USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 27
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He was the father of a numerous family ; five sons and three daughters, viz .: Israel, Aaron Waldo, David, William Pitt, and George Washington. These all settled in Ohio, and three of them as farmers. William Pitt Putnam was a physician, and came to Marietta in 1792, in the midst of the war, and practiced medicine. David Putnam also settled in Marietta, in 1798, as a lawyer, and is now the only survivor. The daughters married as follows: Sarah to Samuel Thor- nily, Mary to Daniel Mayo, and Elizabeth to Joel Craig; the two latter settled in Newport, Ky., opposite to Cincinnati, where their descendants now live.
Col. Putnam was a man of sound, vigorous mind, and re- markable for his plain, common sense; abrupt and homely in his manners and address, but perfectly honest and up- right in his intercourse with mankind. He was a strict utilitarian; esteeming the useful much more highly than the ornamental. In his life he practiced all the Christian vir- tues, and died in the full hope of a blessed immortality.
MAJ. NATHAN GOODALE
MAJ. NATHAN GOODALE Was born in Brookfield, Mass., about the year 1743. His father died when he was quite young, and his mother married a Mr. Ware, of Rutland, where he was removed to his new home, and passed his early years, to the time of manhood, on a farm, and in learning the trade of a bricklayer; thus laying the foundation for that vigorous, muscular frame, which enabled him to undergo the fatigues and exposures of a military life, at a time when the army afforded few facilities for the comfort of the soldier. No other set of men could have borne up under the trials of want, famine, and a lack of all the common necessaries of life, for several years in succession, as did the American soldiers, but such as had been inured like the Spartans, in childhood, to bear suffering with patience. His education was rather above that of the common schools of that day, for we find him, at an early period of the war, employed by Gen. Putnam as an assistant engineer.
At a suitable age he married Elizabeth Phelps, of Rut- land, on the 11th of September, 1765. About the year 1770 he moved his family to Brookfield, where he purchased a farm two miles from the center of the town. His three old- est children were born in Rutland, as we learn from the town records.
From this time to the rupture with the mother country, in 1775, he continued to labor on his farm, and to work at his trade of bricklaying; but as nearly all the houses of that day were made of wood, his mechanical work was chiefly confined to chimneys. For some time previous to the first hostilities, he had, with thousands of his countrymen, been
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preparing for the day of strife, which every thinking man foresaw must soon arrive, by practicing military exercises, and collecting arms and ammunition. Many of these vol- unteer companies were aptly called, by the New England- ers, who are never at a loss for a phrase to express exactly their meaning, "Minute men." They were, indeed, minute men, and when the first notice of alarm echoed from hill to hill, all over the country, at the bloodshed at Lexington, they were ready, at a moment's warning, to pour their thou- sands on thousands into the vicinity of Boston, the strong- hold of the British, which nothing but the lack of battering cannon and ammunition hindered them immediately from storming. Mr. Goodale here first saw the actual movements of military life, and immediately entered into the service of his country, as a lieutenant. It being uncertain how long he might remain in the army, the homestead of his early manhood was sold, and his family resided, during the war, in rented premises. With what spirit and enterprise he en- tered into the service, and how well his activity and talents were adapted to the trying exigencies of a partisan officer, the most difficult of all military duties, will be best shown by a letter from Gen. Rufus Putnam to Gen. Washington, near the close of the war:
"MASSACHUSETTS HUTS, June 9th, 1783.
