USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1 > Part 21
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 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89
Annals, p. 324.) Abraham Thomas in his rem- iniscences also speaks of the building of a stock- ade fort during the expedition of 1780. In the second expedition, in 1782, they crossed the Ohio at the present site of Cincinnati where their stock- ade had been kept up and a few people lived in log cabins about the foot of Sycamore street. His story corroborates those of McCaddon and Vickroy.
The following year, 1781, Clark once more visited the neighborhood of the Licking. After many appeals to Virginia, for an army for an expedition against Detroit, which for the most part met with little success, he finally succeeded in gathering together a force of about four hun- dred with three field-pieces, with which in the latter part of July he floated down the river. He was followed by a party of 107 mounted volun- teers, from Westmoreland, under their county lieutenant, Archibald Laughery (Loughery or Lochry). This party started down the Ohio in flat-boats but landed on a small island or sand- bar, some ten miles below the mouth of the Great Miami, on August 24, 1781, for the purpose of butchering and cooking a buffalo that they had killed.
A letter to Clark which had been intercepted had revealed the situation to George Girty, who with Joseph Brant, the celebrated Indian chief, surprised Laughery's party, who were all .hud- dled together. The whole party were slain or cap- tured at small loss to the Indians and most of the prisoners including the colonel himself, who were unable to march, were afterwards murdered in cold blood. Clark knew nothing of Laughery's situation or of his fate until after he reached the falls. The party under Brant and Girty were part of the body of several hundred gathered to resist Clark, and after their victory they moved up the Great Miami and joined with another party of rangers and Indians under McKee, who was coming down from Detroit. They then started on a march to attack Clark, but when within thirty miles of the falls they found that he was well established behind his stockade and gave up the idea of an assault. (Western Annals.)
. Clark again passed through the Mlami regiou in 1782. HIc had been holding his post at the falls endeavoring to make it a rallying place for boats on the Ohio and had already been the means of establishing quite a vigorous trade along the river. One of the river merchants. Jacob Yoder, in the spring of the year, brought
123
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
some merchandise clear from the seaboard to the Monongahela and old Red Stone. On that stream he floated down the river to the falls, and in search of an ultimate market, still further down to New Orleans.
This had been a year of many a bloody calam- ity suffered at the hands of the Indians and late in the fall Clark once more called together the able-bodied men to make ready for another blow. The response to his call was quick and thorough. Pioneers gathered from all sides with supplies of every character. The force consisted of two divisions, one under Colonel Logan, which met at Bryan's Station, the other under Colonel Floyd, which met at the falls. These two forces united at the Licking, from which point Clark with one thousand and fifty men, marched rapid- ly up the Miami one hundred and thirty miles, before the Indians discovered his approach. The attack was almost a complete surprise.
"We surprised," says Clark, "the principal Shawanese town on the evening of the 10th of November. Immediately detaching strong par- ties to different quarters, in a few hours two- thirds of the town was laid in ashes, and every- thing they were possessed of destroyed, except such articles as might be useful to the troops. The enemy had no time to secrete any part of their property which was in the town. The British trading post (Loramie's Store), at the head of the Miami, and carrying place to the waters of the lake, shared the same fate, at the hands of a party of one hundred and fifty horse, commanded by Col. Benjamin Logan. The prop- erty destroyed was of great amount, and the quantity of provisions burned surpassed all idea we had of the Indian stores. The loss of the enemy was ten scalps, seven prisoners, and two whites retaken; ours was one killed and one wounded. After lying part of four days at their towns, and finding all attempts to bring the encmy to a general engagement fruitless, we re- tired, as the scason was advancing, and the weather threatening. We might probably have . got many more scalps and prisoners, could we have known in time whether we were discovered or not. We took for granted that we were not, until, getting within three miles, some circum- stances happened which caused me to think other- wise. Col. John Floyd was then ordered to ad- vance with three hundred men, to bring on an ac- tion or attack the town, while Major Wells, with a party of horse, had previously been detached by a different route, as a party of observation. Al-
though Col. Floyd's motions were so quick as to get to the town but a few minutes later than those who discovered his approach, the inhab- itants had sufficient notice to effect their escape to the woods, by the alarm cry which was given on the first discovery. This was heard at a great distance, and repeated by all that heard it, consequently our parties only fell in with the rear of the enemy."
