USA > Ohio > Washington County > Belpre > A history of Belpre, Washington County, Ohio > Part 5
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moved into them that Spring. The upper one contained four block houses, a school house, and several log cabins accommodating about ten families, and the lower one six. Wayne's army was now beginning to assemble on the fron- tier, and the inhabitants were cheered by the numerous boats, almost daily descending the river with provisions and detachments of troops, whose martial music enlivened the solitary banks of the Ohio, and removed their apprehen- tions of a general attack from the Indians, so depressing after the defeat of Gen. St. Clair the previous year.
KIDNAPPING OF MAJ. GOODALE.
On March 1st, 1793, the colony met with the most serious loss it had yet felt from their Indian enemies, in the kidnapping and ultimate death of Maj. Goodale. On that day he was at work in a new clearing on his farm distant about forty rods from the garrison, hauling rail timber with a yoke of oxen from the edge of the woods bordering the new field. It lay back of the first bottom in open view of the station. An Irish man, John Magee was at work grubbing or digging the roots of the bushes and small saplings on the slope of the plain as it descends to the bottom, but out of sight of Maj. Goodale. The Indians made so little noise in their assault that John did not hear them. The first notice of the disaster was the view of the oxen seen from the garrison, standing quietly in the field with no one near them. After an hour or more they were observed still in the same place, when suspicion arose that some disaster had happened to Mr. Goodale. One of the men was called and sent up to learn what had happened. John was still busy at his work unconscious of any alarm. In the edge of the woods there was a thin layer of snow, on which he soon saw moccasin tracks. It was now evident that Indians had been there and had taken Maj. Goodale prisoner, as no blood was seen on the ground. They followed the trail some distance but soon lost it. The next day a party of rangers went out, but returned after a fruitless search. The river was at that time nearly at full banks and less danger was apprehended on that ac- count. It was also early in the season for Indians to ap- proach the settlements. The uncertainty of his condition left room for the imagination to fancy everything horrible in his fate; more terrible to bear than the actual knowledge
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of his death. The distress of Mrs. Goodale and the chil- dren was great. His loss threw a deep gloom over the whole community, as no man was more highly valued; neither was there any one whose counsels and influence were equally prized by the settlement. He was in fact the life and soul of this isolated community and his loss left a vacancy that no other man could fill. His memory was for many years fresh and green in the hearts of his con- temporary pioneers. At the treaty of 1795, when the captives were given up by the Indians some intelligence was obtained of nearly all the persons from this part of Ohio, but none of the fate of Maj. Goodale. About the year 1799 Col. Forrest Meeker, afterwards a citizen of Dela- ware County, and well acquainted with the family of Maj. Goodale, and the circumstances of his capture, when at Detroit on business fell in Company with three Indians, who related to him the particulars of their taking a man prisoner in Belpre in the Spring of 1793. Their descrip- tion of his personal appearance left no doubt in the mind of Col. Meeker that it was Maj. Goodale. They stated that a party of eight Indians were watching the settlement for mischief ; and as they lay concealed on the side of the hill back of the plain, they heard a man driving or "talking" to his oxen. After carefully examining his movements they saw him leave his work and go to the garrison, in the middle of the day. Knowing that he would soon return they secreted themselves in the edge of the woods, and while he was occupied with his work, sprang out and seized upon him before he was aware of their presence, or could make any defense, and threatened him with death if he made a noise or resisted. After securing him with thongs, they commenced a hasty retreat, intending to take him to Detroit and get a large ransom. Some where on the Miami or at Sandusky, he fell sick and could not travel, and that he finally died. A Mrs. Whittaker, the wife of a man who had a store and traded with the Indians at Sandusky, has since related the same account. That the Indians left him at her house where he died of a disease like pleurisy with- out having received any very ill usage from his captors, other than the means necessary to prevent his escape. This probably is a correct account of his fate; and although his death was a melancholy one, among strangers, and far
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away from the sympathy and care of his friends, yet it was a relief to know that he did not perish at the stake or by the tomahawk of savages.
