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 11
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The first disturbance of this sort occurred on the 12th of February, 1792. Lieutenant Thomas Pasteur, belonging to the garrison at Fort Washington, having quarreled with John Bartle, who kept a store where the Spencer Hotel, at the corner of Broadway and Front, now stands, decoyed him on a pretence of business to the garrison, and falling on him there in the presence of his myrmidons beat him very severely. Bartle prosecuted him for the outrage, and his attorney, Mr. Blanchard, exhibited the lieutenant on the trial in a light so contemptible as to draw on himself the indignation of the latter and a visit of a sergeant and thirty private soldiers to inflict personal chastisement on the lawyer and all who might be disposed to defend him or his cause.
An affray took place on Main Street, in and about McMillan's office, between Front and Second Streets, between the military and some of the citizens, eighteen in number, in which McMillan, who was a magistrate, with Colonel John Riddle, were particularly active, and drove the soldiers off.
The interference of the military naturally created great excitement, and General Wilkinson, then in command at Fort Washington, reduced the sergeant to the ranks, and would have inflicted further punishment had it
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not clearly appeared that the party acted under orders. He also issued the following general order :
HEADQUARTERS, FORT WASHINGTON, February 13, 1792.
The riot in the town of Cincinnati yesterday, and the outrage committed by a party of soldiers on the person of a magistrate of this territory, is a dis- honor to the military and an indignity to the National Government, which demands that the most exemplary punishment should be inflicted on the perpetrators. Although the Commandant cannot admit the idea that any gentleman in commission who wears the garb of honor could be instrumental or accessory to this flagitious transaction, yet the circumstances of a sergeant and twenty or thirty men from the same company, leaving the garrison in a body, as has been represented to the Commandant, carries with it an aspect of premeditation, and may subject the officer commanding such company to undue suspicions and censures. To avert such consequences. in future, and to restrain the licentious habits of the soldiery, the Commandant calls for the firm co-operation and support of his officers, and orders that all duties beyond the walls of the garrison, whether for water, wood or provisions, must be done by detachment, under a non-commissioned officer, who shall be answer- able for the conduct of such detachment. No private is to pass the gateway on any other pretence without a special commission from the commanding officer. The Commandant laments that he should be reduced to the neces- sity of exerting so rigid a system of police, but he considers it indispensably necessary, not only to the good of the service but the honor of the corps. By order, JOHN WADE, Ensign, Post Adjutant.
Lieutenant Pasteur was tried at the General Quarter Sessions the suc- ceeding year and was sentenced to a fine of three dollars for the assault.
There was only one more disturbance here of the public peace during the past century.
In the spring of 1794, and while General Anthony Wayne was marching north to meet and chastise the hostile Indians, and erecting military forts in his line of advance to protect the country in his rear, a detachment of vol- unteers from Kentucky, accompanied by some hundred, more or less, friendly Indians from the Mississippi region, encamped for a few days in the vicinity of Cincinnati, preparatory to pushing forward to reinforce the army of the North.
These Indians were encamped on Deer Creek, on the spot now occu- pied by Ryan's pork house. They brought with them a young woman, who
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had been taken captive in some border incursion into Western Pennsylvania. It was supposed she had relatives in Cincinnati, which did not prove to be the case. But there were two or three individuals who knew her friends in Pittsburg, being themselves of that neighborhood; and one of them succeeded in ransoming her from the Indians by the payment of a barrel of Monongahela whisky. The exchange occurred at a tavern on Broadway, just above Bartle's store, and the Indians, who had been drinking while the barter was pending, had a thorough frolic of it when put in possession of the whisky. Next day, a large share of the liquor having been drank, they became dissatisfied with the exchange, and were for retaking the girl by force of arms. This was resisted, of course, peaceably, but firmly, by those into whose custody she had passed, who were Irishmen from Penn- sylvania, with several of their countrymen, and other individuals resident there. The girl had been secreted, so that the Indians could not discover her retreat At this period the east side of Broadway commenced at a point about twenty or thirty feet from Bartle's corner, opposite it, widening so rapidly that at the distance of half way to Cromwell's corner, Second and Broadway, the street was wider than even at present, its east side being occupied with the various artificer shops belonging to the garrison. The Indians came down Broadway to the number of perhaps fifty, and at the narrow part of the street were met and confronted by their opponents ; but after the stones, or rocks, as they were called, lying about had been picked up and thrown, the Irish contrived to gather up shillalahs, and, although greatly inferior in numbers, drove their enemies up Broadway clear to the hill. Isaac Anderson, a well known citizen of that day, who had been taken captive in Laughery's defeat, and always bore a grudge against the whole race of red skins, was in the thickest of this fight. Captain Prince, who commanded the garrison at that period, sent out a detachment of the troops to quell the disturbance, but it was all over by the time they reached the ground.