This expedition, though attended with little loss, practically closed the Indian wars in the West. The principal resources of the savages were cut off. Their towns were destroyed, and they were convinced that the white settlements could not be broken up. No formidable invasion of Kentucky was afterward attempted.
On the return of this expedition, Colonel Mc- Cracken of the light horse suggested that as many as should survive the day fifty years should mcet and exchange greeting and farewells to each other, opposite the mouth of the Licking River, that being the point where they first struck the Indian territory.
McCracken, who proposed the arrangement, was the first one disabled from ever carrying it out. Hc had received a wound in the arm, from a rifle bullet, which being neglected produced mortification and terminated his life on the litter which bore him, as the party descended Key's Hill, at the head of Main street, now known as Mount Auburn, just as the troops were 'en- tering upon the site of the future Cincinnati proper. It is supposed that McCracken had some presentiment of his fate in a dream which he had the night before he left the spot on his way northward with the command. This was the occasion for his request, that all his asso- ciates who survived fifty years should meet at the place and celebrate the earlier gathering and mark the spot which he felt convinced would be the site of his grave.
In 1832, an attempt was made on the part of the survivors, Gen. Simon Kenton, Maj. James Galloway, John McCaddon and a few others who were still living to comply with the arrangements made fifty years before. They were to meet on the 3rd or 5th of November, as the 4th came on Sunday this year, for the purpose of laying a corner-stone for the monument, which should mark the intersection of several streets on the * site of old Fort Washington.
In an address issued by Kenton and Galloway, at this time, occurred thic following words :
"We will no doubt all recollect Captain Mc- Cracken. He commanded the company of light
124
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI
horse, and Green Clay was his lieutenant. The captain was slightly wounded in the arm at Piqua town, when within a few feet of one of the sub- scribers, from which place he was carried on a horse litter for several days; his wound produced mortification, and he died in going down the hill where the city of Cincinnati now stands. He was buried near the blockhouse we had erected opposite the mouth of Licking, and the breast- works were thrown over his grave to prevent the savages from scalping him."
Major Galloway, in answer to his invitation to attend the 45th anniversary of the settlement of Cincinnati, in 1833, says :
"In October, 1782, I accompanied General Clark on an expedition against Pickaway and Loramie's town, and was within a few feet of the lamented William McCracken when he received the wound of which he died on his return, while descending the hill near which Cincinnati now stands, and was buried near a blockhouse oppo- site the mouth of the Licking."
The party which gathered on the occasion of the celebration in 1832 was a very small one by reason of the fact that this was the cholera year in Cincinnati. But a few old men, survivors of most exciting days and events met under condi- tions of great depression and sorrow to keep the promise made to one of their brothers a half cen- tury before. The city gave them a dinner at one of the hotels, but the other part of the program had to be omitted.
In the face of statements of these men,-Vick- roy, MeCaddon, Thomas, Kenton, and Galloway, -there certainly can remain no doubt as to the existence of a blockhouse on the site of Cincin- nati as early as 1780. What became of this structure it is impossible of course to do more than surmise. There seems no reason to suppose that the blockhouse referred to in 1782, was other than one of those erected by Clark's party in 1780. The suggestion that they were destroyed by the Indians immediately after they were abandoned by their builders seems without foun- (lation. There was no trace of them, however, so far as can be judged from the fact that they are not mentioned at the time of the later settle- ment of the city. They with the breastworks erected to guard the scalp of Captain McCracken, from spoliation by the savages, in all probability had entirely disappeared at the time of the land- ing of the Ludlow and Patterson party.
