USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Extracts from the history of Cincinnati and the territory of Ohio, showing the trials and hardships of the pioneers in the early settlement of Cincinnati and the West > Part 10
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
The settlement had been made, originally, by John Dunlap, who called it Colerain, after the town in Ireland from which he came. He laid it out as a town into lots, but at the time I refer to had left the place. It appeared afterward that he had no title to the land, and eventually the settlers lost what they had bought. The settlement or station was, however, known by his name, although Colerain subsequently became, as it still remains, the name of the township in which the ground lies. The fort or station con- sisted of a few cabins, lying in a square of perhaps an acre or more. These had been built for convenience sake facing each other, and with the roofs, of course, sloping outward ; the very reverse of what they should have been for efficient defense. The outer edges of these were so low that it was not uncommon for the dogs, which had been shut out, to spring from adjacent stumps on to the roof, and thence sideways into the enclosure. At the cor- ners of the square block houses had been constructed, and pickets, very weak and insufficient for defense against a resolute and active enemy, filled up the intervening spaces, inclosing the whole. There were but eight or ten persons, besides the regulars, capable of bearing arms, and the entire number of the fort, exclusive of the soldiers, did not exceed thirty souls.
We reached our destination in the latter part of January, 1791. One of the first services at the station we were called on to perform was to chop down the trees immediately adjacent, which had been recently girdled, and which Lieutenant Kingsbury judged would afford advantage to an enemy in his approach. The underbrush had already been cleared out and burnt. These trees were cut down, chopped up, and intended to be rolled or carried into heaps and burned, so that we should have ample and open space to watch as well as oppose any attack that might be made. But the Indians did not give us the necessary time to carry our purpose into effect. This was our employment up to the beginning of February.
On Saturday evening, the 5th of that month, one Sloan, who, with his party, had been surveying the neighborhood, was attacked by what he called " a scattering party of Indians," who killed one of his men, took another one prisoner, and wounded Sloan himself, who, with the remaining member of his party, sought to make his way to Fort Washington. But, wearied and faint with the loss of blood, and his wounds beginning to bleed afresh, he concluded to seek the nearer shelter to be afforded by our small stockade. We had no reason to apprehend the attack that was meditated upon it, and so secure was our little garrison that on the next-Sunday-morning, Lieutenant Kingsbury sent out four or five of our number to bury the dead man. In this feeling of perfect security, and with true soldierly hospitality, Kingsbury had yielded the narrow accommodations of his own quarters to Sloan, and having none for himself passed the night in lively and jocose conversation with us in our quarters. About day-dawn on Monday he
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went out for a moment, and we immediately heard him clapping his hands and crying " Indians! Indians !"
We imagined this to be merely a ruse of our commander to put us on the proof, since we supposed that the sentinel himself should have given the alarm. Nevertheless, we sprang instantly to arms, without waiting, some of us, to put on our attire. For myself, I went out with nothing on but my shirt, and ran into the mill-house, a small building, in line with and not far from the block house. This had no chinking or daubing. This notion of mine was prompted by curiosity entirely, for never having hitherto seen an Indian, I was most anxious to look upon the red man. To my unaccus- tomed vision the whole face of the earth appeared, at first, to be covered with them, and their peculiar head-gearing of feathers and pigment, and the horrid jingling of the deer hoofs and horns tied around their knees, pre- sented a spectacle of great interest, so much as to make me forget, for the moment, that they were enemies and had invested us with a hostile intent. I perceived that they had surrounded our small fortress entirely on the land side, their flanks resting on the banks of the stream, on either side of us. Resting on my musket, I took a lengthened gaze at them, not for a moment thinking of firing at them. I had been here but a few minutes before one of the men, McVickar, came also into the mill-house. The Indians per- ceiving him, fired at and wounded him in the arm. Until that moment, I suppose, I had remained unseen by them; but