USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 28
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ROBERT BRADFORD.
of his old comrades to their graves, and his inquiries after his Revolutionary associates, were often answered with that short and melancholy phrase, " He is dead !"
At the close of the war he received an honorable dis- charge, and the brevet rank of major. With others of his brother officers, he suffered great loss by the depreciation of the United States securities, and the worthlessness of the paper currency, in which his long and arduous services were paid. But the main object of his taking up arms was se- cured, the liberty of his country, which he lived to enjoy for many years.
When the Ohio Company was formed, he became an as- sociate, and moved his family to Marietta, in the year 1788. In 1789 he joined the band of old officers who settled Bel- pre, where he suffered the privations of famine, and the dangers of the rifle and scalping-knife of the Indians, having several narrow escapes from these wily sons of the forest. During the prevalence of the putrid sore throat in 1792, he suffered a greater loss of children than any other family. Out of four or five, all died but one, with that disease.
In 1794, during the Indian war, he went out into the Indian country, about eighty miles from the settlements, in com- pany with Griffin Greene, and others, to discover the site of the Scioto Salt Springs, of which vague rumors had been heard from the reports of white prisoners. After sev- eral days' search, they were found by following the Indian and buffalo paths which led to them, and by long use had been worn to a depth of more than a foot, for several miles in extent. Another indication was the remains of the fires, where the squaws had recently boiled the brine collected from a cavity in the rock, cut with their tomahawks, in the bed of the creek, and now full of saline water. On their return, they narrowly escaped pursuit from a large party of
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Indians, who came in sight on the bank of the river, a few minutes after their boat had left the shore. Mr. Bradford and the inmates of Farmers' castle never expected to see them again amongst the living.
He died in the year 1823, during the period of the great epidemic fever, which removed a number of the old soldiers, aged seventy-two years.
Maj. Bradford was a man of a warm heart, cheerful, lively temperament, and sound judgment. He ranked with the most worthy cultivators of the soil in the settlement. In person he was rather tall, erect, and active; strongly marked and bold features, indicative of courage and resolution ; with the bearing of a soldier. He was a man whose virtues and name are worthy of preservation, amongst the defend- ers of an infant colony, and the pioneers of the valley of the Ohio.
AARON WALDO PUTNAM.
AARON WALDO PUTNAM, the second son of Col. Israel Put- nam, was born in Pomfret, Conn., the 18th of April, A. D. 1767.
During his boyhood and youth he assisted his father in cultivating the farm; the larger portion of that name being tillers of the earth. In the summer of 1788, when he was twenty-one years old, he accompanied his father on his long and tedious journey to Marietta, where the Ohio Company had just commenced a settlement. Col. Putnam did not, at this time, move his family, taking only a few household
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goods, with agricultural implements and mechanical tools, the heavy load being transported by a team of two yoke of oxen, this patient but steady animal being well suited to the difficult passes of the mountains, and when at the journey's end less likely to be stolen by the Indians than horses.
In crossing the North river, at Fishkill, a serious accident happened, which served to display the coolness and pres- ence of mind of the Putnam race, in cases of unexpected danger. The oxen were crossed in a flatboat, separate from the wagon, under the care of young Waldo. The river is here a mile wide, or more. A sudden gale of wind raised such a sea, that the boat filled and began to sink. In this extremity, seeing that the oxen must leave the boat, he un- yoked them, that they might swim more freely, putting the iron pins of the bows carefully into his pocket. Being un- able to swim himself, he selected one of the most active of the oxen, and seizing him by the tail with one hand, and brandishing the whip with the other, he directed him, with his voice and an occasional touch of the lash, to the west- ern shore, distant full half a mile. The wind and the tide carried them down about a hundred rods below the landing, where they reached the solid earth in safety, after a voyage of more than a mile. The other oxen having no incum- brance, made the land higher up. Finally all were collected without any loss of yokes, pins, or team.
