USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
468
HAMILTON KERR.
anxiety their movements, until finally, to his great relief, they gave up the search as hopeless. As soon as the dark- ness of night concealed his movements, he left his watery bed, wet, weary, and hungry. Having a long journey before him, he instantly commenced his march for home, thankful that he had been able to escape the scalping-knife of his foes. He traveled across the ridges, the nearest route, well known to the hunters of that day. In the course of his journey he passed no less than three deserted Indian hunting camps, so recently left that the fire was still burn- ing, without being discovered. So rapid was his march, that he reached Baker's before his companions in the canoe, who pushed up stream as rapidly as they could, and buried the dead man on an island twenty-five miles above Mari- etta, now known as Williamson's. This mournful work de- tained them some time, as they had no spades but their wooden paddles with which to dig the grave. The favorite dog of Kerr, whose dead body had made a pillow for the head of his wounded master, was buried at the same place.
A few miles above this island at the head of the Long reach, a spot well known to old as well as modern boatmen, they discovered just at evening, during a heavy shower of rain, on the Virginia shore, a white horse tied to a stake near the water. On the top of the bank they saw a hickory tree just stripped of the bark. The quick apprehension of the borderers instantly understood these signs as denoting a party of Indians who had stolen the horse, and were pre- paring a bark canoe for crossing the river. The shower coming on when they had finished it, the canoe was turned bottom up, and the Indians had crept under as a shelter from the storm. This prevented the whites from being seen. They directly crossed to the other shore, and pushed rapidly on until a turn in the river hid them from sight.
Kerr's arm was several months in healing, the bone being
469
HAMILTON KERR.
splintered, and no remedies but slippery-elm bark and such other simples as the woods afforded. The injuries received in this excursion, kept Hamilton from any other adventures for some time. When able, he hunted deer in the neigh- boring hills and visited the stations at Grave creek, where Isaac Williams lived, and with whom he had become quite a favorite, making various short tours of trapping and hunting in his company, so that his house was as free to him and nearly as much his home as that of his own father.
In 1785, the Indian depredations were frequent and de- structive. Notice having been received of a large war party fitting out for the attack of Grave creek, the settlement was abandoned, and Mr. Williams moved his family, with the rest of his neighbors, to Wheeling. Kerr also made this place his home with his father. It was during this period that he had a second narrow escape from death by the Indians.
In the summer of 1785, in company with Thomas Mills and Henry Smith, he went up the Ohio a few miles, near the head of the first island above Wheeling, spearing fish by torchlight. While busily occupied with their sport, think- ing of no danger, in a quiet, shallow eddy near the shore, ten or twelve Indians who had been attracted by the light, rose up on the top of the bank, and fired a volley at them. Mills, who was in the bow of the canoe near the torch, re- ceived several balls in his body and limbs, and fell apparently dead, into the bottom of the boat. The others were un- harmed, but also fell down on the bottom of the boat, to screen themselves from a repetition of the shots. The In- dians seeing the effect of their fire, dropped their guns, rushed down the bank, and into the river, with the intention of dragging the canoe ashore, and securing the scalps of their dead enemies. The splashing of the water gave no- tice of their approach; when Kerr, who was in the waist of
470
HAMILTON KERR.
the boat, sprang into the bow, and brandishing his fish-spear, made motions to stab the first man who came within his reach. The long, barbed points of the instrument, made it a formidable weapon to the half-naked bodies of the sav- ages, while the resolute bearing of the man who wielded it, made them cautious of approaching too near. Although he could have plunged it into several of them, he did not think it prudent to do so, lest they should seize it, and drag him ashore, or pull him out of the canoe. After one or two minutes spent in this mimic warfare, the boat gradually re- ceded, by the whirl of the eddy, into deeper water, and the man in the stern, having so far recovered his senses from the first shock, as to begin to apply his paddle, they were soon out of their reach. The Indians, now with loud yells, and aggravated rage at their disappointment and folly, in leaving all their guns on the top of the bank, rushed up to regain them, and running along the sandy beach ahead of the boat, waded into the water, breast-high, to bring them nearer the canoe, which was now in the middle of the stream. While exulting at the prospect of escape, a new enemy sprang up on the opposite side of the river. A party of In- dians on their own shore, hearing the firing and shouts of their countrymen, began to fire at them. The balls passed all around, and through the sides of the canoe, but missed the mark, as they generally dropped into the bottom, at the sight of the flash, and were hid by the sides of the boat. After a pursuit of one or two miles, Kerr concluded that this slow progress would be their destruction, and pushing manfully ahead, regardless of their shots, was soon out of their reach. When the enraged Indians saw that their vic- tims would escape, they fell to taunting them with insulting language and obscene attitudes. Kerr then keenly felt the want of his trusty rifle, with which he could have shot sev- eral of them; but no one had taken his arms with him, not
471
HAMILTON KERR.
