USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th > Part 16
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the previous fall. About an hour after the burg, had started from Wellsburg on horse- Indians hulted on Short Creek, Mr. Glass and party saw the smoke of their camp. In order that the Indians might have no chance to kill their captives, they erept quietly through the bushes. Mrs. Brown's son had toddled to a sugar tree to get some water, where the Indians had made a tap. but not being able to get it out of the bark trongh, his mother stepped out of the enmp to get it for him. The negro woman was sitting some distance from the Indians, who were examining a scarlet jacket which they had taken. Suddenly they dropped the jacket and turned their eyes towards the men, who, supposing they were dis- covered, immediately discharged several guns, and with a yell rushed upon them. One of the Indians was wounded, nud dropped his gun and shot pouch. After running a hundred yards a second shot was fired after him by Major McGuire, which brought him down, but the pursuit was not carried further, as the Indians had told Mrs. Brown that there was another en- campment close by. They Imrried home, and reached Beech Bottom fort that night.
Croxton's Run. besides being the place of the capture of the Castleman girls, was the scene of a bloody battle in 1787 between fourteen hunters, several of them from Fort Steuben, and a party of Shawanese. The hunters camped there for the night, and were attacked early the next morning, Four hunters were killed, and the others reached their canoes and escaped to Fort Steuben. A reinforcement started for the place, but found only the mutilated bodies of the dead hunters, the Indians had gone with their dead and wounded.
These tales might be continued almost indefinitely, but we will proceed to notice what was the last Indian fight of any im- portauee in Jefferson County. The moving canse of this battle was in the summer of 1792. when a party of Indians came down to the river at what is now the foot of Mar- ket Street in Steubenville, and crossed to the Virginia side on a maranding expedi- tion. Mrs. Lawson Van Buskirk, of Wells-
back to Washington County, Pennsylvania, to have some weaving done. She met the Indians nt Painter's ( probably Panther's) Creek, and in trying to turn her horse quickly the animal stumbled and threw her to the ground, spraining her ankle. She was captured and carried back along the ridge to the spot where they had crossed the river. A man named White, with two others, followed the Indians with the in- tention of ambushing them and rescuing the prisoner. The redskins came down the hill and began to raise their canoes, but they were too many to be attacked. Just as they were about to cross the river another party of scouts came np, who so nhrmed the Indinns that they threw Mrs. Buskirk on to a linge stone by the water side, not "Town Rock" as has been re- ported, and tomahawked her. They imme- diately took to their canoes and esenped across the river. The two parties of whites united and forded the river at Wells's ripple, but the savages had too good a start to be overtaken. The remains of Mrs. Bus- kirk were taken to Wellsburg for inter- ment, and the next summer, moved by this as well as other depredations, Captain Bns- kirk organized a party of thirty men, including David Cox, Jacob Ross, two Cuppy boys, one Abraham who was aft- erwards killed by an Indian near Mt. Pleasant, John Aidy, John Parker and John Carpenter, for the purpose of pun- ishing these marauders. They crossed the river nbont opposite George's Run and then turned up the stream to Cross Creek and worked back into the country. About a mile west of Mingo, on what was after- wards the Adams farm, now occupied by the Wabash Railroad, they approached what is now called Battle Run, a small tributary of Cross Creek. Here they no- tired a loin of "jerk," when Buskirk ex- claimed: "Now boys, look ont, there are Indians close." He ambuscaded the main body. and deployed to the right, sending Carpenter to the left to ascertain the posi- tion of the enemy. Suddenly. Carpenter
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saw them in force in a thick cluster of paw paw and blackberry bushes. He yelled In- dians and treed, receiving five shots through his knapsack. Buskirk shonted "where," and at once was the target for a volley from the bushes, eleven balls enter- ing his body, killing him instantly. The frontiersmen stormed the thicket and the Indians retreated. It was here Jacob Ross shot and wounded an Indian and drove him into the creek, mention of which is made elsewhere. Three whites were wounded in this fight, and quite a number of Indians killed, whose bones were after- wards found, one instance being a skeleton concealed in the rocks with a bullet lodged in his hip joint. Buskirk was buried near where he fell.
