USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 19
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with the bottom raking fore and aft, and decked over with planks. The deck was sufficiently high for a man to walk upright under the beams, and the sides so thick as to resist a rifle bullet. The steersman and rowers were thus safely sheltered from the attack of enemies on the banks. She was forty-five feet in length and twelve in breadth. Subse- quently, gangboards were added on the outside, so that she could be pushed against the current with poles, like a keel- boat; and was used in transporting a number of the colonial families from Buffalo, above Wheeling, to Marietta, in the summer of 1788. It was at first supposed she could be worked up stream with sail, but the variable nature and un- certainty of the winds on the Ohio river, frustrated their arrangement.
After the pioneer corps had established themselves at the mouth of the Muskingum, he was actively engaged in the erection of the stockaded garrison, called Campus Martius. This imposing structure answered the double purpose of a fort and for dwelling-houses. Within these walls the col- onists were safe from the attack of Indians. The block- houses, as well as the dwellings which formed the curtains between, were built of planks four inches thick, and eighteen or twenty inches wide, sawed by hand from the huge poplar trees which grew near the ground occupied by the garrison. These were dovetailed together at the corners, and with the smooth surface left by the whip-saw, gave to the exterior a finished and beautiful aspect. The fort, as it may well be called, was a square of one hundred and eighty feet on each side, as figured in the preceding volume. The settlers were allowed to build a part of the dwelling-houses in the cur- tains for themselves, after the plan laid down by Gen Put- nam. Capt. Devol built one on his own account, forty feet long by eighteen wide, and two stories high, furnished with
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neat brick chimneys, a kiln being made and burned the first season.
Mrs. Devol, with five children, came on and joined him in December, as narrated in the Pioneer, vol. ii. The fol- lowing winter his house sheltered seventy persons, young and old, so few were the finished dwellings. The summer of 1789 was spent in completing the works at Campus Mar- tius, and in the winter he was employed with two others in exploring the lands of the company for suitable spots for mills, and to commence farming settlements. In February, 1790, he moved his family to Belpre, and settled on a small farm, in company with other associates, united together for mutual assistance and protection, as the western tribes, notwithstanding the treaty with Gov. St. Clair, appeared to be hostile, and on the eve of a rupture. During the first six months of the year the settlers suffered very much from a want of food, as more fully noticed in the history of Belpre.
Early in January, 1791, the Indian war broke out, and the inhabitants were compelled to leave their improvements and go into garrison. The news of the massacre at Big Bottom reached Belpre the day after that event, at a time when nearly all the men, especially the heads of families, were at Marietta, attending the Court of Quarter Sessions. Most wretched was the night following this news, to the women and children, as they watched with trembling hearts in the slender log-cabins in which they dwelt, the approach of the Indians, expecting every hour to hear their terrific yells. Mrs. Devol directed her children to lie down with their clothes on, ready to rush into the woods at the first alarm. The court was soon adjourned, and Capt. Devol, with the others, returned with all speed to their homes, ex- pecting to see their houses in flames, and their wives and
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children slaughtered or taken captives by the savages. A council of the leading men was promptly called, and it was decided to build a strong garrison three miles below the Lit- tle Kenawha, against the center of the island, since known as the island of Blennerhasset. This garrison contained thirteen large block-houses, ranged in two lines, about six rods apart, near the bank of the Ohio, and was very appro- priately called Farmers' Castle. The whole was inclosed with stout palisades, and made a formidable defense against the attack of Indians. It was forty rods long by eight rods wide. Two large gates were placed at the east and west ends, while two smaller ones led down to the river. This work was chiefly planned and built under the direction of Capt. Devol, aided by the council of several old and expe- rienced officers of the settlement, in an incredibly short space of time, and sheltered thirty or forty families, be- sides single men, during the war. When we consider the labor of cutting and hauling such a multitude of trees, to afford pickets fifteen feet long, with all the timber for eleven large block-houses, two stories high and twenty feet square, we are struck with admiration at the resolution and enter- prise of this handful of pioneers, about twenty-five or thirty in number. A considerable portion of this timber was dragged on to the ground by men (as they had but few ox teams, and no horses,) on sledges, the snow fortunately being a foot or more deep. All this was accomplished in about six weeks' time, and was acting over again the labors of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth rock. While at this work they had the protection of the two block-houses built on this ground the year before by Col. Battelle and Griffin Greene, and was the probable cause of their selecting this spot for their main garrison.
