USA > Ohio > Washington County > Belpre > A history of Belpre, Washington County, Ohio > Part 3
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Maj. Nathan Goodale was the first Captain, and held that office until he removed into his own garrison in 1793, when Colonel Cushing took the command. The flagstaff stood a few yards west of the back gate near the house of Colonel Cushing on which floated the stars and stripes. Near the staff was a large howitzer, or swivel gun, mount- ed on a platform incased in wood, hooped with iron bands and painted to resemble a six pounder. It was so adjusted as to revolve on a socket, and thus point to any part of the works. During the Spring and Summer months, when there was any probability of Indians, it was fired regularly morning and evening. It could be distinctly heard for sev- eral miles around, especially up and down the river; the banks and hills, re-echoing the report. This practice no
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doubt kept the Indians in awe, and warned them not to ap- proach a post whose inmates were habitually watchful, and so well prepared to defend themselves. Around this spot it was customary for loungers and news mongers to as- semble, to discuss the concerns of the Castle and tell the news of the day. It was also the rallying point in case of an assault and the spot where the muster roll was called morning and evening. The spies and rangers here made reports of their discoveries to the Commandant; in short it was "place d'armes" of Farmers Castle.
In the upper room of every house was kept a large cask or hogshead constantly filled with water to be used in case of fire. It was a part of the duty of the Officer of the day to inspect every house, and see that the cask was well filled. Another duty was to prevent any stack of grain or fodder being placed so near the Castle as to endanger the safety of the buildings should the Indians set them on fire or to shelter them in case of an assault.
They also inspected the gates, pickets, and houses, to see that all were in repair and well secured at night. They received dispatches from abroad, or sent out expresses to the other stations. Their authority was absolute and the government strictly military. The greatest and principal danger to the settlers arose from their exposure to attacks when engaged during the Spring and Summer months in working in their fields. The clearings of some of the in- habitants lay at the distance of three miles, while others were within rifle shot of the garrison. Those could only be visited in companies of fifteen or twenty men. Their exposure was not confined to their actual engagement in their fields, but chiefly in going to and returning from their labors. While at their work, sentries were constantly placed in the edge of the adjoining forest; and flanking parties examined the ground when marching through the wood between the upper and lower settlements. It was a great labor to transport their crops for so long a distance after they were harvested, although it was chiefly done by water. For these reasons, in the second year of the war, it was decided as best for them to divide into smaller com- munities. Accordingly, a strong stockade garrison was built three miles above called "Stones Garrison," and one below called "Goodales Garrison." To these several fami-
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lies, whose lands adjoined, removed and continued to occupy them until the close of the war. Fresh emigrants how- ever continually arrived so that Farmers Castle remained crowded.
A list of families in Farmers Castle at Belpre in 1792.
No. 1-Colonel Ebenezer Battelle, wife, and four chil- dren : Cornelius, Ebenezer, Thomas and Louisa.
No. 2-Captain William James, wife, and ten children : Susan, Anna, Esther, Hannah, Abigal and Polly; William, John, Thomas, and Simeon. Also Isaac Barker, wife, and eight children: Michael, Isaac, Joseph, William and Tim- othy; Anna, Rhoda, and Nancy. Also Daniel Cogswell, wife and five children : John, Abigal, Peleg, Job and Daniel.
3 .- Captain Jonathan Stone wife and three children: Benjamin Franklin, Samuel, and Rufus Putnam.
No. 4-Colonel Nathaniel Cushing, wife, and six chil- dren: Nathaniel, Henry, Varnum, Thomas, Sally and Eliza- beth. Also Captain Jonathan Devoll, wife, and six chil- dren : Henry, Charles, Barker, Francis, Sally and Nancy, with a nephew, Christopher Devoll.
No. 5-Isaac Pierce, wife, and three children : Samuel, Joseph and Phebe. Also Nathaniel Little, wife, and one child. Also Joseph Barker, wife and one Child, Joseph, born in Belpre.
No. 6-Maj. Nathan Goodale, wife, and seven children: Betsy, Cynthia, Sally, Susan, Henrietta, Timothy, and Lin- coln.
No. 7-In the South west corner of the garrison, A. W. Putnam, wife, and one child, William Pitt born in the garrison. Also D. Loring, wife, and seven children: Is- rael, Rice and Jesse; Luba, Bathsheba, Charlotte and Polly. Major Oliver Rice lived in the family of Mr. Loring. Also Captain Benjamin Miles, wife, and five children: Benja- min, Buckmaster and Hubbard, (twins), William, Tappan and Polly.