That the Indians were possessed of many noble traits is conceded by all who have given any serious attention to the study of their character. That many of them were superior to the renegades and white thieves who infested the border is strik- ingly illustrated by two narratives related by Robert. A. Sherrard, in his manuscript, referred to elsewhere. One concerned two brothers named Luke and Frank MeGnire, who lived in the Virginia Pan Handle about three miles east of Steubenville. During the summer of 1819 they were engaged in the flour trade to Natchez and New Orleans and having sold their boat-load of flour at Natchez for specie they could not get an exchange for United States bank paper without giving a high premium, and the same situation applied to getting a check on any Eastern bank. So they concluded to box their specie, and purchasing a horse and light buggy started for home overland, as stemmboating had scarcely begun on those western waters. They were both weak and reduced by the fever common in the South during warm weather, but left Natchez in good spirits. They got along very well until they reached the Cherokee nation in Georgia. The country was then a wilderness, and they encountered a very extensive swamp. In attempting to cross it their buggy with its weight of specie
sunk into the mud, and in their weakened state they could render the horse no assist- ance. They sat for some time not knowing what to do, when at length half a dozen Indians came along on their way through the swamp. They took the sick men from the buggy and carried them out of the swamp on their backs, while others carried the specie. They then loosened the horse and took the buggy to solid ground. The Indians then rehitched the horse to the buggy and putting the MeGuires and the money therein led them to the house of one of the Indians and kept them a few days. until their fever had abated, and then sent them on their way rejoicing.
In contrast with the above is related the case of Michael Myers, one of the pioneers of Knox Township. Returning overland from one of his trading trips to New Or- leans, with three other flour traders, all were on horseback, with their specie stored in saddle bags. Before arriving at Natchez all had bilious fever, but finally started from the latter place, still quite ill. In a few days they became worse, and were obliged to lie under the shadow of a large tree far from any house or even an Indian wigwam. At length one of the four died. and the others, with pieces of fallen timber. seraped and scooped out a little earth and buried him as best they could. The next day a second man died and was buried in the same manner, and a day or two later the third one died, leaving Myers alone, weak and sick. But weak as he was. he managed to bury his last comrade. He had proved to be the strongest of the party. and ministerd to the wants of the others while they lived, and each day looked after the horses, which they had hobbled and allowed to range among the pasture nature had provided for them near the camp. After Myers had buried his last comrade, he turned his thoughts homeward, and con- eluded to start the next day. He therefore began preparations by taking the money of each of his dead comrades, and putting two parcels in each of two pair of saddle- bags, and having brought the horses to
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camp, he laid down and slept better than he had done for a good many nights. When daylight came he selected the best one of the three horses besides his own, which he bridled and saddled. He then put a pair of saddle-bags containing the money on each, and having removed the hobbles from the other horses, he let them go to shift for themselves. He then mounted and started, the two loose horses following for several miles, but at length they took to browsing, and he saw them no more. He traveled as far as was possible in his weak- ened state, and before night stopped to camp. That evening there came to his camp a solitary white man, who professed to be traveling to his home in Kentucky and appeared to be glad that he had found com- pany. Myers believed his statements and agreed that he should have the oversight of the horses night and morning and might ride the lead horse. The man seemed very well pleased and attentive, and at evening he hobbled the horses and let them go to graze. In the morning he brought up the horses, saddled them, and put on the bags containing the silver, and thus they went for two days. On the morning of the third day the stranger went out after the horses and, having remained a good while. re- turned without them. He proposed to Myers that if the latter would go north to look for the horses he would go south. which was agreed to and the inen sepa- rated. Myers was gone about an hour, and finding no trace of the horses returned to camp, when he found that the stranger had returned with the horses, saddled them, put on the two pairs of saddle-bags containing nearly every dollar of the four traders. taken the back track southward, and was already out of sight. Myers was too weak to make pursuit, and started towards home on foot with but a small sum of money in his pocket. The thief got about $1.600. One of the three men who died was said to have been Myers' brother. He made his way through the Indian nation depending chiefly on the hospitality of the aborigines. and finally arrived in the state of Ken-
tucky, where he found friends who loaned him money to take him home. It is con- jectured that the stranger belonged to the notorious Bill Mason gang of robbers, which was a terror to every traveller through the wilderness from 1798 for many years. After this experience Mr. Myers made Louisville the terminus for his south- ern trade.
