USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 26
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He reached his post unmolested, with all the prisoners, and the loss of only a few men wounded, but none killed. The following day he was relieved by a fresh detachment, and marched into camp with the trophies of this brave adventure.
The morning after his return, in the orders of the day, by the commander-in-chief, notice was taken of this affair, and any similar attempt by the troops on the lines forbidden, thereby apparently censuring the conduct of Capt. Cushing. This was rather a damper to the feelings of a brave officer,
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who was peculiarly sensitive, and sustained a nice sense of military honor. Soon after the promulgation of the order, and he had retired to his tent, brooding over the event of the morning, and half inclined to be both angry and morti- fied at the nice distinctions of the commander, an aid of Gen. Washington entered with a polite invitation to dine with him. He readily complied with the request, and at the table was placed in the post of honor, at Washington's right hand. A large number of officers were present, in whose hearing he highly complimented Capt. Cushing for the gallant manner in which he conducted the assault on the Tories, and the bravery and skill with which he defeated the charges of Simcoe; and that there were few, indeed, who could have conducted the retreat with the coolness and success he had done; but, at the same time, added that for the strict and orderly discipline of the army, it was neces- sary to discountenance every act that contravened the or- ders of the commander-in-chief. This satisfied all his mortified feelings, and increased his love and respect for his revered general.
After the close of the war he lived in Boston, from whence, on the formation of the Ohio Company, he re- moved with his family to Marietta, in the summer of 1788. Soon after his arrival, in August, he was commissioned by Gov. St. Clair as a captain in the first regiment of territo- rial militia, and in 1797, by the same, as colonel of the regiment. When the Belpre colony was formed, in 1789, he joined the association, and was one of the most active, brave, and intelligent men, in arranging and conducting the military and civil affairs of that settlement. After the cap- ture of Capt. Goodale by the Indians, he was chosen to command the garrison of Farmers' castle. At the close of the war he settled on his farm, and pursued agriculture for the support of his family, and was a very successful
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cultivator. He paid great attention to the education of his children, who now rank with the most worthy and useful citizens of Ohio.
Thomas H. Cushing was a younger brother, and faith- fully served his country, not only in the war of 1776, but also in that of 1812. In 1815 he was collector of the United States revenue in the port of New London, Conn., which office he held until his death, in 1822. He is spoken of as a very excellent man.
In person, Col. Cushing was rather short, but very mus- cular and stout-limbed; eyes black, and of the keenest lus- ter, piercing and intelligent; face well formed, with an ex- pression of firmness and dignity seldom seen; manners gentlemanly and refined; very courteous and affable in his intercourse with mankind, whether poor or rich. He was highly esteemed by Mr. Blennerhasset, and both him and Mrs. Cushing treated with marked attention.
They died in August, in the year 1814; but their names will be long cherished by the descendants of the early settlers, as amongst the most worthy of that heroic band.
MAJ. JONATHAN HASKELL.
MAJ. JONATHAN HASKELL was born in Rochester, Mass., the 19th of March, 1775. Like the larger portion of the New Englanders of that day, he was brought up on a farm, and received only a common school education, which fitted him for conducting the usual concerns of life to which he might be called.
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At the commencement of the war of Independence, when he was twenty years old, he was engaged in agriculture. How early he entered the army is not known. In 1779 he was aid-de-camp to Gen. Patterson, of the Massachusetts line, and was commissioned as a lieutenant. He continued to serve until the close of the war, either as an aid, or in the line of the army.
When the Ohio Company was formed, he became an as- sociate, and moved out there in company with Capt. Devol's family, in the autumn of 1788. In 1789 he united with the Belpre settlement, and commenced clearing his farm. On the breaking out of the Indian war, in January, 1791, he re- ceived the appointment of captain in the regular service, and went to Rochester, Mass., where he recruited a com- pany, and returned to Marietta in December; where he was stationed for the defense of that, and the adjacent settle- ments ; as the troops had been withdrawn from Fort Har- mer in the fall of 1790. After the defeat of Gen. St. Clair, he remained at Marietta until March, 1793, when he was commissioned as a captain in the second sub-legion under Gen. Wayne, and joined the army on the frontiers that sum- mer. He was stationed at Fort St. Clair, where he remained until June, 1794, when he was appointed to the command of the fourth sub-legion, ranking as a major, although his commission was not filled until August, 1795. In a letter to Griffin Greene, Esq., whose relative he married, he gives a sketch of the campaign which defeated the combined forces of the Indians and closed the war.