expecting to meet an enemy, or to have use for anything, but the fish-spear. When they reached the garrison at Wheeling, Mills was still alive, and taken into the town, where, under the care of Mrs. Rebecca Williams, and one other skillful matron, he finally recovered from his hopeless condition, having not less than twelve or fourteen different wounds, with an arm and a leg broken by the shots of the savages. On this occasion, the intrepidity and presence of mind in Kerr, no doubt saved their lives from the toma- hawk, and knives of the Indians ; while his mode of defense, in their condition, was the only one that could have been effectual.
The winter after this adventure was passed in Wheeling.
Early in the spring of 1786, Kerr, in company with Isaac Williams and a Dutchman named Jacob, made a visit to the deserted plantations at Grave creek, to look after the cattle and hogs that had been left there. They passed the night in an empty cabin at Little Grave creek, about a mile above the larger stream. Soon after daylight in the morning, they heard a rifle shot in the direction of Mr. Williams' farm. Not thinking of Indians, he attributed the shot to moving boatmen, who sometimes, when short of provision, landed at the deserted clearings and killed a hog. It so happened that a party of four Indians, who had been scouting on Wheeling creek, had that morning reached the Ohio with their plunder, one white prisoner and some horses; seeing Mr. Williams' hogs, they killed one with the rifle and put it into their canoe, which had been secreted in the mouth of the creek. Three of the Indians took possession of the canoe with their prisoner, while the fourth was busied in swimming the horses across the river. At this critical junc- ture, Kerr and his companions started at a rapid gait to arrest the marauders. Being in the prime of life and more active than his companions, he reached the mouth of the
472
HAMILTON KERR.
creek first, and looking down the bank, saw the three Indians standing in the canoe. At the feet of the one in the middle of the boat lay four rifles and a dead hog, while a fourth Indian was swimming a horse over the Ohio, a few rods from the shore. An Indian in the stern had his paddle in the water, in the act of shoving the canoe from the mouth of the creek into the river. Before they were aware of his presence, Kerr shot the Indian in the stern, who fell into the river. The crack of his rifle had scarcely ceased when Williams came on to the bank, and shot an Indian in the bow of the canoe, who also fell overboard. At this time Jacob came up, and handing his rifle to Kerr as the better marksman, he shot the other Indian in the waist of the boat, who also fell into the water, but still held on to the side of the canoe with one hand. So amazed was the latter Indian at the fall of his companions, that he never offered to raise one of the rifles at his feet in self-defense, but acted like one deprived of his senses. By this time, the canoe impelled by the impetus given to it by the first Indian, had reached the current of the Ohio, and was some rods below the mouth of the creek. Kerr now reloaded his own gun, and seeing a man in the bottom of the boat, raised it in act of firing, when he, discovering the movement, called out, " Don't shoot, I am a white man." He was directed to knock loose the Indian's hand from the side of the canoe, and paddle to shore. In reply, he said his arm was broken. The current, however, set it near some rocks not far from land, on to which he jumped and waded out. Kerr now aimed his rifle at the Indian on the horse, who was near the middle of the river. The shot struck close by him, splashing the water on to his naked skin. Seeing the fate of his companions, the Indian, with the bravery of an ancient Spartan, imme- diately slipped from the horse, and swam for the abandoned canoe, in which were the rifles and ammunition of the whole
473
HAMILTON KERR.
party. This was in fact an act of necessity, as well as of noble daring, for he well knew he could not reach his country without the means of killing game by the way. There was also in this act but little hazard, as his enemies could not cross the creek without a canoe, while the current had now set the object of his solicitude beyond the reach of rifle shot. He soon gained possession of the canoe, crossed with it to the other shore, and taking out the arms and ammunition, mounted the captive horse, and with a shout of defiance, escaped into the woods. The canoe was turned adrift and taken up near Maysville, with the dead hog still in it, which had caused their discovery by their shooting, and been the source of all their misfortunes.