No. 8-Griffin Green, Esq., wife, and four children, Richard, Philip, Griffin and Susan.
No. 9-John Rouse, wife, and eight children: Michael, Bathsheba, Cynthia, Betsy, Ruth, Stephen, Robert and Bar-
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ker, twins. Also Maj. Robert Bradford wife and three or four children. Several of these children died of scarlet fever, others were born after the war.
No. 10-Captain John Leavens, wife, and six children: Joseph, and John, Nancy, Fanny, Esther and Matilda. Also Captain William Dana, wife, and eight children: Luther, William, (young men) Edmond, Stephen, John, Charles and Augustus; Betsy Mary and Fanny.
Between 10 and 11 there was a long low building, call- ed the barracks in which a small detachment of United States troops were quartered.
No. 11-Mrs. Dunham widow of Daniel Dunham, who died in 1791, one son and two daughters. Also Captain Israel Stone, wife, and ten children : Sardine, a young man, Israel, Jasper, Augustus, B. Franklin, and Columbus; Bet- sy, Matilda, Lydia and Harriet, born in the Castle.
No. 12-Benjamin Patterson, wife, and six children: three of the rangers, or spies, who were single men, board- ed with him, viz : John Shepherd, George Kerr, and Matthew Kerr. Patterson served as a spy three years for the settle- ment at Belpre and then moved down the river. Also Benoni Hurlburt, wife, and four childrern.
No. 13-Colonel Alexander Oliver, wife, and eleven children: Launcelot, a young man, Alexander, John and David, Lucretia, Betsy, Sally, Mehala, Electa, Mary. Also Colonel Daniel Bent, wife and four children : Nathan, Dan- iel, Dorcas, and daughter who married Joel Oaks. Also Silas Bent, Esq., oldest son of the Colonel, wife and two or three children.
Several other families lived in Farmers Castle for a short time and then proceeded down the river but the above list contains nearly all the permanent and substantial heads of families who settled in Belpre in 1789 and 1790.
Joshua Fleehart, wife, and four children, lived in a small cabin east of block house No. 3. He was a noted hunter and supplied the garrison with fresh meat. Soon after the war closed he removed nearer to the frontier where he could follow trapping and hunting to better ad- vantage. One of his hunting advertures will be related later.
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Unmarried men in Farmers Castle: Jonathan Waldo, Daniel Mayo, Jonathan Baldwin, Cornelius Delano, Joel Oaks, James Caldwell, Wanton Casey, Stephen Guthrie, Truman Guthrie, Captain Ingersol, Ezra Phillips, Stephen Smith, Howell Bull, Samuel Cushing, William and John Smith, Jonas Davis, Dr. Samuel Barnes.
Within the walls of Farmers Castle there were assem- bled about two hundred and twenty souls, twenty-eight of these were heads of families. A number of those enum- erated as children were males above sixteen years and en- rolled for military duty. Others were young women from sixteen to twenty years of age.
Among the inmates of the garrison the name of Chris- topher Putnam or Kitt as he was familiarly called, must not be forgotten. He was a colored boy of sixteen or eigh- teen years of age, who had been the personal or body ser- vant of General Israel Putnam, during the latter years of his life, and after his death lived with his son Col. Israel Putnam. In the fall of 1789, Colonel Putnam came out to Marietta with his son Aaron Waldo, and brought Kitt with him. In the Autumn of 1790 the Colonel returned to Con- necticut for his family. That winter the war broke out and he did not move them until 1795. Kitt remained at Belpre with Mr. Putnam in the garrison and was a great favorite with the boys. He was their chosen leader in all their athletic sports, for his wonderful activity, and much belov- ed for his kind and cheerful disposition. When abroad in the fields cultivating or planting their crops, he was one of their best hands, either for work or to stand as a sentry. On these occasions he sometimes took his station in the low- er branches of a tree where he could have a wider range of vision and give early notice of the approach of danger. Under the watchful vigilance of Kitt, all felt safe at their work. After he was twenty-one years of age and became a free man he lived with Captain Devoll, on the Muskingum and assisting in tending the floating mill and clearing the land on the farm. At the election for delegates, under the territory, to form a constitution for Ohio, Kitt was a voter and was probably the first and only black who ever exercised the elective franchise in Washington County as after the adoption of that article all colored men were dis-
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franchised. (Later they were allowed the franchise.) He died about the year 1802 much lamented for his many per- sonal good qualities and industrious habits.