now I began to receive some of their attention. A musket ball, which came through the interstices of the logs, whistling over my head, striking and upsetting a bowl of corn from a shelf above me, made me think it not expedient to remain longer there, even to satiate my curiosity. I made my way back to the block house and put on the remainder of my clothes. As soon as this was done, each man was disposed by the commander to the best advantage. My station was at the corner of one the pickets, near the southeast corner of the block house, at a port-hole, where, for all that day and the ensuing night, without being once relieved, I was to watch our enemy and do him all the harm in my power. By the time I had taken my position, the Indians mostly had made the shelter of the logs we had left lying for them, and now commenced a parley. Abner Hunt, the member of Sloan's party, who had been taken prisoner on Saturday, with his arms pinioned behind him, was placed on a log three or four rods from the pickets, while Simon Girty, who held the cord by which he was bound, lay sheltered behind the log. Kingsbury was mounted on a stump, and leaned on or over the pickets, not more than ten feet from the port-hole where I was stationed, and I was thus cognizant of all that passed between them. It is not necessary to detail all this. Enough, that no promise of quarter could be drawn from the assail- ing party, at least nothing definite, and therefore nothing could for a
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moment suggest to the commander, or a single individual of the besieged, the idea of surrender. It was indicated in the course of the parley that Simon Girty was in command, that his brother George was also present, along with Blue Jacket and some other chiefs; that they had present some five hundred Indians, and that some three hundred more were in the neigh- borhood, and that scouts were out and guarding all the way between us and Fort Washington, cutting off all hope of communication or relief from that quarter. The parley continued, I suppose, for two hours, at least. Each man of our little garrison had been ordered to fire when he could take aim, and in execution of this order, every Indian who, during the parley, incau- tiously left the shelter he had taken, was made to repent it. I know that during the period I discharged my musket five or six times, and I recollect that we were cautioned not to waste ammunition, inasmuch as we had only twenty-four rounds per man in the fort. Girty complained of this mode of holding a treaty, when Kingsbury, with a big oath, and in a loud voice, swore he would punish the first man that fired a gun, but immediately added to us in a tall whisper, "Kill the rascals, if you can!" At the con- clusion he told Girty that if they were five hundred devils, he would never surrender to them, and jumped down from his position. A tremendous volley of musketry from our foe immediately involved us all in smoke. This sport continued till late in the afternoon, when they informed us, by Hunt, that they were only drawing off for a while for refreshment, but that by the time the moon went down, they would return and put every one to the tomahawk. We continued at our posts awaiting the event. The only refreshment we had during the whole time of the siege was a few handfuls of parched corn, which the girls, Sarah Hahn and her sister, Salome Hahn, Rebecca Crum, and another, by name Birket, brought round to us from time to time. We had not even a drop of water, none being in the fort, and access to the river being deemed hazardous in the presence of so numerous a foe. The moon went down about half an hour to an hour after sunset, and our assailants were as good as their word, at least in returning to the onset. They gave us several rounds of musketry; then setting fire to the brushwood we had so carefully provided, they possessed themselves of firebrands, which, to the number, I suppose, of more than five hundred, they projected, by means of their bows, into our stockade and upon the roofs of our buildings, intending to set them on fire. This mode of attack continued to be used until midnight without success, when they drew off to a short distance to execute upon their prisoner, Hunt, the vengeance that at parley they had denounced against him in the event of our failing to sur- render. The scene of this horrid cruelty was between the fort and the artificial embankment, still to be seen, but which was then covered by the primeval forest trees. Here they stripped him naked, pinioning his out-
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stretched hands and feet to the earth, kindling a fire on his naked abdomen, and thus, in lingering tortures, they allowed him to die. His screams of agony were ringing in our ears during the remainder of the night, becoming gradually weaker and weaker till toward daylight, when they ceased.
