USA > Ohio > Highland County > A history of the early settlement of Highland County, Ohio > Part 3
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
The history of the frontier of Virgin- reader is of course familiar; at any rate ia is replete with incidents, few of they are not within our plan and can which are inferior to that just sketch- but merely be alluded to. All along ed, whilst many of them furnish narra- the western boundary of Pennsylvania, tives of most thrilling interest and the inhabitants never felt entirely free from danger until after Wayne defeat-
rarely paralleled by the highest- wrought pictures of romance. Wheel-
ed the Indians in the summer of 1794. ing, as an extreme outpost of civiliza- Only four years before this the Indians tion, was long the head quarters of the had made incursions as far as West- spies and Indian fighters, and the many stories of these bold and adven- moreland county, and attacked a new settlement called Hanahstown on the turous backwoodsmen have long since Kiskiminias, a tributary of the Alle- passed from the guardianship of tradi- ghany. The inhabitants had barely tion into the permanent historical re- time to save themselves by flying to the cords of the country, thus becoming
block-house, leaving all their property
the common property of all who have behind them, which the savages delib- the power to read or the pride to ap- erately proceeded to burn, except what preciate the noble deeds of their coun- suited their purposes, which they saved. trymen and progenitors. A very Feather beds, so highly prized by the large part of the early settlers of Ken- comfort-loving Pennsylvanian, possess- tucky was drawn from the border set-
A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
tlements of Virginia. At a later its progress so stimulated the Indians period, however, many of them came that they evinced more hostility and a to Ohio and settled first in Chillicothe deeper determination to exterminate and its vicinity.
the white settlements, and the alarm Maryland, from her geographical posi- tion, had, so to speak, no frontiers, and though she furnished many hardy and worthy emigrants for the West. still they were comparatively few, and they had doubtless undergone a preparatory training in border life and outpost dan- ger, before their taste prompted them to seek new adventures in the wilder- ness before them. Comparatively few pioneers are therefore found hailing become so great that none but such as were constrained by a sense of a higher duty to their country, could have dared to venture West to the new settle- ments, not even to rescue those that had been made. But when the war with Great Britain closed the Indians to some extent relaxed their hostilities and a desire to settle in the far famed "garden of the world," again revived. Shortly after the close of the war the from the banks of the Patapsco or the Legislature of Virginia authorized cer- shores of the Chesapeake,in the stations, tain officers of both the Continental and block houses, and among Indian and State lines to appoint superintend-
fighters of the West. But North Caro-
ents on behalf of their respective lines; ors who were authorized to select their own deputies. Col. Richard C. Ander- son was elected principal surveyor for the Continental line, and in the spring of 1784 moved to Louisville and opened a land office.
lina-the sleepy old State as she is now and also to name two principal survey- called-was early animated by the rest- less promptings of the spirit of adven- ture and emigration; and to the lium- ble and unpretending. though honest and true natives of the beautiful banks of the Yadkin are the inhabitants of the old State indebted for a knowledge of the wealth, grandeur and fertility of the cane clad plains of Kentucky. As early as 1771, Boone and his com- panions had explored these fascinating regions-this paradise of the hunter, so heroically battled for, and so reluctant-
About this time a few settlers in small parties ventured the passage down the Ohio River to Limestone. But the danger was still imminent and many set out on the journey who fell into the snares of the wily and blood- thirsty Indian, long ere they reached ly surrendered by the Indians. The the haven of their hopes. As soon as fame of this bright land of promise spread rapidly over the surrounding States. Boone returned with a consid- erable colony of his neighbors and formed a settlement on the Kentucky
. New Jersey and Virginia, as well as in North Carolina, promised speedily to swell the population of this new Caanan to a number fully adequate to cope with the determined hostility of
the Indians discovered that the river was likely to become the principal thoroughfare of emigration, they kept constantly on the watch along its northern banks. There were neither River, others followed him soon after, settlements, nor stations or military and a rapidly growing inclination in posts at any point on the northern side Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, below the Pennsylvania line. Yet such was the anxiety to possess the rich lands of the West that not only men, but women and children, ventured up- on the hazardous voyage as early as 1785. In April of that year, four fami- the Indians, but the increasing trou- lies from Redstone in Pennsylvania, bles between the Colonies and England, descended the Ohio in safety to the which portended to the minds of all mouth of the Scioto, and there moored the inevitable result. for a time check- their boat under the bank where Ports- ed emigration, and the final maturing mouth now stands. They commenced of all dormant troubles in open war, clearing the ground to plant seeds for a rivited the attention of every one. crop. Soon after they landed the four The patriots who were active and men started up the Scioto prospecting, able-bodied hurried to the standard of leaving the women and children at the Washington, and the aged, the infirm encampment.