CHAPTER VI
AMUSEMENTS IN FARMER'S CASTLE
URING the long and tedious confinement of the inhabitants to their garrison, various plans were sought to make the time pass as happily as circumstances would allow. The sports of the boys and young men consisted of games of ball, foot races, wrestling, and leaping, at all of which the larger number were adepts. Foot races were especially encour- aged that it might give them an advantage in their con- tacts with the Indians, those of a more refined character, in which both sexes could participate, consisted chiefly of dancing. Parties of young people from Campus Martius and Fort Harmar used to come down as often as four or five times a year and join in these festivities. These visits were made by water, in a barge or large row boat, attended by a guard of soldiers from the fort. They brought Musi- cians who were attached to the military service. A player on the violin from Gallipolis named Vansan who was one of the French emigrants, celebrated for his musical talents always accompanied the young men from that place in their visits to Farmers Castle where they were very welcome visitors. It is true they did not abound in nice cakes and rich wines; but they treated their guests with the best they had, while the hilarity and cheerful looks of the company made amends for all besides. The garrison at Belpre con- tained about twenty young females in the prime of life, with fine persons, agreeable manners, and cultivated minds. A dangerous recreation of the younger girls was to steal out of the Castle in the pleasant moonlight summer evenings, and, taking possession of a canoe, push it silently up the shore of the Ohio for a mile or more; then paddle out into the middle of the stream, and float gently down with the current. Some favorite singer then struck up a lively song in which they all joined, their voices making sweet melody on the calm waters of the "Belle riviere," greatly to the delight of the young men and guards on the watch towers, but much to the alarm of their mothers who were always in fear of the Indians.
CURTIS 1827
CURTIS HOME, NEWBURY, BUILT BY JUDGE WALTER CURTIS, 1827
HOME OF MAJ. F. H. LORING
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Promenading up and down the smooth broad avenue between the rows of block houses, about eighty rods in extent, was another favorite summer evening recreation for the young people, while the elder ones gathered in cheer- ful groups at each others dwellings, to chat on their own affairs, or the news of the day, collected as it might be from the passing boats or the rangers in their visits to other garrisons. The first newspaper printed in Marietta was started in 1802. Previous to that time they had only stray copies which might reach some families from eastern friends. The first mail route was established in 1794. Early in the Autumn parties of young people visited the Island. where several families resided, for the purpose of gathering grapes, paw paws, mints, &c.
July 4th was regularly celebrated in a bowery within the walls of the garrison, where the old officers and soldiers of the Revolution again recounted the trials and hardships of that eventful period, over a flowing bowl of whisky punch, while the report of their noisy little howitzer awoke the echoes among the neighboring hills at the announce- ment of each patriotic toast. A celebration of this glorious day without gun powder or punch would at that time have been called a burlesque.
During these years Griffin Greene, Esq., a man of great inventive genius, conceived a machine which he hoped would possess the power of perpetual motion. Captain Devoll constructed a machine after his model but it shared the fate of all perpetual motion machines.
A WINTER HUNT.
Joshua Fleehart, already mentioned in this narative, was born in Pennsylvania and from his boyhood had been brought up in the woods, knowing as little of letters as the red man of the forest, whom he greatly resembled in habits and instincts. He was well known as a hunter and secured much meat for the dwellers in Farmers Castle.
Having become tired of the sameness of garrison life and panting for freedom among woods and hills, to which he had always been accustomed, late in the fall of 1793, he took his canoe, rifle, traps, and blanket, with no one to accompany him; leaving even his faithful dog in the garri- son with his family. As he was going into a dangerous
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neighborhood he was fearful lest the voice of his dog might entrap him. He pushed his canoe up the Scioto a distance of 15 or 20 miles into a country amidst the best hunting ground for bears and beavers, where no white man had dared to venture. These two animals were the main ob- jects of his pursuit. The hills of brush creek were said to abound in bears and the small streams that fell into the Scioto were well suited to haunts of beaver.