The rest of the journey to the Ohio was accomplished without further accident, but with immense labor and fatigue in crossing the mountain ranges, by roads which, in these days, would be called impassable; but the persevering, bold men of that day, overcame all difficulties but absolute im- possibilities. The following winter was passed in Campus Martius, and in making preparations to begin the settle- ment in Belpre, where they moved the following spring. Waldo Putnam's land fell to him in the Middle settlement,
1
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where he immediately commenced clearing and putting up a small log-cabin. In the fall of 1790, his father, Col. Put- nam, returned to Pomfret for his family. That winter the war began, and he did not return until after the peace.
In 1791, the settlers had to leave their houses and go into garrison, which they all united in building for their common defense. In this Mr. Putnam passed the time during the five years that followed, boarding in the family of Judge Loring, and performing the duties of a soldier in the defense of the castle, every able-bodied man and boy of sixteen years being enrolled. During this period he became ac- quainted with Miss Bathsheba Loring and was united to her in marriage amidst the dangers and perils of the savages who constantly watched the garrison for prey. In the spring of the year 1791, for the better security of their cattle from the Indians, the settlers ferried a part of them across the Ohio into Virginia, above the head of the island, where they roamed in safety.
On one of these occasions Mr. Putnam was in a flatboat with his negro boy Kitt, who had been brought up in the family, and two other men. The cattle became alarmed, and running to one end of the flat, sunk it. They directly swam to the shore without his having an opportunity to seize one by the tail, as on North river, leaving him and the others, as the boat party rose to the surface, standing up to their breasts in the water. A small canoe was sent out to their rescue that carried but two persons. The black boy became much alarmed, as the water was up to his chin, and was eager to go first to the shore, but to this the two whites objected. Between the effects of the cold water and fear, Kitt's teeth chattered at a great rate, and he must have perished but for the stern rebukes and encouragement of Mr. Putnam, who bid him rise on to his toes, if the water came too near his mouth, and that he must not disgrace the family
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name by any symptoms of fear, although in the greatest extremity. At the third trip, Kitt, almost exhausted, was helped into the canoe with great difficulty by Mr. Putnam, who, now that the others had left him, felt quite safe, as the boat became more buoyant. He was finally relieved, after floating two or three miles, without any harm but the chilling effects of the cold water; and thus, by his calm, collected manner, were all saved, while in similar circumstances, many timid men have been drowned.
Mr. Putnam's improvement lay about half a mile below the garrison. Here the stacks of grain and fodder for the cattle were deposited, and every day during the winter months he had to visit the yard to feed them, and to milk the cows. In these trips, one or more men usually went with him for the same object, and for greater safety.
On one of these occasions, he had just sat down to milk when Nathaniel Little, who was with him and on the look- out, caught sight of an Indian in the edge of the clearing, in the attitude of firing at him. He instantly cried out "Indians!" At the alarming sound, Mr. Putnam sprang to one side as the gun cracked, and the ball struck the ground a few feet from him, passing across the spot where he sat. They instantly fled to the garrison and escaped, though hotly pursued by two or three other Indians.
At the second narrow escape, the year after, he was on the top of the stack, throwing down hay for the cattle. A small dog that they had with them began to growl and show signs of alarm. At this juncture, in the still calmness of a frosty morning, he heard the well-known click of a gun lock. Turning his head in the direction of the sound, he saw, at the distance of forty or fifty yards, an Indian behind the fence, in the act of re-cocking his gun, it having missed fire. He instantly sprang to the ground and ran. The In- dian now fired, but missed his mark. With a tremendous
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yell, he gave chase, in which two others joined from the edge of the woods, trying to cut them off at a ravine they had to pass on a log. The fleetness of the whites disap- pointed their hopes, and the log was crossed before their pursuers reached it. A sally was made from the garrison on the report of the Indian's rifle, and a gun fired at them by a spirited little fellow named Bull; on which they re- treated back to the fodder-yard, and out of sheer spite at their defeat, shot down a fine large yoke of oxen belonging to Capt. Benjamin Miles, from Brookfield, Mass. These cattle were the pride of the settlement, being eight feet in girt, and of proportionate hight, vieing with the best breeds of modern days.
