Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 20

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020

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In the year 1773, about the beginning of June, the three McAfee brothers named James, George and Robert, from Botetourt County, Virginia, set out on an exploring tour for the West with the intention of settling opposite the mouth of the Licking if they found the country such as it had been described to them. If it turned out to be unavailable, their plan was to push on for the waters of Salt River,' where they had ac- quaintances from their own neighborhood in Virginia. They struck the river near the Kan- awha, where they procured dugout canoes in which they embarked with a considerable equip- ment of rifles, blankets, tomahawks and fishing tackle. On several occasions on their trip they met some Shawanee Indians and succeeded in keeping on friendly terms with then, but on one

occasion while talking with the chief Cornstalk they were startled to see a band of the young braves coming from an attack on the settlements with a number of stolen horses. The rivers they found filled to the banks by an unprecedented rise and the Ohio was still rising. "In this stage of water they made rapid progress, keeping the current of the river as a measure of safety from the savages, who, watching the approachi of boats, frequently lay hid on the northern bank; and by the time they reached the mouth of Licking river, the Ohio had swelled to such a degree, as to spread itself at this point-to use their own ex- pression-'full from hill to hill.' This, in refer- ence to the Cincinnati side, meant the abrupt bank which, at a distance of one hundred feet south of Third street, followed the line of that street, nearly, from Broadway to John street, and even further west. This, no doubt, was the great flood whose extreme height was marked at the time on a tree, below Fort Washington, and pointed out by the Indians as the greatest height to which the river had ever risen. As nearly as could be ascertained, it was twelve feet higher than the subsequent rises of 1832 and 1847, the greatest known since, on which occa- sion the Ohio did not overflow Covington or Newport. The McAfee party, ignorant of the character of the country and the extraordinary nature of the freshet, concluded it would not all- swer to settle lands subject to such inundations, and, as they had contemplated, went into Ken- tucky, where, after first re-visiting Virginia, they finally settled. One of these brothers was the father of General Robert McAfee, author of a history of the War of 1812 and afterward Lieu- tenant-Governor of Kentucky, and still later U. S. charge to Bogota." (Cist, Cincinnati in 1859, p. 46.)

During the next year many surveying parties wandered through Kentucky and along the upper Ohio. Among these was one headed by John Floyd, afterwards to play some important part in the history of Kentucky. His party consist- ing of eight men came down the Kanawha in April. They traveled in a canoe and shot bear and deer and caught great pike and catfish for food. They made surveys for Colonel Washing- ton and Patrick Henry and other prominent Vir- ginians and on their trip learned from other parties of surveyors that an Indian war was threatened. At the month of the Kanawha some twenty or thirty men were found who wished to go further down the river, and about one dozen of these joined Floyd's party which now filled

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four canoes. On their trip down the Ohio they came across other parties who joined them and also met a number of Indians none of whom molested them. This party passed the Miami country in the early part of May. Floyd's con- tingent went to the falls. After much surveying and hunting they were obliged to return to the settlements on Clinch River because of the war with the Shawanecs.

Mr. Roosevelt distinguishes three kinds of ex- plorers, the hunters represented by Boone, set- tlers represented by the McAfees and the survey- ors to which class Floyd and his party belonged. Floyd's experience shows how these parties were continually meeting other parties and again divid- ing up. His party started out with eight men, afterwards increased to 37 and on his return home he was accompanied by three men.

In 1775, Boone again started West to open a trail to the Kentucky side of the mountains, blaz- ing and cutting out a way, afterwards known as the "Wilderness Road." This was to form a means of communication between the Cumber- land Gap and the new colonies just settling in Kentucky. On April 18th he built a fort which was called Boonsborough. Later in the year he brought his wife and children and a number of other families to this post. The settlements in Kentucky were being continually harassed by wandering hordes of savages, most of whom, fortunately however, lived north of the Ohio. They showed a hostile spirit to the early set- tlers on all occasions and attacked them when- ever an opportunity offered. The settlers de- fended themselves with courage and seldom ven- tured to go from one village to another, except in parties.