SIR : I do myself the honor to inclose a letter I received a few days since from Capt. Goodale, of the fifth Massachu- setts regiment. I confess I feel a conviction of neglect of duty in respect to this gentleman; that I have not, till this moment, taken any measures to bring his services to public view, has been owing to the confidence I had, that Gen. Gates would have done it, as the most extraordinary of them were performed under his own orders, and as he gave re- peated assurances that they should not be forgotten. I am
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sorry that Gen. Gates is now out of camp, for were he not, I should appeal to him on the subject, but as I am sure so worthy a character, and such important services, ought not to be buried in oblivion, or pass unrewarded, I beg your excellency's patience a few moments, while I give a short detail of them. Capt. Goodale was among the first who embarked in the common cause in 1775. He served that year as a lieutenant in the same regiment with me. I had long before known him to be a man of spirit, and his probity and attention to service soon gained him the character of a worthy officer. In 1776, he entered again as a lieutenant, but served with me the most of the year as an assistant engineer, and the public are much indebted to him for the dispatch and propriety with which several of the works about New York were executed. In the dark month of November, 1776, Mr. Goodale entered the service as a captain in the regiment under my command, and was in the field early the next spring; but, although he always discovered a thirst for enterprise, yet fortune never gave his genius fair play till August, 1777. It is well known into what a panic the country, and even the northern army, were thrown on the taking of Ticonderoga. When Gen. Gates took command in that quarter, our army lay at Van Shaick's island; and Mr. Burgoyne, with his black wings and painted legions, lay at Saratoga. The woods were so infested with savages, that for sometime none of the scouts who were sent out for the purpose of obtaining prisoners or intelligence of the enemy's situation, succeeded in either. Gen. Gates being vexed at continual disappointments, desired an officer to procure him a man that would undertake, at all hazards, to perform this service. Capt. Goodale being spoken to, voluntarily under- took the business under the following orders from Gen. Gates. 'Sir: You are to choose out a sergeant and six
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privates, and proceed with them to the enemy's camp, unless you lose your life or are captured, and not return until you obtain a full knowledge of their situation.'
Capt. Goodale, in his report of this scout, says it was not performed without great fatigue, as the party was much harassed by the Indians, which occasioned their being in the woods three days without provisions. However, he suc- ceeded beyond expectation; first throwing himself between their out-guards and their camp, where he concealed his party until he examined their situation very fully, and then brought off six prisoners, which he took within their guards, and returned to Gen. Gates without any loss. This success induced Gen. Gates to continue him on that kind of service. A full detail of all the art and address which he discovered during the remainder of that campaign, would make my letter quite too long. It may be enough to observe that before the capture of the British army, one hundred and twenty-one prisoners fell into his hands. But as Capt. Goodale is no less brave and determined in the open field, where opposed to regular troops, than he is artful as a partizan of the woods, I beg your patience while I recite one instance of this kind. A day or two after Mr. Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga, in a foggy morning, Nixon's brigade was ordered to cross the creek which separated the two armies. Capt. Goodale, with forty volunteers, went over before the advance guard. He soon fell in with a British guard of about the same number. The ground was an open plain, but the fog prevented their discovering each other till they were within a few yards, when both parties made ready nearly at the same time. Capt. Goodale, in this position reserving his fire, advanced immediately upon the enemy, who waited with a design to draw it from him; but he had the address to intimidate them in such a manner, by threatening immediate death to any one that should fire,
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that not more than two or three obeyed the order of their own officer, when he gave the word. The event was, that the officer and thirty-four of the guard were made prisoners. These, sir, are the services which Capt. Goodale and his friends conceive have merited more attention than has been paid to them; and, at least, merit a majority as much as Maj. Summers' unsuccessful command of a boat a few months on Lake Champlain. But if the tables are reversed, and the ill luck of a brave man should be the only recom- mendation to promotion, Capt. Goodale, I believe, has as great pretensions as most men, for he is the unfortunate officer who commanded about forty white men, and being joined by about the same number of Indians, fought more than one thousand of the enemy below Valentine's hill in 1778, until near two-thirds were killed, himself and most of the rest made prisoners. But I mention this not so much to show his bravery, for he takes no merit from that action, but always lamented the necessity he was under from the orders he received, to do what he did. In writing to me on the subject, he says : 'At this time a number of brave men were sacrificed to bad orders; but, as they were not my orders, I hope the candid will not censure me.' Having stated these facts, I beg leave to request your excellency will lay them before Congress, &c. He goes on to say, Gen. Washington forwarded my letter to the secretary of war; but as about this time Congress came to a resolution to raise the rank of all officers one grade who had not been promoted since their entrance into service, the 1st of January, 1777, Maj. Goodale received promotion with the rest, and thus never had that justice done him which he so highly merited."