Thus were the settlers in constant danger, and their lives in jeopardy, from a skulking, invisible foe, every time they left the walls of the garrison to follow the labors of the farm. In cultivating their crops, for the first years of the war, they worked in common, on each man's land, in parties of thirty or forty men, well armed; and in the autumn di- vided the crop amongst the laborers, in proportion to the days' work done, of which a regular account was kept by a stated clerk. Generally, before the laborers left the garri- son, the rangers made a circuit in the woods adjacent to the field, or scene of their labor that day. With this precau- tion, it was seldom that Indians came very near the set- tlement, without leaving some signs of their approach, discoverable by the rangers.
In the spring of the year 1793, after the green feed had become good in the forests, the oxen and cows of Mr. Put- nam one night failed to come home as they usually did. The following morning he took his gun and sallied out into the woods in search of the absent animals. Expecting to find them in the adjacent hills, he did not ask the aid of any one to accompany him. After a little examination he
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discovered their trail, and followed it that day to Fort Har- mer, distant fifteen miles from Farmers' castle. Here he ascertained that they had been seen the evening before, and passed the night. In the morning he again discovered their trail up the Muskingum, and followed it all that day, alone in the woods, not choosing to ask any one to risk his life with him in this dangerous enterprise. That evening he reached Tyler's block-house, at Waterford, twenty miles from Marietta, where, to his joy, he found the strayed ani- mals. Here he passed the second night, very uneasy at the alarm and distress his young wife and friends would feel at his long absence. In the morning he took the precaution of removing the clapper from the bell of the leading ox, whose noisy tinkle might give notice of his approach to some watchful Indian, and commenced his return to the castle, across the country between the waters of Wolf creek and Little Hocking, by an obscure trail frequented by the ran- gers, and reached home, eighteen or twenty miles, just before dark. His long absence, three days and two nights, had caused him to be given up as a prisoner, or killed by the savages, his well known, daring character rendering the latter the most probable, and all the agonies of reality were suffered by his young and lovely wife, now the mother of one child, who, in the last sleepless night, had time to give full scope to her imagination, and picture all the cruelties practiced by the savages on their foes. His return was so unlooked for and unexpected, that he was like one risen again from the dead, and all sorrow was turned into joy at his providential preservation.
After numerous difficulties and dangers, borne for five years by the stern pioneers of Farmers' castle, with the greatest fortitude and equanimity, peace was at length established ; and in 1796 Mr. Putnam was permitted to resume the clear- ing and cultivating his farm, unmolested; a privilege which
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none in these days can understand, or fairly appreciate. In a few years he had a large plantation under fence, and di- vided into fields, several acres of orchard, composed of the best varieties of the fruits of the New England and Middle states, sent out in 1795, by his brother Israel, who selected them with great care, and packed them with bees-wax, so that few, if any of the scions failed to grow. A young man named Waldo, and a relative, brought them over the moun- tains on horseback, in a large pair of saddle-bags. Fruit trees in the virgin soil of the Ohio bottoms, grew with astonishing rapidity, and in six or eight years were loaded with apples. The peach often produced the second year from the pit, bear- ing fruit of a size and quality not now seen in Ohio. The depredations of the peach insect, were unknown for more than twenty years, and the tree flourished and grew, undis- turbed by the yellows or any other enemy. Before temper- ance societies were known, large orchards of fifteen or twenty acres, were devoted to the manufacture of peach brandy, which bore a liberal price on the borders of the Mis- sissippi, and was an article of export. As early as 1802, or 1803, the log cabins of several of the farmers at Belpre, were abandoned, and large, commodious houses of wood or brick, built in their place. Mr. Putnam was one of the first to make improvements of this kind; and his capacious, white house, surrounded by orchards, on the margin of the plain, or second bottom, became a conspicuous and beauti- ful object to travelers on the "Belle riviere," who saw little else but the wilderness and the log huts of the new settlers, from Pittsburg to Cincinnati. Belpre, at this period, was like an oasis in the desert, the only spot where the eye could rest with delight. A thriving dairy was added to his other operations, composed of the cows raised from his father's famous Harlem breed, and celebrated for their rich milk. A numerous family of boys and girls grew up around him,
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and every thing prospered under his wise and thrifty admin- istration. After Mr. Blennerhasset settled on the island, he became one of his most intimate and useful friends, giving him much valuable information in the management of his new and untried farming operations. The genteel, easy manners, and beautiful person of Mrs. Putnam early at- tracted the attention of Madam Blennerhassett, and she became one of her most intimate associates, visiting each other with the familiarity of sisters. When this unfortunate woman, after the flight of her husband, in December, 1806, left the island in the midst of winter, he was the last to visit her in the boat, and furnished her with many necessaries, to make her voyage comfortable, denied her by the military posse from Wood county, who had taken forcible possession of her house.