The row of log cabins on the east side, in front of which this engagement took place, received from the circumstance the name of Battle Row, which it retained, until 1810, when these houses were pulled down to make way for the buildings put up by John H. Piatt.
The girl was afterward restored to her friends in Pennsylvania, and was still living at comparatively a recent date.
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In 1791 William Harris went, in company with Colonel John Riddle, to clear ground for a corn field. It comprehended in its bounds the ground on Plum Street, south of the corporation line, Washington Park. “We had a small dog with us. One day, the 21st of May, we had been at work as usual, and had sat down to rest at the foot of a large tree, when, hearing a slight rustling through the spicewood bushes, I told Harris there were Indians at hand. He laughed at the idea. I hissed the dog on, who bounded into the bushes, barking at a great rate, and returned in a short time with his tail and ears down, and manifesting other symptoms of fear. We then sprang up and made a circuit through the bushes, so as to get between the Indians, if there were such there, and the town. In this way we had just regained the path, several rods below where we were, when we heard them crossing it near the spot we had left. We hurried into Cincinnati as fast as possible, and found soon after that Benjamin Van Cleve had been shot at, and Joseph Cutter, who was at work with him clearing an out-lot, captured and carried off by the Indians. Cutter was never more heard of. The lot they were working in cornered with Colonel Riddle's, near a spot in the Miami Canal, which is crossed by a high bridge opposite Mason Street."
A party from Cincinnati made immediate pursuit with a dog, which made out the trace. Cutter had lost one of his shoes, so that his tracks could be readily observed in the marshy bottoms along the water course. The Indians were followed upon full run until dark, when the pursuit was given up. It was afterward ascertained that the savages had halted two miles further out and encamped for the night. The pursuit was resumed next day, but to no purpose.
On the Ist of June of the same year, Van Cleve having returned to the occupation of his out-lot, and working there in company with two others, the Indians again made their appearance. The party took to flight, making their way to the settled parts of Cincinnati. Two of them made their escape, but Van Cleve, who had passed them in the race, and at the time was three hundred yards or more in advance, was intercepted at a fallen tree top, by an Indian who sprang on him from behind the ambuscade. Van Cleve was seen to throw the savage and the Indian to plunge a knife twice or thrice into the side of his antagonist, but, perceiving the approach of the whites, he hastily stripped off the scalp and made his escape to his party in the rear. When the two fugitives got up, Van Cleve was entirely lifeless.
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The same day a party from the garrison, consisting of Sergeant Hahn, a corporal, and a young man who lived in Colerain, started to Dunlap's Station on the Miami. They were engaged in driving a cow out to that post, and had imprudently fastened a bell to her neck. On his way the Sergeant called on Riddle and paid him three dollars on account of a black- smithing bill he owed for some time. He said, "You had better pay me more, the Indians will get the rest." "Never tear," was his careless reply. In the course of two hours afterward he had a bullet put through him, his scalp taken, and the residue of his money carried off.
These were the last instances in which a savage rifle was fired within the present limits of Cincinnati, later depredations being connected with the bow and arrow, which enabled them to destroy cattle while prowling through the streets by night, which frequently occurred, without creating an alarm. On one of these visits they shot an arrow with a stone head into an ox with such force that it went entirely through the carcass. Steal- ing horses from this time until Wayne arrived, in 1793, constituted the principal injury inflicted by our red brethren upon their white neighbors in Cincinnati.
Colonel Biddle said that he had taken his jug out with him to the lot, and was determined that the Indians should not have it; when he ran into the bushes to get it, the Indians passed him, and he always said that he believed that his "old brown jug saved his life."