Thus far Gen. Putnam testifies to the valuable services of this brave and noble-minded man. Had Gen. Gates, as in duty bound, given notice to Congress of the heroic exploits
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of Capt. Goodale, in collecting information of the move- ments of Burgoyne, so essential to the welfare of the Ameri- can army, he would no doubt have received the promotion so justly his due. But Gates was a selfish, proud man, who cared little for the interest of others, provided his own per- sonal wishes were accomplished.
From another hand a more detailed account is given of the action at Valentine's hill. It seems that the commander of the troops to which he was attached, had ordered him to keep possession of a certain pass, important to the Ameri- cans, at all hazards, without any discretionary power as to contingencies. His command consisted, as above-stated, of about forty light-infantry and a number of Indians, who stood the attack of a large body of the enemy and a com- pany of cavalry, until there were only seventeen men left alive out of the forty. Near the close of the combat, the officer who led the charge rushed upon him with his sword. Capt. Goodale, with a loaded musket which he had probably picked up from one of his fallen men, shot the Briton dead from his horse as he approached. In a moment, another of the enemy, seeing the fall of his leader, sprung at him in desperation, with full purpose to revenge his death. The musket being discharged, the only resource was to parry the descending blow, aimed at his head, in the best manner he could, with the empty piece. It fell obliquely, being turned a little from its course by the musket, and instead of splitting the skull of its intended victim, glanced on the bone, peeling up a portion of the scalp several inches in length. The stunning effects of the blow felled him to the earth, but di- rectly recovering, he rose to his feet. In the meantime, the cavalry man, who had leaned forward in the saddle further than prudent to give a certain death-stroke, lost his balance, when the heavy sword glanced from the skull and fell to the earth. The bayonet of Capt. Goodale instantly pinned him
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to the ground, and left him dead by the side of his leader. Thus two of the enemy fell by his hand in a space of time less than a minute. Seeing all prospect of further resistance useless, he retreated with the balance of his men to an open woodland, near the scene of action, and secreted himself under a pile of brush. An Indian had hidden under another heap, where they might have remained in safety until dark and then escaped ; but the savage having an opportunity to shoot one of the enemy who approached their hiding-place, he could not resist the chance of adding another scalp to his trophies, and shot him. The report of the shot revealed their hiding-place, and being discovered, were made pris- oners. How long he remained in durance does not appear from the imperfect memorials left of his military life. It is probable he was shut up in the old Jersey prison-ship at New York, as his children have a tradition that he was poisoned, from the fact of a long sickness he suffered after his return home. But it is more probable that the poison was that of human malaria, received in that pest-house of British cruelty, which killed more Americans than all those who fell in battle during the whole war, being estimated at twelve or fourteen thousand. It is one of the foulest stains on the English nation, that ever disgraced their character.
During the war he received one other wound in the leg, from a musket or grape shot. Could all his adventures be collected they would make one of the most interesting of biographies; but time, and a fire which destroyed his papers at, Belpre some years after his death, have put this matter to rest, and these scanty gleanings are all that are left of his military life.