"HEAD QUARTERS, MIAMI OF THE LAKE, August 29th, 1794.
SIR : The 28th of July the army moved forward, consisting of about eighteen hundred regulars and fifteen hundred militia, from the state of Kentucky, passing by the way of St. Clair's battle-ground, now Fort Recovery. We then turned more to the eastward, and struck the St. Mary's in
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twenty miles, where we erected a small fort, and left a sub . altern's command. We then crossed the St. Mary's, and in four or five days' marching found the Auglaize river, and continued on down that stream to its junction with the Mi- ami of the lake; distant one hundred miles from Greenville, by the route we pursued. At this place we built a garrison, and left a major to command it. The army then marched down the river forty-seven miles from the new garrison, and on the 20th inst., at nine o'clock in the morning, came up with the Indians, who had posted themselves in a position chosen as most favorable for defense. The troops charged upon them with the bayonet, and drove them two miles, through a thicket of woods, fallen timber, and underbrush, when the cavalry fell upon and entirely routed them. Our line extended two and a half miles, and yet it was with dif- ficulty we outflanked them. One of the prisoners, a white man, says the number of the Indians engaged was about twelve hundred, aided by two hundred and fifty white men from Detroit. Our loss in the action was two officers killed, and four wounded, with about thirty privates killed, and eighty wounded. The Indians suffered much; about forty or fifty of their dead fell into our hands. The prisoner was asked why they did not fight better? He said that we would give them no time to load their pieces, but kept them con- stantly on the run. Two miles in advance of the battle- ground, is a British garrison, established last spring, which we marched round within pistol shot, and demanded a sur- render; but they refused to give it up. Our artillery being too light, and the fort too strong to carry by storm, it was not attacked; but we burnt their out-houses, destroyed all their gardens, cornfields, and grass, within musket shot of the place, and all below for eight or nine miles, without any opposition. On the 27th we arrived at this place, where we have a fort, and shall halt a few days to rest. We have
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marched through the Indian settlements and villages for about sixty miles, destroyed several thousand acres of corn, beans, and all kinds of vegetables, burned their houses, with furniture, tools, &c. A detachment has gone into Fort Re- covery for a supply of provisions for the troops, and when it returns, we shall march up the Miami sixty miles, to where the St. Mary's unites with the St. Joseph's, and destroy all the corn in that country."
This letter describes, in plain terms, the ruin and devasta- tion that marked the course of the American army. It might have been considered a wise policy to devote to de- struction the dwellings, cornfields, gardens, and in fact every species of property that belonged to the hostile savages, but it was also a most cruel policy. The British troops, in their inroads amongst the rebel settlements of the Revolutionary war, never conducted more barbarously. The Indian vil- lages on the Miami and the Auglaize, were snugly and comfortably built-were furnished with many convenient articles of house-keeping and clothing. They had large fields of corn and beans, with gardens of melons, squashes, and various other vegetables. Mr. Joseph Kelly, of Ma- rietta, then a boy of twelve years old, and for several years a prisoner with the Indians, who treated him kindly, and was adopted into a family as one of their own children, was living at this time with them at the junction of the St. Mary's and Auglaize, the spot where Maj. Haskell says the army would next go, to complete their work of destruction. Mr. Kelly was there when an Indian runner announced that the American troops had arrived in the vicinity of the village. His friends had not expected them so soon, and with the ut- most haste and consternation, the old men, with the women and children, the warriors being absent, hurried aboard their canoes, taking nothing with them but a few kettles and blankets, not having time to collect any provisions from
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their fields and gardens. The sun was only an hour or two high when they departed, in as deep sorrow at the loss of. their country and homes, as the Trojans of old when they evacuated their favorite city. Before the next day at noon, their nice village was burnt to the ground; their cornfields of several hundred acres, just beginning to ripen, were cut down and trampled under foot by the horses and oxen of the invaders, while their melons and squashes were pulled up by the roots. The following winter, the poor Indians de- prived of their stock of corn and beans, which were grown every year and laid up for their winter food as regularly as among the white people, suffered the extreme of want. Game was scarce in the country they retreated to on the west of the Miami, and what few deer and fish they could collect, barely served to keep them alive. It was a cruel policy; but probably subdued their Spartan courage more than two or three defeats, as for many years thereafter, until the days of Tecumseh, they remained at peace.