During the first two years of the settlement, their meal was all ground on hand-mills, with great labor and fatigue.
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Soon after they were settled in the new castle, the active mind of Mr. Devol suggested a remedy for this inconven- ience. Some time previous, in conversation with Mr. Greene, he learned that he had seen floating mills in Hol- land. He directly proposed a project for a grist-mill, to be built on boats, and anchored in the Ohio, at some ripple, within sight of the castle, where it would be safe from their savage foes. A few of the intelligent men joined, and a company was formed for executing the work, and in the course of the year 1791, a mill was completed and put in operation, which ground the meal used by the inhabitants during the war. It was built on two boats: one a large pirogue, formed out of an immense hollow sycamore tree: the other a large flatboat, made of planks fifty feet long and ten wide. This sustained the mill-stones, gearing, hopper, &c., while the other boat supported the outer end of the water-wheel shaft. The boats were connected by stout timbers, to keep them steady against the wind and current of the river, planked over so as to make a floor between the bow and stern of each. The open space was ten feet square, in which the water-wheel worked, and was similar in structure to those of a steamboat. The main boat was secured by a chain cable attached to a rock anchor; the other by a grape vine. The mill was stationed about thirty yards from the shore of the island, nearly half a mile above the castle, as seen in the annexed plate. In a favorable state of the river, she could grind forty bushels in twenty- four hours. A small frame house stood in the main boat, and protected the machinery and grain, as well as the miller, from the rain. During winter it was taken nearer the shore, under some point for protection against the ice. Floating trees sometimes broke it loose from the moorings, but as there was usually some one on board, timely notice , was given, and the inmates of the castle turned out and
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towed it back again. Finally, near the close of the war, it broke loose in the night, and floated down the Ohio seventy miles, when the chain cable got entangled in a rock, and brought it up. The distance was too great for towing back again, and it was sold to the French settlers at Gallipolis. This mill not only did the grinding for Belpre, but many canoe loads of grain were brought from Point Pleasant, Graham's Station, and Belville.
During the period of the war the small-pox and scarlet fever both visited the inhabitants. By the latter disease he lost his oldest son, a lad of fourteen years, and two other children. It was of a malignant type, carrying off from fifteen to twenty children, beside several with the small-pox.
About this time he executed the work of a complicated piece of machinery, for Esq. Greene, who thought he had discovered the true principle of perpetual motion. The dis- criminating mind of Capt. Devol saw, at once, the fallacy of the principle, and so expressed himself to the inventor ; nevertheless, he was willing to assist him in the experiment. It proved a failure, like all other attempts of the kind.
The inhabitants feeling the want of saccharine matter in their food, being cut off from their former supplies from the sugar maple, by the watchfulness of their savage foes, he constructed a mill, with wooden rollers worked with oxen, for grinding and pressing out the juice of the stalks of In- dian corn, in the manner lately proposed by the secretary of the patent office. Many gallons of syrup were in this way made, that supplied the place of a better article not within their reach. The rich juice of the pumpkin was sub- jected to the same process, and afforded good sweetening for many uses.
In 1792, he built a twelve-oared barge, of about twenty- five tons burthen, for Gen. Putnam, of the wood of the red cedar. The materials were collected on the Little Kenawha,
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a few miles above the mouth, at the hazard of his life, in the midst of the Indian war. For beauty of model and work- manship, she was said to excel any boat ever seen on the Ohio.