The spot chosen for his winter residence was within 25 or 30 miles of the Indian town of Chillicothe but as they seldom go out for a hunt in winter he had little to fear from their interruption. For 10 or 12 weeks he trapped and hunted in this solitary region unmolested, luxuriating on the roasted tails of beavers and drinking the oil of bears, an article of diet which is considered by the children of the forest as giving health to the body with activity to the limbs. His success equalled his most sanguine expecta -- tions, and the winter passed away so quickly and pleasant- ly that he was hardly aware of its progress. About the middle of February he began to make up the peltry he had captured into packages and to load his canoe with the pro- ceeds of his winters hunt, which for safety he had hidden in the willows a few miles below the little bark hut in which he had lived.
The day before that which he had fixed for his de- parture, as he was returning to his camp just at evening Fleehart's acute ear caught the report of a rifle in the di- rection of the Indian town, but at so remote a distance that none but a backwoodsman could have distinguished the sound. This hastened his preparation for decamping, nevertheless he slept quietly, but rose the following morn- ing before dawn; cooked and ate his last meal in the little hut to which he had become quite attached. The sun had just risen and while he was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree examining the priming and lock of his gun, casting a casual look up the river, he saw an Indian slowly approach- ing with his eyes intently fixed on the ground, carefully inspecting the tracks of his moccasins left in the soft earth as he returned to his hut the evening before. He instantly cocked his gun, stepped behind a tree, and waited until the Indian came within range. He then fired and the Indian fell. Rushing from his cover on his prostrate foe he was
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about to apply the scalping knife; but, seeing the shining silver broaches and broad band on his arms he fell to cut- ting them loose, and tucking them into the bosom of his hunting shirt. While busily occupied in securing these spoils, the sharp crack of a rifle and the passage of a ball through the bullet pouch at his side caused him to discover three Indians within one hundred yards of him. He seized his rifle and took to flight. The others as he ran fired at him without effect. The chase was continued for several miles by two of the Indians who were swift runners. He often stopped and treed, hoping to get a shot and kill one or disable him and then overcome the other at his leisure. His pursuers also treed and by flanking to the right and left forced him to uncover or stand the chance of a shot. He finally concluded to leave the level ground on which the contest had thus far been held and take to the high hills, which lie back of the bottoms. His strong muscular limbs here gave him the advantage as he could ascend a steep hill more rapidly than his pursuers. The Indians seeing thev could not overtake him, as a last effort. stopped and fired, one of their balls cut away the handle of his hunting knife jerking it so violently against his side that for a moment he thought he was wounded. He immediately returned the fire, and they, with a yell of vexation. gave up the chase. Fleehart made a circuit among the hills and just at dark came to the river near where his canoe was hidden. Spring- ing lightly on board he paddled down stream. Being greatly fatigued by the efforts of the day he lay down in the canoe, and when he awoke in the morning was just en- tering the Ohio river. Crossing over to the southern shore he, in a few days, pushed his canoe un to Farmers Castle without further adventure where he showed the rich pack- ages of peltry as the proceeds of his winters hunt and dis- played the brilliant silver ornaments as trophies of his victory, to the envy and admiration of his less venturesome companions. It was not uncommon for western hunters to spend months alone in the woods although they usually pre- ferred one or two comrades.
Among the privations and trials of the early settlers was the dearness and scarcity of marine salt. From 1788 until some years after the close of the war, their salt was all brought over the mountains on pack horses at an ex- pense to the consumer of from six to ten dollars a bushel.
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This great scarcity was a serious draw back to the prosper- ity of the country and a source of annoyance to the people. The domestic animal suffered from its want as well as man; and when ranging in the woods visited the clay banks that sometimes contained saline particles, licking and gnawing them into large holes.
The "deer licks," so common at that day, were seldom anything more than holes made in the clay by wild animals and filled with water sometimes of a brackish quality. Nearly all the salines since worked were first pointed out to man by the deers and buffaloes.
DISCOVERY OF A SALT SPRING.