In the month of August, 1791, a man named Fuller, with his son William, a lad sixteen years of age, or thereabout, was in the employ of John Matson, Sr., and in that capacity the Fullers accompanied Matson, a brother of his, and a neighbor, George Cullum, to the Big Miami to build a fish dam in its waters, at a place about two miles from North Bend. Old Fuller sent his son, toward night, to take the cows home, and for sev- eral days the neighborhood turned out to hunt him, suspecting that he had been taken by the Indians.
No trace of him was, however, obtained, nor anything heard of him for nearly four years, when Wayne's treaty afforded an opportunity for those who had relatives captured by the Indians, to ascertain their fate. Old Fuller, under the hope of learning something respecting his son, accompa- nied a party to Fort Greenville, and spent a week making inquiry among the Indians present, but to no purpose. One day, being in conversation
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with Christopher Miller, one of Wayne's spies, and who had been taken captive himself in early years and brought up among the Indians, he was describing his son's personal appearance, as being heavy built, cross-eyed, and a little lame, when Miller exclaimed: " I can tell you where he is." He then went on to say that he had himself made him a prisoner; that he knew where he was, and if he would come back in three weeks, he would produce him there. Fuller returned accordingly, and obtained his son, who accompanied him home.
CAPTURE OF OLIVER SPENCER.
On the 7th day of July, in the afternoon, Jacob Light, a Mr. Clayton, Mrs. Coleman, and young Oliver Spencer, thirteen years of age, and one of the garrison soldiers, started in a small canoe to Columbia. The soldier was very drunk, and made the canoe give a lurch, and he tumbled out, but as the water was not deep reached the shore, and laid down under the willows. Young Spencer becoming afraid, got out and walked along the shore, while Light poled the canoe, and Clayton used the paddle to help propel it along. Light remarked that the soldier would be good food for the Indians. Scarcely had he spoken before their ears were saluted with the sharp crack of two rifles fired by two Indians on the shore. Clayton was shot, and fell into the river, and Light was wounded by the ball striking the paddle and glancing, striking him in the arm. Mrs. Coleman was sitting in the middle of the canoe. One of the Indians scalped Clayton. Light jumped in the river and made for the Kentucky shore, and Mrs. Coleman jumped in the water, preferring death by drowning to capture by Indians; and, as was the fashion then, had on heavy quilted underskirts, which buoyed her up, and, finding she did not sink, paddled with her hands down the river to Deer Creek, where she landed, and holding to the willows on Deer Creek bank, crossed it, and went to a friend's on Front Street, where she obtained a change of clothing.
The Indians seized young Spencer, and saying, "Squaw, drown !" Par- ties on the Kentucky shore hearing the guns, ran down to the river, alarmed the red skins, and they made over the hills with him, and took him to their town on the Maumee, where he remained for eight months, until his father ransomed him for $125, and brought him back to Cincinnati, where he resided for many years, a prominent citizen, and died there.
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CHAPTER XXII.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT WASHINGTON ENSIGN OF FIRST REGIMENT UNITED STATES INFANTRY-REPORTS TO GENERAL ST. CLAIR AT FORT WASHINGTON-WAYNE ORGANIZES LEGION OF THE UNITED STATES-WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN-BATTLE OF "FALLEN TIMBERS" ON THE MAUMEE-TREATY OF PEACE AT GREENVILLE, OHIO, WITH THE INDIANS-END OF SIX YEAR'S INDIAN WAR-COLONEL ELLIOTT KILLED.
J UST as the defeated, dispirited remnants of St. Clair's army were strag- gling into Cincinnati, an event transpired which was destined to have a powerful influence, not only on the settlements in the Miami country, and of Cincinnati, but on the destiny of the whole Northwest, and that was the arrival at Fort Washington of William Henry Harrison as an ensign of the First Regiment United States Infantry, November, 1791. It is not neces- sary in this place to more than briefly refer to the active and efficient part he took in the battles which finally gave peace to the Western country. Having reported to General St. Clair, he immediately devoted himself to the acquisition of such information and perfection in military tactics as would prepare him to successfully perform such duties as might be assigned him.