They traversed the and the women and children clung beautiful bottoms of the river as far closer to the old homestead. Some ten up as where Piketon now stands. One or upwards years thus intervened be- of them named Peter Patrick, pleased tween the commencement of the set- with the country, cut his initials on a tlements on the Kentucky River, and beech near the bank of a creek that the revival of emigration after the flows through a prairie, which being . peace of 1783. The existence of the found in after times, gave the name of Revolution did not necessarily entirely Pee Pee to the creek. Encamped near precluded emigration to the West, but the site of Piketon, they were surprised
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A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
by a party of Indians, who killed two lost their lives and others all they pos- of them as they lay by their fires. The sessed, yet it did not for a moment de- other two escaped to the Ohio, where ter others from the undertaking. The fortunately they saw a small boat pass- Indians, jealous of the white man and fearful of losing their immense and profitable hunting grounds, from the great tide of emigration which was constantly pouring in upon them, were wrought up to the highest pitch of fury, and determined to guard, as far as possible, both passes to it; namely the ing. This they succeeded in boarding. and having taken their women and children, abandoned the project of making a settlement on the Ohio side. During the following autumn a do- tachment of United States troops, un- der the command of Maj. Jolin Dough- ty, commenced the erection, and the Ohio River and the old Crab Orchard next year finished Fort Harmer on the Road, or Boone's old trace, leading right bank of the Muskingum at its from the southern portion of Kentucky junction with the Ohio. This was the to North Carolina. They attacked all first military post erected by Ameri- boats they had any probability of being cans on the north side of the river in able to take, using all the strategy of what is now the State of Ohio. But this by no means furnished a protect- ion to cmigrants descending the river
which they were masters, to decoy them to the shore. Many boats were taken and many lives lost through the deceit beyond its immediate vicinity. Every- and treachery of the Indians and white device within the range of savage in- spies employed by them. The day on genuity was resorted to by the ever which the emigrants started was pleas- watchful Indians in hopes to induce ant and all nature seemed to smile up- , boats to land on the northern shore, and on the pioneer band. They had made too frequently they succee led and thus every preparation they deemed neces- gratified their fiendish thirst for the shry to defend themselves from the at- blood of the white man.
tack of their wily foes. The boat which led the way as pilot was well manned and armed, on which sentinels, relieved by turns, kept watch day and night. Then followed two other boats
As an evidence of the magnitude of the undertaking and the dangers in- curred by emigrants descending the Ohio at this early day, the following sketch from the pen of the Rev. James at a convenient distance. While float- B. Finley, descriptive of the departure ing down they frequently saw Indians from their old home and perilons pass- on the banks watching for an opportu- nity to make an attack. Just below the mouth of the great Scioto a long and desperate effort was made to get some of the boats to land by a white man, who feigned to be in great dis- tress, but the fate of Mr. Orr and his family was too fresh ,in the minds of age down the river of his father's fam- ily and others on their way to Ken- tucky. It will remind the reader of the departure of the Pilgrims from Delft-Haven on board the ships May- flower and Speedwell, under charge of the Patriarch Brewster. nearly two hundred years before, in view of whom the adventurers to be thus decoved. A lay the broad Atlantic with all the few months previous to this time this dangers and terrors of a three months' gentleman and his whole family were voyage. Finley says: "I shall never murdered, being lured ashore by a sim- forget the deep-thrilling and interest- ilar stratagem. But a few weeks before ing scene which occurred at parting- we passed the Indians attacked three this was in the autumn of 17SS. Min- boats, two of which were taken and all isters and people were collected togeth- the passengers killed. The other barely escaped, having lost all the men on board except Rev. Mr. Tucker, a Meth- er and after an exhortation and the singing of a hymn they all fell upon their knees and engaged in ardent sup- odist missionary, on his way to Ken- plication to God that the emigrants tueky. Mr. Tucker was wounded in many places