CHAPTER III
CONTINUED HOSTILITIES
HE crops of the settlers were confined chiefly to Indian corn, beans, potatoes, turnips, and pump- kins, with a little wheat and rye. They also raised hemp and flax for domestic use. Until the erection of a floating mill in the fall of 1791, a noted era in the annals of Belpre, their meal was all ground in the primitive hand mill. But little wheat was raised until after the close of the war, when mills were built on the creeks. By the aid of a bolting machine, turned by hand in the gar- rison, the floating mill furnished the flour for many a noble loaf of bread, and the crusts of numerous pumpkin pies, the only fruit afforded for this use in that day.
The winter following the first occupation of Farmers Castle was one of severe privation in the article of meat. Late in the fall of 1791, the fat hogs were all collected and slaughtered in company, and hung up in an outhouse near the garrison to cool and dry through the night. During this period it accidentally took fire and burnt up all their winter stock of meat, to their great loss and disappoint- ment. A number of other hogs which had been left at their outlots and fattened in pens were also killed by the Indians. These were visited by their owners once in three or four days, and fed with corn left in the field for that purpose.
YOUNG MEN SENT TO RED STONE
Under these discouraging circumstances the inhabi- tants contributed all the money they could gather, which was but a small sum, and dispatched two active young men to "Red Stone" to purchase a supply of salt meat and a few barrels of flour. It was a hazardous journey, not only in danger from the Indians, who, since St. Clairs defeat, were still more harrassing to the inhabitants, but also from the inclemency of the season, it being the first part of De-
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cember. They, however reached head waters unmolested, made their purchases, and were ready to descend the river when it closed with ice. In the meantime nothing was heard from the two messengers by the inhabitants and winter wore away in uncertainty of their fate. Some thought they had decamped with the money, and others that they had been killed by the Indians, as the news of St. Clairs defeat had reached them soon after their depart- ure; while the more reflecting were firm in their confidence of the integrity of the young men and attributed their silence to a want of opportunity to send them a letter, as the river was closed, and no regular mail was then estab- lished. The last of February the ice broke up in the Ohio, with a flood of water that covered the banks and inundated the ground on which the garrison was built. Early in March the young men arrived with a small Kentucky boat with provisions, and entering the garrison by the upper gate, moored their ark at the door of the commandant, to the great joy and relief of the inhabitants. After the dis- astrous events of the Campaign of 1791, a small guard of United States troops were stationed at Belpre, usually con- sisting of a corporal and five men. Their principal duty was to watch the garrison, while the inhabitants were abroad in their fields, or at any other employment. They also served in rotation with the inhabitants in standing sentry in the watch towers. John L. Shaw, well known in Marietta, for many years after the war, as an eccentric character, of great wit and power of mimicry, was corporal of the guard for a time and a great favorite with the in- mates of the Castle. He was subsequently a Sergeant in Captain Haskells Company from Rochester, Mass. During Wayne's Campaign, while stationed at Fort Recovery he had a narrow escape from the Indians. In October, 1793, contrary to orders, he ventured out into the forest near the fort to gather hickory nuts and had set his musket against a tree. While busily engaged, with his head near the ground, he heard a slight rustling in the leaves close to him. Rising suddenly from his stooping posture, he saw an Indian within a few yards, his tomahawk raised ready for a throw, while at the same time he called out in broken English "Prisoner, Prisoner!" Shaw having no relish for captivity sprang to his gun, cocked it and faced round just as the Indian hurled his hatchet. It was aimed at his
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head but by a rapid inclination of the body, it missed its destination and lodged the whole length of the blade in the muscles of the loin. By the time he had gained an erect position his enemy was within two steps of him with his scalping knife. Shaw now fired his gun with such effect as to kill him on the spot, and its muzzle was so near as to set his calico hunting shirt on fire. Before he could reload, another Indian rushed upon him, and he was obliged to trust his heels in flight. He ran in the direction of the fort, but a fresh Indian started up before him, and he was ob- liged to take to the woods. Being in the prime of life and a very active runner he distanced all his pursuers, leaping logs and other obstructions which the Indians had to climb over or go around. After fifteen or twenty minutes of hot pursuit, which the shrill yells of the Indians served to quicken, he reached within a short distance of the fort, and met a party of men coming out to his rescue. They had heard the shot and at once divined the cause, as no firing was allowed near the fort, except at the enemy or in self defense. Shaws life was saved from the rifles of the Sav- ages only by their desire of taking a prisoner to learn the intentions of General Wayne.