At about daylight the Indians returned to the fort and renewed their volleys of musketry. A little after sunrise there was afforded to us the only relief we had hitherto experienced. It was merely a change of our stations. Those who, up to this time, were in the open air were allowed to change places with those in the block houses, to resume our watchful vigilance at port-holes under its shelter, and near the remains of a decaying fire, which served to warm somewhat our chilled limbs. Into this block house, the largest building within the stockade, were gathered besides all the non-com- batants of the garrison, numbering women and children, in all perhaps twenty-five or thirty. Taking my station at my port-hole here, I soon dis- covered an Indian standing sheltered by a small tree, who, at nearly the same time, saw that I had discovered and was watching him. He made use of various artifices, hoping to draw my fire and escape, but I was wary and attentive to him and determined not to be balked. He honored me with five or six shots without success. While my attention was thus engaged by my man, Lieutenant Kingsbury also entered the block house. He was im- mediately assailed by the cries and screams of the women and children, and by the anxious inquiry : "What shall we do; is there no hope?" His response was, as I recollect: "Ladies, we must all suffer and die together. I know of no means of relief!" He began to state, in further explanation, that he had tried all his men and tempted them with the offer of a pecuniary reward to go to Fort Washington to give the alarm and bring relief, but all in vain, as none would go. This declaration excited my attention, and, as one of the small garrison, I knew that I had not before heard of the matter, and I therefore immediately subjoined: "Why, Mr. Kingsbury, you have not tried me !" "True," said he, "I had forgotten you ; will you go?" he eagerly inquired. "If you will I will give you two half joes." "Not a cent, sir!" was my response. And the only condition I made was that he should parade the rest of the garrison in front of the block house to see me either safely cross the river or be killed or wounded in attempting it, as fortune or providence would order it. To this he immediately assented, and went to make a verbal correction and to change the date of the letter he had already prepared to dispatch.
I suppose I was prompted to make the offer of myself at the moment for this forlorn hope, as it were, by the cries of the women and children I had just heard. However, I had no preparation to make, and the men were drawn up and I was ready. This was probably between seven and ten o'clock in the morning. The canoe was drawn up on the beach, so as to
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require some little assistance readily to get it off. I do not recollect who rendered me this assistance, which was to be done by being somewhat ex- posed to the fire of the besiegers, but Mr. Hahn answers me now that it was himself-then a boy of fourteen years-and his father, who gave me their aid for this purpose. But at length I was in the boat alone, using my most active exertions in setting myself, by means of a pole, across the stream. I had need to be in a hurry, for I was in the presence of five hundred hostile Indians, who were honoring me with their attention in the shape of a leaden shower of bullets, some of which whistled by me and spent their force in the water, and some struck and shattered, in a small measure, my frail "dug- out," though, happily, none touched or injured my person. I reached the opposite shore, where I waited long enough to draw the canoe partly on the beach, when I seized my musket and put myself, as soon as possible, under the shelter of the underwood and took my course down stream. I had been told that about two miles below the station there was a ripple where I could easily recross, but if I missed that-since I could not swim-I should be obliged to make my way to Symmes' Station at the mouth of the river, where I would be as far away from Fort Washington as at Colerain.
When I had gone, as I supposed, about two miles, I sat down and took a wary and cautious reconnoissance in every direction, to see, if I might, some of the scouts that Girty told us were occupying the country between us and Fort Washington. After satisfying myself that there were none near me, I stripped myself, and attempted to wade the river. I found the water at neck deep, and growing deeper still, when I was obliged to desist. I made a like attempt at two other places, but with similar success, in the cold water, filled, as the river was, with mush ice, when I concluded I had no alternative but to go to Symmes'. But, luckily, about two hundred yards from where I made my last abortive attempt to wade, I discovered the rip- ple, and was enabled to cross where the water was not more than knee deep. Without further obstruction, or being intercepted by Indians, I reached Fort Washington about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, where my Cap- tain, Truman, accompanied me to General Harmar's headquarters, and I delivered my letters. Captain Truman responded to General Harmar's questions, who I was, and to what company I belonged, with pride, as his, and that I was the youngest soldier in the army. An exorbitant dram of brandy, which Captain T. forced me to take, and a hearty meal, for which I had an appetite whetted by a long fast, as well as great exertion, having refreshed me, the General again sent for me, and inquired if I would return with the party to be sent to the relief of the station. I consented on con- dition of being permitted to go mounted. This appeared reasonable, and was promised me. But since reinforcements were wanted, of a few militia from Columbia, I was permitted to take a night's rest.