After the close of the war, Maj. Haskell returned to his farm at Belpre, where he died in December, 1814. He was considered a brave man and a good officer. Several of his descendants are living in Washington county.
COL. EBENEZER BATTELLE.
COL. EBENEZER BATTELLE was a descendant of the Puritan race, and the only son of Ebenezer Battelle, Esq., of Dedham, Mass. His father was one of the industrious, honest yeo- manry of the good old bay state, who duly appreciated the
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value of learning, more farmers' sons being liberally edu- cated in that state than in any other of the Union. At a suitable age he pursued a full college course at Cambridge, and graduated in the year 1775. He was intended for the ministry, as were a large share of the educated men before the Revolution; but the war breaking out in the last year of his course, his attention was diverted from the study of divinity to that of a martial nature. He held the commis- sion of a colonel under the governor of Massachusetts, in the militia, during or at the close of the war.
In 1781, he commenced business in Boston, as the active partner in a bookstore, in company with Isaiah Thomas, of Worcester, a man who delighted in being useful, and assisted many young men in their commencement of life. He re- mained in this occupation six years; and during the time, married Miss Anna Darant, the daughter of Cornelius Dar- ant, Esq., a rich merchant of that place. She was a woman of superior intellect, beautiful person, and great excellence of character, the impress of which descended to her children. This bookstore was the second one ever opened in Boston, the first being kept by Mr. Guile, to which was added a cir- culating library to aid in keeping up the establishment. While here he was elected to the command of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, a noted band of military men, composed of officers of good standing and character.
On the formation of the Ohio Company, he became an associate, and was appointed one of their agents. On the sixth of April, 1788, the day before the pioneers landed at Marietta, he left Boston in company with Col. John May and others, by water, for the mouth of the Muskingum, by way of Baltimore. After a six weeks' tour in crossing the mountains, by almost impassable roads, with their heavy- loaded wagon, they reached the place of destination the last of May. During the following summer he was employed
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in erecting a dwelling-house, in the front curtain of Campus Martius, for the reception of his family. The first Court of Quarter Sessions, held the 9th of September, was opened in his house, as appears by the old records of that court. In October, 1788, he recrossed the mountains to meet his family at Baltimore, and guide them over the Alleghenies. He found them under the care of Mr. Daniel Mayo, a young gentleman who had recently graduated at Cambridge, and became a resident of Newport, Ky., after the close of the Indian war. Their journey, at this late season of the year, was very trying to Mrs. Battelle, who had all her life been nurtured in the comforts of a city. At Simrel's ferry, a noted place of embarkation for emigrants, they met with several other New England families, amongst them, Isaac Pierce, Charles Green, and Capt. Zebulon King, who, the next spring, was killed by the Indians. The last of November, eight families embarked in one boat, and that not a large one, and arrived at Marietta in December. Here they met with a hearty welcome from the five or six females and heads of families who had come on in August preceding. The winter was passed very pleasantly in Campus Martius, in the company of such men as Gens. Varnum, Parsons, and Putnam, with Gov. St. Clair and the officers of Fort Harmer. The Indians were yet all friendly, and an abundance of wild game, with a good stock of provisions from Pittsburg, ren- dered this as delightful a season as any that occurred for many years thereafter.