Other visitors to the Miami region, of whom there is no record, came in 1785, almost four
years prior to the time of the landing of the Symmes party. They explored the whole Miami bottoms as far up as Hamilton, and selected spots for the purpose of establishing preemption rights. One of the company, who came from Washing- ton County, Pennsylvania, John Hindman, is said by Mr. Cist to have been living as late as 1845, within a few miles of Hillsboro, Ohio, and his narrative is given in the "Cincinnati Miscellany," published under date of June, 1845 :
"My father, John Hindman, was a native and resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where I was born in 1760, and at the age of 20 left that neighborhood for Washington County, where I remained four years. In the month of March, 1785, I left the State of Pennsylvania, taking water at the mouth of Buffalo creek with a party, consisting of William West, John Simons, John Seft, and old Mr. Carlin and their families. We reached Limestone point, now Maysville, in safety, where we laid by two weeks. The next landing we made was at the mouth of the Big Miami. We were the first company that had landed at that place. The Indians had left two or three days before we landed. We found two Indians buried as they were laid on the ground, a pen of poles built around them, and a new blanket spread over each one. The first we found was near the bank of the Ohio, and the second near the mouth of White Water. Soon after we landed, the Offio raised so as to overflow all the bottoms at the mouth of the Big Miami. We went over there- fore to the Kentucky side, and cleared thirty or forty acres on a claim of a man by the name of Tanner, whose son was killed by the Indians some time afterwards on a creek which now bears his name. Some time in May or June we started to go' up the Big Miami, to make what we called improvements, so as to secure a portion of the lands which we selected out of the best and broadest bottoms between the mouth of the river and where Hamilton now stands .- We started a north course and came to White Water, sup- posing it to be the Miami; we proceeded up the creek, but Joseph Robinson, who started from the mouth of the Miami with our party, and who knew something of the country from having been taken prisoner with Col. Laughery and carried through it, giving it as" his opinion, that we were not at the main river, we made a raft and crossed the stream. having the misfortune to lose all our guns in the passage. We proceeded up to where Hamilton
.
125
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
now is, and made improvements wherever we found bottoms finer than the rest, all the way down to the mouth of the Miami. I then went up the Ohio again to Buffalo, but returned the same fall, and found Gens. Clark, Butler and Parsons at the mouth of the Big Miami, as commission- ers to treat with the Indians. Major Finney was there also. I was in company with Symmes when he was engaged in taking the meanders of the Miami River at the time John Filson was killed by the Indians."
It is interesting to note the fact that the young man named Tanner, referred to in this item, was not slain at the time, but survived to pass through more adventures.
The publication of Hindman's narrative brought forth a letter on July 12, 1845, from a writer who gave further information in regard to this boy Tanner, who it seems was captured by the Indians, and lived with them for a period of almost thirty years. He married an Indian wife and had six children by her.
The conference of Generals Clark, Butler and Parsons with the Indians is described at length at a subsequent point.
In March, 1788, three boats containing Samuel Purviance, from the prominent city of Baltimore, with four or five gentlemen from Maryland, Mons. Ragant and two other Frenehmen and eight or ten other persons engaged on a seientific exploring expedition were captured near the Big Miami, and a large part of the party killed. The fate of Mr. Purviance was never determined al- though a long and unsuccessful search was made for him by General Harmar.
Probably the latest visitors to the city of Cin- cinnati, prior to its final settlement, were a party of hunters, five men in all from the station near Georgetown, Kentucky, who landed in Septem- ber, 1788, at the edge of Deer creek in two canoes. They hid their canoes among the wil- lows and weeds that grew thick and rank upon that little stream and then proceeded to ascend the creek along the left bank. "At the distance of about one hundred and fifty yards from the mouth, in the shade of a branching chin, they lıalted for refreshment, and sat down to partake of the rude repast of the wilderness. The month was September, the day clear and warm, and the hour almost sunset. Having partaken of their evening meal, the party, at the suggestion of a man named Hall-one of their number-pro- posed, as a matter of safety and comfort, that they should go among the northern hills, and there encamp until the morning's dawn. His
proposition was acceded to, and the party started on their journey. Emerging from a thicket of iron weed, through which a deer-path was open, and into which the party walked single file, they entered one after another upon a grassy, weedless knob, which, being elevated some dis- tance above the tops of the blossomed weeds around, had the appearance of a green island in the midst of a purple sea. The hunters did not pause for a moment, but entered the narrow avenue one after another.