The first actual demonstration of hostility, after the inhabitants had taken possession of their new garrison, was on March 12th by some of the same party who had attacked the settlement at Waterford, and killed Captain Rogers at Marietta. The settlers who had evacuated their farms, of necessity left a part of their cattle and fodder on the premises; while those near the castle were visited daily to feed and milk their cows. On this morning Waldo Put- nam, a son of Colonel Israel Putnam, and grandson of the old veteran General, in company with Nathaniel Little, visited the possession of the former, half a mile below, to feed and milk the cows. While Waldo was in the posture of milking, Little, who kept guard, discovered an Indian leveling his gun at him. He instantly cried out "Indians, Indians!" Just as the gun cracked Waldo sprang to one side, and the ball struck the ground under the cow where he was sitting. They instantly ran for the garrison, when three Indians sprang out from the edge of the woods and joined in the pursuit, firing their rifles at the fugutives as they ran, but happily without effect. They were soon with-
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in a short distance of the garrison, when a party of men rushed out to their rescue and the Indians retreated, after killing several of the cattle, and among them a yoke of oxen belonging to Captain Benjamin Miles, which were noted for their size, being fifteen inches high and large in proportion. In the subsequent year, while Putnam and Little were at the same place, very early in the morning, a small dog that was a few rods in advance gave notice of danger by barking violently at some hidden object which his manner led them to suspect must be Indians. Thus warned they began slowly to retreat, and look carefully for their enemy. The Indians, three or four in number, watching them from their covert behind a brush fence, now jumped from their hiding place and gave chase. The two white men quickened their speed and crossed a deep gully which lay in their path on a log, barely in time to prevent the Indians from cutting off their retreat. They had examined the ground and expected to take them pris- oners or kill them at this place. Seeing them past the defile they now commenced firing at them, but missed their ob- ject. In the ardor of pursuit they rushed up within a short distance of the Castle, when Harlow Bull, a fierce little warrior, who had just arisen from bed, and was only partly dressed heard the firing and rushed out at the gate with his rifle and discharged it at the Indians at the same time returning their war whoop with a yell nearly as ter- rible as their own. Several of the soldiers soon after ap- peared in the field, when the Indians retreated to the forest, greatly disappointed in their expected victims.
After the fugutives were safe within the wall consid- erable alarm was for time felt for Major Bradford who had gone out with them but fell a good way behind his company on account of a lame foot, from a recent wound. He had nearly reached the gully or defile when the Indians began the pursuit, and, knowing he could not keep pace with the others, he jumped down the bank of the river, near which he was hobbling along, before he was seen by the Indians, and keeping under shelter he reached the garri- son unnoticed and came in at one of the water gates. For a few minutes his family were fully persuaded that he was killed as his companions could give no account of him.
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MURDER OF BENONI HULBERT BY INDIANS.