The following year he moved with his father to Devol's island, near Fort Harmer, where the latter kept several cows and supplied the officers with milk, while Hamilton was employed as a hunter to furnish the garrison with buffalo meat and venison. Isaac Williams and several other families also moved at the same time, being the spring of 1787, and opened a plantation in the forest, opposite the mouth of the Muskingum, on the Virginia shore. In the spring of 1791, after the death of Capt. Rogers, one of the Ohio Company's rangers, he was hired to supply his place, and was esteemed the most active and brave man in that hazardous employ- ment. He continued to serve during the whole war, and several Indians fell by his hand, as related in the preceding history of the Ohio Company settlements. During this period, his father's family left the island, and lived within the walls of the garrison at the Point. The Indians killed his father early in the war, at the mouth of Duck creek, which still further sharpened his revenge and hate of the red men.
At the close of the war he married Susannah, the daugh- ter of Col. John Nighswonger, one of the heroes of the
474
HAMILTON KERR.
battle of Point Pleasant. She was well educated, and could read German and English, while Hamilton could do neither, having never been a day to school in his life. He owned a share of land in the Ohio Company, the purchase money for which was earned in the course of a single fall and winter hunt; so profitable was that business in early times to skillful hunters. With the most intelligent men amongst the Ohio Company's settlers, Kerr was a great fa- vorite, for his manly, upright conduct, vigilance, and bravery in guarding the settlements from the attack of the Indians.
In person, he was of a full medium size, being five feet ten inches in hight, as ascertained from one of Col. Sproat's old pay-rolls, with limbs fashioned in nature's finest mould ; form erect, and movements agile as any red man of the forest; of a pleasant, cheerful temperament ; light complex- ion, blue eyes, and reddish hair, denoting his Scotch descent; fine, full forehead, with all the marks of a superior mind and intellect. This had received no training but what his own remarks on men and things had produced; but for re- flection and strong reasoning powers, was far superior to men of his class, causing him always to be looked up to as a leader in any dangerous emergency by his companions.
He was born in the year 1764, making him twenty years old at the time the Indians wounded him at the mouth of the Muskingum. .
After the war, he settled on his land at the outlet of Leading creek; learned to read and write, became a sub- stantial farmer, a major in the militia, and highly esteemed by all his neighbors. He has been dead several years, leaving a large family of descendants, who live in Meigs and Gallia counties.
ISAAC WILLIAMS AND MRS. REBECCA WILLIAMS.
TO THOSE who are now enjoying the benefits of the toils and dangers of the early explorers and pioneers of the valley of the Ohio, there ought to be no more pleasant em- ployment than that of recounting their exploits and preserv- ing the remembrance of their names. It is a duty we owe to their memory. Amongst that hardy list of adventurers, on the left bank of the Ohio, none are more worthy of pres- ervation than those at the head of this article.
Isaac Williams was born in Chester county, Penn., the 16th of July, 1737. While he was yet a boy, his parents moved to Winchester, Va., then a frontier town. Soon after this event his father died, and his mother married Mr. Buckley. When he was about eighteen years old, the colonial government employed him as a ranger, or spy, to watch the movements of the Indians, for which his early acquaintance with a hunter's life eminently fitted him. In this capacity he served in the army of Gen. Braddock, during his short, but disastrous campaign. He was also attached to the party which guarded the first convoy of pro- visions to Fort du Quesne, after its surrender to Gen. Forbes, in 1758. The stores were carried on pack-horses over the rough declivities of the mountains, continually exposed to the attack of the Indians, for which the deep ravines and narrow ridges of the mountains afforded every facility.
After the peace made with the Indians, in 1765, by Col. Bouquet, the country on the waters of the Monongahela
ยข
ISAAC WILLIAMS.
began to be settled by the people east of the mountains. The fertility of the soil, and the immense growth of the forest trees, so different from that on the eastern side of the mountain ranges, gave a romantic charm to the new regions on the waters of the Ohio, and made it a desirable abode to the backwoodsmen, especially as it abounded with wild game. Amongst the early emigrants to this region were the parents of Mr. Williams, whom he conducted across the mountains, in 1768, but did not finally locate himself in the west until the following year, when he settled on the waters of Buffalo creek, near the present town of West Liberty, Brooke county, Va. He accompanied Ebenezer and Jon- athan Zane when they explored and located the country at and about Wheeling, in the year 1769. Previous to this period, however, he had made several hunting and trapping excursions to the waters of the Ohio, and was familiar with its topography. In returning from one of these adventurous expeditions in company with two other men, in the winter of 1769, the following incident befell him.