but fought manfully The Indians got into a canoe and pad- might be protected amid the perils of the wilderness. I felt, says Mr. Finley, as though we were taking leave of the dled for the boat, determined to board world. After mingling together our it; but the women loaded the ritles of tears and prayers the boats were loosed their deceased husbands and handed and floated out into the waters of the them to Mr. Tucker, who took such beautiful Ohio. It was a hazardous deadly aim, every shot making the undertaking; but snch was the insatia- number in the canoe less, that they ble desire to inherit those rich lands abandoned all hope of reaching the and enjoy the advantages of the wide- boat and returned to the shore. After spreading cane-breaks, that many were the conflict this noble man fell from the adventurers; and although many sheer exhausation and the women
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A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
were obliged to take the oars and man- we had to undergo in moving to it. age the boat as best they could. They When we take into consideration the were enabled to effect a landing at then state and condition of the roads over the mountains and hills, the great want of bridges and ferries over water courses, we can have some conception of the extreme difficulty of traveling
Limestone, now Maysville; and a few days after their protector died of his wounds and they followed him weep- ing to the grave. But to resume our narrative. Being too well posted in In- over the almost impassable route from dian strategy to be decoved, we pursued the old settlements to Ohio at that our journey unmolested. Nothing re- early day. Turnpikes, railroads and markable occurred save the death of steam boats were not then in existence; my much-beloved grand-mother. The and the roads over the mountains were day before we landed at Limestone she the most difficult wagon ways conceiv- took her mystic flight to a better world. able-without grading-ruts, gutters, Her remains were committed to the mudholes and other obstacles, never mended, and being a hilly, broken and uneven mountainous country, made it toilsome in the extreme.
dust at Maysville and Rev. Cary Allen preached her funeral. In company with my father and in his boat there were two missionaries-Revs. Cary Allen and Robert Marshall."
An intelligent lady being requested by a friend to furnish her with a re- The reader has doubtless perceived the reason for thus particularly pre- senting the character and habits of pioneer inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the difficulties and dangers through which they passed in reaching the place of their new homes in the West. Few or none of the first settlers of Ohio, though mostly, if not ceipt for the best method to dress 'a hare for the table, complied and com- menced her receipt by saying, "the first thing to be done in the matter was to catch the hare." It seems to me equal- ly necessary in order to give our suc, cessors and posterity an adequate idea of the extreme labor in settling Ohio, we ought to recapitulate the toil, fa- all natives of Pennsylvania, Maryland, tigue and drudgery of traveling to our Virginia and North Carolina came di- wild woods home in the West. The rect from those States to Ohio. They lady above alluded to seemed to have a first settled in Kentucky, while those clear view of her undertaking. She who came from the old States, some knew the persons who would be engag- ten or twelve years later, settled at ed in feasting on the delicate and well Chillicothe. Of these latter, one Wil- dressed morsel, when on the table, liam Craig, an emigrant with his fami- would never think of the labor and ly traveling to Chillicothe by wagon, trouble of catching it. So the descend- struck upon Zane's trace, marked the ants of the early settlers, and the pres- fall before (1796) from Wheeling to ent occupants of our well improved Maysville. This was merely a blazed farms, our beautiful towns, our com- route through the woods. It, however, modious churches, school houses, court was a guide to Chillicothe, and Craig house, excellent flouring mills, &c., will hardly turn a thought in the direction of the toil, drudgery and hardships of those laborious men who leveled the forests and opened up the farms. I will, therefore, give a short sketch of determined to follow it, and he did so for a distance of seventy miles by cut- ting a way for his wagon. This was a most tedious undertaking for one man, encumbered with a wagon, team and family, but he persevered and had in the trials of our company over the the end the satisfaction of landing mountains, believing a correct account safely at the encampment called Chil- of our own travels will equally well licothe.
describe the hardships of many others.