On September 28th, 1791 Joshua Fleehart and Benomi Hulbert left the garrison in a canoe to hunt and to visit their traps near the mouth of the Little Hocking. Fleehart was a celebrated hunter and trapper. Like many other backwoodsmen he preferred following the chase for a liv- ing to that of cultivating the earth. Numbers of them de- pended on the woods for their clothing as well as their food. Hulberts family from the oldest to the youngest were clothed in dressed deer skins. These men had hunt- ed a good deal together and supplied the garrison with fresh meat. As they passed the narrows above the mouth of the creek they were strongly inclined to land and shoot some turkeys which they heard gobbling on the side of the hill, a few rods from the river. It was a common practice with the Indians, when in the vicinity of the whites, to imitate the note of these birds, to call some of the unwary settlers within reach of their rifles. After listening a few moments the nice, discriminating ear of Fleehart satisfied him that they were made by Indians. Hulbert did not believe it but was finally induced not to land. They pro ceeded on and entered the mouth of the creek, where his companion landed and traveled along on the edge of the woods in search of game, while Fleehart paddled the canoe further up the stream. As they had seen no more signs of Indians, they concluded that the gobbling this time was done by the turkeys themselves. In a short time after Hulbert had left the canoe, the report of a rifle was heard, which Fleehart at once knew was not that of his companion and concluded was the shot of an Indian. He landed the canoe on the opposite shore, and running up the bank secreted himself in a favorable spot to fire on the Indians should they approach to examine the creek for the canoe. He directly heard a little dog belonging to his companion in fierce contest with the Indians trying to defend the body of his master; but they soon silenced him with a stroke of a tomahawk. After watching more than an hour, so near that he could hear the Indians converse and the groans of the dying man, but out of his sight and the reach of his rifle, the Indians being too cautious to approach where they expected danger, he entered his canoe and returned to the garrison, which he reached a little after dark and reported
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the fate of his companion. The next morning a party of men, conducted by Fleehart, went down by water, and found him dead and scalped on the ground where he fell, with the body of his faithful dog by his side. They brought him to the Castle where he was buried.
Mr. Hulbert was over sixty years old, and had moved into the country from Pennsylvania in the fall of 1788 and lived for a time at Marietta. He served as hunter to a party of Ohio Company Surveyors in 1789 and was esteem- ed an honest, worthy man.
He was the first man killed by the Indians in Belpre after the war broke out.
The death of Mr. Hulbert was a source of additional terror and dread to the elderly females in the garrison, whose fears of the Indians kept them in constant alarm, lest their own husbands or sons should fall a prey to the rifle or tomahawk of the Savages. They had but little quiet except in the winter, during which period the Indians rarely made inroads, or lay watching about the garrison.
But as soon as the Spring began to open and the wild geese were seen in flocks steering their course to the north, and the frogs heard peeping in the swamp, they might in- variably be expected lurking in the vicinity. So constantly was this the case, that the elder females and mothers with the more timid part of the community, never greeted this season with the hilarity and welcome so common in all parts of the world, and so desirable as releasing us from the gloom and storms of winter. They preferred that season to any other, as they then felt that their children and them- selves were in a manner safe from the attack of their dreaded foe. They therefore regretted its departure, and viewed the budding of the trees and the opening of the wild flowers with saddened feelings, as the harbingers of evil; listening to the song of the blue bird and the martin with cheerless hearts, as preludes to the war cry of the Savage. Much of our comfort and happiness depends on association ; and though surrounded with all the heart may crave, or our tastes desire, yet the constant dread of some expected evil will destroy all peace of mind, and turn what otherwise might be joy into sorrow. The barking of the watch dog at night was another source of terror as it was associated
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with the thought that some savage foe was lurking in the vicinity. The more timid females when thus awakened in the night would rise upon the elbow and listen with anxious care for the sound of the war whoop or the report of the rifle of the watchful sentry; and when they again fell into a disturbed slumber, the nervous excitement led them to dream of some murderous deeds or appalling danger. Sev- eral amusing incidents are related of the alarms in the garrison from the screams of persons when asleep and dreaming that they were attacked by Indians. Amid the peace and quiet of our happy times, we can hardly realize the mental suffering of that disastrous period.
The following letters written to her father by Mrs. Mary Bancroft Dana give us an inside view of conditions during those trying years.
Belpre, June 24th, 1790.
Honored Sir,
I have an opportunity to send a few lines by General Putnam which I gladly embrace to inform you that we all still exist, and have the addition of another son whom I shall call George. A fine little boy he is. We are as usual, sometimes sick and sometimes well. All of us at work for life to get in a way to be comfortable. We got through the Winter as well as I expected. We are more put to our trumps than I ever expected for bread. There is no corn nor flour of any kind to be had. We at present live entirely without it, as many of our neighbors do. There were very few potatoes raised for want of seed. Our whole family have not eaten two bushels since we came here. We have a plenty of corn and potatoes planted so that I expect to live in a short time, things look promising. Mr. Dana has worked himself almost to death to get things as forward as he has; he is poor and pale, as are all our family, but he is perfectly satisfied with what he has done and depends on reaping the good of his labor. I have passed through many scenes since I left you and am still the same contented being without fear from the natives. Great God! grant that I may still be protected and carried through every changing scene of life with fortitude and behave as becomes a Christian. I have not received a line from any of my
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