Boone's daughter, who was in a canoe in com- pany with two other girls on the river near Boonsborough, was captured by one of the wandering bands of savages. Boone started in pursuit with a party of seven men, including the three lovers of the captured girls, and after fol- lowing the trail for a day and two nights they overtook the kidnanners and recovered their cap- tives, returning with them in triumph to the fort. The story of this episode as given in the various accounts is quite romantic. Two of the girls were in complete despair when captured, but the oldest of the three, Betsey Callaway, felt confident that they would be followed and res- cted.

"To mark the line of their flight, she broke off twigs from the bushes, and when threatened by the tomahawk for doing this, she tore off strips

from her dress. The Indians carefully covered their trail, compelling the girls to walk apart as their captors did in the thick cane and to wade up and down the little brooks. Boon started in pursuit the same evening. All next day he fol- lowed the tangled trail like a bloodhound, and carly the following morning came on the Indians camped by a buffalo calf, which they had just killed and were about to cook. The rescue was managed very adroitly ; for had any warning been given, the Indians would have instantly killed their captives according to their own invariable 'custom. Boon, and Floyd each shot one of the savages and the remaining three escaped almost naked, without gun, tomahawk or scalping knife. The girls were unharmed, for the Indians rarely molested their captives on the journey to their home towns unless their strengthi gave out, when they were tomahawked without mercy." ( Roose- velt, The Winning of the West, Vol. I, p. 326.)

Betsey Callaway and her lover, Samuel Hen- derson, were united in marriage three weeks after their return to their fort, by Squire Boone. This was the first wedding that ever took place in Kentucky. Both the other couples were mar- ried within the next year or more. An oil paint- ing representing this capture hangs in the rooms of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio.

In 1778, in the early part of January, Boone with 29 others went to the Blue Licks, to get salt for the garrisons. In the following month the party was surprised and captured by the Indians. These Indians were Miamis, upwards of eighty in number, and were led by two Frenchmen, Baubin and Lorimer. Boone surrendered on condition that the party should be well treated, which promise was well observed. He was taken first to Old Chillicothe, the chief Shawanee town of the Little Miami, and afterwards to Detroit, where lie was well treated by Hamilton, com- manding the Englishmen, who tried to ranson him for fioo sterling, as the price of his liberty. The Indians refused to give him up, as they had become very much attached to him and he was taken back to Chillicothe as their prisoner. Here he remained for about two months or more and so won the good graces of the Shawances by his good humor and wonderful ability as a hinter as well as his tact in shooting contests with In- dians, that he was adopted into the tribe.

In June he learned that a large war party was gathering to march against his own village and lie determined to escape for the purpose of warn- ing his friends. He succeeded in outwitting his

GEN. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.

GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE.

GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR.

GEN. JOSIAH HARMAR.

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Indian companions. One morning before sun- rise he made straight for home, making the jour- ney of one hundred and sixty miles in four days, during which time lie was able to obtain but one nieal. His escape so disconcerted the war party that no immediate attack was made, and Boone anxious to learn the course of events again crossed the Ohio with a party of 19 men. Hc defeated a small party of Indians in a skirmish. on the Scioto, and learned that the main body liad marched against Boonsborough, to which point he hurriedly retraced his steps, reaching the village before the enemy got there. In the siege which followed, the Indians were unsuccessful.

During Boone's captivity he had gained con- siderable knowledge about the valleys of the Miamis, which naturally was communicated to other pioneering spirits among the Kentuckians. Another party that added to this knowledge was that with Colonel Bowman, in 1779. Bowman was county lieutenant, and he took with him one hundred and sixty Kentuckians, including such famous Indian fighters as Logan and Harrod The town of Chillicothe was surprised and a number of cabins burned, and horses captured, but the Indians in the end collected themselves in a central blockhouse, and the cabins surround- ing them, and achieved a victory, driving. the , whites off and following them in retreat. The result of this expedition was very unsatisfactory to the Kentuckians, but mnuch knowledge had · been gained concerning the Miami country, the clistance and size of the Indian settlements and the number and quality of their warriors.

