again retaken. General St. Clair ordered up the whole train of artillery in order to sweep the bushes with grapeshot; but the horses and artillerymen were soon destroyed by the terrible fire of the enemy before any effect could be produced. As fast as the artillerymen were shot down they were replaced by men from the infantry, but with no avail.
The men fell in every portion of the camp. No more hotly contested action was ever fought. The ground was covered with the bodies of the dead and dying; the freshly scalped heads were recking with smoke, and in the heavy morning frost (as one who was present ex- pressed himself) looked like so many pumpkins in a corn- field in December. The little ravine that Jed to the ereck was literally running with blood. The meu were evidently disheartened.
Under thesc circumstances, General St. Clair deter- mined to save the lives of the survivors, if possible. The troops were massed, and by a charge regained the road from which they had previously been cut off. Thomas Irwin was near the front when the retreat began, but for some reason was delayed, and fell nearly in the rear. The savages were in full chase, and scarcely twenty yards behind him. He exerted himself to place a more re- spectable distance between himself and the pursuing foc; although it required considerable caution to avoid the bayonets of the guns which the men had thrown off in their retreat, with the sharp points toward the pursuers, great numbers of men having thrown away their arms, running with all their might. The Indians pursued them about four miles.
The battle began half an hour before sunrise, and the retreat commenced about ten o'clock. They reached Fort Jefferson a little before dark.
In the month of December following, Mr. Irwin bay- ing received his discharge, left Cincinnati, and returned to his father's residence in Washington County, Pennsyl. vania. The next April Mr. Irwin again descended the Ohio River to Cincinnati, and in January, 1793, was married in Cincinnati, by JJustice William MeMillan, to Miss Au Larimore. He remained there a few years, when be removed to this county, buying land in the neighborhood of Blue Ball, Lemon Township, where he - resided until the time of his death. As the country was entirely new, he had much work in clearing up the trees, and erecting the necessary buildings.
In the war of 1812 be served a tour of duty of -is mouths as a major in the Ohio militia, under the command of General John S. Gano. The regiment in which Major Irwin served was commanded by Colonel Henry Tumalt. AAfter the expiration of his term of service he returned in his home, in March, 1814. This closed his active military career. bat shortly after he was dieted a colond. and commanded a regiment of militia, which gave him the title of vologel, by which he was mmforuly calledl.
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
In October, 1808, Mr. Irwin was elected a member of the State Senate of Ohio, to which he was successively re- elected until his whole term of service was twelve years, or until the year 1820. In the Fall of 1824 he was chosen to the Lower House of the Legislature from But- ler County, and served in that body one session. In 1823 he was elected a justice of the peace for Lemon Township, holding the position for nineteen years. He always discouraged strife, and invariably counseled a peaceful settlement of any matter brought before him.
. Colonel Thomas Irwin died on Sunday evening, Oc- tober 3, 1847, aged eighty-one years. On the succeeding Tuesday his remains were interred with military honors by the Monroe Guards, in the burying-ground of Mount Pleasant, a little north of Monroe. He died a consistent Christian, having been an eller in the Associate Reformed Church from 1805. He was a man of exemplary habits, an affectionate fatber, and an irreproachable citizen.
SAMUEL DICK.
OUR country owed nich of its rapid development to those who came here from foreign lands to seek their for- tunes. Among these, in proportion to its size, Ireland has been the most prolific. Fully one quarter of our population have some Irish blood in their veins. Among these bardy immigrants was Samuel Dick, a native of the. county of Antrim, where he was born on the 21st of April, 1764. Ilis parents, who were in a respectable position of life, died when he was quite young, and left him to the care of some relatives. In the Spring of the year 1783, being then nineteen years of age, he sailed from Belfast for America. Two of his brothers were settled in Balti- more, where they had been selling goods, but on bis ar- rival they proposed to take him into partnership, and establish themselves in business in Gettysburg. He re- fused this offer, although they were well-to-do and he was poor, for he had resolved to carve out his own fortunes. He went, however, with his brothers to Gettysburg, with the intention of going to school that Winte .; but only a few days after his arrival he met some one who wished to have brandy distilled from apples. Mr. Dick was somewhat acquainted with the process, and offered his aid. It was accepted, and in this same employment he remained all Winter, being well compensated.
The next Spring the young man crossed the Alle- glianics, and among other things he engaged to teach the son of Mr. George Gillespie the art of distilling. This necessarily brought him much about the house, and in frequent intercourse with the family, which resulted in an intimate and lasting friendship. Mr. Gillespie had a daughter, Martha, of comely figure and good di-position, whom Mr. Dick admired very much. Que day ber fa- ther treated her rather harshly . mul in a ft of exaspera- tion she said she would accept the first respectable man that offered. Mr. Dick was close by, and said to her, laughingly, " Here is your man." In the end what was
said in a joke was taken in earnest, and he married her in 1785. They lived in great harmony together until her death, at the homestead on Indian Creek. in 1833.