After Wayne's treaty in 1795, he moved his family to Ma- rietta, and cultivated the lands of Paul Fearing, Esq., who boarded in his family. Here he remained until 1797, when he purchased lands at Wiseman's bottom, five miles above, on the Muskingum river. At this place there was a ripple, or slight fall, which he thought a suitable site for a mill; his mind always running on some mechanical operation, that would be useful to the destitute colonists. In 1798 he built a floating mill at his new home, which for many years did nearly all the grinding for the inhabitants on the Ohio and Muskingum rivers for fifty miles above and below the mill; the travel being in canoes and larger boats. In 1803 he built a larger mill, which ground a hundred bushels in twen- ty-four hours, and made fine flour. In 1801 he built a ship of four hundred tons, for B. J. Gilman, a merchant of Ma- rietta. The timbers of this vessel were wholly made from the wood of the black walnut, which grew with great luxu- riance in the rich bottoms of the Muskingum, after which stream the ship was named. In 1802 he built two brigs of two hundred tons each; one called the Eliza Green, the other, Ohio. In 1804 the schooner Nonpareil was built, and her voyage down the river is described in the Pioneer, vol. i. In 1807 he built a large frame flouring mill on the spot where the floating mill was moored. The water-wheel was forty feet in diameter, the largest ever seen in that day west of the mountains. During all these busy operations he was improving his farm, planting fruit trees, and making his home comfortable and pleasant. In 1809 he purchased and put in operation machinery for carding sheep's wool, which article had now become so abundant as to need some-
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thing more than hand cards for its domestic manufacture; some farmers owning flocks of several hundred sheep. Still further to aid in the domestic manufactures, he, in 1808, erected works for dressing cloth and fulling, both of which operations are believed to have been the first ever carried on in this part of Ohio, if not in the state. The machinery for cloth-dressing was procured at McConnelsville, on the Youghiogheny river ; these articles were not then manufac- tured in Ohio.
Amidst the latter period of these operations, when about fifty years of age, he began the study of the French lan- guage; and solely by the aid of Boyer's dictionary, he in a short time learned to read, and translate as he read, with ease and fluency, any book in that tongue, especially works of history. When master of this subject, he commenced, in 1811 or 1812, the study of astronomy, and became quite familiar with this sublime branch of science. He had al- ways a relish for the mathematics, and entered readily into the elements of this deeply interesting study. With the aid of a celestial globe, he constructed a plan of the path and course of the great comet of 1812, and sent it to Josiah Meigs, Esq., then at the head of the United States land of- fice, for his examination. It excited his admiration at the genius and skill of Capt. Devol, in a branch of science so little understood by a great portion of mankind. His knowl- edge of geography was complete, and superior to that of any other man known to the writer of this memoir. For this he was partly indebted to his extensive reading, which was always accompanied by a map of the region treated of in the book or newspaper before him. Many years before steam had come into general use as a moving power, he directed a letter to the secretary of the navy, on the advan- tages to be derived from steamships of war. Nevertheless, he was a man of peace; and often at the celebration of the
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Fourth of July was accustomed to say that the reading of. certain portions of the Declaration of Independence ought to be omitted on that day, as it served to keep up the old ill-will and hatred, which, as the nations are at peace, ought to be forgotten.
His house was open to all his friends and acquaintances ; while the hospitality of himself and good wife were prover- bial. So affable and kind were the manners of this worthy couple, that all visitors were made to feel how very welcome they were, and that their company was a favor bestowed on them, instead of a trouble.
For many years preceding his death, he suffered greatly from a disease of the hip joint, the origin of which he traced to the night of his hazardous enterprise in the harbor of Newport.
His powers of conversation on nearly all subjects, were unbounded, as well as his magazine of ideas and facts; of course, when he visited Marietta, as he often did on business matters, he was frequently delayed until long after bedtime, in conversations at the firesides of his friends; nevertheless, he could seldom be persuaded to tarry all night, but climb- ing, with much effort, into his little one-horse wagon, would jog cheerfully along, solitary and alone, the distance of five miles, all the while, if the night was clear, delighting ; his imagination with studying out the names, and classing the constellations of the heavenly hosts.
He had six brothers, several of whom settled in Ohio An early example of his kindness may be seen in his treat- ment of the children of his brother Silas. This brother was a trader, and lived in Boston at the beginning of the war of Independence. He joined the infant navy of the coun- try, and acted as captain of marines, under Abraham Whip- ple, during the first year of the war. He was at length taken prisoner, and died in the murderous British prison
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ships at New York, with thousands of his countrymen. His wife and three children were left destitute at Boston. Capt. Devol, although then poor, and supporting his own family with his labor, brought the three children to his house, and fed and clothed them as his own, till the daughter was mar- ried, and the two sons old enough to take care of themselves.