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Early in the morning, on a good horse, I accompanied the body, under the command of Colonel Strong, which reached Colerain between one and two o'clock in the afternoon. We found that Girty and the Indians were in full retreat; having raised the siege some hour or two before. Colonel Strong pursued them two or three miles up the river, and came up with them just as the last raft of the Indians were crossing the stream. As it was impossible to continue the further pursuit, they escaped.
The remains of the unfortunate Hunt, shockingly mangled and charred, had been, meanwhile, buried by the garrison.
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
CHAPTER XX.
ATTACK ON WHITE'S STATION.
A S has already been stated, the defeat of Harmar, and especially of St. Clair, caused the greatest alarm all along the border, and especially at Marietta, and the Miami country, including Cincinnati, Columbia, and North Bend. Many of the citizens had been killed in these two battles, and there was not an adequate force at either place to defend the citizens should the Indians make a concentrated attack. It was exceedingly dangerous to leave these block houses; and three of them had been furiously attacked in Hamilton County : White's Station, at Carthage; Fort Garrard, near, and a little below the Union bridge, on the Little Miami; and at Round Bottom, on the Muskingum above Marietta. It was necessary very soon after the settlement had been made, to erect block houses for the protection of the settlers. Fort Washington, erected by the government, was a great protec- tion to Cincinnati, for the Indians soon concluded they could not destroy it. Black Fish, a celebrated chief, stood upon Mt. Adams and viewed Fort Washington, at the corner of Third and Broadway, and after taking a careful look at it, said: "Too strong ! Too strong! Indian no take that;" and it was never attempted. There were several others erected in the county- Covalt's, just below Milford; Girard's, below Union bridge; Fort Miami, at Columbia; Colerain, on the Big Miami; also, at North Bend; at Montgomery ; White's, at Carthage, and one on Walnut Hills, on Kemper Lane, near Wind- sor Street, built by the Rev. James Kemper. The most serious attacks were those made upon Colerain Fort and White's Station.
ATTACK ON WHITE'S STATION.
The whole male force about the station at the time consisted of seven men and a boy-Captain Jacob White, Anderson Goble Daniel Flinn, and his two sons, Stephen and Benjamin, both full-grown men; Anderson Pryor, Lewis Winans, and Providence, the son of Captain White, then but ten years of age. John M. Wallace, who resided in a cabin on the north bank of the creek, was at the time on a visit with his family at Cincinnati. The
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widow of Moses Pryor, with her three small children, were residing with her brother-in-law, Andrew Pryor, opposite the station. About 5 o'clock in the evening the dogs belonging to the station kept up a continuous barking on the hill, near the residence since of William R. Morris. Andrew Goble, supposing the dogs had treed a 'coon, proposed to go into the woods and get it, but Captain White thinking it possible that there were Indians about, objected to any one going out Goble, however, would not listen to his advice, and went alone He had gone but a short distance from the station or block house when he was fired upon, and fell pierced by a number of balls. The Indians then came out from their cover. They rushed down the hill with their accustomed war whoop, and as they approached the sta- tion observed Mrs. Pryor's little girl, about four years old, playing on the opposite bank of the creek. They at once fired at it, and it fell mor- tally wounded. The mother, with her three children, who were the only occupants of the cabin, on the opposite side of the creek (all the other in- mates having gone over to the station on a visit), heard the firing and went to the door of the cabin just in time to witness the fatal shot that struck her child. Her second child, a boy between two and three years old, being sick, she was holding in her arms, while her babe was lying asleep in a cradle. On seeing her little girl fall, she put down the boy, and went out under the fire of the Indians and bore the child into the house, only, how- ever, to find it silent in death.