Early in December, as they were crossing the glades, or table-lands of the Alleghany mountains, they were over- taken by a violent snow-storm. This is always a stormy, cold region, but on the present occasion the snow fell to the depth of five or six feet, and put a stop to their further progress. It was succeeded by intensely cold weather. While thus confined to their camp, with a scanty supply of food, and no chance of procuring more, one of his compan- ions was taken sick and died, partly from disease, and having no nourishment but the tough, indigestible skins of their peltry, from which the hair was first burned off and then boiled in their kettle. Soon after the death of this man 'his remaining companion, from the difficulty of pro- curing fuel to keep up their fire, was so much frozen in the feet that he could render no further assistance. He managed,
477
ISAAC WILLIAMS.
however, to bury the dead man in the snow. The feet of the poor fellow were so badly frosted that he lost all his toes and a part of each foot, rendering him unable to walk for nearly a month. During this time their food consisted of their skins, of which they had a good supply, boiled into soup with the water of melted snow. The kind heart of Mr. Williams would not allow him to leave his friend in this suffering condition, while he went to the settlements for as- sistance, lest he should be attacked by the wolves, or perish for want of food. With a patience and fortitude that would have awarded him a civic crown in the best days of the chival- rous Romans, he remained with his helpless companion until he was so far recovered as to be able to accompany him in his return home. So much reduced was his own strength from the effects of starvation, that it was several months before he was restored to his usual health.
In 1769 he became a resident of the western wilds, and made his home on the waters of Buffalo creek, as before noted. Here he found himself in a wide field for the ex- ercise of his darling passion, hunting. From his boyhood, he had discovered a great relish for the hunter's life, and in this employment he for several years explored the recesses of the forest, and followed the water-courses of the great valley, to the mouth of the Ohio, and from thence, along the shores of the Mississippi, to the banks of the turbid Missouri. As early as the year 1770, he trapped the beaver on the tributaries of this river, and returned in safety, with a rich load of furs. During the prime of his life, he was occupied in hunting, and in making entries of lands. This was done by girdling a few trees, and planting a small patch of corn, which operation entitled the person to four hundred acres of land. Entries of this kind were aptly called tomahawk improvements. An enterprising man could make a number of these in a season, and sell them to persons, who, coming
478
REBECCA WILLIAMS.
later to the country, had not so good an opportunity to se- lect the best lands, as the first adventurers. Mr. Williams sold many of the rights for a few dollars, or the value of a rifle-gun, which was then thought a fair equivalent; of so little account was land then considered ; and besides, like other hunters of the day, thought wild lands of little value, except for hunting grounds. There was, however, another advantage attached to these simple claims; it gave the pos- sessor the right of entering one thousand acres adjoining the improvement, on condition of his paying a small sum of money per acre into the treasury of the state of Virginia. These entries were denominated "Pre-emption Rights ;" and many of the richest lands on the left bank of the Ohio river are now held under these titles. After the conquest of Kas- kaskias and Post Vincent, by Gen. Clark, in 1778, Virginia claimed the lands on the northwest side of the Ohio; and many similar entries were made in the present state of Ohio, especially on the Muskingum river, as high up as Duncan's falls. One tract, a few miles above Marietta, is still known as Wiseman's bottom, after the man who made an entry there.
While occupied in these pursuits he became acquainted with Rebecca Martin, the daughter of Mr. Joseph Tomlin- son, of Maryland, then a young widow, and married her in October, 1775. Her former husband, John Martin, had been a trader among the Indians, and was killed on the Big Hockhocking, in the year 1770. A man by the name of Hartness, her uncle on the mother's side, was killed with him at the same time. As a striking proof of the venera- tion of the Indians for William Penn, and the people of his colony, two men from Pennsylvania, who were with them, were spared. The two killed, were from Virginia. The fact is referred to by Lord Dunmore, in his speech at the Indian treaty, near Chillicothe, in the year 1774. Mr.
479
REBECCA WILLIAMS.