That winter an association was formed for the settlement at Belpre, composed almost entirely of the old officers of the continental line. Col. Battelle united himself with these enterprising and intelligent men, and in the spring of 1789 proceeded to clear his land and erect a stout block- house for the reception of his family. On the 1st day of May, one of the associates, Capt. King, from Rhode Island,
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was killed by the Indians, while peaceably at work on his new land. The following day Col. Battelle, with two of his sons and Griffin Greene, Esq., embarked at Marietta in a large canoe, with farming tools, provisions, &c. On their way down they were hailed by some one from the shore, and informed of this sad event. They landed and held a consultation on what was best to be done. Some were for returning; but they finally decided on proceeding. The block-houses of the two emigrants were near each other, and nearly opposite to the middle of Backus' island, on the spot afterward occupied by Farmers' castle. After landing, the other settlers came and joined them for mutual defense, and through the night kept up a military guard, in the old Revolutionary style, the sentinel calling out every fifteen minutes, " All's well," not thinking this would give the skulk- ing Indians notice where to find them. No enemy, how- ever, molested them during the night, and their fears of attack gradually subsided. They were not again disturbed until the winter of 1791.
Early in April, before any families had moved on to the ground, a party of officers from Fort Harmer, with their wives, and a few ladies from Marietta, made a visit to the new settlement, in the officer's barge, a fine, large boat, rowed with twelve oars. These were the first white females who ever set foot on the soil of Belpre. On their return. Col. Battelle, with several others, accompanied them by water in a canoe, and another party by land. While on the voyage, a large bear was discovered swimming across the river. The landsmen fired at him with their muskets and rifles, but without effect. The canoe then ranged along- side, when Col. Battelle seized him by the tail, and when the bear attempted to bite his hand, he raised his hind parts, throwing his head under water, and thus escaped his teeth. One of his companions soon killed him with an axe. He
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weighed over three hundred pounds, and afforded several fine dinners to his captors. In 1790, owing to early frosts and late planting the year previous, the inhabitants were left without bread-stuff, corn being their chief dependence. Their sufferings were very great, until the crop of 1790 was gathered, which proved to be plentiful, and after that time they did not suffer again for food. During the Indian war his family was sheltered in Farmers' castle, and all escaped injury, though often in danger. Several of the inmates were killed.
In the plan of Farmers' castle, his block-house occupied the northeast corner. In their lower room of this building, regularly on the Sabbath, divine worship was kept up by the inhabitants. His son Ebenezer, a lad of fourteen years, was drummer to the garrison, and at the hour of service marched with his drum the whole length of the castle, sum- moning the people to worship. Col. Battelle officiated as chaplain, sometimes delivering his own discourses, and, at others, reading the sermons of a standard divine; so that the Sabbath was honored and generally respected by the inhabitants.
He died at the residence of his son, in Newport, Washing- ton county, Ohio, in the year 1815.
He left three sons and one daughter, Cornelius, Ebenezer, and Thomas. Cornelius and Thomas, at the close of the war, went to the West Indies, where a rich uncle put them into lucrative business. Thomas married the daughter of Gov. Livingston, of New York, and Cornelius the daughter of a rich planter. Louisa remained single, and lived in Boston with her mother's relatives. Ebenezer settled on a farm in Newport, and has a numerous family of children, noted for their intelligence and respectability.
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COL. ISRAEL PUTNAM.
COL. ISRAEL PUTNAM was the eldest son of Gen. Israel Put- nam, of Pomfret, Conn., but was born in the town of Salem, Mass., in 1739. He had three brothers, Daniel, David and Schuyler, whose native place was Pomfret. His early days were passed on the farm, and he was bred to the noble art of agriculture, an art without which all other arts are useless. This gave him a vigorous, healthy frame, and fitted him for the turmoils of the camp or the labors of the field.
His education was similar to that of the sons of the sur- rounding yeomanry, equal to all the common concerns of life. As a proof that Gen. Putnam highly valued learning and the cultivation of the mind, he collected a large library of the most useful books; embracing history, belles-lettres, travels, &c., for the benefit of himself and children, called the Putnam family library. After his death they were divided amongst the heirs, and quite a number of them found their way to Ohio, being brought out by his son and grandchildren.
About the year 1764, he married Miss Sarah Waldo, of an ancient and honorable family in Pomfret, and a woman of excellent qualities, with whom he passed a long and happy life.