Before leaving this branch of our sub- ject, a word as to the natural environment and lives of the early settlers. This was indeed the wilderness and solitary place. Even the song birds, so numerous in our boyhood days, now, alas, being extermi- nated, only came with the settlers. Of course, there was no domestic fowl, and the gobble of the wild turkey, the croak of the raven and the tap of the woodpecker by day and the howl of the wolf or the hoot of the owl by night, did little more than accen- tuate the solitude. Not alone among the Indians did superstition prevail. Signs lucky and unlucky, dreams and omens, were taken with all the faith of the Delphian oracle. Belief in witchcraft was not un- common, although reported accounts of the killing of one or more witches in this county by piereing their images with silver bullets are, no doubt, apocryphal. That story is located in numerous sections of the coun- try. As a sample version, it is related that one of the pioneer farmers of Smithfield Township returning home late one night, after a possible halt at one or more dis- tilleries en route, lost his money, which he was certain had been taken from him by a witch. He called on the famous Dr. Me- Connell to exorcise the spirit with the usual silver bullet, and that worthy put a silver bullet in his mouth and taking his gun in his hand the two went out to the barn, where a paper figure of the supposed witch was tacked on the barn door. The gun was charged, with a bullet taken from the doc- tor's month, and the figure duly shot. The farmer went away in the full belief that this partienlar witch would trouble him no more, when the doctor took from his mouth the original silver bullet, having had a lead
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one stored on the other side of his jaw which was used in the witch killing, with doubtless quite as much efficacy.
Owing to the forests, summers were probably cooler than at present, while the swarms of gnats, mosquitoes and house- flies were veritable pests to man and beast. They lessened the amount of milk the cat- tle gave, and it was customary to build fires around the settlements the smoke of which kept the flies from the cattle, which soon learned to change with the wind, so as to keep in the smoke. Concerning a much dis- cussed question, Dr. Doddridge says :
"Our summers in early times were mostly very dry. The beds of our largo creeks, excepting in the deep holes, presented nothing but naked rocks. The mills were not expected to do any grinding after the latter end of May, excepting for a short time after a thunder gust ; our most prudent housekeepers, therefore, took care to have their summer stock of flour ground in the months of March and April. If this stock was expended too soon there were no resources but those of the hominy block or hand mill. It was a frequent saying among our farmera that three good rains were sufficient to make a crop of corn if they happened at the proper times. The want of rain was compensated in some degree by heavy dews, which were then more common than of late, owing to the shaded situation of the earth (!), which prevented it from becoming warm or dry by the rays of the sun during even the warmest wenther. Frost and snow set in much earlier in former times than of late. 1 have known the whole crop of corn in Green- brier destroyed by frost ou the night of the 22d of September. The corn in this district was mostly frost bitten at the same time. Such early frosta have not happened for some time past. Hunting snows usually commenced about the middle of October. November was regarded as a winter month, as the winter frequently set in with severity during that month, and sometimes at an early period of it."
Mr. Sherrard, in his notes, relates that, "In February, 1801, a large light supposed to be a meteorite, about the size of a four- gallon pot, passed at a very rapid rate from an eastern to a western direction, about 9 o'clock in the evening. The light given out was very brilliant, and shone down the chimney of the house in which our family dwelt, so bright, that without the assistance of any other light a person might have seen to pick up a pin on the hearth."