The place where he was residing at the time of his marriage was Washington County, Pennsylvania; but in 1790 he coneluded to go farther West, taking his wife and two children with him. He purchased a lot in the new settlement of Cincinnati, on which he erected a house. He opened a grocery. and occasionally was en- gaged in forwarding provisions and supplies for the troops at Fort Hamilton and other forts in the interior. He afterward kept a taveru in the house where he resided. He was one of those who went forth to the relief of Dunlap's Station, when it was attacked, and also saw Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne each marel out on their respective expeditions.
At an early period he became the purchaser of a sec- tion of land containing six hundred and forty acres, lying on the head-waters of what is now known as Dick's Creek, adjoining the Butler County line, in Warren County. The United States lands west of the Great Miami River were first brought into market in the year 1801. At the first sale Mr. Dick bought six hundred and forty arres in the rich bottom of Indian Creek, in the present town of Ross, where he removed the next year. On this land he spent the remainder of his days, bringing up his fin- ily in great respectability.
Mr. Dick was one of the grand jurors in July, 1803, at the first session of the Court of Common Pleas of Butler County. At the general election in October, 1803. he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio that met at Chillicothe, on the first Monday of December in that year. He served in the Legislature" during that session, but ever afterward refuse to permit his name to be used for office.
He died at the house of his son-in-law, Judge Fergus Anderson, in Ross Township, on the 4th of August. 1846, aged eighty-two years; and was buried beside his wife, in the burying-ground at Bethel Chapel. He was a man of high moral principle, thorough and painstaking, prompt in his engagements, and full of sigacity. His business andertakings were successful, and he amassed a consider- able fortune. During a great portion of his litt he was a member of the Presbyterian Chas h. and in his will bequeathed a legacy to the one in Venice, which he at- teneled.
. He left five sons and four daughters. George, who married Jane Arderson; David, who married Judith Big- ham; Samuel; James; Elizabeth, who married joseph Wilson : Jane, who married John Wilson; Mary, who married Fergus Anderson ; Mariba, who married James Bigham; and dust, who married Thomas JJ. Shichis.
JAMES SHIELDY
Tuis gentleman was a native ot the north of Ireland. His parents were in moderate circumstances. He was
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THE WAR OF 1812.
born in the year 1763. He received the rudiments of the Latin and Greek languages at a classical school in his native land, and completed his education at the Univer- city of Glasgow. He had a quick and retentive memory, a sound, discriminating judgment, and a licart formed for friendship and benevolence. Possessing a mind so capable of receiving and retaining instruction, and en- joying the advantage of well-qualified tutors, it need not be wondered at that he laid a deep and solid foundation for future improvement. He had an extensive acquaint- unce with every branch of useful knowledge. With nat- ural, civil, and ecclesiastical history, and with law, physic, and divinity, he obtained a very general acquaintance. Few men possessing knowledge so various and extensive made so little display of their attainments or so reluctantly acknowledged the extent of their acquisitions.
Having early timbibed an ardent love of liberty, with an unconquerable aversion to priestly and royal dom- ination, he resolved to leave the land of his birth, and to cast in his lot with the sons of freedom in the United States .. He landed in this country in 1791. He spent a short time in the State of Pennsylvania, after which he removed to Virginia. In this State he spent thirteen years in cultivating his own mind, and in the useful and honorable employment of instructing youth. In 1804 he married Miss Jane Wright, daughter of Mr. James Wright, of Berkeley County, Virginia. In 1805 he removed to Morgan Township, in this county, where he had previously purchased land. He began farming in the midst of a dense forest, surrounded by few settlers. and those entire strangers. It must be confessed that from the natural disposition and former habits of Mr. Shields, he was little qualified for this course of life. But while he was reasonably successful in his undertaking, he speedily rose to a commanding influence among his fellow- citizens, that must have recompensed him for the failure to reap great pecuniary success. His immediate neigh- bors soon discovered that they were blessed with a friend of superior acquirements, and they uniformly looked up to him for counsel, but never in vain.
He was successful in political life. He never took a step, wrote a line, or dropped an expression to obtain preferment, yet the public demonstrated their conviction of his superior worth by sending him to the State Legis- lature for a period of nineteen years. He was chosen a presidenual elector, and for the last two years of his life was a member of Congress. Each and all of the duties incumbent upon these stations were discharged with the utmost panctuality and regularity, and although, when Congress assembled for its second term, the disease had lagen which finally carried him off, he would not allow Himself to be absent from any session. His duty was to Le there, and he was there.