On the 20th of April, 1775, when the news of the battle of Lexington arrived, flying on the wings of the wind, his father, Col. Putnam, was plowing in the field with four oxen. He left them standing in their yokes, and hastening to the stable, mounted one of his fleetest horses, without even changing his dress, and started for the scene of action. The distance was one hundred miles, which he accomplished by
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a relay of horses, in twenty-four hours. Shortly after his departure, his son Israel raised a company of volunteers, of which he was the captain, and marched to Cambridge, where he remained under his father's orders until the arrival of Gen. Washington. Soon after this time, Col. Putnam was commissioned by Congress as a major-general, and on the 22d of July, Capt. Putnam and Lieut. Samuel Webb were appointed his aids. He accompanied his father to New York, where he took command of that division of the army, and to the posts on the Hudson river. Having but little taste for military life, to which calling neither his address nor personal appearance fitted him, being diffident and awkward in his manners, but naturally fearless and brave like all his name, after spending about three years in the army, he con- cluded to quit the service and devote his attention to the farm, for which he was eminently fitted, both by inclina- tion and practice. While absent from his home, his wife took charge of the family of six children. She was a woman of great spirit, and as firm a patriot as the general himself, hating, with all her soul and strength, the British oppressors of her country, who were technically called Redcoats, and loving with equal ardor the American soldiers, supplying them with food and clothing to the extent of her abilities. In the winter of 1779, when the patriot troops suffered so much from the want of warm garments, she had spun and wove in her own house, a number of blankets made of the finest wool in the flock, and sent on for their relief. Numer- ous pairs of stockings were also manufactured by her own hands, and contributed in the same way. No one at this day knows or can appreciate the value of the labors of American females in achieving our freedom. They wrought and suffered in silence, bearing many privations in common with their husbands and sons in the days which tried the patriotism of the colonists. She was a woman of elevated
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mind and great personal courage, worthy of the family to which she was allied. In the absence of her husband, when the vultures and hawks attacked the poultry, she could load and fire his light fowling-piece at them, without dodging at the flash.
While at Harlem hights, Col. Putnam purchased two fine bulls, to improve his stock of cattle; one was black, and a full-blooded English animal; the other, an American, of a mottled color. From these, crossed with his best native cows, was raised a very superior stock, celebrated for size, and their excellent qualities for the dairy. Oxen of this breed were brought out to Ohio in the year 1788, and cows in 1795, which were as famous for milk as the noted Dur- hams of this day. During the period of the Revolution, amidst all their other cares, intelligent American farmers found time to attend to the improvement of their farming operations, as well as to the calls of military duties.
When the Ohio Company was formed, he became an as- sociate; and with two of his sons crossed the mountains, bringing a wagon load of farming utensils; but left his wife and other children in Pomfret, until a farm was provided for their comfort in the wilderness. His team was composed of two yokes of oxen, sprung from this famous stock. The adventure in crossing the North river, related in the biogra- phy of his son Waldo, took place on this journey; and his life was saved by one of these fine oxen. At the formation of the settlement in Belpre, in the spring of 1789, he joined that community, locating his farm in the broad, beautiful bottom on the Ohio river, opposite to the mouth of the Lit- tle Kenawha. Here he remained, clearing and fencing the land, until the fall of 1790, when he returned to Connecticut for his family. The Indian war broke out in January fol- lowing, and he did not return until after the peace of 1795.
His wealth, although not great, yet gave him facilities for
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improving his lands and erecting buildings, rather superior to most of the other associates, who were generally in very moderate circumstances. He was a practical and intelli- gent agriculturist, who, by his example and precepts, was the means of giving a correct tone to the progress of farm- ing in Belpre, thus conferring a direct benefit on the country. In all public improvements on the roads and bridges, so use- ful in new settlements, he was a leading and influential man; also, in the support of schools and the gospel; read- ing on the Sabbath, in their social meetings, when they had no preacher, the prayers of the Episcopal church, and a ser- mon from the work of some pious divine; thus doing all in his power for the good of his fellow men.
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