In May, 1778, another man who was to become very prominent. in the history of his country passed up the Miamis, George Rogers Clark. He left the Red Stone settlement taking with him not alone one hundred and fifty troops but a large number of private adventurers and settlers with their families. After touching at Pitts- burg and Wheeling for stores, his clumsy flat- boats drifted down the Ohio until on the 27th of May he reached the falls. This spot he selected as the proper place for a settlement and a start- ing point from which he could attack the British posts to the west. Some of the families settled on an island near the falls and in the autumn moved to the mainland. The site of this settle- ment became afterwards known as Louisville, named in honor of the French King, who was then the ally of the Colonies in their struggle for independence. It was from this settlement that Clark started ou his celebrated expedition against the French villages of Illinois then in possession 8

of the British,-Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vin- cennes.

During this same suminer was fought the first serious battle with the Indians in the neighbor- hood of Cincinnati. Colonel Rogers with a party of almost one hundred men had been sent by the Governor of Virginia to New Orleans for arms for his colony and upon his return up the Ohio in pirogues, as he rounded the bar opposite the present site of Fulton near where Dayton is now located, he saw a party of Indians, who were in fact under the command of Girty and Elliott, coming out of the Little Miami in rafts and canoes and crossing the Ohio to land upon the bar. Colonel Rogers in view of the fact that he had 79 well armed soldiers with him determined to attempt the capture of these Indians whom he saw striking for the deep forests. He had no. conception of the size of the party but upon landing and marching into the woods he was as- tonished by an attack of over five hundred In- dians, as the result of which he and 70 of his men were killed and his boats and stores were captured and plundered.

In this party was one Maj. Robert Benham, afterwards a well known citizen of Cincinnati. Ile was badly wounded through the hips and was unable to walk but he succeeded in dragging himself under a large fallen tree where he re- inained concealed until the Indians had departed. Here he lay suffering from his wounds without food or water for two days before he made any effort to move; in spite of the proximity of the river in clear view he was unable to reach any of the water for the lack of which he was almost perishing. Seeing a raccoon coming along the tree under which he lay hidden, he shot at it and killed it. The noise of the shot evidently at- tracted the attention of some other unfortunate and he heard a voice calling to him. In accord- ance with the custom of the pioneers lie loaded his gun before answering and remained con- cealed in his hiding place. The second time a voice was heard calling "Where and who are you? Are you a white man or an Indian? I am a wounded white soldier starving and help- less." Benliani answered giving his name and stating that lie was unable to move and asked him to come to him. The other man was found to be one of his comrades who had been shot through both arms but was able to walk but could not use his hands and for this reason was suf- ering for the lack of food and water. Benham with his hands put the rim of his coonskin cap in the soldier's mouth who took it to the river

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and bending over the water's edge filled it with water and brought it back to him. In this way cach supplied the other with water. The ganie was very plentiful and Benham who loaded his rifle shot the game which when it had fallen would be kicked to him by his comrade; then Benham dressed and cooked it. If game did not come near enough, the man with the use of his legs would walk long distances and chase the game toward Benham for him to shoot. In the same way he kicked fuel towards him. They lived this way for more than six weeks until their wounds were sufficiently healed to allow them to go down to the mouth of the Licking. Here they built a little shanty of bark and remained until a passing boat filled with emigrants took them off and carried them to the falls.

I11 1780, Gen. William Lytle, afterwards so many years a resident of Cincinnati, where he lived until March, 1831, emigrated with his father from Pennsylvania.

"They descended the Ohio, with doubtless the largest flcet of boats and the greatest number of immigrants that ever left the upper country at one time-the boats numbering sixty-three, and the fighting inen alone with the party exceeding one thousand. At Maysville, two or three boats with a few families landed and remained. The residue started off early on the morning of the 11th of April, and at 10 o'clock, the next day, two boats which were ahead as pilots signaled that an encampment of Indians had been formed on the northern or Indian side of the river, and opposite the mouth of the Licking, just where Broadway intersects Front street. The shore at that time was a high bluff, rendering the savages clearly visible: Three boats in a concerted order landed half a mile above. It was arranged that half the fighting men should be in readiness to spring to the shore the moment the boats should touch it : they were to form and march down to where the Indians were. The number of these hardly exceeded one hundred and fifty, while their op- ponents reached five hundred. Discovering a force so greatly superior moving rapidly upon them, they fled in so much haste and disorder, as to leave most of their movables behind. They followed the bank till they reached what now is called Mill creek, up the bottom of which they werc pursued beyond the present site of Cum- minsville. Several of the Indians were mounted, and they fled faster than their wearied pursuers could follow them on foot. The whites then re- turned to the boats and floated without interrup-

tion to Beargrass creek,-Louisville." (Cist, Cincinnati in 1859, p. 46.)