In the Autumn of 1794, Griffin Greene, Esq., whose fer- tile mind was always full of projects for the benefit of the country had heard from the report of some white man who had been a prisoner with the Indians, that they had made salt from a spring on a tributary branch of the Scioto river, afterwards known as Salt Creek. He described the spot as somewhere near the present location of the town of Jack- son; and although it was in the midst of the Indian war, and in the vicinity of their towns, so great was the anxiety to ascertain its truth that a company was formed to visit and search out the spring. Mr. Greene associated with himself in the enterprise Maj. Robert Bradford and Joel Oakes; he paying one-half of the expense, and his two part- ners the other half. A large Pirogue was provided, with provisions for twelve men for ten or twelve days, the period supposed necessary to accomplish the journey. They hired some of the most experienced woodsmen and hunters from Belleville as guides and guards. Among them were Peter Anderson, Joshua Dewey, and John Coleman, all noted for their bravery and knowl- edge of the woods. They left Farmers Castle in the fall of the year, at a time when the water in the Ohio was quite high; accompanied with the good wishes of their neighbors for their success, but dampened with many fears and evil forebodings from the dangers that attended the enterprise.
At the mouth of Leading Creek the adventurers landed their boat, secreting it among the trees and bushes as well as they could. This point is about forty miles from Jack- son, and probably about thirty miles from the heads of the south branch of Salt Creek; but of the actual distance they
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were ignorant, only knowing that it lay some distance be- yond the west boundary of the Ohio Company's lands. Af- ter several days travel and making examinations they fell upon a stream which led in the right direction and, fol- lowing it down, soon met with paths leading as they sup- posed to the spring. They soon discovered where fires had recently been made, and searching carefully in the bed of the creek, found a hole which had been scooped out by the Indians in the sand rock and filled with brackish water. A small brass kettle which they had with them for cooking was filled with the water and, boiled away, made about a table spoonfull of salt. Although the water was weak, yet it proved that they had discovered the long talked of and desirable fountain whose waters afforded the precious ar- ticle of salt. It was like the discovery of the philosopher's stone to the alchemist, for every ounce of it could be turn- ed into gold. After spending one night and part of a day at the place, they commenced their homeward journey, well pleased with the success of their search. They dare not remain longer and make a larger quantity, lest some strag- gling Indian should discover them and give notice to the village at Chillicothe, distant about twenty-five miles. They were too numerous to fear any small hunting party.
A NIGHT ALARM.
Their return to the mouth of Leading Creek was ac- complished in a much shorter period than in going out. The night after they left Salt Creek, while all were buried in sleep by their camp fire, they were awakened by a terri- fic scream. All sprang to their feet, seized their arms, and extinguished the fire, expecting every moment to hear the shot and the shout of the Savages. After listening a mo- ment or two, and no enemy appearing, they began to in- quire into the cause of the alarm, and found that one of the party had been seized with the cramp in his sleep and made this terrible outcry. They were rejoiced that it was from no worse a cause, and lay down quietly until morning. When they reached the mouth of Leading Creek the water had fallen ten or twelve feet, and left the pirogue high and dry on land. It required half an hour or more to launch the boat and get under way.
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PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE.
By the time they had reached the middle of the Ohio, proposing to cross over and go up on the Virginia shore, a party of Indians appeared on the bank, at the spot they had just left, in hot pursuit. Fortunately they were out of reach of their shot. The adventurers felt very thankful for their providential escape, for had their pursuers reach- ed the river a few minutes sooner, when all hands were en- gaged in getting the boat into the water, they would in all probability have fallen a sacrifice to the Indians. At the treaty two years later, an Indian, who was with the pursu- ing party, told Col. Lewis of Kanawha, that the whites had been discovered while at the creek boiling the salt, by two Indians, who were then on a hunt, and had seen the smoke of their fire. They were too weak to attack so large a party, and hastened back to their town for assistance. Twenty Indians immediately went in pursuit, but greatly to their disappointment, did not overtake them until they had left the shore and were out of danger. They reached the garrison unmolested and relieved the fears of their families as to their safety, it having been in fact a very dangerous enterprise.