Mr. Putnam and his wife both died in the fatal epidemic of 1822, aged forty-five years, in the midst of his usefulness.
In person he was of a medium size, with dark, expressive eyes, and a countenance beaming with intelligence and kind feelings. For public stations he had little inclination, the highest post being a major in the militia. His delight was centered in his domestic relations, and in his farm. The elder son, William Pitt, born in Farmers' castle, possesses the homestead. His children, six of whom are now living, are settled at various points in the valley of the Mississippi, and rank with the most reputable of its citizens.
CAPT. JONATHAN STONE.
CAPT. JONATHAN STONE Was born in New Braintree, Mass., in the year 1751. He was the son of a soldier, Francis Stone, who lost his life in the service of the king during the period of the colonial vassalage, while serving as a pri- vate soldier in the army of Gen. Wolfe, at the conquest of Quebec. Large numbers of the provincials sacrificed their lives for the good of their country during the period of the old French war, and especially at the seige of Havana in 1762. His father was killed when he was eight years old. After the death of his parent, his mother married a Mr. Pearson, by whom she had several children. Francis, the elder brother, inherited the patrimonial estate, and pursued the occupations of farming and tanning leather, which had been followed by his father before him.
The education of Jonathan extended only to reading, writing, and arithmetic, for which latter study he had prob- ably a decided relish, as in after life he became an accom- plished land surveyor. At a suitable age he was bound as an apprentice to his brother Francis. Connections of this kind between near relatives, are seldom fortunate or happy, and are much more likely to be agreeable with a stranger. Dr. Franklin has given us a sample of this kind, with its un- pleasant results, in his apprenticeship to an elder brother. There seems to be a disposition on one side to act the tyrant, and on the other to render obedience with reluctance, as if the tender tie of relationship was severed when forced by the indenture of apprenticeship to perform certain duties, whether willing or not. In this they conflicted so roughly with each other, that before the expiration of the term of
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service, Jonathan left his brother, and entered on board a whale-ship at Newport, R. I., and was absent two years. What adventures he experienced in this voyage, are un- known; but, doubtless he learnt one salutary thing, that he must obey his new master, both in foul and fair weather; and that he could not leave the ship so easily as he did the house of his brother Francis.
Soon after his return, hostilities commenced between the colonies and Great Britain, and he entered the service of his country as a volunteer, being an orderly-sergeant in Col. Learned's regiment. ' By his letters of the 29th of May, 1775, he was then at Roxbury with the army, besieging the town of Boston, then the head-quarters of the king's troops in America. He seems to have possessed the true spirit of patriotism, for he says that himself and each one of the company to which he belonged, "Are animated with the glorious cause in which they are engaged, hoping to deliver the country from vassalage and slavery, tyranny and oppres- sion, that those blood-thirsty hirelings may not again be allowed to imbrue their filthy hands in the innocent blood of our neighbors," referring, no doubt, to the Lexington murders of the 19th of April, which had filled the whole country with the spirit of resistance and revenge. In August of this year he was sick with a fever, and he observes that the " camp distemper," as the dysentery was called, prevailed amongst the troops, and extended into the country towns, as was thought by contagion from the sick soldiers.
As a testimony of his bravery and good conduct during the year 1775, he was appointed a lieutenant, for on the 11th of March, 1776, in writing to a female correspondent, he directs her to put Lieut. after his name, in Col. Learned's regiment. He also says, "We have had a great deal of cannonading lately. Last Saturday night I was on Dor- chester hights, and of our party, one surgeon and three
.
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soldiers were killed by one shot. They are now firing from Boston, and not less than thirty or forty cannon have been discharged since I have been writing this letter;" and it was but a brief one. It was at this time that the celebrated fascine battery was erected by Col. Putnam, on the hights, that soon after forced the British to evacuate the town, as the American guns commanded the inner harbor, and en- dangered the shipping. In all these stirring scenes, Lieut. Stone took an active part, but the particular incidents are not noticed in his letters, and none of his old comrades are living to narrate them.