Squirrels were very destructive to crops,
while honey bees, crows, blackbirds, rats, opossums and fox-squirrels were immi- grants. Rattlesnakes and copperheads were very numerous. Wild strawberry, service berry, black and raspberries, goose- berries, whortleberries, plums, grapes, haws, cherries, pawpaws, crab apples and nuts were among the indigenous fruits. The peaches were only expected to bear once every three or four years. Household fur- niture was naturally scarce, and mostly made on the spot. There were a few pew- ter spoons and dishes, with wooden bowls and trenches, helped out by gourds and squashes. "Hog and Hominy" was long a leading dish, with Johnny Cake pone, mush and milk. Tea and coffee were prac- tically unknown. Hunting dresses after the Indian style, made of skins, were uni- versal. So as to moccasins for feet cover- ing, which were not very efficient weather protectors, causing much rheumatism to our forefathers. The women wore linsey petticoats and bed gowns, practically all the stuff being home-made. At first peltry and furs supplied the place of money, which in the fall were sent eastward over. the mountains to be exchanged for salt and other necessities, and sometimes for luxu- ries. Of course, hunting was extensively practiced not only as a pleasure but as a necessity to eke out the family larder. As a rule, the inhabitants married young, and the occasion was usually festive, attended from far and near. Doddridge gives ac- counts of some very quaint customs con- nected therewith, some of which might not be considered altogether refined in these days, but even the virtues of the pioneers were frequently homely. . All the friends and neighbors joined in the house-warming, barn raisings, etc., and each family had its own tailors, shoemakers and carpenters. Herbs were largely used as medicines, and perhaps they were as efficacious as some modern decoctions. Amusements were largely of an athletic nature, such as run- ning, jumping, wrestling, etc. Dancing was always in favor, and it goes without
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saying that target shooting was always in rated high, and seduction and bastardy evidence. Occasionally there was a dra- were very infrequent ; in fact, the "un- written Inw" was a very practical deter- rent. In short, there was very little crime (if killing Indians be eliminated, as that was not considered criminal), because this section was not settled by criminals, but by the sturdy pioneers of Virginia and Mary- land. Of course, the above statements apply to the very first comers. The estab- lishment of military authority followed by courts and religious gatherings belong to a later period. matie performance which requires no stretch of language to describe as amateur. At first there was "neither law nor gos- pel," as conrts did not travel westward with the first emigrants, and clergymen were few and scattered. Nevertheless, as is always the ease with Anglo-Saxons, there was rude administration of justice from the start. Offenses of a minor sort were punished by ostracism and banish- ment, and for more serious ones stripes were not uncommon. Family honor was
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CHAPTER VIII
A NEW ERA
Beginning of the United States Land System-Primitive Blockhouses and Building of Fort Steuben-Survey of the Seven Ranges-A Busy Year and Permanent Settle- ments" First United States Land Office,
Blockhouses of a semi-public character were numerous in Jefferson County from the date of the earliest settlements. In fact, they were an absolute necessity, and around them were clustered the cabins and the clearings, close enough for the inhabi- tants to escape to their refuge whenever there was danger of a savage raid. These blockhouses were square, heavy, double- storied buildings, with the upper story ex- tending over the lower about two feet all round. They also projected slightly over the stockade, commanding all the ap- proaches thereto, so that no lodgment could be made against the pickets of which the stockade was built, to set them on fire, or to scale them. They also were pierced with loop-holes for musketry. The roof sloped equally from each side upward, and was surmounted at the centre by a quad- rangular structure called the sentry box. This box was the post of observation, af- fording, from its elevated postion, an ex- tensive view on all sides. It was usually occupied in times of siege or apprehended attack by three of the best riflemen, who were also well skilled in the tactics of In- dian warfare. There were at least three blockhouses in Warren Township, "Car- penter's Fort" being the leading one, and George Carpenter established one below
Rush Run in 1785. There were also several north of Steubenville, between Wills Creek and Yellow Creek. The blockhouses devel- oped into the fort, in fact, the pioneer forts consisted of four blockhouses arranged in the form of a square and connected to- gether by a palisade or picket of heavy posts. Of this character was Fort Steuben, which stood on the second river terrace at what is now the corner of High and Adams Streets in Steubenville, where the corners were identified and designated by iron markers by the centennial committee at the celebration in 1897. The fort was in the form of a square, with blockhouses twenty- eight feet square set diagonally at the cor- ners. The angles of the blockhouse were connected with lines of pickets one hundred and fifty feet in length, forming the sides of the fort. Each blockhouse had two rooms sufficient to accommodate fourteen men. The fort also contained a commis- sary store, barracks, quartermaster's store, magazine, artificer's shop, guard house built on two piers with a piazza looking in- ward, and a sallyport built between the piers. A flag pole with the American colors was also provided, and a black hole for confining offenders. The main gate faced the river, and the width of the block- houses diagonally was about thirty-nine
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feet, making the outside measurement two hundred and twenty-eight feet. A repro- duction of this post made by C. P. Filson may be found among the illustrations in this volume, and gives a very good idea of its appearance.