He used sometimes to try his skill in poetry, a small sam- ple of which is given in the life of Com. Whipple. The ideas and imagination of the poet were not wanting, but he lacked one necessary qualification, harmony of verse.
In person Capt. Devol was of a medium size and hight, muscular, and well-proportioned; quick and rapid in his motions like the movements of his mind; a well formed head ; light complexion ; reddish-colored hair; blue, transpa- rent eyes, sparkling with good humor and intelligence; a well-proportioned nose, of a Roman cast; broad, positive chin, indicative of decision and firmness. In his youthful days, in the full, showy dress of the period of the Revolu- tion, he was said to have been, by one who knew him well, the most perfect figure of a man to be seen amongst a thousand.
Mrs. Devol died in 1823, during the great epidemic fever which pervaded all the valley of the Ohio.
He died in 1824, aged sixty-eight years, greatly lamented by all who knew him.
17
COL. RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS.
THIS excellent man was one of the choice spirits brought out by the stirring times of the American Revolution, a sea- son which tried men's souls and purified their patriotism in the furnace of affliction. Some of the best blood of the Puritans warmed his heart, and inspired him at an early day to resist the oppressions of the mother country, and to preserve for himself and his posterity the civil and religious liberty purchased at so dear a rate by his forefathers, who had left their country and homes across the Atlantic to en- joy these rights in the wilderness of North America.
The subject of this sketch was born at Middletown, Conn., in December, 1740. His early education was such as the public schools of that day afforded. He was a neat penman ; specimens of his writing are seen in the early records of the Court of Common Pleas of Washington county, Ohio, of which he was prothonotary. His knowledge of mathematics must have been considerable, as he was one of the surveyors of the Ohio Company. The larger portion of the active and prominent men at the period of the Revolution, were bred to farming, or some useful mechanical occupation, which gave them healthy, muscular frames, and vigorous, thinking minds. Col. Meigs was bred to that of a hatter; and the old shop may now be seen in a plan of the ancient town, attached to Barber's History of Connecticut.
At the breaking out of the war, he was thirty-five years old, a period in the life of man, when his physical and mental powers are fully developed. For one or two years preceding, the people of Middletown had noticed the gathering storm,
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and like others of their New England brethren, prepared themselves for its coming by forming volunteer military companies, and rolls of minute men, who had for many months been trained in martial exercises. One of these was organized in this town, well armed and uniformed, which made choice of Mr. Meigs for their captain. At the first news of the blood shed at Lexington, he marched his company of light infantry to Cambridge, and offered his services for the defense of the country. Soon after this he was appointed a major by the state of Connecticut. En- couraged by the successes of Allen and Arnold, in their attacks on the British Canadian posts, and believing they had many friends amongst the French inhabitants, who had never be- come fully reconciled to the sovereignty of the English since their conquest by Gen. Wolfe, it was thought advisable by Gen. Washington and a committee of Congress, who visited the camp at Cambridge, to send a body of troops into Can- ada by the way of the Kennebec and Chaudiere rivers, to act in concert with the army of Gen. Montgomery, already in the vicinity of Montreal. Benedict Arnold, born in Nor- wich, Conn., in the same year with Col. Meigs, a bold, active man, was selected to lead the expedition, and commissioned by the commander-in-chief, as a colonel. About eleven hundred men were detached from the main army, composed of ten companies of infantry from the New England states, and three companies of riflemen from Pennsylvania and Virginia, under Capt. Daniel Morgan. The field officers of the infantry were Lieut. Col. Christopher Green, of Rhode Island, Lieut. Col. Enos, and Majs. Bigelow and Meigs.