Mr. Shields was a man of the highest moral character. During his long residence in Morgan Township all with whom he had any intercourse knew that he would never
approach a dishonorable action. His word was, in all cases, his bond, aud his declaration in regard to farts which he had witnessed was never disputed. He was uniformly abstemions in eating and drinking. In pecun- iary transactions he would rather suffer loss than contend with a neighbor. His conduct was uniform. He was never seen at any convivial party, without a special call. on important business; and wherever he was, in his fam- ily, on his farm, in a party of friends, or in public com- pany, his conduct strictly conformed to the rules of moral rectitude.
He was an enlightened and firm believer in revealed religion. Few men have studied the subject more dili- gently. " He had read, not only those brief and ephemeral attacks on Christianity which are at all times to be found, but also those more learned and elaborate works of Her- bert, Hobbes, Bolingbroke, Hume, Gibbon, Voltaire, Volney, and Rousseau. He was a man who made up his opinion on evidence, and consequently read the answer's to infidel publications written by Leland, Halyburton, Les- lie, Watson, Paley, Beattie, Campbell, Chalmers, Dick, and others. His religious opinions were strictly evangel- ical and orthodox.
He was warmly attached to the Bible Society, Sabbath- schools, missionary societies, the American Colonization So- ciety, and every other institution which had for its object the illumination, liberty, and happiness of men. To estal- lish a Sunday-school in his immediate neighborhood he ex- erted all his influence; and while he refused the superin- tendence of the school he most cheerfully became a teacher, and the diligent, profitable, and agreeable manner in which he taught was not soon forgotten by those who had the privilege of being his scholars. He was never absent, never late in attendance. He attended public worship regularly.
James Shields died on the 13th of August. 1831; after a lingering sickness. He had returned home from Wash- ington, with extreme difficulty, and from the day of his arrival was generally confined in bed. He did not lose his cheerfulness, although his sufferings were great. He left au affectionate wife and twelve children to lameut their loss.
THE WAR OF 1812.
THE second war with Great Britain was a very im- portant one to ns. Without saying, as do some histo- rians, that England had never given up her hopes of forcing us to come back until after 1815, it is clear that there were many questions upon which, if success- ful, she could have ordered matters to suit herself. Her fleets could have filled the Northern lakes: Oregon would have been hers, as well as a strip of more than one ban- dred miles wide running Due to the Rocky Mountains;
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
Maine would have lost her northern frontier, and the In- dians would have threatened us for the next quarter of a century. Here, in Butler County, a success to Great Britain meaut an army marching down to Cincinnati, and devastation by the Indians all through the western part of Ohio. Happily, we were victorious.
The declaration of war was immediately followed by the rising of troops in Cincinnati, Dayton, Franklin, Middletown, and Hamilton. There were at least eight companies from this county, or chiefly from this county, but it is impossible to give a list of them. Their muster- rolls are decaying in some garret, or have before this been usel as kiudling. The customary term of enlistment was for six months, and several of the later companies et- braced men who had been out before. The disastrous ex- perience of the American army at the beginning of the Revolutionary War had not taught our authorities its rightful lesson, and we had again, at the opening of the Rebellion, to be shown that troops enlisted for short peri- ods are of very little value. When some slight experience is gained, their term is up, and it is time to go home again.
The best known of those who went out from this county was Joel Collins, who had been a soldier in the Indian wars, and was then settled in the township of Oxford.
In organizing the militia of the county, previous to the commencement of hostilities with England, two rifle com- panies were ordered to be made up by voluntary euroil- ment, one out of the militia residing on the east, the other out of the militia residing on the west side of the Miami River. Collins himself enrolled as a private soldier un- der Captain William Robeson, who had been elected to command the company on the west side of the river. Cap- tain Robeson was, however, shortly after promoted to a brigade-major, and the company then chose his lieutenant, John Taylor, to be their commander. He died in 1811, and Joel Collius was elected his successor. Ilis commis- sion bore date the 18th of May, 1812, giving him the ank of captain of a rifle regiment; he was attached to the first battalion, second regiment, third brigade, and first division of Ohio militia. In the Spring of the year 1812, General James Findlay, who hat command of the third brigade, in preparing to join Hill's army, sent an order for the two rifle companies in Butier County to pa- rade in the town of Hamilton on a given day, and the company which should have the largest number of vol- unteers on the ground would have the honor of being taken into the service and attached to Findlay's regiment. General Findlay acted in the capacity of a colonel in the expedition, under Genera! Hall. Unfortunately for Chp- tain Collins, as he thought at the time, many of Lis men were prevented from appearing, being unable to cross the streams of water, that day founded by the torrents of rain which had fallen the night previous, and Captain John Robinson, who resided ou Dicks Crock. Lemon Township, i
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