So desirable a discovery was considered to be very valuable and Maj. Green, on a visit he made to Philadelphia soon after, sold the right of his discovery, for the benefit of himself and partners to John Nicholson, a merchant of that city for fifteen hundred dollars, who was to come into pos- session of the Spring by purchasing land on which it was situated, as soon as it was surveyed by the United States and offered for sale. But the lands were considered so valuable that they were never offered for sale, but were ceded with othr Salt Springs, to the State of Ohio when it became a member of the Confederacy in 1802, as one of the most precious acquisitions and under an express stip- ulation that the state should never sell them or lease them for more than ten years at any one time. Small quan- tities of salt were made here as early as 1797 by individ- uals on their own account increasing in quantity until they came under the control of the State. The greatest quan- tity was made in the years 1805 and 1808, when there were twelve or fourteen furnaces in operation averaging from fifty to sixty bushels a week or about twenty thousand
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bushels a year. The price at this period was from two and a half to three dollars a bushel, and the larger portion of the middle counties were supplied from these salines; the salt being transported on pack horses.
CHAPTER VII
FTER the division of the settlers into smaller communities, their farming operations were carried on with much less trouble and labor, and also to a larger extent. Familiarity with danger had removed a part of its dread, and new lands were cleared in addition to those opened before the war, so that some of the stronger handed began to have produce for sale, especially Indian corn which was now in demand as an article of forage for the numerous teams of oxen and pack horses employed in the transport of provisions and munitions of war for the army assembled at the frontiers. The threatened invasion of their country occupied the thoughts and attention of the Indians more than usual and their war parties did not harass the settlements on the Ohio so frequently as in past years. A regular system of defense, and constant watchfulness, was kept up by the whites, under the direction of the old veterans who were at the head of the settlements. They had no horses for them to steal, and the savage who receives no pay from his tribe for military services, always aims to make his attack where he can get some plunder as well as scalps, being as avaricious as the white man. In addition to the constant care required for the sustenance and defense of their families, provision was also made for their future comfort. Nurseries of apples and peaches were planted, from seeds obtained east of the mountains, or at head wat- ers; and scions of the finest apples to be found in New England, were sent out by Israel Putnam during the war, and ingrafted ready for the use of the inhabitants as soon as it should close, which they hoped would be before long, as the army of General Wayne was sufficient to defeat any body of warriors the Indians could assemble. In the course of the Summer of 1794 their hopes were realized, and the savages so completely routed that further fears of their hostility ceased to alarm them.
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MURDER OF JOHN ARMSTRONG'S FAMILY.
John Armstrong and Peter Mixner, with their families. spent the winter of 1793-4 in the block house of Isaac Bar- ker in the upper settlement of Belpre. These men were interested in a floating mill on the Virginia shore a little above the head of Blennerhassett Island. Early in the Spring of 1794 they built cabins and removed their families to the Virginia side of the river in order to be near their work. This was considered at the time a hazardous enter- prise as it proved to be. On the night of April 24th an attack was made on the cabin of Mr. Armstrong where Mrs. Armstrong and two young children were tomahawked and scalped. Three other children were taken into captivity and restored after the war. The other family, hearing the alarm, fled to their canoe and escaped before the Indians reached their cabin. Mr. Armstrong retreated to the mill where his two oldest boys were sleeping and all escaped. As soon as the alarm could be given in the morning a party from Stone's Garrison crossed the river but the Indians had retreated beyond their reach. The dead bodies were taken across the river and buried.
The pursuing party found by their trail where the Indians had raised their sunken canoes and crossed the Ohio to the Big Hocking up which they pushed their boats several miles when they left them and traveled by land. By the prints of the children's feet in the mud they ascer- tained that the prisoners were yet alive; and lest they would kill them if they were overtaken by the whites, they gave up the pursuit, and returned down stream and across the Ohio in the bark canoe left by the Indians.
On their arrival at the Wyandot towns the children were adopted into different families. Jeremiah the young- est, whose life was saved by the kind offices of a young warrior, was taken by the celebrated Chief Crane, who is represented to have been a kind hearted humane man and used him well. All were given up at the close of the war.
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