Williams accompanied Dunmore, in this campaign, and acted as a ranger until its close.
By this marriage he was united to a woman whose spirit was congenial to his own. She was born on the 14th of February, 1754, at Will's creek, on the Potomac, in the prov- ince of Maryland, and had removed, with her two brothers, Samuel and Joseph, into the western country, in 1771, and was living with them as their housekeeper, near the mouth of Grave creek; and for weeks together, while they were absent on tours of hunting, she was left entirely alone. She was now in her twenty-first year, full of life and ac- tivity, and as fearless of danger as the man who had chosen her for his companion. One proof of her courageous spirit is related by her niece, Mrs. Bakey, now living near Mari etta, in Wood Co., Va.
In the spring of the year 1774, she made a visit to a sister, Mrs. Baker, then living on the Ohio river opposite to the mouth of Yellow creek. It was soon after the massacre of Logan's relatives at Baker's station. Having finished her visit, she prepared to return home in a canoe, by herself, the traveling being entirely done by water. The distance from her sister's to Grave creek was about fifty miles. She left there in the afternoon, and paddled her light canoe rap- idly along until dark. Knowing that the moon would rise at a certain hour, she landed, and fastening the slender craft to the willows she leaped on shore, and lying down in a thick clump of bushes, waited the rising of the moon. As soon as it had cleared the tops of the trees, and began to shed its cheerful rays over the dark bosom of the Ohio, she prepared to embark. The water being shallow near the shore, she had to wade a few paces before getting into the canoe; when just in the act of stepping on board, her naked foot rested on the dead, cold body of an Indian, who had been killed a short time before, and which, in the gloom of
.
480
REBECCA WILLIAMS.
the night, she had not seen in landing. Without screaming or flinching, she stepped lightly into the canoe, with the re- flection that she was thankful he was not alive. Resuming the paddle, she arrived at the mouth of Grave creek without any further adventure, early the following morning.
Walter Scott's Rebecca, the Jewess, was not more cele- brated for her cures, and skill in treating wounds, than was Rebecca Williams amongst the honest borderers of the Ohio river. About the year 1784, while living a short time at Wheel- ing, on account of Indian depredations, she, with the assist- ance of Mrs. Zane, dressed the wounds of Mr. Mills, fourteen in number, from rifle shots. He, with Hamilton Kerr and one other man, were spearing fish by torch-light about a mile above the garrison, when they were fired on by a party of Indians secreted on the shore. Mills stood in the bow of the canoe holding the torch, and as he was a fair mark, received the most of the shots. One leg and one arm were broken, in addition to the flesh wounds. Had he been in the regular service, with plenty of surgeons, he probably would have lost one or both limbs by amputation. These women, with their fomentations and simple applica- tions of slippery-elm bark, not only cured his wounds, at the time deemed impossible, but also saved both his limbs. In a conversation many years after, she said her principal dressings were made of slippery-elm, the leaves of stramo- nium, and daily ablutions with warm water. Many similar cures of gun-shot wounds are related, as performed by her in the first settlement of the country.
Their marriage was as unostentatious and simple as the manners and habits of the parties. A traveling preacher happening to come into the settlement, as they some- times did, though rarely, they were married at her brother's house, without any previous preparation of nice dresses, bride-cakes, or bride-maids; he standing up in his hunting
481
REBECCA WILLIAMS.
dress, and she in a short gown and petticoat of homespun, the common wear of the people.
In the summer of 1774, the year before her marriage, she was one morning busily occupied in kindling a fire prepar- atory to breakfast, with her back to the door, on her knees, puffing away at the coals. Hearing some one step cau- tiously on the floor, she looked round and beheld a tall In- dian close to her side. He made a motion of silence to her, at the same time shaking his tomahawk in a threatening manner, if she made any alarm. He, however, did not offer to harm her, but looking carefully around the cabin, espied her brother's rifle hanging over the fire-place. This he seized upon, and fearing the arrival of some of the men, hastened his departure without any further damage. While he was with her in the house she preserved her presence of mind, and betrayed no marks of fear; but no sooner had he gone than she left the cabin and hid herself in the corn- field until her brother Samuel came in. He was lame at the time, and happened to be out of the way; so that it is probable his life was saved from this circumstance. It was but seldom that the Indians killed unresisting women or children, except in the excitement of an attack, and when they had met with resistance from the men.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.