"As the last man was about to enter the path, he fell simultaneously with the crack of a rifle, discharged from among the weeds on the western slope.' The whole party dashed into the thicket on either side and 'squatted,' with rifles cocked, ready for any emergeney. Quietly in this posi- tion they waited until nightfall, but everything around being still, and no further hostile demon- strations being made, one after another, they again ventured out into the path and started toward the opening, observing, however, the ut- most caution.
"Hall, a bold fellow, and connected by ties of kindred with the man who had been shot, whose name was Baxter, crawled quietly upon his hands and knees to the spot where his comrade had fallen, and found him dead, lying with his face downward, a bullet having entered his skull for- ward of the left temple. Baxter had fallen some ten feet from the thicket's entrance, and Hall, after getting out of the thieket, rolled slowly to the side of the dead man, lest he should be ob- served by the skulking enemy, as, in an upright position, notwithstanding the gloom of night fall, he would have been. He lay for several minutes by the side of the corpse analyzing, as it were, the sounds of the night, as if to deteet in them the decoying tricks so common to the Indian. There was nothing, however, that, even to his practiced ear, indicated the presence of an enemy ; and he ventured at length to stand creet. With rifle ready, and eye-ball strained to penetrate the gloom that hung like a marsh-mist upon the purple fields around, he stood for several seconds, and then gave a signal for the approach of his companions. The party cautiously approached the spot where Hall stood, and after a moment's consultation in whispers agreed to bury the un- fortunate man, and then pursue their journey. Poor Baxter was carried to the bank of the river and silently interred under a beach, a few feet from the binff, the grave being dug by the toma- hawks of his late companions.
"Ilaving performed the last sad duties to the
.
I26
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI
departed, the party prepared to leave, and had advanced, silently, a step or two, when they were startled by a sound upon the water. 'A canoe!' whispered Hall. A suspicion flashed upon his mind, and he crawled to the spot where the canoes had been hidden, and found one of them gone.
"Quick to decide, and fired with a spirit of ven- geance, he proposed to his comrades that im- mediate pursuit be made. The proposition was agreed to, and, in less than five minutes, three of the hunters, armed and determined for their mission, were darting silently through the quiet waters in the direction of the sound which they had recently heard. About one hundred yards below the mouth of Licking, on the Kentucky side, they came within rifle-shot of the canoe, fired at the person who was paddling it, scarcely visible in the dim starlight, and a short exclama- tion of agony evidenced the certainty of the shot.
"Paddling up alongside, the canoe was found to contain but a single person, and that an old Indian, writhing in death's agony, the blood gush- ing from his shaven brow. In the bottom of the canoe lay a rifle, and near it a pouch of parched corn, and a gourd about half filled with whisky. It was this Indian, evidently, who shot Baxter, and it seemed equally evident that he was alone upon the war-path. The savage was scalped, and his body thrown into the river.
"Hall and his party returned to the mouth of the creek, again hid the canoes, encamped near Baxter's grave for the night, and with the morn- ing's dawn started upon their journey home.
"Forty years afterward, some boys, digging for worms at the mouth of Deer creek, just below the bridge, discovered a skeleton with a bullet- hole in the skull, and the ball itself inside. It is supposed this was the remains of the unfortu- nate Baxter." (Cist, Cincinnati in 1859, p. 50.)
CHAPTER IX.
FORT FINNEY.
BUTLER'S TRIP DOWN THE OHIO -- THE FORT ON THE POINT-CONFERENCES WITH THE INDIANS- CLARK'S PRESENCE OF MIND-THE TREATY.
The occasion referred to by Hindman in his narrative, where he speaks of finding Generals Clark, Butler and Parsons at the mouth of the Big Miami, as commissioners to treat with the Indians, was the celebrated conference which took place at Fort Finney. This, with the ex- ception of the transient blockhouses built by the war parties of Kentucky on the site of Cincin- nati, which have already been referred to, was the first work for human habitation built by whites between the Miamis, of which we have a record. It stood in the peninsula formed by the junction of the Great Miami with the Ohio, about three-fourths of a mile from the mouth and near the southeast corner of the farm of the late John Scott Harrison.