At the close of the war he entered into mercantile busi- ness, in company with Col. Cushing, a brother officer. Not succeeding in this to his expectations, he sold out, and bought a farm on Coit's hill, in the north part of the town
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of Brookfield. In the pursuits of agriculture he was as much at home as in military matters, having a natural taste for cultivation, and engaged in this primitive employment with his characteristic ardor and perseverance, at a time when improvements of all kinds were at a low ebb; the country during the war having retrograded, amidst the trials of that eventful period. Mr. Goodale was remarkable for his industry, and thorough, neat manner in which he con- ducted all the operations of the farm. The forecast and wisdom of the man may be seen before setting out on his journey to Ohio, in the course he pursued in preparing for it. Knowing that a superior breed of neat cattle is all-im- portant to the farmer, and more especially to one beginning in a new country, instead of taking a team of oxen, or horses, as all other men did, to haul their wagons, he, after deciding on joining the new colony, selected three of the best cows and one of the finest bulls to be found in that vi- cinity, and trained them to work together in a team. With this novel working power, he drew on the wagon, with a part of his family and household goods, to Marietta, per- forming the journey with as much ease, and in as short a time, as the best of oxen. He had also the profit of their milk for the use of the family along the road. The stock from this breed of cattle has been spread through the county, and is held in high estimation at this day, for their perfect forms, gentle dispositions, and great abundance of rich milk; constituting them, on all accounts, the best dairy stock ever introduced to the country. They are known as the " Goodale breed," still retaining many of their original characteristics."
Maj. Goodale arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum on the 2d of July, 1788, in company with several other families from Massachusetts, descending the Ohio, from Wheeling, in a flatboat. In August he was appointed, by Gov. St.
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Clair, who soon organized the militia, captain of a company of light-infantry, selected from amongst the most active men of the colony. This company held regular musters, until the commencement of the war, when each man was con- fined to the defense of his own garrison, in the settlement where he lived. His experience in military affairs rendered him a very able and efficient officer, familiar with all the details of actual service.
In April, 1789, he moved his family to Belpre, being a leading associate of the colony. During the short period he was permitted to live in that place, he was considered to be one of the most industrious, persevering, and thoroughly educated farmers in the county ; clearing his land in the most rapid manner, fencing and cultivating it in the best style. In the famine of 1790 his family suffered, with the rest of their neighbors, for wholesome bread-stuff. When the war broke out in 1791, he was one of the most active and reso- lute men in planning and erecting the fortified village called Farmers' castle, in which they all resided during the first two years of the war. In making the arrangements for the defense and military government of the garrison, he was the leading man; and the command was, by unanimous con- sent, given to him, as the most experienced in warlike mat- ters. In the winter of 1793 the place had become too strait for the numerous families congregated within its walls, and it was decided to erect two additional stockades ; one a mi'e and a half below, on Maj. Goodale's farm, and one on Capt. Stone's land, just below the mouth of the Little Kenawha, called the "Upper settlement."
He had been but a week in his new garrison, when the colony met with the most serious loss it had yet sustained from their Indian enemies, in the captivity and death of Maj. Goodale. On the first day of March, 1793, he was at work in a clearing on his farm, distant about forty or fifty
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rods from the garrison, hauling rail timber with a yoke of oxen. It lay back of the first bottom, on the edge of the plain, in open view of the station. An Irishman, named John Magee, was at work, grubbing or digging out the roots of the bushes and small trees, on the slope of the plain, as it descends on to the bottom, but out of sight of Maj. Good- ale. The Indians made so little noise in their assault, that John did not hear them. The first notice of this 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 to be still in the same place, when suspicion arose that some disaster had happened to Mr. Goodale. John was still busy at his work, unconscious of any alarm, when one of the men sent up from the gar- rison, passed him to inquire what was the matter. In the edge of the woods there was a thin layer of snow, on which the messenger discovered several moccasin tracks. It was now apparent that Indians had been there, and taken him prisoner, as no blood was seen on the ground. A small party followed the trail some distance, but soon lost it. The following day a larger body of men, with some of the rang- ers, were sent in pursuit, but returned without making any discovery. The Ohio river at this time, with many of the smaller streams, was at nearly full banks, and less dan- ger, was apprehended on that account; it was also rather early in the season for Indians to approach the settlements. The uncertainty of his condition left room for the imagina- tion to fancy every thing horrible in his fate; more terrible to bear, than the actual knowledge of his death.