To give an idea of the difficulty en- We took our journey from the valley countered by emigrants from the old of the Old Dominion in September, A. States, about eight years later, the fol- D. 1805, with a strong team, large wagon lowing extract is made from material and a heavy load. We proceeded on our way over the Alleghany mountains, Greenbrier hills, Sewell and Gauley mountains, Kanawha rivers and back- water creeks, often impassable by the rising of the river, and arrived at Point furnished for this history by Col. Wil- liam Keys of this place which is very similar to the history of the emigration of many more old settlers of Highland. He says: It seems to me that in order to have a correct idea of the labors and Pleasant, where we crossed the Ohio extreme danger we had to encounter in and left most of our troubles behind us. settling Highland county and other Our company consisted of two family parts of the State, we ought to take in- connections, each of which were sub- to account the trouble, toil and fatigue divided into one or two smaller fami-
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A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
lies: and to give promise of a fair be- the steep declivity, for some rods, until ginning, each of them had an infant stopped by the intervention of some specimen of young America to carry on the knee, and numbering twenty-three persons in all, eight of whom were full grown men. We often had to exert all our united strength and skill to prevent our wagons from upsetting, and had often to double teams in order to ascend the steep mountain sides. None of trees too stout to be prostrated by the mass of broken fragments. By doub)- ling teams, we could reach the moun- tain top, but to get safely down again called for other contrivances. One ex- pedient frequently tried was to fasten a pretty stout pine tree to the axletree of the wagon with chains, so as to re- our company met with any accident, tard the downward course upon the but not so with all the emigrants who horses. At the foot of such hills and preceded us on the same route; we mountains could be seen sundry such sometimes passed the fragments of trees that had been dragged down for broken wagon beds, broken furniture the purpose above named. We arrived and remnants of broken boxes and other at our Highland home in about eight marks of damage by upsetting on the weeks, constant travel, Sundays except- mountain side, where the wagon, team ed. and all had rolled over and over down
CHAPTER II.
THE FRENCH DOMINION, WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE SUBSEQUENT CON- TESTS AND CESSIONS WHICH FINALLY BROUGHT THE TERRITORY OF OHIO UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE UNITED STATES -- SIMON KANTON'S CAPTURE AND ESCAPE - THE STORY OF JOSHUA FLEETHART -- THE FIRST PERMA- NENT SETTLEMENT IN THE STATE AT MARIETTA.
THE beauty and fertility of the Ter- familiar with the adjacent country, but ritory of which our county was a part, were nuiknown to Europeans until the adventurous spirit of French missionaries and traders discovered them. They early and fearlessly plung- ed into the pathless wilderness of the West and exhibited a courage and per- severance without a parallel- the one the meek and patient apostles of Christ, the other the cunning and unscrupulous worshipers of mammon. Each, howey- er. saw and concurred in the importance
a permanent settlement at the mouth of this river was deemed indispensable to the success of the grand scheme of the Empire. AAccordingly an expedition was fitted out by the French Govern- ment, for the express purpose of estab- lishing a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi river, which had not yet been discovered. This expedition was placed under the command of M. D'Iberville, who, in March, 1698, entered the month of the Mississippi and took of this comparatively unknown region, format possession of all the territory as in appendage to the Canadian drained by it in the name of Louis XIV. possessions of their native country. On of France, to which was given the name the suggestions thus made, France de- of Louisiana. This territory embraced termined to lay the foundation in the all between the Alleghany and Rocky Mississippi Valley of an Empire which should ultimately surpass not only in extent of territory, but in grandeur and power, the British possessions on the East, In furtherance of this purpose,
Mountains, and of course included what is now Ohio. The French pushed on their ambitions enterprise with great energy. Their plan seems, how- ever, to have been chiedly to monopolize these lines of communication between the trade of the natives. The jealousy Canada and the Mississippi were form- of the English on the other side of the ed, and posts, religious, military and for mountains soon became aroused. for trading purposes, established at suitable they claimed the same territory. A distances from each other. They had trading company, called the Ohio Con- pany, was organized as early as 1718. explored the greater part of the Miss- issippi in canoes aml made themselves the object of which was to secure the