Henry Howe says that as late as the winter of 1866, some remains of this fort were still to be seen. It is this fortification which is later re- ferred to by Symmes, under the name of the "Old Fort " and it was built in the fall and winter of 1785, at the time of the conference referred to in Hindman's narrative.
It so happens that we have a complete re- port of this conference from two eye witnesses and participants and also that these two reports have been supposed to present certain features of disagreement. Judge Hall, too, in his book " The Romance of Western History " gives an account of the conference, which has been as- sailed as inaccurate in details.
The participants were people of such impor- tance and the proceedings were so characteristic of negotiations with the Indians, and the narra- tives of the parties reflect so much light upon
the first settlement between the Miamis that a somewhat extended account of the matter may not seem uninteresting.
BUTLER'S TRIP DOWN THE OHIO.
Gen. John Richard Butler, of Carlisle, Penn- sylvania, had been appointed in the early fall of 1785, as one of the three commissioners, to act with two others, Gen. George Rogers Clark and Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons, in an attempt to make a treaty with the Northwestern Indians. His journal with reference to the matter is very . complete and full of interest. On September 9, 1785, he records his parting from his family. He proceeded in company with " the Hon. Col. James Monroe, a member of Congress from the State of Virginia, a gentleman very young for a place in that honorable body ; but a man well read, very sensible, highly impressed with the consequence and dignity of the Federal Union, and a determined supporter of it in its fullest latitude."
At Fort McIntosh, which was thirty miles be- low Fort Pitt and near the mouth of Beaver creek, a very short distance from the Old Logs Town of Christopher Gist, the party was joined by Lieutenant, afterwards called Major Denny, and a number of troops. Here he heard reports of General Clark, who was a little distance be- low Scioto on his way to the falls of the Ohio. and also the account of the murder of one of the settlers on Fish creek, a few days since. The conduct of the Indians was reported as very extraordinary.
" They came to the door and knocked very
7
128
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI
early in the morning, the man rose out of bed and was shot through the door which broke his thigh; on his falling, the .door was broke in by the Indians, who tomahawked him and two children; the woman in fright lay still. They told her not to be' uneasy, that they would not leave the house, as they would soon be back again, but did not intend to injure her; that they were Cherokees and would never make peace. She asked why they troubled her, that the Indains had made peace with Gen. Clark last fall; they said not they, that if they could meet Gen. Clark they would kill him also."
At the Mingotowns, Butler met Joseph Ross and his settlers whom he warned to leave the place. Ross insisted that he intended to vindi- cate himself and neighbors before Congress. This was one of the squatter settlements on the north side of the Ohio which gave the authorities so much trouble.
This journal contains almost daily mention of parties passing to and fro on the river, who were met by Butler and also of squatters who had set- tled on the north side of the Ohio, contrary to the proclamation of Congress. General Butler in each case warned the settlers that they were violators of the law, but with what result we are not informed.
On passing the mouth of the Muskingum, he examined it with reference to establishing a post there and concluded that the most eligible point was on the Ohio side. He therefore wrote from there to Major Doughty, recommending the place, with his opinion of the kind of work most proper ; this was the site of Fort Harmar, across the Muskingum from the present city of Mariet- ta. This letter which contained other remarks on the fort he left fixed to a locust tree.
Colonel Monroe, owing to the low stage of the river which made the voyage more tedious than expected, " finds himself much straightened for time in this tour, being one of the Judges of the Federal Court, which is to, sit at Williamsburgh on a trial between the States of New York and Massachusetts-bay on the 15th of November, for which reason he proposes to take a boat and push night and day for Limestone, and from thence to Lexington, through the wilderness into Virginia. His company is of the most desirable kind, being polite, friendly and sensible, generally cheerful, and always edifying."
Monroe, who of course it is not necessary to state is best known as President Monroe, took with him the lightest boat, a sergeant and four
soldiers and Lieutenant Denny, "a good young gentleman, as far as Limestone, where the Colonel will leave him and the party, who with Lieut. Denny will wait to join us."
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.