The building of this fort was occasioned by one of the most important acts of Con-
for a legal disposition of the lands and opening up the country for settlement Con- gress, on May 20, 1785, passed an act for the survey of seven ranges of land north- west of the Ohio River, which was the be- ginning of the public land system of the United States. This tract of seven ranges is bounded by a line forty-two miles in
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PLAN OF FORT STEUBEN
No. 1, 1, 1, 1, block house 28 feet square, divided into two rooms, sufficient for 14 men each; 2, 2, officers' barracks; a, a, parlors; b, b, b, b, bedrooms; d, d, kitchens; 3, commissary 's store : 4, quartermaster's atore; 5, magazine; 6, artificer's shop; 7, guard house built on two piers a, b, with a piazza looking inwards and a sally port between the piers, the pier a the common store; b, black hole, place of confinement; 8, flagstaff ; 9, main gate looking toward the river. The small mqquares in the sides and corners of the rooms represent chim- neys. The width of the block houses diagonally is 39 fret 1 inch nearly, and the distance between the points 130 feet.
gress in our National history. We have related the efforts of the Government to exclude settlers from the Ohio country, but recognizing the fact that the time had come
length, taking in seven townships each six miles square running due west from the intersection of the western boundary line of Pennsylvania with the Ohio River, thenee south to the Ohio River at southeast corner of Marietta Township in Washing- ton County, thence up the river to the place of beginning. The present counties of Jef- ferson, Columbiana, Carroll, Tnsearawas, Harrison, Guernsey, Belmont, Noble, Mon- roe and Washington are wholly or partly within this district. The ranges were nun- bered from east to west, and the townships from south to north. The townships were
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subdivided into sections one mile square, extended from the Ohio to the forty-first and the numbering of the ranges and town- parallel, and as late as April, 1909, this was the general opinion even in the land office. Mr. Dyer also resurrected a copper plate, 131%x2316 inches, published about 1795 by Matthew Carey, Philadelphia, showing the plat of these lands. ships started in Jefferson County, Town- ship 2 of Range 1 being the northeast corner of Wells Township, including Sec- tions 29, 30, 34, 35 and 36, Section 1 which is ent off by the river would be located a mile above Warrenton. In Range 1 are inchided the east ends of Saline, Knox, Island Creek and Wells Townships, and all of Steubenville, which is only a fractional township. The line dividing Sections 29 and 30 from 35 and 36 in Steubenville City runs through the Washington schoolyard just west of the building, so that point is exactly five miles west of the Pennsylvania Jine. In the second range are the greater parts of Saline, Island Creek, Wells and Warren Townships, with all of Cross C'reek, Brush Creek, Salem, Wayne, Smith- field and Mt. Pleasant are all in the third range, while Springfield, a somewhat ir- regular projection on the west side is the sole representative of the county in the fourth range.
Investigations in the public land office and Library of Congress by A. M. Dyer, curator of the Western Reserve Historical Society, made in 1909, have disclosed some facts not hitherto known in connection with the history of the Seven Ranges. Hutchins located the initial point where the western boundary of Pennsylvania inter- sects the northern bank of the Ohio in Sep- tember, 1785, determined its latitude in October, and officially reported it as 40 de- grees, 38 minutes, 2 seconds. The first year's survey was a line four miles long, called the Geographer's line. running due west from this point. In 1786 this line was extended fifty miles westward to the ninth range. There it joined the Ludlow line marking the Indian boundary according to the Greenville Treaty. In 1800-1801 these Seven Ranges were extended northwardly to 41°, giving four additional townships in each range and continuing the survey to the southern boundary of the Connectient Reserve. It has been generally stated by historians that the famous Seven Ranges
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