The troops left the camp near Cambridge, on the 11th of September, 1775, in high spirits, looking forward to a glori- ous result with hope and confidence, and arrived at New- buryport, where they were to embark the following day. On the 18th they entered on board ten transports, and sailed
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that evening with a fair wind for the mouth of the Kenne. bec, which place they reached the next day, without any accident, or meeting any of the enemy's ships. The vessel proceeded up the river to Coburn's ship-yard, opposite the present town of Gardiner, where the troops embarked with their baggage in two hundred bateaux, already prepared by carpenters, sent on from Cambridge, and proceeded up the river to Fort Western, opposite to the present town of Augusta. Before leaving this place, Arnold dispatched a party of eight men, with two guides, under Lieut. Steel, an in- telligent, faithful man, in birch-bark canoes, to mark out the carrying places and water-courses, to be pursued by the army. This was an arduous duty, but promptly executed, and the route marked out over to the head-waters of the Chaudiere, by the 8th of October, or in seventeen days, as appears from the journal of Judge Henry, of Pennsylvania, who was one of the exploring party. The main army did not reach this point in their march, until the 30th, a differ- ence of twenty-two days. Although every exertion was made, their progress was slow, not averaging more than ten or twelve miles a day. The constant recurrence of rip- ples, falls, and carrying places, across which it required the aid of all the men to carry their heavy bateaux, barrels of pork and flour, with their own arms and baggage. One of these carrying places across a bend, from the Kennebec to the Dead river, a westerly tributary, up which the most direct course led, was fifteen miles, with two or three small ponds, which aided a little. Some of the carrying places were so boggy and deep, that causeways of logs had to be made ; while others were rocky and full of bushes and fallen trees. In these Herculean labors the officers were as deeply engaged as the men; as where they led, the soldiers would follow. It was the most arduous and laborious enterprise performed during the war, where the men suffered not only
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from cold and fatigue for nearly forty days, but for the last ten days from actual starvation. As they approached the heads of Dead river, the elevation of the country rendered the nights cold even in summer, and by the 20th of October, so cold as to cover the calm, shallow water, with a thin coat of ice. In proof of the elevation of this region, by referring to a map, it will be seen that the Connecticut, the Andros- coggin, the Kennebec, and the Chaudiere rivers all take their rise in this vicinity
Near the head of the Dead river lived the remnants of an ancient tribe of Indians. The leading warrior was named Natanis. For some reason Col. Arnold concluded they were hostile to the Americans, and directed Lieut. Steel to cap- ture or kill him. He visited his cabin, a neat, small struc- ture near the bank of the river, but he had received notice of the intention, and fled. A few miles above his hut, a large westerly branch puts in, which the exploring party were about to ascend as the right course to pursue, when one of the men noticed a stake driven into the water's edge, on top of which was a piece of folded birch bark, secured in a split; on examining this, it proved to be a map of the route over to Chaudiere, rudely marked on the bark, no doubt left there by Natanis for the benefit of the Americans, as he subsequently proved himself to be friendly, and several of the St. Francis Indians joined Arnold's troops.
The progress of the troops and their laborious march, is fully described in the letters of their leader to Gen. Wash- ington and others, as published in the American archives, extracts from which follow. Fort Western was supposed to be only one hundred and eighty miles from Quebec, but sub- sequently proved to be over three hundred. At this place, for the greater convenience of marching, the troops were separated into five divisions, with the distance of one day's
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travel between each. The first division was composed of three companies of riflemen, under Capt. Morgan, and was in advance; second division, three companies of infantry, under Col. Christopher Green; third division, of four com- panies, under Maj. Meigs; fourth division, of two compa- nies, under Maj. Bigelow; fifth, of three companies, under Col. Enos, formed the rear-guard. Norridgewock falls are fifty miles above Fort Western : a little below these falls, was once the seat of a Catholic mission to the Indians, un- der Father Ralle, so basely murdered in the old French war by a party of colonists
The river being so full of rapids and falls, together with the leakage, and throwing the water over the sides of the boats, caused great damage, and loss of provisions. Near the heads of the Dead river were many small ponds, abounding in salmon trout. The men caught large quanti- ties for food. They were so abundant that one person could take with a hook eight or ten dozen in an hour. In size, they averaged about half a pound, while in some of the ponds they were much larger. This region has within a few years past become a noted resort for sportsmen in trout-fishing.
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