In May of this same year, Capt. Henry Bird, with some six hundred Indians and a few Canadians and some small pieces of artillery, came down the Miami River and crossed over to Kentucky, surprising and capturing two small stations on the south fork of the Licking. In this expedition the Indians carried off many horses and much plunder, requiring their prisoners to carry the booty on their backs; the women and children they tomahawked.

This expedition of Bird had been fitted out at a charge of three hundred thousand dollars, and in the number were the Girtys, as well as Logan with a band of celebrated savages. It is probable that Bird's first intention was to attack the set- tlement at the falls of the Ohio, at which point, Clark with two hundred men fully equipped was at that time located. His Indians, however, dis- turbed his plans; they killed his cattle, grew in- subordinate, and at length refused to advance to the falls. It was at this time that the diversion up the Licking was made. Mr. Winsor suggests that he might have inflicted serious mischief on the river by stopping to waylay the emigrant's boats, for something like three hundred of them avcraging fifty feet in length and carrying ten persons each, it is supposed, reached the falls during the season. Clark aroused to immediate action by this outrage took the field. His well known determination was shown in the manner in which he gathered together some of his men.

"In May this adventurous leader had per- formed one of the feats which made him the darling of the backwoodsmen. Painted and dressed like an Indian, so as to deceive the lurk- ing bands of savages, he and two companions left the fort he had built on the bank of the Mississippi, and came through the wilderness to Harrodsburg. They lived on the buffaloes they shot, and when they came to the Tennessee River, which was then in flood, they crossed the swift torrent on a raft of logs, bound together with grape vines. At Harrodsburg, they found the land conrt open and thronged with an eager, jostling crowd of settlers and speculators, who were waiting to enter lands in the surveyor's office. Even the dread of the Indians could not evercome in these men's hearts the keen and sel- fish greed for gain. Clark instantly grasped the situation. Secing that while the court remained open he could get no volunteers, he of his own responsibility closed it off hand, and proclaimed that it would not be opened until after he came

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back from his expedition. The speculators grumbled and clamored but this troubled Clark not at all, for he was able to get as many volun- teers as he wished. The discontent and still more the panic over Bird's inroad made many of the settlers determined to flee from the country, but Clark sent a small force to Crab Orchard, at the mouth of the Wilderness road, the only out- let from Kentucky, with instructions to stop all men from leaving their country, and to take away their arms if they persisted; while four-fifths of all the grown men were drafted, and were bidden to gather instantly for a campaign." ( Roosevelt, The Winning of the West, Vol. II, p. 104. )

The mouth of the Licking, the subsequent site of Cincinnati, was selected as the gathering place. His troops were brought to this point from the falls in a liglit skiff which he built for the purpose. Benjamin Logan was the second in command. McGarry, who was one of the sub- ordinates in command, persisted in landing with a small party of men on the north or Indian side of the river, where he was attacked by Indians and some of his men were injured. John Mc- Caddon, of Newark, Ohio, in a letter written to the American Pioneer, May 16, 1842, writes as follows :

"On our way up the river to where Cincinnati now stands, Captain Hugh McGary, a well known Indian hunter, and memorable for his participation in the unfortunate issue, of the battle of the Blue Licks, in 1782, with a party had placed himself on the Indian side of the river, alleging that they lived better than we did, as they kept their hunters out to procure the meat. The main body followed the Kentucky shore. One day as we halted for dinner, McGary's men, as usual, halted opposite to us. When we were ready to march, they concluded to come over to us, as they discovered fresh Indian tracks. They had got but a few yards from the shore, when they were fired on from the top of the bank. Colonel Clark's barge was instantly filled with men, but before they were able to cross, they heard the Indians giving the scalp halloo, and saw them disperse. At the place where Cincin- nati now is, it was necessary to build a block- house, for the purpose of leaving some stores and some wounded men of McGary's company. Al- though I did not cut a tree or lift a log, I helped to build the first house ever built at Cincinnati, for I was at my post guarding the artificers who did the building."