The first important duty entrusted to him was the command of a convoy of twenty men, detailed to deliver stores to Fort Hamilton by pack-horses. It was a responsible and hazardous duty, in exceedingly inclement weather. The country was overrun with savages, who, since the disastrous defeat of St. Clair, were hanging around all the settlements and followed the frag- ments of the army to the very walls of Fort Washington; nevertheless, young Harrison promptly accepted the trust and so successfully performed the duties to the satisfaction of the General that he was publicly thanked.
In 1793 General Wayne, quick to see military talent, appointed him his second aid, and in his report of the battle of the " Fallen Timbers," to the Secretary of War, especially commended him for his gallantry and efficiency ; and after the peace of Greenville in 1795, when the army returned to Fort
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Washington, having been promoted to Captain, he was placed in command of the fort.
The successful career of young Harrison from an ensign of the First Regiment United States Infantry in 1791, to the Presidential chair in 1840, will be noticed as this work progresses, as his whole life was so intimately
LOGAN.
connected with the growth and prosperity, not only of Cincinnati but of the Northwest.
Many persons were murdered by the savages between Cincinnati and Fort Hamilton. In 1794 Colonel Elliott, a contractor for Wayne's army, was coming from Hamilton to Cincinnati, accompanied by his servant. He was a very large man, weighing, it is said, more than three hundred pounds,
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and wore a large wig. When some four miles from Fort Hamilton, on what is now the Winton Road, he was shot and killed by a party of Indians. His servant fled back to Hamilton, followed by the Colonel's horse. One of the Indians, said to have been a chief, ran to scalp him. Seizing the hair, and about to apply the scalping knife, the wig came off; he looked at
TECUMSEH.
it with astonishment for a moment, and exclaimed, "D -- n lie." The next day a party came out to recover the body, and having placed it in a coffin, were about to start for Cincinnati, when a volley was fired and the servant fell almost in the very spot his master had fallen the day before, from Colonel Elliott's horse, which he was riding, the horse again running back to Fort Hamilton. The body was afterward brought to Cincinnati and
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buried in the burying ground of the First Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Fourth and Main Streets, and afterward removed to the Twelfth Street burying ground (Washington Park), by his son, over which he erected a monument. It has since been removed to Spring Grove Cemetery, where it now lies.
As has been stated, General Wayne spent the winter of 1792-93 at Legionville, near Pittsburg, in collecting and organizing his army.
On the 30th of April, 1793, the Army moved down the Ohio River to Cincinnati, and encamped about where Fifth and Mound Streets intersect, and was called "Camp Hobson's Choice," because, as the river was very high, covering the bottoms, this was the only spot out of water suitable for the encampment. The large mound at that point was within the lines and about the center of the camp. General Wayne had some eight feet cut from the top of it, on which he put a sentry box. From it the whole vicin- ity could be observed.
Here General Wayne directed all his energies to drilling and disci- plining his troops, and cutting roads and collecting supplies through the Indian country, and in making preparations for an immediate and active campaign, should the efforts of the Government then being made to con- clude a lasting peace with the hostile tribes be unsuccessful.
On the 5th of October he addressed the following letter to General Knox, the then Secretary of War:
" Agreeably to the authority vested in me by your letter of the 17th of May, 1793, I have used every measure in my power to bring forward the mounted volunteers of Kentucky, as you will observe by the enclosed cor- respondence with his Excellency, Governor Shelby, and Major-General Scott upon this interesting occasion. I have even adopted their own propo- sition by ordering a draft of the Militia. Add to this that we have a con- siderable number of officers and men sick and debilitated from fevers and other disorders incident to all armies. But this is not all; we have recently been visited by a malady called the influenza, which has pervaded the whole line in a most alarming and rapid degree. Fortunately this complaint has not been fatal except in a few instances, and I have now the pleasure of informing you that we are generally recovering, or in a fair way; but our effective force will be much reduced. After leaving the necessary garri- sons at the several posts, which will generally be composed of sick and
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invalids, I shall not be able to advance beyond Fort Jefferson with more than twenty-six hundred regular effectives, officers included. What auxil- iary force we shall have is yet to be determined; at present their numbers are only thirty-six guides and spies and three hundred and sixty mounted volunteers.