The savages then opened fire upon the little block house, which was promptly returned, and the crack of the rifle was incessant for half an hour. There were a number of surplus guns in the station, and the women were kept busy loading, while the men were thus enabled to keep up an almost constant fire, which made their number appear much larger. Cap- tain White told the women to place his hat upon a pole and run it through the roof of the block house, and for a short time it drew the fire of the savages.
The Indians, numbering about thirty men, sheltered behind trees at some distance from the block house, came down the hill still closer with furious yells, as if intending to carry it by storm. They were led by a large and power- ful chief, who approached the block house, and whilst in the act of climb- ing over the fence was shot and fell inside of the enclosure. When the rest of the band saw their leader fall they retreated back into the woods, and
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kept up an irregular fire for more than an hour and left. In the early part of the engagement several Indians crossed the creek above and came down behind the three cabins on the opposite bank from the station, in one of which Mrs. Pryor and her children resided. On finding her little girl dead beyond hope, Mrs. Pryor became so distressed that for a time she lost sight of all danger and gave herself up to grief; but the peril was so great there was no time for sorrow. On going to the cabin door she saw an Indian approaching only a short distance away. She first thought of grasping both of her children, the sick boy and the babe, and flying to the block house. A glance convinced her, however, that what was to be done must be done quickly, and looking at both, she snatched up her sick boy, with a hope that the other, being only a babe, the savages would spare it, and ran with all speed for the station, the Indians in full pursuit. She took the shortest course, and on coming to the creek plunged into the water up to her waist, crossed the stream and reached the station in safety with her sick boy, and was compelled to remain in her wet garments until morning.
Soon after the attack was made Andrew Pryor was dispatched to Fort Washington for aid. He reached the fort about midnight, and returned with ten dragoons, each carrying behind him an infantryman. They hastened to the relief of the little station, but the savages had left before their arrival. On going over to the cabins, they found the savages had taken Mrs. Pryor's babe from the cradle and dashed its brains out against a stump near the cabin door. The soldiers followed the trail for several miles, but did not overtake them.
They had entered all three of the cabins, ripped open the beds, turned out the feathers, and filled the ticks with clothing, coverlets, blankets, household goods, and other valuables, and carried them away.
Their huge chief had fallen inside the enclosure, and putting a rope around his neck, he was drawn to the block house; and it was said he was seven feet high, and that he was skinned, wholly or partially, and razor strops were made of the skin of his back, one of which it is said yet remains in the possession of one of the pioneer families of Hamilton County.
There was another station in Springfield Township called Tucker's Station, and another called Pleasant Valley Station. These stations and block houses became an absolute necessity to protect those who went into the country to clear farms and raise produce. No one was safe to live in a
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cabin away from a block house. When the men went out to work in the morning, some worked whilst others stood guard, and the women were left in the block houses to do the cooking, spinning, weaving, and to make the clothing for the family; and were all instructed in the use of the rifle to enable them to protect themselves and children, if attacked in the absence of the men. It may be asked why they ventured into the country away from the towns? This question can be easily answered: they had come to the West to seek homes for themselves and families, and provision was so scarce that they must produce more to feed their families. As has been already stated the first year of the settlement of Columbia, Cincinnati, and North Bend, no corn or other produce was raised. The troops at Fort Washington and other forts and block houses had largely increased the population to be supplied, and the settlers as well as the troops were com- pelled to subsist almost entirely on wild game and roots, such as bear grass and other bulbous roots.
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
CHAPTER XXI.
MOBS, RIOTS AND MURDERS BY INDIANS IN CINCINNATI AND VICINITY.
W HILST these attacks were made on block houses and stations in the
County of Hamilton, and the settlers murdered, Cincinnati was not exempt from such troubles. Although there were no police officers in Cin- cinnati during the past century, and many lawless spirits existed in the com- munity, the force of public sentiment, always strongest when the population is not so large that individuals can hide themselves in a crowd, sufficed, in the early years of Cincinnati, promptly to suppress those popular out- breaks, which, in later years, have for the moment defied the public authorities.
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