A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
lucrative trafic of the natives of the The western Indians were more or country now embraced within the lim- less united against the Americans dur- its of our State. This company sent ing the whole of the Revolution, and out agents to negotiate- with. the many expeditions from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky penetrated the forests of the territory in pursuit of topher Gist and George Croghan, who them as far as the Miami. In 1782 penetrated the wilderness as far as the Gen. Clark, of Kentucky, led an expedi- Indian town of Piqua on the waters of tion against Shawneetown, Upper and the Miami. Three years afterwards Lower Piqua, and destroyed them. Indians and open the way for a perma- nent trade. These agents were Chris- the French having heard of this house, sent a party of soldiers to the Indians and demanded the traders as intruders upon French lands. The Indians re-
After the Colonies renounced their allegiance to the British king, England by an act of Parliament passed in 1777 annexed the whole of the North-west-' fused to deliver up their friends. The ern Territory to, and made it a part of French then attacked the English trad- the province of Quebec. This claim of ing houses and after a severe battle, in the English monarch to what is now which a number of the combatants our State, was, ceded to the United were killed and many others wounded, States by the treaty of 1783 and the took and destroyed it, carrying away Mississippi river made the western the traders to Canada. Such was the boundary of the United States. The fate of the first British settlement in year following, the State of Virginia Ohio. The next year, Washington, then ceded to the United States the right of a youth of 22 years, was sent out by the soil and jurisdiction to the district of Government of Virginia with letters of country embraced in her charter situ- remonstrance to the French command- ated north-west of the river Ohio. Two ant. Washington passed through a years after, Connecticut also ceded her good part of what is now Ohio, in the claim, which covered a portion of what execution of this mission, and arrived is now the State of Ohio. Numerous at the end of his journey a few miles tribes of Indians also had claims to the south of Lake Erie. A short time soil within the present limits of Ohio, previous to this the Governor of Canada which the General Government had to had sent M. de Bienville at the head of purchase prior to the commencement of three hundred men to the banks of the settlements. Accordingly treaties were made in 1784 and 1785, by which the Indians ceded their claims to all the southern and eastern portions of the present State. The Indian title having been thus extinguished, the legisla- tive action of Congress became necessa- ry before settlements were commenced. In May, 1785, Congress passed an ordi- nance for ascertaining the best mode of disposing of these lands. Under this Ohio to court the favor of the Indians, and publish the claim of France to the territory. He distributed presents with a lavish hand among the natives and earnestly warned them against trading with the English. He traversed the greater part of the territory and nailed leaden plates to trees and buried others in the earth at the confluence of the Ohio and its tributaries, bearing in- scriptions to the effect that all lands on ordinance the first lands were survey- both sides of the rivers to their sources ed and put into market that were sold belonged to the crown of France. Ne- gotiations having failed to adjust the
in the territory. These surveys were limited on the east by the Pennsylvania
respective claims of the two nations to line and on the south by the Ohio river. the Mississippi Valley, a war ensued In 1787 a considerable quantity of these which resulted in the conquest by the lands were sold, but no further sales
English of the French possessions in America, which was finally acknowl-
were made until 1801.
Ten years before these first land sales, edged by a treaty in 1763. The terri- Daniel Boone had passed through Ohio tory which is now Ohio thus ceased for- a prisoner to the Indians, and noted its ever to be a part of the province of beauty, fertility and natural resources. Louisiana and an appendage to the crown of France.
A few months afterwards Simon Ken- ton weary of a few weeks' inaction.
From this period on, at intervals, resolved upon an expedition to the military expeditions from east of the Indian towns on the waters of Scioto, mountains, traversed the forests of for the purpose of getting horses from Ohio, to negotiate treaties, protect trad- the Indians. Alexander Montgomery ing posts, recover prisoners and chas- and George Clark joined him. They tise the Indians. In 1774 Lord Dun- crossed the Ohio and proceeded cau- more made a treaty with the Indians in tiously to what is now called Frankfort, in Ross county They fell in with a what is now Pickaway county.
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