Great was the distress of Mrs. Goodale and the children, overwhelmed with this unexpected calamity. His loss threw a deep gloom over the whole community, as no man was so highly valued amongst them, neither was there any one whose council and influence were equally prized by the
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settlement. He was, in fact, the life and soul of this isolated community, and left a vacancy that none of his companions could fill. One of the early colonists thus speaks of him: "His memory was for many years fresh and green in the hearts of his cotemporary pioneers, now all passed away, and is still cherished with respect and affection by their descend- ants." (Judge Barker's notes.) So greatly depressed were the inhabitants at his loss, that they awoke with new feel- ings in regard to their dangerous position on the outer verge of civilization. While he was living amongst them a cer- tain degree of safety was felt, that vanished at his loss.
On the 14th of March they forwarded a petition to Gen. Washington, whom they regarded with parental veneration, a copy of which has been preserved, setting forth their ex- posed situation and losses by the Indians. It is stated that six of their number have been killed, besides the recent loss of Maj. Goodale ; that one-third of their cattle, and produce of their lands, had been destroyed by the Indians, and they were fearful of a total breaking up of the settlement, unless the government afforded them a larger number of men for protection, their usual United States guard being only a corporal and four privates, detailed from the post at Mari- etta. The number of the settlers at the three stations were fifty-two men, and one hundred and forty-nine women and children.
At the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, when the captives were given up by the Indians, some intelligence was ob- tained of nearly all the persons taken prisoners from this part of the territory, but none of the fate of Maj. Goodale. A deep mystery seemed to hang over his destiny, never to be revealed. At length, about the year 1799, Col. Forrest Meeker, since a citizen of Delaware county, Ohio, and well acquainted with the family of Maj. Goodale, and the cir- cumstances of this event, when at Detroit, fell in company
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with three Indians, who related to him the particulars of their taking a man prisoner at Belpre, in the spring of 1793. Their description of his person left no doubt on the mind of Col. Meeker, of its being 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, as they expressed it. After carefully examining his movements, they saw him leave his work and go down to the garrison, in the middle of the day. Knowing that he would return soon, 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, threatening 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 for him. Some- where on the Miami, or at Sandusky, he fell sick and could not travel, and that he finally died of this sickness. A Mrs. Whitaker, the wife of an Indian trader at Lower Sandusky, has since related the same fact. She says the Indians left him at her house, where he died of a disease like the pleu- risy, without having received any very ill usage from his captors, other than the means necessary to prevent his escape. This is probably a correct account of his fate ; and although his death was a melancholy one, amongst strangers, in captivity, and far away from the sympathy and care of his friends, yet it is a relief to know that he did not perish at the stake, nor by the tomahawk of the savages.
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MAJ. ROBERT BRADFORD.
MAJ. ROBERT BRADFORD was born in old Plymouth, Mass., in the year 1750. He was a lineal descendant of Gov. Bradford, of about the fifth remove. His wife was Kezia Little, the daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Little, of Kingston, Plymouth county.
He entered early, and with all his heart, into the service of his country during the Revolutionary war, and for the larger portion of that period commanded a company of light-infantry. His military life commenced at the battle of Bunker hill, and ended with the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown, being actually engaged in nearly all the pitched battles fought in the eastern and middle states. With many others of the American officers, he received the gift of an elegant sword, from the Marquis Lafayette, as a mark of his esteem, which yet remains in the hands of his only sur- viving son, O. L. Bradford, of Wood county, Va. He also has in his possession, as family relics, some of the old fur- niture that came over in the May-flower. Amongst them was a pair of hand-irons, one only now being preserved; the other was destroyed accidentally a few years since. Being of an ardent temperament, and ambitious to excel in military exercises, and to do his whole duty, Lafayette one day witnessed the exactness of the evolutions of his com- pany, and spoke in the warmest terms of their merits. When he was in Marietta, in the year 1826, he inquired particularly after Maj. Bradford; and when told that he was dead, he expressed his regret with much feeling. The lapse of more than forty years had consigned the larger portion
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