"This is not a pleasant picture, but something must be done immedi- ately to save the frontiers from impending savage fury. I will therefore advance to-morrow with the force I have, in order to gain a strong position about six miles in front of Fort Jefferson, so as to keep the enemy in check by exciting jealousy and apprehension for the safety of their own women and children until some favorable circumstance or opportunity may present to strike with effect.
"The present apparent tranquility on the frontiers and at the head of the line is a convincing proof to me that the enemy is collecting in force to oppose the legion, either on its march, or some unfavorable position for the cavalry to act in."
On the 23d of October he wrote again from his camp on the Great Miami, six miles beyond Fort Jefferson :
"I have the honor to inform you that the legion took up its line of march from 'Hobson's Choice' on the 7th instant, and arrived at this place in perfect order and without a single accident at ten o'clock on the morn- ing of the 13th, when I found myself arrested for want of provisions.
" Notwithstanding this defect I do not despair of supporting the troops in our present position, or rather at a place called Stillwater, at an intermediate distance between the field of St. Clair's battle and Fort Jefferson. The safety of the western frontiers, the reputation of the legion, the dignity and interest of the nation, all forbid a retrograde maneuver, or giving up one inch of ground we now possess, until the enemy are compelled to sue for peace. The greatest difficulty which at present presents itself is that of furnishing a sufficient escort to secure our convoys of provisions, and other supplies from insult and disaster, and at the same time retain a sufficient force in camp to repel the attacks of the enemy, who appear to be desperate and determined. We have recently experienced a little check to our convoys, which may probably be exaggerated into something serious by the tongue of fame before this reaches you. The following is the fact: Lieutenant Lowry, of the sub-legion, and Ensign Boyd of the first, with a command
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consisting of ninety non-commissioned officers and privates, having in charge twenty wagons belonging to the Quartermaster General's depart- ment, loaded with grain, and one of the contractor's wagons, loaded with stores, were attacked on the morning of the 17th instant about seven miles advanced of Fort St. Clair by a party of Indians. Those gallant young gentlemen (who promised at a future day to be ornaments to the profes- sion), together with thirteen non-commissioned officers and privates bravely fell after an obstinate resistance against superior numbers, having been abandoned by the greater part of the escort upon the first discharge.
MONUMENT TO LIEUTENANT LOWRY, NEAR EATON, OHIO.
The savages killed or carried off about seventy horses, leaving the wagons and stores standing in the roads, which have all been brought into camp without any other loss or damage except some trifling articles. (This was near Eaton, Ohio, where a monument was erected to these brave men.) A great number of men, as well as officers, have been left sick and debilitated at the several garrisons with influenza. Among others, General Wilkinson has been dangerously ill. He is now at Fort Jefferson, and on the recovery. I hope he will be soon sufficiently restored to take his command in the legion."
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The approach of winter induced General Wayne to dismiss the Ken- tucky militia, and go into winter quarters with the regular troops, which he did by erecting Fort Greenville, near the site of the present town of Green- ville, where he established his headquarters.
On the 23d and 24th of December a detachment was sent forward to take possession of the field of St. Clair's defeat. They arrived upon the spot on Christmas day. Six hundred skulls were gathered up and buried. When the troops went to lay down in their tents they had to scrape the bones together and carry them out to make room to make their beds. Here they built Fort Recovery.
During the early months of 1794 General Wayne was steadily engaged in preparing everything for a severe blow when the time come. On the 26th of July General Scott, with some sixteen hundred mounted men from Kentucky, joined Wayne at Greenville, and on the 28th the legion moved forward. On the 8th of August the army was near the junction of Au Glaize and Maumee, at Grand Glaize, and proceeded at once to build Fort Defiance, where the rivers meet. The Indians had hastily abandoned their towns upon hearing of the approach of the army from a runaway member of the Quartermaster's corps, who was afterwards taken at Pittsburg. It had been General Wayne's plan to reach the headquarters of the savages, Grand Glaize, undiscovered; and in order to do this he had caused two roads to be cut, one toward the foot of the rapids (Roche De Bout), the other to the junction of the St. Mary and St. Joseph, while he pressed for- ward between the two; and this stratagem he thinks would have been suc- cessful but for the deserter referred to.
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