Riffemen from the interior stations, among them Kenton, Harrod and Floyd, met the party at

the mouth of the Licking. Almost the entire pop- ulation had turned out, the women and boys re- maining to guard the wooden forts, and they had come to the appointed place, some on foot and some on horseback and others came down the Licking in canoes. Their stock of provisions was quite small, cach man having a couple pounds of mcal and some jerked venison or buffalo meat.

About a month after the probable date of Bird's stop at the mouth of the Licking, Clark, on the 2nd of August, with his troops, to the number of nine hundred and seventy, started up the Ohio. He -carried a large number of men in skiffs, which were poled up against the cur- rent, while many others marched along the bank. His cannon was carried on a pack horse, and after going some distance up the stream, the party crossed the river and the boats were left in guard of forty men, while the rest started over- land against the town of Old Chillicothe, some fifty or sixty miles distant. This village, after marching through several days of heavy rain, they found on the 6th of August, had been de- stroyed by fire and was still in flames. He hur- ried on to Piqua, on the Little Miami, which he reached about ten in the morning of the 8th of August. This was a substantially built town, laid out in the manner of the French villages, with strong log houses surrounded by strips of cultivated land, with a well built blockhouse in the middle. The army was here divided; part of it, having been sent around under Logan, crossed the Ohio above the town for the purpose of mak- ing an assault from the rear. Clark crossed directly below the town and attacked from the front. Logan had trouble in finding a ford, and gradually worked his way about three miles up stream, and did not get over the river until the fighting had been finished. Clark plunged boldly in the river at the head of his men and almost reached the town before his attack was discov- ered. Girty with several hundred Indians were the defenders. A scouting party of warriors had been sent out to watch the whites, but were hardly able to get into the village to warn the squaws and children to get out of the way. The warriors formed in the thick timber back of their cabins, but after a short skirmish, on the approach of the second division, fell back. The retreat soon became a rout. In the march back to The river, an Indian was discovered in a tree top, who killed one of the McAfees, who was captain of one of the companies from Salt River. The attacking soldiers then halted to await news of Logan's body, but soon were attacked by a large

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body of Indians, who had slipped up upon them. A severe skirmish followed, the combatants fight- ing from behind trees, but the Indians were final- ly driven back to the town and into a blockhouse. The defense became very vigorous at this time and the loss to the Americans was quite serious until the cannon was brought into the action which soon drove the defenders from under cover. The greater part, however, escaped under the protection of the noisy demonstration of a few of their number and Logan came up just in time to take a few of the stragglers.

A nephew of Clark, Joseph Rogers, who had been a prisoner among the savages during the battle, attempted to escape. He was observed by the whites, but mistaken for an Indian was shot, dying in a few hours. Clark was able to have some conversation with him before his death. Clark retraced his steps to the mouth of the Licking, where he disbanded his force and then returned to the falls.

Another witness to the building by Clark at this time of the blockhouse opposite the Licking is one Thomas Vickroy, an assistant at a later time in the survey of the site of Pittsburg. His statement is as follows :

"In April, 1780, I went to Kentucky, in com- pany with eleven flat-boats with movers. We landed, on the fourth of May, at the mouth of Beargrass creek, above the falls of Ohio. I took my compass and chain along to make a for- tune by surveying, but when we got there the Indians would not let us survey. In the same. summer Colonel Bird came from Detroit with a few British soldiers and some light artillery, with Simon Girty and a great many Indians, and took the forts on the Licking. Immediately afterward General Clark raised an army of about a thousand men, and marthed with one party of them against the Indian towns. When we came to the mouth of the Licking we fell in with Colonel Todd and his party. On the first day of August, 1780, we crossed the Ohio River and built the two blockhouses where Cincinnati now stands. I was at the building of the block- houses. Then, as General Clark had appointed me commissary of the campaign, he gave the military stores into my hands and gave me orders to maintain that post for fourteen days. He left with me Captain Johnson and about twenty or thirty men, who were sick and lame. On the fourteenth day, the army returned with sixteen scalps, having lost fifteen men, killed. They reported the death of Rogers, Clark's cousin, who fought that day with the Indians." (Western

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 20

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020