In the course of the year 1776 he was married to Susan- nah Mathews, of New Braintree, a young lady to whom he had for several years been attached. She was a daughter of Daniel Mathews, and her mother a sister of Gen. Rufus Putnam. She possessed an agreeable person, good, sound sense, plain, country manners, and industrious habits, being the child of a farmer. She displayed great energy of char- acter, and after her husband's death, in 1801, conducted the affairs of a large dairy farm with judgment and profit.
On the 1st of January, 1777, Lieut. Stone was commis- sioned as paymaster in Col. Putnam's regiment. In Au- gust of that year he was with the army at Saratoga, and in September at Stillwater, quartering with Capt. Goodale, some of whose partisan exploits are noticed in his letters to his wife. He remained with the troops, partaking in all the dangers of the numerous engagements with the enemy, until the surrender of Burgoyne. In 1778 he was stationed at West Point, attached to Col. Putnam's regiment. In 1779 he received a lieutenant's commission in the fifteenth regi- ment, and in 1781 that of captain, in which post he served to the close of the war. Several of these commissions are signed by John Hancock, in that strong, bold hand so conspicuous among the signatures of the Declaration of
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Independence. The seals attached are remarkable for hav- ing a huge rattlesnake figured over the cap of liberty, as if threatening his enemies with death, and to defend it against all opposers; the other emblems are implements of war. Under the new constitution, of 1788, the United States se- lected the eagle to represent their dignity and sovereignty to the nations of the earth ; and if less terrific, is a much more beautiful and noble emblem of the grandeur and mag- nanimity of the republic.
After the close of the war he returned to the peaceful oc- cupations of agriculture, and purchased a farm, with the remains of his seven years' hard service in the cause of lib- erty, in the town of Brookfield, Mass., then the home of Gen. Putnam, with whom he had been intimate during this long period. Having become familiar with the science of field- surveying, he was employed by Gen. Putnam, in 1786 and 1787, to assist him in surveying the lands of the state of Massachusetts, on the eastern shore of the District of Maine, then a part of her territory.
It was during the winter after the first year of this survey, or that of 1786, that he found, on his return, the adjacent counties deeply involved in an insurrection against their own government, commonly known as "Shays' insurrection." It was one of the strangest anomolies in nature, that a peo- ple who had just escaped from the thraldom of a tyrannical monarch, and had established a government of their own choosing, should so turn against it, and like the shark, or the alligator, devour their own progeny. So wide-spread and universal was this spirit of disaffection, that nearly one-third of the inhabitants of the counties of Hampshire, Berkshire, and Worcester, were engaged in it, beside many in all other portions of the state. The saying of our Savior in regard to the reception of the gospel amongst mankind, in the di- vision of families, households, and neighborhoods, was here
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exemplified, in relation to their political sentiments, the father being opposed to the son, and the brother against his brother. In the family of Capt. Stone, his brother Francis was a Shays man, and his wife's father was on the same side ; while he enlisted, with all his powers of body and soul, in aid of the government, in opposition to the principles of the insurgents. In support of the laws and good order, were found nearly all the officers of the Revolutionary army, and most of the well-informed and substantial citizens.
The cause of this unnatural outbreak seems to have arisen from the general oppression felt from the immense load of public and private debt, contracted during the war. The debt of the state amounted to more than five million dollars, and their portion of the national debt, to nearly as much more. During the war stay laws had been enacted to prevent the regular collection of debts, by which the amount had greatly accumulated. Paper-money, their hope and stay during the war, had run down to a mere nominal value, and state bonds had depreciated to a few shillings on the pound. What specie the French troops had left in the country, was gathered up by the merchants, and sent to Europe, to purchase merchandise, of which the states were woefully destitute at the close of the war. The country was so much exhausted by their long struggle, that they had no produce to send abroad to buy either goods or specie. Their fisheries and whaleries, which, before the war, had brought millions into the provinces, were ruined by that event, and had not yet revived.
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